The technique of decorating porcelain with a blue underglaze derived from cobalt, a mineral first discovered in Persia, was perfected by Chinese artisans during the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). As early as the sixteen century, Chinese porcelains decorated in this manner were being produced expressly for export to the West. They remain popular into the nineteenth century when American traders returned home from China with ¡§Canton¡¨ and ¡§Nanking¡¨ services decorated with blue and white landscapes.
Blue willow china is the English interpretation of hand painting blue and white Chinese porcelain that was export to England from China in the sixteenth century. The transfer method of decoration and underglaze decorating techniques introduced after 1760 provided the methodology to produce willowware in large quantity.
Apparently, Josiah Spode developed the first ¡§true¡¨ willow pattern in the 1790s. The Spode factory at Stoke, Staffordshire, England, made three different willow patterns. The standard pattern developed in 1810 by Spode is the one that is now considered the true willow pattern. It defers from the first two patterns in border design and the method by which the transfer pattern was engraved.
Spode¡¦s pattern has a willow tree in the center leaning over the bridge. A teahouse with three pillars forming the portico and located near a large orange tree is behind the center willow tree. There is a bridge with three figures crossing towards an island. A boat with a man is on the lake. Two birds are flying toward each other at the top center. Finally, a fence crosses the foreground. The outer border features several scroll and geometric designs. The inner border consists of geometric designs that frame the center pattern.
Many manufacturers used transfer designs that were variation of the Spode willow pattern. Some produced their own original blue willow versions. By 1839, there were more than two hundred makers of willow pattern china in England. English firms still producing blue willow pattern china are Booths by Royal Doulton, Burleigh, Coalport, Johnson Brothers, Meakin, Spode, and Wedgewood, all represented in the clolletction. During the twentieth century, other countries including the United States and Japan made willowwares in a tremendous variety of shapes.
Spode
By 1770, Josiah Spode I was an established master potter at Stoke-on-Trent at the factory where his successors continue today. The perfection of transfer printing in blue underglaze on earthenware enabled Spode to copy, at reasonable prices, Chinese blue painted porcelain. These new examples provided replacement and additions for services that had become increasingly difficult to obtain from Chinese sources.
Earlier English porcelain manufacturers had failed to make large dinner plates and platters with straight enough edges to be commercially saleable. By July 1796, Spode was selling dinnerware that he called ¡§English China¡¨ at prices well below those of his established competitors. By 1800, a bone china porcelain containing up to 40 percent calcined ox bone had emerged.
Recently, there has been a remarkable revival of interest in underglaze blue printing ware. Spode, in particular, has reissued many of their early patterns, for example, in the late 1900s, willow was reintroduced as part of the Blue Room Collection.
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