Broken Willow Pattern Pickle Dish Pair

• 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.
• Tin Glazed - Tin glazing is a technique used to decorate earthenware, to produce maiolica, faience and delftware. Once the pottery has been fired, it is dipped into a white opaque glaze of oxides of tin and lead which produces a porous white surface, the background for the brightly painted decoration. The surface is then decorated with enamel colours which are absorbed by the glaze, and then fired again, resulting in the decoration fusing into the surface of the object.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• blue & white ceramics, English & European - plates and dishes 83
• helmets - military pickelhaube helmet 153