Doulton - Early Series

Sprigged jugs with impressed Doulton marks are very common and show little variation of sprig design from about 1870 until after WW2. What was being made before 1870?

The standard reference work, Desmond Eyle’s "The Doulton Lambeth Wares", 1975 and new edition 2002 states after talking about flasks and spirit bottles, "the only other early Doulton products with any other artistic pretensions at all were relief figured hunting jugs and mugs of the traditional type".

Here we encounter a problem - the total absence of sprigged jugs marked Doulton & Watts. There is no shortage (albeit expensive) of Doulton & Watts marked spirit flasks, Nelson, Napoleon and Silenus jugs. All salt glazed, very detailed but ALL MOULDED. There is no Doulton & Watts marked sprigged jug recorded by English Brown Stoneware (O.H. & H), Brown Muggs or Derek Askew. Doulton &Watts was the official name of the company until 1854 but the fact that the 1873 sales catalogue still shows that name indicates it may have continued to be used for a considerable time afterwards. We have no problem with post 1870 production as the majority is marked.

There are, unmarked, jugs with variants of sprigs but definitely part of the main series. These have been detailed in the "main series" section. I have, however, identified another group of jugs and mugs, with a related handle terminal, that I propose as an early "missing link". These have the O.H. & H sprig 2 from plate 5, there attributed to Mortlake and Bristol.

A significant number of sprigged jugs, mugs, tankards etc have been observed with these two very similar handle terminals. . The first would clearly seem to be the earlier and has never been seen with an impressed makers mark. Both sprigs resemble that used on smaller sizes of jugs that are clearly Doulton. They could have been from a factory imitating Doulton (as done by Fulham, Smith and Port Dundas) but a number of examples of the second have now been recorded actually marked Doulton Lambeth, (using both the two line and oval marks). Hallmarked examples dated 1870 and 1871 are known and some sprigs from this series are also found on early (unmarked) "Main series" jugs. There seems to be a clear overlap between this series with what I call Prince of Wales Feathers (POW) terminal and the start of the "Main Series". A significant number of well-made jugs are now known with this POW sprig thanks to Ebay with its worldwide network. The variety and quality of sprigs is high as might be expected of Doulton but there are some surprises including one that has what is usually considered to be a typically Scottish sprig. Anyway I am claiming it for London until someone can prove otherwise !