Write that book soon- David. If our American chums buy it you might even make some money out of it. In the meantime I suggest you post details of some of the Stoke museum ceramics publications with postal rates to the US. See you for a balti and a few beers sometime. In message <[log in to unmask]>, David Barker <[log in to unmask]> writes >Now we are talking! > >I'm delighted that there are people out there who care about this stuff. > >Re: 'Astbury-type', we've always referred to it as 'glazed red earthenware', >but I prefer the simple 'redware' (slipping into GRE merely as an >abbreviation). >I should add, however, that we now have a huge body of redwares almost >certainly made by AN Astbury (common Staffordshire name). Excavations on an >18th-century pottery factory site in Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent, in 1992 exposed - >amongst other things - a large waster dump containing - you guessed it - glazed >and biscuit tea and coffee wares of the type under discussion. These have >mould-applied relief decoration in white, inlaid agate band, turned and cut >flutes, and other weird stuff which we are not used to seeing. Stylistically we >thought 1730/40. Documentary study by Rodney Hampson showed that between 1728 >and 1744 one John Astbury was tenant of the potworks and was, therefore, >probabaly reponsible for the wasters excavated. This date range is supported by >vessels commemorating the capture of Portobello in 1739. On the down-side, fine >though these redwares are, there's not a whole lot to distinguish them from >similar wares from a dozen other N. Staffordshire sites. [This makes life >easier!] > >As for our Jackfield friends: 'blackware' or 'refined blackware' suffices for >us. We use the latter if we have a multi-period group containing 17th-/early >18th-century once-fired blackwares. I'm now quite happy to leave off the >additional "so-called 'Jackfield-type' wares", which has cluttered up my text >for so long. The point is well-made that a label is just that, as long as we >can recognise it, but equally there is no excuse for us to be sloppy in our >approach. > >It's a pleasure to chat - beats work! > >David Barker Paul Courtney Leicester UK