The Doulton Kingswear decanters a joy to behold

Press, 21 October 1980, Page 16

The Doulton Kingswear decanters a joy to behold

Collecting

with

Myrtle Duff

A new exhibit in the Canterbury Museum just opposite the smithy in the Hall of Colonial History is a case containing early soft drink bottles lent by Nigel Harrison as a goodwill gesture to the museum and to publicise the fourth annual show of the Christchurch Early Bottle Club. This will be held from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday in the Roy Stokes Hall, Seaview Road, New Brighton. About two thousand old bottles will be exhibited and among them are thirty . examples of the interesting Doulton decanters known as Kingsware. I was immediately reminded of a longstanding invitation from a reader to inspect a collection bf . Jhis ware, and luckily the owner was free to show it to me that evening.. The visit was most enjoyable.Tt is always difficult to house one’s collection in the home at the same time preserving a desirable degree of orderliness and beauty. This collector seems to have achieved the impossible. His well cared for decanters glow from a set of shelves specially constructed for the purpose, and their appearance gives added charm to a pleasant room. Around the house other beautiful and rare objects unobtrusively placed provide evidence of a collect ting habit kept well in check by a discriminating

taste — or perhaps by a discriminating wife! In either case, the result; is very successful. Again I have been introduced to a category of collector’s items hitherto quite unknown to me. “Kingsware” is a term applied particularly to a type of tall, slim decanter in dark brown with relief designs in a variety of colours. These were made by Doulton and Company from 1882 until about 1938.

The term is best known in its application to the decanters, but the company also made jugs, beer mugs, teapots and bowls in the same ware.

There are three main categories: early saltglazed stoneware decanters, usually known as Lambeth ware; the brown Kingsware; and a type known as Yellow ware made for the Bullock Lade Company. These usually had the familiar brown at the back of the decanter, but faded to a very light yellowish background colour for the design in the front.

My host has at least thirty decanters and a number of other pieces. H seems to have acquired some of the' most interesting design subjects. One decanter still contains its original contents, its seal intact.

I could mot persuade him to open this, but he was kind enough to lend me three examples for illustration: one a flattened Toby jug type in brown Kingsware with a Shakesperian Falstaff; another in Yellow ware decorated by a coachman, and a third in the form of a beer mug. The dark brown “true” Kingsware — the most sought after today — was the result of Doulton and Company’s association with the well known

Dewar, Firm, which lasted from 1915 unfit 1938. The Doulton firm had been manufacturing Indus* trial stoneware einca 1818. ; Dewar’s had been formed in 1848 when John Dewar, a former cellar attendant who had already risen to become a partner in the firm, decided to set up in business on his own account. .■. . . . f -

His faith in himself was well justified. The firm prospered. In due . course he was joined by his two sons, John Alexander and Thomas Robert. Both had inherited their father’s business acume.n and the firm went from strength to strength. In 1896 they built; their own distillery near Aberfeldy, their father’s birthplace. . John Alexander was a quiet and serious man, his brother Tommy quite the opposite. A man of dynamic personality with interests as diverse as football, horse racing and art, he created a sensation by buying Raeburn’s painting “The McNab” for the sum of 25,000 guineas. This was hung in .the firm’s London office at Dewar House in the Haymarket.

Unhappily, the firm has now been absorbed in the giant D.C.L. organisation, but the Dewars section is still administered by the family. Dewar House with its famous “The McNabb” and other paintings is now a museum. The most famous artist involved in the production of the many different designs featured on Royal Doulton Kingsware was Charles J. Noke; whose signature can be. clearly seen on many, examples. During the first fifteen years a great number of titles appeared among which were the Raeburn

painting J ‘The McNabb/' a number of Shakesperian characters Including Fal« staff, arid some? Dickensian and historic personalities. The Empire was not for* gotten (either-because pne popular design was of Sydney Harbour, a By 1931 many other designs h«id ' been added, and in 1936 nine hundred Kingsware flagons were produced inscribed “Here’s a Health unto His Majesty.” If you are keen to col* lect in this field I think the best way would be to advertise; meet other collectors and haunt all shops where odd pieces might perhaps turn up from time to time.

Kingsware decanters have always been treasured by their owners, and are not likely to be discovered under old houses or on sites where searching and digging occasionally reveal old bottles. The examples exhibited at the bottle show on Saturday will certainly encourage you.