On Thu, 1 Mar 2001, Ron May wrote:

> << "Pioneer Texas!" supplies >>
> Let's not forget the British kept warehouses of factory seconds to be shipped
> and sold to the United States. I think they got an especially big kick out of
> selling those blue transfer prints that ran all over the tableware to the
> silly Americans who eagerly paid money for "flow blue."

Not enough research has been done on mid-19th century contexts over here,
but just for the record, flow blue isn't totally unknown on UK sites from
the relevant period.

The only mid- to late- 19th century sites I've been directly involved in
are in rural southwest Wales, and thus should not be taken as
representative of the UK as a whole, but there was some flow blue and flow
black in the assemblages, although it was admittedly uncommon.

On a slight tangent...
Those interested in White Granite/Ironstone may be interested to know that
one of the Welsh cottages even featured two white granite cups, which to
the best of my knowledge are currently the only white granite vessels to
have been recovered from a domestic site in the UK (I'd be more than happy
to be corrected on this point if anyone knows differently).

As we expand our archaeology of the 19th Century in the UK, I think we'll
increasingly find that ceramics that are thought of as typically for the
export market will turn up on British domestic sites.  Whether this is
common, or whether it applies largely to marginalised communities such as
those in north Pembrokeshire will require a bit more work.  Nor should
this issue be solely looked at in Trans-Atlantic context, though this
aspect will no doubt prove to be of interest to our North American
colleagues.

Alasdair Brooks