Creamware

Defining Attributes

Creamware is a clear lead-glazed, thinly potted, refined earthenware with a cream colored body. Variations in decorative techniques, such as molding, underglaze and overglaze painting, and transfer-printing, are used to describe and date these wares.

Chronology

In 1740 Enoch Booth introduced a cream-bodied refined earthenware that was soon being used by many potters including Thomas Whieldon and Josiah Wedgewood (Noël Hume 2001:204, 209). In the 1740s and 1750s metal oxides were applied to this ware in various shades of green, purple, brown yellow, and blue creating "clouded" and "Tortoiseshell" wares. This pottery is also referred to as Whieldon ware, though it was made by many factories between the 1750s – 1770s (Noël Hume 1970:124; Barker and Halfpenny 1990:36).

In partnership, Thomas Whieldon and Josiah Wedgewood developed a rich green-glazed cream-colored ware in 1759. This ware was not as successful as Wedgewood would have liked and in 1762 he introduced a clear lead-glazed cream-colored ware that became known as creamware. Using adaptations of the molded rim patterns found on white salt glazed stoneware, Wedgewood marketed "Queen's ware" and "Royal ware" creamware. One of the most common motifs, "feather-edged," was produced by 1765 (Noël Hume 1970:125). Creamware quickly became a popular tableware and was found in most households throughout England and the British colonies.

Slip cast or molded fruit and vegetable shaped tablewares were painted in realistic colors or with the tortoiseshell and clouded ware oxides. This "cauliflower" ware was popular between 1760 - 1780. During the same time period, overglaze transfer printing in black and red was applied alone or with overglaze enameling to creamware vessels. Underglaze painting and transfer printing, particularly in blue, began to be used in the 1770s and became the most prevalent decoration on refined earthenware, especially the whiter pearlware body, after 1780 (Barker and Halfpenny 1990:71). Vessels with annular or banded decoration, also called "dipped" wares, were manufactured in the last quarter of the 18^th century.

Description

Fabric
Creamware has a hard, somewhat porous body, and thin walls. Crushed, finely ground silicon, feldspar, and occasionally kaolin, were added to the clay (Kybalová 1989:13). This paste is basically the same as that used for white salt-glazed stoneware, but is fired at an earthenware temperature, producing a cream-colored body (Noël Hume 1970:123).

Glaze
Bisque creamware was dusted with lead powder to produce a light transparent lead glaze when fired. The glaze often pooled in crevices, such as footrings or molded design elements, in yellow or greenish yellow shades. Earlier creamware tends to be a deeper yellow than later vessels, but this is not an infallible rule and thus not a reliable marker.

Decoration
The vast majority of early creamware is plain, though often molded or slip-cast. Decorations in color by overglaze painting and overglaze bat transfer printing, often in imitation of Chinese porcelain, were the main decorative techniques used in the mid-18^th century. Transfer printed designs were also painted with overglaze enamels. Underglaze painting with cobalt blue became more extensively used after 1780 (Noël Hume 1970; Miller et al. 1994:220-223).

Annular, "dipped", wares are characterized by bands of color and engine turned designs on hollowware forms, mugs, bowls, and pitchers. Applied slip polychrome designs, known as "common cable" and "cat's eye", plus the dendritic mocha or seaweed motif, were popular annular motifs (Miller 1980; Sussman 1997).

Form
Creamware came in all tableware forms, especially tea wares, and including punch pots, bowls, punch bowls, jugs, and tureens. Decorative pieces such as figurines, lattice work baskets, and fancy centerpieces, plus toiletry ware, especially chamber pots, were also made.

Notes

Noël Hume (1970:123) refers to the gradual perfecting of cream-colored refined earthenware as the most important development in 18^th century ceramic technology. Wedgewood’s innovations in creating and marketing creamware, in combination with the new printing technology and improvements in transportation services pushed Staffordshire to a leading position in the world market. Prior to 1770, many types of ceramics were imported into the American colonies but by the 1780s creamware and pearlware had displaced most of them (Miller et al. 1994:223).

References

Barker and Halfpenny 1990; Hunter 2001; Kybalová 1989; Miller 1980; Miller et al. 1994; Noël Hume 1970, 2001; Poole 1995; Sussman 1997