Auctiva Emporium: madnotonly4stamps

With so much replica Staffordshire ware on the market today, and with most seemingly coming from the East, it's important to be sure of what your buying. If looking for Wally dogs, also called flat backs, spaniels, mantel dogs and I believe in Scotland called Wally Dugs, it's important to know what to look for, the early Staffordshire dogs have more detail, for instance to the tale and to the back, expect to see light damage and wear, look under the base, is it hollow ? it shouldn't be, the base of early Staffordshire dogs are solid, a small hole to the back was used to let the steam/hot air out of the model during firing, later dogs used a different method called Condition of the glaze, you will find the surface covered in fine crazing taking on the colour the atmosphere surrounding the dogs during the years (not a uniform grey colour of the replica's)also quite possibly firing cracks where the clay has been pressed together and where there are inconsistencies in the thickness of the clay caused by press moulding, later dogs were slip cast. If after all you are unsure, only buy from a reputable dealer. Hope you are still awake and this has helped, to see examples go to my site on Ebay - madnotonly4stamps for early examples.