Interesting discussion of the use of the term “Queensware.” I remember
giving a paper at an SHA meeting back around 1970 on some ceramics from the
Franklin Glass Works site (1824-1832) in which I used the term “Queensware”
to describe the creamware from the site. Jay Jefferson Miller II, the then
Curator of Ceramics at the Smithsonian, pulled me aside after my paper and
complemented me on the presentation after which he set me straight on the
use of creamware, pearlware, and whiteware. I always appreciated that, and
have absorbed a great deal on information on the subject since then.
Queensware became a generic term in the nineteenth century for all
earthenware and is often seen in advertisements in newspapers, city
directories and other such sources dating as late as the early twentieth
century. However, there is a regional bias in the usage when it comes to
the printed billheads that pottery importers and jobbers used to write out
the invoices to their customers. After Mark’s initial posting on this I
went through the billheads I had for New York and Boston, and found that
none of them used the term Queensware. For Philadelphia however, about
nine out of ten seemed to use the term. The New York and Boston merchant
billheads often read “Dealers in Crockery, China and Glass” while the
Philadelphia ones most often read “Dealers in Queensware, China and Glass.”
The latest one I found using Queensware in the billhead was from 1910.
Although the term Queensware occurs in the bill heading, none of the
ceramics in the invoiced wares are described as Queensware. Thus, the term
is a generic for all earthenware.
I find the terms Queensware and “soft paste” ware useful because they
send up a flag that the person using these terms has a thin glazing of
ceramics knowledge with not much in the way body or depth.
By the way Ron, the Queensware that you seem to be referring to is
“Queens Pattern” that was pressed, not poured into a mold.
Peace,
George L. Miller
URS Corporation
437 High Street
Burlington, New Jersey 08016
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