Compton And Woodhouse
Compton And Woodhouse, a prestige collectables and fine jewellery merchant, started in 1985 as a ‘breakaway’ from Royal Doulton. Mike Compton was Marketing Director of Lawleys by Post, the mail order division of Royal Doulton, and Elisabeth Woodhouse was a freelance figurine designer.
Following the departure of Mike and Liz from Royal Doulton, they set up the Compton and Woodhouse business in partnership with a direct marketing agency, Watson Ward Albert Varndell, run by John Watson and Rinalda Ward.
After several years both Mike Compton and Liz Woodhouse left Compton & Woodhouse and Rinalda Ward took over as Managing Director, assisted by Ivor Samuels and John Watson.
Figurines
The first Compton & Woodhouse product was a Coalport Fine China Figurine, ‘The Goose Girl’, produced in a limited EDition like all Compton & Woodhouse figurines and today a much sought-after collector’s item.
The business continued to grow mainly through selling figurines commissioned from the great names of English Bone China: Royal Doulton; Wedgwood; Royal Worcester and Coalport Figurines. Working with talented designers and the factories themselves, Compton & Woodhouse was for a period one of the main producers of high quality china figurines in the UK. All of the figurines were designed especially for Compton & Woodhouse.
Collectables
Problems with the English china factories led to ever increasing prices, which was behind a move in the 1990s to expand the product range into jewellery, plates, teddy bears and other collectibles. As UK production finally moved abroad, the company’s proportion of figurines inevitably declined although today Compton & Woodhouse is using some of the few remaining figurine specialists in the UK that still produces high quality figurines under the Royal Staffordshire brand name with designers like David Lyttleton.
Compton and Woodhouse have always specialised in producing limited quantities of high quality objets d’art which are highly sought after either to decorate the home or to decorate the person. The company offers these precious things in the UK on a no-interest credit basis, making it much more affordable, and also offer an approval period allowing the customer to see the items at home before deciding to buy or not.
Compton and Woodhouse also include the Brooks and Bentley brand, acquired in 2007 from Lennox in the US.
Royal Bride Collectables
Compton and Woodhouse have celebrated each Royal wedding in recent years with the release of a Royal Bride figurine. The Princess Diana Coalport Figurine is the most successful figurine in their collection so far selling 5000 pieces in 2002. Master sculptor Carolyn Morton from Royal Staffordshire was commissioned in 2011 by Compton & Woodhouse to create the latest in the royal bride collection, Catherine the Royal Bride Figurine.