Acid Etching produced a delicate and intricate two-tone gold finish. It involved etching a pattern into the glaze using acid. A resin was applied to the pot and the pattern stencilled out leaving resin where no pattern was required. The gold was then applied, fired and then sanded or burnished. The burnishing tool would only touch the raised areas of gold giving a polished finish and the gold deposited in the etched area would remain matt giving an elegant two-tone effect. A similar effect can be produced today using a good quality gold lithograph laid over a special paste to give the difference in level.

At Spode Acid Etching finished in about 1941. As far as can been seen from our records it began here in the early 1900s. There are two pattern books in the Spode archive which record over 500 different acid etched patterns. The pattern numbers are prefixed with 'A'.

The technique itself probably originated at the Minton factory in the 1860s but may have been subject to a patent and therefore not used by other manufacturers until later. This practice is regarded as highly dangerous today as the etching was done in hydrofluoric acid which is both poisonous and corrosive. Few manufacturers use acid etching today although our sister company, Royal Worcester, used the technique until very recently. Anyone using the method today has to operate under license and a member of our technical staff say that it is unlikely that a license would now be granted.

Further general reading: Robert Copeland; Spode and Copeland Marks and Other Relevant Intelligence: Studio Vista. ISBN 0-289-80172-9