Blue and Red Willow China Pattern Baby Blanket

Wrap your new born in this heirloom blanket. The original Willow pattern was created in 1780 when British potter Thomas Turner and engraver Thomas Minton combined a number of popular Chinese pottery patterns—chinoiserie. By the early 19th Century, more than 200 potteries were producing variations of the design. The pattern has been adapted on various types of dinnerware, ranging from heavy-duty restaurant dishes to delicate porcelain, tin, plastic and even paper dinnerware. Versions of Blue Willow have been manufactured by such as famous potters such as Spode, Allerton, Wedgwood and Copeland. Blue Willow china has graced the tables of British aristocrats, the frontier homes of American pioneers and the gleaming counters of Art Deco diners. In fact, the "Blue Plate Special" was named after the divided Blue Willow plates on which restaurant specials were served-meat in one section, vegetables in a second and a starch in the third.The china has been manufactured in numerous countries, including England, the U.S., Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Puerto Rico, Poland and Thailand. Ironically, it was produced in China for the first time within the last decade. The Blue Willow pattern (there are many colors besides blue, including red, pink, mulberry, green, brown, gold, mustard and even multicolor combos) is "the world's most popular, most produced and familiar china pattern," says the editor of The Willow Word, an Arlington, Texas-based bimonthly newsletter on Blue Willow china. " There are thousands of variations, but the true Willow pattern must have a bridge, weeping willow, birds, three men, a pagoda, a border on the outside and inside of the edge of the plate, an island, a boat, a fence and an orange tree.” To explain the meaning of the images, 18th Century British potters made up a legend about star-crossed lovers. It tells of Koong-Shee, the beautiful daughter of a rich mandarin, who lived in a lavish pavilion with her father. She fell in love with her father's secretary, Chang, and rendezvoused with him under the willow tree. Her father wanted her to marry an elderly nobleman, so he imprisoned her by fencing in the house. The two young lovers ran away together, taking with them Koong-Shee's dowry, a basket of jewels given to her by the nobleman Ta-Jin. Enraged, Ta-Jin sent his soldiers in pursuit of the lovers across the bridge. The soldiers murdered Chang, whereupon Koong-Shee set her house and herself on fire. Up from the ashes rose two love birds, who live together above the weeping willow tree. Blue Willow’s appeal is as much cultural as it is dinner wear. Two New Yorker covers have used the pattern to parody events of the day (in 1942 Chas Adams used the familiar pattern replacing the birds with bombers). Blue Willow was the china of choice at William Randolph Hearst's estate in San Simeon, California, being Hearst's mother's favorite pattern. In addition to being used on camera to evoke a 19th-century atmosphere in several American western movies (as well as western television shows, and even the comedy, The Munsters), Blue Willow china is also featured in The Andy Griffith Show and Murder She Wrote, suggesting a contemporary time or setting when life was simpler.] It was also seen in the movie Sleepy Hollow. Sourced from Blue Willow Legend Turns Dinnerware Into Hot Collectible, Mary Daniels, March 27, 1994, Chicago Tribune, and Wikipedia.