fancy a nice cup of toy tea with Lady Penelope this Advent?

This has to every JR21 toy collectors cup of tea, the Lady Penelope Tea Set.

Here it is in its lovely window box as it appeared on an online auction. What a marvelously refreshing Christmas prezzie it must have made for young Ladies in the Sixties, for whom I imagine it was largely aimed at.

Its a Christmas prezzie I'd love now!

We can see that its a pink plastic service for four, complete with tea pot, milk jug, sugar bowl and various utensils.

It appeared on an another auction site loose and unboxed. 

Now we can see that each cup came with a saucer and a side plate, along with a knife, fork and tea spoon each. A nice touch are the five table mats with the crowned P monogram of Lady Penelope. They appear to be made of card.

Obviously this toy set is based on the service Lady P used in the Thunderbirds TV series.

But was the TV Tea Set based on a real set?

I asked Thunderbirds collector Ghosthunter who very kindly gave me the following information:

"... it most certainly was, however, in the TV episodes, there were two different teapot designs used, a stout version and a taller version which really could have been a Coffee pot.

Both are based on traditional Georgian designs by Walker & Hill. 

The smaller design has a smooth top and may have been based on the Mappin & Webb design before they joined Walker & Hill as part of a joint venture by the 'Delta Metal Company' in 1963. 

The taller design does have a fluted top, a typical Walker & Hill feature. Both designs have the long flutes on the body leading down the base. The taller pot also has the flutes on the bottom half of the spout."

This is a picture of a real Walker and Hill teapot of the taller variety, upon which the JR21 toy pot is based.

Unlike the JR21 toy set, these are actually available on Ebay at any given time!

I would like to thank Ghosthunter for his fascinating info and Thunderbirds Wiki for the images of Lady Penelope.