Editing Spode (section)

== Foundation ==
Josiah Spode is known to have worked for potter [[Thomas Whieldon]] from the age of 16 until he was 21. He then worked in a number of partnerships until he went into business for himself, renting a small potworks in Stoke-on-Trent in 1767; in 1776 he completed the purchase of what became the Spode factory until 2008. His early products comprised earthenwares such as [[creamware]] (a fine cream-coloured earthenware) and [[pearlware]] (a fine earthenware with a bluish glaze) as well as a range of stonewares including black basalt, caneware, and jasper which had been popularised by [[Josiah Wedgwood]]. The history and products of the Spode factory have inspired generations of historians and collectors, and a useful interactive online exhibition was launched in October 2010.<ref>[http://spodeceramics.com/ Spodeceramics.com]</ref>

=== Underglaze blue transfer printing ===
Josiah Spode I is credited<ref>Hayden 1925, p. viii.</ref> with the introduction of underglaze blue transfer printing on earthenware in 1783–84. The [[Worcester porcelain|Worcester]] and [[Caughley porcelain|Caughley]] factories had commenced transfer printing underglaze and over glaze on porcelain in the early 1750s, and from 1756 overglaze printing was also applied to earthenware and stoneware. The processes for underglaze and overglaze decoration were very different. Overglaze "bat printing" on earthenware was a fairly straightforward process, and designs in a range of colours including black, red and lilac were produced. Underglaze "hot-press" printing was limited to the colours that would withstand the subsequent glaze firing, and a rich blue was the predominant colour.

To adapt the process from the production of small porcelain teaware to larger earthenware dinnerware required the creation of more flexible paper to transmit the designs from the engraved copper plate to the biscuit earthenware body, and the development of a glaze recipe that brought the colour of the black-blue cobalt print to a brilliant perfection. When Spode employed the skilled engraver Thomas Lucas and printer James Richard, both of the Caughley factory, in 1783 he was able to introduce high quality blue printed earthenware to the market. [[Thomas Minton]], another Caughley-trained engraver, also supplied copper plates to Spode until he opened his own factory in Stoke-on-Trent in 1796.
<ref>Hayden 1925, 46–53.</ref>

This method involved the [[engraving]] of a design on a copper plate, which was then printed onto gummed tissue.<ref>Robert Copeland, ''Blue and white transfer printed pottery'' (Osprey publishing (Shire series), 2000), p. 11 ff. [https://books.google.com/books?id=koeTCVxpb5sC&dq=engraved+blue+and+white+transfers&pg=PA11]</ref> The colour paste was worked into the cut areas of the copper plate and wiped from the uncut surfaces, and then printed by passing through rollers. These designs, including edge-patterns which had to be manipulated in sections, were cut out using scissors and applied to the biscuit-fired ware (using a white fabric), itself prepared with a gum solution. The tissue was then floated off in water, leaving the pattern adhering to the plate. This was then dipped in the glaze and returned to the kiln for the [[glost firing]]. Blue underglaze transfer became a standard feature of Staffordshire pottery. Spode also used on-glaze transfers for other wares. The well-known Spode blue-and-white dinner services with engraved sporting scenes and Italian views were developed under Josiah Spode the younger, but continued to be reproduced into much later times.

=== Bone china ===
During the 18th century, many English potters were striving and competing to discover the secret of the production of porcelain. The [[Plymouth porcelain|Plymouth]] and [[Bristol porcelain|Bristol]] factories, and (from 1782 to 1810) the New Hall (Staffordshire) factory under Richard Champion's patent, were producing [[Hard-paste porcelain|hard paste]] similar to Oriental porcelain. The technique was developed by adding calcined bone to this glassy [[frit]], for example in the productions of [[Bow porcelain]] and [[Chelsea porcelain]], and this was carried on from at least the 1750s onwards. [[Soapstone]] porcelains further added [[steatite]], known as French chalk, for instance at [[Worcester, England|Worcester]] and Caughley factories.<ref>The source for this section is Hayden 1925, Chapter 5, pp. 88–104.</ref>

The bone porcelains, especially those of Spode, [[Thomas Minton|Minton]], Davenport and [[Coalport China|Coalport]]. Although the [[Bow porcelain factory]], [[Chelsea porcelain factory]], [[Royal Worcester]] and [[Royal Crown Derby]] factories had, before Spode, established a proportion of about 40–45 per cent calcined bone in the formula as standard, it was Spode who first abandoned the practice of calcining the bone with some of the other ingredients, and used a mix of [[bone ash]], [[china stone]] and [[kaolin]], which remains the basic recipe of bone china. The traditional bone china recipe was six parts bone-ash, four parts china stone and 3.5 parts kaolin.

Josiah Spode I effectively finalised the formula, and appears to have been doing so between 1789 and 1793. It remained an industrial secret for some time. The importance of his innovations has been disputed, being played down by Arthur Church in his ''English Porcelain'', estimated practically by William Burton, and being very highly esteemed by Spode's contemporary [[Alexandre Brongniart]], director of the [[Manufacture nationale de Sèvres|Sèvres manufactory]], in his ''Traité des Arts Céramiques'', and by M. L. Solon hailed as a revolutionary improvement.

Many examples of the elder Spode's productions were destroyed in a fire at [[Alexandra Palace]], London in 1873, where they were included in an exhibition of nearly five thousand specimens of English pottery and porcelain.

The business was carried on through his sons at Stoke until April 1833. Spode's London retail shop in Portugal Street went by the name of Spode, Son, and Copeland.<ref>Geoffrey A. Godden, ''The Handbook of British Pottery and Porcelain Marks'' (Barrie and Jenkins, London 1972 (Revised Edition)), p. 119. See also the monograph, Leonard Whiter, ''Spode: A History of the Family, Factory and Wares from 1733 to 1833'' (Barrie & Jenkins, London 1970, reissued with expanded plates, 1987, 1989).</ref>

Among the many surviving Spode documents are two shape books dated to about 1820 which contain thumbnail sketches of bone china objects with instructions to throwers and turners about size requirements. One copy is in the Joseph Downes collection at [[Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library]] in Delaware, United States.<ref>[http://www.winterthur.org/ Winterthur.org]</ref>