Parian Ware

Parian ware is an unglazed biscuit porcelain resembling Parian marble. It was first made by the English Spode factory in the 1840s. Many other English and American firms manufactured Parian ware after that date. Usually Parian ware is white, but some of it is partially colored. It was often used to make statues and figurines […]

American Ironstone

Many firms made ironstone ware in the United States. Taylor, Goodwin and Company of Trenton, New Jersey, working from 1819 to 1870, was one of the first. John Wyllie of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, working in 1874, is said to have been the first potter to manufacture ironstone west of the Allegheny Mountains. American ironstone manufacturers felt […]

Tea-Leaf Ironstone

The tea-leaf pattern, which pictured a luster tea leaf on a white ironstone dish, was made by more than three dozen English factories after about 1850. The brown tea-leaf pattern became quite popular during the 1870s. The idea of a tea leaf painted at the bottom of a cup may have been suggested by the […]

Care Of Lusterware

Lusterware requires special handling, because the luster can wear away if it is improperly washed. It should be washed in warm water with a mild soap or detergent. Do not rub too hard or you will remove the luster glaze. Do not wash in the dishwasher.

Luster

Luster glaze has been used on porcelain for centuries. Sixteenth-century Spain produced some of the finest early luster decorations. About ninety-four out of every one hundred early luster-glazed pottery dishes broke during the firing, which accounts for the rarity and high cost of early luster.The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries saw blue, reddish-gold, copper, or green […]

Dating Ironstone

Use the type of decoration—or lack of it—and the coloring of the ironstone design to date a piece if a maker’s mark is missing. Ironstone patterns were copies of porcelain patterns of the period until about 1830. Pieces were decorated with only blue or had Asian-inspired multicolored patterns. Blue, pink, purple, green, black, and sepia […]

Ironstone

Ironstone china is a product of the nineteenth century, even though it was first made by Miles Mason, an English potter who began making ceramics about 1780. Mason sold Chinese export ware in England and was unable to get replacements for broken dishes. Rather than have his customers complain, he decided to make a ware […]

White Ironstone Patterns

Plain white ironstone, during the peak of its popularity in the mid-nineteenth century, evolved through a series of trim and handles that were molded as part of the piece. Wheat pattern ironstone was made by several English firms from 1855 to 1865. Other patterns pictured grain and botanical designs, such as corn and oats, grapes, […]

Majolica

The general term “majolica” means any pottery with an opaque tin enamel glaze that conceals the color of the clay body. This would include delft, faience, and the more familiar majolica of England, Spain, Germany, Italy, and the United States. Although majolica was made during the fourteenth century, the average collector is interested in the […]

Delft

Delft is a special type of faience, a tin-glazed pottery that has been popular for centuries. Early delft was made in Holland and England during the seventeenth century, and it is still being made. It was usually decorated with blue on a white surface; but some delft, called “polychrome,” was decorated with green, yellow, and […]