Royal Doulton Lambeth | Slater's Patent Chine Ware Vase | X2031 | Decorator Initials HN | c.1887–1893

To press real lace into clay and fire it is an act of considerable confidence — the lace burns away in the kiln and leaves behind only its impression, which is either a loss or a transformation depending on how you look at it.

Royal Doulton's Slater's Patent Chine Ware represents one of the most technically inventive decorative processes in the history of British ceramics. The patent, jointly held by Doulton and John Slater — the firm's art director at the Lambeth works — was registered in 1885 and remained in production until approximately 1914. The process involved pressing actual lace fabric directly into the surface of the unfired clay body, leaving behind a precise impression of the lace weave before the fabric itself burned away in the kiln. The resulting surface texture — a fine, all-over reticulated ground of extraordinary delicacy — was then enriched with coloured enamels and gilding applied over and within the impressed ground, producing a finished surface of considerable complexity and visual depth. The technique drew on the Aesthetic Movement's interest in surface decoration and the influence of Japanese textile and ceramic art, and resulted in a body of work that is entirely unlike anything produced by any other British manufacturer of the period. Slater's Patent Chine Ware vases from the Lambeth works are actively collected internationally and large, well-preserved examples with strong gilding and intact enamel decoration are increasingly scarce.

This vase is of baluster form, rising from a stepped foot ring through a broad, ovoid body to a pronounced shoulder and a flared, trumpet-shaped neck with a wide, everted rim. The body is covered throughout in the characteristic Slater's Patent lace-impressed ground, the fine reticulated texture providing a complex foundation for the decoration applied over it. Scattered across the body in loose, naturalistic arrangements are floral sprays in turquoise and white enamel — five-petalled blossoms with raised, textured surfaces — interspersed with foliage and scrolling stems in gilded relief. The overall effect is one of considerable richness, the three tones of turquoise enamel, white enamel and burnished gold working together across the blue-grey lace ground with the depth and layering of a textile rather than a ceramic surface. The neck is glazed in a deep brown-black with a band of gilt acanthus leaf decoration below the rim, the leaves in pale gold against the dark ground. The foot is finished in a warm peach-gold lustre with a cobalt blue rim band and gilt line detail. Two horizontal bands of copper-toned lustre divide the body at the shoulder and waist. The piece bears the Doulton Lambeth backstamp, the pattern number X2031 — dating production to 1887–1893 — and the decorator's initials HN, identifying a Lambeth studio decorator whose full identity has not been established from available records.

There are no chips, cracks, crazing or restoration. The gilding is bright and intact throughout. The enamel decoration is fully preserved. The piece is in excellent condition.

Key Details

• Maker: Royal Doulton, Lambeth
• Process: Slater's Patent Chine Ware — lace-impressed clay ground with enamel and gilt decoration
• Pattern Number: X2031
• Date: c.1887–1893
• Decorator Initials: HN — Lambeth studio decorator; full identity unconfirmed
• Form: Baluster vase with everted rim
• Mark: Doulton Lambeth backstamp; X2031; decorator initials HN
• Condition: Excellent — gilding intact, enamel fully preserved, no damage

A vase decorated with the impression of lace that no longer exists is a record of something that burned away to make it — which is a reasonable description of most things worth keeping.