Doulton at the Paris Exhibition of 1878

In 1846, Henry Doulton (1820-1897) branched off from his father's small south London pottery company, (John) Doulton and (John) Watts, persuading his father "to join him in erecting the special factory near Lambeth Palace, of which he took the sole management and direction" (A Sketch of the Doulton Potteries, 20). The business grew exponentially. Examples of its products were successfully shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and had signal successes at later exhibitions as well — in Vienna in 1873, Philadelphia in 1876, and the World’s Columbian Fair held in Chicago in 1893. By the 1870s it had moved from glazed pipes and sanitary-ware into art-ware, and in 1893 it could boast of having received "94 Gold Medals and First Class Awards, 101 Silver Medals and Other Awards..." (description prefacing A Sketch of the Doulton Potteries).

The following extract is from a report of the Paris Exhibition 1878, in the Illustrated London News of 17 August that year. It explains some of the methods used in the production of the various items, and also the important part played in the firm's success not only by the ceramicist George Tinworth, who joined the company in 1867, but also by women designers like Hannah Barlow (1851-1916). Henry would be knighted in 1887. The image below has been downloaded, and the extract introduced, transcribed and formatted, by Jacqueline Banerjee.

Doulton at the Paris Exhibition of 1878

ost persons who take an interest in English art-manufactures are acquainted with the decorated stoneware, and the painted and glazed faience, produced by Messrs. Henry and James Doulton, at the Lambeth Pottery, with the aid of a staff of artists, young men and young women, trained by Mr. Sparkes, the Director of the Lambeth School of Art. A collection of some examples of these novel kinds of manufacture, shown in the Paris Exhibition, has been much admired in the british Section, where it is accompanied by the terracotta war, including statuary and other sculpture, the ornamental tiles, and a variety of plain, strong articles of utility, also contributed by Messrs. Doulton. It may be as well here briefly to describe the processes, an account of which, by Mr. John Forbes- Robertson, was lately published at the Art-Pottery Gallery of Messrs. Howell and James, in Regent-street and Pall-mall. The Doulton ware, strictly so called, is a stoneware, differing from earthenware in the greater density and closeness of its texture, containing more flint, and being highly vitrified, semi-translucent when made thin, brittle, and proof against the action of acids. It is, unlike earthenware, fired and glazed in one operation; after being wrought into the intended form and pattern, with the decorative treatment done by hand, it is exposed to the fierce white heat of a furnace during several days; and salt is then cast in, which is decomposed by the heat, allowing the soda of the salt to combine with a portion of the silex in the clay, and to form an indestructibly hard transparent glazing. The ornamentation, which hes been applicd immediately after the article leaves the potter's wheel, may be done either by encrusting its surface with raised decorative lines and patterns, or by indenting them upon the surface, or engraving it with incised lines, in the "sgraffito" manner, or by paintieg it with various colours. The Doulton stoneware is said to be “an English revival, upon perfectly independent principles, of the famous gris de Flandres, of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries.” There is also produced by Messrs. Doulton a kind of porcelain, called the Lambeth faience, which is a species of revived Majolica, and in which the ware, in its biscuit or unglazed state, having extreme fineness of texture and smoothness of surface, is painted with any design, as freely as any painting can be done on a panel or canvas. Mr. Sparkes has devoted particular attention to this application of art; and some of his pupils have earned the applause of the highest authorities by the originality, grace, and vigour of their work, both in modelling and engraving figures and in painting on the clay. Among these are Mr. George Tinworth, the designer of the "Football-Scrimmage," and of the rockwork fountain, adorned with scenes and groups of Scripture history bearing reference to water; Miss Hannah Barlow, whose admirable lifelike figures of wild animals have become very popular; Mr. Frank Butler [whose life's work was done at Doulton's, from 1872-1911], a deaf and dumb artist; and Mrs. Sparkes, whose talent as a painter in colours, on the Lambeth faience and tiles, was shown especially in her large tile-picture of "The Pilgrim Fathers," sent to the Philadelphia Exhibition.

We give a few illustrations of the Doulton stone ware and painted faience, the articles being distinguished by numbers in the Engraving, as follows:- No. 1, a Doulton-ware vase, 4ft. high, with incised figures of a lion and four lionesses and three young lions, drawn by Miss Hannah Barlow, and with painted ornament by Miss F. E. Barlow [one of her two sisters, Florence]; the ground is a buff, of lighter shade in the upper part of the vase, while the coloured ornamentation is chiefly blue. No. 2, a Doulton-ware vase about the same size, designed and ornamented by Mr. Frank Butler: the ground is very dark brown, the decorations pale and dark blue. Nos 3, 4, and 5 are plaques of Lambeth faience: the largest, No. 3, is 4 ft. in diameter, exceeding in size even that exhibited by the Japanese Government in 1871; the bird is very lifelike, and the plants, the rose, the yellow flag-flower, the bullrush, the cow-parsnip, orchids, and wild chicory are represented with botanical accuracy. The two smaller plaques are very pretty: No. 4 is by Miss L. Watt [Miss Linnie Watt, active 1874-90], and No. 5 by Miss F. Lewis [Florence Lewis, head artist in Doulton’s Faience department from 1880]. No. 6 is an example of applied or incrusted ornamentation; it has some resemblance to Chelsea ware. No. 7 is a specimen of tile for wall decoration. The remaining figures, 8, 9, 10, and 11, do not require particular comment; but No. 9, which is a pedestal for a conservatory flower-pot, displaying white ornamentation of winding wreaths on a blue and brown ground, has a very pleasing effect.

Links to Related Material: Examples of Other Lambeth Ware designed by women

Bibliography

"Doulton and Watts." Grace's Guide to British Industrial History. Web. 19 February 2025. https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Doulton_and_Watts

"Doulton Artists." Web. 19 February 2025. https://www.doultonartists.co.uk/

Eyler, Desmond, revised by Louise Irvine. The Doulton Lambeth Wares. Chepton Beauchamp, Somerset: Richard Dennis, 2002. (This has artists' monograms, trade marks etc).

Irvine, Louise. "A Tale of Two Vases." Weiner Museum of Decorative Arts (these enormous vases were painted by Florence Lewis). Web. 19 February 2025. https://www.wmoda.com/a-tale-of-two-vases/

"The Paris Exhibition." The Illustrated London News Vol. 73 (17 August 1878): 165-66. Internet Archive. Web. 19 February 2025.

A Sketch of the Doulton Potteries. London: Waterlow & Sons, 1893 (for Doulton and Company, on the occasion of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago that year). HathiTrust, from a copy in the library of Purdue University. Web. 19 February 2025.

Created 19 February 2025