Crested China. First World War theme

Here is my small collection of crested china.

Crested china appeared in Britian in the second half of the 19th centruy. With the new railway network people were able to travel further and take trips and holidays to places they had never been before. A market had developed for souvenirs for people to take home from trips and several companies took advantage of this by producing small novelty items of china for the tourist destinations each bearing that town or city crest. These quickly became collectable and many different shapes and models were made ranging from vases and pots and animals to replicas of famous statues and buildings. During the first world war pieces were made to look like the new weapons that people were seeing on the battlefield for the first time. Its heyday came to an end following the Great Depression but production did continue up until the second world war. Interest has come and gone since then and it is currently out of favour and so pieces can be picked up relatively cheaply.

My collection follows a military theme. They date from the end of WW1 into the 1920s. The tall tower looking thing is a model of the Cenotaph which is a war memorial in London. The other pieces should be self explanatory.