Spode Museum

The Spode Museum is based in Stoke-on-Trent, England, where Josiah Spode, one of the great names of the Industrial Revolution, established his pottery business in 1774. His great achievements include the formulation of Bone China, which became the standard for all English chinawares, and the development and perfection of underglaze transfer printing on earthenwares, which enabled mass-production of attractively decorated ceramic items on a scale never previously achieved. By the early 1820s, his factory, now managed by his son Josiah Spode II and his business partner William Copeland, had become the largest in Stoke, employing some 2, 000 workers and boasting 22 bottle ovens.
Spode’s factory was in continuous production from 1774 to 2008, when it finally closed. The Spode factory occupied some ninety buildings on a nine acre site and such was the amount of space available that over the years many thousands of items that might otherwise have been thrown out were simply put into store. Consequently, over the two centuries when the factory was operational, a massive quantity of papers and objects was accumulated.

The Spode Museum is based in Stoke-on-Trent, England, where Josiah Spode, one of the great names of the Industrial Revolution, established his pottery business in 1774. His great achievements include the formulation of Bone China, which became the standard for all English chinawares, and the development and perfection of underglaze transfer printing on earthenwares, which enabled mass-production of attractively decorated ceramic items on a scale never previously achieved. By the early 1820s, his factory, now managed by his son Josiah Spode II and his business partner William Copeland, had become the largest in Stoke, employing some 2, 000 workers and boasting 22 bottle ovens.
Spode’s factory was in continuous production from 1774 to 2008, when it finally closed. The Spode factory occupied some ninety buildings on a nine acre site and such was the amount of space available that over the years many thousands of items that might otherwise have been thrown out were simply put into store. Consequently, over the two centuries when the factory was operational, a massive quantity of papers and objects was accumulated.