Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Black Prince Road, London


Backward glance (6): Miss Barlow and Doulton's women

Another backward glance, this time at the work of Doulton's ceramics factory in Lambeth, London.

In Victorian England, Doulton pottery was everywhere. Doulton of Lambeth made drainpipes, sanitary ware, fireplaces, and all kinds of other practical wares. They also developed an enormous range of art pottery, employing men and women who trained at the nearby Lambeth School of Art to decorate jugs, vases, plates, and everything else you could make out of clay. Doulton artists and craftworkers also produced architectural ceramics, cladding and decorating the walls of factories, offices, hotels, and hospitals. The whole enterprise was a typically Victorian marriage of art and industry.

Only part of their Lambeth headquarters remains, and the highlight of the building is this tympanum celebrating the artistic side of the Doulton ethos. While Henry Doulton (the seated figure towards the right) explains what goes on in the studios, two of his top artists are on hand to show what they do. On the left, seated and working on a pot, is Hannah Barlow, who specialized in incised line drawings of animals. Her pet cat is just visible under her chair; she had a pet fox, too, but he didn’t live at work. The bearded figure in the centre, holding a large urn, is George Tinworth, the virtuoso sculptor in clay who created this panel. His long and successful career for Doulton, producing figures, reliefs (often of Biblical subjects), decorated pots, and more, makes him famous among collectors. Tinworth Street, honouring his memory, is a couple of blocks away.

The Lambeth works closed in 1956, but there is still a lot of Doulton ware around on English buildings from the mid-Victorian period to the 1930s. Their terracotta panels often show Victorian decorative art at its best, their tiles sometimes give expression to the swirling rhythms of the Art Nouveau – and their brewery plaques occasionally still point the way towards a good pint. Here’s to art and industry.


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Hannah Barlow (1851–1916) was Doulton's first female employee. She came to Doulton's in 1871 after her time at art school because her family had fallen on bad times financially and she needed to support herself. Among the jobs open to a young middle-class woman with artistic talent, one in the Lambeth studios of Doulton fitted the bill. Barlow was a trailblazer. She was soon joined by two of her sisters, Florence and Lucy (although I think Lucy did not stay long) – together with many other young women, some of whom stayed for many years, some of whom left the factory to get married. Several of Doulton's "star" decorators were women, and collectors still prize the work of Eliza Simmance, Edith Lupton, the Barlow sisters, and many others. Florence specialized in beautifully detailed colour images of birds, Hannah's forte was her incised line drawings. When John Ruskin visited the factory, he was enthusiastic about Hannah's work, and came away with a piece decorated with one of her illustrations of pigs. Doulton's were obviously proud of her work, and she earned her place on this relief panel above the entrance to their building.

11 comments:

  1. Now here's a coincidence. I noticed this building a week or two ago on one of my random urban walks. I happened to have my camera with me, took a long shot from across the street, zoomed in for a close up, and the battery was dead. I've had it in mind to go back for another go, thinking I would ask you if you knew anything about it. Your picture is the one I was trying to take. I should have known you'd have all the information. Thanks, as always.

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  2. Joe: A good story. I was first alerted to this building years ago, by Zoe, when she worked at the Heritage Centre housed in St Peter's Church, Vauxhall, on the edge of the old Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens site. As a result of what she found out about Doulton, we began to collect the pottery produced at the factory, and if you have noticed in our house an excess of Victorian jugs and vases, this is the reason. Although we've not bought any pieces for years, I now "collect" (i.e. find and photograph) examples of Doulton pottery used architecturally. There are still quite a few examples around, and some of them are quite remarkable. I'll post one, easy to find in central London, but also easy to overlook, soon.

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  3. I have loved English pottery since I visited the Victoria and Albert museum, and had lunch in the cafeteria...a masterpiece of the potter's art in the columns, walls and even the toilets. I presume much of those fine tiles came from Black Prince Road.
    Do you think that version of Richad III with Sir Ian McKellan at about the 1:09 mark

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsGGjXZw1eQ

    would have been made on Black Prince Road?

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  4. STAG: I THINK a lot of the tiles in the V&A are Minton, but I will have to check. They're magnificent, whoever made them.

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  6. STAG: Oh - and thanks for the Richard III link. Should be seen by all those who appreciate sanitary ceramics. (Interesting theatrical interpretation of the change of gear in that opening speech, too.)

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  7. I am a long time collector of 19th century porcelain, but not Doulton. Partially because Doultonware didn't seem delicate and porcelain-ish enough.

    But you are right - the whole enterprise was a typically Victorian marriage of art and industry. And since I have only examined the art in the past, perhaps I should also look at the industry in the future.

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  8. Hels: Indeed. A lot of Doulton's pots were made in stoneware, which is inherently chunkier and heavier than porcelain. Actually I rather like this quality, and I think it sits well with the Arts and Crafts style decoration that was often applied to Doulton's pots in the late-19th century.

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  9. My husband and I have passed this building a few times and I can't help wondering who owns it now and whether it is being preserved. You can look through the windows and see papers lying around, I can't help wondering what history there is inside waiting to be further investigated.

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  10. Hi, my husband and I have passed this building a few times and wonder what history lies within - through the windows one can still see old papers lying around. Who owns the building now, and will it be preserved? Does anyone know what the interior is like?

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