This study of the black and white terrier Endon Black Rod offered at Louis Taylor was one of a group of six Beswick trial studies of champion dogs modelled by Arthur Gredington and 'produced by kind permission of and in collaboration with the owner'.
Accompanying the figure was a brief letter from Ewart Beswick to Harry R. Brown of the Black Horse Hotel, Endon, type-written on Beswick pottery headed notepaper dated October 27, 1942. It reads:
Dear Harry. Mr Greddington [sic] will be over to see you tomorrow morning with a large size setter which we are modelling and should be very much obliged if you would go over it with him. Yours sincerely Ewart Beswick.
The vendor's family were breeders of smooth-haired fox terriers in the nearby village of Endon, around six miles from Stoke.
Key Variants
Like most of the 13 figures from this series, the standard production model of Endon Black Rod is a known Beswick rarity (one that can bring close to £200), but this was a one-off with small differences to the colouring and hand painted, rather than printed, marks to the feet. It led the group, bringing £820 at the auction on March 10-11.
A similar study of the bull terrier Romany Rhinestone took £720, while group lots combining trial models of a Sealyham terrier (Forest Edge Foxglove) and a greyhound (Jovial Roger) and an Airedale terrier (Cast Iron Monarch) and a damaged Dalmatian (Arnoldene) took £980 and £480 respectively.
The vendor was delighted and has found more models from the series for a future sale.
The buyer's premium was 17.5%.
