Arcadian Crested China Model British Airship Hull Arms WWI Souvenir Rd 657737

Original First World War-period British crested souvenir china in the form of a model airship, made by Arcadian China of Stoke-on-Trent and bearing the enameled arms of the city of Kingston-upon-Hull. The piece measures 5.5 by 1.5 inches (approximately 14 by 3.8 cm) and is a characteristic example of the wartime "heraldic china" that was among the most popular British souvenirs of the Great War.

The model takes the form of a streamlined airship or dirigible raised on twin pylons above a flat oval plinth, glazed white overall with fine gilt lining to the control car, tail fins, and forward gondola detail, and with two small square gondola or engine-car openings molded along the lower hull. To the upper side of the envelope is a color transfer of the coat of arms of Kingston-upon-Hull: a blue shield charged with three gold ducal coronets in pale, above a yellow scroll lettered HULL. The underside is printed in black with the Arcadian globe-and-crown mark and the initials A. & S. over STOKE-ON-TRENT, together with the impressed and printed registration number Rd No 657737 and a small hand-painted number in orange.

The maker and the registration number date the piece closely. Arcadian was the trade name of Arkinstall & Sons of Stoke-on-Trent, and the globe-surmounted-by-crown mark in this form was introduced in 1912. The registration number 657737 is a Great War registration recorded on other Arcadian military models of the period, including the firm's well-known despatch-rider figure, placing this airship in the years around 1915 to 1918. Contemporary records note that Arcadian's model British airships were being sold at Stoke-on-Trent late in the war, one documented example priced at one shilling and fourpence in December 1918.

The airship belongs to a distinctive category of wartime popular culture. Crested souvenir china had been developed in the later nineteenth century, credited chiefly to William Henry Goss and his sons, as inexpensive white porcelain models carrying the arms of the town where they were sold, their popularity fed by the growth of the railways and of domestic seaside tourism. With the outbreak of war in 1914 the Staffordshire potteries, Arcadian, Carlton, Grafton, Savoy, Shelley, Swan, and others, rapidly registered new patriotic and military designs: shells, bombs, mines, warships, aeroplanes, tanks, ambulances, and airships. Topicality mattered more than technical accuracy, and the models let civilians on the home front hold a small, cheerful token of the vast machinery of the war. The airship was a natural subject: airship and Zeppelin raids on British towns, and Britain's own airship program, made the great dirigibles a fixture of wartime public consciousness. Carrying the arms of Hull, an East Yorkshire port city that itself suffered airship raids during the war, this example would have been sold locally as an inexpensive keepsake, an ordinary family's memento of an extraordinary time.

Condition is very good for a piece of this fragile class. The model is intact with no chips or cracks, retaining crisp gilding to the fins, car, and gondola detail, and a bright, cleanly registered Hull crest. There is minor overall wear consistent with age, light surface soiling to the white glaze, and a small area of old adhesive residue to the base, with the maker's mark and registration number clear and legible. The piece stands securely on its plinth.

For the collector, the appeal lies in the subject and the field. Crested china is a long-established British collecting area with active followings by maker, by locality, and by theme; wartime military models are among the most sought categories, and the airship is one of the more desirable Great War forms, well above the common vases and domestic shapes. A clean example with bright gilding, an intact hull, and a legible city crest and maker's mark presents well and carries its history plainly. It would suit a collector of Goss and crested china, of aviation and airship material, or of First World War home-front memorabilia.