1
Dyed body wares
The blue dyed body earthenware that Alasdair has been describing
appears to be rare on Canadian sites as well. When I worked at Parks
Canada in Ottawa, we called them dyed body wares. Drab ware is probably a
term the Staffordshire potters applied to some of these wares
in the nineteenth century. My gut feeling is that they come out of the
jasper and smeared glaze tradition. Here are some references to the dyed
body wares.
From Thomas Lakin's 1824 book of receipts.
|-----+--------+------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| page| process| description |
| | # | |
|-----+--------+------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| 7 | 9 | Lilac Porcelain Body |
|-----+--------+------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| 7 | 10 |Superior Drab Body |
|-----+--------+------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| 8 | 12 | Fawn or Drab Body |
|-----+--------+------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| 8 | 13 | Calcedon Body |
|-----+--------+------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| 8 | 14 | Brown Body |
|-----+--------+------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| 9 | 15 | Jasper Body |
|-----+--------+------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| 11 | 19 | Black Egyptian Body |
|-----+--------+------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| 13 | 22 | Fawn Porous Body "This body makes porous wine and butter |
| | | coolers," i.e., unglazed |
|-----+--------+------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| 14 | 24 | Blue Clay |
|-----+--------+------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| 14 | 25 | Black Clay |
|-----+--------+------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| 14 | 26 | Orange Clay |
|-----+--------+------------------------------------------------------------|
| | | |
| 15 | 27 | Green Clay |
|-----+--------+------------------------------------------------------------|
Page 19, Section two of the book:
"Receipts for Superior and Common Glazes of Porcelain, Ironstone,
Earthenware, and various coloured Drabs, properly adapted for the Bodies
described in the first part of this book."
The formulas for dyed bodies listed in Larkin could easily have been
adapted for earthenware by just firing them at a lower temperature. Thus
the knowledge of how to do this was around by the 1820s for a range of
colors. Jasper and Egyptian Black (Basalt) were of course known well
before Lakin's book of receipts was published in 1824.
In the mid-1830s a number of molded jugs (pitchers) were produced by
potters such as Ridgway and Abington that have impressed marks that read
"PUBLISHED BY/ E. RIDGWAY & ABINGTON/ HANLEY / JANUARY 4, 1838" (Godden
1964:533). These are smear glazed dyed body wares and they represent
attempts to protect patterns from being copied prior to the English
Registry System set up in 1842. After that date a number of smear glazed
jugs were produced by various potters with raised registry diamonds as
part of their marks. These jugs have dyed bodies in various colors
including at least two shades of blue, olive green, and yellow. There is
a book titled Relief-molded Jugs, 1820-1900 (Henrywood 1984) that records
a large number of these vessels and their registry marks. Smear glazes
have been described in Barber's glossary as follows:
Smear A semi-glaze, or thin deposit on the surface of
pottery, produced by smearing the inside of the sagger, or
fire-clay receptacle, with the glazing preparation, which
vaporizes in the heat of the kiln, and settles on the surface
of enclosed ware (Barber 1914:48).
The resulting glaze is among the thinnest types of glaze used and thus
works very well with the highly molded jugs because the glaze does not
obscure the detail of the molding. The inside of such vessels were
commonly have a regular lead glaze so they are shiny on the inside and
have a very thin glaze on the outside that is often difficult to see. The
early smear glaze wares are generally well fired and vitrified. Later
ones are sometimes fired at a lower temperature. Smear glazed jugs are
fairly common in the antique market, as they seem to survive well. They
are somewhat rare in archaeological collections. People interested in
pottery would do well to visit antique malls and flea markets where you
can handle a variety of wares that are not well represented in museums.
Damaged pieces are generally quite cheap and make good type pieces for a
comparative collection.
Simeon Shaw's 1829 History of the Staffordshire Potteries on page
183 makes the following comment on dry bodies.
"This relief method was very advantageous, when the Jasper was
invented, and the other dry bodies used for the ground could be of
any colour, by employing a metallic calc, and the relief figure
remain a beautiful white, or any color deemed requisite."
In Shaw's 1837 Chemistry of Pottery on page 458 he writes about dry
bodies:
"So named because without glaze are intermediate between porcelain
and flint wares, partaking the properties of their biscuits. They
are different in qualities and colours. . . They include the kinds:
Chemical Utensils, Stone, Jasper, Pearl, Cane, Drab, Red, Black
Egyptian, Fawn, Brown, Sage etc."
On page 491 he lists smear glazes as containing a combination of rock
salt, potash, and nitre for smearing the inside of saggers.
Griffin's book on the Don Pottery illustrates a number of dyed body
wares from an early period and has color plates of "Drabware" and
"Chalcedony or Orange Body (2001:167-172). Dudson's history of the Dudson
pottery provides some documentary records to go along with many examples
of the dyed body jugs, bowls and teapots. From documents she states that
"By 1834 the following had been added to the list of recipes used in the
production of pottery." "Coloured bodies: Blue Turquoise, Sage, Lilac,
Drab, Buff, Cane, Green, Brown, Chocolate, Blue Jasper and Blue dip for
Jasper (Dudson 1985:50). A Dudson Brothers bowl in my collection has a
dyed body and is vitrified, but covered with a conventional clear glaze
rather than a smear glaze. It dates from the period 1898 to ca 1915.
I have seen very few dyed body earthewares and none with marks that
I can recall. The Staffordshire potters' price fixing lists of 1795,
1796, 1808, 1814, 1824, 1833, 1846, 1856 and 1858 do not list any dyed
body, drab wares or smear glazed wares. Clearly, not enough were being
made to make it worthwhile to set the prices. They do not appear on any
of the potters' invoices I have seen for imported wares coming into the
United States. Dyed body wares is a safe descriptive term for these
wares.
References cited
Barber, Edwin Atlee
1914 The Ceramic Collectors' Glossary. 1967 reprint by Da
Capo Press, New York.
Dudson, Audrey M.
1985 Dudson, a Family of Potters since 1800. Dudson
Publications, Hanley, Staffordshire.
Godden, Geoffrey A.
1964 Encyclopedia of British Pottery and Porcelain Marks.
Bonanza Books New York.
Griffin, John D.
2001 The Don Pottery, 1801-1893. The Doncaster Museum,
Yorkshire, England.
Henrywood, R. K.
1984 Relief-moulded jugs, 1820-1900. Antique Collectors'
Club. Woodbridge, Suffolk, England.
Shaw, Simeon
1829 History of the Staffordshire Potteries. 1968 reprint by
Beatrice C. Weinstock, Great Neck, New York.
1837 The Chemistry of the several Natural and Artificial
Heterogeneous Compounds used in Manufacturing Porcelain,
Glass, and Pottery. 1900 reprint by Scott, Greenwood and Co.,
London.
Thomas Lakin's
1824 The Valuable Receipts of the late Mr. Thomas Lakin, with
Proper and Necessary Directions for their Preparation and use
in the Manufacture of Porcelain, Earthenware and Stone Chine .
. . Leeds, England. From the copy in the Winterthur Museum
Library.
Peace
George L. Miller
URS Corporation
561 Cedar Lane
Florence, New Jersey 0851 February 16, 2004
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