Plate, 7.75 inches diameter. Brown transfer. Impressed maker's mark for Doulton & Co. The impressed "82" suggests a manufacture date of 1882. This romantic pattern features a large-scale flower arrangement resting on a ledge dominating the foreground. A sizeable classical urn sits behind on the left side with stairs, columns and an arched doorway in the background. The border contains several concentric rows beginning with fish roe at the rim and interlocking rings with a cross in the center. The next sections contain alternating stylized floral medallions and elongated floral vine panels. The innermost row consists of a repeating egg and dart motif. A variation of this pattern was produced by the firm preceding Doulton & Co., Pinder, Bourne & Co.
Doulton & Co. began as a partnership between John Doulton, Martha Jones, and John Watts at a factory in Lambeth, London in 1815. There, the business specialized in making stoneware articles, such as decorative bottles and salt glaze sewer pipes. Yet stoneware would be the making of this enterprise. The company took on the Doulton name in 1853 when John and his son Henry established themselves as makers of fine English stoneware. In 1877/1878 Doulton purchased a small factory from Pinder, Bourne & Co. at Nile Street in Burslem, Staffordshire, bringing Doulton right to the heart of The Potteries. Doulton became increasingly popular, thanks in large part to the artistic direction of John Slater, who worked across a wide variety of figurines, vases, character jugs, and decorative pieces. The works continued to be called Pinder, Bourne & Co. until early 1882, when it became Doulton & Co. Ltd. The sheer popularity of Doulton products also came to the attention of the Royal Family and in 1901 the Burslem factory was granted the Royal Warrant by the new King Edward VII. It was this that enabled the business to adopt a new backstamp and name: Royal Doulton.
