Whitley Collection has been providing collectors around the world with the finest in English Art Pottery and ceramics for over 10 years. We carry the finest Royal Doulton pieces created at the Lambeth and Burslem studios in England: Stoneware, Figures, Loving Cups, and Animal Studies. We also specialize in other fine English art potters including Charles Vyse, Martin Brothers, Minton, Moorcroft, Wedgwood and William DeMorgan. Whitley Collection provides collectors around the world with the finest in Royal Doulton and other handmade pieces of antique pottery and ceramics. Our goal is to bring the highest quality products to our collectors - everything from hard-to-find pieces to the latest prestige releases from the Royal Doulton studios in England.

The Doulton Company, which became Royal Doulton after King Edward VII conferred an honorable royal warrant upon the pottery studio, was founded in 1815. The first art pottery was produced at Lambeth just outside of London and Burslem in Stoke-on-Trent, England during the 1880's. Charles Noke, one of the most prolific artists associated with the company, was responsible for modeling a majority of the early figurines and character studies. Since Royal Doulton's founding, countless hand sculpted variations of animals, figures, Beatrix Potter characters, Bunnykins, Flambé, Kingsware, Character and Toby Jugs, have become the signature art wares associated with the company.

In the 1860's, Henry Doulton became interested in the creative endeavors taking place at the Lambeth School of Art. Persuaded by John Sparkes, principal of the school, Henry employed a few students to work on an experimental basis with his stoneware material. He gave each of his new students free reign to experiment and develop his or her own unique style and created an artistic environment where no official guidelines had to be followed. Mark V. Marshall, Frank A. Butler and a host of other sculptors thrived at the new studio.

In 1871, Doulton’s studio employed its first female artist – Hannah Barlow.  Her name eventually became synonymous with the prestigious Lambeth art pottery.  Hannah also pioneered the employment of other women in the Lambeth potteries. Her forte was her ability to draw on paper and incise in damp clay the likeness of animals, using strokes while capturing their natural movements. During her most prolific period in the 1880s, Hannah was capable of producing thirty different original pieces each week and was assisted by reigning artists Emily Stormer and Eliza Simmance, as well as her own sister, Florence.

Charles Vyse was one of the most influential artists in Royal Doulton's history. He and wife, Nell, worked together during the inter-war years running a successful ceramic enterprise best known for colorful figurines of London characters sold in very limited editions. Due to their incredible model quality, detail, and exclusivity, any ceramic figure designed by the Vyses was and still is highly desirable and rare, coveted by any admirer or collector of fine art.

The Martin Brothers were considered to represent the transition from Victorian ceramics to twentieth century studio pottery in England. The four brothers (Wallace, Walter, Charles and Edwin) produced a distinctive type of stoneware pottery from the 1870s through to WWI and as late as 1923. They were best known for their bird sculptures and bowls, vessels decorated with sea creatures, and tiles, fashioned in a whimsical but highly skillful style.

Thomas Minton founded the Minton factory in 1793 in Stoke-upon-Trent, England. His factory was outstanding in the Victorian period for its art porcelains and was famous for Minton Ware, bone china and Parian porcelain. Until 1836, the factory's staple products consisted of unpretentious tablewares in painted or printed earthenware or bone china.

In 1897 pottery manufacturer James Macintyre & Co. Ltd. established a design studio within its works headed by 24 year-old William Moorcroft. By the late 1890s Moorcroft had introduced Florian Ware with strong art nouveau influences, produced by the technique of slipcasting or tubelining. This technique has been used in almost all of Moorcroft's art pottery ever since and is now its main distinction from other popular pottery manufacturers.

William Frend De Morgan was an English potter who designed tiles, stained glass and furniture for Morris & Co. from 1863 to 1872. He experimented with innovative glazes and firing techniques, often basing his tiles on medieval designs or Persian patterns. The arts and crafts ideology he was exposed to led him to explore every technical aspect of his craft. His inventive streak led him into complex studies of the chemistry of glazes, methods of firing, and pattern transfer.

Over 500 years ago Chinese potters first experimented with copper oxide glazes to create a fiery red finish. Armed with little technical information, Royal Doulton Art Director John Slater and Charles Noke, sought to revive the ancient technique known as flambé. After innumerable experiments and two years worth of hard work, the Doulton Company exhibited their wares at the St. Louis Exhibition in 1904 with great success. Today Royal Doulton's flambé and other transmutation glazes such as Chang and Sung are admired and desired throughout the art world.

Different in technique and appearance to Doulton’s earlier decorated stoneware, Lambeth Faience is today regarded as superior to many of the late Victorian art ceramics. Faience pieces appeared in a variety of designs, subject matter and colors as well as a diverse array of shapes and sizes. Made for a relatively short period, Faience pieces in good condition prove difficult to find and provide an exciting challenge for the collector.

Wedgwood has a tradition of innovation, quality and craftsmanship and its designs are widely acknowledged as timeless, elegant, classic and understated. The company has established exciting design partnerships with fashion designers, Jasper Conran, Vera Wang and artist Robert Dawson to develop contemporary and stylish ranges that appeal to the younger consumer.
Today, Wedgwood is known throughout the world for the quality of its products and its rich heritage.

Fairyland Lustre is a fanciful Wedgwood line that was designed by Daisy Makeig-Jones, an artist hired by Cecil Wedgwood as an apprentice painter in 1909. Two years later, Makeig-Jones, clearly talented, began to design tableware, and her attraction to the fanciful quickly became clear. In 1913, she began producing Oriental dragon patterns and went on to design lustre patterns of fish, hummingbirds, fruit, other natural subjects, and eventually her flamboyant Fairyland Lustre designs.  

Over the past forty years, Dale Chihuly’s glass sculptures have explored color, design, and assemblage. Although his work varies in size and color, he is best known for his multipart blown masterpieces. Also interested in Irish culture, he has produced a sizeable volume of "Irish cylinders," which are more modest in conception than his blown glass works. Chihuly is also known for occasionally using neon and argon to bring his work to life.

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