Spode and Tennis 2013

As Wimbledon 2013 starts this week click here to catch up on my Spode and Tennis blog. 

And the picture here is a reminder of what a tennis set really is!

This Copeland tennis set is decorated in a pattern introduced in about 1869. It is an elegant pattern with the grass decoration embossed i.e. raised. The embossments are then picked out in turquoise and gold. There is also gilded detail to the rim of the cup and its elongated saucer as well as the handle which is also painted in turquoise.

Spode and Willow Pattern

Book cover featuring
Willow pattern and a coffee pot in pattern 2061 Cabbage pattern

Spode's Willow pattern is probably one of the most successful patterns ever made. I can't really add much to the history as written by Robert Copeland. So, for those who want to find factual, in-depth information there is a specialist book on the subject. Click here for the details on my booklist of Spode's Willow Pattern and Other Designs After the Chinese.

Spode produced a number of patterns, as well as Willow, in the style of 18th century Chinese porcelain in the late 1700s and early 1800s, as did other manufacturers. In his book Robert Copeland attributes the design of the Willow pattern to Spode, around 1790, and discusses the background to this and other Spode designs taken from Chinese porcelain. Although in the late 18th/early 19th century any blue printed design imitating Chinese porcelain was often described as Willow, the main features of the true Willow pattern are the bridge with three people crossing it, the willow tree, the boat, the main teahouse, the two birds and the fence in the foreground of the garden. 

Interestingly the two patterns in blue printed ware which were the most successful for Spode are both composite designs. Willow pattern is one of these and is made up from elements of Chinese porcelain designs but for which there is no Chinese original; the other is Italian pattern, introduced in about 1816, which has a central design made up from unconnected classical elements surrounded by a border. The border is a direct copy of an Imari design on Chinese export porcelain of about 1735. These 'made up' patterns were much more commercially successful for Spode than, for example, one of my favourites, Rock pattern (illustrated) taken from a Chinese original.

Chinese porcelain source for Rock pattern, 
18th century

Spode sugar box, Old Oval shape, Rock pattern,
pearlware, printed underglaze, gilded, c1795

Chinese-style patterns of all sorts always remained successful for Spode throughout its history. They appealed to customers who had a more traditional, even old-fashioned taste, and were catered for alongside new customers demanding 'modern' designs of topographical, pastoral or botanical subjects which were coming into vogue in the early 1800s. Spode pieces of this period, and those of comparable manufacturers, were skilfully potted with a beautiful silky glaze and have fine engravings on elegant shapes. Supper sets, leg baths, rouge pots, asparagus servers and teawares, all indicate customers of taste and wealth. The ordinary person would not be using this type of ware in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

Willow was made off and on from the late 1700s through to the early 2000s; Italian was in continuous production from about 1816 and is still made under the Spode brand name by Portmeirion Group today (2013). Both have been made in different colours and on different bodies although probably most variations have occurred to Willow.

Many people relate the 'Willow pattern story' when talking about this ceramic design. The story is apocryphal and actually has nothing at all to do with Spode. The earliest publication of the story found so far is in The Family Friend Volume I of 1849. This is many years after the origination of the pattern. It was published as The Story of the Common Willow-Pattern Plate, so it seems obvious from the title of the story that by 1849 the Willow pattern had become commonplace, no longer limited to well-to-do families who had by this date moved on from Chinese designs. 

Pink Willow bone china, c1880

When learning about the different dates and types of Willow pattern and similar patterns there is no substitute for handling pieces and getting to know the feel of the Chinese and Spode pieces which, whilst they can initially look remarkably alike, feel very different. In the same way you can also learn the feel of Spode pieces made in the late 1700s and early 1800s which are different from those made in the later 19th century and into the modern era. Glazes and bodies change and the feel is quite different. In this way you can also become familiar with Spode's bodies such as earthenware, bone china and stone china.

There is an illustration here too of Willow pattern in pink on Chelsea shape with pattern number 1/2134 first recorded in about 1880. At the end of this blog there is also an illustration of a tissue 'pull' from a copper plate engraved with Willow pattern. Note that the tissue is back to front: the copper is engraved the 'right way round' (unlike book illustrations of the period for example) and then the finished piece is the right way round after the image is transferred from the tissue. The colour of the print on the tissue shows you what cobalt blue is like before it is fired on the finished piece.

You can learn more about transfer printing by clicking the following links: Spode Exhibition Online, Transferware Collectors Club and on my blog Spode and Hogarth. Click here for an extra treat! then scroll down to Willow Pattern for an image of Spode's Willow pattern and other designs after the Chinese.....

Tissue pull, Willow pattern.
The stage between copper and ceramic.

Spode and Fortunino Matania

Cover featuring Italian pattern, 1933

2013 marked 80 years since, in 1933, the Spode company celebrated the bicentenary of the birth, in 1733, of their founder Josiah Spode I. Along with exhibitions and various bits of publicity it was an opportunity to use the occasion for marketing purposes. The Spode company was owned by the Copeland family at this time and was known as W. T. Copeland & Sons Ltd from 1932.

In 1932/1933 the company commissioned famous artist and illustrator Fortunino Matania to produce two pen and ink drawings for a new booklet 'The Hand of the Potter'. Matania was known for his accurate portrayal of events as a war artist. According to the Green Howards Museum 'he would visit wounded men taking with him a box of toy soldiers so that they could re-enact a scene for him'.

Later he was famous for his advertising illustrations and is thought to have worked for brands such as Ovaltine, Burberry and others including Spode. 

'First piece of bone china' (1990s booklet)

Two significant occasions in Spode's history were chosen to be illustrated by Matania. These were imagined scenes of real events but I am not convinced the company got the dates and events quite right. The detailed factory and family research, of Robert Copeland and Peter Roden in particular, was yet to come.

The two events chosen were the invention of bone china and the signing of the first partnership agreement between a Spode and a Copeland.

I first came across these images when they were still in use in marketing material in the mid-1990s. The description for the image for the bone china success was captioned then as 'probably the most significant development in the history of ceramics, Josiah Spode's first successful piece of bone china'. This blurs the fact that there were 2 Josiah Spodes and, much as I love Spode, I think other pottery manufacturers might be slightly miffed at having their achievements ignored...

'Signing an agreement' (1962 catalogue)

The other image features in a 1962 catalogue for the German market where it is captioned 'Spode I and William Copeland partners anno 1785'. I think the date is wrong and the Josiah Spode is wrong. William Copeland went to work for Josiah Spode II in the London business in about 1784. Copeland became a partner in 1805 with William Spode (Spode II's eldest son) not with Josiah Spode I. When William Spode retired, a wealthy young man, the partnership was dissolved and Josiah Spode II, now in Stoke, entered into a new partnership with Copeland, again for the London business in 1812. (Complicated as you can see and I hope I got it right. Well, not quite, see the next paragraph...)

Since writing this I recently found that these images were used again in a brochure produced by the company in 1975 (reprinted 1981). Meticulously researched by Robert Copeland, he has the captions correct, of course! It is captioned 'Josiah Spode II signs a deed of partnership with William Copeland and William Spode 1805'. This is the partnership before the 1812 one which I mention above.

It is interesting to see the Spode company commissioning Matania, a well-known artist, to produce illustrations for their publicity and marketing. It also serves as a reminder that you can't always trust the text in catalogues and marketing literature.

These striking, original Matania drawings in pen and ink survive and are in the Spode archive. Whilst curator of the Spode Museum I found one of the drawings on the wall in a manager's office, negotiated to swap it for something more colourful and catalogued the original Matania into the museum's archive collection!

The bone china illustration is also used on leaflets and other sales and marketing literature from the 1930s as can be seen in the leaflet for Bermuda pattern introduced in about 1934. This pattern was printed in green and then hand coloured onglaze.

Leaflet for Bermuda pattern, 1935

You can see some of Matania's other work elsewhere in the web.