Description:
English creamware oval tureen with cover and stand (2006.33.56.2). The four-lobed, domed lid has a cord loop handle over straggling terminals of flowers, stems, and foliage and a molded feather border around the lobed rim edge. The tureen has bowed sides; bands of molded feathers around the upper side and rim border of the spreading foot; and a pair of attached double-intertwined cord handles with briar terminals above and winding stem, flowers, and leaves terminals below. 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 the ware. Unfortunately most early wares were not marked, making attribution to a particular factory difficult. While unmarked, this tureen is similar to a tureen illustrated in James and Charles Whitehead’s 1798 pattern book - No. 14, "Oval Tureens - Feather Edge [five sizes]." According to Donald Towner, there are very few distinctive patterns in Whitehead pattern book and that many of the engravings seem to be derived from Wedgwood, Leeds, and Castleford pattern books, which also appear later in the c.1803/4 Don Pottery pattern book. The combination of the briar and floral terminals of the handles are found in the Whitehead and Leeds pattern books.
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+2006.33.56.1 |
