Alaisdair,

Do you have a picture of a broken edge to post.  Although the description
you have given leaves little dought as to what you are talking about, "a
picture is worth a thousand words."  This would alleviate any
misunderstandings as to what sky blue, vs. corn flower blue, or light blue,
or any other blue might be.

William McAlexander

-----Original Message-----
From: Alasdair Brooks [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 12:56 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Blue-bodied earthenware


Tim,

Thank you - that's definitely a reference I'll follow up once I'm back from
Tasmania and have access to a library again.  Especially since it's the only
concrete reference anyone's posted so far.

Attempts to get a grasp of the relevance of other posts on the topic are
tricky since we can't actually see what each other are talking about, but
I'll attempt to summarise where we are right now.  If anyone wants to
contribute more, then please by all means do so - as before, actual citable
sources are preferred since I already know this stuff turns up all over the
(English-speaking, 19th-century) world.

We have a blue-bodied earthenware.  The actual fabric is sky-blue.

It's clearly not pearlware, flow blue, or 'bluish ironstone'/white granite.

The level of vitrification in the paste varies from object to object - some
are obviously earthenware, while others are essentially stoneware (and all
points in-between).

It seems to date from the 1840s onwards.

While I can't judge whether or not James Murphy and I are talking about more
or less the same material, my examples clearly aren't from an 1890's Ohio
pottery as they pre-date the 1890s and were found on British and Australian
sites.  None of which feature Ohioan industrial pottery.  James' example is
no doubt more directly relevant to North America.

I'm assuming that the examples I have are British-made.  Certainly we know
that potters in Wales, Scotland and England all made this stuff.

When it does occur, it's in very small quantities - David Babson's
observation of "never more than 2% of an assemblage" matches my experience.

Assuming that Tim Riordan's suggested reference is describing the same
material, then two of the references I know of suggest that this material is
in imitation of Wedgwood jasperware.  The other simply notes the existence
of Scottish "blue earthenware" imitations of parian pitchers.

The body colour certainly matches that of blue jasperware.  However, the
moulded examples are monochrome (quite unlike jasperware), and I know of
several examples of completely undecorated blue earthenware vessels in
entirely ordinary cup and saucer forms.  I'm looking at two as I type this.

While it's therefore more than possible that there might have been an
original jasperware influence (which I consider to be more likely than David
Babson's suggestion of an industrial slip link), by 1850 these materials
have long since left that tradition behind.

So for several reasons I would be extremely reluctant to call the examples I
have "jasper" or even "jasper-type".  I'm sticking with "blue earthenware"
unless someone can come up with a better suggestion.

I am, however, getting the feeling that - at least for the 1840-1890 period
- these aren't materials that turn up much in North America.  Or at least
not enough for someone to have felt the need to write anything
archaeological about them previously.  And they obviously haven't bothered
people too much in the UK or Australia either - though I have had two
off-list replies from Australia that demonstrate that it turns up widely (if
sparsely) down here (thanks to Shane Burke and Jeanne Harris).

Alasdair Brooks



-----Original Message-----
From: Timothy B. Riordan [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 12 February 2004 03:06
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Blue-bodied earthenware

The Dictionary of Antiques by George Savage (1978:219) in describing
"Jasper-ware" refers to it being widely imitated in Staffordshire. It
specifically mentions a "violet toned blue" fabric used by William Adams.
While blue was the most common color, a range of other colors including
lilac, sage green, yellow and black were used.

Tim Riordan
Historic St. Mary's City