carltonware.com news Issue 124 23 January 2007 Novelty Items In the later years Carlton Ware produced quite a number of what is known as Novelty Items!. These usually consisted of copies of everyday items and gimmicky pieces for fun. The most famous and popular is the Walking Ware series. We have written about this in previous issues of this newsletter. In this Shape 3291 - Ice Cream Wafer Butter newsletter we thought we would look at some less known novelty items. Although they were probably produced quite cheaply in abundance for a mass market. The first picture is of shape 3291 which is an Ice Cream Wafer Butter. This was first introduced in Back Stamp the late 1970’s. An interesting replica of an ice-cream and wafer. To complement the ice-cream butter dish Carlton Ware produced 3292, Milk Shake Preserves. Another novelty design is the Alligator Range. This included the following items listed under the shape or impressed number 3543: Teapot, Sugar, Cream, Eggcup, Toast rack, Butter dish, Preserve, Salt and Pepper. It’s obvious that many of the novelty designs were created as utilitarian ware to appeal to a wide audience. Shape 3354 is a very amusing Toastrack with a Bird and Worm - Shape 3543 - Alligator Teapot The early bird gets the worm! Each of the two birds have got a different end of the same worm - which one will succeed in winning the prize? Shape 3353 is a Beaker in this Early Bird range. The handle consists of a bird eating a worm. Two other shapes in the Early Bird range include 3352 Chicken Egg Cups and 3348 Egg Pepper & Salt. Shape 3354 - Bird & Worm Toastrack We like Carlton Ware’s sense of fun and the humour that was often associated with many of these novelty designs. A range that often appears for sale is the Coronation Street characters. These are as follows: 3514 Stan Ogden 3515 Albert Tatlock 3516 Ena Sharples 3517 Hilda Ogden 3518 Mike Baldwin 3519 Bet Lynch Shape 3514 - Stan Ogden Even if many of us profess not watch Coronation Street it has to be said that most people know the names of the characters portrayed in the jugs. So this is another good example of Carlton Ware taking advantage of public appeal to their distinct advantage. Obviously as some of the Back-stamp characters are no longer associated with the current Coronation Street programme so they can become very collectable momentos of an era. This is just a brief glimpse of what is probably a few of the several hundreds made. Not to everyone’s taste but some are very unusual and still bear the marks of our beloved Carlton Ware. Some of them are coming in to their own and are being considered very “Retro” which has many fans. Perhaps the “antiques” of the future! Good fun anyway! Shape 3519 - Bet Lynch carltonware.com newsletter This newsletter is produced by Carlton Ware enthusiasts and we make no representation or accept any liability for its accuracy or completeness. If you would like to receive a copy of this newsletter by email and if you have not registered already then please register your email address either on the web site or by sending us an email to [email protected]. Copyright © 2007 DrCKYK.