Blue and White Transfer Basins by Mintons and Wedgwood

• Transfer Printed / Decorated Transferware - Transfer printing is method of decorating ceramics, reducing the cost of decoration when compared to employing artists to paint each piece. A print was taken on transfer-paper from an engraved copperplate, covered in ink prepared with metallic oxides, and the image on the paper was then applied to the biscuit-fired ceramic body. The print was fixed by heating the object in an oven, and then glazed, sealing the picture. Early transfer prints were blue and white, as cobalt was the only colour to stand firing without blurring. Early in the 19th century advances in the composition of the transfer paper resulted in better definition and detail, and enabled engravers to combine line-engraving with stipple.
• Etruria - The Etruria Works was one of the ceramics factories opened by Josiah Wedgwood in 1769 on the Ridge House Estate in a district of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which he named Etruria. The source of the name was from that given to Greek vases which at that time were thought to be from Etruria in Italy, the source of Etruscan ceramics. The factory ran for 180 years, as part of the wider Wedgwood business.
• Circa - A Latin term meaning 'about', often used in the antique trade to give an approximate date for the piece, usually considered to be five years on either side of the circa year. Thus, circa 1900 means the piece was made about 1900, probably between 1895 and 1905. The expression is sometimes abbreviated to c.1900.
• Willow Pattern - Although several potteries including Minton and Spode claim credit for design of the Willow pattern, the design is generally attributed to Thomas Turner of Caughley Porcelain Works in Shropshire, about 1780.
  
  Whilst borrowing from the Chinese style, it was not a copy of a Chinese pattern.
  
  The blue-and-white chinaware on which it appeared became immensely popular and the design was reproduced with variations by many English and European factories including Royal Worcester, Spode, Adams, Wedgwood, Davenport, Clews, Leeds and Swansea.
  
  It was even copied in Asia, where it is still produced, with the wares being exported to Western countries.
  
  The pattern portrays the garden of a rich mandarin whose young daughter elopes with his secretary. The lovers, overtaken on the bridge by her father, are transformed by the gods into birds and flutter beyond his reach. The scene with its willow tree usually covers the central part of a plate, dish, or bowl, with a border of butterflies, a fret, or other motif.
  
  Traditional Willow pattern is in cobalt blue on white, though very occasionally other colours are used, such as purple or brown. The main part of the object contains the trees, houses, bridge, figures, and birds of the story and there is usually a fairly abstract pattern around the extremities.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• Wedgwood (England), patterns - Willow pattern 5