Beswick prices keep moving on up

Pick up a copy of a Beswick price guide from the late 1990s and it will tell you that the Galloway Bull, designed by Arthur Gredington, was made in three versions.

These were those in black gloss (no. 1746A that received a production run from 1961 to 1968), the 'belted' bull with its white stripe (1746B) produced for the same brief period, and the so-called Silver Dunn (1963-1968). That same price guide will also suggest a value of around £500-600 each for these rare figures.

Just five years on - a difficult period that has seen many traditional antiques fall in value - and collectors from the farming community are regularly paying up to five times these sums to secure the most desirable of the dozens of Beswick cattle models.

Examples have been sold recently at both Wintertons (15% buyer's premium) in Lichfield on November 18 and at Thomson Roddick & Medcalf (15% buyer's premium) of Dumfries back on September 20-21.

At the Staffordshire sale, where some 48 pieces of Beswick were offered, £2200 was paid for a black gloss Galloway and £2100 for a belted Galloway. The sale also included a family of Dairy Shorthorn cattle produced from 1957-1973. The bull - he was modelled on the prize-winner Gwersylt Lord Oxford 74th - sold at £860. The cow, Eaton Wild Eyes 91st, sold at £720, while two calves made £400 and £360.

At the Dumfries rooms two months earlier a black gloss Galloway has sold for a comparable £2050, a belted Galloway had taken £2350, while a Silver Dun Galloway (no.1746C) in fawn and brown gloss posted £1400.