Interesting discussion of the use of the term “Queensware.”   I remember

giving a paper at an SHA meeting back around 1970 on some ceramics from the

Franklin Glass Works site (1824-1832) in which I used the term “Queensware”

to describe the creamware from the site.  Jay Jefferson Miller II, the then

Curator of Ceramics at the Smithsonian, pulled me aside after my paper and

complemented me on the presentation after which he set me straight on the

use of creamware, pearlware, and whiteware.  I always appreciated that, and

have absorbed a great deal on information on the subject since then.



      Queensware became a generic term in the nineteenth century for all

earthenware and is often seen in advertisements in newspapers, city

directories and other such sources dating as late as the early twentieth

century.  However, there is a regional bias in the usage when it comes to

the printed billheads that pottery importers and jobbers used to write out

the invoices to their customers.  After Mark’s initial posting on this I

went through the billheads I had for New York and Boston, and found that

none of them used the term Queensware.  For Philadelphia however, about

nine out of ten seemed to use the term.  The New York and Boston merchant

billheads often read “Dealers in Crockery, China and Glass” while the

Philadelphia ones most often read “Dealers in Queensware, China and Glass.”

The latest one I found using Queensware in the billhead was from 1910.

Although the term Queensware occurs in the bill heading, none of the

ceramics in the invoiced wares are described as Queensware.  Thus, the term

is a generic for all earthenware.



      I find the terms Queensware and “soft paste” ware useful because they

send up a flag that the person using these terms has a thin glazing of

ceramics knowledge with not much in the way body or depth.



      By the way Ron, the Queensware that you seem to be referring to is

“Queens Pattern” that was pressed, not poured into a mold.



Peace,

George L. Miller

URS Corporation

437 High Street

Burlington, New Jersey 08016



                                                                              

 This e-mail and any attachments are confidential. If you receive this        

 message in error or are not the intended recipient, you should not retain,   

 distribute, disclose or use any of this information and you should destroy   

 the e-mail and any attachments or copies.