Chinese Jade

The "Chinese Jade" glaze was probably Charles Noke's most hard won, and short lived, success.

Noke was a gifted ceramic designer at the Royal Worcester factory before becoming the senior designer at Royal Doulton in 1889. Son of a well-respected antiques dealer, Noke was born in Worcester (a stone’s throw from what would be the site of the Worcester factory) in 1858.

At the age of fifteen he signed an apprenticeship under James Hadley, a critically acclaimed modeler for Worcester. He enrolled, on a part time basis, at the Worcester college of design. He served his apprenticeship and stayed with the Royal Worcester factory for sixteen years, taking over much of the in house design work that had formerly been done by Hadley.

Charles served his apprenticeship and stayed with the Royal Worcester factory for sixteen years, taking over much of the in house design work that had formerly been done by Hadley. Noke built up a serious reputation as a skilled modeller of ornamental vases and figurines and it was this reputation that that led John Slater, director of the Doulton works in Burslem, to approach him with an offer of work as chief designer. Noke took the offer and moved to the potteries in 1889.

Noke’s first pieces of work for Doulton appeared at the Chicago world fair and won him great acclaim but he went on to produce great designs in ornamental ceramics that are highly prized today. He was the inventor ( in conjunction with Bernard Moore ) of the famous Doulton ‘Flambe’ glazes which first appeared in 1904 as well as the ‘Chang’ ware and ‘Chinese Jade’ that is so popular among today’s collectors.

Noke spent many years trying to emulate the green stone in pottery and was finally able to release his first example in 1920. It had that same desirable texture and pale green luminescence of the real thing but was very difficult to make and relatively few pieces were ever produced. It is most highly sought after.