Spode and London

Trade Card, 1825 British Museum, Department of Prints & Drawings

Recently I was delighted to hear from Judy Rudoe of the British Museum who kindly let me know about a Spode trade card in the museum's collection. It was great to share information with each other about this little piece of paper. I intended  this post to be a short blog showing the trade card but it has grown a bit... it is surprising how much can be gleaned from a single trade card of 1825.

I have written about the Spode company's London business on this blog before, in a post about the company's showrooms. You can find it here: Spode and Showing Off. But there is more detail to discover about the London business with this trade card.

Josiah Spode II (1755-1827) set up Spode's London business in 1778. Josiah Spode II was the eldest son of the company's founder, Josiah Spode I (1733-1797).*

Josiah Spode II (1755-1827)

Spode's Portugal Street premises

If you look at the front of the trade card you can see that the London business is in Portugal Street to where it had moved in 1794. It had begun at 29 Fore Street - 'the chief shopping street in the northern part of the City [London] until the mid-19th century'.**

By the date of this card, 1825, the business was called 'Spode, Copeland & Son'. I found this very interesting because of the style of the company name. Who exactly are these individuals involved with Spode's London business?

'Spode' is Josiah Spode II (1755-1827).
In 1825 he was back in Stoke running the manufactory and his eldest son, William Spode, had been running the London business with William Copeland. However William Spode had retired in 1811 - a wealthy young man - and Spode II had taken over his son's role in the partnership with William Copeland in 1812. It is Copeland who would have had most of the responsibility in London whilst Josiah Spode II concentrated on Stoke.

'Copeland' is the William Copeland (1765-1826) mentioned above, who had worked, from a young age, for Spode II in London, from about 1784.
He probably began as a traveller or salesman in tea - a perfect link to pottery and porcelain. He rose through the business to eventually become a partner and to be a trusted friend of the Spodes. From a humble background, he too became wealthy from his hard work which had led to success and respect in the business. He was ambitious and wealthy enough to eventually purchase the Leyton estate.

'Son' is William Taylor Copeland (1797-1868) who was the son of William Copeland mentioned above. William Taylor Copeland was admitted into the London business in 1824.

William Copeland (the father) died in January 1826. Following this Spode II and William Taylor Copeland entered into partnership in April 1826.

William Copeland

So from these details it can be seen that the 'Spode, Copeland & Son' style for the London business had just a short date range as the company name from 1824 to 1826.

On the trade card you may also have noticed that the company is described as 'Porcelain, Earthenware and Glass Manufacturers'. Spode manufactured porcelain, now known as bone china, and earthenware but it is not thought they ever manufactured glass. This would have been bought in from a reputable manufacturer/supplier to sell on to their customers.

There is also the important fact that they were 'Porcelain, Earthenware and Glass Manufacturers TO THE KING'. Great marketing! This was HM George IV and the Spode company had also supplied him with wares of all sorts prior to his coronation whilst he was HRH Prince of Wales.

Reverse of the trade card British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings

The reverse of the trade card has been used as a receipt. It reads: 'Recd. July 9th 1825 of Mrs Chandos Leigh One pound five shillings as per Acct. for Spode etc £1.5.0 Wm Davey'.

I wonder what Spode goodies Mrs Chandos Leigh bought? Here are some of the wares which Spode produced in the 1820s which Mrs Chandos Leigh may have seen in London. They include designs for teawares (full size and miniature or 'toy'), dessert wares, dinner wares and ornamental wares.

Part toy teaset & tray, pattern 3157, c1821

Dessert tureen stand, Felspar porcelain, pattern 4130 c1825

 Incense Burner, bone china, pattern 3798, c1824

'New Shape French Jar', bone china, c1823

Dish, earthenware, Geranium pattern, transfer printed c1818

Jug, sprigged stoneware c1820

By 1833 William Taylor Copeland was the sole owner of the Spode company (the London business and the Stoke manufactory). The Spode family was no longer involved following the deaths of Josiah Spode II in 1827 and Josiah Spode III (his second son) in 1829. The Copeland family owned Spode longer than anybody else. You can also visit my page Who Owned Spode? for more information.
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*Many people seem to merge all the Josiah Spodes plus Spode, the company, into one - it can get very confusing... and to me seems a little unfair on the individuals.

Of course in their lifetimes the several Josiah Spodes were never known by the suffixes I, II, III & IV. For example they were referred to as Spode the elder and Spode the younger. On the death of Spode the elder this suffix would shift...

Please see my blogpost A Confusion of Spodes for a little more clarification on the various Josiah Spodes.

**The London Encyclopaedia

Thanks as ever to Robert Copeland and  Peter Roden - see my booklist.

Parian: 'The Bride' and 'The Mother'

Parian bust of 'The Bride' 1861

In the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge there is this wonderful photograph of a Copeland parian bust, 'The Bride', from their collection.

It is a stunning piece of ceramic manufacture in a body called parian. The fabric folds seem almost real. In about 1845, Copeland's parian, then a new ceramic body, was described by sculptor John Gibson RA (1790-1866) as 'Decidedly the best material next to Marble'.

'The Bride' is also illustrated in 'Parian: Copeland's Statuary Porcelain' by Robert Copeland. There are several excellent books on parian ware but this has to be the go-to reference book about parian figures from the Spode factory. In it Robert Copeland explains that 'the original marble sculpture of this subject [The Bride] was executed by Raffaele Monti for the Duke of Devonshire and was known as the 'Statue Voilee'. Monti's figure also seems to be known by many other names on the web...

'Statue Voilee' by Raffaele Monti now at Chatsworth House 

On October 11th 1860 Alderman W. T. Copeland, then owner of the Spode company, paid Monti £10 for 'a model of a small veiled head representing The Bride, and the copyright of it'.

In 1871 another parian bust was made called 'The Mother'. This was also from an original marble sculpture by Raffaele Monti (1818–1881). It is interesting to see that negotiation was made directly with the well-known and revered sculptors for various parian figures from W. T. Copeland. Papers relating to the arrangements are in the Spode archive.

'The Mother' was sold as a companion to 'The Bride' - not a matching pair but two associated subjects usually referred to as 'Companions'.

Parian bust of 'The Mother' c1871 in the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery

Parian bust of 'The Mother' from Copeland's book

Cover to Robert Copeland's excellent book on parian

Frontispiece of my copy of the book with Copeland's lovely dedication 

Spode's pattern 2789

Dessert plates, bone china, pattern 2789 c1819

Knowing my interest in botanical subjects on early 19th century Spode wares, a correspondent kindly told me about two square dessert plates which were up for sale online*.

These bone china plates from Spode were once part of a large dessert service, made for use, not simply for display. In the early 19th century Spode dessert wares were particularly fine; produced in the most expensive, fashionable styles; and sold to the wealthiest of customers.**

Pattern 2789 was first recorded in about 1819. It has a border design of mainly cobalt blue and gold - a combination of 2 of the most expensive materials for decoration - with a touch of red. The centres are handpainted with a pair of botanical subjects. Every piece of the service would have had a different pairing of flowers making for an amazing sight when laid out together with all its matching serving pieces.

Backstamp on the convolulus plate  - note the form of the figure 8 in the pattern number 2789

My original correspondent wondered if the flower subjects were taken from Curtis's Botanical Magazine which I have studied over the years, matching the magazine illustrations to Spode patterns. When I started doing this research at the end of the 1990s I used the original 18th century Curtis's Botanical Magazines, which are in fact books, in the Spode archive.

A volume of Curtis's Botanical Magazine 1780s

It was painstaking work, carefully turning pages, lifting the tissue covering the print to see if a flower matched a Spode piece. Many years on these magazines are now online. Hoorah! I use the fantastic Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) digitisations here. You can follow BHL on Twitter @BioDivLibrary.

It is still painstaking work but much quicker and much easier to share. A simple botanical subject on a Spode piece is fairly straightforward to find. You can see this in the example of the daffodil or, as Curtis describes it, 'Narcissus Major or Great Daffodil'. Here the Spode design of about 1808 is a direct copy of the magazine illustration of 1788.

Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Vol 2 plate 51, printed and hand coloured 1788 

Spode dessert plate, bone china, pattern 1100 handpainted centre with gilded border c1808

It gets more difficult for me to identify the source of the flowers when the Spode designs are more stylised, rather than a true botanical subject, such as in pattern 2789 featured here; and also the fact that 2 unrelated flowers are put together on each piece.

Dessert plate, pattern 2789, Tagetes and Bluebell

Curtis's Botanical Magazine Vol 5 plate 150, 1791

Dessert plate, Tagetes and Bluebell (detail)

I spent a long time looking at the illustrations in Curtis's Botanical Magazine online to see if I could find matching subjects for these 2 dessert plates but was only partly successful. I looked through the first 12 volumes and found a Tagetes, described by Curtis as 'Tagetes Patula. Spreading Tagetes, or French Marigold', which could be the source of one of the flowers but did not find the bluebell it is paired with.

Dessert plate, pattern 2789, Convolvulus and probably Delphinium

I also found the probable source for the Convolvulus described by Curtis as 'Convolvulus Nil or Azure Convolvulus'. I did not find its pair which I think is a Delphinium.

Curtis's Botanical Magazine Vol 6 plate 188, 1792

Dessert plate Convolvulus and Delphinium (?) (detail)

I confess I was rather relived there were only 2 plates to research, not a whole service of dozens of pieces...

Teawares were also produced in this pattern again with each piece having a pair of flower subjects. The flowers are as you would expect on the saucers but for the coffee cup and teacup the design is adapted so a flower appears on the outside of the cup - one on each side.

L-R: Coffee cup, saucer and teacup, pattern 2789

Saucer, pattern 2789

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*With thanks to Jayo Emms Antiques England for the images of the 2 dessert plates which inspired the blogpost.

**For more about dessert wares from Spode on this blog please use the Search box/page and enter dessert.

Spode and a Coffee Cup & Saucer

Spode coffee cup, earthenware, London shape Cracked Ice and Prunus c1821

Cracked Ice and Prunus is the name of a pattern produced by Spode in the early 1800s. It was derived from an 18th century Chinese porcelain design. The earliest pieces from Spode were probably those transfer printed, underglaze, in one colour - blue.

Detail of Spode's pattern, transfer printed in blue c1821

The oldest written record of this pattern from Spode was first detailed in about 1821. The pattern books in the Spode archive record several versions of this design - different colour combinations, a bit of gilding, sometimes not as an 'all-over' design, or sheet pattern, but simply as a border.

The coffee cup and saucer illustrated here is printed in grey and then hand coloured in blue. It was found in a charity (thrift) shop by Andrew Goff from the USA. He kindly provided me with the photos. And we both love it!

I think the soft colour combination is very elegant and, combined with Spode's very beautifully-proportioned London shape, makes for a gorgeous piece.

Backstamps on coffee cup

The only other piece I have seen in this colourway is elsewhere on this, my very my own blog! I first wrote about the pattern Cracked Ice and Prunus for a blog post in May 2015. The design represents the coming of spring. The elements of the design show cherry blossom petals (prunus) falling on to the background of thawing ice.

Saucer to the coffee cup

Backstamps on saucer

The backstamps show the Spode company name which, in this style, was used up to 1833; a workman's mark for the printing team; a workman's mark for the person who painted the blue; and, in the case of the saucer, an impressed 4 which would have indicated which workman made the piece from the clay.

You can find more about Spode's Cracked Ice and Prunus pattern history and more images by clicking here>.

Barrel Scent Jar with a pierced cover over a (not visible) flat lid to hold pot pourri c1821

Spode and a Mystery Teapot Stand

Teapot stand, bone china, pattern 522 c1804

This pretty oval 'dish' is in fact a teapot stand. It is 8 inches long. I found it some time ago on a bric-a-brac stall at the regular Saturday antique market in Leek, UK. It is essentially a morning market so arriving after lunch means that you can only dash about watching as delightful looking objects disappear unsold back under mounds of old newspaper and into cardboard boxes. A sort of panic sets in just in case you are missing something interesting.

On the cobbles by one stall was a higgledy-piggledy pile of plates, dishes and saucers. Racing against the moment they would be hauled from my view into their packaging I spotted what I thought was a pretty Edwardian dish with painted cornflowers. I extracted it quickly and carefully from its pile and knew instantly from its look and feel that it was about 100 years older than my first thoughts and was an early 19th century teapot stand. 

Part tea service, bone china, New Oval shape, pattern 893 c1806. Note the stand under the teapot

In the early 1800s a teapot stand was an integral part of a tea service and would be the correct shape and pattern to match the teapot. It was not really a separate item bought on its own. It is only as time has passed that services were split up and teapot stands often lost and not recognised as such.

'Combed' underside of the stand more usual of early 1800s than early 1900s

I liked it enough to buy and it was mine for a few pounds. At first I just thought of it as a mystery pot made by an unknown potter and didn't even consider it might be made by Spode. Back home, with the grime carefully removed from its surfaces, I began to wonder if, from its style of pattern and its feel together with the quality of manufacture perhaps it could be...

The underside of a piece is always important to scrutinise to see if there are any clues to a manufacturer. The backstamp was simply 522 handpainted in gold. As a process of elimination I checked my Spode notes and found pattern number 522 recorded as a 'missing number' - ie there is no paper record in the Spode archive showing what it was like. In fact patterns 518 to 522 are all 'missing'.

Teapot stand backstamp, pattern number 522 painted in gold

There are over 75,000 patterns recorded on paper in the Pattern Books in the Spode archive. It is the first 5,000 or so patterns in the Pattern Books which date from the Spode period (up to 1833) so, if recorded, this is where 522 would have been.

Why was this pattern missing from the Spode record? There are several possible reasons one of which could be that the records on pieces of paper may have been physically lost. The patterns were originally on loose sheets and only later bound into books.

I was lucky to find further clues to the manufacturer of my stand as some years ago I had been contacted by a collector and Spode enthusiast and provided with a photograph of this 'missing' pattern on a sugar box (sometimes referred to as a sucrier).

Identifying unmarked pieces it easier when the piece is holloware rather than flatware like my teapot stand. Holloware ware shapes are usually more particular to a manufacturer than a surface pattern, which could have been produced by several different manufacturers. The sugar box in Old Oval shape matched the pattern on my stand and had the same gilded 522 mark. The shape was unmistakably a Spode shape confirming the pattern as (almost certainly) Spode by its owner, an authority on unusual Spode objects and hunter of 'missing' pattern numbers.

An image of the sugar box in pattern 522 is below but unfortunately doesn't show the distinctive handles of Old Oval shape. So I include an image of a complete Spode Old Oval sugar box with its lid in pattern 477 where you can just see the gilded handles. Also note the gilded pattern on the shoulder is the same as that on the 522 sugar box.

Sugar box (detail), pattern 522 c1804. Note how the gold has worn.

Spode sugar box & lid, bone china, Old Oval shape, pattern 477 c1804 (I love this pattern with its panels of flowers interspersed with gold stars)

So it seems I had actually unintentionally found myself a piece of Spode from c1804. I think there must always be the caveat that there is no absolute proof but all the clues lead to this being pattern 522 missing from the Spode records. Delighted!

I thought it would be fun to look a bit more closely at the design. The pattern is handpainted and gilded and at first glance looks simple but is actually quite complex. It comprises a series of borders around a centre of hand painted cornflowers and gilded leaves.

Teapot stand, border detail

Working from the outside the design starts with a gilded edge; then a zigzag stylised leaf border also in gold; a yellow band with a gilded line either side; and then a really pretty stylised garland of green leaves, red dots and pink flowers. Then follows a border of linked gold dots which frames the central design of cornflowers and gold leaves. In some way it reminds me of the delicate designs of sprigged muslin dresses of the same period.

Teapot stand cornflower and leaf details in centre

This piece would have been fired in the Spode bottle ovens at least 4 or 5 times - a biscuit firing, a glost firing and then several firings for the 6 different colours and finally the gold. The gold would then have to be burnished to bring out its lustrous shine. Tools with tips of agate or bloodstone were used for this skilled job. You can see some by clicking HERE>

So here was the proof that my chance find of a teapot stand, which at first I had thought an anonymous, pretty early 20th pattern, was in fact a pretty early 19th century pattern from Spode.

Spode and a Victorian Christmas Pattern

Copeland, small plate, Christmas design, pattern number D5208 (detail of top border) c1868

Earlier in this festive season I posted new information about Spode's famous 20th Century design Christmas Tree. But there are other Christmas designs produced by the Spode company under its various ownerships going back to the early 1800s. Go to my Spode & Christmas page for more information.

The now iconic image of a Christmas tree does not seem to appear in any of the Spode designs until 1938. From research in the Spode Pattern Books over the years I became familiar with Christmas and seasonal designs. Recorded on paper, these are production records. I admit to rarely having seen actual pots decorated with these festive patterns.

So I really am grateful to Paul Hanson of Philadelphia who kindly shared another of his Christmas pieces with me. It was he who found new information about Spode's Christmas Tree pattern detailed in my previous blogpost.

I was delighted when the images arrived as it is one of my favourite Christmas designs from Spode, then under the ownership of W. T. Copeland & Sons.

Copeland small plate, Christmas design, pattern number D5208 c1868

Here we go back to the Victorian era. This lovely seasonal plate, which is 6⅞ inches in diameter, is decorated in pattern number D5208. This pattern number was first recorded in about 1868 although the overall design was registered a year earlier.

Its design is pretty, charming and festive with cheerful seasonal messages on pink ribbons. Have you spotted the 'cartoons' amongst the entwined branches with holly leaves and berries? The designer seems to have had a good sense of fun. I like the dancing 'cartoon' which feels a lot more modern than mid-19th century.

'Cartoon' detail - perhaps a bit scary?

Dancing 'cartoon' detail

Other images used in this design record a parade of food and drink including a giant pudding topped with holly carried on a large dish but this scene is not featured on this plate.

The pattern is printed in outline and then hand coloured. Hand coloured is the phrase which was generally used in the Spode pattern books now in the Spode archive. Women and girls did the hand colouring ie painting over a printed outline; men and boys were allowed to paint. Both sexes served long apprenticeships for this specialist skilled work.

On the back of Paul Hanson's plate there are several backstamps.

The green printed mark of 2 entwined Cs back-to-back and Copeland underneath is the company mark, usually, but not always, used on bone china. It was in use from about 1850-1890. I am not sure if this plate is bone china or not as I have not seen it 'in the flesh'. In the absence of a datemark I think this plate dates from about 1868 when the pattern was first recorded.

The black printed diamond shaped mark is a registration mark giving coded information about when this design was registered with the British Patent Office. This one is for October 26th 1867 and has the registered number 212881. In Robert Copeland's book 'Spode & Copeland Marks & Other Relevant Intelligence' it is described as 'Mug & saucer design A Merry Christmas to you'.

The National Archives now have some registered designs online for many different companies and I have to admit I surprised myself when I found it - click here.

On the National Archives web page there is no illustration but there is a written record which says it is for a plate. It also says 'earthenware'. Once a design was registered it did not prevent use of that design by the company in different ways from its original registration such as on on different shapes, in different colours and on different pottery bodies.

The red number is handpainted and reads D5208 followed by dots. The D5208 is the pattern number and the dots probably a workman's mark ie that of a paintress.

Pattern number handpainted in red

Happy New Year!