WILLOW PATTERN LORE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 71, 20 September 1930, Page 25

WILLOW PATTERN LORE

TJie story of the willow-pattern so familiar nowadays on china is appropriately Chinese. In a mansion (depicted at right hand of plate) dwelt & rich mandarin with his only daughter, Koongshe, sometimes called Li-chi, The father had great ideas about Ms on» and only daughter, but she disagreed with him. She fell in love ■with her father's secretary, a comparatively poor man called Chang, who lived in the island home of his fathers (left hand side). One day the father heard them exchanging vows under the orange tree (background on plate), and forbade their union. The lovers, however, eloped, and hid for a time in the gardener's cottage- (at the ond of the bridge opposite the willow tree), when thy eventually escaped in j, boat to Chang's island home. The father pursued them (we see them flying over the bridge) with a whip, and would have killed them but for the intervention, of the gods, who changed the pair into turtle doves (birds are shown at the top of the plate). The willow pattern was originated in 1780 by Thomas Minton at the Caughley Pottery Works, Brosoley, Salop (says a writer in the "Weekly Scotsman," who repeats the well-known story). The original copper-plate, worn to the thinness of paper, is a treasured relic of Coalport. Specimens belonging to this period are marked with, a £lled-in crescent in blue under glaze, or the letters C and S, with occasionally a small cross. The word Salopian in «pit&^ was'also used. The original Caughley pattern was used on earthenware, the pagoda on the right, surrounded by five different types of treeswillow, peach, fir, plum, and the mysterious tree with dark circles. The tallest bears 32 apples in three tiers. At first no men appeared on the Bridge, but later one, two, and then fforee men. appeared. The wooden zig-

THE STORY OF THE DESIGN

zag fence runs from tie water to tie right-hand edge of the design.

On Caughley porcelain the design was different—pagoda on left, and bridge pointed at top of arch, and colour a deep sparkling blue.

Josiah Wedgwood, the elder, began to make willow pattern in 1783. The design was very similar to design on Caughley porcelain, but Wedgwood applied it to earthenware only—pagoda on left, two men crossing on right. On right bank of river is a peach tree and an apple tree, the fence shorter, contains swastika in its design. Tho pieces are marked Spodo in roughly formed capitals.. .

Josiah the younger, used the original Caughley design, with a scroll'bearing the word Spode, or his name in old English characters. Willow pattern from the Spode factory is a pale shade of blue, and tho engraving is clear and soft, and very beautiful. The apple tree has 32 apples. The Wedgwood willow pattern of 1810 and 1830 has the pagoda on right; the apple tree bears 34 apples. The blue is n,ot very intense; marks are Wedgwood, Wedgewood, and Bentley. Ini Davenport's design the tree bears only 25 apples; the marks are Davenport or Davenport-Lbngport, with or without an anchor.

Coalport made tho pattern on porcelain in 1799, was seldom marked, and It rare. ;

Liverpool shows 32 apples; Swansea, 30. Bockingham shows a boat in the foreground, has no fence, and only two men on bridge. There is little difficulty in distinguishing between the beautiful soft cobalt blue of the early potters and the harsher indigo tints of modem reproduction. The history of tho story is lost in the mists of time. La Fontaine, the famous writer of fables, is said te have had a hand in it.