Perhaps the rarest of all Beswick’s output is the pit pony figure Spirit of Whitfield.
Also known as Kruger (the last pony to work at Chatterley Whitfield pit in Staffordshire until his retirement in 1931) it was modelled by chief designer Graham Tongue to commemorate the Princess Royal’s 1987 visit to Chatterley Whitfield Mining Museum.
Officially, only four of the 9½in (24cm) high figures were made at the Longton factory. The original was presented to Princess Anne; a second sold at auction at £2750 in 1994, a third set a £9500 record for Beswick at Bonhams in 2003 and a fourth, consigned to Peter Wilson’s Nantwich rooms two years later, made £8500.