Definition of "willowware" [willowware]

• Household china decorated with a blue-on-white design depicting a willow tree and often a river. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The garden resembled the “old-fashioned plates of blue Liverpool ware,” Taylor wrote, alluding to one of the many producers of willowware, “with a representation of two Chinese houses, a willow tree, a bridge with three Chinamen walking over it, and two crows in the air.”"
• "With respect to willowware in particular, in 1843 a British writer attested to its instructive value: The earliest record that we have of Chinese customs, is to be found in the willow pattern plate."
• "Thomas Turner, working for the Caughley establishment in Shropshire in the 1780s, designed a precursor to willowware."