Rawcliffe

Real world article

(written from a production point of view)

Rawcliffe logo

The Rawcliffe Pewter Corporation was an American metalworking company that was founded in North Providence, Rhode Island in 1903. It produced high quality bronze, silver, and pewter (a lead-tin alloy) parts for over a century.

Rawcliffe began to manufacture complete ornaments, figurines, and sculptures under its own name in 1974. The company ceased to operate its website in 2011, and sold its fantasy division to Perth Pewter of Chester, New York in 2013.

Star Trek licensing[]

The popularity of FASA's Star Trek starship gaming miniatures attracted the attention of Rawcliffe, which also began to release its own miniatures for the Star Trek: The Role Playing Game in 1988.

In cooperation with FASA, Rawcliffe started to release high quality solid pewter gaming pieces with the hexagonal gaming stand now as an integral part of the model. Thirteen of FASA's models were re-made as Rawcliffe's "SS" (Star Ship) series. FASA was mentioned as co-licensee both on the clear plastic packaging boxes and on the bottom of the stand, while simultaneously following FASA's numbering.

When FASA lost its license in 1989, Rawcliffe renegotiated a separate license with the Paramount Marketing and Licensing Department and acquired the molds for the models from FASA. FASA had geared up to add Star Trek: The Next Generation figures to their product line but Rawcliffe eventually released these in 1992 after FASA was unable to. These former FASA miniatures became the basis for Rawcliffe to include larger scale starships, figurines and sculptures in their product line.

In 1991, Rawcliffe started anew with their "RF" (simply standing for "Rawcliffe") series (now including, besides the figurines and sculptures, larger scaled ship models without the FASA pedigree as well), but due to their new licensing agreement, the company produced canon ships exclusively. This meant that the five non-canon ships (SS2508, 2510, 2513, 2516, 2529) that it had released in its original 1988 "SS" series were not reissued by the company, resulting in these miniatures becoming sought-after rarities by collectors later. With all references to FASA and their gaming miniature origins dropped, though many retained their hexagonal gaming stands, but these models were now packaged in Rawcliffe's blank white carton boxes that displayed Rawcliffe's logo alone. The models in this series were accompanied by a small colored (blue for the starships and burgundy red for the individual figurines) carton nameplate and identified that the products were solely purposed as decorative display items.

In 1994, Rawcliffe expanded beyond its miniatures series with the addition of mugs and key chains to its Star Trek product lines. The company's licensing to produce Star Trek-related products concluded in 1999.

Star Trek releases[]

Rawcliffe USS Enterprise silver prototype — Unreleased silver and 14k gold USS *Enterprise* prototype

A number of the company's original starship and space station miniatures and key chains were sculpted by Mark Eliot Schwabe, an American artist. [1]

Rawcliffe also commissioned Schwabe to create two prototypes for a sterling silver and 14k gold USS Enterprise miniature (based on his original sculpt for RF1777) but it was ultimately never put into production. Sandra Garrity and Julie Guthrie were among the sculptors who created the figurines.