Description:
One of three English creamware octagonal plates with milled edges and tortoiseshell decoration in blues, greens, and purple-browns, a style that seeks to imitate the natural hues and tones of tortoiseshell, which is often associated with Thomas Whieldon (1719-1795) of Fenton Vivian, Staffordshire, but was made in many of the approximately 130 North Staffordshire contemporary potteries. However, Peter Walton notes that this design has been excavated in South Yorkshire (notably Rothwell and Hunslet) and Staffordshire (notably Whieldon site) in both plain and unglazed creamware and earthenware with a mottled brown glaze. Tortoiseshell wares (creamware sponged with metallic oxide colors suspended in slip) were very popular imports into colonial America; they were fashionable in colonial coastal regions during the third quarter of the 18th century, but their naturalistic colors and patterns remained popular in the Connecticut Valley through the 1780s. In the Connecticut River Valley these ceramics were refered to as "clouded" wares, given their blurry designs. Valley merchants bought tortoiseshell and other ceramics from from New and Boston merchants; between 1772-1775, Samuel Boardman of Wethersfield, Conn., bought "Tortoiseshell" pots and bowls from James and Arthur Jarvis of New York. Although plates were the most popular form of this ware, in 1762 the New York merchants Keeling and Morris advertised "Tortois Table Plate and Dishes of the Neatest Patterns, Tea-Pots, Milk-Pots, Bowls, Cups and Saucers," forms that may have been available in the Connecticut Valley. By the late 1780s, the Valley inhabitants developed a preference for plain creamware over tortoiseshell wares. The plate has a steep curvature; distinct foot rim; and the reverse is covered with mottled brown specks over a cream background.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+55.186 |
