San Francisco Ceramic Circle

October 16th, 2005 Meeting

An Introduction to the Development of Blue and White Printed Pottery 1780-1880

Richard K. Henrywood

Dreweatt-Neate Auction House, England

The Sunday, October 16th meeting of the San Francisco Ceramic Circle will be held in the Florence Gould Theater at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, San Francisco. Enter by the main entrance from 9.30am. The lecture will start at 10.00am.

About the lecture:

The process of printing on pottery dates back to 1756 but the development of underglaze printing and the adoption of blue as the main colour took another twenty years or so. By 1780 blue-printing had become established for dinner wares and the following century was to see a huge growth in its use for wares of every description. Production can be divided roughly into three phases - (1) the early years when designs were predominantly copies or based on Chinese originals, the so-called chinoiserie period dating roughly up to about 1810 - (2) the classic period when the best quality wares were made with patterns of every description, the so-called vintage period running from around 1810 to 1830 or so - and (3) the later period when production went down-market, blue became much less dominant, and patterns became rather stereotyped and mainly imaginary - the so-called romantic period from about 1830 right through to around 1880. Transfer ware from all three periods is widely collected on both sides of the Atlantic and the talk will be extensively illustrated with colour slides.

About our speaker:

Dick Henrywood was awarded a doctorate in Aeronautics by London University in 1971 and worked in engineering for more than twenty years. He then left for a new career in publishing which led to work as an author and lecturer, a dealer in old postcards, model railways and other collectables and more recently as an auctioneer. He specializes in English pottery which he started collecting when he was at college. He has written many articles for magazines such as "Art & Antiques Weekly", "Antique Collecting", and "The Antique Dealer and Collectors Guide", and major books include "The Dictionary of Blue and White Printed Pottery 1780-1880", written with A.W. Coysh and awarded the Library Association's 1982 McColvin Medal for an outstanding reference book, and "Relief-Moulded Jugs 1820-1900", a pioneering work which first appeared in 1984. More recent books include "An Illustrated Guide to British Jugs", published early in 1997, and a major reference work on "Staffordshire Potters 1781-1900".

Future S.F.C.C. programs:

10/30/2005 Jonathan Grey "Swansea ceramics"

11/13/2005 Richard Pardue "For children's edification or ladies amusement: Early miniature Asian export and European ceramics in context"