A medium sized example of the three British Bulldog figures first produced in 1915. Height: 10.5cm (4in). This example bearing the backstamp ‘Made in England’, and the post 1927 numeric ’14’ indicating 1941 as the year of production.
Royal Doulton’s Bulldog Jack was originally created as a symbol of British dogged resistance during the First World War and has endured down the decades. Sources vary but 1918 is agreed as the date for the figure’s first introduction as a symbol of ‘backs-to-the-wall’ patriotic spirit. Interestingly in 1933 Royal Doulton’s Bulldog Jack topped the list of unusual gifts for gentleman in the Ulster newspaper the ‘Northern Whig’.
In the darkest days of the Second World War, Royal Doulton’s veteran art director Charles Noke (1858-1941) created a twin-handled character jug as a tribute to his personal hero Winston Churchill. The jug however, was pulled from production as it was considered a poor likeness of the prime minister. In response Noke sealed the association between Churchill and the Union Jack draped bulldog by adding the Churchillian attributes of a cigar and Trinity House cap in rare versions produced for twelve months only during 1941-1942. In another version, Jack sports a Churchillian ‘Bowker’ hat - this being the hybrid Derby (Bowler) and Homburg favoured by the wartime PM and James Bond baddie Odd-Job in 1964’s Goldfinger.
Thereafter the introduction of wartime restrictions the ceramics production curtailed the manufacture of Bulldog Jack, though he was produced intermittently up to 1961 with a subtle difference in the colour way. Jack further inspired other wartime bulldog figures wearing headdress of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force. In recent years Royal Doulton’s Bulldog Jack has become widely known through screen appearances in the James Bond movies ‘No Time To Die’ (2021), ‘Spectre’ (2015), and ‘Skyfall’ (2012). However the pugnacious canine’s debut fictional world of Britain’s intelligence services lies in the 2011 film version of John le Carré ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’. In this Cold War classic Bulldog Jack appears in all three sizes on a shelf behind the desk of Control (John Hurt) while he speaks into the telephone.
In 2012 Bulldog Jack reached worldwide audiences with his appearance in ‘Skyfall’. Here he took on a central role as the bequest of M (Judi Dench) to Bond as a symbol of duty to the national cause. He survives the MI6 office explosion, with little more than a few cracks to his face and some charring to his draped Union Jack flag and reappears in M’s new underground office. After M’s tragic death he was passed to 007 by Moneypenny in a memorable London rooftop scene that also revealed M’s real name for the first time. The black box containing Jack is seen to bear a small label ‘From the Estate of Olivia Mansfield, Bequeathed to James Bond’. Jack went to live another day on 007’s coffee table in ‘Spectre’ (2015) and in ‘No Time To Die’ (2021).
Charles John Noke (1858-1941) joined Royal Doulton’s Nile Street works at Burslem in 1889 as Chief Designer from Royal Worcester with whom he had been apprenticed while attending the Worcester School of Design. While the majority of Noke’s character studies and figurines have remained strictly products of their time, Bulldog Jack in all his sizes and guises has transcended the decades to become an all-time British ceramic design classic.