Sounds like it might possibly be black-glazed redware. However, I don't believe black-glazed redware was popular after 1830 even though it may have been in production in small quantities in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The glaze has a glassy "sheen" to it from the additive of magnesium oxide, not to be confused with "lustre ware."

Pat Tucker
Swanton, Ohio

-----Original Message-----
>From: Susan Walter <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Feb 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


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