A spring visit to friends
Never mind whether in the Western world the willow pattern represents sad fables or workingclass heroes, a heavenly paradise or bucolic scenes, in Chinese eyes what these plates depict is quite clearly the scenery of southern China in spring, when willows wave and orioles sing, and when in days of yore the educated and the elegant would go with cane in hand, carrying a zither, to pay spring visits to their friends. Such idyllic scenes represent the ideal world which Chinese literati have always yearned for.
Although the humble willow pattern came too late to cash in on the fashion for Chinoiserie among royalty and the aristocracy, it has its place in the story of East-West exchange, and it really did manage to capture the essence of Chinese ideals of life.
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From antique shops to cheap supermarkets, all kinds of willow pattern, new and old, can be found everywhere.
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The world represented in the willow pattern plate is interpreted differently in the East and in the West. The canes and zither carried by the figures on the bridge are identified in the West as a distaff, a jewel box and a whip. (photos by Cheng Yuan-ching)
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Robert Copeland displays a blue-and-white footbath made by the Spode pottery.
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All kinds of blue-and-white ware with Chinese-style patterns, on show in Spode's exhibition rooms. (photos by Cheng Yuan-ching)
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Can you guess which is the Chinese original, and which the Western imitation? (photos by Cheng Yuan-ching)
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Even today, Spode continues to make tableware by the traditional transfer printing process. But nowadays the most popular designs are "Blue Italian" landscapes. (photos by Cheng Yuan-ching)
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The Iron Bridge proudly erected on the River Severn in 1779 symbolizes the spirit of Britain in the Industrial Revolution.
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The neoclassicist interior of the Blue Drawing Room in Shugborough House, England, echoes the blue-and-white coloration of Wedgwood stoneware.
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Biddulph Grange's willow pattern garden is called "China." It was renovated and reopened to the public just a few years ago.
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(left) The Chinese scenes painted by William Alexander, who accompanied Lord Macartney on his mission to visit the Emperor Qianlong, provided the blueprints from which Europeans of the time reconstructed their image of China.
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The characters on the bridge are walking the wrong way, as the willow pattern's image hits an all-time low. This cartoon appeared in Britain's Daily Telegraph when the British prime minister visited Beijing after the Tiananmen massacre. (c The Telegraph plc, London, 1991)
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Isn't there something strangely familiar about the pavilions and shady willows, and the scholar taking a zither on a visit to friends, as depicted in this Song-dynasty painting? (courtesy of the National Palace Museum)