Plate, earthenware, 'Christmas Tree', crimson band, (detail), date unknown |
Click Spode's Christmas Tree Pattern to take you to my blog about the pattern and to find out all about this famous and commercially successful Spode design.
The Spode company produced other Christmassy designs before Holdway's Christmas Tree pattern, from the early 1800s onwards. Find out about these by clicking Spode Christmas Designs and a Bit of Christmas History.
For a full Spode-Christmas-Fest you can find all my links to Spode & Christmas by clicking here.
This large bowl is decorated with pattern number 8275 using a traditional holly border lined in green and gold. It has a spray of mistletoe in the centre of the bowl. This design was first recorded in about 1849. So in the 19th century you could enjoy your punch or, for a cold winter's day, a hot mulled wine in this footed, punch bowl. At least it looks like a punch bowl but it has a printed registration mark for a design described as 'ewer and basin, embossed holly'. This would suggest a different use as toilet ware. It's a bit of a puzzle and, also, in this case, the design is not embossed (moulded or raised decoration) but a flat pattern. I still think it is a punch bowl!
Punch Bowl, pattern 8275 c1849 |
Punch bowl backstamps: printed Copeland mark, painted pattern number & decorator's cipher, printed registration mark, & unidentified impressed mark |
Here is another take on the holly border design on a Gadroon shape dessert plate, this time with a solidly gilded border and, if you look carefully, extra berries dotted around the edge. This pattern is not recorded in the pattern books and may have been a special commission.
Plate, bone china, a holly pattern, unrecorded, Gadroon shape with gilded edge c1890 |
Backstamp to holly plate in a style used from about 1890-1920 |