• This is the earliest known dated example of the Willow pattern design. The Willey family of Cornwall, for whom this plate was made, supplied the Staffordshire potteries with the blue pigment, cobalt, in the early 19th century. The Spode factory was amongst their best customers. [27/03/2003]. The Willey family of Cornwall supplied cobalt blue to manufacturers in Staffordshire. [23/05/2008]. The apparent link between the Willeys of Cornwall and the Staffordshire Potteries may be explained by the fact that after 1816, Cornish cobalt (the blue needed for transfer-printing) was being supplied to the Spode factory and others. It is therefore likely that the Willeys were involved in the trade - perhaps mining cobalt or Cornish china stone - and either commissioned this plate or received it as a present.

• This design is associated with the "Willow Pattern" of european ceramics. The Diana, a merchant ship of the Honourable East India Company was wrecked in the Malacca Straits on 4 March 1817. She was a Company ship, trading between Canton and India, carrying a cargo of Chinese porcelain, tea and spices. Her porcelain cargo of 24,000 pieces was intended for sale to merchant based in Calcutta, for their own use and for shipment on to England. The salvage expert Dorian Ball worked closely with the Malaysian Government on the retrieval of the cargo of the Diana between 1991 and 1994. The salvage operation was carried out under licence of the Malaysian Government, consequently many of the pieces from the cargo were presented to the Malaysian National Museum and the remainder sold at auction at Christie's Amsterdam.

• A shallow saucer dish, with everted rim flattened at the edge and small inclined foot to which grit adheres. Painted inside with a fisherman in his boat beneath a willow tree, on the shores of a lake with distant rocks, birds and moon. Round the rim is a thick crenellated blue border pattern. On the outside beneath the rim is a single blue line with two sketchy branch sprays, and above the foot another blue line. The glaze has small pits and impurities in it, and pools slightly on the base.

• Dish of porcelain, painted in cobalt blue. In the middle is a group of trees and flowering plant, amongst them a willow, a lotus and a tree-peony. On the rim, reserved on a blue ground painted with a diaper pattern, are four oblong panels with rounded ends, containing sprays of lotus and tree-peony alternately. Shows some influence from Dutch delftware.

Bow Porcelain Factory(manufacturer），1755

• Saucer of soft-paste porcelain painted with underglaze blue. Painted with willows, peonies and other flowers in Chinese style. Border of diaper pattern within the rim.

William Reid & Co. (maker)，1756-1758

• This mug was probably made at the Liverpool factory of William Reid. His Brownlow Hill factory operated from 1756 to 1761, when its partners went bankrupt. The mug's distinctive handle pattern and painted enamel decoration are similar to those found on fragments excavated from the factory site in 1999-2000. Previously this mug was believed to be an early piece made at the Liverpool factory of Richard Chaffers.

Vauxhall Porcelain Factory(manufacturer)，1754-1760年

• Tea bowl and saucer of soft-paste porcelain. Painted in underglaze blue with a Chinoiserie design of horse and willow tree; inside the cup, a small spray.

• Mug of soft-paste porcelain painted in underglaze blue. Cylindrical with a reeded loop handle. Painted with two Chinese figures beside a table and a willow tree.

• This and similar blue-and-white landscape designs were among the most popular Chinese designs in the West and were much copied by English ceramic manufactories throughout the 19th century. The Chinese prototypes often included willows, which gave rise to the name 'willow pattern' for this general type of design.