Wade

Flash of Red February: Vintage
February Words of the Month: Ornament

Many of you will be familiar with Wade Ceramics and in particular their miniature creatures or Wade 'Whimsies'. The armadillo was made in the mid-80s but I probably bought it some time in the last 20 years to add to my armadillo collection.

The tortoise is much older as I remember having it as a child. It turned up again I think when my mum moved out of her Muswell Hill flat. It's a little trinket dish - the shell lifts off and I use it to store favourite earrings.

Wade went into administration in around 2022 having been founded in the 19th century. Although it looks like another company is now operating under the name as Wade Pottery, still in Stoke-on-Trent.

Trinket tortoise https://365project.org/boxplayer/365-2025/2025-02-13

13 February 2025
Walthamstow E17

[Carole Sandford]

A friend of mine collected whimsies. Nicely captured.

[Casablanca]

Very cool whimsies

[Louise]

I used to have a collection of these when I was little! No idea what happened to them but I no longer have them, sadly.

[LManning (Laura)]

Very neat! Wade made animal figurines that came in boxes of Red Rose tea in Canada (and maybe the U.S.?). I used to have many of them.

[gloria jones]

Nice.

[Phil Howcroft]

I'm not familiar Box', but they look cute

[Barb]

@ljmanning I remember getting some of these in Red Rose tea here in the US. I know I kept s few of the little figures (they were very small) but don't know where they have gotten to these years later...

[Harry J Benson]

Cute

[Issi Bannerman]

Oh, yes, I did collect those back in the day. Whimsies. I'd totally forgotten about them though. Lovely shot.

[Kathryn M]

Wow, such memories. My Nana had the tortoise back in the 60's and when visiting her she would take a little key out from under the shell, tell us to close our eyes so that she could hide it. Then when found it went back in the tortoise. My sister now has the tortoise, but she bought me one from a junk shop a while back so that I could continue the tradition with my grandchildren.