Princess Badoura is the most prestigious figure ever made by Royal Doulton. The original sculpture was first shown at the 1924 British Empire exhibition in Wembley, London. Many years later this spectacular statue was chosen as the centerpiece of Royal Doulton’s new Prestige Collection when it was launched in 1952.

In the Tales of the Arabian Nights, Princess Badoura was the most beautiful woman in the world. She fell in love with Prince Kaimar and traveled to her wedding in great splendor on the back of an elephant. The enchanting Arabian Nights stories were illustrated exquisitely by Edmund Dulac in the early 1900s and influenced many early Doulton figures. The spectacle of the princess on her wedding day was modeled by Harry Stanton, a teacher at the Burslem School of Art near Doulton’s Nile Street factory. Stanton worked closely with Doulton artist Harry Tittensor to create the sculpture of Princess Badoura.

Standing an impressive 20 inches high, Princess Badoura HN2081, was the most expensive piece offered in the Doulton catalog and was made to special order for nearly 40 years. Only the most experienced ceramic artists were entrusted with the decoration, which required over 160 hours of intricate painting and five kiln firings before gilders added the final embellishments of 22 carat gold.

A new colorway of Princess Badoura HN3921 was devised in 1996 and a small, limited edition version HN4179 was modeled by Robert Tabbenor in 2001. In 2013, a miniature version HN5651 was launched to celebrate the centenary of the HN collection.