Order of the Bath

In the mid 1980’s I bought some small china figurines of dancers. Since then we have collected quite a number of dancers of various sorts but these have always been a puzzle. They were obtained in ones and twos from various local junk, bric-a-brac and antique shops but since then I have never seen one.

My theory is that they were cheap imports sold by someone like Woolworth’s to grace the mantelpieces in parlours of the 1930’s for those that couldn’t afford the Coalport and Royal Doulton figurines (still available).

They have no makers mark but some have a number moulded into the base, sometimes with the word “Foreign”. There are five in my collection viz:—

• 165mm high round base marked Foreign 8455.
• 175mm high round base marked 8456. The pink one is also marked Foreign indicating, perhaps, that the mould was later modified.
• 150mm high oval base with no markings. This may be a separate, smaller series.
• 150mm high oval base marked 8733.

I rather like them; they are graceful and the hand painting is quite well done, though the facial expressions can be a bit odd. The source of all knowledge on knick-knacks (eBay) doesn’t seem to have come across them. Antiques Roadshow here I come or can anyone tell us anything about them?

Here are some early photographs that a friend let me scan. They show the airfield before and during WWII. The first is very early, before any building on the East side of the road to Gloucester, and includes the hangers near Charlton village. The next two are a bit later, when the Bristol Flying School were there, and show the “new” administration building over the road. The final one, provided by another friend, is an air reconaissance photograph, possibly German, taken on 5 Dec 1944.

I think this came out rather saucier than the National Trust intended.