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went very well with the "Oriental" flavor that most blue and white china hoped to capture. A sort of misty, mysterious quality was lent to the underlying patterns and pictures. This of course matched the era's growing fascination with all things Oriental.
There is some disagreement in the histories of English china as to whether Flow Blue came about accidentally or was the natural and intentional by-product of the desired blurring of the cobalt oxide in pattern transfer production. The actual Flow Blue style of ceramics decoration appears to have its origins in the Staffordshire pottery houses; Josiah Wedgewood II is commonly credited with having invented the Flow Blue technique in the 1820's. On the other hand, some historians believe that the Flow Blue technique was discovered accidentally when jars of volatilizing chlorides were inadvertently left in kilns during the second firing. In any event, the style was born.
The first Flow Blue designs continued to mimic Chinese motifs; ornate pictures of far-off landscapes and cultures. English artists still strove to achieve the sharp, distinct pictures characteristic of Chinese porcelain. The flowing of the cobalt was used sparingly and it was difficult to control during the firing process. Manufacturers began to accumulate large amounts of seconds and thirds which were "overly" flowed. English demand for these wares was initially enthusiastic but rather quickly subsided. English tastes remained with the more sharply defined, higher quality wares.
Surprisingly, however, they rapidly discovered an almost insatiable market for these wares in America. To the manufacturers' glee, they could dump their poorly fired seconds and thirds onto Americans at low costs. Hence, almost from its inception, Flow Blue became the "china" for the masses; the common man's porcelain. During the period between 1840-1870, English potters shipped ever-increasing quantities of their "lessor" wares, patterns and blanks to America.
Demand for this ware, however, began to take on a life of its own. American demand was so
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