Collecting Wade Figurines: A Brief History

It all started at an antique fair while on vacation. My youngest daughter found a booth selling tiny animal figurines and she begged for them. The young man selling these items happily informed me that they were Wade figurines. I had never heard of Wade, so he educated me.

The Wade family owned potteries in several towns and their famous pottery became known by their last name. George Wade opened the family’s first pottery in 1810, and it was not until 1950 that the various Wade family potteries consolidated into one large company, Wade Potteries Limited. The Wade family eventually sold their company in 1989 and it is now known as Wade Ceramics Limited.

The various Wade potteries created interesting ceramic products for companies to use in promotions, such as piggy banks for the National Bank to distribute to customers. The Wade family also teamed up with Disney to create a line of Disney figurines.

The Disney Wade figurines are hotly pursued by collectors. The original Disney Wade series is known as the Hat Box series. In 1955, when Disney was releasing the movie Lady and The Tramp, the first four Disney Wade figurines were created. In the movie, Lady was given a Christmas present packaged within a hat box. Wade used that as a unique way to package their new creations. The first four Disney Wade figurines were packaged in small hat boxes. After the success of the Lady and The Tramp series, Wade began creating other favorite Disney characters, packaging them in tiny hat boxes.

The most prized Disney Wade figurines come from the movie The Sword in the Stone. The figurines of Merlin and his alter-egos are the most sought after. The most difficult Hat Box figurine to find is Merlin as a turtle.