Spode Porcelain

Spode porcelain, porcelain introduced about 1800 in the factory of Josiah Spode and Josiah Spode II at Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, Eng. This hybrid porcelain—combining the ingredients of hard-paste porcelain (china clay and china stone) and bone ash—became the standard English bone china. Early Spode porcelain consists of elaborate services and outsize vases, lavishly decorated and gilded in the Empire style. So-called Japan patterns (deriving vaguely from Japanese Imari ware) were also executed at the Spode factory in the early 19th century. About 1813 William Copeland, who had run the company’s London warehouse and had been a partner since about 1797, was succeeded by his son, William Taylor Copeland. When Josiah Spode III died in 1829, the firm continued under various combinations of the name Copeland. In 1846 Copeland introduced Parian ware, a white matte unglazed porcelain, resembling marble, in which statuettes were modeled.