By: Marcia Abramson
The increasing popularity of one of my favorite programs, The Antique Road show, has sparked great interest in this 18th and 19th century English earthenware, known as creamware that is showcased in this exciting exhibit. The word creamware generally doesn't suggest extreme as mentioned in the title of the exhibit but rather images of pale-cream-colored earthenware with subdued decoration. However, 18th century potters used a variety of methods to create a surprising assortment of interesting colorful and sculptural wares.In 1740, Enoch Booth of Staffordshire, England mixed light-colored earthenware clay with flint, covered it with a lead-base glaze and fired it at a low temperature. This earthenware, then known as cream colour, became the first creamware. It was inexpensive and durable and its smooth surface and shiny glaze made it perfect for further decoration. The first style of creamware was the Rococo style. This style is known for its s-curves, asymmetry and naturalism. Rococo decoration also included various organic forms such as leaves, shells and flowers, which also functioned as knobs, handles or spouts. Molding and coloring made this ornamentation possible. Molds allowed potters to make detailed three-dimensional shapes in bas-relief as well as in smaller motifs that could be applied to the shaped body.Josiah Wedgwood, the founder of the renowned Wedgwood China, was greatly responsible for a surge in cream ware's popularity, especially between the upper and middle classes in the 1760s. In 1763, Wedgwood came up with a clay mix that fired to a paler color than previously used clays. Two years later, after England's Queen Charlotte ordered a tea set from his Buslem factory, Wedgwood advertised the improved ware as Queen's Ware. Royal patronage greatly enhanced the value of creamware in the eyes of the middle class and by 1770, nearly 70 factories were making it.Later Queen's Ware or cream ware changed from a curving Rococo style to a more restrained Neo-Classical, based on the art and architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. As a result, the basic forms became plainer but potters did embellish them with elaborate lace-like patterns by punching small shaped holes in leather-hard clay before the first firing. They also applied images taken from contemporary engravings by using a technique called transfer painting first introduced in the 1750s. This made it possible to produce multiple copies of the same design without changes resulting from painting by hand.Creamware was also painted in bright and vivid enamel colors applied over the glaze of finished pieces. Many manufacturers employed off-site painter and other potteries to add final decorations to creamware blanks. While most creamware made prior to 1772 is unmarked, as you will see in this exhibit, some pieces have been linked to particular pottery manufacturers because their decorations compare greatly to the work of particular painters.Unfortunately, while great quantities were produced in the early 19th century, forms and designs became standardized making pieces with unique and intricate decoration harder to come by. Creamware doesn't dominate the market as it did in the 18th century but it is still made today by many large companies who try to replicate the extreme beauty of the older pieces.This exhibit, Extreme Creamware: Surprising Forms and Diverse Decorations, is a special treat for the antique and china enthusiasts like myself, to view some magnificent examples of this wonderful art form. I have thoroughly enjoyed previous visits and exhibitions at the Brandywine museum and this appears to be another excellent offering.The Brandywine Museum is located on U.S. Route 1 in Chadds Ford, Pa. just a short distance from Philadelphia. The museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, call (610) 388-2700 or visit the museum's Web site at www.brandywinemuseum.org.
Copyright Marcia AbramsonE-mail: mascribe @aol.com
