During the last half of the 18th century, potters developed a process that could copy a design on to a ceramic body. They would create this design on a piece of paper, then use ink to apply the pattern to the clay. This is called transfer printing. The product is transferware. It did not replace hand painting which was still expensive. However, this process dramatically reduced the cost of producing highly decorated ceramics including porcelain and pottery. The antique, Georgian and Victorian, Staffordshire jugs and pitchers in this category are made using this technique. You can usually identify a piece of transfer printed ceramics by locating the place where the two ends of the pattern meet.

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