In the early 1760's, a man who as a six-year old had watched his father buried in a pauper's grave, eventually opened his own small pottery. In the space of the next thirty years he was to make a unique contribution to ceramic art, and found a tradition of excellence that continues to this day. In 1784, Josiah Spode perfected the process of blue under glaze printing on earthenware, which, as the history books record, was not only enough to ensure his reputation for posterity, but was the essential catalyst for the phenomenal development of English tableware that was to follow. He then went on to make the single most important discovery in the history of his industry - the formula for Fine Bone China - which was to make the name, Spode, famous throughout the world.