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The Willow Pattern · Short Nonfiction Collection

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  The Willow Pattern by Missus Willoughby Hodgson. This is a LibriVox recording. All
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  LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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  please visit LibriVox dot org. The admirers and collectors of earthenware and porcelain decorated
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  with the willow pattern are so numerous that it seems to me my book would
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  not be complete without a chapter devoted to a subject so picturesque, both in
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  history and design. The poem and story of the willow Pattern were taught to
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  me in childhood by my grandmother, who was born in Staffordshire in eighteen hundred
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  and was a great authority on matters connected with the potteries in her youth.
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  Who has not heard the fascinating little poem Two pigeons flying high Chinese vessel sailing
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  by weeping willow hanging o'er bridge with three men, if not four Chinese temple
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  there it stands, seems to cover all the land, apple tree with apples
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  on a pretty fence to end my song. There are, I believe,
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  several versions of the rhyme, but this is the form in which it was
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  taught me by my grandmother, And never shall I forget the pride with which
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  I recited it to a group of admiring brothers and sisters, and pointed out
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  to them the story on the plate she gave me. Nor is the little
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  poem the only story connected with the willow pattern. Tradition ascribes the scenes depicted
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  to incidents in the love story of a beautiful Chinese maiden. Kung Si was
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  the daughter of a wealthy mandarin and loved Chang, her father's secretary. The
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  mandarin, who wished his daughter to marry a wealthy suitor, forbade the marriage
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  and shut his daughter up in an apartment on the terrace of the house,
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  which is seen in the pattern to the left of the temple. From her
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  prison, Kung she watched the willow tree blossom and wrote poems in which she
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  expressed her ardent longings to be free. Ere the peach bloomed, Chang managed
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  to communicate with her by means of a writing enclosed in a small coconut shell,
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  which was attached to a tiny sail, and Yung she replied in these
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  words, scratched on an ivory tablet, do not wise husbandmen gather the fruits
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  they fear will be stolen, and sent them in a boat to her lover.
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  Chang, by means of a disguise, entered the Mandarin's garden and succeeded
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  in carrying off Kung She. The three figures on the bridge represent Kung She
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  with a distaff, Chang carrying a box of jewels, and the Mandarin following
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  with a whip. The lovers escaped and lived happily ever after in Chang's house
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  on a distant island, until after many years, the outraged wealthy suitor found
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  them out and burnt their home. When from the ashes of the bamboo grove
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  their twin spear It's rose phoenix like in the form of two doves. The
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  original English rendering of the willow pattern was designed and engraved by Thomas Minton or
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  Thomas Turner of Cockley in seventeen eighty and specimens are generally marked with a crescent
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  in blue under glaze, filled in the letter C in various forms, and
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  the letter S sometimes associated with a small cross or cross swords. All these
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  are in under glaze blue and are very roughly drawn. There are three names
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  associated with this factory, namely Turner, who was the maker Cockley because the
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  original owner of the works lived at Cockley Hall, and Silopian because the town
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  was in the CA County of Salop. Both earthenware and porcelain were made by
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  Turner, but the specimens illustrated on Plate twenty nine, which are porcelain,
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  have a different rendering of the pattern from that which was first engraved by Minton,
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  and it is well to bear in mind that the earliest pattern was the
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  one which illustrated the poem and story. For this reason, the Cockley Turner
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  pattern is generally called the Story pattern to distinguish it from other renderings of the
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  willow pattern. Thomas Minton was the great grandfather of the present Thomas Minton,
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  and founder of the Minton Factory where the willow pattern has always been and is
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  still being made. Copper plates were engraved by Minton and sold too many factories,
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  but there were slight differences in all of them, and this is one
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  of the reasons why a study of this kind of wear is so interesting.
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  The patterns of fences differ. There are more apples in some than in others,
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  and whereas in the original design there were five kinds of trees on others,
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  there are often only three or four. In addition to the story or
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  first pattern, there are other willow pattern designs, all oriental and all equally
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  interesting. Some have one man, some two men on the bridge, and
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  all of them have a willow in a prominent position. These patterns, copied
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  from porcelain, which was so largely imported from China at that time, were
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  engraved between seventeen eight and seventeen ninety by Minton and his assistants. One of
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  the first of the designs was the pagoda or second Period pattern, made for
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  Josiah Spode. In this design, the temple or pagoda is to the left,
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  and on the bridge which connects the gardens with a bank on the right,
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  are two men. On the bank to the right may be seen a
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  peach tree and an apple tree. Behind the temple is a wall with trees
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  behind it and between it and the temple, the fence is shorter than the
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  one in the first design and has what is known as the swastika fret.
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  A conventional border used with this design is the butterfly border. It seems to
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  have been a raed by first drawing a butterfly as nature made it, and
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  then by use of petals and fish row motifs. Conventionalized between the butterflies and
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  separating them is the scepter or dewe, made up of curved lines which are
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  filled in with Trellis pattern. The lattice pattern on the rise of the plate
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  is also somewhat different from the Cockley design. A butterfly design which differs slightly
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  from the last is the curl and butterfly border, and still another, also
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  engraved by Minton for Spode, is the dagger border. This is exactly like
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  a Nankin plate in my possession, with little daggers forming a second row round
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  the rim. The third Willow pattern period dates from eighteen hundred to eighteen thirty,
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  during which time most English factories and several continental ones made use of it
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  in various forms, and during this time it was not unusual to find specimens
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  marked with the Staffordshire knot, this device being also used on the top of
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  covers in place of or round the knob. Following the prevailing fashion, Wedgewood
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  used the willow pattern. Pieces marked Wedgewood and bearing this decoration are to be
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  met with. The pattern is a faithful copy of the Cockley pattern, except
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  in two particulars, namely the threat of the fence and the number of apples
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  on tree. Wedgewoods plate having thirty four and the dishes more Davenport plates have
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  twenty five apples, and there is a difference in the fret pattern in the
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  rise of the plate. The Adam's plate has thirty two apples, and on
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  the dishes will be found fifty apples. The edges of plates and dishes are
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  sometimes plain and sometimes indented. The fence is like the Cockley one, but
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  the pattern in the rise is squarer than the former. Spode copied the story
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  or Cockley pattern in addition to the other designs engraved for him, and on
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  his plate will be found thirty two apples. The five trees, namely the
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  willow, peach, plum fur, and the tree with dark circles. The
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  fence, however, is more intricate. Clues who also use the pattern followed
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  the Cockley lines, but there are thirty four apples on his tree. There
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  are other renderings of the willow pattern, all of them more or less alike,
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  but with slight differences in detail, a study of which will materially add
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  to the collector's interest in his collection. The Swansea willow pattern was transfer printed
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  in dark and light blue, also in black and brown. In addition to
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  the larger pieces generally met with such as dishes, plates and tea sets,
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  many small and dainty specimens were made, such as leaf dishes with the pattern
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  on the inside, the edges dentated and the outside veined like a leaf.
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  Soup and sauce ladles and also pretty little pickle dishes are still to be picked
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  up at a moderate price. End of the Willow pattern by Missus Willoughby Hodgson