WWI Era Crested China Model Monoplane Boston Lincolnshire Arms Souvenir

A white glazed porcelain model of an early monoplane, decorated on the upper surface of the wing with the full coloured arms of the borough of Boston in Lincolnshire, England, and the motto "Per Mare et Per Terram" (By Sea and By Land). Small souvenir models of this kind, known to collectors as crested or heraldic china, were sold in British resorts and market towns in the years around the First World War, and aircraft were among the most popular wartime subjects. The model measures approximately 4⅝ inches (11.7 cm) in wingspan and 5½ inches (14 cm) from propeller to tail.

The model is cast in a hard, cream-white body under a clear glaze. It represents a single-winged aircraft of the pre-1914 pattern, with a broad, rectangular wing moulded with shallow ribs across its surface, a slender, flat-sided fuselage, a tailplane with a small upright fin, a two-bladed propeller at the nose, and small moulded wheels beneath the engine position and under the tail. A round opening in the fuselage behind the wing represents the cockpit. The crest is applied as a coloured transfer, slightly to one side of centre on the wing. It shows a black shield bearing three gold coronets, supported by two crowned mermaids, with a helm and mantling and a woolpack crest above, and the motto on a gold scroll below with the name "BOSTON". The underside is glazed and carries a small orange-red painted mark on the fuselage. No factory mark or registration number is visible.

The arms are the historic arms of the borough of Boston, granted in 1568: a black field with three gold coronets, two mermaids as supporters, a woolpack as the crest, and the motto Per Mare et Per Terram. The mermaids and the motto recall the town's history as a port on the Witham estuary, and the woolpack its medieval wealth from the export of wool. These arms remained in use until the borough was reconstituted in 1974.

Crested china was a British invention of the 1880s, first made by the firm of W. H. Goss of Stoke-on-Trent, whose small models of historical objects carried the arms of the town where they were sold. By the years before the First World War dozens of potteries, among them Arcadian, Carlton, Grafton, Savoy, Shelley, Swan, and Willow Art, were producing crested souvenirs in large numbers. When war came the makers turned to topical subjects, and models of aircraft, airships, tanks, shells, ships, field guns, and soldiers' headgear were sold in their thousands as souvenirs and keepsakes of the home front. The aeroplane was an obvious choice: few people in 1914 had seen one at close quarters, and the monoplanes and biplanes of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service were followed closely in the illustrated press. This example is not marked, so its maker cannot be identified, and the style of the aircraft suggests a model of the period from about 1914 to the early 1920s.

Condition is good. The glaze is bright, with no chips, cracks, or restoration seen. There are small kiln specks and a few minor dark firing spots in the glaze, including one on the side of the fuselage, a small orange spot on the leading part of the wing, and light wear to the high points of the transfer. The propeller, wheels, and tail are complete.

Crested china aircraft are collected both by enthusiasts of heraldic china and by collectors of early aviation, and models carrying the arms of a named town record the place where each souvenir was bought. This piece suits a collection of First World War home-front souvenirs or of early aviation material, and it sits well alongside crested china airships and other aviation commemoratives of the period.