If beauty were a china plate it would be a Flow Blue china plate of the richest, deepest blues in ornate floral motifs flowing and fading into white. It would have lacelike designs, embossed edges in floral swirls and fine gold edges and flourishes.
What is flow blue china? Flow blue is a style of decoration of porcelain or pottery that gained popularity in the early 1800s and was first created by the Staffordshire potters of England.
It is unclear exactly how the “flow“ style of flow blue came to be. There are some who claim the blurry technique of “flow” was an accidental discovery. Others claim that it was a technique that was deliberately created by adding lime to the kiln while the piece was being fired. Mistake or deliberate creation, the look of flow blue china stuck around, and continued to gain popularity throughout the 19th century.
Being an artist myself, I tend to believe that the style of “flow” was deliberately created due to the plain fact that artists love to experiment. Even if they are creating the same thing again and again, formulas and materials are often fussed with and once creativity is put into the mix, new results emerge. I'd call that a deliberate experimental discovery!
Though flow blue china was created and produced in England and gained great popularity during the Victorian period, once imports started coming to the America a new audience was quickly enamored with the look of flow blue china. Seeing its popularity, American potters soon began producing it as well, and prior to the Civil War, flow blue was very popular in America.
Flow blue china is sometimes categorized in three eras: Early Victorian; a period that began around 1830, Mid Victorian; a period that began around 1860, and Late Victorian, which begins around 1885. Early and Mid-Victorian pieces were most often made from heavier stoneware, while Late Victorian flow blue is much lighter in weight and less often made from stoneware and more often from porcelain and lighter weight ceramics.
Some examples of Early Victorian flow blue patterns are pattern motifs that are similar to the popular crisp-edged Blue Willow China pattern, mimicking those Oriental motifs and featuring designs with willow trees, palm trees, pagodas, florals, as well as some geometric motifs.
Examples of Mid Victorian flow blue are usuall less Orient-inspired and instead are a bit more ornate. Mid Victorian flow blue china patterns often feature elaborate floral designs, Castles, cathedrals and repetitive florals around the edges of the piece.
Examples of Late Victorian flow blue patterns include highly ornate flowing Art Nouveau style florals with elaborate designs, paisley motifs, and hand-painted details in gold. I find these to be the fanciest of the lot and my personal favorites.
Flow blue china can be quite valuable and it’s value is most often directly related to its condition and the rarity of the pattern or piece in question. There are also many flow blue pieces that you can find for sale online that are greatly overpriced, so it’s important to learn as much as you can and do a lot of research before you invest in flow blue china.
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