Victorian Wares
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.
Tiles, fireplace slabs, door fittings and garden furniture were just some of the products for which the factory was renowned during the nineteenth century. Tablewares and ornaments of every imaginable sort were made to meet, and possibly influence the changing tastes of the times.
During this period nearly 30,000 new patterns were created for use on everyday ceramics and richly decorated services destined to grace the tables of the aristocracy at home and overseas. Huge quantities of transfer printed patterns were shipped to North America to the Hudson’s Bay Company for sale to white settlers and Indians. Other customers included railway companies, shipping lines, hotels, the military, hospitals and institutions. Copeland supplied the Royal Yachts from 1849 onwards. Badged services were supplies to Charles Dickens, the Duke of York and to numerous other Dukedoms across the land.
Statuary porcelain became popular with the middle-class Victorians. For a modest sum they could acquire recreations of famous marble statues in a much reduced size suitable for the home. The range of products extended from busts of famous people, animals, groups and scantily clad classical figures which no doubt adorned many a gentleman’s study.
A gentleman, perhaps a Manager at the Copeland factory posing with a Jug, shape ‘Barley’ on top of a ceramic column shown alongside a stoneware example. Registration number 88809, 26th February 1853.
Copeland employed some of the finest ceramic artists of the day including Charles Ferdinand Hurten, Daniel Lucas Junior, Lucien Besche, Samuel Alcock and Arthur Perry to name but a few.
Bone china dressing table set made for Princess Alexandra at the banquet and ball held by the Corporation of the City of London to honour the Prince of Wales with the Freedom of the City, 8th June 1863.
Magnificent examples of the productions of Copeland were shown at the Great Exhibition held at the Crystal Palace in 1851, the London International Exhibition 1862; The Paris Exposition 1878 and Exhibitions at Vienna, Berlin, Philadelphia, Melbourne, Sydney and Chicago.
20th Century Design
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.
About 20th Century Design