Pattern 1194 Spode bone china Bute shape Coffee Can profusely decorated in a very pretty-pretty design, introduced c1807 & known as Spode's 'Gold Lustre'.
Henry Daniel had become Josiah Spode II's chief decorator in 1805 & John Hancock also came to work for Henry Daniel at this time. John Hancock had already developed platinum lustre decoration sometime before 1805 whilst he was employed by Messrs Turner, of Lane End, Stoke-on-Trent. Platinum lustre decoration was almost immediately employed in Spode's designs of 1805.
'Gold Lustre' was John Hancock's latest development c1807. It was discovered that a very thin smear of gold (of varying tones) on a white porcelain body when fired produced pink & purple mottled lustre.
Wedgwood went on to copy this discovery when he produced his 'Moonlight Lustre' although Josiah Wedgwood didn't produce his lustre until c1810 & he was even slower when it came to manufacturing bone china porcelain.
The handle is solidly gilt but it is a special shape, not the usual Spode kinked shape. This shape of handle was used on Spode's Porringer shape cup & again it is very rarely encountered. It is not known when this shape was introduced but it has been seen on Spode pattern 500 pieces at its earliest sighting. It looks as if a little French Parisian influence has sneaked in again at the Spode factory.
Examples of Spode's 'Gold Lustre' are very rare and seldom found. They produced seven different patterns around this time using this form of decoration, probably they were very expensive items which would explain their scarcity.
Spode's pattern 1221 was a 'Gold Lustre' design with a type of Garter Star centre & edges in gilt which was produced for the Prince of Wales & a piece is known to carry the rare special backstamp printed in red enamel on its base. This special mark incorporates the Prince of Wales three feathers & the word SPODE.
Spode went on to produce two new patterns using this gold lustre c1814 & another couple of patterns ten years later c1824.
The hand-painted border pattern composes of several simple repeat patterns interspersed with pink roses & forget-me-nots plus reserves of more flowers. It would have been tedious to paint & would have required great discipline but had the advantage of requiring little artistic skill. Perhaps an ideal job to set trainees on, or perhaps not, as gold lustre was a very expensive process!
A clean interior, this would have felt very special to use
A clean base and with its pattern number in iron-red enamel c1807.