Just Who Was Josiah Spode?

QUESTION: My mother collected English Staffordshire transferware dinnerware. She passed away recently and now I have her collection which consists of plates, cups and saucers, gravy boats, sugars and creamers, and assorted other items. On the bottoms of some of these are marks saying “Spode and a number,” “Spode Stone-China,” and “Copeland Spode England.” I realize they refer to the pottery that made them, but who was Spode and what did he have to do with Copeland?

Spode Stone China

ANSWER: The name Spode on your pottery pieces refers to English potter Josiah Spode while the name Copeland refers to William Copeland, who was in the tea trade.

Josiah Spode

While English transferware is a common antique/collectible, coming in a wide variety of forms and styles, it was Josiah Spode who started it all by perfecting two techniques that made this form of pottery such a worldwide success—the technique of transfer printing in 1783 and the formula for fine bone china around 1790.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the cluster of towns in North Staffordshire, now know as the Potteries, was a series of villages, hamlets and farms. Forty or so potteries, concentrated around Burslem produced all the Staffordshire wares.

On April 9, 1749, Thomas Whieldon, a potter who was already producing early Staffordshire wares, including agate wares in variegated colors, tortoiseshell table-wares, creamwares, black basaltes and black-glazed wares, hired Josiah Spode at age 16. Spode stayed with Whieldon as a journeyman potter until about 1762, when he took the job of manager of a pottery at Stoke which produced mostly creamware and white stoneware.

Spode Creamware

By 1776 Spode had purchased his own pottery works. His first produced pottery, then porcelain, and finally a superior kind of ironstone china which was almost porcelain, which Spode invented in 1805. After some early trials, he perfected a stoneware that came closer to porcelain than any previously and introduced his "Stone-China" in 1813. It was light in body, greyish-white and gritty where it wasnt glazed and approached translucence in the early wares. Later stoneware became opaque.

Spode plate from Indian Sporting Series

By 1785 Spode had a London warehouse and showroom_He met William Copeland who was in the tea trade. Copeland opened a warehouse where the Spode wares could be displayed and offered for sale to the London "China men."

Spode’s mastery of the transfer printing process contributed to the firm’s success in the early years of the 19th century. The process, which appears to have been invented by an Irish engraver named Brooks, involved first, engraving a copper plate, then inking it and applying to it a thin tissue of paper, the impression on the paper could then he transferred to articles of any shape.

Spode Oriental Field Sports Wolf Trap

Contemporary book illustrations often inspired the decorations Spode used on his pottery. China experts consider one of Spode’s  most interesting patterns, the Indian Sporting Series, to be one of the most original in its use as a design for tableware.

In June 1805, there appeared the first of 20 monthly issues of a publication called Oriental Field Sports, Wild Sports of the East. Each included a printed story and two large aquatint prints engraved from drawings by Samuel Howitt, a distinguished animal painter. Spode adapted the engravings to his dinnerware, which depicted hunting scenes with animals and birds. Some views showed mounted hunters carrying spears with native bearers on foot.

Another popular series formed a travelogue of views in the Eastern Mediterranean. Spode based these on engravings in Mayer’s Views in Asia Minor; Mainly in Caramania, published in 1803.

Spode platter "City of Corinth" from Eastern Mediterranean Series

Spode also used illustrations from “The Castle of Boudron;" "The City of Corinth" and "Antique fragments at Lissima" in this series. He based another series on views in Italy, usually of ruins or classical landscapes, from Merigot's Views of Rome and its Vicinity,  published in 1798.

Spode's most popular series, Blue Italian

The most famous pattern was the "Blue Italian," described as Spode's masterpiece in his Blue and White series. Spode took his inspiration for this from the painting of ruins and quiet pastoral scenery by 18th-century Italian artist H.P. Pannini.

From 1800 to 1827 the mark consisted of the name Spode in printed letters, impressed, and the name of the pattern in blue, purple or red. On the stoneware the mark was "Spode, Feldspar Porcelain" or "Spode, Stone China." After this date, if the name Spode was used, it appeared as "Late Spode."

In addition to tea wares, Spode produced a variety of useful and ornamental pieces in bone china, from miniature ewers and basins and toy tea sets to richly decorated, sometimes flower-encrusted vases.

Early Spode blue and white serving platter

The factory pattern books which still exist show that Spode introduced new patterns at the average rate of about 150 year. By 1833 the pottery’s patterns numbered in the 4,000 range. Over its lifetime, the Spode Pottery produced about 75,000 patterns. Most Spode wares carry a pattern number along with the name Spode.

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The All-American Music Box

QUESTION: I have a Gem Roller Organ that has been in my family for some time.  It spent the last few years in a closet high up on a shelf.  The bellows are in working order and the keys respond to the pins but it has stopped playing.  What can you tell me about it? Also, can it be repaired?

ANSWER: You’ve got one of the original Gem Roller Organs produced by the Autophone Company of Ithaca, New York.  Since it’s intact and in relatively good condition, it most likely needs cleaning, which you should have done by a professional who works on music boxes and gramophones.

In the late 1880's, the Autophone Company began making hand-cranked roller reed organs which operated by forcing air out through the reeds under pressure with exposed bellows. They named their most common and least expensive one “The Gem Roller Organ,” producing tens of thousands in a single year. Some time later, the company began producing a a more efficient vacuum-operated model, calling it simply the "Gem Roller Organ."

Earlier models, like the one pictured above, were pressure operated which forced air out through the reeds. This was changed early on in production to the more efficient vacuum system which became the standard for the majority of American made organette's.

Because of its relative simplicity, the company was able to keep the cost of its roller organ affordable. Sears & Roebuck, in their 1902 Catalog, offered the Gem Roller Organ for as low as $3.25, including three rollers. Contracting with Autophone to produce large quantities of these devices enabled Sears to sell in volume and keep its price low.

The Gem Roller Organ, available in either a painted black or walnut-like finish with gold stenciled applied designs, used teeth or pins embedded into a 20-note wooden roller, similar to the cylinders used in Swiss music boxes. Pins operated on valve keys while a gear turned the roller. The mass-produced 20-note rollers, priced as low as 18 cents each—and according to the Sears Catalog, less than the price of a traditional sheet of music—played a wide range of tunes, from classical to sacred to ethnic and popular tunes. The 1902 Sears Catalog listed 220 different rollers of the over 1,200 different titles then available.

The tone of a roller organ was similar to a cabinet parlor organ of the time. At 16 inches long, 14 inches wide and 9 inches high, the Gem Roller Organ was small and light enough to place on a parlor table.
The Autophone Co. used native woods for their construction, and the wood finishes on their early machines may be quite beautiful.

Since Autofphone usually printed the manufacturing date on the bottom of the case, it’s relatively easy to date the device, itself. All rollers show a copyright date of July 14, 1885, even though the Autophone sold them from the late 1880's through the late 1920's—an amazing lifespan for a single basic design. Their success may be attributed to the full, rich sound and pleasing music arrangements offered on the rollers.

Unfortunately, roller organs quickly fell out of favor after the introduction of the phonograph around the turn of the 20th century even though they cost much less than disk or cylinder music boxes manufactured during the same period. Considered the common-mans form of entertainment since music boxes and other instruments were much more expensive, roller organs could be found in many middle class homes..Most eventually ended up in the attic, in the barn, or simply thrown away, but thanks to their nostalgic music, collectors are once again interested in them.

Today, roller organs sell for anywhere from $120 to over $800, depending on the condition and the number of rollers included.