If you are here to find Royal Doulton figurines for sale, please use the links on the left to narrow down your search to the relevant Royal Doulton products or scroll down below our description of the history of the Royal Doulton company to see all items from Royal Doulton. If you can't find what you are looking for, please use the search box on the left to search the offerings made by Royal Doulton.

HISTORY OF ROYAL DOULTON

The history of the Royal Doulton Company began almost 200 years ago, in 1815 in Lambeth, a borough of London, under the watch of John Doulton, who produced stoneware, decorative bottles or jugs, and industrial products (including, later, sewer pipes) from a small pottery. Doulton had joined forces with Martha Jones and John Watts after his apprenticeship at the Fulham Manufacturing Company. From its humble beginnings, it has grown into one of the leading manufacturers of dinnerware, porcelain, figurines, and collectibles in the world.

Sixty years later under Henry Doulton, his son, the business expanded to a second location in Burslem, Staffordshire (Stoke-on-Trent), where it began producing bone china in an area known as The Potteries. Known for its stoneware, ceramics, and bone china, the Doulton brand grew in popularity for its china, character jugs, and figurines.

In the late 19th century, Doulton's work became known worldwide as it won honors at major exhibitions and the vibrant colors of its pieces and advanced glaze enameling techniques impressed its international patrons.Henry Doulton soon came to the attention of the British Royal family for his work, and Queen Victoria knighted Henry Doulton in 1887. In 1901, King Edward VII permitted the company to use the "Royal" designation because of the quality of its tableware and its use of an innovative water purfication / filtration system in its decorative jugs. The company began using the Royal designation in front of the Doulton name, which it had used since the 1850s. Royal Doulton has continued to lead the world through the innovation of its manufacturing processes.

In the early 1900s, Royal Doulton, under the leadership of Henry's son, Henry Lewis Doulton, aggressively expanded its product line. In 1913, Royal Doulton began producing a series of figurines, known as Pretty Ladies. In the 1920s and 1930s, Royal Doulton became the leading producer of character jugs through its innovative designs. It also began producing the popular line of Bunnykins dinnerware for children in the 1930s. Although production of these products were halted during World War II, it resumed production soon after with an increased focus on the dinnerware and collectibles market, eliminating the production of its industrial products. In line with this shift in production, it later produced popular lines of Disney characters and animal figurines.

The Royal Doulton Company over the years purchased a number of pottery factories and brand names from other companies, Beswick and Minton, to name a few. In the 1970s, Pearson purchased Doulton & Co. and merged it with Royal Albert.

In the last half of the twentieth century, Royal Doulton closed its original two locations, the first due to environmental regulations prohibiting some of its manufacturing in an urban location, and the second due to planned development in the area. Although some pieces are still made at its parent company's factory in England, it is believed that the rest are made in Indonesia.

CURRENT NEWS ABOUT THE ROYAL DOULTON COMPANY

The Royal Doulton Company is owned by Waterford Wedgewood, which recently filed for bankruptcy protection. It is hoped that Royal Doulton will be purchased and its line of bone china and figurines, as well as its other brands Minton and Royal Albert, continued to be produced.

MORE INFORMATION

Hundreds of informational and collectible books have been written about Royal Doulton products, with more information about the history of the company, information about particular lines of collectables, and valuing vintage and antique Royal Doulton collectables. If you would like to learn more, please check out the books about Royal Doulton.

If you are a general collector of Royal Doulton, you can find a number of different products below. If your interest in Royal Doulton is limited to a specific product line, please use the links on the left to limit your search to the Royal Doulton figurines of interest to you.

If you couldn't find what you were looking for above, please check out our specific pages for more Royal Doulton figurines: Animal figurines, Bunnykins, Character Jugs, Disney figurines, and Pretty Ladies are among the more popular pages.

Royal Doulton Animal Figurines

In the 1940s, Royal Doulton began teaming with John Beswick Studios for the design and production of certain lines of figurines.  Beswick Pottery had become well known for its design of horses, dogs, and whimsical animal figures beginning in the 1930s.  Over the years following its purchase of Beswick in 1969, Royal Doulton has produced a large number of dog, cat, bird, and horse figurines.

If you are looking for more information about the Royal Doulton animals, consider purchasing one of these books.  If you are looking to add to your collection, you'll find a wide assortment of animal figurines below.  Happy hunting!

Beatrix Potter

The Beatrix Potter figurines celebrate the characters created by Helen Beatrix Potter, renowned author of popular children's books such as The Tales of Peter Rabbit.  The series of figurines has been retired by Royal Doulton.

Bunnykins
Royal Doulton began producing a set of nurseryware china, bowls, and plates for young children designed by Barbara Vernon, a nun and the daughter of the general manager of another line of Royal Doulton products, in the early 1930s. From its introduction, the sets of children's tableware and dishes adorned with rabbits grew in popularity and value.

Before stopping production for World War II, Royal Doulton produced a set of 6 Bunnykins figurines.  After the war, Royal Doulton continued to develop this line of children's dinnerware but did not restart production of Bunnykins figures until 1972, when Royal Doulton introduced a new set of nine Bunnykins figurines.  The figures are now one of the most recognizable sets of figurines from Royal Doulton.

If you are seeking to learn more about this wonderful line of nursery products and collectibles, there are a variety of books available discussing information about and showing photographs of the Bunnykins by Royal Doulton - click here to see the books about Bunnykins for sale.

Here is the selection of Bunnykins for sale:

Are you looking for a particular piece to add to your Bunnykins collection? If you can't find it here, Amazon.com currently has 35 different Bunnykins offerings of figurines, dishes, and dinnerware from Royal Doulton. Click here to go directly to the Royal Doulton Bunnykins on Amazon.com.

Character Jugs

Royal Doulton is well known for its character jugs, which revived the early 18th century toby mug.  Although technically not Toby mugs because they do not include full bodied figures, Royal Doulton's character mugs featuring the head and shoulders only are often still called Toby mugs.

Having produced Toby mugs since 1815, Royal Doulton began producing character jugs featuring whimsical characters, and a short time later real people, in 1934.  The character jugs were later advanced by integrating the handle of the mug into the story.  Overall, the Royal Doulton character mugs have been extremely popular among collectors.

Royal Doulton Disney Figurines

John Beswick Pottery began producing Disney figurines in the 1950s with Mickey Mouse and expanded the collections in the 1960s with the Winnie the Pooh collection.  Since buying Beswick in 1969, Royal Doulton has continued producing Disney Figurines, creating figures for many popular Disney characters, including Tinker Bell and the Disney Fairies, Pinnochio, Snow White, Cinderella, and Ariel among others.

Because of their popularity, we've created a separate page listing the figurines available from Royal Doulton's Winnie the Pooh collection.  You can find those figurines here.

Disney Figurines for Sale:

If you didn't find here the Royal Doulton collectable that you were looking for, I recommend that you visit Amazon.com.  They have about 50 Disney figurines made by Royal Doulton available for sale, including many Disney fairies, movie characters, and Winnie the Pooh figurines.  You can find Amazon's Royal Doulton Disney figurines here.

Royal Doulton Gemstones Collection

Throughout history, people have believed that gemstones carried magical powers and provided luck to the wearer of the gemstone.  Royal Doulton tapped into this mystique by adding gemstones to a set of bone china calendar figurines.

The Royal Doulton Gemstone figurines are a collection of 12 lady figurines each featuring a different Swarovski crystal gem stone to celebrate the month and a personalizable plaque to attach to the bottom of the figurine when giving it as a gift.

Royal Doulton Pretty Ladies

Royal Doulton has produced its line of Pretty Ladies figurines since 1913.  The lady figurines are known for their beautiful faces, elegant dresses, and, often, a toe extended beneath a long gown.

The Pretty Lady figurines have been so popular that Royal Doulton brought back some of the most popular Pretty Ladies in its line of Petite Pretty Ladies.  The Petites are a slightly smaller reproduction of their original figurine.  To exclusively see the Petites for sale, click here.

If you are looking for more information about collecting and valuing the Pretty Ladies, then check out the books on Amazon.com about Royal Doulton figurines.

Wikipedia is attempting to put together a list of all of the figurines that Royal Doulton produced.  If you are looking for more information about a figurine with a certain number, it is a list well worth checking out - find it here.

See the Pretty Ladies for sale:

Royal Doulton Petites

The Petites is a line of figurines replicating Royal Doulton's most popular Pretty Ladies.  Made of bone china and hand decorated, the Petites are slightly smaller than their original Pretty Ladies.