The Spode Museum is based in Stoke-on-Trent, England, where

Josiah Spode Josiah Spode (23 March 1733 – 18 August 1797) was an English potter and the founder of the English Spode pottery works which became famous for the high quality of its wares. He is often credited with the establishment of blue underglaze tran ...

, known for his role in the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

, established his

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...

business in 1774. The Spode Museum collection includes a ceramics collection representing 200 years of Spode manufacture, ranging from spectacular pieces made for Royalty, the Great Exhibitions and the very rich to simple domestic wares.

History

Spode's achievements include the formulation of Bone China, which became the standard for all English chinawares, and the development and perfection of underglaze transfer printing on earthenwares, which enabled mass-production of attractively decorated

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

items on a scale never previously achieved. By the early 1820s, his factory, now managed by his son Josiah Spode II and his business partner William Copeland, had become the largest in Stoke, employing some 2,000 workers and boasting 22 bottle ovens. Spode’s factory was in continuous production from 1774 to 2008, when it finally closed (although the brand was subsequently purchased by Portmeirion, who continue to make Spode branded wares at their own factory in Stoke). The Spode factory occupied some ninety buildings on a nine-acre site and such was the amount of space available that over the years many thousands of items that might otherwise have been thrown out were simply put into store. Consequently, over the two centuries when the factory was operational, a massive quantity of papers and objects was accumulated. In 1987 the Spode company, recognising the importance and uniqueness of its archive and collection, established the Spode Museum Trust, an independent charitable body, to take over the entire collection. This step was taken to protect the collection in perpetuity irrespective of whatever economic misfortunes the Spode company might suffer in the future. In April 2018 the museum was hit by a car damaging items in the museum shop. In 2022 the museum hosted an exhibition of art made from the damaged items.

Collection

This collection is recognised as the largest and most wide-ranging single collection of Spode wares in the world. It also includes a "paper" archive of some ¼ million documents and early photographs, of which the most important are the 70,000 hand-painted watercolour images of every pattern produced since around 1800. In addition, some 25,000 engraved copper plates, used as the basis for printed wares, dating back from the 1790s and recognised to be the largest collection of its type in the world. There is also a collection of antique potters’ tools and machinery, some dating back before 1800 Since 2008, most of the collection has been in storage, but with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, in 2012 the Spode Museum Trust opened the Spode Works Visitor Centre in part of the historic Spode factory.

References

External links

Spode Museum Trust

Spode Works Visitor Centre

Information
from the Culture24 {{coord, 53.005, -2.186, type:landmark_region:GB-STE, display=title Biographical museums in England Museums in Stoke-on-Trent Decorative arts museums in England Industry museums in England Museums established in 1925 Staffordshire pottery Ceramics museums in the United Kingdom 1925 establishments in England