Update to 'Spode - A Short History'

 Detail of a print from the V and A collections

I have updated one of my first blogs: Spode - A Short History

You can find more references for further study and a more comprehensive Factory 'Family' Tree - you can also click Who Owned Spode? to go straight to this.

The V & A Museum in London has a fabulous collection of Spode from all eras - have a look through their collection pages and enjoy a feast of  beautiful pottery.

I found the bone china dinner and dessert ware in the collection especially interesting as the Spode museum didn't have such a complete dinner service in bone china in its collection when I worked there. What's more, this one also belonged to the Spode family - a sure sign of high quality product! It is hand painted with many different flower groups within a striking blue border.

Spode, Christmas Tree in the Modern Era and the Pattern Books

Triangular Tray and backstamp, 1986

Recently I have had chats with collectors who have asked questions about the more recent Spode pieces decorated with the famous Christmas Tree pattern. 

I have written in these pages about some of the backstamps used for this pattern and last year about Christmas Tree pattern itself.

In 1938 when the pattern was first produced it looked as though only a plate was going to go into production for one year with the words 'Wishing You a Merry Christmas 1938' printed in brown on the back. However such was the enthusiasm of the American market for this new design that as early as September 1938 it had been decided the motto was to be omitted as well as extending the design to a whole range of tableware - the rest is history! Details of some of the variations of the design are given in my earlier blog about Christmas Tree.

Pattern Safe, 2002 (detail)

There are over 75,000 patterns recorded in the Spode pattern books of which Christmas Tree is just one. Each time a variation was made to a design a new and unique pattern number was allocated. This was the practice from about 1800 to about 1998.

So in 1938 when Christmas Tree was given a crimson band rather than green it had a new number; when it was decorated on Marlborough shape (with a wavy edge to the plate) rather than Kailas shape (with a plain edge to the plate) it had a new number. This was a sort of quality control which prevented any mix-up in orders and kept the high quality of the Spode product consistent.

The pattern books were regarded as 'commercially sensitive' by the Spode company until the early part of the 21st century. They were treated with respect and usually had a dedicated member of staff responsible for keeping records up to date working in the Pattern Safe. This door to this room was very heavy, thick, low and metal like a typical safe door - I always had to remember to duck when entering also having eaten a hearty breakfast to have the strength to actually pull it open! The safe door and lock date from about 1840 but how long this secure room was used as the pattern safe is not recorded but certainly not from the start of the books' history in c1800.

Recording in the pattern books changed little in principle from about 1800 to probably about the 1980s and was administered by the Spode company.  Even when the Spode Museum Trust was formed in 1987 and then the museum registered in about 1999 the contents of the pattern books still belonged to the Spode company and the museum only looked after their physical well-being. By the end of the 1990s and the early 2000s the company no longer entered patterns in the pattern books; computers gradually came in and I would expect that patterns were recorded somehow on these but this latter record did not come to the museum.

Detail of  a pierced design, early 2000s

So all this preamble is to explain the complication of finding what new shapes, borders and versions of Christmas Tree pattern were produced in the modern era. Variations were no longer given a unique pattern number so most have S3324 - whatever their appearance. So for those who collect the variations in the pattern in the recent past the bad news is that it is difficult to be sure just what items were produced in Christmas Tree but the good news is that from about 1995 to 2008 I collected all the new sales, marketing and publicity material produced by Spode and these are deposited at the Stoke-on-Trent City Archives and are part of the Spode Archive. More bad news though is that no research has been done to extract the information from these papers which of course were not produced for the benefit of collectors. Any such research would take quite a while to complete.

0th Anniversary plate, new shape, new border, 2008

Pierced ware made in the early 2000s was inspired by late 18th century Spode museum pieces in which  the design was hand cut into the clay before its first firing. The modern version of cutting was developed by Spode and was machine-cut by a type of sand blasting - very clever.

Another point to remember is that cutlery (flatware in the US), glass and non-ceramic hanging decorations were not made by Spode and there is no record at all for any of these items which were mostly exclusive to the USA market.

Spode and Christmas Tree Backstamps

Plate, 'Christmas Tree' pattern 1986

It's that time of year again... so click 'Christmas Tree' to swot up on this famously popular 20th century pattern from Spode. And for more links you can visit also my Spode & Christmas page. First introduced in 1938 for the US market, 'Christmas Tree' was in production until the close of the Spode factory in 2009 and was still produced in 2011 under the Spode brand from Portmeirion.

Fig 1 Backstamp 1920-1957

The mark in Fig 1 shows the backstamp which will appear on older pieces of 'Christmas Tree'. This style of backstamp was used from about 1920 to about 1957. It will appear on other patterns too but only on Spode's earthenware. Watch out - there are several versions of this backstamp from different dates. They are listed in Spode and Copeland Marks and Other Relevant Intelligence which can be consulted for full information on Spode backstamps.

The backstamp in Fig 1 shows that it was not applied to the pot very well. The pattern and the backstamp were printed from a hand engraved copper plate via thin tissue paper. The pattern was then hand coloured. When this particular backstamp was applied a crease was accidentally made in the tissue from which it was printed and so the word COPELAND was distorted. This backstamp can be used in conjunction with any impressed datemarks to find an even more accurate date.

A similar backstamp with a date letter in the top left hand corner was used until 1963 - these are often hard to decipher. To be honest I don't bother with them.

The Spode company name changed from W T Copeland & Sons Ltd in 1970 when it became Spode. (Ownership had been out of the Copeland family since the mid-1960s).

Fig 2 Backstamp 1986

The backstamp in Fig 2 has a lot of detail:

• the Spode company name
• the country of manufacture
• the pattern name
• a red workman's mark
• the pattern number S3324 
• the K following the pattern number is the datemark for 1986.

Fig 3 Candlestick 1980

Not a backstamp but something to look out for, Fig 3 shows a candlestick of early 19th century design decorated with Spode's Christmas Tree in 1980.

Spot what's missing!

Yes - the Christmas tree... this is a small piece so no room for the tree. But even with just mistletoe and holly it is still recognisable as the famous Spode pattern. Fig 4 shows the record of the Hand Candlestick available in at least 3 sizes (the 4th is not filled in with detail) from Spode's 1820 Shape Book.

Fig 4 Hand Candlestick 1820

Spode and Italian Backstamps

Plate, earthenware, Italian pattern number 2614 c1818

1. Backstamp for Italian pattern c1891 -1970

Illustration 1 shows a Spode backstamp, or mark, in an oval style frequently used on one of Spode's most famous blue printed patterns: 'Italian'.

Many collectors like to find out the date of their pieces and, using a combination of backstamps, datemarks and styles of the shapes of pieces made in this pattern, it is occasionally possible to date pieces accurately. For example if the piece is simply marked SPODE (illustration 2) the piece can be dated from c1816 when the pattern was introduced to 1833 when the company name changed. (Note that the mark was in use from about 1810 but as the 'Italian' pattern was not introduced till about 1816 this starts the date range for the piece.)

2. Backstamp c1810-1833

'Italian' pattern was in production by the Spode company from 1816 to 2009 and when you reach the late 19th century and move through the 20th century things get a bit tricky when trying to accurately date pieces. The backstamp in illustration 1 was used for a very long time. Probably introduced in about 1891 it was used until 1970. By 1847 the Spode company was owned by the Copeland family but they often incorporated the Spode name to perpetuate the brand and use it for marketing purposes sometimes prefixing pattern names with the word Spode's as in this case.

As 'Italian' pattern was produced for such a long period, during different ownerships of the company, many marks are used but the most usual is that in illustration 1. To narrow down the date look for datemarks and think about the style of the piece too - for example a Utility style teapot is going to have a narrow date range in the mid-20th century; an elaborate, tall tea urn would date from around the 1890s to the 1910s; a table lamp for electric power probably after 1930; etc

Lamp with matching shade, Italian pattern 1930

There is no particular clear reason or any consistency in the application of backstamps and datemarks used by the Spode company throughout its whole history. Whilst this can be frustrating for collectors it can be great fun working out the details and using your detective skills to pull all the evidence together.