The sisters Hannah Bolton Barlow (born 2 November 1851 in Church End House, Little Hadham, Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England; [1] died 15 November 1916 [1]) and Florence Elizabeth Barlow (born Bishop's Stortford) were artists who painted pottery for Doulton & Co. at their newly-established art pottery studio in Lambeth, London. [2] Doulton's Lambeth studio allowed the decorators to sign or monogram their work, which allows many pieces to be attributed to individuals, though often more than one person worked on a piece.
Their parents were bank manager Benjamin Barlow (1813–1866) and his wife Hannah (1816–1882). [2] They had seven siblings, two of whom also worked for Doulton, [2] Arthur (1845–1879) who died young [1] and Lucy, who worked in the lesser role of a relief border decorator [1]
Hannah, after studying at Lambeth School of Art, [3] worked for Doulton from 1871, [2] becoming the first female artist to work there. [3] Florence followed, from 1873–1909. [4] By mutual agreement, Florence specialised in painting flowers and birds, and Hannah in horses and other animals, [2] which were often incised with a blade, the lines being then coloured and often paint added elsewhere. They sometimes worked together on individual pieces. [5] [6]
Hannah died on 15 November 1916 at 46 Binfield Road, Clapham, London. [1] She was buried in Norwood cemetery on 20 November. [1] Her sketchbooks are in the Sir Henry Doulton Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent. [1]