Alasdair makes some good points about the dates that English ceramics may
have begun showing up in Sovenia and in the Hapsburg empire. Perhaps I
should have begun my post suggesting to Barbara Ceh by asking if she is
dealing with sites dating after the second half of the 18th, rather than
after the 17th, century. My suggested references to were meant to be
helpful if she wound up dealing with sites from the later period that might
contain these wares.
I must disagree with Alasdair’s observation that “it’s only with the end of
the Napoleonic Wars … c. 1815 that large-scale consumption of North
Atlantic ceramic traditions … can really be seen in much of Continental
Europe …”
Following the end of the Seven Years War there was a great deal of
exportation of English ceramics to the various European nations. Neil
McKendrick lists 75 cities from 16 European countries that were dealing
with Josiah Wedgwood.[i]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn1>
The earliest dates of transactions for the different cities range from 1764
to 1793. Of the 75 cities 20 were in Germany, 16 were in Italy and 10 in
France. McKendrick points out that those dealing with middlemen would not
be recorded in the Wedgwood papers. The Staffordshire potter John
Baddeley’s records show that he was exporting substantial quantities of his
wares to Alexander Parke of Amsterdam between 1753 and
1767.[ii]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn2>In
a 1765 letter to Sir William Meredith, Member of Parliament, Wedgwood
states that “The bulk of our particular Manufactures you know are exported
to foreign markets … to the Continent we send an amazing quantity of white
stoneware and some of the finer kinds,
…”.[iii]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn3>
Export statistics for the port of Hull show that the number of exported
pieces of ceramics went from 1,624,700 in 1768 to 13,287,700 in
1783.[iv]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn4>
Pattern books from some of the English potters were published in foreign
languages such as the 1783 Leeds catalog in German and their 1785 pattern
book in French.[v]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn5>
David Dunderdale, of the Castleford Pottery published their 1796 pattern
book in Spanish and
French.[vi]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn6>
These catalogs demonstrate the importance of the European market. Those
catalogs are what survived over time. There probably were similar catalogs
from other potters that have not survived.
The impact of these exports is shown by the response of the French potters.
In 1783 a commercial treaty between England and France opened that market
to English wares by bringing down tariffs that had limited access to the
French market.[vii]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn7>
In 1787 Arthur Young observed: “Warehouses of English goods are opened. The
articles which hitherto sold the best, and quickest, is that of the
Staffordshire potteries” …. In Rouen the influx of English ware threw 1,500
families out of work. It is not surprising therefore that we hear of
potters among the leading
revolutionaries.”[viii]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn8>
A French pamphlet published in 1786 complained that English potters were
able to undercut their prices for earthenware by 25 percent due the
supposedly lower cost of coal in
England.[ix]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn9>
In 1790 when William Turner went to France during the French Revolution to
collect the money he was owed for his wares sent to French importers. He
was arrested as a Dutch spy and was only rescued by the efforts of English
diplomats. The losses from those debts helped cause the bankruptcy of the
Turners.[x]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn10>
Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond’s 1799 *Travels in England, Scotland and
the Hebrides* had an interesting observation on the spread of English wares.
He states: “Its excellent workmanship, its solidity, the advantages which
it possesses of sustaining the action of fire, its fine glaze, impenetrable
to acids, the beauty and convenience of its form, and the cheapness of its
price have given rise to a commerce so active and so universal that in
traveling from Paris to Petersburg, from Amsterdam to the furthest part of
Sweden, and from Dunkirk to the extremity of South France, one is served at
every inn with English ware. Spain, Portugal, and Italy are supplied
…”[xi]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn11>
I do not have any information on trade in English wares to Slovenia
(Carniola, or Lower Styria). However, Vienna was one of the cities that
McKendrick listed as having imports from Wedgwood beginning in 1781. In
1771, “Mrs Crewe sent a desert service to the Countess of Zinzindorf in
Vienna.[xii]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn12>
Later in 1786 Wedgwood wrote to Sir Richard Keith, the Ambassador at
Vienna, and sent some of his Jasper buttons with the request that he might
introduce them to some of the court
there.[xiii]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn13>
Thus, at least Wedgwood’s wares were being sent to the center of the
Habsburg Empire. Wedgwood used other ambassadors to introduce his wares in
other countries.
It did not take long for the various countries in Europe to erect tariff
barriers against the English wares. Meteyard states: “In Saxony a high
rate of duty was imposed on English goods. In Brandenburg and Prussia they
were prohibited, and ten per cent. was laid by the King of Prussia upon
their going to Danzig; besides another very high duty on those being
shipped to Poland. In the Austrian Netherlands English Manufactures paid
four pence per pound including the packages which was nearly three times
the value of the goods.” Meteyard goes on to list high duties in Spain and
Turkey and that English wares were prohibited in
Portugal.[xiv]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_edn14>
Given the changes brought about by tariffs, one would need to take that
into account in the figures of imports to France that Alasdair cites in his
reply. This is a topic that could use further research.
Peace,
George
------------------------------
[i]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref1>Neal
McKendrick “Josiah Wedgwood and the Commercialization of the
Potteries” pages 99-144 in *The Birth of a Consumer Society* by Neil
McKendrick, John Brewer and J. H. Plumb, Indiana University Press 1982.
[ii]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref2>McKendrick,
page 103.
[iii]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref3>Ann
Finer and George Savage, editors *The
Selected Letters of Josiah Wedgwood*, page 29, Cory, Adams & Mackay, London
1965.
[iv]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref4>John
D. Griffin *The
Leeds Pottery 1770-1881*, Vol. 1, page 15. The Leeds Art Council, Leeds
2005
[v]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref5>Griffin,
page 115.
[vi]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref6>Diana
Edwards Roussel *The
Castleford Pottery 1790-1821*, page 13, Wakefield Historical Society, 1982.
[vii]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref7>Finer
and Savage previously cited, pages 290-292.
[viii]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref8>Bevis
Hillier *Master
Potters of the Industrial Revolution: The Turners of Lane End.* Page 50
Cory, Adams, & Mackay, London, 1965.
[ix]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref9>Bevis
Hillier, page 50.
[x]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref10>Bevis
Hillier, page 50-52.
[xi]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref11>Arthur
Hayden *Chats
on English China*, pages 135-136. Ernest Benn Ltd. London, second revised
edition, 1952.
[xii]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref12>McKendrick,
footnote 115, page 117.
[xiii]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref13>Finer
and Savage previously cited, page 292.
[xiv]<https://mail.google.com/mail/html/compose/static_files/blank_quirks.html#_ednref14>Eliza
Meteyard *The
Life of Josiah Wedgwood* …Vol. II, page 535, reprinted by Josiah Wedgwood
and Sons. Ltd. 1980.
On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 2:56 PM, Alasdair Brooks <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> All,
>
> I'm slightly (though by no means completely) disagreeing with George over
> a historical archaeology ceramics issue with no small degree of
> trepidation, but the important ceramics sources he outlines below are only
> going to be broadly helpful for Barbara Čeh if Slovenia - or, more
> accurately, for most of the period in question, Carniola, southern
> Carinthia, Lower Styria and the other Slovene lands of the Habsburg Empire
> - share their post-17th century ceramics tradition with the North Atlantic
> world.
>
> While some porcelains (Chinese and European) and stonewares will liekly be
> shared, it's usually only with the end of the Napoleonic Wars (which had
> significant political impact on what's now Slovenia) c. 1815 that
> large-scale consumption of the North Atlantic ceramics tradition so
> important to most of George's citations can really be seen in much of
> Continental Europe; at the foot of the Adriatic, it's only with the Greek
> War of Independence (1820s and 1830s) that consumption of British ceramics
> really seems to get underway. Even in the mid 19th century, the British
> pottery trade to much of the Mediterranean is negligible compared to much
> of the rest of the world. For example, in the first 6 months of 1856,
> 1857, and 1858, an average of 82.5 crates are shipped to France, compared
> to an average of 4329 crates across the same period to Canada.
> 19th-century Mediterranean trade for British ceramics seems to have largely
> been pushed towards the Ottoman Empire and associated t
> erritories, but the Habsburg territories don't even warrant a separate
> mention in Liverpool export records for the period, even though the region
> around the upper Adriatic would have been the Habsburg Empire's primary
> outlet to the sea. It's certainly possible that goods could have
> transported to the Habsburg territories by ports in other territories, or
> that the Gulf of Venice is folded into the "Turkish Dominions and
> Mediterranean" category - I've never previously had to check, and it's a
> little difficult to check quickly while I'm in the field with a dodgy
> internet connection in northern Qatar (and that category certainly excludes
> the western Med) - but I'd consider it more than likely that Slovenia has a
> fairly distinct ceramics signature drawing on Italian and Austrian
> traditions, rather than North Atlantic ones, for much of the period under
> question.
>
> If Barbara means the same thing by "historic period" that most of the
> subscribers to this list do - the period c.1500 to the present - rather
> than the broader European meaning of the term, she'd should likely get in
> touch with post-medievalists in Austria (particularly Natascha Mehler at
> the University of Vienna) and Italy (particularly, given the proximity to
> Slovenia, the relevant people at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice) and
> then use George's sources to complement any data these European colleagues
> may be able to provide rather than use the below sources as the first port
> of call - invaluable though they undoubtedly are for colleagues working in
> the UK, North America, much of South America, Australasia, and many sites
> in Africa (as they indeed have been for me).
>
>
> Alasdair Brooks
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 22:17:13 -0500
> From: George Miller <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Ceramic projects
>
> Barbara,
>
>
>
> What time period are you working with? Clearly the historic period for
> Slovenia is much longer that what we in North America are use to dealing
> with. The following sources would be useful if you are working on ceramics
> from the post 17th century period.
>
>
>
> Robert Copeland
>
> 2009 *Manufacturing Processes of Tableware during the Eighteenth
> and Nineteenth Centuries.* The Northern Ceramic Society. £25 plus £3.00
> shipping. Email [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> Robert was of the Copeland family and he was apprentices as a presser and
> spent time at the bench. His book is a wonderfully illustrated source of
> the processes of manufacture along with a good description of what they
> involved.
>
>
>
> The Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory Diagnostic Artifacts in
> Maryland web site is an excellent source for dates of common wares and it
> has great illustrations. I have a paper on that web site titled “Common
> Staffordshire Cup and Bowl Shapes” that is available for download. It has
> profile drawings of the common shapes and charts listing they types of
> decoration that they are found on the different shapes through time.
>
>
>
> The Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology’s web site has my four
> part article “Thoughts Towards a User’s Guide to Ceramic Assemblages” that
> can be downloaded for free.
>
>
>
> George L. Miller, Patricia Samford, Ellen Shlasko and Andrew Madsen
>
> 2000 “Telling Time for Archaeologists” *Northeast Historical
> Archaeology*Vol. 29, pages 1-22.
> This article has many *TPQ *dates for common types of ceramics, glass and
> other types of artifacts.
>
>
>
> If you or your institution belongs to the Society for Historical
> Archaeology, you would be able to download previous articles from
> *Historical
> Archaeology*.
>
>
>
> The web site for *Ceramics in America*, edited by Robert Hunter has a
> number of articles that can be downloaded. Chipstone Foundation
> publishes
> this journal.
>
>
>
> Hope this is helpful.
>
>
>
> Peace,
>
> George L. Miller
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 9:30 AM, Carl Steen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > On 12/5/2013 2:35 AM, Barbara Ceh wrote:
> >
> >> Dear Colleagues:
> >>
> >> I am writing to you for some informations on ceramic projects associated
> >> with the Historic period.
> >> My name is Barbara Čeh, I come from Slovenia (EU) and I am an
> >> archaologist, specialized in analyses of pottery.
> >> For the primary handling with ceramic artifacts there are few
> >> instructions in Slovenia and the procedures are not standardized and
> >> unified; so this work is also a methodical challenge.
> >> I would be very grateful, if you could help me with some informations:
> >> Where should we start with some artifact guides, some studies providing
> >> methodology, some classic case studies, and some suggestions about
> >> beginning a project; or maybe give me a hint who should I contact.
> >> Thank you very much.
> >> Kind regards,
> >>
> >> Barbara Čeh
> >> [log in to unmask]
> >>
> > Hi Barbara - Prudence Rice's /Pottery Analysis/ and Clive Orton et al's
> > /Pottery in Archaeology/ are a great place to start.
> >
>
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