Beswick spirit horses

Hi, I have a large collection of the white beswick/royal doulton spirit horses the older type not the newer models ...white on black base.I have 17 in all that includes 4 small foals. I would like to know how many there are in the collection / set and which ones are worth more. thank you

 

Hi Jane.....welcome.

Until someone here on the board comes along to help you, see if anything found on Google helps you.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bes...e=UTF-8#q=beswick+royal+doulton+spirit+horses

 

One of the sites on the link Judy provided has this information, on which you might want to follow up:

Marilyn Sweet is from England and has been acknowledged as an expert on the Beswick horses for many years. Originally she was going to publish a small black and white book on the horses, but with the help of the now defunct Beswick Collectors Circle, plus a member that owns a publishing company, she produced a wonderful book on the horses. It has full color photos of each horse that was produced under the Beswick name, plus a descriptive text on each horse. Included is the new RD number, if it was carried forward into their line. The donkeys are not included, as Beswick considered them part of the Farmyard series. The book also includes photos of all the various colorways the horses came in. It comes with a 1993 price guide. This writeup was provided by Laura Pervier

 

Welcome!

 

The link above may take you there also; but there is a very good collector's guide to Beswick; I found a copy at my local library.
The detailed information there helped me determine that the Beswick Hereford cow, which my Mom bought at the Goodwill, had a book value of $800. She'd always told us it was valuable; and I sold it on ebay for $825.

 

Check half.com maybe find inexpensive books to use for research..

 

Check Powell's books in Portland, OR too.

 

I've a chum who's a Beswick maven, rather. Those book values represent about four times as much as what the things actually sell for.

 

I'm sure that is often true, and certainly an item is only worth what a bidder will freely pay for it, regardless of "book value."
But my only actual experience with Beswick is as mentioned, that my Mom's 1958 Beswick cow showed a book value of $800, and I sold it on ebay for $825 to a very careful collector in England - he even asked me to examine it under blacklight for possible repairs.
He'd outbid 26 others to get it, and appeared ecstatic to have it.
I sure packed it carefully for the journey from the US to the UK!

 

I learn something new here all the time. Never heard of a Beswick spirit horse. Now I know if I see one, what it is.

 

These are the horses in the spirit collection..this is Spirit of freedom i think. There are more