Boulton's Birds - Part Nine

BLUE WREN, KING PARROT,
& KOOKABURRA
Implemented by Enoch Boulton

by Harvey Pettit
with border artwork by Barbara Anne Lee

This is the ninth in a series of sixteen articles on bird patterns introduced by Enoch Boulton during his tenure as designer and decorating manager at the Carlton Works from 1921/22 to 1930.

My thoughts on these three patterns featuring Australian birds are that they were primarily intended for the Australian market. I don’t have good images of physical examples, but below, I show a montage of their representations from Carlton Ware’s pattern records. Typically, each record was made by printing the pattern outline onto a page in the pattern book and painting it with watercolors to indicate the intended colors. As working documents, over time, these records have become scuffed from frequent handling, as you can see in the images below.

Carlton Ware BLUE WREN, KING PARROT, & KOOKABURRA representations — Scans of photographs of representations from Carlton Ware's pattern records.
Three patterns, 3111, 3112 & 3113, depicting Australian Birds aimed at the Australian market.

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Player's King Parrot cigarette card from 1909 — KING PARROT backstamp

BLUE WREN 3111 used a WHITE ground;
KING PARROT 3112, a LEMON ground;
KOOKABURRA 3113, an ORANGE ground.

All were printed in black, and each had the name of the bird cut from the print by the transferer and placed beneath the Crown backstamp.

The representations of the birds are quite generic and may have been copied from an illustrated book on birds or even from something like cigarette cards included with packets of cigarettes at the time. To illustrate this reasoning, on the right, I show a Player’s cigarette card from 1909. The oval 'frames' around all three birds simulate a metal picture frame in the enduring neoclassical style.

These bird patterns may have been produced at the request of Carlton Ware's Australian agent, F.R. Barlow & Co, one of the pottery's biggest customers. Perhaps Mr. Barlow had sent Cuthbert Wiltshaw some pictures or drawings that he wanted replicated on Carlton Ware. This is pure guesswork on my part, but it is plausible.

The Agent

F.R. Barlow & Co was based at Commerce House, 328 Flinders Street in Melbourne. For strategic reasons, the premises were close to the railway station. For our Australian readers, below is an image of the building taken in the 1930s.

1930s photograph of Commerce House, 328 Flinders Street, Melbourne, Australia.
Click or tap on the image to see the building as it is today (2025).

Thankfully, the impressive Commerce House survives and at some point, additional floors were added. It has become the left-hand side of what is now the Rendezvous Hotel, a heritage-listed building recognized for its architectural and historical significance. Click or tap on the image to see the building as it is in 2025. Mr. Barlow likely occupied part or all of one of the upper floors.

BLUE WREN version 2

There were two different versions of BLUE WREN: the first, shown above in an oval 'frame', and the second shown below in a circular 'frame' or roundel.

The BLUE WREN pattern 3115 on a REVO shape tray. ORANGE ground stippled BLACK. Printed in gold. Devised by Enoch Boulton circa 1926.
Image courtesy of Barbara Anne Lee.

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The second version of BLUE WREN is a redrawn reiteration of the first.
This new drawing was then sent to the engraver for a new copper plate to be made, from which the revised pattern could be printed. The bird and its branch have been adapted to fit into the circular 'frame' or roundel devised for the Moonlight Cameo pattern introduced at the same time. The image below illustrates the differences and shows the same roundel initially used for Moonlight Cameo.

BLUE WREN & Moonlight Cameo comparisons.

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Aside from the solo version with the oval 'frame', BLUE WREN had three variants. The first was pattern number 3114, which has an ORANGE LUSTRE ground—this should not be confused with variant 3115, which has an ORANGE ground stippled black. The final variant, BLUE WREN 3139, has a RUBY lustre ground. I surmise that these were made for both home and international markets; indeed, here in the UK we see them from time to time.

Border

A border was not created for the oval-framed BLUE WREN, KING PARROT, or KOOKABURRA patterns; a simple black or gold line sufficed. However, the second version of BLUE WREN used the border created for Moonlight Cameo, printed in gold. You can see this on the REVO shape bowl above. Barb has redrawn the border for us below.

Date

I estimate that BLUE WREN, KING PARROT, and KOOKABURRA were introduced in 1926. However, as noted in other articles in this series, since few dates are given in Carlton Ware's surviving records, it is not always easy to establish the exact date of introduction for patterns or shapes.

Availability

PARADISE BIRD & TREE vignette. — PARADISE BIRD & TREE.

To date, all examples of these patterns have been found with the Crown backstamp. I believe this backstamp was phased out fairly quickly from 1926 when the new Script backstamp (also a registered trademark) was introduced. This suggests that the patterns may have been available only for a short time, two years perhaps, or maybe just one.

V1 January 2025. If more accurate information comes to light, I will update this page.

The next article in this series will be about PARADISE BIRD & TREE