People always ask me about the Willow Pattern, is it Chinese. Is It old, is it valuable.




Well, the Willow pattern, more commonly known as Blue Willow,also comes in pink/red and grey/Black brown and green and even yellow. It is a distinctive and elaborate pattern used on pottery and occasionally on bone china.

The pattern was popular in 18th century England, A design by Thomas Minton has been around since 1790. The design was supposed to have been inspired by the patterns on china imported from China during the late 18th century. Other references give alternative origins, such as Thomas Turner of Caughley, with a design date of 1780.

To day the big name in willow is made by Churchill. I carry in my shop in Southport over 1,000 items and designs

The Legend behind the pattern

In order to promote sales of English china, various stories were invented based on the elements of the design. The most famous story usually goes something like this.

The story is English in origin, and has no links to the country of China.

A Romantic Fable:
Once there was a wealthy Mandarin, who had a beautiful daughter Hong Shee (Koong-se). She had fallen in love with her father's humble secretary / accounting assistant named Chang. Angering her father (it was inappropriate for them to marry due to their difference in social class). He dismissed the young man and imprisoned his daughter and built a high fence/wall around his house to keep the lovers apart. The Mandarin was planning for his daughter to marry a powerful Prince/Duke. The Duke arrived by boat to claim his bride, bearing a box of jewels as a gift. The wedding was to take place on the day the blossom fell from the willow tree.
On the eve of the daughter's wedding to the Duke, the young accountant, disguised as a servant, slipped into the palace unnoticed. As the lovers escaped with the jewels, the alarm was raised. The couple ran over a bridge, chased by the Mandarin, whip in hand. They eventually escaped on the Duke's ship to the safety of a secluded island, where they lived happily for years. But one day, the Duke learned of their refuge. Hungry for revenge, he sent soldiers, who captured the lovers and put them to death. The gods, moved by their plight, transformed the lovers into a pair of doves (possibly a later addition to the tale, since the birds do not appear on the earliest willow pattern plates). An other story reads the lovers where lost at sea, drowned and there souls became the pair of doves.


An other story, I do not like this version.

The Secret Shaolin Message:
The Shaolin Monastery is burned by the Imperial troops of the Manchu rulers, called invaders by Chinese nationalist and later communist factions. Souls of the dead monks take a boat to the isle of the Blest. On the bridge are three Buddha awaiting the dead souls: Sakyamuni, the Buddha of the Past; Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future; and, Amitabha, the Ruler of the Western Paradise. Beyond them is the City of Willows – Buddhist Heaven. The doves are the monks' souls on the journey from human to immortal life.


The story of the willow pattern was turned into a comic opera in 1901 called The Willow Pattern. It was also told in a 1914 silent film called Story of the Willow Pattern. Robert van Gulik also used some of the idea in his Chinese detective novel The Willow Pattern. In 1992, Barry Purves made a short animated film relating the story, transplanted to Japan and entitled.

One man on the bridge and two men on the bridge are not Willow Pattern designs and do not have the doves in the design but can be worth a lot more in the antique world.

ENGLAND printed on the back stamp normally means C1900
Made in England normally means C1930

why not post your picture of a willow plate