Royal Doulton Shakespeare (1564-1616) Portrait Rack Plate D6303 Famous English Literary Figures Series Vintage 1960s

ROYAL DOULTON PRODUCED THE PORTRAIT RACK PLATE SERIES OF FAMOUS LITERARY FIGURES  FROM 1936 TO 1968. THIS PLATE FEATURES SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616) WHICH WAS ONE OF ENGLANDS MOST FAMOUS WRITERS.
 
SHAKESPEARE CREATED MANY MEMORABLE CHARACTERS IN HIS NOVELS AND STORIES SOME WHOSE PORTRAITS AND NAMES ARE DISPLAYED AROUND THE OUTER RIM OF THE PLATE. Famous characters from his novels depicted on the plate are Rosalind, Touchstone, King Lear, Othello, Portia, Macbeth, Katharine, Malvolio, Henry V, Richard III, Falstaff and Shylock.
 
THESE SHAKESPEARE PORTRAIT PLATES WERE ISSUED FROM 1936 TO 1968 IN AROUND 3 DIFFERENT VERSIONS. Royal Doulton head rack plates of literary figures included as far as I can tell 3 figures 'Robert Burns 1759-1796', Charles Dickens 1812-1870', 'Shakespeare 1564-1616', all 26.5 cm diameter.
 
THE PLATE IS IN NICE SHAPE WITH NO DAMAGE. NICE SHINE AND VIVID COLORS. MARKED ON THE BACK WITH ROYAL DOULTON STAMP AND D6303. DATES TO THE 1960'S.

Great Decorative Plate for the Shakespeare and Royal Doulton seriesware collectors.
 
SIZE: 26,5CM DIAMETER 2,5CM HIGH
 
CONDITION: NO CHIPS. NO CRACKS. ARTWORK BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL. NOTE HANGING BRACKET AT BACK AND STAND IS NOT INCLUDED.
 
ROYAL DOULTON:
In 1899 the Doulton studio recruited a young designer by the name of Charles Noke.
He is now regarded as the brainchild behind Royal Doulton seriesware, a range of products were standard blank pottery shapes (everything from plates to jugs, bowls to vases and teapots) could be decorated with a consistent theme.
Production continued at the Lambeth factory until 1956, after which Doulton concentrated on their activities at Burslem.
It has a 'family' of English brands, having merged with Minton in 1968, and gaining Royal Albert from the merger with AEP in 1971. And, in 2005, these historic names became part of the Waterford Wedgwood group.
It is now part of WWRD Holdings Ltd. the name being an acronym for the main components of the business: Waterford Chrystal, Wedgwood and Royal Doulton.
 
MARKINGS:
ON BACK THE STANDARD ROYAL DOULTON BACKSTAMP. INITIALLY SERIESWARE FEATURED THE SPECIAL SERIESWARE LIKE DICKENSWARE BACKSTAMP. LATER ON THEY FEATURED THE STANDARD BACKSTAMP. AFTER 1930 THE CHARACTER NAME WAS ADDED UNDERNEATH THE BACKSTAMPS.
 
ROYAL DOULTON SERIESWARE:
Royal Doulton Seriesware was the marketing "genius" of Charles Noke who joined Doulton at Burslem in 1889 and later became the companies Art Director.
Some of the most identifiable Doulton Seriesware includes patterns such as Coaching Days, Dickensware, Shakespearean, Under the Greenwood Tree (Robin Hood), Blue Children, Gaffers and the Professionals series.
In conceptualising Royal Doulton's seriesware, Noke devised a scheme for employing a vast number of standard "blank shapes" including plates, vases, trays and jugs and decorating them with a wealth of popular imagery that was drawn from many Literary, Sporting, Geographic, Nostalgic and Historical sources. The premise was never to have items like trios, teasets or dinner sets "perfectly matching" - but to encourage people to attempt to collect all of the scenes in their chosen pattern.
 
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)
There are literally hundreds of words either invented by or first recorded by Shakespeare, including loads we still use today. Shakespeare also invented lots of popular phrases, including 'Break the ice', 'As luck would have it' 'Cruel to be kind' 'Green-eyed monster' and 'The world is my oyster'. Shakespeare's plays are set all over the place; Italy, France, Denmark, Scotland and Greece to name a few, but there is no evidence that Shakespeare ever left England. Many of his plays were based on existing folk stories, so he probably just used the locations he was given.
There's no exact and definite number of plays that Shakespeare wrote, as some of them have been lost to time, but the number comes out at about 39. His plays can generally be divided into three categories - Comedies, Tragedies and Histories. Comedies tend to have happy endings, tragedies sad endings, and histories are about real people that existed, like Julius Caesar and Henry V.
Shakespeare wrote over 150 sonnets alone, as well as several other poems. The sonnets were mostly love poems and contain some of the most famous lines in verse, such as 'Shall I compare thee to a summers day?'. Some of his poems, such as Lucrece are nearly two thousand lines long!
William Shakespeare has broken a lot of impressive records as a writer. Not only has he been translated into hundreds of languages, he is still the best selling playwright of all time. He's also the most filmed author, with hundreds of TV and film adaptations of his works having been made. Well done William!
 
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