Jessica,


Star decorated tea wares are illustrated in the Leeds Pottery “New Teapot
Drawing book” that has been reproduced in color in John D. Griffin’s book *The
Leeds Pottery 1770-1881*, volume two, pages 542-543.  That drawing book
illustrate star decorated wares in blue, tan and green.  The “New Teapot
Drawing book” book is undated and the pages do not have any watermarks, but
the Griffin dates the book to c1790-1815.  Griffin’s two-volume book was
published by the City Art Gallery, The Headrow, Leeds, England 2005.  These
volumes reprint a number of Leeds pattern and drawing books in wonderful
color reproductions and would be great additions to anyone’s ceramic
library.



            I have a covered pearlware mustard with brown stars along with
brown shell edging that is painted rather than molded.  I would date it from
ca 1800 to ca 1815.  The photo of the vessel that Jessica has posted has a
marley; therefore it is probably a muffin plate.  The marley is fluted and
there is a brown rim line.  These are both characteristics of wares from the
pre-1820 period.  For a discussion of fluted and brown edged wares see
George L. Miller 1991 “A Revised Set of CC Index Values for Classification
and Economic Scaling of English Ceramics from1787-1880” *Historical
Archaeology* Volume 25, No. 1, pages 16. The brown rim lines and fluting
would both add to the cost of the wares as listed in the Staffordshire
potter’s price-fixing lists.



            For more information on pearlware (that pigment of our
imagination) see George L. Miller and Robert “How Creamware Got the Blues:
The Origin of China Glaze and Pearlware” in *Ceramics in America
2001*.  Chipstone
Foundation has put this article online.



Peace,

George L. Miller