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Royal Doulton Street Vendors

Yardley’s Old English Lavender Modeled by L. Harradine c.1924 Height: 8 3/4 in ROYAL DOULTON STREET VENDORS

Itinerant street vendors were rapidly disappearing from Charles Vyse London when Royal Doulton artists began to model Fellow London artist Charles Vyse also venerated London’s figurines romanticizing their bohemian lifestyles and hardy street people with his portraits of the Madonna of the costumes. In the late 19th century it is estimated there Racecourse and Madonna of World’s End Passage, an area were more than 2,000 flower girls at work in Britain’s in Chelsea near Vyse’s pottery studio. During the 1920s, capital city. They bought their stock at Covent Garden, Vyse modeled a series of street vendors, which were the central market for fruit, vegetables and flowers, and slip-cast in very complex molds and accessorized with prepared bunches or button-holes to sell. In the winter, hand-made flowers before being painted by his wife Nell. when fresh cut flowers were not available, the women Each figure was decorated uniquely with different fabric switched to selling lavender, oranges or other trinkets. patterns and colors. His Piccadilly Rose Woman of 1922 is a superb example of their craftsmanship with the basket overflowing with moss roses, fashioned petal by petal. Vyse exhibited his street vendors at the Royal Academy and other major art galleries and his work had a huge influence on Royal Doulton’s HN figurine collection. In the mid-1920s, the Doulton factory started making flowers petal by petal and the intricately detailed blooms were used to accessorize Harradine’s figurines of street vendors.

Royal Doulton Street Vendors with Covent Garden background

Sweet Lavender Lavender sellers with their babies were the inspiration for Royal Doulton’s first street vendors, the Madonna of the Square and The Lavender Woman. They were modeled by Phoebe Stabler, a London sculptor who sold Royal Doulton the rights to reproduce her work in the new HN series. Launched in 1913, both figures were so popular that they were made in many different colorways for over 30 years. Although modeled from life in the streets of London, the statuesque poses and simplified robes of Phoebe’s Stabler’s subjects are reminiscent of devotional sculptures of the Madonna and Child. Yardley’s Advertisement, 1925 Madonna of the Racecourse, 1926

- 2 - Pascoe & Company The Cries of London ‘sweet China oranges’ as theater refreshments and caught Leslie Harradine began modeling figurines for the HN the eye of King Charles II. Nell became a royal mistress in collection in 1920 and his first street vendor subject 1668 and was still considered a famous beauty in the 1930s was a commission from Yardley’s of London to advertise when Harradine based his figurine on a Players cigarette their lavender products. Ahead of the times, this famous card design. Provocative orange sellers in Restoration era perfume company had adopted as their trademark one London had a reputation for providing sexual favors but few of Francis Wheatley’s Cries of London, a series of 14 enjoyed long term patronage like Nell Gwyn. Harradine paintings depicting itinerant street sellers. Wheatley also portrayed a weary old Orange Lady from the Victorian was born in Covent Garden so was ideally qualified to era, which became one of his best-selling street vendors. portray the hawkers whose cries echoed in the streets around the market where he grew up. Wheatley’s Eliza Doolittle original paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy The rags to riches story of a London street seller occurs in the early 1790s and were engraved many times again in George Bernard Shaw’s popular play Pygmalion over the years. The second cry was ‘Two bunches a of 1912. A professor of phonetics trains a bedraggled penny, primroses’ but Yardley’s swapped the flowers Cockney flower seller to pass for a duchess with lessons for bunches of lavender in their trademark design. in elocution and etiquette. Eliza Doolittle’s charmed life from Covent Garden to elegant garden party also inspired the successful film of My Fair Lady in 1964. However, life for most flower sellers was anything but a ‘bed of roses’. They were out in all weathers trying to sell cut flowers for genteel ladies to arrange at home or button-holes for fine gentlemen to wear. The annual Primrose Day was one of the flower sellers’ most prosperous days as customers would wear primroses to pay tribute to Benjamin Disraeli, the British Prime minister who was a favorite of Queen Victoria. She sent a wreath of primroses to his funeral on April 19th, 1881 and his statue in London continues to be garlanded with flowers on the anniversary of his death.

Francis Wheatley engraving of ‘Turnips and Carrots’ Harradine obviously enjoyed Yardley’s commission because he followed it with two more figurines derived from Wheatley’s engravings, London Cry, Strawberries and London Cry, Turnips and Carrots. These 18th century designs tied in with Harradine’s other great interest which was the revival of the Chelsea porcelain figurines. His fascination led to several street vendors in romanticized rural costumes, including Spring Flowers, The Orange Seller and Nell Gwyn. The comic actress began by selling

Pascoe & Company - 3 - The Flower Seller’s Children Many of Harradine’s figurines evoke the hard life experienced by women trying to earn a living on the streets of London. His portrayal of The Little Mother was originally titled The Young Widow reflecting her reduced circumstances but the name was considered too sad and quickly changed. Babies and young children often accompanied the flower sellers attracting more sympathetic customers. One of Harradine’s most famous figurines The Flower Seller’s Children was apparently sketched on the cuff of his evening shirt after a night out in London before being modeled in his studio. Illustration by Arthur Rackham from ‘Peter Pan in Buttons and Balloons Kensington Gardens’ London street traders have their own royal families known of Biddy Penny Farthing and the Old Balloon Seller are as pearly kings and queens. Henry Croft, the first ‘pearly similar in style. For these models, the balloons were cast king’, was a road sweeper who separately in molds and assembled piece by piece. Before began decorating his suit with the balloons were bunched together, the figure maker pearl buttons in the 1870s to help had to pierce a hole in each one to permit the air trapped him raise money for charity. In inside to escape. Otherwise the figure would expand the early 1900s, all the London and shatter as it passed through the kiln at temperatures boroughs elected their own pearly around 1260 degrees. The Doulton figure makers must king and queen, often from the have been the only people to burst balloons in order to local costermonger community, keep them intact! The enduring popularity of Harradine’s purveyors of fruit and vegetables. balloon sellers led to more successful characters by Bill The children of the pearly families Harper and Peter Gee in the 1980s, including the first are also bedecked in pearl miniature version of the classic Old Balloon Seller in 1989. buttons and Harradine portrayed these ‘princes’ and ‘princesses’ as HN figurines in the early 1930s. London Pearly Boy

Balloons are an iconic feature of the Royal Doulton figurine collection and have made a delightful addition to celebrations and holidays for more than a century. A Victorian London balloon seller was made famous in J. M. Barrie’s story Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, first published in 1906. In Arthur Rackham’s humorous illustration, astonished passers-by watch an old balloon seller being floated into the air having let go of the railings. Old Balloon Seller being No doubt Leslie Harradine knew this book as his figurines assembled at Royal Doulton

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Madonna of the Square HN1968 Lavender Woman HN569 Modeled by P. Stabler Modeled by P. Stabler 1941 Height: 7 in 1924 Height: 8 ¼ in Also HN 1969, 2034 Also HN22

Flower Sellers Children HN1342 Modeled by L. Harradine 1921 Height: 8 ¼ in Also HN1206

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London Cry Strawberries HN749 London Cry Turnips & Carrots HN771 Modeled by L. Harradine Modeled by L. Harradine 1925 Height: 6 ¾ in 1925 Height: 6 ¾ in Also HN752

Spring Flowers HN1945 Nell Gwyn HN1887 Modeled by L. Harradine Modeled by L. Harradine 1940 Height: 7 ¼ in 1938 Height: 6 ¾ in Also HN1807 Also HN1882

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Daffy Down Dilly HN1713 Odds and Ends HN1844 Modeled by L. Harradine Modeled by L. Harradine 1935 Height: 7 ¾ in 1938 Height: 7 ¾ in Also HN1712

Orange Seller HN1325 Orange Lady HN1953 Modeled by L. Harradine Modeled by L. Harradine 1929 Height: 7 in 1940 Height: 8 ¾ in Also HN1759

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Blossom HN1667 Curly Knob HN1627 Modeled by L. Harradine Modeled by L. Harradine 1934 Height: 6 ¾ in 1934 Height: 6 in

Granny’s Heritage HN1873 Modeled by L. Harradine 1938 Height: 6 ¾ in Also HN1874

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Little Mother/Young Widow HN1399 Modeled by L. Harradine 1930 Height: 8 in

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All a Blooming HN1466 Bonnie Lassie HN1626 Modeled by L. Harradine Modeled by L. Harradine 1931 Height: 6 in 1934 Height: 5 ¼ in

Old Lavender Seller HN1571 Primroses HN1617 Modeled by L. Harradine Modeled by L. Harradine 1933 Height: 6 ¼ in 1934 Height: 6 ½ in

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Dolly Varden HN1514 Romany Sue HN1757 Modeled by L. Harradine Modeled by L. Harradine 1932 Height: 8 ¼ in 1936 Height: 9 ¼ in

Flower Seller HN789 Sweet Lavender HN1373 Modeled by L. Harradine Modeled by L. Harradine 1926 Height: 8 ¾ in 1930 Height: 9 in

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Balloon Seller HN583 Biddy Penny Farthing HN1843 Modeled by L. Harradine Modeled by L. Harradine 1923 Height: 9 in 1938 Height: 9 in

Old Balloon Seller HN3737 Silks and Ribbons Colorway Modeled by L. Harradine Modeled by L. Harradine 1999 Height: 7 ½ in 2000 Height: 6 in Also HN1315

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Balloon Man HN1954 Balloon Lady HN2935 Modeled by L. Harradine Modeled by P. Gee 1940 Height: 7 ¼ in 1984 Height: 8 ¼ in

Balloon Girl HN2818 Balloon Boy HN2934 Modeled by W. K. Harper Modeled by P. Gee 1982 Height: 6 ¼ in 1984 Height: 7 ¼ in

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Pearly Boy HN1547 Pearly Girl HN1548 Modeled by L. Harradine Modeled by L. Harradine 1933 Height: 5 ¼ in 1933 Height: 5 ¼ in Also HN1482 Also HN1483

Pearly Boy HN2767 Pearly Girl HN2769 Newsboy HN2244 Modeled by W. K. Harper Modeled by W. K. Harper Modeled by M. Nicoll 1988 Height: 7 ¼ in 1988 Height: 7 ¼ in 1959 Height: 8 ½ in

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Rag Doll Seller HN2944 Stop Press HN2683 Modeled by R. Tabbenor Modeled by M. Nicoll 1984 Height: 7 in 1977 Height: 7 ½ in

Silks and Ribbons Prototype Old Balloon Seller HN2129 Tuppence a Bag HN5087 Modeled by L. Harradine Modeled by W. K. Harper Modeled by M. Nicoll c.1989 Height: 3 ½ in 1989 Height: 3 ½ in 2007 Height: 4 in UNIQUE

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Pascoe & Company - 15 - Piccadilly Rose Modeled by C. Vyse 1922 Height: 8 ¼ in

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