Spode & Curtis

Cyclamen coum on plate and paper (below)

Thanks to Val Bott for bringing the following to my attention.  Its always interesting to see how different art forms influence each other, in this case botanical illustration on porcelain decoration.  

The post by Pam Woolliscroft author of Spode History tells about the botanical designs employed by Spode in the 19th century and which were inspired by the plates in Curtis's Botanical Magazine.  The magazine was founded by William Curtis in 1787.  Samuel  succeeded to the editorship of the magazine in 1827 selling his rights in 1846. Curtis's Botanical Magazine (1801-1920) is downloadable for free from our good friends at the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Spode is a Stoke-on-Trent based pottery company that was founded by Josiah Spode (1733-1797) in 1770. Josiah Spode earned renown for perfecting under-glaze blue transfer printing in 1783-1784 – a development that led to the launch in 1816 of Spode’s Blue Italian range which has remained in production ever since.  Josiah Spode is also often credited with developing a successful formula for fine bone china.

A snip at €2,413

A modern example of the same would be Royal Copenhagen's beautiful - but expensive - Flora Danica collection.