Pattern 2638 Spode bone china London shape Trio; this design was introduced at Spode c1817 however the original design dates to almost 100 years before that date. The original design was produced c1720-1730 at Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, China under the reign of either Emperor Kangxi or Yongzheng during the Qing dynasty.
You can compare the two examples of this design side by side on pages 46 & 47 in an excellent book called, '101 Ceramic Highlights' which is available from The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, UK.
You can also see these two plates & the book in a blog by Pam Woolliscroft, (former Spode Museum Curator) here:
The instantly recognisable Spode handle & its gilding pattern. Spode London shape handles were always almost vertical with just a slight splayed angle similar to the cups as you can see in the previous photograph & it is surprising how many people look at, for example, Coalport's London shape handles which followed the angled shape of the cup much more obviously & suggest they could be Spode's.
The centre of the design is like a bird's eye view of a pond. It features an iron-red enamel, transfer printed, group of Lotus flowers & strange looking birds which is encircled by a narrow latticed border. This is encircled by a wider border of alternating panels of a floral nature also transfer printed in iron-red enamel. There is an outer band of blue transfer printed Chinese mythical beasts, flaming pearls & flowers and a further narrow band on the rim which is again printed in iron-red. Gilt high-lights are added through-out the design.
Once the design was printed & fired; firstly with blue at a very high temperature & then again with the red at a lower temperature, so Henry Daniel's decorators could get to work in applying the other different coloured enamels by hand & lastly it was the turn of the gilders. These pieces of porcelain had to be fired possibly 4 or 5 times in the Spode kilns before they were actually finished.
This was 'modern' production c1817, instead of the design being all hand-painted like the original one in China 100 years previously & like most British porcelain up to this date, the process was now being mechanised & production time & costs improved.
Bone china porcelain could now be produced by the Spode factory with consistently fewer faults & with less random specks of kiln dust within them.
To give you some idea of how quickly the London shape became fashionable & superseded the Bute shape this Spode pattern number 2638 was introduced c1817 & only 4 years previously the London shape had been launched & yet I have never seen this Spode pattern on a Bute shape piece of Spode bone china porcelain.
Around this period Spode also introduced a new shape for their Teapots, Teapot Stands, Sugar Boxes, & creamers which were used together with the new London shape Tea Cups & Coffee Cups. Instead of the New Oval shape Teapot you can see illustrated on pattern 1007 on this site, the pieces became a little more square & the Teapot Stand was again more square than oval. The name for this particular shape is unknown & references to it in the Spode archives cannot provide the information we would wish for.
You can see these Spode new shapes in their pattern 2638 at Rubylane here (look to the bottom of the page), however the Teapot handle is different to the one illustrated in Leonard Whiter's book (see below):
Here is another example of this shape, a Spode Service which was part of the Copeland China Collection sold by Bonham's at Trelissick House, Cornwall July 2013
In 'Spode, a History of the Family, Factory & Wares from 1733 to 1833' written by Leonard Whiter a pattern 2637 Spode part tea service in this new shape (including Teapot, Teapot Stand, Sugar Box, Creamer & London shape Tea Cup & Saucer) is illustrated, see photograph number 263. It is another richly decorated Imari styled pattern together with English roses. Leonard Whiter notes that the name of the shape is unknown.
In the absence of a name I shall call it Silver shape because it follows the shape of silver ware with decorative handles that didn't conduct the heat such as ebony, ivory, bone, wood etc., which were fashionable c1815.
There is also a Spode pattern 2638 Image-handled Chocolate Cup illustrated at number 229 in this same book.
By c1817 many more pieces of Spode ceramics are marked with the manufacturer's name, the pattern number & worker's marks. Here all three pieces have a blue printed 'Spode' or 'SPODE' mark, the pattern number '2638' written in red enamel & various worker's marks.