COLLECTION #89: Blue Willow Pottery

I have many, many pieces of blue and white pottery.  But only a few pieces of Blue Willow. From the very beginnings of my blue and white collecting, I have had at least one piece of Blue Willow pottery. But I am not a true Blue Willow collector, because if I were, I would have many lovely, authentic pieces. What I have is a few pretty dishes that look nice in my china cabinet, and harmonize nicely with all the other pieces.  I bought the heavy blue willow mug about 40 years ago, and I have always loved the traditional pattern which looks so nice against the creamy earthenware. The tea pot is transferware, and is probably about 60-70 years old. It's made in Japan, so definitely isn't worth much as far as serious English blue willow ware goes. But who cares? I love it just the same.

The Blue Willow pattern was based on a fabricated Chinese story, which is very romantic and sad. But the china pattern was developed in England in the late 1700s. You can read the whole story and history here.