Description:
English circular pearlware platter with blue shell-edged rim edge and a pierced drainer, decorated in the Mared pattern. The platter is impressed "WEDGWOOD" and has a diamond shape and a blue "4"; the drainer is marked "WEDGWOOD", "S", and "18." In April 1778, Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) wrote to his partner, Robert Bentley, sending him a sample of a 'marine pattern table ware' decorated with blue at a low cost, at the suggestion of the Duke of Northumberland; according to Robin Reilly, it is possible that the 'Mared' pattern (whose name is of unknown origin) is the design described although the border more closely resembles a Meissen 'onion' pattern than any marine object. According to ceramics scholar Terrence Lockette, it is a curious fact that although Wedgwood did produce a rather superior type of blue painted pearlware to that of his competitors he never produced much of it, as he once remarked, 'I cannot at present find it in my heart to relinquish my good old Creamcolor...' Thus marked Wedgwood pearlware is quite rare. Moreover, Josiah eschewed the Oriental influenced patterns and almost all extant pieces of his are decorated in an underglaze blue painted border pattern which has become known as the 'mared' pattern (I rather suspect that this is a misreading at some time for 'marine'). Terrence Lockett The Potteries Website for Pearlware
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+1131 |
