MOMENTS IN POT CULTURE: THE WILLOW

Words by Jessica Peace

Has your Nanna got any blue plates stuck up on her wall? The ‘willow pattern’ got big in Blighty in the late 1700’s after tons of it was imported from China. Soon English pottery manufacturers started banging out blue and white plates and pots on mass. In order to get some PR they spun a fairytale, it goes like this… Chinese emperor arranges for his daughter to marry some bloke on the day the blossom falls from the willow tree, daughter runs off with the accountant, Dad takes revenge by turning the happy couple into doves.

If you haven’t read Kenneth Grahame’s, ‘The Wind in the Willows’ put it on the bucket list; we all need to mess about in boats with Ratty and Mole under willow trees.