Death, the final chapter!!!!

I finished this entry whilst I was on the train travelling down to London (first class no less!!) to go and see Terry at the Theatre Royal tomorrow night. The Wifi on the train was rubbish though so I've had to wait to post this!!

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.’”.

Death Duelling DW93



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.

Deaths Clock, By Mark Ayling

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

Death Part 2!

Here is the next part of the Death Set!

Death Library Stamp DW50 & DW50P
This is a rubber stamp with Deaths Head on the top.  This came in two versions.  A black one and a painted one.  The non painted one was £12.99 and the painted version was a princely £14.99. The actual stamp part of this piece was designed by Stephen Briggs with Leigh being behind the handle. These don’t come up very often and tend to stay modestly priced. They are nice pieces and are functional. They are a nice piece to pick up if funds are low. This piece is hard to describe so I have taken a photo of the piece as featured in the Clarecraft Mail Order Catalogue December 2000.

Death in the Kitchen DW57

This piece was sculpted by Leigh and shows Death in his apron stood with a frying pan complete with fried eggs.  There is a cat winding round his ankles and a small bowl of milk on the floor.  The apron even has stains down the front of it!!  This was introduced in 1996 and was available until closure.  I don’t have numbers sold for this piece.  The earlier pieces will have resin frying pans.  After the pewter machine arrived this piece had pewter trademarks and pewter frying pans. I have 2 versions of this piece. One is the original piece with the resin pan and the second was one I got as Paint Your Own (PYO) at a Discworld Event. This one came with the pewter pan. There are no pictures of my PYO version as as much as I enjoy painting the pieces, I am no painter!! The original retail price was £29.99.

Death as Bill Door DW75

This piece is the same as the piece that was released as DWE5 and sold at the 1997 Event.  There is a difference, the Event pieces have Clarecraft Event 1997 on a plaque at the bottom of the piece whereas the general sale ones do not have this.  This is a flat back piece inspired by the book Reaper Man where Death goes to work on a farm (Cyril was also inspired by this book).  It shows Death complete with straw hat standing at a stable door with Nancy the pig.  The quote is from Reaper Man ‘they’d called him Good Old Bill.  No-one had ever called him that before.’ This was sculpted by Joe Pattison and was introduced in August 1997 and retired in August 2000.  789 were sold which is only a few more than the event version.  The RRP was £34.99 and these have reached £70.

Death Mirror DW70

There are 2 mirrors in the Clarecraft Discworld range.  One features Death and the other Rincewind.  I don’t have either of the mirrors.  They are attractive but they retailed for £55.99, when I had that kind of money to spend on one figurine there was always something else I wanted more so I never got round to it!!

The Death one is particularly charming as the frame of the mirror has Death leaning round and grinning into the mirror!  These pieces probably aren’t all that common therefore I have attached a picture I took out of my December 2000 Mail Order Catalogue.  Just so people can see what I’m talking about!

Death as the Hogfather DW72

I have made no secret about my love of the Hogfather, it is possibly one of my favourite books in the canon (until I start thinking about it and then I remember all the others I love, so its best not to think about it.)  I also love Death, he is one of my favourite characters and I have a great deal of affection for him.  

I have some lovely artwork involving this character but do worry sometimes that when people come to my house and see pictures of a skeleton in a cowl everywhere they must think I’m slightly odd.  Fortunately my living room is covered with Discanalia!??!, from the shields that go around the top of the room, to the shelves in every corner covered with figurine, to the artwork on the walls so hopefully most visitors detect a theme!!!

Anyhoo! Death as the Hogfather is a piece I have a great deal of affection for.  It is beautifully made, you can even see the pillow that Death stuffed down the robe to make himself look fat and jolly.  The quote of course comes from Hogfather. ‘Death hung the stockings back on the mantlepiece.  NOW WE MUST BE GOING.  HAPPY HOGSWATCH.  ER... OH, YES: HO. HO. HO.’.  

There were many parts of this book that actually made me laugh out loud a long time before that became such a pervasive phrase!  Death makes a wonderful Hogfather and truly seems to enjoy giving people things.  This book reveals more about Deaths character, he is truly endearing!!

This piece was introduced in 1998 along with Pixie Albert and was sculpted by Joe Pattison.This is quite a large heavy piece, nice and chunky.  The original price was £49.95 and it usually makes around £70.

Pixie Albert DW85

I would have put this next piece in the extras section but it is so intrinsically related to the Hogfather piece that I decided to put them together.  Obviously any Hogfather needs his happy jolly pixie companions.  Unfortunately we get Pixie Albert!!  A lovely piece showing Albert looking extremely grumpy in a lovely green costume!  He even has a dew drop hanging from his nose!! 

The quote is from Hogfather when Susan confronts Death and Albert and questions whether it is appropriate to eat the items children leave out for the Hogfather.  “‘and how many have you had, may i ask?’ ‘dunno, ain’t counted’, said Albert happily.  ‘ONE MILLION, EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND, SEVEN HUNDRED AND SIX’, said Death.  ‘AND SIXTY EIGHT THOUSAND, THREE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN PORK PIES. AND ONE TURNIP’.  ‘It looked pork-pie shaped’, said Albert.  ‘Everything does, after a while.’”.

This piece didn’t sell quite as many as the Hogfather so there are a few unaccompanied Hogfathers out there.  I don’t have any details on numbers sold etc.  The piece was introduced in 1998 and was sculpted by Joe Pattison.  

Whilst checking over my Pixie Albert for this blog I noticed that it has a painters mark and the name of the sculptor etched into it, as usual but there was a gap where the trademark should have been.  These pieces were introduced in 1998 and were available until closure so there will be pieces with the stamp and pieces with the petwer trademarks.  My Hogfather has a normal stamp as it was produced before the pewter trademarks came out.  It seems my Pixie Albert has a little indentation ready for the pewter trademark to be attached but was overlooked for some reason.  I know the pieces is genuine as I bought it direct from Clarecraft and everything else on the piece is correct.  It is complete with sticker, box, tent card, painters mark and sculptors name.  I don’t know if Clarecraft overlooked an entire batch or just one or two.  It just goes to show I should have checked it when I got it and I could have asked them.  I used to just check ebay buys carefully in case they had old trademarks.  In later years I didn’t think it worth checking for an oddity!!!

Death Part 1

I was at a bit of a loss of what to tackle next.  It feels like I have tackled all the nice tidy little sets of pieces and it seems such a big task.  I decided to just try and tackle groups of figures for as far as I could.  

In that spirit then I present …... The Death Set :D.  I do have a certain affection for the Discworld Death and I do seem to have a lot of pieces featuring him, but oh me oh my, I had no idea how many pieces Clarecraft made of him.  Either someone at Clarecraft also had a lot of affection for him or he just appears in situations that are so easy to visualise the pieces just suggest themselves!  This set also includes related characters.  If I include them all under the Death set then it means I don’t have to do a special set for each character.  Major characters related to Death include the Death of Rats, Quoth and Susan.  I will add others as and when they occur to me.  This again promises to be a monster post so I will be dividing it up where appropriate.  I was thinking that then I could move on to others sets of major characters such as the witches, wizards and the City Watch.  That should keep me going for a few weeks and I can always divert and do a bit on artwork or Bernard Pearson pieces.  This post lead to a lot of fun whilst trying to get my boyfriend to get the figurines out of the high cupboard where they are stored.  Comments along the lines of ‘no, not that one, the one next to it, the little skeletal rat in the black robe, thats it.  Now grab the skeleton doing the tango with the little old lady and then the one with the skeleton dressed as Father Christmas’.  I do hope the neighbours couldn’t hear!!!

I’ll start with pieces that have already been covered elsewhere:

Death Head DWE8 and Death as Beau Nidle DWE88 have both been covered in the Event Pieces Section.

Death Bookend DW12 and Death’s Study and Bathroom Bookends DW149 & DW150 are all covered in the Bookend Section.

Death on Binky DW24 and Death on a Motorcycle DW44 are both covered in the Big Pieces Section.

Death and Gaspode DWC134 is covered in the Collectors Editions Section.

And so onto the rest!!!!

Death at a Party DW05

This is a lovely comedic piece depicting Death, complete with scythe stood clutching a wine glass covered in party string :).  It was sculpted by Leigh.  I love the detail of the little mask at the bottom. The quote is from The Light Fantastic “It held a long scythe in one hand and one couldn’t help noticing that what should have been fingers were simply white bone.  The other skeletal hand held small cubes of cheese and pineapple on a stick.”.

This was one of the very first pieces produced and the earlier ones were produced prior to Clarecraft buying a pewter machine.  Therefore figures without pewter trademarks will have the original resin scythes whereas the later figurines will have pewter trademarks and scythes.  The resin scythes were very breakable though and later replacement scythes were made of pewter.   

This was introduced in February 1992 and was available until Clarecraft closed.  As these were still being produced at closure I have no numbers sold.  The original RRP was £21.99.

Death Swinging Scythe DW05a
This piece shows Death crouching as he swings his scythe, it is full of movement.  His scythe is at the back of his head and once again this is a removable scythe to cut down on breakages.
The quote is from Mort. “He stood and levelled the scythe at the fat and noisome candle that burned on the edge of the bench and then, with two deft sweeps, cut the flame into 3 bright slivers.”.

Again this is an early piece but this piece was retired before the pewter machine came on the scene so all these pieces should have resin scythes unless there is a replacement scythe.  This was one of the very early pieces so there will be some old trademarks and stickers out there.  

There are 2 versions to this piece.  One has a rounded cowl and one has a pointed cowl.  This was an oddity that was discovered late on by Trish and revealed in the February 2004 newsletter.  The photograph in the Collectors Guide is an old photograph taken before Trish took over the factory.  This shows a piece with a rounded cowl that lies close to Deaths skull.  Most of the actual pieces have a pointed cowl that sits slightly off the skull.  It is thought that the rounded cowl version was only made for a very short time in 1992, Trish believes possibly even as a prototype.  I didn’t notice any difference in the pictures to my actual piece because when I checked my piece I found that I had a round cowl version!  This was another one of the pieces I picked up in a job lot many years ago.  Most of the other pieces in the lot were also very early pieces so it seems I got lucky.  There is no sticker on the base of my figure and I knew it was an early piece as the felt on the bottom doesn’t reach right to the edges.  There is a very small circular indentation on the base of the piece with LP in it, indicating the sculptor (Leigh) and a scratched in trademark stating Clarecraft Designs.  I have taken pictures to try and show these but they are quite tiny!!

There was also an issue with the shape of Deaths robe in the early pieces. There was a production note from February 1995 stating that it was difficult to paint under the robe.  The action to be taken was to remodel the cloak and raise it at the back.  Up until February 1995 about 2500 of the pieces had been sold.  Unfortunately I only have the original version with the lower cloak so I cannot compare it to the later piece.  If anyone wants to take some piccies of their Death Swinging Scythe and send them to me for comparison I may have more chance of identifying exactly what the differences were.  I have never seen another rounded cowl version appear on ebay and I have no idea how many rounded cowls were produced.  This is not a well known oddity like the Cloakless Vetinari or wrong badge number Carrot so fewer collectors are aware.  I have been checking any of these pieces that end up on ebay since i found out about this in 2004 though and have never seen another rounded cowl appear.   If you check your figurine and find it has a rounded cowl let me know.  If you could take close up pictures of the base felt, the trademark and the robe it would also help.

This piece was introduced in February 1992 and retired in November 1998.  9174 were sold.  The original RRP was £20.45 and it retired at £21.99.  I have no idea how many rounded cowls were produced so have no idea of value for that particular version but the top price reached for this piece generally is £100 but £40-£50 is more usual.

Works in Progress!!!

I am currently putting together a new post (I'm not going to say what about, it's a s'prise!).  Putting together each new post takes an awful lot of work as I have to dig pieces out of the cupboards (I have to get my other half to do most of that as I'm too tiny to reach!), photograph them, research all the records I have on that piece and then write the text.  The next post will probably have to put on in several sections as it's another epic one but I'm sure it will give lots of useful information so it's definitely worth waiting for.  Thankfully, after a long period of being off work due to a serious injury I am hoping to go back to work in the middle of this month so I fully intend to have this section posted by then!

More Bookends

Rincewind, Luggage and Cat Bookend - September 1994 - February 2002

This is actually about 2 pieces.  In January 1992 Leigh sculpted a figure of Rincewind caught by the Luggage, DW25.  The quote is from the Colour of Magic ‘It was when he tried to move that he found his robe was caught on some obstruction.  By craning his neck he found that the edge of it was being firmly gripped by the Luggage’s lid.’.  

It’s a very attractive piece and was available both painted and in the ‘bronze’ finish.  Originally Clarecraft felt that a lot of people may be put off by the price of the painted pieces.  In order to make some early pieces more affordable they were made available in painted finish and in a ‘bronze’ or ‘pewter’ finish.  It seemed that people did prefer to save up for the painted items though and some of these figures in the bronze and pewter finishes are the rarest of all with sometimes only 1 or 2 sold.  Clarecraft eventually stopped offering pieces in these finishes however for larger pieces such as the Bridge Over the River Ankh there was a ‘wooden’ finish available and these were more popular.  The price for the painted finish was £25.25 (rising to £27.50 on retirement) and £17.65 in the bronze finish.  When Clarecraft was taken over in March 1993 it was found that DW25 was selling at a loss.  It was decided to retire the figure in December 1993.  1038 were sold and the top price ever made was £460.  It has sold for considerably less however.  
Clarecraft thought that the piece was too nice to ‘waste’ and they decided to make it into a bookend and re release it.  This led to DW41, Rincewind, Luggage and Cat Bookend.  This piece came with the same quote as the original.  By releasing the figure as a bookend Clarecraft were able to raise the price to bring it into profitability and give people ‘added value’ for their extra money.  This piece was introduced in September 1994 and retired in February 2002.  Only 615 were sold, probably because the original RRP was £90.  Personally Rincewind is not one of my favourite characters and I’m not all that keen on the first 2 books in the Discworld Canon.  Consequently I do not have too many Rincewind figures.  I do really like my DW25 though (another job lot bargain!).  It is a nice simple figure and quite comical.  I do not have a DW41 and I’m not sure of top price paid as they come up very rarely.

Ruby and Detritus DW27 & DW28 - January 1992 - August 1992

In January 1992 a pair of bookends featuring Ruby and Detritus was released.  There is no quote with these pieces.  They were sculpted by Leigh ad were released without being seen or approved by Terry.  He saw them in a shop in August 1992 and really didn’t like them so they were deleted immediately.  Less than 50 of each piece was sold.  They retailed for £25.26.  I find these pieces particularly ugly and although I always like to have rare items, as I really don’t like these pieces I am unlikely to ever buy them.  The pieces are very ‘grey’.  Detritus is depicted as a drooling idiot clutching a bunch of flowers and Ruby is standing coyly by.  They do not seem to bear any relation to the characters and it seems as though they were sculpted without ever reading the books.  The top prices have varied but usually remain high.  The highest was £720 for Ruby and £800 for Detritus but they rarely if ever go for less than £300 a piece.  They do come up fairly often for such rare pieces.  
These bookends are not to be confused with the later, Terry approved bookends that were released as Event pieces at the 2001 Event (DWE14 & DWE15) and then later for general sale as DW131 & DW132.  These pieces were covered in the Event pieces section.  They are very handsome with both characters depicted in evening dress.  I did have a pair of these that my father bought for me, unfortunately Detritus met with a tragic accident and lost his head so I only have my Ruby left.  The Event pieces were a Limited Edition of 100 painted by Clarecraft and unlimited PYO.  The general release pieces were introduced after the Event in August 2001.  They were retired in November 2003 as they were heavy pieces which made it hard on the painters.  They also didn’t sell very well with just 193 Ruby and 185 Detritus sold.  They had a retail price of £49.95.


Draco Nobilis DW109 & DW110 - February 2000 - November 2002

These bookends were introduced in February 2000.  Sculpted by Dave Meredith they depict events from Guards Guards.  In the book the city of Ankh-Morpork is threatened by a Draco Nobilis, a large traditional dragon summoned by the Elucidated Brethron of the Ebon Night for the nefarious purposes of their leader.  It is left to the Watch to tackle the dragon, save the city and rescue the girl (Lady Sybil is introduced in this book and is rescued by Vimes after nearly becoming lunch for the dragon who requires ladies of a certain virtue!).  Lady Sybil is a renowned expert on dragons approached by Sam Vimes for assistance.  She gives the Watch a small swamp dragon (Draco Vulgaris) whom they name Errol.  In the event Errol assists the Watch in taming the Nobilis after it transpires she is a female.  The left bookend, DW109 shows Carrot at the head of the dragon.  The dragon is beautfully sculpted and painted.  In the book Carrot, true to form, attempts to arrest the dragon and is depicted reading the dragon its rights, the notepad in Carrots hand even  has scribbles on it.  The right hand bookend DW110 shows Errol at the tail of the dragon.  The large dragon is red and Errol is green.  The quote for the Errol side is ‘Lets be honest: the chances of a dragon the size of Errol beating something that big are a million to one.’.
The pieces were retired in November 2002 as the Carrot bookend in particular was so heavy that it was causing considerable pain to the painters.  Around 600 of each piece were sold.  The Carrot side retailed for £49.95 and the Errol end for £29.95.  Both pieces have very recently reached £90 each.


Deaths Study DW149 & Deaths Bathroom DW150 - Febraury 2003 - Closure

These bookends were sculpted by Joe Pattison, they bring to life the beautifully described house in Deaths Domain.  The quote is ‘You didn’t expect the rubber duck.  It was yellow.  You didn’t expect the soap.  It was suitably bone white, but looked as if it had never been used before.  Beside it was a bar of orange soap which certainly had been used - it was hardly more than a sliver.  It smelled a lot like the vicious stuff used at school.’  This quote is from Soul Music, the first Pratchett book I ever read.  Deaths Study depicts Death sat behind a desk in his study gazing thoughtfully into space.  His desk even includes a small stress toy, something he will have seen somewhere and attempted to replicate without any understanding of its purpose.  DW150 is Deaths Bathroom and is faithful to the quote entirely.  The only thing missing is the vicious smell of the orange soap!! The duck and the soaps are there, the solid towel is also there, something else that Death saw but didn’t entirely understand, not realising it had to be soft and pliable.  This piece is so detailed and pretty, the finish on the bath and toilet cistern is nice and there is even a little plug and chain in the bottom of the bath.  The study retailed at £44.99 and the bathroom at £49.99. These are such attractive pieces, the bathroom in particular. Its colourful and fun and depicts exactly why this particular Death is so endearing. These pieces have reached approximately £90 apiece.

Lancre bridge DWE11 & DWE12
These pieces have already been discussed in the Event pieces section.  This set of bookends was another set for an event, the 1999 event.  Available in 100 painted sets and unlimited PYO they are beautiful but very prone to breakages.   






Caveat Emptor

I follow eBay quite closely and see lots and lots of items posted all the time, sometimes by people who know what they have, sometimes by people who are unaware of what they have and sometimes by outright charlatans who tell whopping lies to make it sound like a) they know more than they do and b) that they have a piece which is something its not.

Usually these don't tend to bother me.  If an item is listed a 'rare', I don't pay any attention, 'rare' is relative.  There is usually nothing deliberately misleading about these listings, the seller just doesn't know what they are talking about.  However over the last couple of weeks I have been coming across a few listings all by the same person.  It appears that this person has a Clarecraft Discworld Chess Set.  It is the resin one I posted about the other week.  These pieces are small and although they are highly detailed, unless seen as a set they are not particularly attractive.  There is nothing wrong with these pieces being sold separately, some people cannot afford £150 for the whole things and the opportunity to buy the odd piece for £3.50 (plus a scandalous £2.50 postage!!) might be a good offer.  However, this guy isn't selling the chess pieces separately.  Oh no, he is selling (and I DO quote) 'Limited Edition, First Edition (!!??!!) pieces!.  This got on my nerves slightly, I must admit, but again I thought, well people taking a risk on £3.50, not the end of the world and if the buyer likes the piece then its all good.  However, this morning when I checked eBay I found that this charlatan is now listing a Granny Weatherwax cream chess piece.  He gives the dimensions so if a buyer checks they will find the piece is small but he has taken a photo of the item with a Clarecraft box.  The chess pieces never came in normal sized boxes. He has also taken the photograph with the piece a long way in front of the box so it looks like the piece fits the box which is blatantly false.  He also states the this is another Limited Edition, First Edition piece and as it is boxed it is even more rare.  This is an absolute untruth.  The chess pieces were never boxed separately.  The chess pieces are not Limited Edition pieces.  There are only  a few Clarecraft Limited Edition Discworld pieces and they ALL come with certificates of authenticity listing the edition number.  There is no such thing as a Clarecraft First Edition.  If pieces were revised and changed then the items became Mark 1, Mark 2, etc not editions.  This seems to me to be going a bit beyond gilding the lily into the realm of total untruths and deliberately misleading new collectors, and to me that is not on.  I don't want new collectors put off by mercenaries like this.  He has this item listed at £14.99!!! Steer well clear of this snake oil salesman.

If, incidentally you do see something on eBay and are a bit unsure of exactly what it is, feel free to contact me and I can identify things for you.  I can't tell you how much you should pay for any item, that is up to you.  I have paid over the odds for many items simply because I liked them but I can certainly give you more information on the piece then will probably be on the listing.

Bookends

This is another mammoth post split into several sections. I never guessed how many bookends Clarecraft made until I came to write about them all!!!

DW11 Rincewind Bookend  - February 1991 - Closure

This was part of the first set of bookends, (the other half being DW12 Death Bookend).  The quote for this piece is from The Colour of Magic ‘As a student Rincewind had never achieved high marks in precognition, but now unused circuits of his brain were throbbing and the future might as well have been engraved in bright colours on his eyeballs.’.  
The piece shows Rincewind peering round a wall with a sign to The Mended Drum in the background.
This was one of those pieces that was remodelled several times resulting in several variations.  It was originally introduced in Febraury 1991, but the piece caused problems with fettling and moulding due to the fact that the figure of Rincewind didn’t touch the background wall.  Its distinguishing features are that both hands can be seen and the head and hat do not touch the wall.  Rincewind was sculpted by Bernard Pearson and the base by Leigh.  This was only made until the end of 1991.  The very early version will have the original Clarecraft square trademark saying ‘Copyright 1990’.  About 700 pieces of this version were made.
The second version was made from the end of 1991 until March 1993.  This version had been remodelled to aid production issues.  The figure is less angular and more bland.  He leans against the wall with his hat point folded down on his back. He has one hand on the front of the wall and the other cannot be seen.  One foot can be seen coming out from beneath his robe. His hat brim is also more ‘floppy’ than other versions.  Leigh sculpted this version in an effort to resolve the manufacturing issues of the first one.  This version is marked Clarecraft Designs Ltd 1991 on the back.  About 500 of these were sold.
It was decided that the second version was too bland and although it made things easier it didn’t really have the fun of the previous piece.  Therefore the original version was reintroduced but instead of the block trademark it has the Discworld Logo on it.  This one was made from March 1993 to July 1995 and about 1500 of these were made.
The final version was remodelled by Leigh, this was a compromise between the spirit and fun of the original and the improvements in production in the second.  This time there was no gap at all between the figure and the wall.  Only one hand can be seen.  The hat was pointy again and no foot can be seen.  The hat brim and face are against the wall in this figure.  This figure was available till Clarecraft closed so no official figures have been released on this particular version however, by February 2002, more than 3 years before Clarecraft shut, 8012 had been sold, with only about 2700 of these being the first 3 versions.  The first piece retailed at £35.75 and increased with subsequent pieces until by 2002 it was £45.10.  A version 4, the most common one recently sold for almost £70.  I got a Version 1 in a job lot of 5 figures I paid £100 for.  The box also included a couple of other rare pieces.  The Rincewind Bookend had slight damage to the hat brim though.  I was lucky enough to receive Mark 4 versions of both this and the Death Bookend (see below) as a gift.

DW12 - Death Bookend - February 1991 - Closure

Made to go with the Rincewind Bookend above, the quote is from The Colour of Magic ‘Death, although of course completely eyeless, watched Rincewind disappearing with what would, had His face possessed any mobility at all, have been a frown.  Death, although exceptionally busy at all times, decided that now he had a hobby.’.
This bookend also went through various revisions leading to 4 distinct versions.  
The first version was introduced in February 1991 and was sculpted by Leigh.  The Death figure is a lovely exciting figure and although Death would supposedly be expressionless there is a clear impression of curiosity. His head is cocked to one side as though in puzzlement.  This piece was fragile however, Death is standing right away from the wall, with one hand across where his stomach would be!  The signpost to the Shades behind him is pointed, all the other versions have blunt signs.  This version was produced until January 1992 and 784 were made.
The piece was completely overhauled in mid 1991.  The hood of Deaths’ robe is further back from his face, resulting in an odd looking character, different from all the other Clarecraft Deaths.  The sign at the back has become blunted, Death is standing more straight on, looking quite chunky in the midsection!! This version was introduced in February 1992 and sold until February 1993 and 614 were made.  
In March 1993 another version was introduced as the second version was perceived to be too bland and flat and it certainly didn’t have the charm of the original piece.  The hood and face of the figure were changed, making the hood come forward more like the usual Death figures.  The rest of the figure stayed the same however.  This version lasted until July 1995 and about 1700 were made.
The final version was introduced in July 1995 and remained available until the closure of Clarecraft.  Mark 4 was a good compromise, the figure was nice and detailed and almost as charming as the original but combined with better mould life and less fragility.  On this version Deaths hand is back across his stomach with his index finger extended, his other hand is curled into a fist.  In common with the 3 later versions there are no gaps between Death and the wall.  The cowl is more over his face and looks a lot like the original.  A scythe was also added leaning against the sign  in the background in order to add strength and reduce breakages.  This version was available until the closure of Clarecraft.  
The original retail price was £35.75, by 2002 the price was £45.00.  By February 2002, 8918 of these figures had been sold meaning there are about 5820 Mark 4’s out there.
I have a Mark 1 and a Mark 4.  A relative who lives on the other side of the country bought me my Mark 1 on ebay.  It turned out that the person selling it worked in the same office as myself, saving on postage!!

Mark 1 Death and Rincewind Bookends

Luggage Bookend DW13 - February 1991 - Closure

The luggage bookend  depicts the Luggage crashing through a wall and has some lovely detail with the bricks that have fallen and gaps in the wall.  Unfortunately although I have this piece I don’t have the tent card as it came in a job lot so i don’t know the quote.
Update!!! Thankfully,as can be seen from the comment at the bottom of here, Peter was able to provide the quote! It idsfrom The Light Fantastic.  "...The luggage extended its little legs, braced itself and ran full tilt at the nearest wall. Clay bricks and dusty mortar exploded around it. Cohen peered through the hole. There was a small storeroom on the other side. The luggage stood in the middle of the floor, radiating extreme bafflement".  
I also don’t know how much this retailed at or how many were sold.  The piece has sold recently for £50-£60.

Librarian Bookend DW14 - February 1991 - February 2002

The Librarian bookend went with the Luggage bookend.  This was introduced in February 1991 and retired in February 2002.  The quote for this piece is from The Light Fantastic ‘The Librarian’s mental catalogue was ticking over perfectly.  He stopped by a soaring stack of musty books and swung himself up into the darkness.  There was the sound of rustling paper and a cloud of dust floated down to Trymon.  Then the Librarian was back, a slim volume in his hands.’.  The piece depicts the Librarian selecting a book from some shelves.  This is a lovely colourful piece.  It was sculpted by Leigh and sold 3436 pieces.  This piece was retired as unfortunately it was one of those pieces that Clarecraft were making a loss on.  A large price rise would have been necessary to bring it into profitability so it was retired instead.  The piece retailed for £56.80 throughout its availability.  This piece doesn’t come up very often so top prices are hard to come by.

Luggage and Librarian Bookends