English potters of white ironstone hit the jackpot in America beginning in the 1850s. Transfer-printed ironstone gradually lost out as the modestly priced, durable white ware traveled farther, reaching women in America's expanding hinterlands. From 1840 to 1870, hundreds of embossed patterns were created.

"England first exported wide, flat-paneled shapes known as 'Gothic' to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Orleans," says Dieringer. Embossing of leaves and shield decoration followed, as in the famous Sydenham pattern, and the flat panels grew more narrow and delicate. Classical shapes, such as Greek urns and Chinese flower bud finials, were introduced. By 1860, Dieringer says, themes of nature -- flowers, fruits, twigs, grains -- were prevalent in the allover pattern typified by Ceres or Wheat and Hops. So popular was white ironstone in the Midwest, it was known as farmer's, or thresher's, china.

By 1880, high tariffs on imported ceramic wares dissuaded Americans from their conviction that the best china was foreign. Besides, American potteries in New Jersey and Ohio started manufacturing "white granite." English white ironstone's last hurrah was the plain, unadorned shapes of the 1870s. Many classic 19th-century patterns were revived Stateside beginning in the 1950s, notably by Red Cliff in Chicago, but their value is often four times less than an original.

Collecting English white ironstone is an exhilarating challenge. "There are so many patterns and pottery makers to become familiar with, and not all the pieces they produced have been documented," says Charles Torgerson, owner of The Brown House: Elegant Cottage Living, a Birmingham antiques shop. "There are still unauthenticated pieces that need only a discerning eye to find."