Spode Blue Willow
I have been collecting Blue Willow for about 30 years now and it is quite impossible to contain my excuberance when finding a new piece. Price sometimes is the only deterrent and even that fails occasionally. It is the only china pattern that I know of which is based on a romantic legend. Essential Blue Willow components are a Chinese temple, bridge, island, and two birds in flight. There are several versions of the legend but each has the essential core parts. This one is in poem form, author unknown, but one of my favourites.
Legend of the Blue Willow
My Blue Willow ware plate has a story
Pictorial, painted in blue
From the land of tea and the tea plant
And the little brown man with a queue.
Whatever the food to be served
Romance does enter the feast
If you only pay heed to the legend
On the old china plate from the East.
Koong-Shee was a mandarin's daughter
And Chang was her sweetheart ah me
For surely her father's accountant
Might never wed pretty Koong-Shee.
So Chang was expelled from the compound
The beautiful alliance to break
And pretty Koong-Shee was imprisoned
In a little blue house by the lake.
The Dour old mandarin reasoned
It was time that his daughter should wed
And the groom of his choosing shall banish
That silly romance in her head.
While friends of Koong-Shee imagined
In symbols the dress she should wear
Her husband to be sat thinking
She should ride in a gold wedding chair.
He was busily plotting and planning
When a message was brought him one day
Young Chang had invaded the palace
And taken his promised away.
They were over the bridge when he saw them
They were passing the big willow tree
And a boat at the edge of the water
Stood waiting for Chang and Koong-Shee.
The furious mandarin followed
The groom with revenge in his eyes
But the little boat danced on the water
And travelled away with the prize.
But vengeance pursued to their shelter
And burned the pagoda, they say--
From out of the flames rose the lovers
A pair of doves winging away.
They fled toward the Western heaven
The pretty Koong-Shee and her Chang
Or so says the famous old legend
From the land of the Yangtze Kiang.
I couldn't be one to deny it
For the little blue dove and her mate
Forever are flying together
Across my Blue Willow ware plate.
Thomas Minton developed and engraved the design, after the legend, in Staffordshire,UK in 1780. For over 200 years the Willow Pattern has been produced by nearly every British Pottery Manufacturer, including Royal Worcester, Spode, Adams, Wedgewood, Davenport, Booth, Royal Doulton, and countless others. Changes in the pattern have been slight over the years, and usually the border treatment is altered. No other type of china is more attractive than a really good piece of willow. But, nothing can be uglier than a cheap imitation with blips and blobs, rather than trees and bridges. This pattern has been reproduced badly, more than any other design in history.
Padden Citys Old Blue Willow
Southern Potteries Dark Red Willow
Worcester Willow Pattern 1912
Booths Real Old Willow
I would just like to thank everyone who has emailed me regarding my post. I am glad to have helped!
I really do love much of the Blue and White pottery I see. Plus all the information about Blue Willow is really interesting! Beautiful things!
