Civilization.ca - 19th-century Pottery and Porcelain in Canada

		Teapot, circa 1880 Maker: Indistinct registration mark Staffordshire, England Japanese-inspired decoration Canadian Museum of Civilization Cat. no. 979.84.1 Photo S97-17890, CD2004-876

CREAMWARE (part 2)

Anglo-Japanese designs poured from the British potteries and into Canadian homes. In Toronto a critic declared that "beside Japan even Sèvres looks tame."

The Whiter Earthenware

Transfer printing was the usual method of decorating the whiter earthenware that came to dominate the ceramic market in the nineteenth century. But it could have painted decoration, like the creamware it was superseding. This might take the form of nothing more than a coloured line painted around a slightly moulded rim. Carried over from the previous century, this type of earthenware for the table was advertised simply as "edged ware."

		Platter, circa 1830 Maker: Unmarked Staffordshire, England Canadian Museum of Civilization Cat. no. A-5620 Slide no. 17981

Around 1805, a more expensive type of white earthenware was introduced by Wedgwood, which called it "whiteware." It was characterized by a glaze with a fainter bluish tinge than that applied to pearlware.

		Plate, circa 1830 Maker: Wedgwood Staffordshire, England Canadian Museum of Civilization Cat. no. A-3489 Slide no. Ø

Used mainly for dessert services, its painted decoration was usually of stylized flowers set against a wide coloured band. It had been introduced to compete with the Staffordshire porcelain that is known today as bone china, which some of Wedgwood's rivals were making. In this, "whiteware" was not successful. Its time of greatest popularity was in the 1830s and 1840s.