The print and enamel method was one of Crown Ducal's most popular decorating styles. The examples shown here are mostly of tableware from the 1930’s, but the company used the technique throughout its history for decorative items in addition to tableware.
Print and enamel decoration was a cost effective way of decorating pottery. The basic pattern was printed on to the unglazed earthenware, and the enamels applied to fill in as much or as little of the pattern that was required. This was much quicker that freehand painting of the entire design and obviously much cheaper to produce. The print would have to be under-glaze, but the enamels could be under-glaze, on-glaze, or both.
Below are some pictures showing the detail from a Crocus 5649 charger. The brown coloured outlines, petal and leaf infill details are printed, while the orange, scarlet and green are hand painted enamels.
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| Detail from Crocus 5649 charger |
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| Detail from Crocus 5649 charger |
The process first requires the design to be engraved onto a copper plate. The copper plate is inked and overlain with sized paper, the sizing keeps most of the ink on the surface of the paper rather than it being absorbed. The paper print is peeled from the copper and then pressed onto the pottery. The inked design transfers onto the surface of the pot and the paper is removed by washing.
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| Picture from G Forsyth's book "Art and Craft of the Potter" |
What gave me the notion to write about printed decoration at Crown Ducal was the discovery of a factory “sampler” with a print design in several print colours on a 10 inch diameter Windsor
I hoped that I might be able to trawl through the pattern books to try and identify all the print colours used. Occasionally the Crown Ducal documents record specific colours by manufacturer and catalogue number so the idea is not as daft as it seems. The designers tended to use a small range of colours for printing and therefore if names could be matched to well known patterns then finding an example of each might be possible. Sadly I have only been partially successful, but it has been an interesting exercise and there is still scope to discover more information.
The list of colour names on the plate are:
H. Days
2693
P. Grey
Black
Grey
P. Willow
H, Blue
A. Green
G. Brown
S. 4769
Pink
So starting with with the first half of the plate from the left, clockwise:
H. Days
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| Happy Days 2545 printed in Happy Days Brown |
A mid–brown colour, one of the easiest to identify as it must refer to Happy Days, 2545, one of Crown Ducals most successful patterns of the early 1930s. I do not have an example of the pattern myself, but I received this image via correspondence through the www.rhead-crownducal.info website.
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| Charlotte Rheads interpretation of Happy Days printed and enamelled in the same colours, Pattern 4820 |
It is interesting to note that Charlotte Rhead used exactly the same colours for one of her own print and enamel patterns, 4820. The pattern book describes the design as “Breedon pattern but colouring as Happy Days and finished as Happy Days”, implying the same print and enamel colours
2693
Another mid-brown colour. There are tableware patterns that are printed with “Cottons Vellum Brown 2693”, so I am sure that is the link. The few references I have found are for prints of complex floral designs with some flowers and leaves enamelled. They have Cotswold or Florentine shape and most have yellow glaze which is unusual. I have not recorded an actual example yet.
P. Grey
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| Pattern 5180 printed in pastel grey |
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| Orchard 5287 printed in pastel grey |
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| Bouquet 5413 printed in pastel grey |
Almost certainly P. Grey stands for Pastel Grey which is one of the more common print colours and is believed to have been made by Meyer & Swann, (I may have the spelling wrong I cannot find any mention of the company on the internet or in what Pottery Gazettes I have of the period). I have three examples that use this colour, A tea plate in pattern 5180 and a demitasse duo in the Orchard pattern, number 5287 and a demitasse duo in Bouquet, 5413.
Black
Black was a more popular printing colour in the 1920s and was used for most of the Norman Keats designs like Red Tree, 1211. Crown Ducal did not use it much in the 1930s, the only example I have is for the smokers set in gold and yellow colour, 4099A.
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| Pattern 4099A printed in black |
Grey
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| Sunburst 2649 printed in Baines 5753 |
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| Pattern 2913 printed in Baines 5753 |
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| Crocus 4722 printed in Baines 5753 |
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| Bewdley 5646 printed in Baines 5753 |
Grey seems too ambiguous to define, but is actually quite easy. Probably the most popular print colour, it is referred to as either Sunburst grey, after the popular design, or Baines 5753. Fortunately some designs refer to both names and examples side by side appear to be the same. It is easy to find several examples; Sunburst, 2649; 2913, Crocus, 4722 and Bewdley, 5646,
P.Willow
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| Pussy Willow 3750 printed in Pussy Willow brown |
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| Pussy Willow 3792 printed in Pussy Willow brown |
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| Pattern 5178 printed in Pussy Willow brown |
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| Pattern 5182 printed in Pussy Willow brown |
Like Happy Days brown here is a print colour named after the pattern it is originally associated with, Pussy Willow Brown. It became quite a popular print colour but I can find no reference to the manufacturers name or colour code, perhaps it is a Crown Ducal blend of two colours to make their own shade. Shown here are the two tableware versions of Pussy Willow, 3750 & 3792 , together with two decorative tea plate designs, 5178 & 5182.
The second half of the plate:
H. Blue is probably Harrisons Blue. Which is not very helpful as there were two used, Royal Blue 3299 and Cobalt Blue 1297. I am tempted to say it is Royal Blue, but cannot be sure and I have yet to see examples of either.
A. Green
Best guess is that this is Hancocks Apple Green. Another uncommon printing colour and one I do not have an example to show.
G. Brown
There is a good chance the G. Brown represents Hancocks Golden Brown. It was used quite a lot but not on common patterns or any example I have to show. The most likely examples to be seen are the plain pictorial prints, (without enamels), particularly those of Winston Churchill and the Bombed Buildings of London
S. 4769
Another disappointment, I have not been able to find any reference to this colour number or any pattern printed in this type of blue. Also, not sure what the S stands for but could possibly be the ink manufacturing company such as Sneyd or Swann.
Pink
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| Dell 5636 printed in Blythe pink 8004 |
There are not many patterns printed in pink, but the few that are recorded appear to use the colour Blythe Pink 8004. One of these is Dell, 5636, designed and etched by Charlotte Rhead. There were other pink printing colours used by Crown Ducal from the Sneyd company but these only seem to be mentioned very early in the 1930s, for example when the pink version of the Bristol
Those are the print colours from the sampler plate. But to show more print and enamel designs, here are pictures of Charlotte Rheads trio of print and enamel designs Ellesmere 4009, Wenlock 4010 and Breedon 4011.
Ellesmere was printed in Hancocks grey, whilst Wenlock and Breedon were printed in E544 Brown.
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| Ellesmere, 4009 printed in Hancocks grey |
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| Wenlock 4010, printed in E544 brown |
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| Breedon 4011, printed in E544 brown |
And for those not fussed with tableware , but prefer their ceramics on the wall, here are some print and enamel chargers.
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| Pussy Willow 5302, printed in Pussy Willow brown |
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| Pussy Willow 5383, printed in Pussy Willow brown |
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| Crocus 5649 printed in Pussy Willow brown |
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| Floretta 5981, printed in Sunburst grey, ( Baines 5753) |
To close, I think there may be more to be documented on the print colours used by the company. It would be good to see if the majority of generic annotations of grey, brown, green etc, could be attributed to specific ceramic printing inks. The biggest problem would be to lay hands on physical examples of all the printed patterns so they could be compared side by side. That is unlikely ever to happen!
