The advent of underglaze transfer printing, perfected at the
Spode factory in Stoke-on-Trent in 1784, marked a key moment in the
history of British ceramics.
Different from the simple overglaze 'bat' printed wares produced
at the Worcester and Caughley factories from the 1750s, Spode's
ingenious method involved first the engraving of a design
onto a copper plate, second the transfer of the 'print' to the
biscuit-fired ware using a cobalt compound and gummed tissue, and
finally glazing and a second firing.
At the time it was said that just two 'printers' could produce
the same volume of decorated pottery as 100 painters. Importantly,
as the technology spread to countless other factories from
Staffordshire to Scotland, underglaze transfer printing permitted
mass production and - combining utility with ornament - were
affordable to a larger proportion of Georgian and Victorian
society.
And today it is perfectly possible to eat your Sunday roast off
a 150-year-old blue printed meat platter that should cost under
£30.
The variety of earthenware objects decorated in this manner is
vast, from enormous meat dishes to tiny butter boats. The number of
factories who made then, including Spode, Minton, Rogers, Clews and
Enoch Wood, runs into the hundreds and the number of patterns they
produced into the thousands.
At last count, members of the Transferware Collectors' Club had documented
more than 9100 different designs.
Early patterns were either copied from or highly influenced
by the hand-painted Chinese export porcelain imports that
had adorned Britain's finest dining tables since the
17th century. As production advanced and customers'
tastes evolved, the variety of patterns grew beyond chinoiserie
themes. The classic Willow design stayed firm in the affections,
but landscapes and landmarks closer to home, shipping, sporting
pastimes, animals, fruits and flowers provided an apparently
endless source of inspiration.
Many of the patterns were copied directly from popular prints
and etchings (some collectors try to find examples of the source
prints to exhibit alongside the wares) and, in an era largely
without patent protection, manufacturers were often happy to copy
other makers' designs. Copyright law in the British pottery
industry arrived in 1841.
Above: sold for £6600 at Sotheby's Olympia in June 2006, a
pair of Copeland & Garrett octagonal blue and white earthenware
garden seats c.1840. Both are transfer-printed with a titled view
'Thun from the Byron Views Series' based on engravings in Finden's
'Landscape and Portrait Illustrations to the Life and Works of Lord
Byron (1832-34)'.
So large is the range that many enthusiasts will choose to
narrow their field of vision. Some, for example, will collect by
pattern, buying different forms carrying the same design or those
from the same series. While dinner wares are most common, a huge
variety of everyday ceramic shapes were decorated with underglaze
blue and white printing, from toilet bowls to children's toys.
Even when decorated with a common pattern, rare shapes are
highly sought after, but it is worth remembering that some of the
best known designs developed in the early 19th century showed
remarkable longevity. The
well-known Abbey pattern rectangular dishes made
by George Jones in the early 20th century to promote the
breakfast cereal Shredded Wheat carry a backstamp with the date
1790 - not the age of the dishes but the year the pattern was first
registered. Likewise Spode's
classic Italian design, first introduced in
1816, is still in production today.
Some will collect by shape, choosing to acquire variations of a
single form such as feeder cups or chamber pots. Others will
collect by factory (for example Spode) or locality (seeking out,
for example, only pieces made in Wales or North East England).
The distinctive early pieces, often of a higher quality than
later 19th century wares aimed at customers with lower
incomes, have particular appeal. The vintage years for blue and
white transfer printing were from 1800 to 1835. The fact that most
wares from the period have no identifying marks adds to the appeal
of the one piece in a hundred that may bear an elusive maker's
mark.
Colour can also be important. The high temperature of the
glazing oven was the reason why the majority of printed wares are
blue - prior to technical advances in the 1820s cobalt was the only
colour able to withstand the heat of the oven. By 1822, Spode had
developed other colours that could withstand
high-temperature firing (green, brown, manganese, grey, and
black) with pink and two-colour underglaze
printing beginning soon afterwards.
While made in smaller quantities and often harder to find, as a
general rule these wares are not as popular as the multitude
of different blues, but they do have their followers.
Blue-printed pottery has a charm lacking in more obviously
spectacular British ceramics. The Friends of Blue, a club dedicated to the
pursuit of collecting and identifying blue-printed ware, put it
thus: "Unlike the finest 18th century porcelain, they put us in
touch with a stratum of society that many of us can identify with.
Blue-printed wares form a major and important part of our cultural,
social and manufacturing heritage."
They are also largely affordable. By the beginning of the 19th
century, most potters were churning out masses of blue-printed
wares in differing designs. Made for the masses, many pieces from
the Victorian era - the typical Willow or
Asiastic Pheasant pattern plate among them - are so
numerous today as to have little value. As stated above, it is
perfectly possible to eat your Sunday roast off a 150-year-old blue
printed meat platter that should cost under £30.
Higher values are very much dependent upon form, pattern, date
and factory.
Some patterns are particularly desirable on account of their
rarity or because their subject matter has wider appeal.
Those pieces with identifiable landmarks, sporting scenes or
prize livestock command a premium above those with more generic
romantic landscapes or 'sheet' designs.
Much admired for its range of exotic and dramatic scenes, the
Indian Sporting series is traditionally cited as the
king of all Spode patterns, but four-figure sums can also be
commanded by pieces by lesser factories that depict subjects as
diverse as polar exploration, cricket matches or the famous
Durham Ox.
Size is not always important - some of the most desirable pieces
are the small medical wares or the nursery miniatures that occupy
specific collecting niches - but as a general rule the largest
platters and monumental jugs will bring substantially more than
smaller equivalents.
Most buyers are condition sensitive. Although they may display
perfectly well, damaged items are very much the poor relation of
the exceptional survival.
Blue and white is widely collected across Britain and its export
markets but is perhaps most popular in the United States.
The overseas market was key to British potters and a range of
wares were made specifically for export, including those printed
with patriotic scenes of North American landmarks such as the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, historical events with titles such
as Lafayette at Washington's Tomb and state coats of
arms. These wares (typically in the heavy deep blue print favoured
in America at the time) are avidly collected by Americana
enthusiasts and command a premium way above more standard blue and
white made for the 'home' market.
Here, in the arena many American collectors still term 'old blue
historical Staffordshire china', prices begin in the low
hundreds, but four-figure dollar prices are common for larger
pieces and five-figure sums are occasionally necessary to win the
rarest wares at auction.
Spode, Transfer Printed Ware, 1784-1833 by David
Drakard and Paul Holdway, ISBN-10: 1851493948.
True Blue: Transfer Printed
Earthenware by Gaye Blake
Roberts (Editor), ISBN-10: 0953273601.
The Dictionary of Blue and White Printed Pottery 1780-1880,
Volumes I & II by A. W. Coysh & R. K.
Henrywood, ISBN-10: 1851490930.
Blue & White Pottery: A Collector's Guide by
Gillian Neale, ISBN-10: 1840002875.
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