Death and Granny Weatherwax Limited Edition DW90
This piece was a Limited Edition of 2500, sculpted by Joe Pattison. It was released in November 1998 and by November 2003 there were 82 left. It sold out by February 2005. As with all Limited Edition pieces made by Clarecraft, this piece comes with a Certificate of Authenticity with the Edition Number of the piece. The Edition Number is also written on the piece in silver ink. This piece cost £135.00 and one has sold very recently for £205. It shows Death and Granny playing cards. There is a small candle on the table and Death has his hood pushed back. Death is reaching out across the table. I like this piece and think that it was one of those where the scene in the book just suggested it. When you read the quote you visualise exactly the piece. It’s a pretty perfect depiction (to what goes on in my mind anyway!!).
The quote is from Maskerade “Granny picked up the pack of cards and shuffled it, not looking at her hands and smiling at Death all the time. She dealt five cards each and reached down... A bony hand grasped hers. ‘BUT FIRST, MISTRESS WEATHERWAX, WE WILL EXCHANGE CARDS.’”.
This piece shows Death standing on a black and white floor hold his scythe. It is inspired by the duel with Mort in Mort. Mort Duelling is the companion piece to this one and comes next as it is so closely linked to this piece. I do not have this piece, unusually for a Death piece. It just never particularly appealed. This was introduced in 1998/1999 and was available until closure. Again as with most Death pieces, earlier ones will have the original resin scythe while later ones will have pewter scythes. I have not seen many of these come up on eBay, they don’t seem to be common although I have no clue of numbers sold. It was sculpted by Joe Pattison They retailed at £34.95 and I do not have a top price paid.
Mort Duelling DW92
This piece is the companion piece to Death Duelling and shows Mort on the same black and white floor clutching a sword. The quote is from Mort. “Mort rolled and came up swinging the sword double handed over his head, feeling the twang of dark exhilaration as Death darted backwards across the checkered tiles.”.
I do not have a proper version of this piece. I have a PYO version from one of the events. I have been brave and posted a picture of it. Its not great as I'm no creative genius but you get the picture!!
This piece was introduced at the same time as DW93 and was scultped by Joe Pattison. Again, earlier ones have a resin sword whilst later ones have a removable pewter sword. The original RRP was £29.95 and I do not have top price sold for this item.
Death and the Swan DW111
This again is a piece full of comedic value. It shows Death crouching at the side of a pond in front of a swan. This piece comes from Maskerade when Death turns up to collect the swans soul. The swan however has other ideas! This was sculpted by Joe Pattison. The swan was sculpted separately to the rest of the piece and attached later. The water in the piece is a lovely translucent resin, there are even reeds under the water. It is a lovely piece.
I bought this one month when I had the mad idea that I would be able to buy one piece a month completely guilt free. Apparently I am good at living with guilt as that particular ambition lasted one month!!
This piece was released in February 2000 with an RRP of £39.95. This piece was available until closure, so I have no numbers sold. It has recently sold for £62.00 and has reached more.
The quote is from Maskerade
"Death sat down on the bak.
'NOW LOOK', he said, 'I KNOW HOW IT IS SUPPOSED TO GO. SWANS SING JUST ONCE, BEAUTIFULLY, BEFORE THEY DIE. THAT'S WHERE THE WORD 'SWANSONG' ORIGINATES. IT IS VERY MOVING. NOW, LET US TRY THIS AGAIN...'"
Death and Miss Flitworth DW139
Another piece from Reaper Man, that book in particular seemed to present a lot of fodder for the sculptors imaginations!! This is another piece from Joe and shows Death and Miss Flitworth doing the tango. Miss Flitworth is the elderly lady who employs ‘Bill Door’ to work on her farm. This piece was released in February 2002.
The piece originally had a large gap between the hem of Miss Flitworths dress and the floor. This presented problems for the painters. The decision was made to increase the length of the dress so it reached the base of the piece thus making it easier to paint. Only one batch of 19 figurines was made with a short dress before it was lengthened. In order to give every fan a chance of finding one of these oddities, the batch of 19 were put into different consignments so they ended up all round the country. The RRP was £59.99 and a short skirt version of this piece has sold for hundreds of pounds. The short skirts don’t appear for sale very often and the top price sold represents this. This piece was retired upon closure so I have no idea of overall numbers sold. However the (very) general rule of thumb is the higher the original RRP the fewer were sold.
Extras
Susan holding the Death of Rats Shop Edition DWE18 - covered in Shop Open Day Pieces
Susan Collectors Edition DW77 - covered in Collectors Edition Section
Quoth and the Death of Rats DW115 - covered in Collectors Edition Section
Death of Rats DW33
The quote is another one from Reaper Man, “It was about six inches high. It wore a black robe. it held a small scythe in one skeletal paw. A bone white nose with brittle grey whiskers protruded from the shadowy hood.
This was (and still is) a lovely affordable little piece with an original RRP of £9.99. The piece is small and simply shows the Death of Rats standing on a little base. Sculpted by Leigh the top price is likely to remain modest as the numbers sold will be relatively high.
Mort DW43
The quote for this piece comes (unsurprisingly) from Mort. “He paused in front of a shelf of glasses, glanced at the paper again, ran his hand along the row and suddenly snatched up a glass. The top bulb was almost empty”.This depicts Mort stood with some lifetimers.
This piece was introduced in December 1994 and was retired in August 2001. In total 2016 were sold. The RRP of the piece was £31.73 and top price paid varies.
This piece is charming in that it is in scale with DW05, Death at a Party, although this piece was made later.
There is a variation with this piece. This piece was retired in the first year of the pewter hallmarks being used. 67 of those sold have pewter hallmarks with a dash above the first letter indicating they were produced in 2001. However there are 2 pieces out there which have a pewter hallmark with the notch over the second letter indicating that these were produced in 2002. As the piece was retired in 2001 it would appear impossible. What probably happened was that the 2 pieces were possibly shop returns. At the end of each year all remaining hallmarks were melted down so these pieces must have missed the deadline and so were given a 2002 hallmark. A little rarity worth checking for if you have one of these!!
Quoth on Skull DW49
Quoth again, is a character close to my heart and I love this piece. Very simple, it shows Quoth sitting on a skull. The quote is from Soul Music. “The raven flew back to the wizards house, skimmed in through the open window and took up his roost on the skull”. This piece does exactly what it says on the tent card!! This piece was sculpted by Leigh and was introduced in February 1995 and retired in February 2002. 2865 were sold. The original RRP was £19.99 and it has sold for £65. There were no variations to this piece.
Cyril DW59
Cyril the dyslexic cockerel is yet another product of Reaper Man. “It was another dawn. Cyril the cockerel stirred on his perch. The chalked words glowed in the half light. He concentrated. He took a deep breath. Dock-a-loodle-fod!”.
Cyril cannot get his cock-a-doodle-do right and gives all sort of variants. Finally he is given a prompt board. This was sculpted by Leigh and was in traduced in February 1996. It was retired in August 2001. There were 1437 sold at an RRP of £24.99. This piece has very recently made £51.
It is another lovely fun little piece. Reaper Man inspired many pieces and it also inspired the 1997 Clarecraft Discworld Event (CCDE). Someone took the idea a bit too far and decided to bring some ‘Cyrils’ along to join in the fun. These Cyrils appeared to have no problems getting their words out however and woke everyone up at dawn lock-a-doodle-fodding!!!
Death of Rats and the Death of Fleas DW73
This is another affordable, appealing little piece and it is once again from Reaper Man!! When Death forgoes his duties, other ‘Deaths’ are generated. This is how the Death of Rats came to be, it would seem though, that where you have rats, you have fleas!. “The Death of Rats opened a tiny skeletal hand. The tiny Death of Fleas stood up, looking embarrassed but hopeful.”.
Another of Leighs pieces, this was introduced in July 1997 and was retired in November 2003. 4140 were sold at an RRP of just £9.99.
Quoth and eyeballs DW91
This is another Quoth piece, I am not keen on this one, have never been able to put my finger on why. It shows Quoth sat next to a clayware pot which almost certainly doesn’t contain eyeballs. Quoth lives in hope of finding eyeballs laid out as bar snacks. Unfortunately, this time, he got olives!! I do not have much information about this piece. The original RRP was £19.95.
Death of Rats Riding DW127
This piece shows the Death of Rats, riding a West Highland Terrier. I do not have this piece as I was never inspired to buy it, although it is an attractive little piece.
There is a variation of this piece. It was spotted by a visitor to the factory that the original Death of Rats had pink tails, like little pink sausages!!. Clearly the skeletal Death of Rats would have a white tail. The figure was subsequently changed (in 2002) and the pink tail versions have fetched high prices. The prototype of the piece also had a little blue flower on the grassy base, this was removed for reasons of economy.
Artwork and Sundries
Reaper Man by Paul Kidby
In addition to the Clarecraft figurines outlined about, I have some other Death itemsI have the Limited Edition Reaper Man print by Paul Kidby. I love this piece of artwork. I have several Limited Edition prints. When I very first started collecting and getting into Discworld, I discovered Paul Kidbys site. At the time he was selling LimIted Edition prints of Reaper Man and Rincewind. I have never been much of a fan of Rincewind but my partner at the time loved him. I could only afford one print despite the very affordable price of £14.95 I believe. At the time I decided to get the Rincewind print for my partner and forgo the Reaper Man one. This was possibly the very first thing I bought over the internet and so was quite a Big Deal. It duly arrived rolled up in a tube, signed by Paul Kidby. The Rincewind print is actually a lovely picture and I am pleased I have it now (got rid of said partner but wouldn’t give up Rincewind), but I had always wanted the Death one.
Several years later I attended CCDE and there for sale were several prints. I promptly bought the Reaper Man one (for the same reasonable price). This was the first event I had attended and it never occurred to me to bring anything for Terry to sign. I noticed other people had piles and piles of books. So when I bought 2 prints I had a brainwave. I’d get Terry to sign those instead. I have the colour Lancre print and the black and white Reaper Man print signed by Paul Kidby, Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs (it would have been rude not to as he was sat next to Terry at the time!). I since got all 3 prints framed and the Reaper Man and Rincewind prints make a handsome pair.
I may have already mentioned that I am not lucky. Twice I have bought the pieces that I long for more than any other, the Lancre Bridge Bookends. And twice for different reasons they have had to be returned. This carries over into all parts of my life, not just collecting. I am walking proof of the Law of the Sod! However. Once, I was very lucky, very very lucky! When I began to check out Paul Kidbys site I found that there was a black and white print of the Librarian. This piece had sold out long before I started collecting. It was a really lovely print and I longed for one. Unfortunately when these prints do get sold on sometimes the condition isn’t good and most of the time the price is just too high as these are fairly sought after pieces. I was perusing eBay one day when I came across an item that had literally just been listed. This piece was the Librarian print I had longed for. What’s more it was framed, in a matching frame to the ones I had had my Rincewind and Death prints framed in. What is even more, this piece was on offer for Buy it Now at £14.99!!! To say I acted fast would probably be an understatement. I snapped it up despite the fact that it was collection only and the seller lived halfway down the country. I gave no thought to how I would get it, I just knew I would. I made arrangements but my very thoughtful partner got worried that the seller would want it taken sooner rather than later and he went down himself (telling me that he was going somewhere else) and brought it back as a surprise for me. This piece now sits between my Death and Rincewind prints in pride of place in the centre of the wall. I have had a few other little bargains here and there but this is my fondest purchase.
Graham Higgins Canvas
I also have a large canvas print featuring Death and Mort. This piece is black, against a white canvas and is very large. It is a piece by Graham Higgins and I was given it as a gift. It took some getting used to but eventually I came to enjoy it. Unfortunately it is so big that due to my penchant for prints (Discworld and otherwise) the tiny walls in my tiny house are groaning and I no longer have the space to hang it.
I am also the proud owner of Deaths Clock, by Mark Ayling. At the second CCDE I attended, I had been struck on the first day by this attractive working clock, based on the clock in Deaths Domain. I didn’t initially have the money for it, it was £74.95 but I really liked it. I spent the whole weekend walking past it and talking to Mark about it but felt I couldn’t justify the purchase as it would have had to have gone on a credit card. In the end I figured I liked it so much I may as well go for it. I did, I put it on my credit card with a firm resolution to pay for it out of next months pay packet. I brought it home and it has pride of place on one of my living room shelves. I have never ever missed the money but I guarantee I would have regretted not buying the clock!! 
Posted with Blogsy
DW139
ReplyDeleteThere is also 1 paint sample of the short skirt version out in the world, I am lucky enough to own it.