Does Anyone Else Remember Red Rose Tea Figurines?

Red Rose Figurine Series

Since 1967, a special relationship has existed between Red Rose teas and Wade. Starting with the Canadian market from 1967 to 1983, Wade manufactured special and unique figurine series to be offered as a premium to tea aficionados. Customers could obtain the figurines when purchasing specially marked packages of Red Rose Teas. From 1983 onwards, the relationship between the two companies continues when special series were made available to US tea lovers.

 

http://www.redrosetea.com/figurinehistory.aspx

 

I had no idea that these figurines could still be found in American boxes of Red Rose tea long after they had disappeared from the Canadian product. As kids we traded to get them for our Baba because she liked them and would display them in her kitchen. I remember asking the mother's of other kids if they had double that they wanted to trade. I was already a skilled Bedouin from haggling over comic books all my life. I would always have about a dozen or so to give my Baba for Christmas for years. I loved these things. I almost shoplifted them out of an open box at the store but I didn't. It was already spoiled goods. I should have rifled through it now that I look back. I know they don't do this anymore in Canada but I wonder when and why it stopped. Maybe in the 80s, just the time the US pieces made their first appearance.

 

 

They were a quality piece of porcelain. The animals were well designed and colored. Hard to do when you are mass producing them in one tiny pottery factory in England. But that is the exact appeal of them. They have charm.

 

 

 

I remember this one most of all. The Kitty With The Violin. If I could just have ONE of these little pieces again, this is the one I would choose.