| In 1899
the Doulton studio recruited a young designer by the name of Charles
Noke. He is now regarded as the brainchild behind doulton seriesware,
a scheme in which a range of standard blank shapes (everything from
plates to jugs, bowls to vases and teapots) could be decorated with
a consistent theme.
 Initially,
Charles John Noke was a gifted ceramic designer at the Royal Worcester
factory and later became the senior designer and modeller for Royal
Doulton from 1889
Born in Worcester in 1858, only a
short distance from the cathedral and the Royal Worcester works,
Charles was the son of a well respected antique dealer.
From the earliest age he showed a great interest in the contents
of his fathers shop and particularly his private collection of vases
and figures from most of the major english and european porcelain
factories. 
Nokes father was great friends with R W
Binns the former partner of W H Kerr and art director of
the newly reformed Worcester Royal
Porcelain Company. Binns admired Charles’s appreciation
of antique ceramic art and encouraged him to spend time wandering
around the worcester factory and talking to the employees.
He would stand and watch the artists and potters at work, asking
a quiet question here and there, slowly absorbing the atmosphere
and activity of the great porcelain works. Wandering freely throughout
the factory and would end most of his visits at the modelling room
of James Hadley.
James Hadley was a critically acclaimed
modeller having shown his work at international exhibitions in London
and Vienna and was already known to Charles from social visits with
his father. Hadley eventually allowed Charles Noke to take home
some modelling clay and was surprised when he returned with models
of an elephant and a court jester that demonstrated a good understanding
of form and loads of promise.
In 1873, at the age
of fifteen Noke signed an apprenticeship under Hadley and Binns
to become a modeller and enrolled on a part time basis at the Worcester
college of design.
 While
Charles was still serving his apprenticeship Hadley left the factory
and set up as an independent designer. Noke continued his term under
Binns and other factory modellers like George Owen; but almost all
of Hadley’s independent work was being bought by the factory
and there was still a great deal of contact with him and noke would
often be sent to help Hadley in his own workshops. It was inevitable
that Noke should be greatly influenced by Hadley’s style and
you can see this in a great deal of his early work.
Charles served his apprenticeship and stayed with the Royal Worcester
factory for sixteen years, taking over much of the in house design
work that had formerly been done by Hadley.
His work was shown at national exhibitions and he built up a formidable
reputation as a skilled modeller of ornamental vases and figurines
that led to John Slater, director of the Doulton works in Burslem,
approaching him with an offer of work as chief designer.
In 1889 Charles Noke
accepted an offer from Royal Doulton and moved to the potteries
Henry Doulton had a very unusual work policy at his art pottery
allowing his designers work entirely within their own desires. There
was no laid down ‘Doulton Style’ which needed to be
followed and the only direction they were steered in was one of
total freedom of expression in whatever form of ceramic artwork
they chose to pursue.
This was based on a simple premise that artistic designers had
a burning desire to produce art and that this should not be restricted
by confining their designs to a particular theme. It was a policy
that paid off and Doulton had a reputation for producing large volumes
of high quality art work that spread across the world. It was an
ideal platform for Noke’s talents.
In 1893 - Charles Noke’s first
pieces for Doulton appeared at the Chicago world fair and won him
great acclaim and he went on to produce great designs in ornamental
ceramics that are highly prized today. He was the inventor (together
with Bernard Moore ) of the famous Doulton Flambe glazes which first
appeared in 1904 as well as the Chang ware and Chinese Jade that
is so popular with collectors.
Most popular of all of Charles Noke’s work are his figurines.
Noke was always interested in modelling the human form and his great
desire was to re-instate Staffordshire as the premier design centre
of ceramic figures. A tribute that had been paid to it over a hundred
years earlier but that it had subsequently lost.
 The
introduction of figures to a factories output was a risky business,
others had tried it recently and found the public ‘not ready
to respond’ but Noke was convinced that the market should
be there for the right type of model. He had produced numerous figures
in the past, many of them for Doulton which had been praised but
they formed a decorative part of other articles such as the celebrated
Columbus vase. His first solo productions owed much to the influence
of James Hadley and were produced in a hard ivory parian body and
glazed lightly with shades of pink and green. They were not that
successful.
In
1909 noke again became absorbed with figure making and after
discussions with Henry Doulton (the son of Henry and grandson of
John Doulton ) he assembled a small team of talented designers and
sculptors, to develop a new range of figure models. The figures
were three years in design before he felt they were ready to go
into production.
In 1912 - the first production run
coincided with a visit to the factory by King George and Queen Mary
and they were the first to see the new series of figures.
Queen Mary fell in love with one of them and she referred to it
as a ‘little darling’ and ordered several copies to
be sent to the palace. This particular model was originally made
by Charles Vyse (Darling. HN1) and the royal patronage lifted the
whole series and made them much easier to sell. 
Noke went on to produce a wide variety of both human and animal
figures over the next few years, notable among them being a study
of King Charles. Sales of these were steady rather than spectacular
but the launch of this series of figures was poorly timed in relation
to world events. World War One and the economic climate obviously
led to a great drop in interest for the arts and many of the work
force were involved in the conflict. They were not produced in large
numbers and this makes them even more desirable to today’s
collectors.
The Doulton studio released a succession of new designs each year
with Charles Noke being personally responsible for many of the original
drawings.
The subject matter ranged from historical characters and events
to popular characters in literature, sports, nostalgic English,
dickensian and popular pastimes.
Along with Fred Moore; Noke was also instrumental in developing
the sung and chang flambe wares
 In
1913, Noke was responsible for launching Royal Doulton’s
famous HN collection of Figurines and many of his early models reflect
his fascination with the theatre. The Jester is one of his best
known figurines and it was produced in many different colorways.
Noke was constantly experimenting with new glaze effects and he
developed a rich brown body called Kingsware which was used to make
whisky flasks, particularly for Dewar’s distillery. As Art
Director, he also perfected new types of Flambé decoration,
such as painted Sung and modeled Chang wares.
In 1930, Noke introduced
Royal Doulton’s first limited editions, a colorful range of
prestige Loving Cups and Jugs, modeled with scenes from literature,
history and royal occasions.
Finally, in 1934, Noke launched the
range of Character Jugs and Toby Jugs which are so collectible today.
He modeled the first two characters, John Barleycorn and Old Charley
and the striking double-faced jug of Mephistopheles.
Noke’s last model was a portrait jug of his war-time hero,
Winston Churchill, which he completed not long before his death
in 1941, aged 83.
His son, Cecil Jack Noke succeeded him as Royal Doulton’s
Art Director
A selection of work produced
or designed by Charles Noke.
The various
illustrations show examples of Charles Nokes fine work featuring
his favourite subjects, figures, historical commenoratives and character
jugs.
|
A
large size jug featuring shakespeare mask spout and decorated with
a band of figures from his various works, including Falstaff, Shylock,
MacBeth, etc.