The Spode Museum is thought to have been established in about 1925. Artefacts began to be collected to illustrate and record the history and manufacture of wares from the beginnings of Josiah Spode's manufactory in about 1770 to the present day. The Museum became a charitable trust in 1987.
Galleries were developed to enable the collection to be displayed to the public and provide a reference for the Spode designers. In 1996 a new Museum was created in the Spode Visitor Centre and is open to the public free of charge. The collection displays many wares showing the genius of Josiah Spode I and II - the perfection of underglaze blue printing and the invention of bone china being two of the most important developments made by the Spodes.
A dazzling array of teawares, dessert wares and dinner wares can be seen along with spectacular ornamental items, 'toys', desksets, perfume bottles, match pots and other items made for the well-to-do in the early 1800s. Spode was always ready and able to respond to the changing trends in Regency fashion.
After 1833 Copeland & Garrett and then W. T. Copeland continued the style and brilliance of the Spodes using the well-established Spode name along with their own. Many different types of wares were produced from ordinary household wares to fantastic exhibition pieces, which won many an award at the international exhibitions of the Victorian era. Examples of exquisite painted fruit, flowers, landscapes and birds can be seen on showpiece ornaments and dessert services.
The Spode Blue Room displaying a early blue printed wares on antique furniture is open by appointment and the reserve collection and unique archive is also available by appointment to ceramic researchers. |
In
the early 1770's, a man who as a six-year old had watched
his father buried in a pauper's grave, eventually opened
his own small pottery. In the space of the next thirty
years he was to make a unique contribution to ceramic
art, and found a tradition of excellence that continues
to this day.
