Description:
English creamware large, cylindrical mug with a silver mount that has a plain top and an incised acanthus leaf base around the rim edge; the body lathe-turned to form two sections of vertical fluting separated with a band of molded beeding, and a beeded band around the top and bottom edges of the fluting; and an attached, double intertwined, ribbed loop handle with four flower and leaf terminals. Enoch Booth (c.1703-1773) of Tunstall, England, developed the fine, light-colored earthenware now known as creamware in the early 1740s using the various improvements in body, glaze, and firing; but it was Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) who perfected and successfully marketed the ceramic body. Wedgwood’s version of creamware resulted from many experiments with white clays and improved glazes; by 1762, he had developed a light, sturdy, refined, and yet inexpensive cream-colored earthenware body. Wedgwood described the new product as "a species of earthenware for the table, quite new in appearance, covered with rich and brilliant glaze, bearing sudden alterations of heat and cold, manufactured with ease and expedition, and consequently cheap." Middle-class consumers rushed to purchase creamware, bringing the popularity of alternative ceramics such as tin-glazed earthenware and salt-glazed stoneware to an end. In an effort to capture a segment of the creamware market, many English potteries also began to produce the ceramic; estimates suggest that more than 150 factories in England manufactured creamware. Unfortunately most early wares were not marked, making attribution to a particular factory difficult since mugs are found many of the manufacturers' Pattern Books such those of Wedgwood, James and Charles Whitehead, and the Leeds, Castleford, and the Don Potteries.
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+2006.33.28 |
