Royal Dux

Is the brand name of porcelain manufactured by Duxer Porzellanmanufaktur in Duchov in the Czech Republic. It became well known for its Art Nouveau figures, candlesticks, highly decorative vases and bowls.

The company was founded in 1853 and was bought by Eduard Eichler a very successful model-drawer in 1860 becoming ‘E.Eichler Thonwaren-Fabrik in the process. Their main wares were faience and majolica and at the 1878 Paris Exhibition they were awarded a Silver Medal.

Around 1900 they set up a Head Office in Berlin and began producing Art Nouveau porcelain figurines, modelled by Alois Hampel which were very successful. They started exporting their porcelain and faience figurines across the United States and Europe. At the 1904 World Exhibition held in St Louis they won the Grand Prix prize and went on to win a silver medal in 1906 in the Milan Exhibition.

Royal Dux has one of the most distinctive marks ever used on pottery – a raised triangle made out of a separate piece of pink clay and applied to the base of the item. There are roughly four periods of Royal Dux generally reflecting the impact of world wars and political upheaval. The issue for collectors is that the factory has continued to use the same moulds throughout, making identification of the highly valuable 19th Century pieces difficult. With 19th Royal Dux items selling for thousands of dollars, there have been a number of fakes and forgeries, which can only be spotted by having an in-depth understanding of the pink clay marks.