Royal Doulton Figurine The Tailor HN2174

The Tailor (HN2174) was designed by Mary Nicoll and issued from 1956 to 1959, standing 5 inches tall. Three years of production — one of the shortest windows in the character figure range, and a reliable indicator of a piece that collectors need to look for rather than simply finding in the usual channels.

Nicoll modelled The Tailor as part of a sustained programme of occupation and craft studies in the mid-to-late 1950s, a series that includes The Fiddler HN2171, The Fortune Teller HN2159, The Organ Grinder HN2173, and The Beggar HN2175 among others. The tailor is a figure of focused concentration at his work — the seated craftsman bent to his trade — and Nicoll brought to the subject the same close observation of working posture and professional detail that made her occupational figures so consistently compelling. There is a weight and specificity to these figures that the Pretty Ladies range, for all its charm, rarely attempts.

The 1956–1959 window means every example of HN2174 was produced within three years before withdrawal, and Nicoll's character studies from this period are among the less commonly encountered pieces on today's market. Collectors who pursue the occupation series find The Tailor a particularly worthwhile subject — it is harder to find than its companions, and its compact scale belies the quality of the modelling within it.

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