This is a sheet of designs for ceramics in pencil and watercolour annotated in pen and ink with colour notes, prices and pattern numbers. It originally formed part of a pattern book for H. & R. Daniel, a Stoke-on-Trent ceramics factory that was in business between 1822 and 1846.

Pattern books such as these were compiled as a storehouse of potential designs for production, and as a record of designs actually made. There were usually two copies - one for the company office and one for use by the factory's painters when they were decorating the ceramics. Today, they are of interest for the important role they play in identifying unmarked ceramics and for the fascinating variety of patterns they contain, many of which never made it into production.

In this case, the pattern book was later broken up and the sheets sold in batches and individually.

H. & R. Daniel
Henry Daniel was a gifted porcelain decorator, and from 1805 to 1822 was responsible for all the enamelling and gilding at the Spode factory in Stoke-on-Trent, employing nearly a third of their workforce. In 1822 he left to set up his own factory, also in Stoke-on-Trent, taking his son Richard into partnership in 1827 and forming H. & R. Daniel. They received several major commissions and became known for the variety and beauty of their decoration, rivalling Spode and Minton. However, unlike these companies, H. & R. Daniel was relatively short-lived and rarely marked its wares or marketed them under the factory name. As a result, Daniel porcelains and the factory's importance went unrecognised for a long period.

In her article 'Daniel pattern book drawings acquired by the V&A', published in 2005, Hilary Young identifies at least four pattern books in use at the Daniel porcelain factory. This sheet comes from the third and final volume of patterns for 'useful wares', such as plates and cups. The patterns in this volume are numbered from 7991 to 8984 and date from about 1840 to 1846. The V&A previously acquired 12 sheets from this volume (E.3842 to 3853-2004). The museum also owns a pattern book containing 26 sheets of ornamental wares, principally vases and datable to the 1820s (8769:1-26).

The designs
Each sheet of the pattern book consists of numbered pattern designs, rendered in pencil and pen and ink and then coloured in watercolour and gouache with gold highlights, and with annotations in pen and ink. There is evidence of division of labour in the production of the drawings: one hand being responsible for the outlines, another or others for the gilt decoration, and others still for the floral decoration in pen and ink, or for painting the finely detailed exotic birds or plants in watercolour. There are annotations giving instructions to painters and detailing piecework rates for completing particular decorations, for example 3d for a plant on pattern 8709 (E.286-2022).

Some of the patterns show printed decoration, particularly in the small and intricate flowers: these have been printed onto the page from the copperplates used to print the porcelain wares.

Each drawing gives the maximum design information possible in a single view. The cups are depicted to show both the interior and exterior decoration, while only half the decoration of each plate is detailed, as that provided sufficient information for the painters.