My granny used Spode willow-pattern crockery for everyday use. There was another grander service for Sunday lunch, also blue-and-white chinoiserie: Booths dragon, picked out with a gold border. Willow pattern evokes for me the taste of slightly stale ginger biscuits, which I liked very much, and coronation chicken, which I was less keen on.
The idea of owning a table service now seems close to antediluvian; too formal and too much washing-up, although this was a ritual that mattered greatly to Granny. People now prefer plates that give a dull clunk when flicked, rather than fine china’s dulcet ping. Such changes of fashion were a factor in the 2008 closure of the Spode factory in Stoke-on-Trent, which had been producing willow-pattern plates since the 1790s. You can still buy it new, but it will probably have been made in China.
A beautiful exhibition exploring the entanglements of china, the stuff, and China, the place
Although much of the Spode works stands empty, it houses a plucky little museum, with a café selling Staffordshire oatcakes on blue-and-white plates, and a tremendous treasure trove of a shop selling old ceramics for a song. It has put on a beautiful and stimulating exhibition using willow pattern to explore the entanglements of china, the stuff, and China, the place.
