Spode Copeland Variation Maritime Rose Pate Sur Pate Trio Vintage Copeland Spode Maritime Rose (variation) in the high relief Pate Sur Pate design style and a gold transfer-painted rose medallion in lieu of the red rose. High sheen glazed Pate Sur Pate heavy slip border detail on a wedgwood blue ground. Trio consists of 2.75 inch high cup, 5.25 inch saucer and 6 inch tea plate and are all in pristine condition. Black Spode Copeland England backstamp. Circa 1930 - 1940.

Pate Sur Pate, literally 'paste on paste' is the building up of a picture or design on a piece of porcelain by the careful application of layers of hand painted slip (liquid porcelain clay the consistency of thick cream) - possibly the most skillful, time consuming and costly of all ceramic decoration processes. A thin layer of white, or light coloured, porcelain slip applied to a darker unfired ground layer will achieve a degree of translucency when the piece goes through the firing kiln.

Successive layers applied prior to the firing will retain that translucency to a lesser degree until finally, when enough layers have been applied, the translucency will be all but lost. A skillful artist, and there were never that many of them, can manipulate the layers to produce a unique work of art of incredible beauty. Pate sur Pate requires the skill of an artist, and a far sighted one. The translucence is not apparent in the wet or raw state and to foresee the fired result must be a combination of experience and imagination. As a means of decoration Pate sur Pate was fairly short lived. By the start of the twentieth century production had dropped dramatically. The public may have still wanted it but it was proving much to expensive to produce.

A lovely gift or addition to your private collection. Thank you for visiting Aurora's Attic Treasures.

Circa: 1930
Type: Porcelain, Dinnerware, Vintage, Copeland, Spode, Cups, Saucers
Manufacturer: Copeland Spode China