Feb. 21, 2011

Hello all,

I have, from a Japanese boarding house in San Diego, 1 large solid dark blackish brown teapot.  It has no variation in glaze color it is uniformly solid very dark brown. 

I just had a local collector of Japanese ceramics here and he flatly said it was not Japanese.  (I agree.)  To me it looks like English or American made "Rockingham".

But the paste is red.  

Jane Perkins Claney's Rockingham Ware in American Culture, 1830-1930 (2004) defines Rockingham as on white or yellow paste.

Mary Brewer's book Collector's Guide to Rockingham (1996) , page 9, says Rockingham glaze was put over an earlier yellow glaze "that went over a redware paste" (my emphasis).  This is not the case here; it is glazed directly over the red paste.

It does not look like the photos of redware (with Albany slip) I have seen.  (Don't find redware here either in local assemblages.)

Anyone else ever hear of solid brown Rockingham like surface decoration on red paste?

Or do you call such stuff by another name?

Thanks for your attention and help,

S. Walter