The Lone Ranger Tonto INC 1961 Egg Cup Keele Street Pottery
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This was one of my late fathers egg cups when he was a child in the 1950s. It's glazed pottery featuring Tonto from the Lone Ranger TV show. It measures 47mm diameter top, 43mm diameter bottom, 60mm height and 55g in weight. The underside has a stamp that reads: Keele St. Pottery Co. Ltd, The Lone Ranger INC. The 4 figure number after INC is blurred. I was thinking INC is incorporated and the number is the year. There is a small chip on the bottom to the left of the character image. The area around the character image has a series of slightly wavy vertical lines. I've seen this described as depicting a tree trunk in some descriptions.

Research:
Keele Street pottery was founded in 1915 and closed in 1941 under the wartime concentration scheme. It started back up in 1946 and acquired other pottery companies between 1946 to 1948 becoming known as the Keele Street (Pottery) Group. The Keele Street Pottery Co. Ltd part of the group became a subsidiary of Staffordshire Potteries Ltd in 1958.

The Lone Ranger was a television series broadcast on the ABC Television network in America from 1949 to 1957. This series was also broadcast in the UK in the 1950s 60s on BBC. The Return of the Lone Ranger was broadcast on CBS in 1961 in America. The date on the stamp is blurred. I see 1961 on other ones. This one looks like it might be 1961, but the company was known as Staffordshire Potteries Ltd in 1958. There's also a C inside a circle. I read that wartime concentration scheme restrictions on pottery continued on after the war and were not fully lifted until 1952. The maximum retail prices were set and letters such as A, B or C were incorporated in the stamp n 1942.

Others I have seen have paint worn off and virtually all the same colour as the rest of the egg cup and they are priced  £9.99,  £17.50 and £20. The one I have is fully painted with black hair, red headband and yellow clothing, priced at less than half the lowest price, so grab a bargain.

Ebay AI description
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This unique vintage ceramic egg cup from Keele St Pottery features the iconic character of Tonto from The Lone Ranger TV series. With a diameter of 47mm at the top and a height of 60mm, this multicoloured egg cup is a great addition to any tableware collection. The egg cup has a hole on top to hold an egg and is hand made with art pottery production style. The item is a single egg cup and is not customisable. It comes from England and is a part of The Lone Ranger product line. The egg cup is perfect for any occasion, especially when eating a boiled egg. The item is a great conversation starter and a must-have for fans of The Lone Ranger series.