HISTARCHers,

I am looking for information about a small ceramic vessel recovered from a
ca. 1855-1860 trash pit in St. Franciville, LA.  It is a blue transfer
printed creamware/pearlware ointment jar or pot that would have orginally
had a ceramic pot lid.  On the base is a black printed mark that reads:

LEBEUF MILLIET & CIE
MEDAILLES D'OR
1834 39 ET 44
PORC... OPAQUE
CREIL & MONTEREAU

From what I have been able to gather this is the mark of Louis Lebeuf and
Gratien Milliet and Co., who were apparently in business ca. 1841-1876.
Lebeuf, it seems, won gold medals for his "porcelain opaque" in 1834-39 and
1844.  My first question is how do Lebeuf and Milliet relate to Creil and
Montereau, which seems to refer to the merger of these two ceramic
fractories? The merger took place sometime early in the 19th century.
Creil(1794-1895?) was known for its "English-type" earthenware and
Montereau (1748-19th century) was likewise producing "creamware" or
"queensware" by ca. 1776.

My second question relates to the tranfer printed scene on the vessel, it
is a bucolic scene with what appears to be a stone slab that reads:

JOURDAN
NO. 15
Rue de al Paix
A
PARIS

Does this refer to the product/merchant?, the pattern name?, something
else?

Finally, are there any known comparative examples from archaeological
contexts and, a larger question, I wonder how much of this 19th century
French refined earthenware is going unrecognized on sites in French regions
of North America like SE Louisiana?

Cheers,
Rob Mann

*****************************************
Rob Mann, Ph.D.
Southeast Regional Archaeologist
Museum of Natural Science
119 Foster Hall
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803
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225.578.6739