Spode's Willow Pattern and Other Designs After the Chinese

The oriental landscapes and patterns of the blue and white porcelains imported in their millions from China greatly influenced the English K earthenware industry of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Staffordshire potters copied Chinese motifs directly, or developed oriental themes of their own, but it was Josiah Spode more than any other potter who responded to the Chinese influence and made the Willow pattern, and other designs after the Chinese, very much the trademark of his company. The blue Willow pattern is still the best known of all designs on pottery or porcelain. This book, now in a new paperback edition, has become the principal reference work on the Willow pattern. The author has drawn on previously unpublished sources, particularly from the archives of the Spode company, to give a detailed account of the introduction of the pattern by Josiah Spode. He records the expansion of the Staffordshire potteries and the development of technologies allied to potting, notably the use of cobalt oxide as a colourant and the process of transfer printing. Patterns and their variants, from Spode and other potteries, are illustrated and fully described; and the author's system of classification has encouraged a standard terminology of great value to the collector. Robert Copeland has a long and continuing association with Spode: he is the great great grandson of Josiah Spode’s original business partner William Copeland. He joined the company at eighteen, to spend three years ‘at the bench‘ learning the different crafts and techniques of pottery, worked his way through the ranks and is now, after an eleven-year period as Sales Director, Historical Consultant and archivist to the company. An avid collector, he is well versed in the historical background of English pottery, and continues to research and lecture on his lifetime’s interest. Spode ’s Willow Pattern, with more than 300 illustrations, detailed appendices, glossary and terminology, is an informed and delightful study by a foremost expert. …