The History of the Royal Doulton Company (2024)

The History of theRoyal Doulton Company

Researched, complied & edited byRodney G. Dalton from various sources on the World Wide Web.

The Royal Doulton Company is oneof the most renowned English companies producing tableware and collectables,with a history dating back to 1815. Operating originally in London, itsreputation grew in the area known as The Potteries, where it was a relativelatecomer compared to other leading names such as Spode, Wedgwood and Minton.Today, its products include dinnerware, giftware, cookware, porcelain,glassware, collectables, jewellery, linens, curtains, and lighting, among otheritems.

The Royal Doulton company takesits name from John Doulton. John Doulton, born in Fulham in 1793, learned histrade at the Fulham Manufacturing Company, well known as one of the firstEnglish commercial producers of stoneware, founded by master potter John Dwightin 1688. John Doulton completed his apprenticeship, earning a reputation as oneof the best pot throwers in London.

John Doulton 1793-1873

John Doulton then joined forceswith Lambeth Pottery owner Martha Jones and foreman John Watts to form Jones,Watts and Doulton in 1815. This factory was a tiny pottery located in VauxhallWalk, Lambeth, a borough of London, England. The factory specialized inproducing utilitarian salt glazed stoneware, similar to the Fulham factory.

Martha Jones broke ties with thecompany in 1820 and by 1826, now trading as Doulton & Watts, the companymoved to larger premises in Lambeth Walk to cope with the rapid expansion itwas experiencing.

In 1835 Henry Doulton, the secondson of John, joined the firm, at the age of 15. He had a great aptitude for allaspects of pottery making and was soon making major contributions to thebusiness.

In 1846, in response to greaterhealth awareness and the need for glazed piping to replace the older porous bricksewers, Doulton built a pipe factory on what was to become the AlbertEmbankment. The demand for these products was tremendous and within three yearsDoulton founded factories in Dudley and St. Helens to meet the need for pipesand other sanitary ware.

John Watts retired from thecompany in 1854. At this time, trading now as Doulton & Company, JohnDoulton began experimenting with a more decorative pottery line. Many glazesand decorative effects were developed including faience, impasto, silicon, carrara,marqueterie, chine, and rouge flambe.

By 1871, Henry Doulton hadlaunched a studio at the Lambeth pottery and offered work to designers andartists from a local art school. Their names included Frank Butler, MarkMarshall, Eliza Simmance, J. McLennan, John Broad, W. Rowe, George Tinsworthand the Barlow family (Florence, Hannah, and Arthur). Henry was responsible fornew technological innovations to the production of ceramics including a steamdriven potters' wheel, which put the Doulton business ahead of its competitorsby some ten years. Henry took full control of the company upon the death of hisfather, John, in 1873.

In 1882, Doulton purchased thesmall factory of Pinder, Bourne & Co, at Nile Street in Burslem,Staffordshire, which placed Doulton in the region known as The Potteries.Pinder, Bourne & Co. was well known at the time for their fine bone china.Doulton art director John Slater recognized the growing trend toward gleamingporcelain pieces in brilliant colors, and he saw this new acquisition as anopportunity to move aggressively into these enamel on glaze decorations.

By 1885, Doulton was producingworld-class wares for an international clientele. Doulton won honors at majorinternational exhibitions and was producing a tremendous variety of figurines,character jugs, vases and other decorative pieces in vibrant colors and usingboth under- and on-glaze enameling techniques. Doulton products also came tothe attention of the British Royal family. Queen Victoria was so impressed withhis wares that she knighted Henry Doulton in 1887 for his innovativecontributions to ceramic art, and in 1901 King Edward VII bestowed upon theBurslem factory the Royal Warrant as well as allowing it to adopt its new name,Royal Doulton.

When Sir Henry died in 1897,Henry's son Henry Lewis Doulton took over control of the company. The companycontinued to hire talented artists including the next art director CharlesNoke, Harry Tittensor, Joseph Hanco*ck, and many others.

The company continued to add productsduring the first half of the 20th century while retaining its reputation as aprime manufacturer of fashionable and high-quality bone china. The 2 world warshalted production temporarily but in between the wars new pipe works wereestablished at Erith in Kent in 1925 (when production of pipes moved from theLambeth site), a 1935 acquired pottery near Tamworth became the site formanufacture of electrical insulators and specialist chemical resistant ware andsanitary work slowly moved to Whieldon near Stoke-on-Trent in 1937.

After World War II, productionemphasis shifted to simpler designs, which could be mass produced at moreaffordable prices. Another renowned art director, Jo Ledger, joined the companyin 1954, and continued producing older designs while at the same timeexploiting the newer techniques that allowed Royal Doulton to produce highquality works at modest prices.

The Lambeth factory finallyclosed its doors in 1956, due largely to new clean air regulations thatprevented the production of saltglaze in the urban environment. Doulton figureswere made at the Burslem plants from 1890 until 1978.

Royal Doulton is one of theworld's best-known fine china companies, designing and producing high-qualitytableware and giftware under the popular brand names of Royal Doulton, Minton,Royal Albert, Caithness Glass, and Holland Studio Craft. The company operatesfive ceramic factories, four of which are in England and the other inIndonesia, and two glass factories in Scotland. Its products are marketed inmore than 80 countries, with non-U.K. sales accounting for more than half thetotal and sales in the United States amounting to nearly 30 percent. Inaddition to its commercial product lines available in higher-end specialtyshops and department stores--including the company's own retail outlets, whichinclude some 360 stores and concessions within department stores--Royal Doultonalso has accepted commissions to produce unique china service for royalty,wealthy individuals, embassies, luxury hotels, and England's House of Lords.

The history of Royal Doulton maybe traced to the early 19th century, when John Doulton began an apprenticeshipat London's Fulham Pottery, one of the most important of the early commercialpotteries in England. Becoming an accomplished potter known for his hard workand innovation, Doulton found employment in Lambeth, along the south bank ofthe Thames River, at a small pottery business owned by Martha Jones, who hadinherited it from her late husband. In 1815, Jones asked Doulton and anotheremployee, John Watts, to enter into a partnership with her, and the threefounded a business called Jones, Watts and Doulton.

Producing utilitarian salt glazeand stoneware ceramics, stone jars, bottles, and flasks in its early years, thecompany eventually expanded its line to include mugs and jugs modeled in thelikenesses of Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington, bottles for beer, gallipots(ointment pots), and blacking bottles. Allegedly, as a laboring child, CharlesDickens was said to have pasted labels on thousands of Doulton blackingbottles. Among product lines that became central to the history of Royal Doultonwas the Toby jug, or beverage mug, first produced in the early 18th century.This jug was designed to represent a seated male figure, stout and smiling,with the spouts at either side of the mug's rim serving as points on the character'stricorn hat. Figurines were another important product line, and Doulton becameknown for the quality and attention to detail of its figurines. The earliestrecorded figurative work produced by the company is attributed to John Doulton,who made a flask depicting Queen Caroline around 1820.

Five of John Doulton's sonsjoined him in the family business, but the second son, Henry, took his father'splace in the pottery. Henry had become a master potter, learning all aspects ofthe business from the production stages through management, and he played animportant role in product development and in improving working conditions atthe Lambeth pottery. In the 1840s Henry Doulton established the world's firstfactory for making stoneware drainpipes, a significant development that helpedEngland achieve improvements in healthcare by providing more sanitaryconditions through the provision of piped water. As the pipe business continuedto thrive, Henry opened an art studio in the early 1870s where he encouragedand employed talented artists. Meantime, the company was incorporated in 1854as Doulton & Co.

Henry also became known for hisinterest in the welfare of workers, a rare concern at a time whenindustrialists capitalized on cheap labor. Potteries generally were hazardousplaces during this time, as arsenic was used in painting and lead in glazing.Workers often succumbed to a debilitating lung disease then known as"potter's rot." In addition, laborers had to carry an enormous amountof weight, lifting several tons of materials from depths of eight to ten feet.To help workers with this burden, Henry Doulton obtained a mechanical hydrauliclifting device to help eliminate some of the manual labor. He also encouragedscientific research to determine more modern and safe methods of production.

In 1877 Henry Doulton bought afactory at Burslem in Stoke-on-Trent, a city known as The Potteries and home ofEnglish bone china. Other famous potters located here included Wedgwood, Minton,Beswick, and Royal Adderly. Indeed, the area became the center for potters,given its wealth of raw materials including clay for earthenware, coal to heatthe kilns, as well as lead and salt for glazing. The established potters inthis area initially were annoyed when Doulton moved in on their territory, andthey predicted doom for the newcomer. Henry Doulton summed their attitude upthus: "In their view we Southerners know little about God and nothing atall about potting."

Through persistence and carefulinvestment in staff and plant, Henry Doulton did succeed. The company's earlysuccess came from earthenware, decorated in the limited colors available fromlead glaze at that time. This expansion into tableware design and decorationbegan in 1877, when Henry Doulton entered into a partnership with and laterbought out Pinder & Bourne Company, a medium-sized producer of earthenwaretableware. Later, Doulton's art director John Slater and manager John C. Baileyencouraged Henry to pursue the idea of using bone china in production, amaterial that could be painted with more and brighter colors. By 1884, Henry Doultonhad given his consent to the new medium, and the success of the resultsattracted to Doulton an outstanding team of modelers, decorators, and painters.

By the late 1880s, the companyand its products had become internationally famous. In 1885 Henry was honoredfor his achievements, receiving the Albert Medal of the Society of Arts for his"encouragement in the production of artistic pottery." Only oneAlbert Medal was awarded each year, and previous recipients had included thepoet Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Sir Rowland Hill, honored for his creation ofthe penny postage system. Henry's greatest honor, perhaps, came in 1887, whenQueen Victoria awarded him knighthood; he was the first potter ever to bedistinguished in this fashion. When Sir Henry Doulton died in 1897, he leftbehind a company that had diversified and established itself as one of theleaders in its field.

Sir Henry Doulton's son, HenryLewis Doulton, who had been made a partner in the firm in 1881, became a leaderat the company. In 1901, four years after his father's death, he received onbehalf of the company the Royal Warrant of King Edward VII and was grantedpermission to add the word "Royal" to the Doulton name--a great andrare honor. As chairman and managing director, Henry Lewis Doulton guided thecompany through a difficult recession and period of war between 1900 and 1920.

Regarding product development,Henry Lewis Doulton was particularly interested in experimental glaze processesthat produced unique, rare color effects. One such glaze, Rouge Flamb, adramatic red and black glaze, remained unique to Royal Doulton, with a secretformula known only to three or four people in the company into the 1990s. Thecompany also introduced new lines of character jugs, figurines, and decorativeand utility china on earthenware and bone china bodies, and their popularitycontinued to grow. The character jugs represented a continuation of thebeverage mugs of the 19th century and gained popularity in the 1930s when theywere produced to represent famous characters from English songs, literature,and history.

In America, Royal Doulton becameknown as the finest English china. Indeed, Royal Doulton's presence in theAmerican market was an important part of the company's growth and success. In1945, a subsidiary, Royal Doulton USA Inc., was formed to help in the sales andmarketing of the products in the United States.

Family leadership in the companycontinued. Ronald Duneau Doulton, a cousin of Henry Lewis Doulton, became oneof the first directors of the business when it changed to a limited company,known as Doulton & Co. Limited, in January 1899. Lewis John Eric Hooper,son of Henry Lewis's sister, joined Royal Doulton in 1902. Under Eric'sguidance much scientific research into the physical and chemical behavior ofceramic materials was carried out and new technology was developed andinstalled. His nephew, Orrok Sherwood Doulton, joined the company in 1935 andbecame director. Under his leadership, Royal Doulton captured the Queen'sAwards for Industry, Technological Innovation, and Outstanding ExportPerformance.

In 1960, Doulton & Co.introduced English Translucent China, a medium it pioneered and from which thecostly ingredient of calcined bone had been eliminated. Through this newproduct, which became known as Royal Doulton Fine China, the company was ableto offer the qualities associated with fine bone china at a modest cost toconsumers.

The year 1968 saw the firstseries of acquisitions by Doulton & Co. It first purchased theworld-renowned Minton China, a company founded by Thomas Minton in 1793. Mintondominated the industry during the middle of the 19th century and the company'sinnovations included the acid gold decorating process, the majolica-type body,the pte-sur-pte relief decoration technique, encaustic tiles, and Parianstatuary. In the same year, Doulton acquired Dunn Bennett, a company founded in1876 when Thomas Wood-Bennett joined his father-in-law William Dunn to beginpotting, concentrating on hotelware. In 1969, Webb Corbett and Beswick becamepart of the Royal Doulton group. Webb Corbett was founded in 1897 to makeEnglish full-lead crystal; Beswick traced its history to 1890, when JamesWright Beswick and his son began producing both table and ornamental ware. Thehand-cut crystal of Webb Corbett later would be rebranded under the Royal Doultonname.

Orrok Sherwood Doulton's sons,Mark and Michael, both joined the company. Michael Doulton joined the companyin 1970, working under a fictitious name while learning the different aspectsof pottery production. Starting in 1976 he began acting as traveling ambassadorfor the company and with the formation of the Royal Doulton InternationalCollectors Club, a group dedicated to the collection and preservation of Royal Doultonproducts, he served as honorary president beginning in 1980. Although theDoulton family remained an important and integral part to running the business,leadership extended outside the family in later years.

The greatest merger in thehistory of ceramics came in 1972, when Pearson PLC purchased Doulton & Co.Pearson had a controlling interest in Allied English Potteries and combined thetwo tableware groups under the Royal Doulton Tableware name. Pearson'semergence in the pottery industry came about almost by accident. Originally,the Pearson empire was concerned mainly with construction engineering and thedevelopment of oil fields. But after investing money into a struggling businesscalled Booth's pottery during the 1920s, Pearson eventually became thecontrolling shareholder. Then, 20 years later, Pearson began increasing theirpottery interests. In 1944, the company bought Colclough's of Longton, abusiness founded in 1893 that made moderately priced bone china teaware.Pearson combined its Booth pottery with that of Colclough's, forming a newentity called Booth and Colclough. In 1952, Pearson acquired the Lawley Group,a company controlling a national chain of specialist china and glass retailersand pottery manufacturers, including Ridgway and Adderly. Seven years laterthey purchased Swinnertons and Alco*ck, Lindley and Bloor, manufacturers ofredware pots. Other names joining the group were Royal Crown Derby, RoyalAlbert, and Paragon. Royal Crown Derby, a luxury brand, traced its roots backto 1750 and founder William Duesbury; it was the oldest surviving maker ofEnglish porcelain. Founded in 1896, Royal Albert was a tableware maker whose"Old Country Roses," introduced in 1962, was one of the best-sellingbone china patterns of all time.

In 1974, Royal Doulton revivedthe concept of its original Lambethware, creating a casual tableware with acountry charm and practicality, being oven and freezer proof and unaffected bydetergent or the dishwasher. Royal Doulton Tableware Limited grew to representapproximately one-third of the entire British tableware industry.

Also during the period ofownership by Pearson, Royal Doulton management focused on achieving a greaterdegree of efficiency at its facilities. From 1987 to 1990, the company spent £10million (approximately US$16.4 million) annually to automate and mechanize itsfactories, resulting in even finer quality and manufacturing flexibility. Thecompany maintained a dozen factories producing all types and grades of productat that time.

Pearson began focusing more onits media interests in the 1990s and divested many of its other holdings. RoyalDoulton plc was thus spun off from Pearson in December 1993 and was listed onthe London stock exchange; according to analysts, the company had a marketvalue of between £150 million and £200 million at the time.

Under the leadership of StuartLyons, Royal Doulton returned to a strategy of acquisition in its initial yearsas a newly independent company. During 1996 the firm acquired Holland StudioCraft and Caithness Glass, the latter for £5.5 million. Holland Studio had beenfounded in 1986 as a producer of collectible cold-cast resin sculptures. Amongthe subjects of these sculptures were dragons, wizards, frogs, bears, and pigs.Established in Scotland in 1961 as a maker of art glass, Caithness Glassexpanded into paperweights in 1969 and soon gained a world-class reputation forthe production of high-quality abstract paperweights. Another development in1996 was the start-up of production at a new manufacturing plant in Indonesia.With sales of fine china stagnant, this new facility was key to the company'sstrategy of expanding production of casual tableware for two of the company'score export markets, the United States and Japan. The new facility also wasdesigned to counter the effects of high U.K. labor costs. Overall sales wereflat in 1996, increasing just four percent to £251.8 million.

The situation at the company soonworsened. Lyons resigned suddenly in May 1997, after 12 years at the helm,following a failed acquisition of a large U.S. fine china company whoseidentity was not revealed. The botched takeover cost Royal Doulton £1.6 millionin advisers' fees. Further acquisitions were put on hold as the new chiefexecutive, Patrick Wenger, a 37-year company veteran, concentrated on turningaround the company's core business. A restructuring was launched that includeda workforce reduction of 330 because of the closure of its St. Mary's factoryin Stoke-on-Trent as well as a restructuring of the group into six productdivisions--tableware, giftware and collectibles, crystal and glass, hotel andairlines, prestige products, and licensing--each headed by its own managingdirector. Saddled with too much inventory, Royal Doulton drastically reducedits range of products, cutting the number of tableware patterns from 320 to 120during 1997.

In December, Royal Doultonannounced a fundamental restructuring program involving the cutting of afurther 1,200 jobs (or nearly one-fifth of the remaining workforce), theconsolidation of three warehouses into one, a temporary closure of most of thecompany's U.K. factories, a further writedown of inventory, and the closure ofsome underperforming retail outlets. Overall, the company was aiming to reducethe number of product lines it produced from 48,000 to fewer than 20,000 overthe four years that Grossart estimated it would take to complete a turnaround.Needing to modernize its product styles, it also was working to speed up thedevelopment of new concepts, attempting to reduce the time from design tomarket from two years to six months. Charges related to the restructuring addedup to £47.7 million, resulting in a net loss for 1998 of £45 million.

In August 1999 a secondary stockoffering raised £31.3 million. This fresh infusion of cash helped Royal Doultonreduce its net indebtedness from £43.6 million to £17.8 million over the courseof 1999. The company was far from a turnaround, however, as sales declined afurther 20 percent, to £190.3 million (US$307.6 million). About £11 million ofthe reduction represented sales that were lost because of interruptions indeliveries caused by the bungled implementation of new warehouse software beinginstalled to meet Y2K compliance. Other reasons for the sales decline were thecontinued economic problems in Asia and the closure of an additional 61underperforming retail outlets, including both stores and concessions withindepartment stores. A further threat emerged in November 1999 when arch-rivalWaterford Wedgwood plc acquired a 15 percent stake in Royal Doulton on the openmarket for £11.1 million. Waterford termed the transaction a "strategicinvestment" and not a prelude to an outright bid, but neverthelessdeclined to rule out a future bid if a rival takeover company emerged. For1999, Royal Doulton posted a net loss of £34.6 million (US$55.6 million),including a restructuring charge of £9.1 million.

At the beginning of 2000, Wayne Nutbeenwas promoted to chief operating officer, taking over day-to-day managementduties from Grossart, who remained chairman. Nutbeen had worked for WaterfordWedgwood from 1988 to 1996, when he was hired away by Royal Doulton to head upthe company's Australian subsidiary (Nutbeen, in fact, had been in the accidentin Australia that ended the career of Wenger). Nutbeen then became head ofRoyal Doulton's North American operations at the beginning of 1999. Disposalsmarked the first six months of 2000. The head office in Stoke-on-Trent wassold. In addition, the venerable Royal Crown Derby porcelain subsidiary wassold to a management-led group for £16.5 million as the company continued toscale back its exposure to the higher ends of the market (Royal Doulton would,however, continue to distribute the brand). These moves helped cut pretaxlosses for the six months to June 30 from the £14.4 million figure of theprevious year to £1.3 million. Sales were down 3 percent, a vast improvementover the year-earlier result. Although it was too early to declare theconsummation of a turnaround, and a takeover by Waterford or some other firmwas still a distinct possibility, Royal Doulton clearly had made much progresson its road to recovery.

It was during the early years ofthe reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) that the great revolution in personalsanitation occurred and Henry Doulton was at the forefront of domestic andindustrial stoneware products. This enabled Doulton to became Britains leadingmanufacturer of sanitary ware as well as a major influence and producer ofartistic pottery and commemorative, ornamental and tableware products.

In 1871 Henry established astudio at the Lambeth pottery and offered work to designers and artists from anearby Art school. Several of these designers have come to represent the best thatDoulton had to offer. Names like the Barlow family (Florence, Hannah andArthur), Frank Butler, Mark Marshall, Eliza Simmance and George Tinworth arecommanding increasingly higher prices. The Lambeth pottery ceased production in1956.

It was during this time ofintense creativity and expansion that Doulton came to the attention of theRoyal Family. In 1882 Doulton acquired the small factory of Pinder, Bourne andCo. at Nile Street, Burslem, Staffordshire, in the heart of Bone China country.Henry soon discovered that as a Londoner he wasn't welcome 'up North' and isascribed with saying "In their view, we Southerners know little about Godand nothing at all about potting".

In spite of this, and through theartistic direction of John Slater, Doultonware grew ever more popular with itstremendous variety of figurines, vases, character jugs and decorative pieces,and in 1901, the factory was granted the Royal Warrant by King Edward VII. Thisresulted in the company adopting bold new markings and a new name, Royal Doulton.

Misc. Royal DaultonPhotos

Some examples of Lambeth Doultonand Royal Doulton marks.

Moreexamples of quality Doulton pottery: