When you visit major cities around the world the chances are that you will come across something Doulton. There are lists published by collectors of all the many places around the world you can visit to see architectural Doulton. Living in London, I am lucky that there are many places to visit on the door step so to speak; from the façade of the great department store Harrods, to the interior tiles of its food halls, to the clock above the main entrance to Selfridges, to the remaining Doulton factory building in Vauxhall that I pass on the train going into Waterloo.

These are just the tip of the iceberg as Doulton’s of Lambeth had its own architectural department which flourished in the early 20th Century. Alas many places have inevitably disappeared but there are still plenty to visit. 

Even when Doulton was known as Doulton & Watts at the beginning of the 19th Century, advertising items were already being produced in the form of containers with either impressed names of manufacturer, the items they contained or else simply bearing a paper label advertising their contents. These early containers held everything from caviar to ginger beer to ink, and a wide variety of things in between. In the early 20th Century the names of the companies or contents therein would often be simply impressed on the base of the item or else incorporated artistically into the design of the piece. It is recorded that over 100 firms used Doultonstoneware to advertise their whiskey, beer and mineral waters.

Some firms such as Dewars favoured Doulton vessels for such a long period that you can find examples of stoneware and also items produced at Doulton’s factory in Burslem, the heart of the Potteries. Doulton’s famous Kingsware was a perennial favourite of Dewars and Doulton created many individual flasks for them, which today are highly collectable. 

The advertising wares produced by Doulton in Burslem have an equally interesting history and perhaps chart the last chapters in the production of advertising wares as the fashions for such items evolved further. The Edwardian style biscuit casket for Huntley & Palmer from 1905 looks incongruous next to items produced in the 1930’s and 1940’s that have much simpler lines and decoration reflective of this period. 

All industries had items produced by Doulton to advertise themselves from ash trays, to jugs, to match strikers, to wall plaques and a whole host of other advertising items. Perhaps one of the most fiercely fought after fields in advertising wares today are those that Doulton produced for themselves! Once again jugs, vases, ash trays and the like can be tracked down featuring the Doulton emblem as its principal feature. 

The advertising figures produced by Doulton have long captured collectors’ imaginations and famous groups such as the Yardley’s figure is a straight adaptation of the same image featured in their advertising. Other more unusual figures include the Grossmiths’ perfume girl ‘Tsang Ihang’ and ‘Steve’ produced for the road builders Wettern, Beadle & Bristow in the UK in 1923. 

We seem to have written much over the years about Doulton’s Faience wares, so will try not to dwell on what we have already covered.

As many will remember when Faience first began production at Lambeth they didn’t have their own production facilities for the blank ware so Doulton’s other factory in Burslem was tasked with sending down blanks to be decorated and then fired at others’ factories in Lambeth, prior to Doulton swiftly constructing their own kilns capable of firing faience art wares and production facility for the blank ware

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Illustrated is a wonderful faience charger by John H. McLennan, perhaps Doulton’s most famous portrait artist on the faience medium. You will note from the catalogue description by Lion and Unicorn that the blank charger bears a Pinder Bourne mark, which readers will know is the factory in Burslem that Sir Henry Doulton bought into in 1877 before taking it over solely in 1882. It is therefore not surprising given the date of Faience art ware being introduced in 1873, McLennan’s start with the firm in 1877 and the use of a Pinder Bourne blank of 1881 all to marry up within a few years of one another.

McLennan was active between 1877-1910 and his style was heavily influenced by the art nouveau movement. He was a designer and painter of Faience vases, plaques, wall panels and single tiles. His work was presented at many of the great International Exhibitions Doulton exhibited at and his work favoured by Royalty the world over – even the last Russian Tsar had examples of his work.

It will be no surprise that his tile panels exist today and even the legendary Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London has examples of tile panels by this great artist.

For a similar example of his work see Doulton Lambeth Wares by Eyles and Irvine p.13 from the legendary Billings Collection.

This rare figure is based on the great Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova in her most famous role as the Dying Swan in La Cygne. In the early 20c Pavlova travelled the world popularising classical ballet. Although re-issued after the star’s death in 1931, examples remain extremely hard to find. This particular example is titled The Swan Dance (Pavlova) an interesting alternative to the usual title simply ‘Pavlova’ or the rarer ‘Swan Song’.

Although famed for popularising classical ballet, Pavlova also appeared in music halls as a solo artist, reaching a very wide public at the time. Many of you will have guessed that her popularity reached the southern hemisphere too, where in Australia and New Zealand they created the popular Pavlova desert named after her!

This example will be auctioned by Adam Partridge Auctions at 2pm on Wednesday 10thSeptember at their Macclesfield saleroom, here is a link to the website

https://www.adampartridge.co.uk

The lot description reads:

CHARLES J NOKE FOR ROYAL DOULTON; an exceptionally rare figurine , “The Swan Dance (Pavlova)” HN487 Potted by Doulton & Co, handwritten in black, green Doulton backstamp, with light blue wash over tutu, exceptionally well painted face (21-38) 4 1/4″, impressed date 6.23.

Born in Worcester where he attended art school and was also trained at the famous Worcester Porcelain works, he followed the great Charles J. Noke from there to Doultons shortly after the latter’s move in 1889. Noke, like Raby and that early band of artists, was attracted to Doultons for the artistic freedom and the promise. That promise was the inspiration, the originality, the invigoration, the challenge and the demand as Noke himself put it, from one man…Sir Henry Doulton.

Sir Henry Doulton did for the 19th century pottery world what Wedgwood, Spode and others had done in the 18th century. As one American critic at the 1893 Chicago exhibition put it ‘Doultons have completely outstripped their rivals and are today the leaders in English potting.’

And so we return to Edward Raby. Raby’s pedigree stems back from artistic excellence in his father, a flower modeller at Worcester (Porcelain) and also his grandfather, also a Bristol (Pottery) flower modeller. Raby is famed for the use of a secret ‘Raby mauve’ in his painting and also his exquisite grouping which makes his painting live and glow.

Examples of Raby’s works can be found in the great museums of the world from America to Australia. Illustrated here is an exceptional example of his work coming up at Lion and Unicorn Auctions 24 August 2025.

This model is as inspired by an Edmund Dulac illustration in his Picture Book for the French Red Cross from 1915. Also known as A Chinese Mandarin and The Mikado, he was no doubt popularised by the contemporary musical comedy The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan.

Collectors will be interested to see that this particular HN colourway is on a Titanian body, like a small group of other figures from this period, the Titanian body offered a richer base to emphasise the particular decoration used for this colourway. Interestingly the double Spooks figure can also be found with a Titanian body in certain colourways.

Several other important figures can be traced to Dulac’s book including the legendary Princess Badoura and several of the One of the Forty (Thieves) models.

This particularly rare version of A Mandarin is the first HN colourway of him. Modelled by Royal Doulton’s then art director at their Burselm factory, C. J. Noke, he was introduced in 1918 and available to order until around 1936, when the block was destroyed due to not having been used in then recent times, like so many other early model blocks.

The auction for this exceptionally rare model and a selection of other rarities, will take place at 2pm on Wednesday 10thSeptember at Adam Partridge’s Macclesfield saleroom, here is a link to the website

https://auctions.adampartridge.co.uk/auction/search/?au=177

George White 1885-1912

The choice of artist profile for this post, was an easy one given the choice example of White’s work coming up this Sunday at Lion and Unicorn Auctions in Florida.

In today’s world White is regarded as one of the greats from the Burslem studio, moreover the top of his particular field of figure painting. Like another Doulton great, Hannah Barlow, he too was the product of the South Kensington and Lambeth Art Schools. Doulton themselves recognised his talents early on in his career there with his work taking prominence in any exhibit of the time. In the book ‘The Royal Doulton Artists’ Owen attests “In portraiture White attains the happy success of not only ‘catching’ the likeness of his subject but in seizing and expressing personality – the supreme test of the portrait painter.” True praise indeed from 1910 by Owen, but this sentiment was also reflected by Sir Henry Doulton who White painted, along with his brother James and other Burslemartists of the period. 

That other Royal Doulton legend, Charles Noke said of White ‘…not only did he depict the human form divine with beauty, grace and delicacy, but he…. also brought out the individual personalities of his models. 

A cursory glimpse through the Royal Doulton paper archives illustrates the position White was held in, as you see his name next to many important exhibition vases with the words ‘Figures by Mr. White’.

White painted one of the famous Diana vases for the 1893 Chicago Exhibition and also a Dante vase in collaboration with Chares Labarre. In the Doulton Burslem wares book Desmond Eyles notes that a large vase by White titled Titania was made specifically for Prince Rajitsingh. 

The variety of ladies painted by White be they fanciful, allegorical or otherwise remain among the most prized items by collectors today and his work regularly sets the auction world abuzz. White’s ladies clad in diaphanous clothing have retained all of their original appeal and with titles including Sleeping Beauty, The Dance, Orpheus and Eurydice, Cupid and Psyche and Spring Frolic we today adore his work in equal measure to his contemporaries.

Whilst he will always be remembered for his freehand painting, White also contributed designs for more mass production at Burslem and these typically carry a GW number on the base. Other alternate markings indicating some transfer with overpainting by White and these include George A. and also A. Dix was a popular pseudonym of his.