Spode China

Spode is a pottery company based in Stoke-on-Trent founded in 1770 by by Josiah Spode (1733–1797). It continued uninterrupted production until 2008 when it went into administration and was bought by Portmeirion Group who continue to produce some of the Spode lines.

Josiah Spode set up his factory in Stoke-on-Trent in 1776 after working for Thomas Whieldon. Between 1783 and 1784, he experimented and perfected underglaze blue transfer printing. This was a process of etching a pattern on a copper plate, printing this on to gummed tissue, cutting the patterns out by scissors and then pressing them on to the biscuit-fired wares. The tissue was then floated off in water leaving the printed design on the surface of the item. This was then dipped in glaze and returned to the kiln for firing. The success of this process depended very much on colours that could withstand the heat of the firing, and a rich blue became the best colour hence its use across most pottery wares of the time. This process led to Spode launching its ‘Blue Italian’ range in 1816 which has become a hallmark line and is still in production today.

During the 18th Century the race was on in England to discover the secret of fine translucent porcelain. Many English potteries were experimenting with using animal bone powder in their formulas, but Josiah is acknowledged as having perfected the successful recipe for fine bone china between 1789 and 1793 He kept it an industrial secret for some time. His son Josiah Spode II went on to very successfully market English bone china to the world. It was known for being very white and translucent but also very strong and chip resistant, a real breakthrough for soft-paste porcelain. Bone china remained an exclusively English product until the later part of the 20th Century, with manufacturing being localised in Stoke-on-Trent.

The Spode family were succeeded in the firm by Copeland and Garrett who often used the name Spode, and their items became known as ‘Late Spode’. In 2006 the business merged with Royal Worcester and then entered administration in 2008 before being taken over by the Portmeirion Group.