Event Pieces

I have pictures of a few of these and will put them in.  Some of the others I either don’t have or the pieces are buried too far back in the cupboard for me to reach (I may have started collecting again but I still don’t have a big enough house to display them all :D).  If there is a piece you are desperate to see then let me know and I will endeavour to get a picture.

The first Event in 1995 didn’t have a theme exactly, so the pieces were a motley collection of what could be made in time.  Leigh Pamment, a Clarecraft sculptor, made Roderick the Hippo (to be found on the COA of Ankh Morpork, Bernard made a piece of Dwarf Bread and a Plaque with the crest of the City Watch was produced.
DWE1 Dwarf Bread was a Ltd Edition of 200 which sold out on the day.  They originally cost a bargain £2.50 and the current top price is in the region of £50.
DWE2 Roderick was a Ltd Edition of 500 and despite his low price of £4.50 was still on sale several years later.  They finally sold out however and can now fetch up to £60.
DWE3 the City Watch Plaque was a Ltd Edition of 500.  It sold out quickly at £10 and at its peak sold for £110.


Of these 3 I must admit to being a big fan of Roderick.  He is smooth and quite chunky so he is nice to touch (I am aware I sound like a loony but bear with me).  I bought my Roderick off eBay after being desperate to get a collection of these 3.  I finally got him and was checking him (as I do with all pieces) when I saw silver writing on the bottom.  I checked and he has been signed ‘Best wishes Leigh Pamment’.  Having never seen another Roderick I’m not sure if they all came with this but I have never heard mention that Leigh signed them all.  The seller hadn’t noticed it and hadn’t bought him at the event personally so could shed no light.  Just another thing I love about collecting these figures.  They are all so individual with individual stories.  I of course love to think he is special and not all of them were signed I this way, but I would, wouldn’t I.

DWE4 was a piece produced for the 1996 Discworld convention.  I do not have one so am unable to post a picture.  The piece shows the Librarian lying in a hammock with ‘The First Discworld Convention 1996’ written underneath.  It is a flat back style piece and 450 were produced at a price of £20.  This has sold for as much as £170 but generally gets between £40 and £60.

DWE5 is Death as Bill Door, another flat back piece.  This was for the 1997 event which had the theme Reaper Man.  The piece shows Death looking through a barn door.  This piece wasn’t Ltd Edition as such.  Attendees to the event were given a voucher entitling them to £15 off the piece if bought that weekend.  The pieces bought at the event included a special plaque at the bottom saying ‘The Reaper Man Event Clarecraft 1997’.  The pieces were released for general sale after the event at the price of £30.  784 pieces were sold in total.  Pieces with the plaque on have sold for up to £60, pieces without have made around £40.

DWE6 was from the 1999 Event whose theme was Carpe Jugulum.  A Nac Mac Feegle was produced as the Event Piece.  The Event NMF is about 4 inches tall putting him out of scale with the rest of the collection (Clarecraft produced another range of NMF a few years later which are considerably smaller and in scale with a Tiffany figure produced at the same time).  He has a thimble in one hand raised in toast and a sword in the other.  This was the first piece to feature a pewter sword and Clarecraft were keen to try out their new pewter machine.  Many future pieces have small pewter touches to them.  The NMF sold 750 at a price of £15 and has reached £45 since.

In 2000 the Discworld convention was cancelled at the last minute.  Clarecraft stepped in and organised an Event, basing it on Lords and Ladies.  There were 3 pieces produced (1 stand alone and 1 pair of bookends). 
DWE11 (fear not, pieces DWE7 etc will be explained shortly) was Granny Weatherwax on a Bridge and DWE12 was Wizard on a Bridge.  Each bookend depicted half a stone bridge with a figure stood on it so when the pieces were displayed together you had the whole bridge.  For the first time 2 different sculptors worked on the same piece.  Bernard made the bridges from plaster and Joe Pattinson sculpted the figures from resin.  Unfortunately resin and plaster do not stick together effectively making the heads of the figures prone to falling off.  I coveted these for years as they are particularly lovely looking pieces.  I finally won a pair on eBay for a very reasonable sum, unfortunately Royal Mail treated them rather roughly and when they arrived the heads had fallen off both figures.  They were returned and my hunt continued.  Only 100 painted sets of these were produced however unlimited numbers of whites were made available for PYO.  Each bookend sold for £30 and an intact pair has sold for up to £700, however they more regularly make around the £300 to £500 mark.








The final piece for this event was DWE13, Magrat in Armour.  Magrat is shown wearing chain mail, her wedding dress and carrying a pewter crossbow.  This piece was a Ltd Edition of 500 and sold out rapidly.  A retail price of £32.50 has translated into a top price of £150.  Clarecraft themselves were surprised at how well she was received and she is a sought after piece for many collectors.  






In 2001 the scheduled Event was held and again 1 stand alone figure and 1 pair of bookends were produced.  The theme was Moving Pictures.
DWE15 Detritus Bookend and DWE16 Ruby Bookend.  These feature the trolls in full evening dress.  100 painted pairs were produced but again unlimited whites for PYO were available.  The 100 pieces sold at the event have a broken plate next to the characters foot with ‘Event 2001’ on it.  The pieces were made available after the event on general sale without these plates.  The general sale pieces were the first ones to have the pewter hallmarks on them and had numbers DW131 and DW132.  There was another variation on these pieces but that will be explained in the Oddities and Cock Ups section that will be coming soon.  The original Event versions had a price of £49.50 each and a pair has made around £200.



DWE16 Laddie and Gaspode was made for the 2001 Event and features the beautiful pure breed Laddie along with the unfortunate Gaspode. This was a Ltd Edition of 500 and sold for £34.99.  Top price on this so far appears to be between £50 and £60 but they don’t seem to come up too often.






  

    


 The 2003 Event was based on Pyramids and the Event piece was DWE20 Tortoise and Arrow.  This piece features a small tortoise with an arrow in the sand next to him.  This piece was relatively inexpensive at £12.50 (after the more expensive pieces of the last few events) but didn’t sell particularly well.  They were a Limited Edition of 500 but were still available from Clarecraft 2 years later.  They have sold for up to £30.   





Also available at the 2003 Event were 2 pewter badges.  They were only sold at the event and the remainder were melted down.

 


The 2005 Event was the final event however no-one apart from Clarecraft knew this at the time.  The theme was Monstrous Regiment and the Event piece was not a piece exactly but a small collection of items.  The main part was the Shako Badge, similar in style to the original City Watch Plaque in 1995, this was DWE24.  DWE25 was a pewter Shako Keyring, DWE26 a pewter Flaming Cheese Pin Badge and DWE27 a pewter Flaming Cheese Keyring.  These were sold as a pack for  £30 but were still being sold when Clarecraft shut down a couple of months later (at a discounted price of £20).

At the 2003 and 2005 Events there were pewter medals awarded as prizes in the various competitions.  These could only be won at the events and rarely come up on eBay so are definitely something to look out for.