Royal Doulton OId English Scenes The Gleaners Charger

Royal Doulton Old English Scenes "The Gleaners" charger, circa 1909-1930s, measuring 15" in diameter. This impressive display plate features a hand-painted transfer-decorated scene inspired by Jean-François Millet's iconic 1857 painting depicting peasant women gleaning wheat after the harvest. The charger showcases Royal Doulton's characteristic rich earth tones and careful hand-finishing, bringing this celebrated work of art into the decorative arts tradition.

This charger is part of Royal Doulton's innovative Seriesware line, the marketing genius of Charles Noke who joined Doulton at Burslem in 1889 and later became the company's Art Director. Noke devised a revolutionary scheme for employing standard blank pottery shapes and decorating them with popular imagery drawn from literary, sporting, geographic, nostalgic, and historical sources. The premise was never to have items perfectly matching but rather to encourage collectors to acquire all the scenes in their chosen pattern. Old English Scenes became one of the most popular series, capturing romanticized visions of rural English life that resonated deeply with collectors from the 1900s through the 1930s.

Jean-François Millet's "The Gleaners" (Des Glaneuses), completed in 1857, depicts three peasant women gleaning a field for stray stalks of wheat after harvest—a centuries-old right of the poor to collect leftovers from agricultural fields. The painting shows the women bent double in backbreaking repetitive labor, contrasting their austerity with the abundant harvest visible in the distance. Though initially criticized by French upper classes who saw it as glorifying the lower-class worker, the painting became one of Millet's most famous works and influenced countless artists including Pissarro, Renoir, Seurat, and van Gogh. The original now hangs in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, donated by Champagne magnate Madame Pommery in 1891.

Royal Doulton's adaptation of this masterwork brought fine art appreciation into the home through functional and decorative ceramics. The Gleaners pattern was produced on various shapes including plates, bowls, vases, and chargers, with pattern numbers including D3191 (introduced 1909), D6123, and D6394. Each piece was hand-decorated at the Burslem factory in Staffordshire, with transfer-printed outlines enhanced by hand-painted details and rich glazes. The Seriesware line became prolific in the 1920s and 1930s and continued for decades, making these pieces enduring examples of early 20th century British decorative ceramics.

This 15" charger represents one of the larger and more impressive formats for this pattern, suitable for wall display or as a centerpiece. The generous size allows the pastoral scene to be fully appreciated, capturing Millet's composition of dignified labor in the countryside. Old English Scenes pieces evoke nostalgic reverence for rural English traditions and connect the owner to both fine art history and the golden age of British ceramics collecting.

Perfect for collectors of Royal Doulton Seriesware, early 20th century British ceramics, and those who appreciate the intersection of fine art and decorative arts. Fully insured shipping across Canada with tracking.