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Flow Blue China, Things to Know
Transfer printing was developed in Battersea and by Sadler and Green at Liverpool In this process, a metal plate, most often copper, was deeply engraved with the desired design. Then paint was rubbed onto the warmed plate and excess paint was cut off with a palette knife. After being cleaned with a cloth, a piece of tissue-paper was dampened and pressed onto the plate. Next, the paper was lifted from the plate and set carefully onto the plate or other piece of pottery. The design was then rubbed in with soft-soaped flannel by “Transferrers,” women who had the job of placing the pattern so it lined up correctly. After the design was rubbed in, the dish was placed in water where the tissue paper floated off, leaving the design. The piece was first heated slightly to dry the paint then dipped in glaze. The design disappeared then, to reappear after firing.
The type of pigment used in Flow Blue is cobalt oxide, which had been discovered in 1545 by Schurer. This dye sank into the porous earthenware and blurred somewhat in the glazing period. In the 1820’s it was discovered that although the blue would blur naturally, it could be made to flow by instilling lime or chloride of ammonia in the sagger while glazing. This deep blurring covered printing faults and stilt marks and served to hide other defects such as glazed bubbles.
There is some disagreement in the histories of English china as to whether Flow Blue came about accidentally or was the natural and intentional by-product of the desired blurring of the cobalt oxide in pattern transfer production. Some historians believe that the Flow Blue technique was discovered accidentally when jars of volatilizing chlorides were inadvertently left in kilns during the second firing. But by this point in history potters had been able to control the cobalt color for many years, so there seems to be little doubt that this flowing effect was intentional. Flow Blue was not a “potter’s mistake,’ but a definite innovation devised to reduce the mechanical look of the printed design.
The production of Flow Blue ceramics nearly coincides with the reign of Queen Victoria, after whom the Victorian Age was named, who ruled England from 1837 to 1901. Flow Blue ceramics were primarily manufactured from 1825 through the early 1900s. Some of the pieces made are so flown that it is impossible to discern detail, thus the name “Flow Blue” or “Flowing Blue” or “Flown Blue” or Flo Blue”. Examples of Flow Blue is Arabesque by T. J. & J. Mayer, Milton by Wood & Son, England, Claremont by Johnson Brothers, England.
By, 1840, English potters were producing an ever-expanding variety of dining services, tea sets, and household ceramics with earthenware bodies as white as Chinese porcelain but much more durable and eminently suitable for arduous overseas travel to foreign markets. These tough, white ceramics were christened white wares, semi-porcelains, Spode’s “Stone China” and Mason’s acclaimed “Ironstone China.” These white wares were also considerably less expensive than the Chinese export porcelains, making them very attractive to a growing Victorian middle Class by mid-century. An example of Ironstone Chin
a is a Chamber Pot by Johnson Brothers.
England’s potters decorated the surfaces of these sturdy ceramics with striking, mass-produced patterns, quickly and inexpensively using transfer printing processes perfected in the eighteenth century. The quality of the blue printed wares was high. Large export markets opened or expanded in North America, Europe, and India where consumers sought elegant, matched sets of wares while avoiding the high cost and fragility of true porcelains.
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November 15th, 2007 at 10:12 am