Royal Worcester - Freda Doughty
episode details: Flog It! - Series 5 - Cambridge
This item is a little sculpture by Royal Worcester, designed by Freda Doughty. This particular little figurine was appraised at somewhere between 70£ and 100£.
The Royal Worcester company has produced porcelain from 1751. It received its Royal warrant in 1789 and has kept this qualification since. Unfurtunately in 2008 the company was on the brink of disaster when it had to go into administration. The company was saved by a buy-out from rival Portmeirion Pottery in 2009.
Freda Doughty was 50% of a succesful pair of designing sisters - with Dorothy Doughty being the other half. The girls were born in Italy as the daughters of Charles Doughty, an English poet famous for being the author of ‘Arabia Deserta’ which was the inspiration for ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.
In the early 1920’s Royal Worcester was on the brink of destruction when they decided to invest in a product range from porcelain figurines and animals. Freda Doughty was one of the main designers who blew new life in the company with her, even back then, rather dated figurines that amazingly sold pretty well. In particular it were Freda’s porcelain figurines of children that really appealed to the crowd and are still selling well today in auctions.
