What I have to say applies to many areas of collecting, but since the entire website is about Poole animals, I will concentrate on that area. I genuinely think that everyone collects something at some time in their life, so if you're about to start your first or your next collection, here are my GOLDEN RULES.

First and foremost, you should collect something you like. You will have to live with your collection for a long time, so you might as well like the items, and I doubt whether you would have noticed them if they had not attracted you in the first place. Once you have found something you like, compare it with my guidelines. Collectible items should be:

Available and Plentiful: There's not much fun in collecting things which are not available, or which are so scarce that you can rarely find them. Poole animals are available at Boot Fairs, Antique and Collectors' Fairs and Centres, Provincial Auction Houses, and on the Internet. Unlike, say, Clarice Cliff pottery made in the thirties where the original purchasers will by now have either passed on or at least be rare centenarians, the original purchasers of Poole animals are very likely to be still alive and in possession of their treasures. These will no doubt trickle onto the market for many years yet so you can choose to be in a hurry with your collecting or just sit back and take your time.

Affordable: If you collect, say, 17th Century gold rings, you will find that they are not generally available, but also if or when you find one, it will probably not be affordable. Not much fun there either! Poole animals are available from just a few pounds each up to several thousand pounds, and at all prices in between. I have a theory that prices will keep rising until they reach a level at which everyone is charging about the same, and Poole animals have nowhere near reached that point yet. Prices for an individual item can and do vary enormously, so shop around for the best value and for real bargains. They do exist.

Limited in quantity, or Out of Production: Whilst this area may, at first, seem to be in conflict with my first Golden Rule, there is a balance to be struck. Within the range of any collection, there will inevitably be some items which are more plentiful than others, and although they may be plentiful, there can still be a limited number in circulation. If there are millions of identical items being sold in every High Street shop, there is unlikely to be much of a challenge to collecting them, and their value will be more likely to fall than rise - Beanie Babies may be a good example. Within a collection, there may also be Limited Edition items, and some or all of the range may have been discontinued. These factors demonstrate the law of supply and demand particularly well, and all collectors should be aware of the following pattern:

If supply is limited or ceases, or demand increases, the price inevitably rises, and vice-versa. If Poole Pottery should decide to discontinue their Animal Ranges - AND THEY HAVE - just watch the prices shoot up! You've been warned.

Ironically, this means that items which were not popular when first introduced become scarce and consequently more sought after, and expensive, in the future. It's a mad, mad, world, but it helps to understand it!

Small and / or Displayable: Poole animals vary in size from 2" x 1" for a Mouse to 16" x 9.5" for a Canada Goose, and the items in your collection can be selected to fit into whatever available display space you have available. Small enough for a corner shelf, or large enough for the garden.

Identifiable / Well-marked: The Poole animals are almost always marked on the base with the POOLE ENGLAND impressed or stamped makers' mark, and the finisher's initials. Larger stoneware items may also have the name of Barbara Linley-Adams, the sculptor, incised into the base, and this tends to put the price up, even though it is most likely that the finisher incised this name rather than Barbara herself. The stoneware items are easily identifiable from the stoneware clay, whilst the blue animals have a unique blue-glaze finish, even if sometimes they are otherwise accidentally unmarked.

Collectable as single items, small groups, large groups, or as a full set: One Canada Goose might be enough for the average collector, but if you want 10 you should bear in mind the cost of £2000 each, and the facts that only 500 were made and they were originally exported to North America and Canada. You may like, however, to collect a set of small Mice; or Rabbits; or Birds; or Dolphins; or blue-glazed animals; or bone china ones; or acrylic painted stoneware ones. You may prefer a set of Garden Animals (Guinea Pigs, Tortoises, Hedgehogs, Cats), Woodland Creatures (Deer Fawns, Foxes, Squirrels, Badgers, Stoats), or Water Creatures (Dolphins, Whales, Ducks, Alligators, Otters). The permutations are endless, and you might even try collecting the whole lot - that should keep you amused for a few years!

Durable - resistant to damage: Poole animals fall into three different categories - stoneware, blue-glazed earthenware, and bone china. The high firing temperature for stoneware makes them particularly strong, and waterproof without the need for glaze. Be careful of bird beaks, however, and any projections like tails or ears - it seems that a lot of items have been bought as toys for young children and subsequently ended up in the dustbin. Still, that merely reduces the supply! The blue-glazed items seem to have been designed with less places vulnerable to damage - perhaps to make them less prone to breakage during manufacture. If these animals have lasted with use for up to 40 years, they are surely less prone to damage in the future as highly regarded collectables, but do try to avoid buying damaged or restored items in the first place.

Sound Investment: A phrase like "As safe as houses" is quite commonplace, and has a certain ring about it. Houses have a good track record of keeping pace with inflation, or even outpacing it, but there are various costs involved in investing your hard-earned savings in a second property - it has running costs and maintenance costs, for instance.

Our new phrase "As safe as Collectibles" may not yet have the same ring, but if you study the pattern of price rises in the collectibles market, unless you are very unlucky with your choice, you will find that the increase in values is every bit as good as it is for houses, and yet there are no running costs involved - unless you do things in a big way and rent a warehouse (like we do!). Don't just take our word for it, but do your homework, or is it housework (?) , and find out for yourselves

So there you have it. The Golden Rules of this extremely complicated, but very interesting collecting game. We recommend that you investigate the Poole Pottery Animal scene, and we know the pleasure that will give you.