Talk:Willow pattern

Facts?

This entire article has been cut and pasted from the following website: [1]. I can find no evidence for The Willow Pattern story being mysteriously taken over to Europe from "Eastern Lands" during the Crusades. All the evidence shows the story was invented two hundred years ago to sell English pottery. If no-one can post up some evidence to support it, I am going to remove this misinformation. This is meant to be an encylcopedia. Angstriddenyouth (talk) 13:13, 11 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Willow Pattern special/unique edition.

On a recent visit to Lincoln Cathedral I noticed a small selection of Willow Pattern items on sale at the Cathedral's gift shop.

The county of Lincoln was home to the R.A.F's Bomber Command during the second world war and a special version of the Willow Pattern, which has a Lancaster Bomber in the upper left corner, was commissioned by the Cathedral and is sold uniquely in its gift shop.

Syncopator (talk) 01:06, 14 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

My grandfather recited the story of the plate to my as a rhyme, which I still remember:

Far away within the East/ A monarch kept his state./ And near him, just across the bridge,/ There lived a prince (see plate)./ The monarch had a daughter fair./ The prince in love was he./ "No, No, good man," the monarch said./ "My daughter stays with me."/ Across the bridge the lovers fled./ The king pursued irate./ They hied them to a little boat,/ And sailed way (see plate)./ Alas the stormy winds did blow/ As cruel as cruel could be./ They dashed the boat upon the rocks,/ Drowned the lovers in the sea./ But changed to birds by fairies kind/ Their spirits rose elate./ And even now, around the king/ They hover still (see plate).

Number of Men on the bridge

I think the number of men depicted on the bridge is an indicator of the age of the pattern. I recall that the modern pattern had 3 men on the bridge but the older pattern only had two men. Obviously that like much of the rest of the article needs a citation. there is a song here [2] suggesting three and 4 men

there is currently one item on ebay claiming 1940-1945 with 2 men only, and quite a lot of reference material for the article here [3] EdwardLane (talk) 16:45, 24 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

More commonly known as?

The article currently states that Willow Pattern is more commonly known as Blue Willow. Is there a source for this? I work with ceramics daily and I've never heard it called blue willow. All the sources for the article seem to call it willow pattern as well. I don't doubt that some people or at some point called it blue willow, but is it really more common?