Copeland (pottery)
 Spode logo since 2010 |
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| Privately held company | |
| Industry | Pottery |
| Founded | 1767 |
| Founder | Josiah Spode |
| Headquarters | Stoke-on-Trent, England |
| Parent | Portmeirion Group |
| Website | www |
Spode is a well-known English brand of pottery and homewares produced by the company of the same name which is based in Stoke-on-Trent.
Spode is a Stoke-on-Trent based pottery company that was founded by Josiah Spode (1733–1797) in 1770. Josiah Spode earned renown for perfecting under-glaze blue transfer printing in 1783–1784 – a development that led to the launch in 1816 of Spode's Blue Italian range which has remained in production ever since.
Josiah Spode is also often credited with developing a successful formula for fine bone china. Whether this is true or not, his son, Josiah Spode II, was certainly responsible for the successful marketing of English bone china.
Today Spode is owned by Portmeirion Group, a pottery and homewares company based in Stoke-on-Trent. Many items in Spode's Blue Italian and Woodland ranges are made at Portmeirion Group's factory in Stoke-on-Trent.
Josiah Spode is known to have worked for Thomas Whieldon from the age of 16 until he was 21. He then worked in a number of partnerships until he went into business for himself, renting a small potworks in the town of Stoke-on-Trent in 1767; in 1776 he completed the purchase of what became the Spode factory until 2008. His early products comprised earthenwares such as creamware (a fine cream-coloured earthenware) and pearlware (a fine earthenware with a bluish glaze) as well as a range of stonewares including black basalt, caneware, and jasper which had been popularised by Josiah Wedgwood. The history and products of the Spode factory have inspired generations of historians and collectors, and a useful interactive online exhibition was launched in October 2010.
Josiah Spode I is credited with the introduction of underglaze blue transfer printing on earthenware in 1783–84. The Worcester and Caughley factories had commenced transfer printing underglaze and over glaze on porcelain in the early 1750s, and from 1756 overglaze printing was also applied to earthenware and stoneware. The processes for underglaze and overglaze decoration were very different. Overglaze "bat printing" on earthenware was a fairly straightforward process, and designs in a range of colours including black, red and lilac were produced. Underglaze "hot-press" printing was limited to the colours that would withstand the subsequent glaze firing, and a rich blue was the predominant colour. To adapt the process from the production of small porcelain teawares to larger earthenware dinnerwares required the creation of more flexible paper to transmit the designs from the engraved copper plate to the biscuit earthenware body, and the development of a glaze recipe that brought the color of the black-blue cobalt print to a brilliant perfection. When Spode employed the skilled engraver Thomas Lucas and printer James Richard, both of the Caughley factory, in 1783 he was able to introduce high quality blue printed earthenware to the market. Thomas Minton, another Caughley-trained engraver, also supplied copper plates to Spode until he opened his own factory in Stoke-on-Trent in 1796.
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Wikipedia