Object Description
A rare and very stylish Doulton Lambeth Marqueterie Ware brown marbled art pottery bowl by Lambeth’s first Art Director Wilton Parker Rix (Doulton Lambeth 1868-1897) and dating from around 1895.
Rix became a trainee manager at Doulton Lambeth in 1868 rising to the position of taking charge of the embryonic art department two years later. He was responsible for setting up exhibitions and launching the new decorative ware. As the first art director he trained new artists and claimed to have worked with more than 1,000 recruits during his career at Doulton. Rix played an important part in the development of colored glazes and pigments suitable for salt-glazed firing. He also produced new earthenware used for Faience decoration, Silicon Ware and Marqueterie Ware, which he patented jointly with Henry Doulton in 1887. Rix was heavily involved in the community at Doulton and played a very important role in the development and success achieved. He left Doulton in 1897 to work for Thomasson’s, the color manufacturer in Stoke-on-Trent and then moved to Liverpool where he died in 1909.
Marqueterie Ware was one of the styles of pottery developed and introduced by Rix and due to the very fine nature of the pottery, and probably limited production, not a great deal has survived. This very fine hexagonal shaped bowl stands raised on a narrow round foot with a slightly recessed base with a panel shaped hexagonal upper body and with simple raised rim with small V cut designs to the edge. The bowl is made in a thin marbled slip clay combining tones of contrasting brown with blue and white and has a printed black Doulton & Rix’s Patent mark dated 12-7-1887 to the base although was made between 1892 and 1897. The bowl also has an old paper sale label attached to base and probably acquired in the 1970’s.