Spectre Royal DOULTON

Jack the English bulldog figurine, Jack a small seated English bulldog was used as a prop on the desk of Q in the famous 007 James bond franchise film skyfall.

He sits proudly on the desk in a few scenes and the reason for his presence there is something I had to research and I found this out, Jack the English bulldog, and James bond the character are both seen as dangerous but loyal to the bone, both to crown and country.

I also found out it was a way of ROYAL DOULTON getting some excitement back out there after not making any bulldog figurines for a while this was followed by Alfie patch and the other modern pieces on sale but there was a big difference this time.

For decades now ROYAL DOULTON have licensed out and commissioned to other factories and makers like UK Ceramics that made the DOULTON puppies and the waist coated limited edition pair often seen on other media formats so do not be surprised when I say all modern pieces over the last couple of years have been made very cheaply in Taiwan and exported world wide with silly prices paid when they first come out, as for my opinion they are ROYAL DOULTON related so worth keeping for decades to come if bought to invest.

In the late 30s a man at ROYAL DOULTON designed and created the factories first English bulldog figurine, the gentleman was called Charles stokes and this was the way he wanted to commemorate the bravery of the English armed forces, and why you will see most pieces in sets of three this is to signify the army the navy and the air force.

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In the early 1940s he designed pieces for each force and achieved this by keeping the same shape but adding new attire like hats cigars and different colours but sticking with traditional war time colours I even heard there was a paint shortage at certain points the factory carried on and the pieces missing the colour, are seen as very desirable as are any concept or trial pieces made back then.

The other popular pieces are the standing versions designed by Frederick Dawes also in sets of three and come in three colours too there is pure brindle, brindle pied, and pure white each with its own catalogue number and back stamp, the rarer white and brown piece X1176 was issued in 1956 and aimed at the American market and other than that the piece that alludes us all is the red flambe standing version its as rare as the lustre ware pot with the seated HN 881 on top.

Thank you Paul Smith for the use of your two pictures top fella amazing pieces .