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[00:00:22] Hello, this is Garlic and Pearls, the podcast that tells you everything about what makes the French so French and the British so British. My name is Muriel Zagha, I'm French, and I'm here today with my friend Suzanne Raine, who is British. And it's your turn, Suzanne, today to take something on that is quintessentially British and try to explain it to me. I am going to do that, Muriel. So we all love blue and white pottery, don't we? We do.
[00:00:51] And we don't really think that it's quintessentially British as opposed to the Dutch have delved, the Chinese probably invented the whole thing. But I have something for you, Muriel, which I think is quintessentially British, which is the subject of today's episode. So here it is. Oh, I get a present. It's a plate. It's a lovely plate.
[00:01:19] Okay, yes. So it is blue and white. It looks Chinese in inspiration. Is this wrong? We're going on a journey to a faraway land. Oh, yes, please. And we're going to have a magical adventure. Excellent. In your plate. In my plate. In my plate. This is the best thing ever. So how do we get into the plate? So tell me what you can see.
[00:01:46] So I can see a pagoda firstly. So immediately to me says the Far East. I can see trees of different kinds, maybe smaller trees. There's a big tree behind the pagoda and then smaller trees sort of all around. Something that looks like it might be a weeping willow, a willow tree. Yes. Presumably, hence the name. A willow tree.
[00:02:12] Then I see there's a lake or the sea. I'm not quite sure where we are. Maybe it's a lake. There's a boat on the lake. There is a boat. There's also a bridge in the sort of lower part. So this is all the pattern that's in the sort of middle of the plate and the center of the plate, bottom of the plate, shall we say. There is a bridge with some little men on it. How many little men? Three little men. Three little men on the bridge. Great.
[00:02:39] And then at the top of the picture in the sky, there are two rather oversized birds. Or maybe they're just very close. Maybe it's a perspective thing, but they seem quite big compared to the bridge and the boat and the pagoda. That's like the Father Ted thing where the cow he does little and far away. Yeah. Everything is in Father Ted.
[00:03:04] And then around the border of the plate, it's more of a sort of decorative border with different shapes, which again are vaguely suggestive or reminiscent for me of patterns I've seen on Chinese porcelain. But again, I'm not a specialist, so I want to be guided by you. It's a countryside scene, bucolic scene, but there are people on their way somewhere crossing a bridge. Yeah. And there's a fence. I think you missed off the fence at the bottom here.
[00:03:32] Oh, no, there is a fence. You're right. Is it the Great Wall of China? No, this is a fence. It's just a fence. It looks like a fence. It doesn't look like the Great Wall of China. No. It's a sort of zigzaggy sort of thing with little posts, isn't it? And then a bit like a picket fence. Yes. So it's a lovely scene. It's very wholesome and calming. Okay. If that sounds like a fair assessment. Or is it? Or is it? Is it actually full of menace?
[00:04:00] Let's imagine a story that might be in this place. Do you think there's a story in this place? Could you imagine a story? I could imagine a story. And, you know, we talk sometimes about your Gothic imagination. I also have a bit of a Gothic imagination. That's why I live in England. I love the ghost stories of M.R. James. You know, M.R. James. There are several stories that are about, say, a mezzo tint or a painting that's haunted or a doll's house, you know, those kinds of things.
[00:04:29] So you could easily imagine that something dreadful has happened within the plate. There's a body under the pagoda. Oh, yes. You know, all kinds of things. But, I mean, what am I, are there, is there actually a sort of code in it? Is this what you're trying to tell me? Yes. Well, there's a coded story. Well, there sort of is a coded story. And it's not the whole story of the plate.
[00:04:59] But I think we should tell the story now and then we can come back to it. So we're going to dive into the plate. Yes. I mean, it's basically Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet, I think, is what I'm offering you here. Fantastic. Love it. Once upon a time, there was a Mandarin who had one daughter. So already it sounds like something with Catherine Deneuve in it. Yeah. And she was the beautiful Kung Shea.
[00:05:26] I'm probably pronouncing her wrongly, but that's what I'm calling her. And he had a secretary, Chang. And he did the accounts of the master, the Mandarin. And he fell in love with Kung Shea, as you'd expect. And she really liked Chang. And so she said, I love you too.
[00:05:53] And the Mandarin said, absolutely not. Under no circumstances, because the pavilion, the pagoda in the plate. Yes. That was his pagoda. So he is a Mandarin of great power and influence. The little story I'm telling you now comes from an article that was written in 1849. And I'm going to tell you more about that later. So when I'm quoting things is from an article from 1849.
[00:06:21] So the pagoda belongs to a Mandarin of great power and influence who had amassed considerable wealth in serving the emperor in a department corresponding to our excise. So it taxes. The work, as is in the case in other places besides China, was performed by an active secretary named Chang, while the business of the master consisted in receiving bribes from the merchants
[00:06:47] of the French and the Chinese. And the Mandarin's a bit sneaky. A bit corrupt. Yeah. Yeah. And Chang's job was to fix the books in case the emperor's inspectors came. And then because the Mandarin knew about the love affair, he dismissed him. No. Yeah. Sacked. Along with the maid.
[00:07:13] So it's very Romeo and Juliet again, because the maid hadn't told the Mandarin about the love affair. She'd been in on it. Okay. Of course, she was enabling it. So passing notes and things like that, presumably, is what she was doing. All that sort of thing. So you've got star-crossed lovers. Right. According to Family Friend from 1849. So this is where element two, the fence comes in.
[00:07:40] Because the Mandarin forbade his daughter from going beyond the walls of the house. And Chang was commanded to not visit on pain of death. And to prevent, this is a quote from the Victorians, to prevent his chivalrous courage any chance of gratification, he ordered a high wall of wood to be built across the pathway from the extremity of the wall to the water's edge. Oh, I see. So she is fenced in.
[00:08:09] And Chang is fenced out. Yes. Gosh. So already the plate's turning pretty dark. Gosh. Then, so he basically fixed the whole thing. He's built this thing so she can walk around the water, but she's got no exit from where she is. She's totally fenced into his house. And she can only exit through the banquet hall where the Mandarin spends all his time sitting doing his money counting or something.
[00:08:36] And all the rest of it is surrounded by water so she can't escape. Oh dear. So that's... That's sinister. That's sinister. Then the Mandarin says, I found you a worthy husband. Oh no. Yes. Who do you think it is? Uh, another Mandarin. Yes. Basically, yes. It's a Duke of high degree. Okay. Who she has never seen.
[00:09:05] So the Duke is her equal in wealth and in every respect, but age, which greatly preponderated on the gentleman's side. You can imagine. Oh dear. Yeah. He's 75 and she's 16 or something. Yeah. And again, so from the 1849 account, the nuptials were as usual, determined upon without any consultation of the lady. And the wedding was to take place when the peach tree should blossom in the spring.
[00:09:35] That's lovely, but also really sad. I know. Wow. And the Duke sent a casket of jewels. Well, that is nice. So he was trying. He was trying to be nice. But I suppose a casket of jewels is as nothing compared to an ardent young man who loves you. I know. I know. So it's a little bit, I know where I'm going at this stage. Yes, yes, absolutely. Yes.
[00:10:00] So he sends a casket of jewels saying, congratulations, this is so marvellous. I'm so looking forward to celebrating our marriage. And the Duke arrives at the pagoda. Yes. So again, in your plate, there he is. I'm looking at the plate. And according again to the 1849 account, he had his servants beating gongs before him and shouting out his achievements in war. So are they the people on the bridge? No, they're coming later. Oh, right. Okay.
[00:10:29] Thank you for your impatience, which is good. The number of his titles was great, and the lanterns on which they were inscribed was magnificent. Owing to his rank, he was born in a sedan, to which were attached eight bearers sharing his rank. The old Mandarin gave him a suitable reception, and then the gentlemen sat down to the introduction feast,
[00:10:55] according to custom, and many were the cups of salutation which were drank between them, till at last they became boisterous in their merriment." You've just pulled a face. Well, I'm just imagining what poor, what is the name of the girl again? Kung Shea. What poor Kung Shea must have made of it all, and presumably she's either sitting there or she's behind a curtain or something. She's possibly not been unveiled yet, has she? Well, she's up to stuff. Right.
[00:11:23] Is she packing a little bag and tying sheets together so that she can climb out of the window of the pagoda? So that evening, Chang… I know I'm right. Chang, Chang the lover… Yes. …borrowed the robes of a domestic servant, and he snuck in past all the guests, which no one was noticing.
[00:11:49] And he came to Kung Shea's room, and she gives him the box of jewels… Yes. …and then they escape past the drunken Mandarin and the Duke, and they reach the bridge next to the willow tree. So again, on your plate, you've got a big willow tree… …which is, as you said, a weeping willow. Yeah. …and then there's that bridge which is crossing the water, so they've snuck out to there. Mm-hmm. But, what do you think happens next?
[00:12:19] The Mandarin wakes up, or perhaps the maid wakes up and is terrified of what will happen to her when the disappearance of the girl is discovered. And so they send people after them. Yes. So they get spotted. Yeah. Because they've snuck out while they're all having a party. Yeah. And it's a risk. They took a calculated risk that did not pay off. So the Mandarin and the Duke spot them… …and raise… …a hue and cry is raised. No.
[00:12:48] …and the Mandarin staggers out and chases after them. So the three figures on the bridge are… …Kung Shea carrying a distaff, which is the emblem of… …I mean, you can't really see that. No. I'm trying to look closely, man. You can't really tell. No. They're just three little figures, but let's say that. The second is Chang, who's the lover, and he's got the box of jewels, but I don't actually think you can really see that either. No. And the third is the Mandarin. Oh.
[00:13:17] Her father… Oh, dear. …who is chasing her furiously. So, I think that's rather nice, because there they are. Off they go, over the bridge. Heading for what? A disaster. Yes. Well, not immediately. Oh, really? Not immediately. So, the couple outrun the drunken Mandarin… …okay… …and they make their way to the Riverside House of the Maid, who is in it all along… …right… …and they hide.
[00:13:47] She hides them. Okay. …can't really see the Riverside House of the Maid. No. No. But it's there. I mean, there is a house sort of on the other side of the water, but it looks more like a palace, really. There's a… That looks a bit sort of smart for a maid. I don't know. Also, it's quite obvious. I wouldn't hide there. No. I would be hiding off the edge of the plate somewhere. So, that's where they've gone. They've gone into the… …into a sort of hidden dimension in the plate that we can't see. Okay.
[00:14:16] Now I can keep up with this. So, the Mandarin is incredibly upset. He's incredibly upset. So, he and the Duke vow vengeance and say they're going to execute Chang when they catch him. And they send out spies. And one night, they see Chang and they report where he's hiding. There's some convoluted stuff where they see Chang. He jumps out of a window, goes in the water.
[00:14:44] Kung Shay thinks that he's drowned. She's distraught. But this was a ruse. Oh, it's very Romeo and Juliet. It's very Romeo and Juliet. But you see, so the Mandarin says, I don't think he's really drowned. Has he really drowned or has he not? Is she really distraught or is she not? And he hadn't drowned really. No. Because then he sneaks back in… What do you think he sneaks back in? In the boat. Yes!
[00:15:13] So, actually, there he is. There he is. He sneaks back in the small boat. In the small boat. There he is. Brilliant. And so, he comes to get Kung Shay. The Mandarin and the soldiers had suspected a trick. So, they're there as well. But the maid, because she's brilliant, she like stalls the soldiers. And Kung Shay leaps out of the rear window and joins Chang in the boat. Excellent.
[00:15:42] And they sail away to safety. Great. Or do they? Or do they? I'm worried now. So, they go. Can you see up above the boat? Yes. There's an island. Yes! Is that what it is? That's the place where I thought there was a palace. Oh, yes. No, that's… That's the island, which is the next thing in the story. Okay. They sail away to the island. And they live happily ever after.
[00:16:11] And Chang becomes a writer. But, here's the thing, and there's a moral in this for all of us. He becomes a successful writer. Oh. Which is not to be desired. Not to be desired, no. Because there's always a price. Yes. Because his fame reached the years of the Mandarin. And he hasn't thought of taking a nom de plume. He's writing under the name Chang. My goodness. What an innocent.
[00:16:40] I mean, surely the first thing you do is change your name. Sorry. Sorry. You know. So, well, I mean, yeah. That could have been avoided, frankly. So, this island up in the 10 o'clock point on the plate. This is the scene of great devastation. Oh. Because the Mandarin sends henchmen. Oh.
[00:17:10] And they kill Chang. Oh, no. And they set fire to the house. And they kill Kung Hsie because she's inside. Hmm. And the gods are a bit cross about this. And again, you think if they were proper gods, they could have stopped it. They could have stopped it. You could say that about the gods on so many things. And they don't seem to think things through if you ask me. Anyway, the gods think, oh, no, that's not a great ending. So, what do you think happens to the lovers?
[00:17:41] Are they transmogrified into birds? Yes, they are. I guess. So, actually, those two birds at the top of the plate are the lovers. Yeah. Immortalised, as it were. Yes. And you can see because they're flying. Do you see how they look both? They look happy and they're flying. And they're also looking at each other in a loving way. Yes. They're almost sort of beak to beak, really. Yeah. Yeah. So, we think probably there is something of a happy ending,
[00:18:10] even though there isn't a massively happy ending because they're all burned in a terrible conflagration. But then they become beautiful immortal birds and also, I guess, immortalised on the plate. But you're going to tell me about that. I am going to, exactly. I think I should also, though, I was trying to work out which order to tell you all these things because there's so many treats.
[00:18:39] This story isn't, I don't want to say it's not true, but it comes after the plate. Really? Yes. It's retrofitted. It's retrofitted to the plate. Really? Wow. And so, the first, and I'm going to come back to the plate in a way and keep going with the story a bit. The plate actually dates from the 18th century.
[00:19:04] The first telling of the story relating to the willow pattern plate comes from something called Bentley's Miscellany in 1838, edited by none other than... Hmm. Oh, who do you think would have edited something in 1838? So not Bentley. That's not, that's obviously a trap. Charles Dickens. Dickens, really? Dickens. It's just like, up to stuff all the time. Yeah. So that's the first telling.
[00:19:34] And it's kind of putting a Chinese story to the plate, which is obviously based on Chinese pottery and everything like that. But then actually the story that I've just told you really dates, as I said, to 1849, when there was, it was called The Story of the Common Willow Pattern Plate, and it was published in the Family Friend magazine. And it was seen as being a marketing thing, really.
[00:20:02] And, you know, just like, how can we make these plates? How can we get everybody totally into the plate? And it really works because now I see the plates totally differently. And the little figures on the bridge and the little man rowing the boat are, now I know who they are and the terrible ending of it. But they're not the only story because, and this is why I'm going to bring this in for you now, because I think you're the cultural person.
[00:20:29] And so you should know that this story from the plate then became an opera and a film. No. Yes. Unbelievable. Because, well, again, and it's the same kind of thing, because this is, it's the late Victorian. We're in late Victorian period now. So it became a comic opera called The Willow Pattern, which has a libretto and it's by a man called Basil Hood, with music by Cecil Cook,
[00:20:58] which was first produced by William Greet at the Savoy Theatre on the 14th of November, 1901. Oh, you can see it all, can't you? Yes. Yes. So it ran for 110 performances until March 1902. So not that long, to be honest, but then it toured some. So that's the one. And it's the same sort of plot. So we've got it moving from the plate to literature to… The stage. The stage.
[00:21:28] And then, and I think this is quite wonderful, 1914. Mm. A silent film. A silent film of The Willow Pattern. Yeah. Is it still in existence? No. It's lost. I say no. I tried to find it. Yeah. And I couldn't find it, actually. There's, but there's what there are, a synopsis of it. So you as a film person, this can be your quest. Yes.
[00:21:56] You can find the sort of original, I bet, I imagine the BFI has it somewhere hidden in an archive. They may do. Yeah. But it's called Story of the Willow Pattern. And it's the exact same story that it does. You can imagine it's perfect, isn't it, for this kind of thing? Oh, absolutely. Yes. Can I ask? Yes. This is coming from a place of absolutely no knowledge.
[00:22:21] Presumably, though the story was retrofitted, came after the plate and so on, and I know I'm going to learn more about all these things. The kind of story that it is, is probably consistent with the kinds of stories that were written in medieval China. I don't know. Yes. So the actual story, I mean, I think it is based on fables and things in the past. Yeah. Right. It's not totally invented by the Victorians. That's right.
[00:22:49] And the plate is not totally invented by the Georgians. It's all very much derived from Chinese traditions. And the huge fashion for it that there was at that time. So having spent almost half an hour on the story of the plate, I think we're going to have to slightly
[00:23:14] scared over the history of China manufacturing. No, I think we can assume general knowledge on my part and the part of our listeners that we'll be able to follow what you're going to say. So mists of time stuff. The first ceramic really that we know about comes from China. Yeah.
[00:23:37] And it was about 2,600 years ago as family mists of time that we can work it out. And they used a kind of kaolin clay and that produced this clear white color that was so fine. It was almost translucent. And then by the 1300s, they were using a cobalt blue pigment on it to create designs on white porcelain wears. And they are exquisite. I mean, that you can see when you go to museums
[00:24:05] and you see those beautiful old Chinese pots. They are just unbelievably beautiful. In Europe, we just couldn't do it. So what we started to do was to make ceramic items from brown clays and then put the white glaze and then the blue on top. So Delft tiles, for example,
[00:24:28] and other early examples are all our attempts as Europeans to recreate that beautiful Chinese things. And we kept going, this is the great story about Dresden and the Meissen factory as well, where, you know, that sort of search for the secret of how to make China. Yeah, that was happening everywhere. It happened particularly when in 1710, they found locally
[00:24:58] sourced kaolin in Germany and then the Meissen works started. And then everybody's sort of copying all of that. We had in the UK two massive defining figures in English pottery, British pottery, both called Josiah. And do you know who they are? So I know one, Wedgwood.
[00:25:26] The other one. So I'm just saying names now. I'm just saying Spode. Yes. Spode. Brilliant. Who, I don't know, unfortunately for him now is forever associated with PG Woodhouse in a way that's inevitable. So Josiah Spode and Josiah Wedwood are absolute contemporaries. Spode was born in 1733 and died in 1797.
[00:25:52] And Wedgwood was born in 1730 and died in 1795. Right. And they both had an extraordinary impact in terms of British pottery in Staffordshire. But it was Spode, not Wedgwood, who rewrote the pottery rule book. Really? And the willow pattern is the manifestation of that tearing up of the rules. Unbelievable. Okay. Well, unbelievable, but true.
[00:26:22] So, did Spode invent the willow pattern itself? I'm going to say no. He borrowed it. Yeah. It's really hard because I think quite a lot of this is genuinely quite confusing. And there were various different figures who were involved in a creative industry all in Staffordshire and around Stoke-on-Trent at the time. And one of them was a man called Thomas Minton, who again, whose name is famous. Yes. Yes.
[00:26:52] And it is very possible that Thomas Minton is the man who designed the kind of chinoiserie landscape that is the willow pattern. Okay. There's another man called Thomas Lucas. Yeah. Who may also have done it. They seem to have centrifugally ended up revolving around Josiah Spode at his factory.
[00:27:14] And at some time between 1780 and 1784, they produced this willow pattern pottery. And it's not entirely clear where the creative IP sits in all of this because various of them are contributing different things. It's also one of the reasons, you could argue that one of the reasons this is so successful is that it wasn't copyrighted. Ah.
[00:27:42] So you ended up in a situation where everyone was free to produce it or produce a variation of it. So we had a kind of massive proliferation of people suddenly producing the blue and white pottery. So by about the 1800s, there were about 50 different British ceramic factories which produced things which had a variation of the willow pattern in some way.
[00:28:09] So that's why it's everyone. That's why it's, I think, particularly British at this point because everyone was making it. Yes. Yeah. So a tiny bit about Josiah Spode, the man who ripped up the rule book. Please. He was born in 1733, as I said. His father was a pauper and he died when Josiah was six. Ah. I know. But you see, through adversity comes sometimes fortitude and resilience, not always, but sometimes.
[00:28:38] And so young Josiah said, am I going to let this stand in my way when I've got great plans for myself? Oh no. So he went out to work pretty immediately in the local pottery business, in a local pottery business. And he worked for 10 years as a boy and then became an apprentice with a leading manufacturer. And then that taught him. This is often the way he learned the principles of pottery. He learned it all the hard way. He got married.
[00:29:05] He had lots of children, including Josiah II, who becomes quite important. And he obtained the lease of his own pottery. And so he started to grow his business, massively abridged. I'm sorry, pottery aficionados. I've had to abridged it because we spent half an hour on the story of the plate. Well, that's, yeah.
[00:29:28] But sometime in the mid 1770s, he bought an old pottery works at Stoke and it became the Spode factory. And it continued into modern times. Actually, that factory only closed down in 2008, but don't panic because there's a happy ending. Good. And he became very successful. He invented two things. The first one was English bone china. Ah.
[00:29:58] When I say invented, someone pedantically is probably going to say, no, he didn't. He just improved significantly. But he, somewhere between 1788 and 1793, he finalized the formula for English bone china because previously they'd just been getting the proportions not quite right. By 1797, he'd completed that work. So his recipe was china clay, which is kaolin, 25%.
[00:30:28] Yes. You can do this at home. Cornish stone, 25%. Yeah. And an approximately equal weight of calcinated ox bone, 50%. Yes. I can easily throw that together at home. Yes. And that is why this is information that I've only recently known, that vegans can't drink tea from china cups. Of course. Because of the bone, the animal content.
[00:30:58] Because they're still made from animal bones. Ah. So English bone china, I suppose the clue's in the name. And we should have all realized it. And you did know it, didn't you? Except I thought, no, well, I knew it was called bone china. It did not occur to me that it was literally made from bones. I thought it was a sort of metaphor of what, I'm not quite sure. But even if, I'm just sort of sidebar about the vegans' resistance to this.
[00:31:27] Even if the animals died of natural causes. And we're just using the calcinated bones to make a lovely mug. Is that objectionable? I think if I were a vegan, I'd be okay with that. I think if you were a vegan, you would think differently. And also, I'm so not a vegan. Exactly. You eat raw beef. Yes, absolutely.
[00:31:54] And really unlikely ever to become one, except perhaps for health reasons. So, yeah, no, you're right. Well, that is really astonishing. Okay. So the bones and the stone are ground, presumably to a powder, and incorporated into the clay. Is this what happens? Roughly. Yeah. I mean, roughly. Again, yeah, I don't expect you to make me a plate. I mean, yes. So that's the recipe. So he spode the elder.
[00:32:22] He just made this much simpler, much more effective recipe, and that gave huge edge to the spode factory. Yeah. And then he died. The other thing that he invented, both of these two things together, make the spode story our pottery story in a way, is he invented the underglaze transfer printing. Ah.
[00:32:47] So your plate with the willow pattern, that has a transfer print under the glaze. Under the glaze. Well, the glaze is on top. Yeah. The glaze seals the baton, as it were. Yes. And that, of course, because we're talking 1780s, so that's, I mean, this is so beautiful. So the transfer print is made from a hand engraved copper plate. Ah, I love it. It's not like it is now.
[00:33:17] So that would take about six weeks for somebody to engrave the beautiful pattern on the copper plate. And there was a lot of competition, obviously, for the really good engravers, because the better your engraver, the better your plate is. And then you would get the engraved bit and you'd mix. In the early days, you could only use cobalt blue. That was the only colour that worked. And they'd mix it with a thick boiled oil. Mm.
[00:33:44] And then you'd put that over the copper plate and then you'd remove the surplus with a knife. So it's probably, it's gone into the little lines, I suppose. Lovely. And then you'd get, and this is so amazing, a sheet of very thin pottery tissue paper, which had been soaked in a solution of soap and water. And you place, I don't know, don't ask me, but this is how you did it. No, no, I can visualise it. So you put that on the copper plate under a press.
[00:34:10] You've engraved a piece of flat copper and you want it to be on a plate, which is curved. So you have to get it off the copper onto a piece of thin paper so that you can put that. So you put the paper on it and then you press it. And then that draws onto the paper the ink design from the copper plate. And obviously something very clever involving the soap and the boiled oil makes it work. Mm.
[00:34:36] And then you cut the tissue to size and you put it onto the plate and then you rub it with a small soaped flannel. Amazing. And then you, you put the plate in water and the paper washes off. Cause you, cause the plate at that stage is still kind of raw clay, beautiful, but raw. And so the paper washes away and the image stays on it. Unbelievable. By the 1820s, they'd worked out how to do other colours.
[00:35:05] You will have seen various versions of the willow pattern in like green or that sort of burgundy. Yeah, almost like a magenta or something. Yeah. Yes. And maybe a sepia colour as well. And black and white, they do it, don't they? Lovely. Now. So. Yes. Lovely. All beautiful, actually. That's Spode's contribution. And there's a whole load of debate about why Wedgwood gets all the credit when Spode did all the hard work.
[00:35:34] His son, massively glossing over this, his son Josiah Spode II was the one who really did the marketing, pushed to London, took the products and said, well, you know, golden age of English, English ceramics. And Spode grew to be the largest pottery in Stoke-on-Trent. Spode II became Potter to the Prince of Wales when the Prince Regent visited the factory in 1806.
[00:36:02] I have another plate here, which I'm now holding up. Oh, yes. The other Spode pattern that is still very much in production today and super popular is the Italian pattern, which was introduced in 1816. And that instead of, I mean, it's basically the same thing, but in Italy. So you've got some shepherds, you've got a woman sitting on a box, some sheep, a ruined castle. Well, a castle in the distance and there's some ruins and then a sort of hoveli house in between.
[00:36:31] That's probably where the maid is living. Yeah. You know, trees, clouds. But the ruins are what makes it so exciting. Yeah. It's a sort of pastoral idyll. And there's some small people playing outside the small house as well. So we can make another story for that another time because we mustn't get drawn into our plates too deeply. So there's another man for completeness I should mention is William Taylor Copeland, who became the business partner.
[00:37:01] Yes. As I know about Spode Copeland. Yes, exactly. And he, in 1846, he acquired the company outright and four generations of his descendants controlled the company until 1966. And he was a classic Victorian gentleman, industrialist. He owned a factory. He had a career in politics. He was Lord Mayor of London. And actually, the reading room of the National Library in Paris. Oh!
[00:37:32] The roof of it, which was built in 1868. Yeah. Has nine… I don't know. Does it still exist? I realised I didn't look up whether it… The Bibliothèque Nationale is, I think, what you mean. I'm so sorry, I did. Yes, it still exists. Had you noticed that it has nine copplas lined with ceramic tiles? No, but I'll look into it. Well, they're Copeland's. We've deceived them. In plain sight in France. There we are. In plain sight. Everywhere. British artistry.
[00:38:01] Totally took over. Huge, popular, all the time. 1966 to 2008. This is where we take a little dip while we'll get depressed about manufacturing and loss of craft. Yeah. But don't worry. Say this, because there is a happy ending that I'm going to come on to. But from 1966 onwards, it was merged with Royal Worcester.
[00:38:30] It changed its name back in 1970 to Spode Limited to honour the… You know, I mean, it's a great cultural thing. They started to change the way… You know, they modernised everything, which is boring. There were small pockets of traditional skills got maintained. But actually, by 2007, most of Spode's manufacture was outsourced to…
[00:39:00] I mean, ironically… China! I'm going to guess! In a sort of… I mean, some might say that's poetic justice of a kind, but possibly it's not. Well, Spode's loyal following weren't pleased because they saw this as a terrible decline of the great Staffordshire potteries. Why can't we make it here? Why are we only making it in China?
[00:39:26] It had been made in Britain for 230 years of continuous operation. And then in 2008, the historic Spode Works… Closed. Closed its doors for the final time. But then, brilliantly and excitingly, in April 2009, it got bought by Port Merriam Group, PLC. Oh!
[00:39:51] And they had a factory that's just 500 metres from Spode's original site in Stoke. And they bought it for a song. They bought Royal Worcester and Spode, two of the biggest names in Britain's fine China industry, for 3.2 million pounds. Yes, that's not a lot. I mean, when I say it's a song… How marvellous! I think so.
[00:40:17] And immediately, they said, what we've bought is traditional British craft and we're going to invest in the fact we're going to make it in the UK again. Hmm. They made immediately massive profits.
[00:40:35] Some of these figures might not be quite right, listeners, but they added about eight and a half million of extra sales to the Port Merriam Group on the basis of the acquisition of Royal Worcester and Spode in a year. It was a good investment. It was a good investment. And Port Merriam's chairman, a man called Dick Steele, who's the kind of name… You immediately get a mental picture, which might be quite wrong.
[00:41:05] He said, this has transformed the group. The potential of the Spode and Royal Worcester bands is huge, and we're especially delighted to be able to produce Blue Italian, which has been in existence for two centuries again in the UK. So, huge success, actually, really genuinely, of this. And profits went up and up and up.
[00:41:28] So, I had a look at Port Merriam's accounts from 2024. And actually, weirdly, the accounts of Port Merriam pottery aren't brilliant, but Spode sales from 2024, they're up 5% for the fourth consecutive year at growth and now up 45% since 2019. Gosh, that's an amazing story. So, Spode is fashionable. Yeah.
[00:41:53] And the other indication that Spode is fashionable, and the willow pattern in particular, I showed you… I made you log on earlier, didn't I, to the website of this really super shishi Swedish designer based in London, interior designer called Beate Hojman. Yes.
[00:42:12] And she is in all the magazines all the time because she's so inventive with interior design. And she has designed a number of fabrics, one of which is called Willow Ink. Yes. And you're looking now, aren't you, at the website? I am. I'm looking greedily, actually, because it all looks really rather beautiful. And you can see in her design, it's an exact replica of the plate. So, she's got all the elements, the doves, the willow, the pagoda, the fence, the bridge with the three people on it.
[00:42:42] The little boat, the island. Yeah. They're all there. They're all there. And she's selling it in four colours, isn't she? She's got… Yes, it's rather beautiful sort of purple almost. Yeah, deep plum. And then there's a lovely… Pollen. Yellow, sort of ochre pollen. It's gorgeous. And the beautiful green. And she also makes it on oil cloth. Oh, that's clever.
[00:43:10] It's super for, as she said, you know, you can just put it on your kitchen table and then it's immediately super stylish. That's lovely. The fact that this design dates from 1780-ish and is now being made by super fashionable young interior designer in London who is selling it at £144 a metre to all her super fashionable friends.
[00:43:36] You can actually also get it as a willow pattern duvet, pillowcases. The works. The works.
[00:44:06] I think of something vaguely equivalent. With us, the great names in France would be vaguely equivalent to Spoden, Wedgwood would be Sevres and Limoges. And perhaps one day I will look into those a little bit more deeply for us. I don't know that there was quite…
[00:44:31] Well, yes, we did like chinoiserie, you know, Chinese things in the same way in the 18th century for similar reasons. I'm not sure that there was the same laser focus on one pattern and one narrative that grew out of it. You know, that whole efflorescence or crystallisation around one thing. I think it was more…
[00:44:55] Okay, so there was this service that was designed for Madame de Pompadour or whatever and it incorporates some Asian elements. It's not quite as distilled, whereas this is really striking. I think… I imagine also those French porcelain houses, you know, lots of floral artistry and things. Yes, yes. I was thinking about that because actually this is a little sidebar.
[00:45:21] In terms of the plates that I like, there is a service by Spode Gainsborough that I really like. In fact, you gave me a wonderful soup terrine in that service and that's called Gainsborough. And that's a 1930s service. I think it's 1933 and it's very floral. It has specifically tulips, which is partly why it has purple and yellow tulips. It's very colourful. So it's not a blue and white, but it is lovely. It's a very cheering pattern. It's very floral.
[00:45:49] And I think partly I'm drawn to it because I'm French. And the other service I really like, which I grew up with when I was younger, and unfortunately most of the plates are broken, I buy the occasional one on eBay, is the Wedgwood service from the 1980s, early 1980s. Shall I get one and show you actually? Just one second. Oh, that's lovely.
[00:46:17] It is, I think, lovely. So this is Balmoral. And it's done in a rather ornate sort of landscape painting style. So there's the house in the background and then lots of trees and deer in the foreground and a path, an alleyway leading to the front of the house, and then a floral pattern all around the sort of border.
[00:46:46] And if I look at the back of it, so the name, so it's Enoch Wedgwood Tunstall Limited. It's the maker. Genuine hand engraving, decorated underglaze. That's what we, that's it, that's it. Okay. That's exactly what you described. And the range is called, the pattern is called Royal Homes of Britain. And you can get Tower of London, Windsor Castle and Balmoral Castle.
[00:47:15] So I have a couple of plates, dinner plates that show Balmoral Castle. I have a couple of cereal bowls as well. And I've never actually had the others, the Tower of London or Windsor Castle. But you know, there's, there's always hope. There's always Christmas. And I think, again, this is quite a French choice because my parents had this because they're like a lot of French people fascinated by the British monarchy.
[00:47:39] So the floral thing, but also the monarchy, Britishness, the 80s. You know, the 80s was a time when, I mean, I remember I watched the wedding of Charles and Diana, you know, this is a long time ago, but it was quite a, it was an exciting period for, for the monarchy and for the French. Not that it's not exciting now, of course. It's very exciting now. I don't know why I'm wittering on about royalty, but I just think you're right. The taste is different.
[00:48:06] And the French essentially love floral designs or very modern minimalist abstract designs. It's, it's a different kind of taste. I will look into it more for another podcast, but, uh, but I can't think of any equivalent of the story you've just told me. And I think, and it's difficult because once you've got rid of the monarchy, you can't really stick all their castles on your plates is your problem. You're, you're. Or they're all, they're all ruined castles and it's not quite the same.
[00:48:36] Apart from Versailles, I suppose. So can I just finish with, um, I think, I think this is a invitation to our listeners to cherish Spode and be proud of what it is and be grateful, super grateful to Port Merion for buying it and bringing it back and making sure that it is now still being made here.
[00:49:00] The Spode Museum was established in 1987 and it has brilliantly a mission of three Ps, protect, preserve, promote. Yes. Care for the Spode collection. It's got about 20,000 ceramic items, over 25,000 engraved copper plates, antique factory
[00:49:25] tools, machinery, and a huge collection of documents which relate to Spode and Copeland. So spanning the whole history of the Spode Museum. Preserve, looking after it all, and promote. Our mission is to protect and conserve the collection in perpetuity and to educate and inspire visitors.
[00:49:46] So they are there at the Spode, former Spode Works on Eleonora Street in Stoke-on-Trent. In Stoke-on-Trent. And until August, 2026, so now, they have an exhibition on called Willow Pattern Ceramics and Stories of Other. Oh yes, very good.
[00:50:11] Yes, and it's exploring, as this is their website, exploring the enduring legacy of the Willow Pattern, one of North Staffordshire's most iconic and globally recognised ceramic designs. This is their website. Using the Willow Pattern as a lens. This exhibition invites visitors to reflect on the often paradoxical history of Chinese influence on British ceramic traditions.
[00:50:35] And it offers insights into how 18th and 19th century British potters imitated and adapted Chinese forms, imagery and technologies when North Staffordshire was the sort of centre of ceramic production. And it also, of course, then rather complicatedly tells the story of cultural reinterpretation. So how Chinese motifs are adapted to suit British tastes. And then it is a complicated cultural journey.
[00:51:05] And there's all that stuff as well. And it's organised, jointly curated by Professor Choi Jung-Hu from the Jingzhen Ceramic University. I might have not pronounced that quite right, sorry. And Professor Neil Brownsword from the University of Staffordshire. And that's done all summer, I see. Yes, till the end of August. The end of August, that's brilliant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that is completely brilliant.
[00:51:31] And you can also, if you want, join the Spode Society. I would urge everyone to do that. What fun. I know, it's great, of course. I mean, support as much as you can. I just wish I had somewhere to put metres and metres of willow pattern oilcloth. But I don't really have, I don't know. But you have a table in your kitchen. So that's where you could put it.
[00:52:00] You could just get a little bit. What Beate says on her website is if you really want, you can get a seamstress to sew it with pleats around the edge so that it looks even more beautiful. Oh, how lovely that would be. I was also wondering when you were talking about the old cloth and maybe Beate, if you're listening, that could be a direction of thought. Wouldn't it be super cool? What, what, what? Listen.
[00:52:30] To make some coats, like Southwestern type things, out of the willow pattern oilcloth. Oh. So that you would go out into a gale. Cagoules. Yes. Why not? But I think it's flexible enough as a, as a sort of fabric or, you know, hybrid fabric thing to, to be a garment. Another good idea. Another garlic and pearls. Good idea, which I'm just putting out there.
[00:52:59] And Beate or anyone at Central St. Martin's who's listening, maybe that could be a collection. I would, I would buy that. I would wear that. It might get a little hot. Yeah. I mean, it would be, I mean, it would have to be lined properly with, I mean, I can see that there are technical challenges. Yeah. But isn't that what life is about? So with that thought in mind, listeners, come on.
[00:53:25] Next time we have a big garlic and pearls convention, let's all rock up in our, in our chinoiserie old cloth coats. We could maybe, I know, maybe the thing is bucket hats. Because then that's super British as well. It is. It is. It would be amazing. And you can wear it to festivals. So many applications. It wouldn't be quite as heavy as a massive cape. No. Yes. I suppose otherwise it's like a sort of medieval garment. Brilliant.
[00:53:54] Ah, quite pleased with that little direction of thought. Listeners, if you enjoyed this terrific story in blue and white, then please leave us a review if you would like. We love, we love getting nice reviews from our listeners. Tell your friends about us and make sure you subscribe because we have plenty more in store, haven't we, Suzanne? And I look forward to seeing you next time for something else completely different. See you soon. Au revoir, Muriel.