Blue and red transferware: an instant classic

Red, white and blue transferware is perhaps the third most popular plate wall combination, after all-white and blue-on-white transferware.

It's not surprising, as plates like these make a striking wall art display, perfect for a variety of home decor styles: traditional, Farmhouse, Americana, eclectic, French county and more!

With the increasing popularity of farmhouse in the home, expect quality pieces in these colors and patterns to become increasingly difficult to find.

Transferware was designed to provide an affordable alternative to the costly Chinese porcelain favored by the elite. Unlike those hand-painted pieces, these examples were transferred from plates, providing a product for the middle and working classes. Most transferware is on ironstone or earthenware, but stoneware and even fine china or porcelain examples are also available.

When collecting, English plates generally have the highest value, followed by Japanese and American, and then Chinese.

Design note: Break up the routine 

When creating a plate wall, it helps to have overall consistency of both color and pattern. But there is also value in incorporating pieces which break up the routine slightly, while still adhering to the overall feel.

In this collection, I've used Johnson Brother's square salad plate for this purpose. Not only does the square add some variety of form, but the pattern itself adds a much needed respite from the heavy patterns around it.

Called "Pastorale Toile" (more on that below), the toile motif on this plate provides plenty of white space. This helps breakup the visual weight of the plates around them. All the other plates are more color than white space, but this is more white than color.

When making a collection, don't be afraid to mix in different, but similar pieces, to truly make it yours.

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(While it lasts)

The history of plates in this set

Faux Wedgwood Washington and Lee University Plate, Unknown

The jumbo plate with Washington Lee University is marked "Wedgdwood" and "Made in England". True Washington Lee university plates made by Wedgwood date from the late 1940s-1950s and are HIGHLY collectible and valuable.

However, after much research, I believe this particular plate is a later reproduction (still vintage), circa 1970s. It is NOT, I repeat NOT, an authentic Wedgwood plate. It might have been made in Ireland, America or even China. This time period, 70s - 80s, is when we were seeing a rise in knock-offs of all kinds being made in China. Prior to that, national pride in Chinese porcelain meant that the country rarely indulged in "borrowing" designs, and most faux pieces were made in America, Ireland or elsewhere.

How to tell it's a fake: these plates were very limited runs, which means there aren't a lot of examples in the world to compare to. However, the thickness of the detail lines isn't indicative of the quality I would expect in a Wedgwood original. These appear soft, slightly blurred, whereas they should be crisp, clean and thin.

Also the back of the plate lists it is "Washington University", where I would expect an authentic plate to have the proper name: "Washington and Lee University".

Status: Because of these flaws, this piece has only decorative value. Yet it is still an attractive addition to the collection.

Old Britain Castles by Johnson Brothers, England

Note: though this transferware looks red, it is known as "pink" in the industry.

This particular example is the earlier version of this pattern available. You can tell because the back of the plate lacks a crown in the design. The ones with the crown were made in China, after 2003.  Those plates themselves are smaller, and made of lighter-weight material.

 This pattern was incredibly successful, and ran from 1930 - 2003. I would place this specific plate somewhere around 1968-1980. The line "England 1883" was added to the back of the plates after Johnson Brothers joined Wedgwood in 68.

Johnson Brothers, now part of Wedgwood, was one of England's working-class success stories of the late 1800s. The four Johnson brothers, Alfred, Frederick, Henry and Robert, began making ceramics from a bankrupt plant in 1883. They specialized in producing quality for the middle and working classes, who couldn't enjoy the quality porcelain enjoyed by the affluent.

Their specialization became an Earthenware they called "white granite" because it rivaled porcelain in whiteness, but also had incredible durability. During the early to mid 1900s, Johnson Brothers became renowned for their "historical" designs, including "Old Britain Castles" and "American History".

The financial pinch forced Johnson Brothers to merge with Wedgwood in 1968, but the plates were still made in England until 2003. Despite what Wikipedia says, the line "England 1883" wasn't added when Johnson Brothers started being made in China, rather it was added after they joined Wedgwood in 1968. The plates were still made in England at that time.

Status: Highly collectible, at time of posting, Replacements.com sells this one plate for $35!

Blue Willow by Royal, USA

This pattern (sometimes known as "Willow Blue") is one of the many designs known as "Willow Ware" which dominated the mid-century period.

Willow ware motifs all feature Asian-inspired artwork, including doves, a temple, and a lake. To identify which manufacturer created a specific design, you need to study the details in the border/rim, as well as the number of leaves on the tree and the position of the wings of the doves. This one is from Royal, but an earlier example, before they were making the back of these plates. I would estimate it as circa 1948-1958.

Willow ware has the unsavory history of being an early example of cultural appropriation. European ceramics makers wanted to create the look of Chinese porcelain, with it's famous blue and white motifs. They invented a fake Chinese parable, which could be told in a single scene, but had global appeal. The design tells the story of a couple whose forbidden love and elopement was discovered, and they were turned into doves under a willow tree, so that their families couldn't keep them apart.

It's Shakespeare by way of Beijing.

Status: Collectible and desirable, but only moderately valuable. Because of the sheer number of plates produced in this pattern, it's easy to find enough for decorative (or even tabletop) uses, at an affordable cost. You just need a little patience.

Pastorale Toile De Jouy by Johnson Brothers, England

One of the older pieces in this collection, the square salad plate is part of a collection by Johnson Brothers, which ran from 1959-1965. At one point it was available in green, pink (red), blue and brown, as well as a full color variation.

Pastorale was designed to combine the popularity of blue willow's single-color-on-white with that of English toile. Heavily influenced by Victorian tapestries, this pattern is another evidence of the strength of Johnson Brothers to apply historical designs to ceramics.

Status: moderately collectible value, but hard to find. Despite being difficult to find, these plates are not especially expensive. The Toile was secondary in appeal to the Asian-inspired Willow, and never achieved the popularity of English rose and floral motifs.

Unknown blue and red willow pattern, Japan

Generic single-color willow designs like these bread-and-butter plates were made in Japan, mass-produced exclusively for export. Despite the numbers produced, they are still quality pieces (they were made to compete with English and American pieces), and have good detail and clean designs.

Status: low-moderate collectible value, reasonable availability. Pieces like these are great for mixing into other collections, to fill them out.