For decades the Willow pattern has been the most popular design in Western pottery. The term "Willow" is applied in a general way to many of the copies of the blue-and-white porcelain imported into England from China during the last half of the eighteenth century.

 

Some say, the plate’s story was first told in poems of travelling Chinese storytellers 2000 years ago; they spoke of two star-crossed lovers transformed into love-birds by the Gods.  Many believe that this legend is actually English in origin and not Chinese.

 

The designer Thomas Minton (1765-1836), engraved the design at a time when the craze for Chinese things was at its height.

 

The pattern tells the legend of an angry father pursuing his betrothed daughter who is fleeing with her lover.  In some versions she and her lover are killed, and in others, a tragic suicide occurs. In all versions, the birds soar high above the scene together, forever.