Royal Doulton Bowl, Designed by Andrew Wyeth, 1973

An artist who pursued his own course when the rest of the art world was consumed with modernism and abstraction, Wyeth is considered among the preeminent representational painters of the 20th century. Born in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, Wyeth drew his subject matter from the world around him: the interiors and exteriors of the stone buildings, mills, and farms of the Brandywine River countryside, and in the summers, the clapboard houses and stark landscape of the Maine coast. After his father died in a 1945 automobile accident, Wyeth began to incorporate people into his pictures, most notably Christina Olson, and later Siri Erickson, of Cushing, Maine, and his Chadds Ford neighbors Karl and Anna Kuerner and Helga Testorf. The first visual artist to appear on the cover of Time magazine, Wyeth was also the first living American-born artist to be given an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Wyeth’s naturalistic style is marked by strong editing combined with remarkable execution of details. While relying on keen visual observation, he pared down the elements of a composition to their most essential, giving his works an abstracted quality and imbuing them with a sense of quietude and stillness. The egg tempera medium (which he came to prefer to oil after first experimenting with it in the early 1940s) lent itself to the precise detailing required to create his subtle textural effects, since it dries quickly and translucent layers can be built up over one another. Wyeth also painted extensively in watercolor in works of more spontaneous execution, as well as in the drybrush technique (where most water is removed from the watercolor medium), sometimes combining the two.

The redoubtable British ceramics maker Royal Doulton has long embraced popular tastes and enjoys a devoted following among aficionados of English pottery. Some are drawn to the company’s intricately decorated bone china dinner services; others are passionate collectors of Royal Doulton’s artfully hand-painted figurines, vases and bowls.

When founded by John Doulton, Martha Jones and John Watts in 1815, in the Lambeth section of suburban London, the manufacturer produced bottles and other storage containers and even sewer pipes in stoneware, a cheap but durable cousin of porcelain. Amid the Victorian era’s rising concern for hygiene, food safety and sanitation, the company flourished. During the late 1850s — having rebranded as Doulton & Watts and then Doulton and Co. — the firm was colloquially referred to as Doulton Ware. And in the late 1870s, it expanded its business into the applied arts.

The firm took over a factory in Staffordshire, in northern England — the traditional home of British ceramics manufacturing — to produce tableware. Around the same time, Doulton opened an art pottery studio in Lambeth, where vases, urns and other forms were decorated with painted scenic images, flowers or historical motifs. 

Taking a cue from the venerable Meissen porcelain workshops in Germany, Doulton artisans began crafting figurines modeled on characters from literature and theater. The firm also helped popularize Toby Jugs and other “character mugs” — handled cups shaped as the heads of figures from folklore and popular culture. Doulton purchased a factory in Burslem in 1882, and King Edward VII granted the factory his Royal Warrant in 1901.

Royal Doulton china will always make an elegant yet not-too-formal appearance in a traditional table setting. Prices for dinner services vary according to size, age and condition, but generally range from $2,000 to $15,000. 

Authentic Royal Doulton art pottery might be used by some as a bright decorative note; others collect the company’s figurines with the same interest and dedication as stamp and coin enthusiasts. A typical Toby Jug might fetch $50, while very rare figurines can sell for $7,000. Most of the finest Royal Doulton art pottery pieces sell for around $500. 

As you will see on these pages, few decorative-arts companies are as aesthetically and stylistically diverse as Royal Doulton. The firm truly offers something for everyone.

Find Royal Doulton figurines, plates, vases and other collectibles for sale on 1stDibs.