Mauchline Ware has also been referred to by names including ‘Scottish white wood production’ and ‘Scottish fancy goods’. Its three most characteristic features are the wood used, the finishes applied and the final varnishing process. Almost all Mauchline Ware is made from plane, also known as sycamore. Features of this wood that make it suitable for decorative goods include lack of knots, close texture and resistance to warping. The six most common finishes of Mauchline Ware have been described by David Trachtenberg and Thomas Keith (Mauchline Ware: A Collector's Guide) as Transfer, Tartan, Fern, Photographic, Black Lacquer and Victorian Illustration. Numerous coats of durable copal varnish (tree resin) provide protection and maintain the pale colour of the plane on pieces where the wood is not fully covered by a decorative finish.

Mauchline Ware was widely produced in Mauchline but also Ayrshire, Scotland more broadly by the mid-1840s. At the start of the century the county had been a major producer of snuff boxes made from plane and hand-decorated with paint or pen and ink. It is thought that the wood was usually sourced locally. As snuff (powdered tobacco) went out of fashion in the 1820s, and as the demand for souvenirs rose with the expansion of the railways, the industry needed to evolve. Many companies started to produce a range of small goods in a variety of finishes, the dominant one being Transfer, which was suitable for souvenirs because it could easily depict places. Scottish manufacturers are thought to have purchased engraved plates depicting a range of places and to have exported widely to the areas depicted on their products. Transfer Mauchline Ware was often used for advertising as well as souvenirs, particularly by cotton thread companies. It is thought that such goods were often giveaways, gifts to loyal or prospective customers.

The Transfer technique was an attempt to replicate the labour-intensive process of hand-drawing pen and ink pictures, known as ‘washes’. At the start of the Transfer process the item was coated in two or three layers of shellac (insect resin dissolved in alcohol). A print of an engraving was made on a special kind of paper which was varnished and placed on the object ink side down and left to dry for a couple of hours. The print was wetted and the paper, durable but fine enough to be sponged away, was rubbed off. Finally, up to twelve coats of durable copal varnish were applied, a process that could take up to twelve weeks.

It is not known precisely when and where the Transfer method was first used. Earlier in the nineteenth century Johann Georg Hiltl and his son Anton Hiltl were using this method in modern day Germany, then Bavaria (see V&A object W.9:1 to 2-1965). But certainly it was widely used in Ayrshire from the mid-1840s, where it was likely introduced by the Smiths of Mauchline. This family business was established in 1810. Initially the company specialised in a few areas including snuff boxes, but it soon expanded its offering and methods and came to dominate the Mauchline Ware market, which reached its zenith between 1860 and 1900. Mauchline Ware continued to be made until the 1930s. A fire at the Smiths’ last factory in 1933 effectively ended production and the factory closed in 1939. This last factory was in Mauchline, but the Smiths also operated in Birmingham, England, apparently from around the late 1820s until 1904. Similar goods are known to have been made in Germany when this style had its heyday. Such pieces were often marked ‘Made in Germany’ from the late 1880s in line with the Merchandise Marks Act 1887. Scottish manufacturers rarely applies their names to items except for their own promotional pieces.

This Transfer Ware lidded box is a souvenir for Eastbourne in England.