From the 19c into the 20c Doulton was represented at all the major exhibitions and has been detailed in the great tomes on the Royal Doulton Potteries by Eyles and Irvine, the company itself won many of the major prizes at these exhibitions. The first exhibition Doulton took part in were in 1851, the year of the great Crystal Palace exhibition.
The awards mentioned are but a selection from the hundreds the company won over the centuries. The first offerings presented were of utilitarian nature such as drain pipes and sanitary wares as one would expect.
At the South Kensington Exhibition of 1871 Doulton showed their first selection of set pottery, Sir Henry having been persuaded to branch out into art pottery.
A mere five years after this, Doulton presented over 1500 items at the American Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. At the Chicago exhibition of 1893, Doulton won more prizes than any other pottery in the world. The success in Chicago brought the award tally then to 94 Gold medals and 1st class awards, plus 101silver medals and second class awards.
The last of the major world exhibitions took place in Brussels in 1958 and befittingly, Doulton won the only Grand Prix awarded to a British pottery firm for the Peggy Davies study ‘Art and Technology’. Manufactures were subsequently not included in world exhibitions.
Here is a selection of Doulton’s awards…..
- Philadelphia 1876
- Cork 1883
- Wirral 1874
- Paris 1889
- Lyon 1872
- London 1839
- London 1904
- Trieste 1891
- London 1851
- Caen 1867
- Cornwall 1876
- Folkestone 1921
- York 1879
- Brussels 1910
- St Louis 1904
- Melbourne 1880
- Chile 1875
- Versailles 1873
- London 1862
- Hamburg 1863
- Paris 1878
- London 1865
- Vienna 1873
- Cape Town 1877
- Far worth 1876
- Tasmania 1891
- Chelsea 1905
- Birmingham 1872
- Columbia 1892
That is not to mention the individual awards won by the company’s artists for their work for the great firm.
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