In response to Roberta Carpentier's question about the separation of
pearlware, whiteware, and a transitional category I would suggest that
there are much better things to go on for dating than the ware type.  The
latest issue of Northeast Historical Archaeology (Volume 29, 2000) has my
article "Telling Time for Archaeologists" which is a 22 page accumulation
of TPQ and other date information on a wide variety of artifact types.  For
those that are not familiar with the journal, it is published by the
Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology.  Membership in CNEHA is
$30.00, which includes the journal and newsletter.  To join you can write
to Sara Mascia, Treasure, CNEHA, 16 Colby Lane, Briarlciff Manor, New York
10510.

            One of the problems of pearlware as a ceramic type is that
      archaeologists take the simplistic view that pearlware replaced
      creamware.  Pearlware did not replace creamware; decoration replaced
      creamware.  The vast majority of creamware that we see are
      undecorated.  Pearlware is rarely undecorated.  The potters,
      importers, and jobbers referred to these wares by how they were
      decorated; i.e. edged, dipt, painted, or printed.  Creamware ware
      continued as an undecorated ware and was referred to as "CC" ware.
      Undecorated vessels that date before ca 1845 that we call whiteware
      are almost certainly what the potters and merchants would have called
      CC ware.  In short, the undecorated wares we call whiteware are from
      creamware, not pearlware.  The decorated wares that we are calling
      whiteware would have just been listed by their type of decoration as
      the ware type was ignored until you get to white granite.  Further
      information on this transition can be found in "Changing Consumption
      Patterns English Ceramics and the American Market from 1770 to 1840"
      that is in Everyday Life in the Early Republic edited by Catherine E.
      Hutchins.  This was published by Winterthur Museum.  Previously I
      posted an essay on separating the white wares in "Thoughts toward a
      Users'Guide to Ceramic Assemblages."  Copies of that can be sent by
      email.  If you are interested send me an email.

            References to pearlware are very rare in the period literature
      because of the revolution in decoration that took place as ceramic
      prices were falling.  We have made pearlware into a much bigger beast
      that it was in the past.  It comes from Josiah Wedgwood's term "Pearl
      White" that he introduced in 1779.  The other potters were producing
      it earlier and calling it China Glaze.  China Glaze begins as a copy
      of oriental style patterns from porcelain.  The blue tinting was part
      of that imitation process.  For more information on this see "How
      Creamware got the Blues" by George L. Miller and Robert Hunter in
      Ceramics in America 2001 that was published by Chipstone Foundation.
      Amazon.com has a good discount on this volume.


      George L. Miller
      URS Corporation
      561 Cedar Lane
      Florence, New Jersey  08518