Collectors will certainly be spoilt for choice this week at Adam Partridge Auctioneers.

As part of the fabulous collection they are putting under the hammer this week is this early and rare Charles Noke Model ‘A Mandarin’ introduced in 1918.

The auctioneers write:

CHARLES J NOKE FOR ROYAL DOULTON; ‘A Mandarin’, a very rare figure, HN791, 1st version, model 189, (26-36), ‘Royal Doulton’ backstamp, ‘A Mandarin’, ‘C.J. Noke. sc.’ and ‘Potted by Doulton & Co’ handwritten in black script, impressed marks, height 25cm.

This is believed to be the only known version of HN791 and is actually the figure illustrated in Eyles (D) & Irvine (L) & Baynton (V), Royal Doulton Figures, published Richard Dennis, 2004, page 91.

The model is as inspired by an Edmund Dulac illustration in his Picture Book for the French Red Cross from 1915. Several other important figures can be traced to this book including the legendary Princess Badoura and several of the One of the Forty (Thieves) models.