PowerPoint Presentation:

Hello.
As it says up here, Im an author, antiques dealer, PhD researcher and
part-time comedian. You will see or maybe already know just how parttime I am as a comedian!
There are three main loves in my life (apologies to my girlfriend for not
including her in this list!).
Firstly, this stupid game. SLIDE.
Secondly, Pike Fishing. SLIDE. This is my personal best Pike caught a
couple of years ago and I dont always look like a mass-murderer as seen
here!
Thirdly, blue and white transferware. SLIDE. I have been dealing it in for
about twenty years, but as a fifth generation dealer, I grew up in the trade.
So, who were my influences and inspirations along the way?
Was it this guy? SLIDE. Maybe, maybe not, but I guess this is where it
started for a lot of people. - Antiques in the mainstream and on television.
Was it this guy? SLIDE. Possibly not, although my mother has got a bit
of an Ian McShane thing going on!
How about this guy? SLIDE. Definitely not! I quite like his tie though!
This is more like it! SLIDE. Indiana Jones the eternal treasure hunter
within all of us.
Anyway, SLIDE I have written four books on transferware and have also
written countless articles for the Transferware Collectors Club and for the
Spode Society Review. I am a committee member of the Spode Society
and a trustee of a national museum.
This is where my doctoral research starts. SLIDE. The periodic table, and
more specifically here with element 29 SLIDE, copper. But dont worry,
this isnt going to turn into a science lesson! I am interested in copper
plates, copper plate engraving and the copper plate engravers.

SLIDE. So, my research question concerns the role of the engraver in the
design process and their status in the factory and in the arts. The working
title to my research is: The transferware engraver; practice, scope and
impact at the Spode Works.
For those of you not familiar with transferware, essentially, it consists of
three key stages. SLIDE. Source image and design. SLIDE. Copper plate
engraving. SLIDE. And finally, pottery product.
SLIDE. As a great deal of my research will be dealing with copper plates,
my initial investigation is finding suitable methods to read and record the
information contained within them.
They are notoriously difficult objects to photograph, but I wanted to try
this for myself. SLIDE. I built a lighting rig that had day light adjusted
bulbs that could be angled as needed or turned off as needed to try and
create a good environment for taking photographs. As you can see from
this image SLIDE, the reflective nature of the material means that you get
fairly poor results.
SLIDE. You get a horrible mix of light and dark areas and some of the
engraved detail is well recorded, the image as a whole is far from good.
SLIDE. The steel-faced plates that were created to increase life-span of
the engraved surface are even worse to photograph as they are even more
reflective than their copper counter parts.
SLIDE. Some plates are worn, corroded and dull and this also means they
are difficult to record well.
So, I thought I would try something slightly different. SLIDE. I placed
the copper plates flat inside my photographic cube, but had the strong
lighting source outside, shinning inwards.
As you can see here SLIDE, the results are far better. There are almost no
reflections, the colour is true and the whole plate can clearly be seen.
Here SLIDE, we can see the superb detail obtained by using this method.
It was suggested to me by Professor Jim Aulich that I might try scanning
the copper plates. Although this is not a very practical method, I decided
to try and see what the results were. SLIDE. They were quite good and
the reflections were pretty minimal. SLIDE. Here is the same image
reproduced in just black and white.

I decided that as the copper plates were used to make prints, then I will
try printing from them. Im sure some of you will know about this
process already, but if not, here it is. SLIDE Here we see the colour
applied to the copper plate.
And here SLIDE we see the excess colour removed with a scrapper and
then finally SLIDE a scrim material removes the final traces of excess
colour to ensure we get a good-quality print.
SLIDE. The soap-sized tissue is then applied to the plate as we can see
here and then SLIDE it is put through the printing press.
The results are generally excellent and a tissue pull such as this SLIDE is
the result almost every time. The beauty of this method, is that now the
detail from the copper plate is transferred to another medium which is
much easier to photograph. SLIDE. The details, as you can see here are
excellent.
I have recently been talking to noted author Peter Hyland about his
experiences of recording the Minton copper plates before they were
melted down for scrap when the factory closed. He suggested using baby
powder on the face of the copper plate to both highlight the engraving
and to take away the reflections. I have spent the last few weeks trying
this method to good effect. Here SLIDE is an awful image with the flash.
Here SLIDE is the plate taken in the cube. Here SLIDE with the baby
powder applied to the face and finally, SLIDE a close-up of the detail
recorded.
A friend and colleague suggested using printing ink and printing onto
paper instead to better record every little detail of the plate and its history.
So, I used this SLIDE Spode Greek copper plate as a staring point.
Incidentally, it is titled The Dancing Buffoon and was taken from
William Tischbein and was hand-engraved in 1806.
SLIDE. Here are the tools of the trade the printing ink, the plate oil, the
scrapper, the dabber, the scrim and the protective gloves.
SLIDE. The process is much the same as printing onto tissue paper. The
ink and oil are mixed on the hot plate and applied to the copper plate.
SLIDE. The excess ink is removed as before to ensure a clean, crisp print.

The paper was soaked in water for 24 hours before the printing SLIDE
and is then placed onto the inked plate and put through the press.
Now, we have the most exciting moment SLIDE. The moment of truth
where we find out if the printing process has been a success. The results
are truly magnificent SLIDE as you can clearly see here.
SLIDE. The printed detail is absolutely amazing and I think the contrast
of the black ink on the white paper shows every aspect of the surface of
the copper plate so well. It is like a forensic investigation into the plate
with every scratch, mark and scrape recorded as well as the engraved
work.
SLIDE. Here you can see the Greek Vases and the typical grapevine
background that this pattern is famous for.
SLIDE. Thank you for listening to my brief presentation. Although I am
at an early stage in my research, I am delighted with how it is
progressing. Thank you.