Spode Transfer Printed Ware: 1784-1833

Description

Spode Transfer Printed Ware, first published in 1983, has now been extensively enlarged and revised, listing and illustrating every known transfer print issued by the Spode family at their Works in Stoke-on-Trent. More than 100 additional prints have been discovered since 1983 and are included in this new edition. Over 350 further illustrations are included, covering the shapes of the ware found decorated with printed designs, Spode marks found on the ware and the methods of manufacture used in the past and those practised today. Many of the 900 illustrations are in colour, particularly the blue and white printed ware, and the informative text discusses early ceramic printing techniques such as bat printing and pluck and dust printing. No other manufacturing potter can match the long history of the Spode Works, which still holds vast stocks of engraved copperplates, including those from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries used for the decoration of the wares illustrated in this book.

David Drakard has collected English printed pottery, particularly underglaze blue transfer printed Spode, since 1963. A Vice-President of the English Ceramic Circle, he is also the author of a book on print decorated wares made during the reign of George III. Paul Holdway is a design engraver at Spode Works with thirty-five years of service and has demonstrated his skills on behalf of the Spode Company in Italy, Japan, Sweden, Germany and the USA. He has extensively researched early ceramic printing techniques and revived the forgotten art of bat printing using Spode's original nineteenth century copperplates. He has lectured in Britain and the USA on printing and ceramics.