Royal Doulton lion and crown

How to read it

Doulton began in Lambeth, London, in 1815, when John Doulton put £100 into a pottery making stoneware bottles, drain pipes and storage jars. His son Henry Doulton took a share in an earthenware factory in Burslem, Staffordshire, in 1877; the V&A says the firm moved to Burslem in 1882 and added porcelain two years later. The royal warrant of 1901 brought permission to use the word Royal in the name. A beaker in the National Gallery of Victoria, made at Burslem for the King’s Coronation Dinner in June 1902, is printed underneath with a lion, a crown, ROYAL · DOULTON, four interlocking Ds and ENGLAND. A plate in the V&A, a pattern made from 1909 to 1938, has the mark in underglaze blue, topped by a lion, with ROYAL DOULTON ENGLAND and a registered number.

Also searched as: doulton backstamp, royal doulton lion mark, royal doulton marks.

Lambeth and Burslem marks

Before 1901 the firm’s marks named Doulton alone, and its two works marked differently. William Chaffers’s catalogue records stoneware impressed Doulton & Watts, Lambeth Pottery, from John Doulton’s partnership with Watts, and a mark for the Burslem works that came to Doulton from Pinder and Bourne. Frederick Litchfield’s guide says the Lambeth art pottery was made in three kinds, Doulton Ware, Lambeth Faience and Impasto, each with its own mark. Both books say the business became a joint-stock company in 1899 after the death of Sir Henry Doulton. Royal Doulton says new city rules against salt glazing closed the Lambeth factory in 1955 and moved all production to Stoke-on-Trent.

1815 or 1818

The company and the V&A start Doulton in 1815. Litchfield, writing in 1912, says John Doulton set up his stoneware works at Vauxhall in 1818, with Watts as partner, before moving to High Street, Lambeth.

The Rd No under the mark

The number beside “Rd No” on many Royal Doulton backstamps is a British registered design number. The coronation beaker of 1902 carries Rd No 389307, and the V&A’s Shakespeare plate the registered number 549784. The National Archives says the registered design diamond went out of use when the 1883 Act replaced the 1842 one.