Designed by Gilbert Bayes (1872-1953)

Manufactured by Royal Doulton (firm founded 1815)

Glazed stoneware, with original metal ‘pin’, and later wood and metal base

Height 43 cm

Height 63.5 cm (on black base)

English (Stoke-on-Trent), 1931-38

Probably St Pancras Housing Association, Somers Town, London; […]; Christie’s (London), 19 August 1994, lot 44; […]; Seymour Stein (1942-2023);  private collection, USA, by 2024

Louise Irvine and Paul Atterbury, Gilbert Bayes Sculptor 1872-1953, Shepton Beauchamp, 1980, pp. 171-72

Dan Carrier, ‘Mission to find missing Somers Town finials leads to auction in United States’, Camden New Journal, 10 February 2023

Private collection

Dove was one of a series of washing line finials designed by Bayes for various locations on the St Pancras Housing Association estates.  Based on the article by Carrier, it cannot be said for certain when, and under what circumstances, many of the Bayes finials were removed from their original positions.

Another version of Dove, one of several that have appeared on the market, was formerly in the collection of Peter Rose and Albert Gallichan, Christie’s (London), 30 September 2021, lot 169.