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NatWest Pigs |
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This family of five
characters; Sir Nathaniel Westminster the father, Lady Hillary the
mother, Maxwell the boy, Annabel the girl and Woody the baby, were
given to children holding accounts with the Bank, depending on the
balance achieved. The characters have become real collectors pieces
and appear regularly on the internet auction sites. NatWest
stopped the promotion in 1988.
Occasionally
an unusual variation of the famous five appears, such as the pink,
unpainted Woody to the right. The photograph was kindly provided
by Nichola. |
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Even more collectable
is "Cousin Wesley", another character in the same series,
but very much rarer. He was the sixth in the series, was modelled
by Ken Holmes, and was released in 1998. Wesley was generally
available when opening a "Children’s Bond" for a child
under the age of 16, with a 5 year investment of £1000. However
it is now understood that some were given away by NatWest branches
in a free prize draw in December 1998.
Only 5000 were ever made by Wade.
They are extremely
collectable and sell for well in excess of £200.
But beware
there are a lot of fakes around.
See the link below to check out
the facts -
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HOW THE NATWEST PIG STORY UNFOLDED
NatWest originally appointed an advertising agency to produce an advertising campaign for their proposed Children’s Savings Account and Andy Hill became responsible for producing the original drawings of the pigs from which Paul Cardew, who owned Sunshine Ceramics, made the first models.
We are most grateful to Andy Hill for the following photographs which show some of the original drawings and stills from the filming of the TV adverts. Five complete sets of the pigs were originally produced for the TV commercial.
Click over the image
to play the original
NatWest Piggy Bank
TV Advertisement
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The NatWest promotion was such a success that Sunshine Ceramics were unable to cope
with the
unexpectedly high demand for the piggy banks and production of the pigs was passed to Wade Ceramics Ltd.
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AND NOW THE FAKES!! |
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Move
your mouse over the three images above for more pictures
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FAKE - The Gold Woody pictured above has been inspected by Wade
and is a fake. |
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FAKE
- The
Cousin Wesley above with the red hat and shorts and green
shirt is a fake. |
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FAKE
- The Platinum Cousin Wesley, above right, is a fake, as is
the Gold Annabel. |
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FAKE - There is a
fake Cousin Wesley with green hat and shorts and a yellow
shirt. |
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FAKE - It is claimed that
gold Cousin Wesley's were made, but Wade say they would be
fakes. |
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. . . AND BEWARE THIS WHITE JACKETTED SIR NATHANIEL
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There
have been a lot of these white coated Sir Nathaniels around over
the past years and we are led to believe that they are fakes.
They are also sometimes referred to as the President.
The original story was that a paintress at the Wade factory made
two of these models and smuggled them out of the pottery.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE LATEST ON THE WHITE SIR NATHANIEL..............................
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