Our contact from Diageo (they hold the records of Arthur Bell & Sons, as well as the company’s bottle and decanter collection) tells us your decanter is part of the ‘Brown and Gold’ series of decanters which were on sale between the 1950s and 1988. The best way to date your decanter is to look at the stamp on the bottom, these refer to the different ceramics companies who have made the Bell’s decanters for us over the years. If your decanter has ‘Royal Doulton’ on the bottom of it, this means it was produced in the 1950s, if it has ‘ Spode’ on it then it was produced between 1960 and 1965 and if it has ‘ Wade’ on it, this means it was produced sometime between 1965 and 1988, when the design was changed.
If you are interested in finding out about the value of your decanter, you can look online at the Bell’s decanter register
http://www.bellsdecanters.co.uk/ this is a club for people who collect Bell’s decanters. If you go to the ‘sales’ page and then look at ‘Brown and gold’ then you will see decanters like yours for sale, and how much they are being sold for. If you look at the grading system of valuations on this site, you will be able to see which grade of value fits your decanter.
If you would like a professional valuation, please email your images to either of these auction houses:
http://www.bonhams.com/ or
http://www.mctears.co.uk/