Royal Doulton Military Cartoons Jug ~ H.M. Bateman

Rare piece – gold painted handle – Royal Doulton jug that has 3 Military Cartoons on it.  At the front is a single soldier with a rifle, the one side has two soldiers marching ang the other side has a commander.  Unfortunately at the back there are a couple of hairline cracks as seen in the photos.  But since it is so rare, we forgive it.

The artist is Australian H.M. Bateman.

To many admirers of the art of the cartoon, H.M. Bateman is the most original, the most various, the most brilliant – and, indeed, the funniest – genius of his times. Born in 1887, he was already drawing for publication in his early teens. Surprisingly, prolific and inventive, everything he saw became material, so that his work can be read as a social history of Britain in the first half of the 20th Century and, to an extraordinary degree, as a kind of autobiography. His family and friends; his trips to the fair, to the seaside, abroad; his passions for the Music Hall, for tap-dancing, for boxing, for fishing, for golf; his desperate experiences in the First World War; his car, his house, his vacuum-cleaner; his triumphs and disasters over many years – all find their way in to his cartoons.

There are specific collectors for his seriesware illustrations – they are termed as rare among collectors who appreciate the humour of his scenes and when they do turn up even on small items they regularly reach three figure sums! His designs on Doultonware feature a facsimile signature and from experience date to 1937-8.