IT’S hard to think of many things that have been in continuous production for as long as Spode Blue Italian. The company was founded in 1770 by Josiah Spode I, a technical genius who not only developed a transformative means of decorating earthen-ware, but also an innovative new formula for fine bone china. What his son Josiah Spode II lacked in technical genius, he more than compensated for with his marketing prowess (he was also a flautist); in 1816, he launched Blue Italian, appealing to a prevailing taste for both the classical and Oriental. More than two centuries later, it still sells all over the world.
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