NatWest Pigs

NatWest Father Sir Nathaniel Westminster

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.

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 -

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

Sunshine Woody

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.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE SUNSHINE CERAMICS STORY...................

SO THE WADE NATWEST FAMILY WAS BORN ..................

The family of pigs started with baby Woody for children who opened an account with a minimum of £3 and after six months, if the account contained at least £25, they received Annabel. After one year, if the account had grown to at least £50, the savers received Maxwell and at eighteen months if the account held £75 the children were rewarded with Lady Hillary. After two years, if the account had risen to at least £100, Sir Nathaniel was presented.

In total Wade produced more than 5 million pigs but relatively few children managed to complete the set as £100 was a large sum to save at that time. As a result Sir Nathaniel was in far less demand and fewer were produced, resulting in his higher value on the current market.

One puzzle still remains today - who made the Annabel pigs that have no "Wade" mark but instead have a "Made in England" backstamp?
Click here for more details

The rarest of the NatWest series is undoubtedly the "Gold Woody" who was glazed with 22 carat gold leaf. A limited number were made specially for presentation to the board of directors of the NatWest Bank and at approximately the same time 25 were given as prizes in a Treasure Hunt competition run by the NatWest Piggy Press. All are understood to have been accompanied by a certificate of authenticity of some description.
They are exceptionally rare and are therefore unlikely to come on to the market.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE STORY OF THE GOLD WOODY

AND NOW THE FAKES!!

Move your mouse over the three images above for more pictures

		FAKE - The Gold Woody pictured above has been inspected by Wade and is a fake.
		FAKE - The Cousin Wesley above with the red hat and shorts and green shirt is a fake.
		FAKE - The Platinum Cousin Wesley, above right, is a fake, as is the Gold Annabel.
		FAKE - There is a fake Cousin Wesley with green hat and shorts and a yellow shirt.
		FAKE - It is claimed that gold Cousin Wesley's were made, but Wade say they would be fakes.

. . . . AND BEWARE THIS WHITE JACKETTED SIR NATHANIEL .............................

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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We do not own the fake Cousin Wesleys or Gold Woody but have permission to use the photographs
        
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