A Spode Stone China square shaped vegetable serving dish printed in clear blue with print P634, known as 'Peony and Willow'. This design is a direct copy of a Chinese Nanking Export piece of porcelain dating from the mid 18th century.
Referring to my book, 'Spode Transfer Printed Ware 1784-1833' written by David Drakard & Paul Holdway it states, 'The pattern is not often found but it is likely to have been introduced especially for Spode's Stone China between 1813 and 1820 in imitation of Chinese porcelain.
Spode's Stone China was introduced c1813 and many of their designs were inspired by (very often direct copies of) both Chinese & Japanese originals. The body of Spode's Stone China was lightly stained with cobalt in imitation of these oriental porcelains & Spode's printed backstamp was also designed to look like a Chinese seal.
However by c1820 the fashion in Britain for oriental designs, particularly plain blue printed ones was fading fast so perhaps this was one of the later designs which could explain its lack of popularity & subsequent rarity? Spode's customers were wanting blue printed dishes with either European or Far Eastern decoration or the more exciting polychrome designs. Spode had already developed the method of printing the pattern outlines in cobalt blue & employing decorators to hand-paint enamel colours into the correct spaces, a bit like painting by numbers. It's always interesting to look for the variations that this method produced.
This Spode dish measures 10.5 inches or 26.5 cms across its diagonal and 2 inches or 5 cms deep.
The inner border composed of back to back scrolls is known as a Nankin border.
This is the blue printed Spode backstamp which was created for the introduction of Stone China c1813 & which was used by the Spode business until it changed ownership in 1833.
You can also see a previous collector's label for the Worlock Collection. George Worlock (1953-2008) was an extremely keen collector of Spode ceramics who wrote many interesting articles for the Spode Review, in fact he wrote an article for the November 1990 edition about his discovery & purchase of this particular piece of a hitherto unknown Spode pattern (a photo of this dish accompanies his article).
George joined the Spode Society in 1986 & became a very respected & knowledgeable committee member from 1993 and Editor of the Spode Review from 2003-2008. Sadly he died from an inoperable brain tumour.
A Spode plate in this same 'Peony & Willow' design also appeared in an article for the Spode Review November 2006 explaining that it had not been recorded in earlier books on Spode ceramics as it had not been known about & suggested the following: 'In view of the scarcity of examples of this pattern, I would suggest that they were produced by the factory as a 'one off' order to satisfy the requirements of an owner of a Chinese porcelain service who was looking for replacements or matchings'. The article also shows an 18th century Chinese original plate side by side with the Spode one for comparison.
If this Spode pattern was intended as a replacement piece rather than one of their patterns for general sale I would suggest that the date of production is likely to be closer to c1813 rather than c1820 simply because taste & fashion had changed by the latter date.