Description:
English creamware, circular two-handled cup or loving cup with tortoiseshell decoration in yellow, green, and brown, 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. 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 until the American Revolution. 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 York 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 thrown cup has an inverted bell shape, with a raised rib around the mid-body where the handles are attached, and two rows of alternating squares forming a checkerboard around the rim edge. The body has alternating yellow and green strips with brown mottling in between around the sides; the brown mottling extends half way into the interior of the cup. The handles are press-molded with two lines inscribed down their lengths and pinched terminals. The cup is supported by a circular, pedestal foot.
Subjects:
Pottery; glaze (coating by location) Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+56.437 |
