JUNE 6, 2022
It all begins in the home of English pottery, Stoke-on-Trent, at the Beswick Factory. In 1938 they started producing wall mounted Mallard ducks in five sizes (as well as swans, kingfishers, swallows and a variety of other birds).
James Wright Beswick, founded the pottery in 1894, and produced a range of high quality porcelain farm characters as well as Beatrix Potter and many other characters including Mickey Mouse!
You can read about the Beswick Pottery on Wickipedia by Clicking here.
In 1969 the factory was sold to Doulton and Co, The factory eventually closed in 2002 and the John Beswick brand was sold in 2004 to Dartington Crystal, who continue to produce products under the John Beswick brand.
The Beswick flying ducks were first introduced in 1938 and were all the rage in the 1950's and 60's. They found fame by being in the very first episode of Coronation street which aired on December 9th 1960. Daily Mail columnist Ken Irwin claimed the series would only last three weeks! This just goes to prove journalists should stick to writing the news!
Nowadays, an original set of five of these ducks in good condition is worth well over $1,000.oo!
You can also read about Coronation Street in Wikipedia as well by clicking here.
I was turned onto the Beswick Ducks when my sister gave me a set of three in the 80's. Frankly I didn't think much of them, but when given a gift by a family member I was not only stuck with them, but also had to stick them on the wall. They were plaster cast, modern versions of the classic and had more vibrant colours. They looked just fantastic on the walls, and since that time I have never been without a set.
The times have changed and the laser cut pieces we make are a reflection of this history of the original flying ducks.
As with all laser cut steel wall art, a lot of consideration has to go into trying to keep a connection with the original, but also adding a contemporary aspect, I think is important.
Unless we got into airbrushing these ducks, we are pretty much stuck with just the one powder coated colour and just one colour does not suit everyone's taste.. Unless you're Henry Ford, that is!
This story would had been quite ironic for the racist Ford was, but in fact the early cars he produced came in a variety of colours, just like our ducks!
We have a couple of quite novel ways of attaching these items to the walls and each set of any of our wall cut art comes with magnets for easy removal and cleaning.
These are easy to screw into walls as we supply with rawl plugs which expand also for plasterboard walls. Actually, because these items are not heavy, just screwing the small screws into the plasterboard generaly will be sufficient.
We also supply along with this, some double sided 3M tape and instructions on how to use both the tape and the magnets.
