Blue Willow

Dish
ca.1825 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This dish is both moulded and under-glaze printed with the famous 'Blue Willow' design which creates an attractive decorative effect. Enoch Wood was one of the largest and most important early Staffordshire factories making pottery in the early 19th century, and made vast quantities for export, much of which was unmarked. This dish has an extremely rare impressed initial or name-mark 'E.WOOD 'White enamel china' BURSLEM'. A fragment of a small plate excavated in California, now part of the Diaz Collection, is also marked in this way. The style of the dish suggests a date of c.1825 at a time when the factory was operating as Enoch Wood & Sons. and their wares were usually marked as such. Godden and Cushion list this mark as predation the firm's name change in 1818, however in 1828 vessels marked with simply the name 'WOOD' were deposited by the firm in a 'time capsule' within a church under construction.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleBlue Willow (popular title)
Materials and techniques
earthenware & transfer-printed
Brief description
Dish 'Blue Willow', transfer-printed earthenware, manufactured by Enoch Wood's factory, Burslem, Staffordshire, ca. 1825
Physical description
Small pearlware dish transfer-printed with 'Blue Willow' design. Marked 'E. WOOD White enamel china BURSLEM'.
Dimensions
  • Whole height: 1.8cm
  • Whole diameter: 10.4cm
Marks and inscriptions
'E. WOOD White enamel china BURSLEM'
Credit line
Bequeathed by Robert Courtenay Stones
Summary
This dish is both moulded and under-glaze printed with the famous 'Blue Willow' design which creates an attractive decorative effect. Enoch Wood was one of the largest and most important early Staffordshire factories making pottery in the early 19th century, and made vast quantities for export, much of which was unmarked. This dish has an extremely rare impressed initial or name-mark 'E.WOOD 'White enamel china' BURSLEM'. A fragment of a small plate excavated in California, now part of the Diaz Collection, is also marked in this way. The style of the dish suggests a date of c.1825 at a time when the factory was operating as Enoch Wood & Sons. and their wares were usually marked as such. Godden and Cushion list this mark as predation the firm's name change in 1818, however in 1828 vessels marked with simply the name 'WOOD' were deposited by the firm in a 'time capsule' within a church under construction.
Collection
Accession number
C.113-2012

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Record createdFebruary 1, 2013
Record URL
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