As Valentine’s Day approaches our thoughts turn to love and romance. Now is the time to choose a special gift for your sweetheart. One of Leslie Harradine’s most delightful figurines for Royal Doulton depicts Cupid being punished In the Stocks. In classical mythology, Cupid uses a bow and arrow to inspire romantic love. He has just shot his arrow in Lladró’s beautiful Gondola of Love, propelled by a fellow amorini.(illustrated below)

On January 25th, Scots all over the world will be celebrating Burns Night with a plate of haggis, tatties and neeps washed down with a dram of Scotch. Potatoes and turnips are the vegetables – don’t delve too deeply into the haggis!

Linnie Watt joined Doulton’s Lambeth studio in 1875 after a fire destroyed Minton’s Art Pottery Studio in London. She specialized in painting Faience plaques featuring idyllic rural scenes.  Apparently, she sketched a lot from nature and had the habit of bribing her human subjects to stand still. Unfortunately, they rarely did for more than a minute so she became a very rapid sketcher.
 

The notorious love affair of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton inspired a new style of Royal Doulton character jug with two portraits side by side rather than back to back, as in the earlier Star Crossed Lovers series. Bill Harper modeled the first ever double-headed jug in 1997 and followed it with the second and last design in 1998, featuring Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester.