Orange crane lorry, plastic, manufactured by Tudor Rose, Great Britain, 1948-1978.

Orange and black moulded plastic crane lorry. It is a very simple and lightweight design, hollow inside and no great detail other than a few moulded details such as rivets and bolts. There is a crank mechanism at the back of the vehicle to enable the crane to be lifted and lowered. The wheels are black plastic, as are the bumper and crane mechanism. The Tudor Rose logo is moulded onto the plastic on the front radiator grille of the vehicle.

With the vehicle is a black plastic bucket with moulded panel sections, complete with orange plastic handle that has broken at some point and been fixed with a sticking plaster.

Given by Markham Henry Bailey

Tudor rose was a trademark of Rosedale Plastics, which was located in Wales from 1948 to 1978. Later the trademark Rosedale Rose was used. Originally Rosedale/ Tudor Rose made novelties such as buttons, combs, plastic jewellery and toys, but by the early 1950s, plastic toys and dolls were their main output. Amongst their toys was a range of hollow hard plastic toys moulded into vehicles, they later went on to make softer, polythene-type playthings. In 1959 Kleeware dolls company sold out to Rosedale plastics.

Space toys by Tudor Rose have been particularly sought after by collectors as they are quite rare, along with trains, cars, money-boxes, and walking novelty animals. The most common type of dolls found made by Tudor Rose are the small moulded-headed, straight-legged babies and toddlers. They were made in pale and dark skin tones and came in two sizes. The majority were sold naked and could be later dressed by the child at home. Many of the small dolls were dressed as fairies and could be used to put on top of the Christmas tree. The trademark of Tudor Rose dolls is solemn faces, closed mouths and distinctive hands with the palms turned down. They often bore the words 'Tudor Rose' across their backs with the rose logo. The most famous doll sold by the company was a walking girl with a moulded plastic dress. She was called Blondy Blueyes and was 7 inches high.

In 1971 the company was taken over and then in 1978 they were bought by Mettoy, who then went on to sell it 5 years later. By this time they had stopped producing toys.

B.5:1, 2-2010