It might also be English-made jet ware. Susan, can you send me an image off-line?

Thanks,
Terry Majewski

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of HUDGINS, LISA
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2011 8:12 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: ceramics... Japanese redware?

Hi Susan:
 
What is the time frame for your boarding house??  There were redware teapots with dark brown glaze being made in Japan and imported to the US in the early to middle part of the 20th century (as late as 1940-1950).   The clay body is dark to medium red with a dark brown glaze.  They are often decorated with raised enamel decoration and gold filigree.  (See images below).  Often the only mark is a "Japan" stamp on the base.  You see a lot of them on etsy or ebay.   
 
Don't know much else about the origins, but you could start there.  
 
http://www.etsy.com/listing/39616566/vintage-redware-japanese-teapot
 
also
http://www.flickr.com/photos/calloohcallay/4009510107/
 
Good luck!
 
Lisa Hudgins
Independent Scholar
Asheville, NC
 
 
________________________________

From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY on behalf of Susan Walter
Sent: Mon 2/21/2011 8:06 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: ceramics...



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