Royal Doulton Figurine In the Stocks HN2163

In the Stocks (HN2163) was designed by Mary Nicoll and issued by Royal Doulton from 1955 to 1959, standing 5.75 inches tall. The figure depicts a man confined in the stocks, the old English village punishment that locked the offender by his wrists and ankles for public display — a subject that Nicoll treats with the dry, good-humoured wit she brought to the best of her character work. There is no cruelty in the telling, only the wry comedy of a man making the best of an undignified predicament, a quality that gives the figure its enduring appeal.

It is a subject with deep roots in English folk tradition and theatrical comedy, from the village green to Shakespeare's stage, and Nicoll understood that territory instinctively. The figure sits in natural company alongside Nicoll's other character studies from the same era — The Fiddler, The Craftsman — but brings something more comic and more purely English to the collection.

Production closed in 1959 after just four years, and In the Stocks has never been reissued. It remains a distinctly scarce piece, infrequently seen in the current market. Fully insured shipping across Canada with tracking.