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      Dating Doulton Figurines

      Dating Royal Doulton Figurines today could not be more easy with the additional cyphers they started adding to the backstamps in the late 1990s to the backstamps. The earlier pieces it can get a bit tricky as there is so little information out there that is accurate and from I have found a lot of wrong information. 

      This section will deal only with the HN# line and not the earlier stoneware figurines , most of which the dating of those can be found in the Burslem and Lambeth Sections in this website. 

      The HN# line began in 1915 with the very first Figurines called Darling, almost all of the backstamp other than the crown and lion was hand written on as you can see from the photo below. This style of markings was used until the late 1940s, with small variations, early pieces will have the artists names. When the practice of dropping the artist name was stopped is unknown.

       Early Doulton Figurine Backstamp 1915-William Cross

      Most pieces that you will come across will look like this one below , 

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      Or like this one below and above , with the lion backstamp with the missing crown 1930-1940 . 

      The practice of adding a Registered number was started in 1932 and was used up into the late 1950s 

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      Royal Doulton Figurine Backstamp 1932-1945 (above)

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      backstamp 1945-1959 (above)

      From 1927 to about 1958 on some pieces a date code was added to upper right hand side of the crown and lion back stamp. Starting with 1927 being 1, if you add that number to 1927 you can tell the exact year the piece was produced. Sadly this practice was dropped sometime in the very late 1950s. (see example below, 1942) 

       Dating Doulton by William Cross

      In the 1960s we start to see the dropping of the registered marks  and the crown and lion backstamp and the name and HN# typed in (transfer), like this one below, 

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      In the 1970 and 1982 a copyright date appears under the name, usually the following year was the actual issue date. 

       Dating Doulton by William Cross

      In early 1980s the backstamp changed again to this style below , which was used up into 1998. 

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      In 1999 Royal Doulton started a wonderful practice of adding a cypher symbol to the bottom of each new figurine, They are as follows, 

       Dating Doulton by William Cross

      1999 Top Hat

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      2000 Stopwatch 

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      2001 Waistcoat, appears on 2002 Figures

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      2002 Boot 

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      2003 Gloves

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      2004 Bottle Oven

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      2005 Henry Doulton Profile 

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      2006 Crown

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      2007 Lion 

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      4 ds 2008

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      2009 Angel

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      2011 Unicorn 

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      2012 Flower

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      2013

      Dating Doulton by William Cross

      2014