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Spode and a Pair of Parian Statuettes
LoveThis Parian figure from the Spode factory, under the ownership of the Copeland family was first produced in about 1882.A huge range of figures was produced by the company. There is strong evidence...
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Spode and Variations on Indian Sporting Pattern
Visiting Aberystwyth University Ceramic Collection & Archive is a must for anyone who loves ceramics. Looking at their exhibition last week one of the pots immediately caught my eye. It was a large...
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Happy Birthday Mr Spode I
Founder of the Spode company, Josiah Spode I, was born on March 23rd 1733. He is sometime referred to as Spode I. A son and a grandson also had the same name, so are referred to as Josiah Spode II (or...
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Spode and Spring Flowers and Plant Pots
 Bulb Pot,Tower pattern, c1820As a plant lover I am very fond of Spode pots made to hold plants as well as wares of all types decorated with botanical subjects, especially those made in the early...
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Happy Birthday Josiah Spode II
Naive portrait Spode IIÂ on a Spode ceramic plaqueJosiah Spode II was born on May 8th 1755. Â He was a master potter, hugely successful businessman, entrepreneur, inventor and innovator... and pretty...
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Spode and Margrave - the old and the new
Margrave brings traditional and modern design and techniques together. This pattern was produced on Spode's Royal College shape, which itself has become something of a 20th century design classic,...
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Spode and Football
It's World Cup 2014 and time to link Spode and football together!My favourite football item from the Spode factory is a large architectural slab depicting a scene from a football match. It was made in...
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Anyone for Tennis?
One of the most famous tennis tournaments started this week - Wimbledon 2014.Spode made beautiful and specialist wares for use at tennis parties which were all the rage for the well-to-do in the late...
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Spode and Golf 2014
It's that time of year and a lot of golfing is going on. Major championships are taking, or about to take place, for both men and women.There are surprisingly long associations between Spode products...
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Spode and Coronation Celebrations July 1821
On 19th July 1821 there were celebrations for the Spode workers on the occasion of the coronation of HM King George IV. I love the fact that there is a written record of these festivities for this...
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Happy Birthday Josiah Spode III
Josiah Spode III born on August 22nd 1777. He was the second son of Josiah Spode II and the last of the Spode family to be directly involved with the famous Spode pottery manufactory. It seems that...
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Spode and Incense Burners
In the early 1800s Spode produced a variety of different shaped incense burners. The function of an incense burner was to delicately perfume a room. Perhaps the room was stuffy or the smell of food...
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Spode and Leaves
The autumn colours where I live are so beautiful this year. I wondered if there was a Spode connection to this season. Of course there is! I have already written a post Spode and Autumn which you can...
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Spode in 1956
Many years ago, when a student, I had very little money to fulfil my need to collect things... so it was usually very inexpensive items that I plumped for. These included old magazines, pamphlets and...
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'A Platter large enough for the biggest holiday bird'
Filigree border, turkey centre, pattern number 2/552 The title of this post is from the 1965 Copeland & Thompson US catalogue which featured wares for Thanksgiving. Here's a page from this Spode...
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Spode and 101 Ceramic Highlights
It is about a year since the book '101 Ceramic Highlights'was published by the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery. Every time I revisit the book I learn something new, whether leafing through the pages...
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Spode and Christmas Patterns
Catalogue page, Christmas Tree pattern, 1983 (colour not true in printed catalogue) Spode's iconic Christmas Tree pattern was introduced in 1938 for the American market. At first it was expected it...
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Spode in January
One of a set of 12 tiles for the months of the yearThis lovely tile, representing the month of January, was made by the Spode company under the ownership of W T Copeland & Sons in the late 1800s....
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Spode and Hot Water
This object looks like a watering can but it is properly called a hot water can and has nothing to do with plants or greenhouses. It is associated with toilet sets or toilet ware.Nowadays hot water...
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Spode, Shoes and Slippers
Slipper inkwell (middle), bone china, handpainted with a paisley design and gilded c1820Spode made a number of shoes or slippers from the early 1800s to about 2000. All are no bigger than about 5...
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