All posts by doultonchristopher1

Art deco, Fashion, Figure Articles, Figure inspiration

Doulton’s 1930’s glamour girls.

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After the roaring twenties, the 1930’s developed into a decade of glamour where long, sleek lines and Hollywood glamour took over. Whilst Doulton continued to produced the Victorian style ladies, characters and child studies so favoured by collectors, there were a distinct group of glamour girls which were introduced as a nod to this change in style.

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Two of the first introduced, also happen to be two favourites of mine – Clothilde and Gloria, who appear to have stepped straight out if the pages of a glossy fashion magazine.

Hats have always been a popular theme for collectors, so it is no surprise to see Windflower here with her contemporary brimmed hat.

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Another hat girl is Nadine, who could be promenading along a boardwalk in the evening sun, lapping up attention from her would-be admirers.

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Still other ladies seem to represent popular sports such as the stylish Maureen with her riding crop.

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Another favourite figure of mine is this, The Mirror, with her chic dressing gown, admiring her reflection in her mirror. She is such a delicate figure it is not hard to see why so few have survived.

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A final figure that I’d like to share is the stunning Lambeth Walk, shown dancing to the famous tune of the same name. Her clothes are the epitome of 1930’s chic and this colourway of her is so detailed.

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Lambeth, Shakespeare

Doulton’s Shakespeare ware

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From what I have discovered there appears to be two types of Shakespeare ware. The later pieces with scenes from the famous playwright and poets works, produced to commemorate the 350th anniversary of his birth in 1564. Then there is also this series pictured.

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This tyg is decorated with a relief portrait of Shakespeare and then his house in Stratford and Ann Hathaway, his wife’s cottage. The tyg dates to 1905 and carries a date letter, as well as a registration number for this period.
A nice commemorative for literature fans!

Artists, Georges Léonce

Another chance find, tells an important part of the Doulton story!

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Back in the early 1880’s John Slater, the first Doulton art director at Burslem was searching for an English china body for Doulton wares. The issue was exasperated by a substantial order from the US for a service provided it was on a china rather than earthenware body. During Slater’s search for a china body, he spent time in France where he met the celebrated ceramic painter of birds, Georges Léonce. This meeting led to a wager between the two as to whether Léonce could produce the same colours on an English china body. The result was Slater’s payment of £50 to Léonce, yet there was a complaint; namely that the plates were not signed. Léonce responded that the signature “was all over. There is no man who can paint birds like Léonce.”

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This plate is a combination of Slater’s photographic transfer technique and hand painting on an earthenware body dated 1883, shortly after the originals were painted. The existing parts of the Léonce service are now in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

Artists, Joseph Birbeck

Doulton artist profile – Joseph Birbeck snr.

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Another sighting recently was this plate from a fish service painted by the celebrated ceramic artist Joseph Birbeck snr, a member of the distinguished family of artists. Famed for his versatile ability, he is perhaps most famous for his game and fish, the latter often portrayed underwater. Here is a plate from 1909 with a view of a leaping salmon.

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Burslem, C. J. Noke, Kingsware

An interesting Kingsware Loving Cup.

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Another chance find- this Kingsware loving cup from 1905 complete with sterling silver mounts and standing an impressive 13″ tall. No doubt made to commemorate England’s new monarch Edward VII, who succeeded his mother Queen Victoria to the throne in 1901. The cup is emblazoned with the motto “Here’s a health unto his Majesty”. The cup was later adapted to a jug in 1936, to commensurate the approaching coronation of Edward VIII, that of course never happened due to his abdication. This flask version was made for Dewars in a limited edition of 600.

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The magnificence of the loving cup has to be seen in the flesh to be appreciated. Certainly the detail is much more vivid than in the later flask, the latter is also missing the cameo image of the Cavalier.

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Interestingly the sterling silver mounts are stamped G B & S, for George Betjeman & sons, a prestigious London silversmiths, who commissioned many Doulton Burslem pieces including a Kingsware spirit barrel with tavern scene, Kingsware tobacco jars including the large pipe that can be found and smaller Kingsware ash trays – all with sterling silver mounts supplied by them. In addition to Kingsware, they also commissioned Shagreen items from Doulton for their exclusive store too.

Art deco, Artists, Colourways, Figure Articles, Figure inspiration, Leslie Harradine

An Amazing Adventure – Part 2

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Continuing my look back at last Saturday’s talk, here are a few more choice items from the selection that I took along. The premise of the talk was ‘My Collection’.
In this section the theme was the development of figures, so I took the art nouveau, square Harradine vase along so as to discuss Harradine’s roll but also the links with Doulton from his time as an apprentice modeller, to the period 1910-14 when he supplied models to Lambeth on a freelance basis and finally how the link with Burslem was established with the introduction of his first figure into the HN Collection in 1920.
The first figure we looked at was Harradine’s original model for Micawber and we discussed the process and arrangement he had with Charles Noke.
Next up were the M series and these original boxes for them. Most of these M figures were of course based on Harradine’s larger models.
A popular theme for all figure collectors has always – well since HN1 – been children so I shared a few favourites from the Nursery figures set including a prototype in my collection.
Honey and her inspiration followed, a typical painting by Stanislaus Longley, who Harradine used repeatedly for inspiration. Interestingly this work was also used by the famous London store Liberty for a Christmas catalogue cover in the 1930’s – and that is also pictured.
This section was completed with a discussion on colourways and I shared a version of Clothilde that I have from 1937.

Next time I’ll share some Burslem art wares that we discussed!

Artists, Lambeth

An Amazing Adventure – Part 1

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Several of you have asked about the talk I gave last Saturday to the group of American collectors who came to the UK on tour with Seaway China.
Thus, I have decided to begin to share a few items I took along from my own collection. Here is part 1 – early Lambeth items.

So, I started at Lambeth as a logical starting point focussing on their practical beginnings but then moving on to the Doulton Lambeth art wares and the first artists. George Tinworth was up first in the artists section and I took along two early brochures produced about the great man and his art for everyone to see. The earliest is dated 1887 and it is interesting to see how Doulton really pushed his fame even in these early times. The other is a catalogue of terracotta plaques from 1906.
Next came the Hannah Barlow picture of a cat. Her importance as the first female artist and her technique were discussed, together with the picture itself! Then the small advertising jug – this is actually for Doulton themselves but it makes the point that Doulton ware was a popular medium for promoting all types of businesses. I took along a selection of glass slides and also some blown up copies of the same to illustrate Doulton’s importance in London and also to illustrate it’s former magnificence. Lastly is the unusual squash bowl from 1937 made as a wedding bowl but also to commemorate the opening of the Headquarters of the London Fire Brigade in Lambeth on the same day.
The bowl has humorous scenes relating to the fire brigade around it as you can see below.

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Artists, Figure Articles

Painting Royal Doulton figures.

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I love finding pictures of Doulton’s artists at work and here is a more recent find, one Hazel Tyrer. I imagine it dates to the early 1950’s for although there is no date, the Autumn Breezes being painted still has two feet, something that was altered by the early to mid 1950’s.
The article with the picture details that only men at the time were allowed to paint the faces of figures, something we today find hard to comprehend. I also know that it took 10 years practice or training, at one time, before artists were allowed to actually paint faces. It is interesting to know these details today, before they are lost forever.

Arabian Nights, Art deco, Artists

Royal Doulton’s eastern delights!

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The Cobbler HN542 dated 1925.

Back in the early years of the 20th Century there was great fascination with the ‘exotic East’ most of which had only just entered the consciousness of many people.

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An early colourway of The Mendicant dated 1929.

This fascination by the public en mass no doubt explains the success of the musical play Chu Chin Chow. It opened in 1916 just as the HN Collection too was still being established, thus it is no surprise to find many examples of figures inspired by the east in the collection.

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A colourway of Abdullah dated 1930.

The main character, The Cobbler, was himself immortalised into the collection by Noke himself!

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The base of The Cobbler showing his original factory label.

The popularity of Chu Chin Chow is illustrated by this menu card from 1924, which heralded the return of Doulton’s sales manager from his Australasian tour, much like the tours Michael Doulton does today in his role as ambassador for the Doulton brand. In the menu it sets out the toasts to be made, together with songs to be performed during the dinner that included the Cobbler’s Song from Chu Chin Chowperformed by Jack Noke, Charles’ son who would eventually take over as Art Director at Burslem. Interestingly the cover is also signed by various attendees including Charles Noke.

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Two views of the menu card mentioned.

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Doulton produced several other eastern inspired figures including The Mendicant, The Potter, The Emir and of course the prestige piece The Moor.

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An unusual pair of bookends mounted with The Mendicant colourway (pictured above) and version 2 of Noke’s The Cobbler.

Wall masks

Collecting Doulton wall-masks.

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For me Doulton’s wall-masks take me right back to the 1930’s when they were the height of vogue. Of course it wasn’t just the Doulton factory who produced them, with continental factories and of course Clarice Cliff here in the UK producing wonderful examples too.
Far from being an easy collection to put together, it is possible to build a large collection of Doulton wall-masks. Naturally some are much rarer than others and some may be said to even be unique. I remember reading in the RDICC magazine about the so-called ‘balding old man’ and another mask by Richard Garbe of a lady made at Lambeth, that remain elusive to this day.

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My personal preferences are for the jesters and lady faces. I once came across an example of Lady with Bobbed Hair – Greta Garbo HN1601 with gold rather than orange highlights. As always you can never predict what might turn up in the world of Doulton but remember caveat emptor! If it’s too good to be true, it probably is!
A more recent find of mine was HN1817, Madame Pompadour (above) not actually illustrated in Royal Doulton Figures.

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Other characters stem not just from film such as Shirley Temple or Marlene Dietrich, but also myth such as the wonderful Friar of Orders Grey.
The artists behind these masks are not altogether certain – the Doulton records being somewhat sketchy and even published materials confuse artists. Leslie Harradine has of course been credited with the Sweet Anne mask because it was he who created the figure of the same name. Yet, a final 3 we must mention are the wonderful creations of Richard Garbe, commissioned by Doulton to produce items for the HN collection in the 1930’s. He provided three rare models: Lion of the East, St. Agnes and Fate. All three are very rare today, however, examples of them in unusual glazes have turned up including a striking, gilt version of Lion of the East.
These wall-masks are a fascinating area to collect and as they had a relatively short production run it will provide much entertainment searching out examples in large, medium and small sizes as many were produced – including the wonderful jesters!

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