18th Century English Transfer-printed Porcelain and Enamels - Tapa dura

The literature on Worcester porcelain has a breadth and variety entirely befitting for the most widely collected of all the English porcelain factories, and the only one with an unbroken history of production from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day. Of the many titles, however, little has been written about the subject of over glaze transfer-printing, a technique both pioneered and brought to perfection at the Worcester factory. Joseph Handley's catalogue, with its hundred and twenty or so pieces of Worcester, is therefore a valuable and welcome addition to the bookshelf of the serious collector. Yet this catalogue goes much further, exploring many facets of the technique of transfer-printing on ceramics, an invention with momentous implications for the ceramics industry as a whole. Quite apart from the range of transfer-prints depicted here, the collection is notable for its sprinkling of rare forms which have been deliberately sought out in order to lend a variety of shapes to a collection principally concerned with decorative motifs. As well as Worcester, the collection is also strong in Bow and Liverpool, and contains outstanding examples from Vauxhall, Longton Hall and Champion's Bristol factory. Alongside his porcelain Joseph Handley has also assembled a fascinating group of transfer-printed enamels, including many with subjects corresponding to those on the porcelain.