The Royal Doulton company began as a partnership between
John Doulton, Martha Jones, and John Watts, as Doulton bought (with £100) an interest in an existing factory at Vauxhall Walk,
Lambeth, London, where Watts was the foreman. They traded as Jones, Watts & Doulton from 1815 until Martha Jones left the partnership in 1820, when the trade name was changed to Doulton & Watts. The business specialised in making
salt glaze stoneware articles, including utilitarian or decorative bottles, jugs and jars, much of it intended for inns and pubs. In 1826 they took over a larger existing pottery on Lambeth High Street. The company took the name
Doulton & Co. in 1854 after the retirement of John Watts in 1853, and a merger with Henry Doulton and Co. (see below), although the trading name of Doulton & Watts continued to be used for decades. For some of the 19th century there were three different businesses, run by the sons of John Doulton, and perhaps with cross-ownership, which later came back together by the end of the century. By 1897 the total employees exceeded 4,000.
Pipes and other utilitarian wares Manufacturing of circular ceramic
sewage pipes began in 1846, and was highly successful; Henry Doulton set up his own company specializing in this, Henry Doulton and Co., the first business to make these. This merged with the main business in 1854.
Decorative wares , 1876 By the 1860s Henry Doulton became interested in more artistic wares than the utilitarian ceramics which had grown the business enormously. British stoneware had languished somewhat in artistic terms, although
Wedgwood and others continued to produce
jasperware and some other stonewares in a very refined style, competing with
porcelain. The Doulton wares went further back to earlier
salt-glazed styles, with a varied glaze finish. This "gave stoneware an entirely new impetus, realizing the potential of the material". As the company became interested in diversifying from its utilitarian wares into more decorative objects, it developed a number of
earthenware and stoneware bodies. The so-called "Lambeth faience" (from 1872) was "a somewhat heavily potted
creamware much used in decorative plaques and vases", Other bodies were called "Impasto" (1879); "Silicon" (1880), "a vitrified unglazed stoneware decorated with coloured clays"; "Carrara" (1887), white earthenware, also used as architectural terracotta; "Marquetrie" (1887), "marbled clays in checker work", then glazed; "Chine" impressed with fabrics to texture the clay, these burnt away in the kiln. By 1871, Henry Doulton, John's son, launched a
studio at the Lambeth pottery, and offered work to designers and artists from the nearby
Lambeth School of Art. The first to be engaged was
George Tinworth followed by artists such as the Barlow family (
Florence, Hannah, and Arthur), Frank Butler, Mark Marshall, Eliza Simmance and
John Eyre.
John Bennett was in charge of the "Lambeth faience" department until he emigrated to America in 1876, where he had success with his own pottery. Doulton was rather unusual in that most of the Lambeth studio pieces were signed by the artist or artists, usually with initials or a monogram incised on the base. Many are also dated. Until 1882, "every piece of the company's art stoneware was a unique item" but after that some pieces were made in batches, as demand grew. There were initial technical difficulties in producing the "art" pieces; at first they were fired in the open kiln with other wares, but later
saggars were used. They were not especially profitable, sometimes not profitable at all, but there were huge profits in other parts of the business. Like other manufacturers, Doulton took great trouble with the wares submitted to international exhibitions, where it was often a medal winner. The period 1870–1900 saw "the great years of Doulton's art stoneware", which remains popular with collectors. In 1882, Doulton purchased the small factory of Pinder, Bourne & Co, at Nile Street in
Burslem, Staffordshire, which placed Doulton in the region known as
The Potteries. File:Jug (England), 1869–72 (CH 18609557) (cropped).jpg|Vase, 1869–72, salt-glazed Lambeth stoneware with incised and relief decoration File:Beaker vase MET DP704010 (cropped).jpg|Incised Lambeth stoneware by
Hannah Barlow, 1874 File:Flask with Squirrels LACMA M.2001.97.2 (cropped).jpg|Flask with Squirrels, 1875, salt-glazed stoneware,
Hannah Barlow, Lambeth File:Moon flask MET DT6044.jpg|Moon flask, , lead-glazed earthenware, transfer-printed and gilt File:Vase MET DP704012 (cropped).jpg|Lambeth stoneware vase, 1879, by Frank A. Butler File:Tankard (England), 1884 (CH 18482927) (cropped).jpg|Three-handled tankard, Lambeth stoneware, 1884 File:Teapot And Lid (England), 1887–1900 (CH 18802717) (cropped).jpg|Teapot in
Marquetrie ware, using different clays, stoneware, 1887–1900 File:Painted Vase, , Royal Doulton, part of World's Columbian Exposition display - Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago) - DSC06657.JPG|Vase, , part of the
World's Columbian Exposition display in Chicago File:William hodkinson per doulton & co., ltd., vaso in porcellana, staffordshire UK 1891-1902, 02.jpg|Bone china vase, Burslem, , by William Hodkinson File:Plate (AM 8535-1) (cropped).jpg|
Laburnham pattern transfer-printed plate, typical of the middle-market bone china tableware made at Burslem File:Plate (AM 1972.107-1).jpg|Burslem bone china plate from
Captain Scott's first expedition, marked
"DISCOVERY" ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 1901 around a penguin
Architectural ceramics , New Zealand, 1906 Doulton also manufactured
architectural terracotta (in fact usually stoneware), mainly at Lambeth, and would execute commissions for
monumental sculpture in terracotta. Their late Victorian catalogues contained a wide range of architectural elements with, for example, tall Tudor-style chimney pots in many different designs. The
Tudor originals of these were built up in shaped brick, but Doultons supplied them in a single piece. There were ranges of small Gothic arches, columns and capitals. When the
Anglican St. Alban's Church was built in
Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1887 with
Alexandra, Princess of Wales as one of the driving forces, Doulton donated and manufactured an
altarpiece, a
pulpit and a
font. They were executed in
terracotta with glazed details to the design of Tinworth. The
Hotel Russell in
Russell Square (1900) has a large facade in buff terracotta, including life-size statues of "British queens" by
Henry Charles Fehr, sculpted coats of arms and other large ornamental elements. This was somewhat old-fashioned for 1900, and the new taste for
Art Nouveau favoured the glazed white "Carrara" material, which remained popular through to the
Art Deco of the 1930s, often combined with bespoke decoration in bright colours, as at the
Turkey Cafe in
Leicester, also of 1900.
William James Neatby was the Royal Doulton's chief designer from 1890 to 1901 and designed some of the finest
Modern Style (British Art Nouveau style) architectural ceramics and sculptures.
Everard's Printing Works is a leading surviving example of an exterior in Doulton's Carrara
glazed architectural terra-cotta. One of the largest schemes they made is , now in
Glasgow Green, given by Sir
Henry Doulton for the
International Exhibition of 1888. When the over life-size statue at the top was destroyed in a lightning strike in 1901, Doulton paid for a second hand-made statue to be produced. Sir Henry's
mausoleum is another fine example of Doulton's exterior terracottas, as are the
pedimental sculptures for the department store
Harrods (1880s). File:Building on Corner of Lambeth High Street - geograph.org.uk - 168449.jpg|The surviving
Southbank House of Doulton's former headquarters in Lambeth, showing off their
architectural terracottas File:DoultonFountain-2017 (cropped).jpg|,
Glasgow Green, 1888 File:St Albans Church Copenhagen pulpit (cropped).jpg|The pulpit in
St. Alban's Anglican Church in Copenhagen, Denmark, donated and manufactured by Doulton File:West Norwood Cemetery – 20181026 121502 (45569936881).jpg|Sir
Henry Doulton Mausoleum,
West Norwood Cemetery, File:Maison Doulton.jpg|The "Maison Doulton" in
Maisons-Laffitte near Paris, File:Hotel Russell on Russell Square, London - April 2007.jpg|
Hotel Russell on
Russell Square, London, 1900 File:Putti 0225cc.jpg|
Putti on sculptural columns on the
Hotel Russell facade File:Bâtiment Art Nouveau à Leicester.jpg|The
Turkey Cafe in
Leicester, 1900,
Art Nouveau in "Carrara" white
glazed architectural terracotta File:Broad Street -Edward Everard.jpg|Edward Everard printworks, Bristol, 1901, with "Carrara" white
glazed architectural terracotta File:Royal Doulton 4115068724 bef06891a2.jpg|Detail of frieze
Pottery through the Ages for the exterior of Doulton's Lambeth headquarters, 1939, now V&A Museum By this time Doulton was popular for stoneware and ceramics, under the artistic direction of
John Slater, who worked with
figurines, vases, character jugs, and decorative pieces designed by the prolific
Leslie Harradine. Lambeth continued to make
studio pottery in small quantities per design, often in stoneware and typically ornamental forms like vases, while Burslem made larger quantities of more middle market bone china tablewares and figures. By 1904 over 1,200 people were employed at Burslem alone. The retirement and death of Sir Henry Doulton, both in 1897, led to the company going public at the start of 1899. ==20th century==