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Royal Doulton Dickens Ware dinner plate decorated with an image of Fagin

Object | Accession Number: 2016.184.69

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    Royal Doulton Dickens Ware dinner plate decorated with an image of Fagin

    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    Dickens Ware series plate featuring an image of Fagin, made by Royal Doulton in England during the 20th century. Royal Doulton is an English ceramic manufacturer that specializes in artistically styled, decorated ceramics and tableware. In 1889, Charles Noke joined the company. He later introduced Doulton Series Ware, plates, and other items with decorations based on characters from popular culture. In 1908, Royal Doulton introduced the Dickens Ware series based on Charles Dickens’ characters, which was originally produced until 1937. A second run of the series was produced mid-century. On the plate, Fagin is portrayed with a beard and a large nose; both stereotypical physical features attributed to Jewish men. In “Oliver Twist,” Fagin is the villainous leader of a gang of children whom he has instructed in the ways of criminality. He attempts to corrupt the protagonist, Oliver, in the same manner. In the novel, Fagin is first seen hunched over a fire holding a toasting fork, imagery that reinforces the antisemitic stereotype of Jewish associations with the devil, due to its resemblance of a pitchfork. He is repeatedly referred to as “the Jew” in the book and is emphasized as a greedy, miserly, and cowardly character, all traits aligning with common antisemitic stereotypes. However, in a later edition of the novel, Dickens reduced his use of “the Jew,” substituting it for pronouns or other phrases. Even in this later version, Fagin is still repeatedly, and negatively, referred to as “the Jew” and remains emblematic of multiple antisemitic canards. Later writings by Dickens portrayed Jews in a more positive light, however, the reprehensible Fagin is his most remembered Jewish character. This plate is one of the more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.
    Date
    creation:  1908-approximately 1975
    Geography
    creation: England
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Katz Family
    Markings
    rear, top, handwritten, black ink : D2973 / N.
    rear, trademark, painted, brown paint : COPYRIGHT / [within a circular border around a central image of Charles Dickens] ROYAL·DOULTON DICKENS·WARE
    rear, below trademark, painted, brown paint : Fagin
    rear, center, impressed : (414?) / DOULTON
    Signature
    face, within image, bottom center, left of Fagin’s feet, handwritten, black ink : Noke
    Contributor
    Compiler: Peter Ehrenthal
    Manufacturer: Royal Doulton
    Designer: Charles Noke
    Biography
    The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures.

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Classification
    Household Utensils
    Category
    Tableware
    Genre/Form
    Pottery.
    Physical Description
    Circular, white, ceramic dinner plate painted with an interior scene of a man with a large nose and long gray beard, standing in front of a fireplace, clothesline, and sleeping mats. He wears a long, brown, sleeveless robe over a green, long-sleeved shirt and pinstriped, green pants. A red rag or handkerchief hangs from his waist pocket. His head is turned, looking back over his shoulder with a sidelong glance. The area below his feet is colored brown, while the ground around him is an off-white tone that fades into brown. In the background, there is a brick wall with a wood-planked floor in front. Along the wall, a pair of pants and two shirts are hanging from the clothesline, and a clotheshorse laden with clothes sits in front of a fireplace. The rim of the plate is edged in dark green. There is an artist’s signature near the man’s feet. The bottom of the plate bears a circular maker’s mark with a portrait image of a bearded man. A small piece of tape is adhered to the bottom.
    Dimensions
    overall: Height: 0.750 inches (1.905 cm) | Diameter: 7.500 inches (19.05 cm)
    Materials
    overall : ceramic, glaze, paint, ink, tape
    Inscription
    rear, on sticker, handwritten, blue ink : 3 pcs / Pez

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    No restrictions on access
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Geographic Name
    England.

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The plate was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
    Funding Note
    The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Special Collection
    Katz Ehrenthal Collection
    Record last modified:
    2024-02-21 07:11:15
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn537175

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