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Date: | Fri, 28 Mar 2003 13:29:32 +1100 |
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on 28/3/03 5:08 am, George L. Miller at [log in to unmask] wrote:
> The sherds with the blue flowers posted by Susan Houghton appear to be
> English bone china.
It strikes me that the frequent confusion of bone china with white
earthenware is one of the most consistent and problematic errors in the
cataloguing of 19th-century ceramics. Without meaning to cause offence,
this has been evident in some of the replies to Susan's original post -
Susan's examples are clearly bone china (as George confirms above). Given
that many colleagues are keen on drawing interpretative conclusions from
distinguishing between the relative amounts in an assemblage of earthenwares
on the one hand and porcelain and bone china on the other, this has some
potentially serious implications. This is a world-wide problem - I've run
into it fairly consistently while working in the US, the UK and Australia.
Compounding the problem are the following observations:
1) The coarser paste of bone china (compared to 'real' porcelain) makes it
easy to mistake it for earthenware, especially when dirty. Even when shards
are clean, the distinction can take some practice to make with confidence.
2) The tongue test is often worthless for identification on this point as
many of the more vitrified earthenwares that are common from c.1840 on won't
stick to your tongue either.
3) While 'Chelsea' sprig is most common on bone china, it does occur on
refined white earthenware (including white granite) as well - as evidenced
by the post that Susan Houghton has sent to the group while I've been typing
this.
The only tip I can give off-hand for making the distinction without actually
having pieces to wave around in front of you is that if the fragment is an
off-white colour with very fine micro-crazing in the glaze, then it's most
likely bone china. Susan's examples are in fact an excellent example of
this: http://sunflower.com/~setzer/floral%20rim.jpg
This micro-crazing in the glaze is quite distinct from what you would find
on earthenware.
However, while the off-white colour and the micro-crazing indicate bone
china, not all bone china will be off-white or crazed..... If only it was
that simple.
Alasdair Brooks
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Dr. Alasdair Brooks
Department of Archaeology
La Trobe University
Plenty Road
Bundoora VIC 3083
Australia
Phone - 03 9479 3269
E-mail - [log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The buffalo tastes the same
on both sides of the border"
Sitting Bull
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