In the closing years of the 18th Century, Josiah Spode produced the single most significant development in the history of his industry - the perfection of the formula for Fine Bone China. Its brilliant whiteness and delicate translucency inspired new standards of artistry, skill and finish, which when it was put on the market, led the way forward for the whole industry.

While Josiah Spode I was carrying out his pioneering work in Stoke, his son, Josiah II, was in London, proving himself equally adept at marketing his company's products.
Having opened a showroom and shop to sell his father's wares in Cripplegate in 1778, by 1784 he had appointed another Staffordshire man, William Copeland, as a travelling representative. It was probably their knowledge of potential markets that led Josiah Spode I to concentrate on the experiments that eventually created Fine Bone China.

After a century of importing Chinese porcelain, the East India Company started reducing this trade in 1793, and stopped completely in 1799.Profitability had been eroded by an 'auction-ring' and demand drastically reduced by the neo-classic fashion in interior design with which Chinese blue and white decoration was not compatible.

Once again the Spodes were ready to demonstrate their outstanding ability to seize an opportunity.
The use of bone ash had been known from the middle ages, when it was first used in cupels for the assaying of metals. Interest in it as a tableware ingredient emerged about 1750 and in the succeeding fifty years several experimental formulations were tried. However, these were 'soft-paste' porcelains with the inclusion of bone ash. Whereas what we now know as bone china is a true porcelain of china clay and Cornish stone with 45%-50% calcined bone.

By 1796, Josiah Spode I was at the very least on the verge of perfecting bone china, as demonstrated by an invoice to William Tatton, containing the first known reference to 'English China'. Certainly, by 1799, two years after his father's death, Josiah Spode II was successfully selling bone china, initially branded as 'Stoke China'. Such was its immediate impact and obvious superiority, that the rest of the industry was forced to follow. But, with his flair for innovation the younger Spode always managed to stay ahead, gaining the Company's first of six Royal Warrants, following a factory visit by the Prince of Wales in 1806.

As the curator of the S'vres Museum has written, "The Spode factory at Stoke-on-Trent was without doubt the most important factory in the early 19th Century." Obviously, Spode did realize his dream of producing the whitest, most translucent, strongest and most resonant Fine Bone China.

Carefully preserved at the Spode factory, the collection of pattern books forms a truly remarkable record of the evolution of the best of English ceramics.

Not only do they supply unique information and details that enable researchers to establish significant historical facts, but also, with the complementary collection of around 25,000 engraved copper plates and original moulds,

This collection unique pattern books and plates remains a source of inspiration for Spode's designers and a verification that the authenticity of the Spode ethos continues.

This amazing archive includes over 70,000 recorded patterns dating from the late 18th century. Though methodical recording was thought to have begun in 1800, an earlier pattern book (re-discovered in 1988) dates from 1794.

Spode's place in the history of ceramics is obviously unique and secure. As such, it also has a long tradition of attracting commissions from those personages and institutions who have their place in the broader sweep of world history.

It all started as early as 1806, when the Prince of Wales and his brother, the Duke of Clarence, made a tour of the Spode factory. They "expressed themselves to be much gratified with the process and various modes adopted" and as a mark of his approbation the Prince appointed Spode II as "Potter and English Porcelain Manufacturer to His Royal Highness". Again on his coronation as King George IV, he commissioned the banqueting service from Spode. Following this, Spode has continued to hold Royal Warrants to this day.

In 1818 special decorative items were ordered for the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, where some can still be seen, with others now in Buckingham Palace.Another coup was the supply of tiles in 1868 for the reading room of the National Library in Paris to engineering standards of accuracy, which no other ceramic manufacturer would meet.

In 1823, Spode received what has been described as "the unlikeliest order in the whole history of ceramics". A History of the Staffordshire Potteries, published in 1829, tells how, "Mr Spode completed for the Hon. East India Company's Factory at Canton, a most splendid Table Service of Porcelain of thirteen hundred pieces, valued at £400 to replace the service destroyed by fire. The porcelain was of the finest body made at the manufactory, alike distinguished for its beautiful parian whiteness and delicate transparency". Here were the world's largest traffickers in Chinese porcelain ordering Stoke wares for their own use

And so it continued through the years. In 1849, the first Spode service for the Royal Yacht was delivered, a custom still maintained, up to and until the recent de-commissioning of the last Royal Yacht.

Today, this tradition remains as strong as ever. Spode still attracts the most discriminating customers, challenging orders and appears on the most prestigious occasions.