The Spode Collection

Many of Josiah Spode's productions were unmarked and therefore very few of the earliest Spode pieces can be easily identified.

English Bone China was invented at Spode and the Spode formula was eventually used and adapted by all other English factories.

Josiah Spode I perfected underglaze transfer printing on earthenwares and produced numerous series of blue printed dinner and other services of spectacular quality.

The partnership between William Taylor Copeland and Thomas Garrett was short, just 14 years, from 1833 to 1847, but during that time the factory produced a considerable variety of new shapes and products. 

Copelands made everything! The Victorian era of the factory saw remarkable achievements with the factory producing a range of amazing products and achieving remarkable feats, such as the ceiling of the Reading Room of the National Library in Paris, which no other ceramic manufacturer could match.

The Spode Collection also embraces designs from the 20th century. Each decade witnessed vast changes in fashion in all walks of life and ceramics were no exception.

From around 1800, most of the patterns painted by Spode's artists were recorded in Pattern books.

This collection, the greatest in the world, comprises over 25,000 copperplates

This collection includes some 250,000 manuscripts, letters, invoices, artefacts and tools relating not only to Spode but also to various other aspects of ceramic making in Staffordshire.