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Figure 1
Blue and white transferware plate. Davenport, marked c1810.
Click on picture to enlarge.
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Single-color transferware was made in blue, red, black, brown, mulberry, green, and (very rarely) yellow. Blue transferware was, and still is, the most desirable and collectible color. After 1840, mutli-colored printing was used, and sometimes transfer-printing was combined with hand-painting or enameling.
Transfer printing was developed as an affordable alternative to expensive hand-painted wares. Prior to the development of this technique, only the most affluent could afford complete dinnerware sets as every dish had been carefully hand-painted, a time-consuming and costly process. Now, hundred of sets of dinnerware could be produced in a fraction of the time for a fraction of the cost. (See Fig. 1)
A more sophisticated method of over-glaze printing was employed for a short time in the early 19th century. Known as bat-printing, it was a complicated process using glue bats and powdered pigment that produced some very beautiful, delicately stippled wares, but which was almost completely abandoned by about 1820.
Cooper plates were still used to capture the design, but were stippled rather than line-engraved. That is, the entire design was made up of tiny dots, the dots being smaller or larger, closer or widely spaced, according to the depth of color required in the design. The copper plate was coated with linseed oil, then carefully "bossed" so that all the oil was removed, remaining only in the depressions of the tiny dots. Instead of tissue-thin paper, pads, or "bats," of pliable glue and isinglass were applied to the copper plate. They were pressed gently to pick up the oil, then carefully removed and laid over a previously glazed ceramic piece, transferring the tiny dots of oil. Powdered pigment was then dusted onto the oil, creating the desired image. The result, after firing, was a very delicate, soft image that emulated the popular stippled engravings of Bartolozzi and others. (See Figure 2, detail)
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Figure 2
Small porcelain plate with a bat-printed landscape in the center showing a country house. Inner and outer rims of gilt. Unmarked. Maker unknown.
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Copper plates for ceramics could now be very finely engraved since the plate no longer had to be charged with thick colored ink and no heat was required for the transfer. Soft, atmospheric landscapes could now be printed with great success (see Figures 2-5 and 12), as well as shells and fruits and flowers (see Figure 6). Figural motifs of mothers and children in the style of artist Adam Buck were very popular bat-printed subjects (see Figures 5 and 7-9, 13), and often show lovely Regency details of fashion and furniture.
Most often, the bat-printed scene or object decorated the central areas of the ceramic piece, which may also have been decorated with touches of gilt (see Figures 5 and 6) or luster (see Figure 10) or bits of hand-painting. Underglaze blue and other colors were often used as borders (see Figure 11). The bat-printed scene was most often done in black, but occasionally in blue, purple, and orange as well (see Figures 5 and 7).
Bat-printing was a very precise operation, and so time-consuming that it somewhat defeated the mass production purpose of transfer-printing. The workman placing the bat on the ceramic piece did not have the advantage of a transparent paper transfer through which he could see before setting the design on the item. The transfer of the bat correctly required a good eye and a steady hand. The effort involved is no doubt one of the reasons the process was all but abandoned after 1820.
Click on any picture to enlarge, including the details.
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Figure 3
Porcelain cup-plate with bat-printed landscape. Deep gilt rim. Spode, marked c1810.
Cup plates were an early form of saucer, somewhat deeper, and without the recessed center to hold a cup steady. They were often used with tea bowls, ie cups without handles. By about 1810, handled cups, with fitted saucers, were almost universal, and the deeper cup plates fell out of use.
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Figure 4
Porcelain cup with bat-printed landscape. Unmarked, maker unknown.
This print is particularly interesting because it shows the large bottle kilns that were used in pottery and porcelain manufacturies to fire the wares. The scene is similar to prints showing the Derby porcelain factory located on the Derwent River in Derby.
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Figure 5
Three coffee cans decorated with bat-printed figural groups of mothers and children in the style of Adam Buck. All unmarked, makers unknown.
Left: Single black print opposite the handle, with black enamel along rim.
Center: Single orange print opposite the handle, with gilt rim.
Right: Black prints on both sides of the handle, with elaborate gilt decoration inside the rim and near the top edge between the prints, as well as along the edge of the handle.
These small (about 2 ½" tall) straight-sided cups were known as coffee cans. Standard coffee cups were shaped like tea cups but were taller and narrower, and had handles well before tea cups did. By 1800 the cylindrical coffee can had superceded the shaped coffee cup, but, like the bat-printed decoration, all but disappeared in the 1820s.
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Figure 6
Porcelain plate with gilt and bat-printed decoration. Unmarked, maker unknown.
The outline of the urn was delineated in the bat-print, but was hand-painted in gilt over the glaze, after the bat-transfer had been fired.
There is an interesting hand-written note attached to the underside of this plate stating that it was part of a dessert set ordered by George Howland for his wife Susan when they were first married in 1819.
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Remember, you can click on any picture to enlarge, including the details.
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Figure 7
Porcelain beaker printed on two sides with purple bat-printed scenes of mothers and children, rimmed with blue enamel at lip and base. Unmarked, maker unknown.
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Figure 8
Porcelain bowl with three bat-printed scenes of mothers and children, and black enameled rim and foot. There is also a tiny mother-and-child scene inside the bowl. Unmarked, maker unknwown.
This bowl is likely a waste bowl, as part of a tea service or "equipage."
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Figure 9
Bone china cup plate with bat-printed scene of a mother playing a tambourine while her child dances. New Hall, marked c1812.
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Figure 10
Tea cup and saucer commemorating the death of Princess Charlotte in November 1817. Bat-printed images of mourning with concentric rings of pink lustre. Unmarked, maker unknown.
The death of Princess Charlotte in childbirth was as devastating to the populace as was Princess Diana's death 180 years later. This cup and saucer are examples of inexpensive souvenir items such as are still made today to commemorate royal events. The quality of printing is rather crude compared to some of the more delicate designs of the other pieces shown here, which is an indication of how quickly it was made.
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Figure 11
Small plate with bat-printed central design of young shepherd boy with a lamb and a dog. The rim and an inner ring of underglaze blue. Unmarked, maker unknown.
A great many bat-printed scenes involve children, but this little shepherd boy is unusual and very sweet.
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Figure 12
Cup plate with bat-printed central design of an exotic landscape with a leopard. Deep gilt rim. Unmarked, maker unknown.
There are many bat-printed wares showing animals, especially deer and dogs, but this leopard is an extremely rare example.
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Here are a few selected references from among the vast literature on British pottery and porcelain:
Paul Atterbury, editor, English Pottery and Porcelain: An Historical Survey, Universe Books, 1978.
R. J. Charleston, editor, British Porcelain 1745-1850, Benn, 1965.
Geoffrey A. Godden, British Pottery and Porcelain 1780-1850, A. S. Barnes and Company, Inc., 1963.
Geoffrey A. Godden, An Illustrated Encyclopedia of British Pottery and Porcelain, Bonanza Book 1965.
Geoffrey A. Godden, Godden's Guide to English Porcelain, Wallace-Homestead Book Company, 1992.
W. B. Honey, English Pottery and Porcelain, A. & C. Black, 1962.
Griselda Lewis, A Collector's History of English Pottery, Viking Press, 1969.
G. Wills, English Pottery and Porcelain, Guinness Signatures, 1968.
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