Dan Dare Wine Glass Mystery – Solved!

By Jeremy Briggs on November 5, 2023 • ( 1 )

We asked downthetubes readers know the origin or maker of these Dan Dare wine glasses – and we found out very quickly!

The glasses show what appear to be Dan disguised as an Atlantine soldier and the Ranger spaceship from the Venus story in Eagle Volume 1 Numbers 37 and 38 at the end of December 1950.

*The Christmas cover of Eagle Volume 1 Number 37 featuring “Dan Dare”*

A friend picked these up in a collectables shop some years back, and remains somewhat puzzled by them.

They are about six inches tall, both the same size and shape, have no makers markings or copyright dates on them, and he can’t decide if they are hand painted or some sort of heavy old fashioned transfer.

After we asked if anyone had seen these before or come across anything similar, Dan Dare fan Brian Hayes provided the solution, via the Facebook Dan Dare group; they’re basically home made.

*Woolworths Eagle Transfers (with thank to Brian Hayes)*

“In November 1951, Woolworths started selling a sheet of transfers based on Eagle designs,” says Brian, kindly providing an example of the transfers. “Someone has taken the two Dan Dare themed decals and applied them to plain wine glasses. Neat result, though.”

Our thanks to everyone who offered solutions, including Derek Wilson, who pointed us toward Tuck’s Dan Dare Water Transfers, a similar, now rare, licensed product. It’s believed three sets of Tuck’s transfers were produced, offering various characters and scenes from the weekly strip.

Tuck's Dan Dare Water Transfers (image with tanks to Derek Wilson) — *Tuck’s Dan Dare Water Transfers (image with tanks to Derek Wilson)*

Raphael Tuck & Sons was the worlds largest postcard publisher, but they also published a large variety of other ephemera such as puzzles, books, greeting cards, and more.

• There is an amazing collection of TuckDB Ephemera online at tuckdbephemera.org

This item was updated on Monday 6th November 2023

Jeremy Briggs

News, reviews, interviews and features for print and on-line: Spaceship Away (since October 2005), Bear Alley (since February 2007), downthetubes (since June 2007), and Eagle Times (since October 2008). Plus DC Thomson’s The Art Of Ian Kennedy, Titan’s Dan Dare and Johnny Red reprints, Ilex’s War Comics: A Graphic History and 500 Essential Graphic Novels, and Print Media’s The Iron Moon and Strip magazine.