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Royal Doulton Figurines

Interesting Facts about Royal Doulton: Leslie Harradine who was a Royal Doulton modeller in the early 1900's actually produced one new model every month for over 30 years!

In the early days the Royal Doulton Factory
Specialised in Sewage Pipes (Not collectors items to our knowledge but who knows)

Beauty is NOT in the eye of the beholder.

The most popular Doulton Collectibles are definitely the 'Fair Ladies'. Collectors may try to collect only one specific colour and will take great delight when they find a new one to add to their collection. The colour can be the determining factor when it comes to price too. The figure 'Paisley Shawl' for example is worth about £150 to £200 in RED. Find one in PURPLE however and you could be paying twice as much.

We’ve been selling Royal Doulton figurines in our antique shop for many years and have enjoyed trying to find 'out of production' items for customers. The most popular are the HN series – but if you're inquisitive like me you'll naturally be thinking 'who or what was HN?'

A bit of detective work was needed.

Royal Doulton started in 1815 in a pottery in Lambeth in London. The company traded in general stonewares, ink wells, ginger beer bottles etc. Doulton expanded in 1835 with the production of chemical and industrial ceramics.

Business went well and in 1867 Henry Doulton employed a young sculptor, George Tinworth, to set up an art pottery studio in Lambeth. By the mid 1880’s, vases, figures and other Victorian household ornaments were being produced by over 300 young men and women.

The studio, under Tinworth, was highly successful and responsible for modelling in salt glazed stonewares, terra cotta and white bisque porcelain.

Charles Noke, a modeller with the Worcester factory, was recruited in 1889 to produce a range of figures. These were very different from the styles of today, much larger – some 20 inches tall and much less colourful. They had a disappointing reception, but Nokes continued to model figures and by 1900 had produces 21 figures plus 4 wall mounted models. These are now highly sought after by collectors.

Nokes experimented with smaller, more colourful figures which proved to be popular and in 1909 many well known sculptors of the day were invited to design small ceramic figures.

Royal (divine) Intervention!

By 1912, many figures were in production and a small collection was gathered to launch
the new range during King George and Queen Mary’s visit to the factory in 1913.

So, enough of the history lesson, but we still have to solve the HN puzzle.

Well, it was during the Royal Visit in 1913 that Queen Mary saw a beautiful little figurine. Rumour has it that when she saw the study of a little child in a nightgown she said, “isn’t he a darling”. The figure was named ‘Darling’ (shown right) in her honour and given the first number in the collection.

The gentleman in charge of the figure painting department at the time was Harry Nixon.

You’ve guessed, the HN referred to Harry Nixon and the study of the child was given the classification of HN1. The HN numbering system is still used today and the company have issued over 4000 numbers.

In another article I’ll tell you about the talented modellers who worked for the Doulton factory. One in particular who interests me is Leslie Harradine who worked for Doulton from 1902 – 1912 then left to live in Canada. On his return to England, he worked on a freelance basis supplying at least one model a month for over 30 years.

This was quite an achievement and left a wonderful legacy for us to collect.
By www.architus.com