Spode & the Royal Pavilion (Part I): Oil Lamps & an Old Chinese Vase

Duc d’Orléans Chinese vase, 3ft high, early 18thC

Antique Chinese Vases? Let's Make Them into Oil Lamps!

The Royal Pavilion in Brighton holds some remarkable objects. As 'the seaside pleasure palace for HM King George IV', it was decorated and furnished with the most amazing and exuberant objects of all sorts, including ceramics. Many items were specially commissioned. And many other objects, which most people would have swooned over in their original state, were altered, augmented and/or enlarged.

Spode (the pottery manufacturer), under Josiah Spode II, played an important part in the production of some of these magnificent and large objects. Josiah Spode II's important involvement rarely gets a mention... hence this blogpost.

Portrait of Spode II on a Spode ceramic plaque

Josiah Spode II had his pottery manufactory in Stoke and a fashionable 'warehouse' in London. He was skilled in all aspects of ceramic manufacture, a true Master Potter. He was also brilliant at marketing his products and supplied the well-to-do from royalty downwards. He was to become Potter to the King but prior to that had already been appointed 'Potter and English Porcelain Manufacturer to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales'. This took place in 1806 when the Prince had visited the Spode manufactory in Stoke and had been suitably impressed ***.

In this first part of this series here is the story of metamorphosis from 'old Chinese vase' to magnificent oil lamp.

It all begins in 1817 when 3 antique Chinese porcelain vases, dating from the early 1700s, were purchased in Paris for the Prince Regent. They had belonged to Philippe II (1674-1723), duc d’Orléans, Regent of France (1715-1723), and included his coat of arms. 

It was not sufficient that these 3 beautiful antique Chinese porcelain vases (top photo), each about 100cm (about 3ft) high, together with another 3 from a different provenance, were now destined for the palace but somebody had the thought: 'Let's make them into a set of 6 enormous, elaborate oil lamps'. 

Vase with added gilded bronze base and handles

Two men in particular, famous and skilled in their fields, were commissioned to collaborate and carry out the necessary work. Benjamin Vulliamy* (later Clockmaker to the King) was to make the gilded bronze adornments; and Josiah Spode II (later Potter to the King) was to make extra, almost architectural, matching porcelain parts. I have not seen these items 'in the flesh' and the ceramic parts may be bone china or stone china - both ceramic bodies were early 19th century inventions and/or developments of Josiah Spode II. Some of the Spode additions for the Brighton Pavilion interiors are definitely stone china and are backstamped (marked) as such. In some contemporary records** they are referred to as 'British China'.

How were the simple vases converted into huge, elaborate oil lamps?

I find it's easier to look at the changes in stages (although this is probably not the order they were made in).

Handles & Foot:

The handles (below) are elegant, swooping, winged dragons in gilded bronze. Plus a robust foot (image above) also in gilded bronze. This work was by Vulliamy.

Handle detail

Additions of Handles, Foot & Light Bowl

Light Bowl:

These vases are going to be working oil lamps, so some sort of light fitting is required. In the photo above you can now see that a 'light bowl' has been added to the top of the vase and more beautiful gilded bronze fittings. In the Spode archive this light bowl is recorded as the 'Orleans Light Bowl & Foot'. I always wondered where the Orleans name came from... now I know, as it was to be fitted atop the duc d'Orleans old vases.

The image below shows 'Orleans Light Bowl & Foot' with its manufacturing instructions from a shape book of c1820. These include the note 'NB The Bowl is made of a Mould and the Foot & Neck are Thrown'. The majority of the pieces in the Spode shape books of this period are for items solely made by throwing hence the note. The technical details included are for the Thrower (measurements on the left-hand page) and for the Turner (measurements on the right-hand page).

I have added an image of the light bowl on top of the shape book entry so you can see how the actual pieces fitted onto the lamps. The red oval red circle highlights the annotation 'for the King'. Nice!

Orleans Light Bowl & Foot

Base:

So, together with their conversion to lamps, was this enough extra ornamentation to these Chinese vases? Of course not. Let's make them taller, really tall!

A base was designed and, again, the Spode pottery manufactory made the ceramic panels and Vulliamy the gilded bronze. The Spode panels were handpainted and gilded following the Chinese style of the original vase. It's technically difficult to make ceramics absolutely flat and the Spode company always excelled at this. You can find out a bit more about this elsewhere on this blog - click here>

The rather wonderful lamp base

What did the finished oil lamps look like? Magnificent!

Completed oil lamp about 9ft high

What this story does not tell is the whole technical side of things, the communication between the Spode factory in Stoke and their London business, communication with Vulliamy and other experts, and with the agents of the HM King George IV.  

And, all the ceramic parts made by Spode, would have had to be fired in the bottle ovens several times, once for each stage of manufacture: biscuit firing, glost firing, firing for each colour, painted in stages; and after the gilding. Then the gold burnished by hand to bring out its natural glow. The Spode pieces would also have had to be exactly the right size. This is no mean feat and is what I really admire - Josiah Spode II at the forefront of ceramic technology.

Plate painted with Spode factory and its bottle ovens (detail)

The pieces passed through many, many hands from preparation of raw materials through to the finished pieces. 

Here are a few: mould makers and pressers, slab makers, makers of the moulded parts, the thrower and turners, glaze makers and dippers,**** hand painters, gilders and burnishers, the placers and, one of the most important men on the factory, the fireman. And don't forget clerks, bookkeepers, design, record keeping, accountants, packers and transport... 

The risk of damage, at any stage, to the original vases and the making of the new bits must have been a bit scary.

I am sure there is more to say about these lamps and one day I hope I will be able to see them 'in the flesh'.

Look out for part 2 of this series of Spode & the Royal Pavilion... where you will discover more of Spode's skills and the extravagance and the wonder Brighton Pavilion... from a ceramic point of view.

_________________

Acknowledgments and notes:

Taken from my lecture 'The Josiah Spodes: Pottery Pioneers'

* Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy (1780–1854), succeeded his father as head of the firm and Clockmaker to the King. Although his formal education is unknown, he evidently received a thorough training in both the theoretical and practical aspects of the business. By 1800 he was already helping to run the firm and after he became a partner in 1801 his involvement rapidly increased, so there was little immediate change in the firm's direction when he took over in 1811. 

**Many thanks to Robert Copeland (1925-2010) who sparked my interest in and researched, wrote about this subject and shared his knowledge with me. In particular his article 'Jars for the King', published in the Spode Society's 'Recorder'.

***The New Pocket Cyclopædia contains a report of the Prince's visit to Spode in 1806.

**** Terry Woolliscroft's Potbank Dictionary for explanation of words associated with the Pottery Industry.

Thanks to Pat Halfpenny with whom I swapped notes images, information and enthusiasm about this subject.

Royal Pavilion history - click HERE> 

Royal Pavilion objects in the Royal Collection Trust - click HERE>

HM King George IV (1762-1830): Regent (1811-1820); King (1820-1830)

HM King George IV by Thomas Lawrence

Spode, a lorry and four cups

This photo was taken in 1959 at the Spode factory in Stoke-on-Trent.

It illustrates something very special. But what's the story behind the photograph?

In 1959 the Spode company was owned by the Copeland family operating as W. T. Copeland & Sons Ltd.

In the photo you can see what was then a modern vehicle to be proud of. It is smartly painted in the Spode livery.

The same typeface was also used as part of Spode backstamps of the period as well as on printed material, such as the in-house magazine the 'Spode Saga'.

Detail of lorry livery

Backstamp c1960

Cover, 'Spode Saga'

Catalogue page 1959

Also in the photo is a young man who I believe was the driver but sadly I have not found his name.

Lorry driver

But look, there's more. Look under the wheels.

This is a publicity stunt!

The lorry is balanced on four bone china cups. This is pottery showmanship at its best - showcasing the strength of Spode's bone china.

Spode bone china cups under the wheels

Bone china is a Big Thing in the Staffordshire pottery industry.

The qualities of bone china are:

• whiteness
• translucency
• strength
• resonance

Its manufacturing and design quality was hugely important to the top pottery manufacturers, and particularly to Spode, who laid claim to its invention and/or perfection in about 1799/1800. It is this bone china which took the Spode company to greatness in the early 1800s overtaking rivals who could not compete with the quality of this new product.

Coffee cup, pattern 2812 c1820

Looking inside the cup showing translucency

The photos above show a bone china coffee cup in pattern 2182 of about 1820. You can see the whiteness, the quality of both shape and pattern design, and the translucency. 

So... in this marketing gimmick, what better way to show the strength of the then current Spode bone china than to balance something heavy on the product for a dramatic statement?

The lorry on four cups was the result. I love it!

I was lucky, whilst curator of the Spode museum, to have Robert Copeland (1925-2010) as my Spode mentor and colleague sharing his vast knowledge of the company history with me. At various times Robert was a partner in the firm and director as well as Historical Consultant. Conversations with him, whether formal or over a cuppa or lunch were always fascinating, often very amusing (we had the same sense of humour), and I used to scribble notes down, many of which are now preserved in the Spode archive.

I mention this because, of course, Robert was full of information about the 'lorry on four cups' event as he was there at the time and instrumental in developing the idea.

The author & Robert, deep in ceramic conversation 1998

He told me that for this Spode 'show of strength' a new area of nice smooth roadway was prepared on the factory site. After the publicity photographs had been taken and the lorry removed Robert recalled, with a giggle, that the cups had sunk into the new soft roadway and couldn't easily be retrieved!

Catalogue page bone china 1959

The 1959 catalogue page from a bone china catalogue shows the style of ware available at the time. The cup shape might even be that used in the lorry stunt.