During the late 1950's, the highly
prestigious Hagen-Renaker Pottery of San Dimas,
California, produced the most stunning plaques
and wall hanging figures which covered a variety
of subjects from butterflies, horses, fish and a
bison to still life. All were produced in the
usual Hagen-Renaker earthenware. Following
discussions between Maxine Renaker, wife of the
president of HR and Iris Carryer of Wade
(Ireland), some of the molds were sent to
Portadown, Northern Ireland where it was hoped
Wade could produce them in porcelain for the gift
market. This however became something of a
nightmare as during the cooling process, after
being removed from the kiln they cracked. As Iris
Carryer explained to me recently, "It was
awful, Ping, ping, ping! They were all cracking
as they cooled down." This was due to stress
on the porcelain which, as it cooled, had the
effect of pulling it apart and thus the cracks
appeared.
None of the Wade wall plaques
ever went into general production and few were
ever sold, however, those which do exist, like
those which were produced in limited numbers by
Hagen-Renaker, realise extremely high prices at
auction or when privately offered for sale. If
they are marked at all, those made in Portadown
carry this backstamp: Made in Ireland by Wade Co.
Armagh whereas the Hagen-Renaker variety are
normally found unmarked. In recent years, Wade
Ceramics at their Manchester Pottery once again
experienced similar production difficulties when
they made theBetty
Boop plaques for C&S and had a high
number of breakage1958.
Rock Plaques and their modellers.
1. Fish Snapper - Bill
Climes (top right)
2. Two Horses - Maureen
Love (bottom right)
3. Butterfly - Tom
Masterson
4. Crab - Bill Climes
5. Fish, Perch - Bill
Climes
6. Fish, Corbina - Bill
Climes
7. Fish, Pompano - Bill
Climes
8. Butterfly, Large - Tom
Masterson
9. Fish, Barracuda - Bill
Climes
10. Bird and Butterfly -
Tom Masterson |
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1959
1. Horse shaped plaque, Right -
Maureen Love
2. Horse shaped plaque,
Left - Maureen Love
3. Rooster shaped plaque,
Right - Bill Climes
4. Rooster shaped plaque,
Left - Bill Climes
5. Geisha, small head -
Bill Climes (No's 5 to 9 were made in
several parts and mounted on wooden
panels)
6. Geisha, large head -
Bill Climes
7. King - Bill Climes
8. Queen - Bill Climes
9. Jack - Bill Climes
10. Buck - Maureen Love
11. Doe - Maureen Love
12. Fawn - Maureen Love
13. Rearing Horse, Right
- Maureen Love
14. Rearing Horse, Left -
Maureen Love (top
right)
15. Toucan Bird Rock,
Right - Tom Masterson
16. Toucan Bird Rock,
Left - Tom Masterson
17. Siamese Cats Rock -
Bill Climes
18. Bison - Bill Climes
(right)
19. Bottle Plaque - Bill
Climes
20. Fruit Plaque - Maxine
Renaker |
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| ©C&S 2000 All
rights reserved. No part of this article may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise, without the prior consent of the
copyright owner. |
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Rearing
Horse Plaque
Fish
Plaque
Snapper
Fish Plaque
Wade
Siamese Plaque
Siamese
Picture
© Maureen Norman
HR
Bison Plaque
Wade
Bottle Plaque
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