The way I have used the term whiteware in my major studies (Silcott, Waverly
 Plantation, Bay Springs Mill, Kings Bay Plantations, etc.) is for those white
 bodied earthenwares which follow creamware and pearlware. They are usually
 white glazed. Incorporated within this class of ceramics would be ironstone,
 graniteware, and others. I have not found a CONSISTENT means of distinguishing
 between these unless they are marked pieces. Indeed, some of the late cream
 colored wares and pearlwares are difficult to separate consistently. I had one
 vessel classified which, when glued back together, had pieces earlier
 classified as being creamware, pearlware, and whiteware based on real variation
 in the glaze and coming from rim, body, and base (not that order). However,
 creamware and pearlware are usually quite distinguishable from whiteware. Given
 it has chronological significance in the industry and in archaeological sites
 and is separable from creamware and pearlware which too have tim!
e meaning, I would not lump these
three together.
 
As to Gates & Oremrod's definition  (Historical Archaeology 16(1-2): 7-8) which
 appears to lump these wares, one should remember that the American pottery
 industry really developed as a result of the blockade of British-made ceramics
 during the Civil War. By that time, only white earthenwares were being made in
 the U.S. Their definition has no historical value prior to the context of the
 Ohio pottery industry they were studying.
 
While from an evolutionary standpoint and a simplistic visual one, lumping
 white-salt glazed stoneware, creamware, pearlware, and the whitewares into a
 single one has some validity, and the latter three are truly evolutionary, I
 think it best to use the term for that group of non-translucent, hard-bodied,
 white bodied earthenwares which followed the pearlwares.
 
Whiteware would not include delft, faience, or majolica.
*********************************************
*      William H. Adams, Ph.D.              *
*      P.O. Box 1177                        *
*      Philomath, OR 97370-1177   U.S.A.    *
*      (503) 929-3102  fax -3264            *
*            [log in to unmask]            *
*********************************************