Royal Doulton Tango
This has long been our favourite tea service since we first found a near complete set of 12’s soon after were were married. After that we never saw any again until by chance some friends found a matching dinner service in Guernsey which they kindly brought back for us. Then another big gap until eBay came along and items appeared on there for what seem to be exorbitant prices. I have long wanted to create a page to display this elegant range and finally “finished” it this weekend. The photographs could be better but I have made it a static page so it can be updated as new information becomes available.
Webmaster
Dear Rick,
I just wanted to congratulate you on the terrific job you’ve done putting together the tango catalogue. There doesn’t appear to be anything like it on the net and for all the tango collectors out there it will be a valuable resource.
Kind regards,
Felicity Taylor
Hi.
Just wondering if you have ever come across any glassware for the vermillion tango?
I can email you a picture if you would like?
Regards
Andrew
Hi Andrew, yes, I know about it but have only ever seen it in a museum. I would love some pictures. You can find my email by following the house at the bottom of the page. I presume you have seen (or are the seller) of the five on eBay.
Hi Rick, I have just acquired a Tango demi coffee jug and three demi cups and saucers. The jug is like your BT2 jug but in the H4271 color scheme- black with green and gold on white. Every piece is perfect except for the jug lid which has a hairline crack and a piece out of the inside rim. Is this lid pretty rare or could I find a replacement? Thanks for the info- I appreciate your work on the catalog!
Regards, Scott
Hi Scott, that colour scheme is very rare indeed. I don’t even have a photo of it so if you could manage, I would much appreciate some. Also if you could let me have measurements and marks of all the pieces.
As for the lid - they never seem to come up for sale so I’m afraid you are stuck with that - the chances of an odd one in a scap bin are slight.
Rick.
Here is a link to a very unusual Tango colour scheme found on an African auction site.
http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/8675349/Royal_Doulton_Tango_vegetable_dish.html
It looks like it could be a fake? I don’t see a pattern number in the photos.
What do you think?
Regards
Andrew Taylor (Australia)
Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Andrew. I agree it is very unusual and I have never seen one before. There is a blue bone china colour scheme but this is a lot coarser so must be on the cream-ware base, even though it looks very white in the photos. I agree it also looks a bit rough but it is hard to tell if that is original or due to heavy wear. I wouldn’t have thought it worthwhile to copy them now, even with the high prices they fetch, but at the time (this one is dated 1937) it may have been a local enterprise but then I would have expected the bottom stamp to be cruder as well.
I think this may be more evidence that certain ranges were only sold in some markets. I know that the green range, for instance, is a lot more common in Australia than it is here in the UK where we get more of the orange. Another possibility is that colour schemes were made to special order for dealers or even for individual customers.