WOOD & SONS - Yuan

Reg No 656368 (1916)

This widely collected BLUE & WHITE pattern is the work of FREDERICK RHEAD - probably his best-known tableware design. Production was commenced around 1916 and the publicity of the 1930s described it as "a reproduction of a charming oriental design from the 13thC YUAN dynasty (1280-1367)".

From a distance YUAN can easily be confused with the OLD CHELSEA pattern produced by FURNIVALS. Indeed there was a dispute between the two companies as to which had the rights to the design, Frederick Rhead maintaining in court that he copied it from a Chinese plate in the British Museum...

YUAN must have been produced in larger quantities than any other Woods pattern, as it is still quite easy to find items in a vast range of sizes and shapes. In many ways, YUAN is the Woods equivalent of Booths REAL OLD WILLOW.

Early teapots, jugs, gravy boats and lidded sugar bowls were produced in the famous hexagonal shape (see right), one of Woods' most elegant creations. To view our stock of hexagonal items, please click here.
Around the 1960s the hexagonal shape was phased out and the above items were produced in a more streamlined, circular shape. Throughout the production period, plates, bowls and cups were usually circular - to view our general stocklist please click here.
For YUAN plates, please click here. For the hard-to-find YUAN vases - please click here. For more new and unusual items, please click here.

 

As with many Woods blue & white patterns, hand-coloured versions were also produced, in much smaller quantities. Please SEE BELOW for Coloured Yuan.

Unusually for Woods, many YUAN items are NOT date-impressed, making them hard to date accurately. Production of the range continued until quite recently.

The pattern is an interesting one to collect, as different sized plates have different central designs, featuring an assortment of birds surrounded by foliage:
On some plates a pair of birds is depicted: This is just a small selection of the various designs.

Furthermore the copper plates which formed the templates for the transfers were periodically re-engraved, leading to interesting variations within the same design:

Coloured Yuan

As with most WOODS patterns, hand-coloured versions were also produced.
These are hard to find - but here are some samples:

	Soup plate 10 ins Impressed 1920 £32
	Dessert plates 9 ins Impressed 1920 SOLD
	Large platter 12 ins Circular Impressed 1920 SOLD
	Large bowl 9.25 ins, 3.75 ins high NOT FOR SALE

Another variant that is occasionally seen features the pattern in a BROWN transfer with red, yellow and green hand colouring:

	Dessert plate 9 ins SOLD

We have also seen the BLUE transfer with brown hand colouring on the bird and flowers.

View more blue and white YUAN tableware:

Please click here to view hexagonal YUAN items.
Please click here to view general YUAN items.
Please click here to view YUAN plates.
Please click here to view YUAN vases.
Please click here to view new and unusual YUAN items.

To contact us by e-mail please click here:

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