Hello there. I've been collecting bronzes by a company called Heredities for a while now, and thought that if you had seen one of these fine peices, and had considered perhaps starting a collection of your own, this brief guide might be of some use.

  Heredities were a company based at Kirkby Stephen in Cumbria, the Lake District, and for many years produced limited edition fine art sculptures in cold cast bronze. This is a method of mixing bronze dust with special resins to produce the finished artwork. It retains the weight and feel of a metal, but requires no firing, and is able to attain far more detail than the older method. Unfortunately the Heredities company was liquidated in 2003, and although the name and some of the designs were taken on by Genesis, an Irish competitor, many of the earlier designs and some of the unique style has been lost in the transition. Genesis do still make some of the same figures, and have added new ones to the range, but where as Heredities were to my mind very much in the style of 'Vallejo' paintings, the recent new peices from Ireland have been slightly more modest in their appearance. In other words, where as Heredities were adept at a use of nudity in some of their series, including the Avalon series, the new company has not yet really followed the same path.

 My collection has centered on the Avalon series in the main. This is based upon the legends and tales of King Arthur, and depicts many of the well known characters. There is an expensive look and feel to the pieces, and many even today are not far short of their origional prices, and even on eBay, can come up fairly rarely. Below is a list of the origional Heredities Avalon pieces, and item numbers ...

Sir Mordred                               AE007

Lancelot & Guinevere              AE002

Morgan Le Fay                         TA002

The Rescue Of Guinevere        AE009

The Red Dragon                        SL001

The White Dragon                     SL002

Tristan & Isolde                        AE005

The Sword In The Stone           AE006

King Arthur                               DT002

Sir Galahad                                AE003

Merlin                                        AE001

The Grail Maiden                     AE013

The Questing Beast                 AE010

Sir Bors                                     AE011

The Castle Perilous                  AE008

Sir Kay                                      DT001

Nimue                                        AE012

  Each of the above peices would have been a limited edition of only 2000 worldwide, and some that have duel collectability, such as the Red and White Dragons, are already becoming fairly hard to find.

 Heredities made many other ranges, from fantasy to horseracing to hunting and general animals and sports. There is even a David Beckham figurine. Good luck and good hunting if your starting a collection or already have one under way.