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Porcelain Posting: Spode and other Stoneware!
yaaay, more dinnerware to add to my collection!
as a celebration of reaching an 100 day streak on duolingo, I recently let myself indulge a bit and bought a few things off Etsy. one of them - my Spode teacup and saucer that I'll be showing in a bit - was delivered safely into my hands, but sadly my other - an absolutely beautiful Crown Dorset teapot with matching cup and saucer - has been lost in the mail, and so far no efforts to find it have been successful :( I don't hold out much hope for getting it back at this point, so sadly I'll have to accept the loss and move on. however! I am still very grateful for the items I do have, and as a way to lick my wounds I also bought a beautiful little plate at a local antiques store on a lark.
let's take a look!
this is a pattern called Indian Tree, named after popular textiles being exported out of India at the time. there's actually a few variations of this pattern, including a (somewhat tacky, IMO) full-color version whose colors are patterned after popular famille rose styles!
this pattern in specific is special to me because it was one of many sets that my grandma owned, and after she passed I was the one who went through allll her porcelain to organize it and get it ready for selling. it was what got me into porcelain in the first place, and it was really quite amazing to go through the house and find more and more dinnerware with every cabinet drawer and door I opened! this Spode set in particular stood out to me, as I just love the gadrooned patterning and the rusty orange colors.
the backstamp on this cup is different than the ones my grandma owned - this one was made a bit earlier, from the late 1800s to the early 1900s! my grandma's set was produced around the 1950s.
like many Spode pieces, this is also not porcelain, but stoneware! a sturdier type of ceramic that falls under the earthenware category. they're a bit thicker than your average porcelain, and the white color has natural dark flecks that I think look so cool and make for a beautiful bit of texture.
my next piece is this gorgeous flow plate that I know almost nothing about!
(apologies for the low-quality picture, I was so excited to place it with my collection that this was the only one I took of it)
I immediately fell in love with the extreme bleed from the flow glaze, it gives it such a beautiful ghostly effect. the glaze is in fact so feathered that I can't make out the backstamp even a little bit, especially since they've also impressed a little mark right in the middle of it and all the glaze seems to have pooled in there and further obscured the lettering. any attempts to find a match to this pattern have also come up short for me - I can find so many near-matches, yet none that have this exact decorative rim, or this exact placement of the nature scene!
it's clearly willow-adjacent, and inspired by Chinese export porcelain, the willow tree and pagoda-styled house are obvious tells. yet I've never seen this specific version of it before! I love how dark the glaze is, it feels so much more elegant to me, especially because this is also some form of earthenware, so it feels much weightier.
when I was checking out, one of the antique store clerks took a millisecond of a look at it and nodded sagely, saying "ah, mulberry." (I immediately felt the need to kneel at her feet and beg to be her apprentice) so I do know it's referred to as mulberry, though whether that refers to the pattern, the production studio, the glaze technique, or something else, I have absolutely no clue. googling mulberry porcelain also comes up with lots of near-hits, but again no exact matches. I'm half-tempted to go back and ask her if she knows any more about it, though I've also just been filled with the desire to return there ever since, as it's such a beautiful store filled with incredible porcelain and I need to see it all again.
and a little bonus, here's a look at my whole collection so far!
well, most of it, at least. I've got a willow serving dish that's covered up by the gravy boat in the middle there, but I'm still working on the organization of everything.
despite mourning the loss of my beautiful Crown Derby teapot, I'm still overjoyed looking at my collection and appreciating each piece. I've finally gathered enough that I could hold a little tea party with friends and have them all their own assigned cup and saucer, which is exactly what I hope to do in the future! I just gotta pick up some lead testing kits first. just to be sure.
as a celebration of reaching an 100 day streak on duolingo, I recently let myself indulge a bit and bought a few things off Etsy. one of them - my Spode teacup and saucer that I'll be showing in a bit - was delivered safely into my hands, but sadly my other - an absolutely beautiful Crown Dorset teapot with matching cup and saucer - has been lost in the mail, and so far no efforts to find it have been successful :( I don't hold out much hope for getting it back at this point, so sadly I'll have to accept the loss and move on. however! I am still very grateful for the items I do have, and as a way to lick my wounds I also bought a beautiful little plate at a local antiques store on a lark.
let's take a look!
this is a pattern called Indian Tree, named after popular textiles being exported out of India at the time. there's actually a few variations of this pattern, including a (somewhat tacky, IMO) full-color version whose colors are patterned after popular famille rose styles!
this pattern in specific is special to me because it was one of many sets that my grandma owned, and after she passed I was the one who went through allll her porcelain to organize it and get it ready for selling. it was what got me into porcelain in the first place, and it was really quite amazing to go through the house and find more and more dinnerware with every cabinet drawer and door I opened! this Spode set in particular stood out to me, as I just love the gadrooned patterning and the rusty orange colors.
the backstamp on this cup is different than the ones my grandma owned - this one was made a bit earlier, from the late 1800s to the early 1900s! my grandma's set was produced around the 1950s.
like many Spode pieces, this is also not porcelain, but stoneware! a sturdier type of ceramic that falls under the earthenware category. they're a bit thicker than your average porcelain, and the white color has natural dark flecks that I think look so cool and make for a beautiful bit of texture.
my next piece is this gorgeous flow plate that I know almost nothing about!
(apologies for the low-quality picture, I was so excited to place it with my collection that this was the only one I took of it)
I immediately fell in love with the extreme bleed from the flow glaze, it gives it such a beautiful ghostly effect. the glaze is in fact so feathered that I can't make out the backstamp even a little bit, especially since they've also impressed a little mark right in the middle of it and all the glaze seems to have pooled in there and further obscured the lettering. any attempts to find a match to this pattern have also come up short for me - I can find so many near-matches, yet none that have this exact decorative rim, or this exact placement of the nature scene!
it's clearly willow-adjacent, and inspired by Chinese export porcelain, the willow tree and pagoda-styled house are obvious tells. yet I've never seen this specific version of it before! I love how dark the glaze is, it feels so much more elegant to me, especially because this is also some form of earthenware, so it feels much weightier.
when I was checking out, one of the antique store clerks took a millisecond of a look at it and nodded sagely, saying "ah, mulberry." (I immediately felt the need to kneel at her feet and beg to be her apprentice) so I do know it's referred to as mulberry, though whether that refers to the pattern, the production studio, the glaze technique, or something else, I have absolutely no clue. googling mulberry porcelain also comes up with lots of near-hits, but again no exact matches. I'm half-tempted to go back and ask her if she knows any more about it, though I've also just been filled with the desire to return there ever since, as it's such a beautiful store filled with incredible porcelain and I need to see it all again.
and a little bonus, here's a look at my whole collection so far!
well, most of it, at least. I've got a willow serving dish that's covered up by the gravy boat in the middle there, but I'm still working on the organization of everything.
despite mourning the loss of my beautiful Crown Derby teapot, I'm still overjoyed looking at my collection and appreciating each piece. I've finally gathered enough that I could hold a little tea party with friends and have them all their own assigned cup and saucer, which is exactly what I hope to do in the future! I just gotta pick up some lead testing kits first. just to be sure.
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