The Blue Willow Pattern: A Tale of Romance, Bone and Clay

Suzanne takes Muriel on a journey to a faraway land, travelling into the hidden depths of a dinner plate. Its famous pattern – trees, a pagoda, a bridge, a boat, a fence – tells a version of Romeo and Juliet's story set in Imperial China. The plate was first made in England in the 18th century, but the story and its memorable characters – an eminent mandarin, his beautiful daughter, an ardent young man, a resourceful maid – were retrofitted to the plate as part of a story of cross-cultural admiration, imitation and adaptation that unfolded in Staffordshire in the 1780s. But how did Josiah Spode rewrite the pottery rule book? And how has the allure of Blue Willow lasted to this day? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.