Royal Doulton Figurine Buddies HN2546

Buddies (HN2546) was designed by W.M. Chance and issued by Royal Doulton from 1938 to 1960, standing 8.5 inches tall as part of the Child Study series. The subject is a small boy and his Great Dane — a pairing that captures something universal about the bond between a child and a dog far larger than he is, the scale difference only deepening the affection between them. It is one of the most warmly human subjects in the entire Child Study range.

Chance brought a sculptor's eye for naturalistic form to his Doulton work, and Buddies rewards close attention — the posture of the boy, the presence of the dog, and the quiet ease between them speak to an artist who understood animals and children equally well. The Great Dane in particular is rendered with the kind of anatomical confidence that sets the piece apart from more generic child-and-pet treatments.

The production run spanned more than two decades, from the eve of the Second World War through to 1960, making Buddies one of the longer-running pieces in the Child Study series. Examples that have survived in clean condition across that span are genuinely appealing — a pre-war design with the warmth and accessibility that has kept child studies among the most consistently collected subjects in the HN range.

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