Although there was a certain amount of on-glaze printing on porcelain in the later 18th century, it did not take-off until the early 1800’s when bat-printing (a method of printing using thin glue bats) was introduced. Spode and New Hall were the leaders in this means of decoration which was extremely popular for several decades. Between them, they produced over eight hundred different prints of various categories such as flowers and fruit, animals and birds, stately homes, the classics, and the very popular mother and child scenes in the Adam Buck style. Some of these were printed and then colored with enamels, and others were printed in a single color such as puce, brown, blue, and even gold. Many were copied from contemporary publications, and a number of the pots featured in this section of the exhibition give the source of the print.
The majority of examples here are from the first half of the nineteenth century when printing (mainly bat-printing) was far more popular. Painted designs then became more fashionable but, as will be seen from the pots chosen, the selection gives a good overall view of on-glaze printing during this period, and of the many potteries producing a variety of printed designs.