Rob Hunter has produced another great addition to the ceramics and

archaeological literature with the publication of the 2007 volume of

Ceramics in America.  This volume shines a light on the dark area of the

translucent soft paste porcelains.  Archaeologists rarely get beyond

describing these wares as being soft paste porcelain.  While there are a

number of books on English factories that produced these wares such as Bow,

Chelsea, Derby and Worcester, none of them pull all of the information

together for an overview of these elusive wares.



      The 2007 volume of Ceramics in America begins with a reprinting of

Graham Hood’s slim volume on the Bonnin and Morris Philadelphia porcelain

factory with all new color photographs of the wares and some of the

excavations by Garry W. Stone and Paul Huey.  This is followed by a reprint

of an important article by Michael Brown on the history of the factory.

Alexandra A. Kirtley produced a catalog of all the known surviving Bonnin

and Morris pieces and their histories.  Gavin Ashworth has rephotographed

these vessels as well as almost all of the other photos in the volume.

Finally, Michelle Erickson recreated the process of producting a Bonnin and

Morris pickle stand with a very detailed set of photographs of making the

various molds and assembling the final object.



      Until the publication of this volume, it was assumed that Bonnin and

Morris produced the first porcelain in the United States beginning in 1770.

However, Stanley South’s excavations of John Bartlam’s wares at the Cain

Hoy site in South Carolina have shown that Bartlam was producing soft paste

porcelain between 1765 and 1770.  Rob Hunter, Stanley South and Lisa R.

Hudgins have articles on these discoveries again with excellent color

photos.  These articles alone would make the volume worth adding to your

library, but there is much more.



      J. Victor Owen provides an excellent summary of the chemical make up

of glassy, bone, soapstone and hybrid soft paste porcelains with

information on the mix of these ingredients of porcelains from a large

number of English factories as well as the porcelains from John Bartlam and

Bonnin and Morris factories.  This article will go a long way toward making

these wares less opaque.



      The quest for the secret of how to make porcelain has a strong

relationship with alchemy and the alchemists who sought to turn base metals

into gold.  The arcanum was the secret of how to make porcelain that was

highly sought by European and English potters.  Glenn Adamson presents a

good brief summary of this history of the quest and how it related to a

changing knowledge of the chemistry involved in the production of

porcelain.



      Roderick Jellico and Rob Hunter went through the collections at

Colonial Williamsburg and photographed a large number of the soft paste

porcelains from that collection.  These photographs and the documentary

information will make this the first place to go for the identification of

these wares from archaeological sites.



      Amy C. Earls has put together a Checklist of Articles and Books on

Eighteenth Century Porcelain in America to conclude the volume.



      This volume is a great addition to the literature and it has many

photos of wares from very short period of time because of the limited dates

that some of these factories were in production.  Particularly interesting

is the use of underglaze transfer printing at the Bonnin and Morris

porcelain works.  The printing and painted styles of these wares will show

up in the painted China glaze wares about a decade after they were being

produced on soft paste porcelains, so the articles are also relevant to the

study of the later earthenwares.



      The 2007 volume of Ceramics in America is hard bound and is a product

of the Chipstone Foundation, which helped keep the price down.  It was

published at $65.00, however Amazon has it for $41.00.



Peace,



George L. Miller

URS Corporation

437 High Street

Burlington, New Jersey 08016









                                                                              

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