Pattern 1002 Spode bone china Bute shape Trio in a gilt architectural design dating to c1806. Pattern 1008 is this same design reproduced in orange enamel & gilt. This design shows off the decorating quality achieved & the pure white porcelain which the Spode factory was able to produce. It was the best porcelain made in Britain at this time.
Josiah Spode II had rising scales for his numerous china sales and an invoice dated 8th October 1810, to a Thomas Brown from W.Spode & Co, London, for a complete tea set in Pattern 1002 was charged at £10.10 shillings & 0 pence. This was the highest Spode scale and to put that figure into some sort of context; £1.16 shillings in 1805 was the equivalent of two weeks wages for an enameller & gilder which equates roughly to a wage of £45 a year.
So on current average yearly wages of around £28K that would make this tea service about £6000 in today's prices but instead we have Ikea white plates (without the gilding) for about 50 pence a piece! What was a luxury available to only royalty & the ultra wealthy in 1806 is now a basic requirement for all people and that benefit is due to all manufacturers through-out history using their skills & ingenuity together with the use of the technology available to them & automation to produce desirable products at competitive prices.
A highly competitive capitalist society raises living standards for all & Josiah Spode I & II were living proof of that fact. Problems tend to set in for businesses & society when they are not subjected to fierce competition.
This coffee can has picked up a large speck of kiln dust in its manufacture but it was still regarded as highly desirable.
Unusually the prefix 'No' has been used, this is rare on Spode pieces. It has its pattern number in iron-red enamel on the coffee can but the other pieces are not marked.