Overglaze Printing on Porcelain 1750 - 1800

In this section are found examples of eighteenth century porcelain decorated with overglaze prints both monochrome and polychrome, some with added enamel colors.  These span the period from the earliest use of the process in England to the end of the century.

Shards recovered on the Battersea site show that Chinese porcelain was being decorated there with onglaze prints between 1753 and 1756. About the same time onglaze printing appears on Worcester porcelain. Printed decoration over the glaze became an important Worcester product.

The Bow factory was also an early producer of onglaze printed porcelain, as was the Vauxhall factory (including the unique “polychrome printed” pieces) but neither output was on the same scale as that of Worcester. The Sadler and Green decorating shop applied overglaze prints to Liverpool porcelain and also to porcelain made at Worcester and Longton Hall.  Later, some Liverpool porcelain factories did their own printing.  Some onglaze printing was also carried out at the so-called  Baddeley-Littler factory in Staffordshire.