The Camberwell Beauty tile panel.

Since Victorian times butterflies have been a popular collecting field; from actual examples, to jewellery, to pottery – examples can be readily found.
As a follower of fashion it is no surprise to find many examples of butterflies throughout Doulton’s many ranges. Some of the earliest can be found on their Faience ware produced at Lambeth and this body and style of decoration perfectly suits the beauty of these fragile creatures!

Above and below a vase and detail by Frances Linnell dated 1877.

On the larger size is the famous Camberwell Beauty (above) which even today decorates the side of a building in Camberwell, London. On the smaller size are the Lambeth vases decorated with Butterflies under the pattern number X8725 and this charming bibelot by Harry Simmeon (often mistakenly attributed to Mark Mashshall) that I have in my own collection.

There are also an array of Burslem butterflies to collect – from floating flower bowl clips which can be found mounted on stumps too, to brooches, to tea wares, to serieswares.

Three Butterfly clips for bowls and vases ca.1920.

Detail of a seriesware pattern that was also used in art wares from the Robert Allen studio.

For me the most wonderful Butterfly created by Doulton was the stylish figure of a girl in a butterfly costume designed by Leslie Harradine from 1925 and available in 5 colourways.

Harradine’s Butterfly HN719.

This figure was inspired by a costume design as Jocelyn and I originally revealed in our book Reflections. Another Butterfly is of course Harradine’s Fairy HN1324 with her butterfly wings!

A favourite Fairy butterfly of mine.

In more recent times Doulton was keen to revisit past successes and so we have Peter Gee’s lovely figure Isadora and also the Prestige Butterfly Ladies Collection by the wonderful Valerie Annand.