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Yardley’s Old English Lavender Modeled by L. Harradine c.1924 Height: 8 3/4 in Inside... Royal Doulton Street Vendors
highlights
Yardley’s Old English Lavender Modeled by L. Harradinec.1924 Height: 8 3/4 in
Inside...
Royal Doulton Street Vendors
Itinerant street vendors were rapidly disappearing from
London when Royal Doulton artists began to model
figurines romanticizing their bohemian lifestyles and
costumes. In the late 19th century it is estimated there
were more than 2,000 flower girls at work in Britain’s
capital city. They bought their stock at Covent Garden,
the central market for fruit, vegetables and flowers, and
prepared bunches or button-holes to sell. In the winter,
when fresh cut flowers were not available, the women
switched to selling lavender, oranges or other trinkets.
Sweet LavenderLavender 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.
ROYAL DOULTON STREET VENDORSCharles VyseFellow London artist Charles Vyse also venerated London’s
hardy street people with his portraits of the Madonna of the
Racecourse and Madonna of World’s End Passage, an area
in Chelsea near Vyse’s pottery studio. During the 1920s,
Vyse modeled a series of street vendors, which were
slip-cast in very complex molds and accessorized with
hand-made flowers before being painted by his wife Nell.
Each figure was decorated uniquely with different fabric
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.
Yardley’s Advertisement, 1925 Madonna of the Racecourse, 1926
Royal Doulton Street Vendors with Covent Garden background
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The Cries of LondonLeslie Harradine began modeling figurines for the HN
collection in 1920 and his first street vendor subject
was a commission from Yardley’s of London to advertise
their lavender products. Ahead of the times, this famous
perfume company had adopted as their trademark one
of Francis Wheatley’s Cries of London, a series of 14
paintings depicting itinerant street sellers. Wheatley
was born in Covent Garden so was ideally qualified to
portray the hawkers whose cries echoed in the streets
around the market where he grew up. Wheatley’s
original paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy
in the early 1790s and were engraved many times
over the years. The second cry was ‘Two bunches a
penny, primroses’ but Yardley’s swapped the flowers
for bunches of lavender in their trademark design.
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
‘sweet China oranges’ as theater refreshments and caught
the eye of King Charles II. Nell became a royal mistress in
1668 and was still considered a famous beauty in the 1930s
when Harradine based his figurine on a Players cigarette
card design. Provocative orange sellers in Restoration era
London had a reputation for providing sexual favors but few
enjoyed long term patronage like Nell Gwyn. Harradine
also portrayed a weary old Orange Lady from the Victorian
era, which became one of his best-selling street vendors.
Eliza DoolittleThe rags to riches story of a London street seller occurs
again in George Bernard Shaw’s popular play Pygmalion
of 1912. A professor of phonetics trains a bedraggled
Cockney flower seller to pass for a duchess with lessons
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’
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The Flower Seller’s ChildrenMany 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.
Buttons and BalloonsLondon street traders have their own royal families known
as pearly kings and queens. Henry Croft, the first ‘pearly
king’, was a road sweeper who
began decorating his suit with
pearl buttons in the 1870s to help
him raise money for charity. In
the early 1900s, all the London
boroughs elected their own pearly
king and queen, often from the
local costermonger community,
purveyors of fruit and vegetables.
The children of the pearly families
are also bedecked in pearl
buttons and Harradine portrayed
these ‘princes’ and ‘princesses’ as
HN figurines in the early 1930s.
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.
No doubt Leslie Harradine knew this book as his figurines
of Biddy Penny Farthing and the Old Balloon Seller are
similar in style. For these models, the balloons were cast
separately in molds and assembled piece by piece. Before
the balloons were bunched together, the figure maker
had to pierce a hole in each one to permit the air trapped
inside to escape. Otherwise the figure would expand
and shatter as it passed through the kiln at temperatures
around 1260 degrees. The Doulton figure makers must
have been the only people to burst balloons in order to
keep them intact! The enduring popularity of Harradine’s
balloon sellers led to more successful characters by Bill
Harper and Peter Gee in the 1980s, including the first
miniature version of the classic Old Balloon Seller in 1989.
London Pearly Boy
Old Balloon Seller being assembled at Royal Doulton
Illustration by Arthur Rackham from ‘Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens’
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Lavender Woman HN569Modeled by P. Stabler1924 Height: 8 ¼ in Also HN22
Madonna of the Square HN1968Modeled by P. Stabler1941 Height: 7 inAlso HN 1969, 2034
Flower Sellers Children HN1342Modeled by L. Harradine1921 Height: 8 ¼ inAlso HN1206
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royal doulton street vendors
London Cry Strawberries HN749Modeled by L. Harradine1925 Height: 6 ¾ in
Nell Gwyn HN1887Modeled by L. Harradine1938 Height: 6 ¾ inAlso HN1882
London Cry Turnips & Carrots HN771Modeled by L. Harradine1925 Height: 6 ¾ inAlso HN752
Spring Flowers HN1945Modeled by L. Harradine1940 Height: 7 ¼ inAlso HN1807
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royal doulton street vendors
Daffy Down Dilly HN1713Modeled by L. Harradine1935 Height: 7 ¾ inAlso HN1712
Orange Lady HN1953Modeled by L. Harradine1940 Height: 8 ¾ inAlso HN1759
Odds and Ends HN1844Modeled by L. Harradine1938 Height: 7 ¾ in
Orange Seller HN1325Modeled by L. Harradine1929 Height: 7 in
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royal doulton street vendors
Blossom HN1667Modeled by L. Harradine1934 Height: 6 ¾ in
Curly Knob HN1627Modeled by L. Harradine1934 Height: 6 in
Granny’s Heritage HN1873Modeled by L. Harradine1938 Height: 6 ¾ inAlso HN1874
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royal doulton street vendors
Little Mother/Young Widow HN1399Modeled by L. Harradine1930 Height: 8 in
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royal doulton street vendors
All a Blooming HN1466Modeled by L. Harradine1931 Height: 6 in
Primroses HN1617Modeled by L. Harradine1934 Height: 6 ½ in
Bonnie Lassie HN1626Modeled by L. Harradine1934 Height: 5 ¼ in
Old Lavender Seller HN1571Modeled by L. Harradine1933 Height: 6 ¼ in
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royal doulton street vendors
Dolly Varden HN1514Modeled by L. Harradine1932 Height: 8 ¼ in
Sweet Lavender HN1373Modeled by L. Harradine1930 Height: 9 in
Romany Sue HN1757Modeled by L. Harradine1936 Height: 9 ¼ in
Flower Seller HN789Modeled by L. Harradine1926 Height: 8 ¾ in
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royal doulton street vendors
Balloon Seller HN583Modeled by L. Harradine1923 Height: 9 in
Silks and Ribbons Colorway Modeled by L. Harradine2000 Height: 6 in
Biddy Penny Farthing HN1843Modeled by L. Harradine1938 Height: 9 in
Old Balloon Seller HN3737Modeled by L. Harradine1999 Height: 7 ½ inAlso HN1315
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royal doulton street vendors
Balloon Man HN1954Modeled by L. Harradine1940 Height: 7 ¼ in
Balloon Boy HN2934Modeled by P. Gee1984 Height: 7 ¼ in
Balloon Lady HN2935Modeled by P. Gee1984 Height: 8 ¼ in
Balloon Girl HN2818Modeled by W. K. Harper1982 Height: 6 ¼ in
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royal doulton street vendors
Pearly Boy HN1547Modeled by L. Harradine1933 Height: 5 ¼ inAlso HN1482
Newsboy HN2244Modeled by M. Nicoll1959 Height: 8 ½ in
Pearly Girl HN1548Modeled by L. Harradine1933 Height: 5 ¼ inAlso HN1483
Pearly Boy HN2767Modeled by W. K. Harper1988 Height: 7 ¼ in
Pearly Girl HN2769Modeled by W. K. Harper1988 Height: 7 ¼ in
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royal doulton street vendors
Rag Doll Seller HN2944Modeled by R. Tabbenor1984 Height: 7 in
Silks and Ribbons Prototype Modeled by L. Harradinec.1989 Height: 3 ½ inUNIQUE
Old Balloon Seller HN2129Modeled by W. K. Harper1989 Height: 3 ½ in
Stop Press HN2683Modeled by M. Nicoll1977 Height: 7 ½ in
Tuppence a Bag HN5087Modeled by M. Nicoll2007 Height: 4 in
Call your Pascoe Sales Advisor to add these pieces to your collection.
CONTACT US Mon-Fri 9am–6pm (eastern time) 1-800-872-0195Tom Munro …...…...ext.101Dan Powers ....…….ext.114Woody Wood .........ext. 113
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royal doulton street vendors
1871 NW North River Dr. • Miami, FL 33125 • 1-800-872-0195 • 305-326-0060www.pascoeandcompany.com
Copyright noticeAll rights reserved • Copyright © 2013 Pascoe & Company • Text © 2013 Louise Irvine. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise without the prior written permission of the copyright holders.
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Piccadilly Rose Modeled by C. Vyse1922 Height: 8 ¼ in
