TIME WARP & WEFT: WILLOW PATTERN CHINA.

Willow Pattern.

I have been always fascinated by the Willow pattern China porcelain and I have been always buying a few cups and dishes in car boot sales. I always though it was a China product, however it is a Victorian product due to the Orientalism and Exotika derived by trade. A romantic perspective what we have about the unknown places. Thomas Minton around 1780 designed this pattern for Caughley in Shrosphire. It was inspired by Chinese designs and using a innovative method called transferware.
"Many other factories copied the pattern, including Wedgwood, Spode and Davenport in Staffordshire, and it was even adopted by the Chinese (although hand-painted) and then exported back to Europe." (1)

The Willow pattern fable has been inspired by the people fond of this porcelain creating a fairytale in its evolution since 1780. For instance,there were not the couple of doves in the original pattern.

Willow Doves detail

Wedding Cake.

Miss Chna. 2012. National Costume.

The doves symbolised a couple in love, a princess and a peasant who made possible the transcendence of their love with the help of the gods. They felt compassion for them, due to the all the obstacles to live their love and transformed them in these beautiful doves. The Weeping Willow tree is a fundamental and central component in the pattern, symbolising life and death. Other elements in the pattern are a temple, figures crossing a bridge and a distand island.

The Willow pattern has neven been out of fashion, always being very popular and affordable. In old Hollywood films shows the Willow China in kitchens along western movies and classical movies. Nowadays, it has been the inspiration for fashion, furniture, jellewery and so many modern objects such as covers for mobiles and laptops. The Willowmania can go further to have it in your own skin with a tattoo.

(1) Treasures in your home. Reader's Digest. 1993.