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When I was a girl, one of my chores was to set the dinner every night with my mother’s beautiful Blue Willow china. I remember laying down the plates carefully, lining them up so each member of the family got a perfect view of the mythological scene depicted on them before heaping their plates with food.
Blue Willow is the most famous china pattern ever designed. Its classic blue and white color scheme probably went a long way toward contributing to its success, as did its ability to captivate the imagination. It was the famous English china manufacturer, Spode, who first illustrated the Chinese myth of the star-crossed lovers on its fine tableware. When the pattern became a hit, hundreds of other manufacturers copied the pattern, changing the scene slightly but never deviating entirely from the original. Less expensive versions of the pattern often are less detailed than others.
Josiah Spode quickly moved from a poor apprentice to a skilled potter when he perfected the technique known as underglaze printing in 1784. Prior to that time, designs were hand painted onto earthenwire before being glazed and fired. The new process used patterns that were hand-engraved onto copper plates, which were then printed on to tissue paper transfers in reverse. The body of the earthenware pieces was made of clay, dried to the ‘biscuit’ stage, and given its first firing. The transfer is then rubbed down on the body and then immersed in water, causing the tissue backing to peel away while the transfer remains on the china.
Josiah Spode is sometimes credited with the foresight to see a new market opportunity – it was also in 1784 that a stiff tea tax was repealed, making tea affordable to the middle and lower classes and increasing the frequency with which it could be enjoyed. Spode may have capitalized on this event by creating tea sets and serving pieces with his new underglaze technique.
Spode’s three original patterns were produced from 1784 to 1820 and were all done in blue – Blue Italian (a floral), Tower Blue (an Italian landscape), and Willow. The Willow design probably originated about 1790. As Spode’s popularity grew in England, it was also exported to America and probably found its way westward in the covered wagons of the early settlers. In recent years, the Spode company has revived these three classic patterns, claiming to manufacture them from the original 200-year old engravings.
The value of Blue Willow china today depends mainly on its age and the manufacturer and can range from top dollar to a mere pittance. Serious collectors will often pay thousands of dollars for a single plate or platter, just to boast that they own one of the earliest versions of the pattern. Those who simply enjoy the classic beauty of the famous china pattern can either collect an inexpensive version dating from the post-World War II years (found at flea markets and antique shops) or can pay slightly more for a modern version at the local department store. Collecting the modern Spode version today will certainly pay off in the future, as all authentic Spode pieces are destined to become classics.
The Blue Willow set I inherited from my mother is stamped “Willow Ware by Royal China.” I believe she acquired it in the 1950s, in the early days of her marriage and I’ve been relatively successful at adding to it, replacing missing or chipped pieces from stock I find at antique stores and flea markets. It appears to have been a popular, best-selling brand, as there is still plenty of it in circulation – even sugar bowls and creamers, which tend to be in short supply for other types of collectibles like depression glass. The clean, round lines of these shaped pieces are reflective of 1950s design and are very unlike the fluted, intricate Spode pieces of the Victorian era. Another American-made version of the same era is that which bears the stamp of the Homer Laughlin Company. These two patterns are very similar, probably even interchangeable, and sell for anywhere from six to twelve dollars a plate.
For casual table settings, Blue Willow mixes and matches nicely. Feel free to collect a variety of different renditions of the pattern, plate sizes and shapes, and even shades of blue. Those collectors who don't actually want to eat off their collections can display plates in racks and on walls; and pieces like tea sets in china cabinets or on buffet tops. Hint: for a vibrant display, paint the backs of shelves in a bright hue of coral or yellow to contrast nicely with the cobalt blue of the china. Collections are an especially noteworthy addition to rooms that are decorated in a blue and white color scheme.
In Stoke-on-Trent, England, at the site of the original Spode factory, the Spode Museum features a priceless collection of blue and white china, including Blue Willow. Pieces date back as far as 1790.
There is some amount of dissension as to the original legend depicted in Blue Willow, but the following seems to include all the design elements depicted on the china: the fence, the birds, the palace, the willow tree. Here is a retold version of it:
Long ago, a nobleman lived in a palace in the Mandarin region of China with his daughter, Koong Shee. She soon fell in love with her father’s servant, a butler named Chang. As any union with a commoner was forbidden, the two met secretly every day under a willow tree on the palace grounds. When the nobleman discovered their secret, he banished Chang and encircled his property with a zig-zag fence to imprison Koong Shee. She escaped and managed to join Chang, but when her father discovered where the couple was in hiding, he sent his army to kill them. Upon their death, the souls of the star-crossed lovers were transformed into a pair of immortal lovebirds that lived together forever.
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