It is called bone China for a reason

A Chinese scene

An innocent tourist might spend an whole afternoon scouring the more reputable Taipei or Hong Kong pottery shops for a Willow Pattern (楊柳型) dinner service in vain.

Bizarre?  After all, Taiwan is supposed to be the treasury of traditional Chinese culture, and Hong Kong escaped the Cultural Revolution, yet you can search Hollywood Road or Dunhua Nan Lu in vain for a single cup.

The majority view is that this is because the Willow Pattern is not Chinese at all, and was in fact designed in the late 18th century in Stoke on Trent.  But I ask you...  The gaping hole in this theory is that the scene is unlike anything to be found in Stoke, then or now, so how could Minton have copied it?

A Stoke-on-Trent scene.  Spot the difference

The true story of how Wei Chang and Fa Fei made history, recorded by Ernest Bramah about 90 years ago, is now available, free of charge, for you to read on your overpriced but very well marketed i-tablets:


http://taipeiortypeb.blogspot.com/p/story-of-wong-tsin-and-willow-plate.html