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| All in White |
| Resilient and refined in its simplicity, ironstone ranks among today's most popular and rewarding collectibles |
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The variety of patterns is shown in a sampling of
soup tureens. TOP SHELF: Hanging Pear by Liddle, Elliott & Son; Square
Rosebud by James Edwards; and Corn and Oats by Davenport; BOTTOM SHELF: Fluted Panels by Adams; Gothic Cameo by Alcock; and Long Octagon by T.J.
& J. Mayer.
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The platter is one of the most available and
popularly collected forms.
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Maker's marks, such as
this printed eagle -- created to appeal to the American export market -- help date a piece of ironstone.
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by Susan Stiles Dowell
Photos by Howard L. Puckett
Never has so much diversity found expression in a
single color. For elegance, utility, durability, economy, and array of
forms, white ironstone qualifies as one of the most important ceramics produced in the 19th century. Two centuries later, it's still avidly
acquired "for eye appeal and practicality," says Ernie
Dieringer, 13-year co-editor of the White Ironstone Quarterly Notes,
published by the White Ironstone China Association. "This is an
antique, but it's tough and inexpensive enough to be used."
What's equally astonishing for so plain and
simple a ware is the quantity of its period production. Hundreds of
patterns of dinner and tea services, chamber sets, and specialty items made
by countless pottery manufacturers went to women eager for a set of dishes
in far-flung places. Today, the pieces, with their maker's marks and
patterns, incite sleuthing frenzy among collectors. White ironstone's mystique began in the
Staffordshire pottery district of England in the early 1800s. Potters were
vying to produce a ceramic that could challenge the popularity of Chinese
porcelain. In 1813, pottery manufacturer Charles James Mason patented a
recipe for "Patent Ironstone China," which was tougher,
heavier, and glossy from the introduction of different ingredients, among
them growan, a clay from Cornwall. Originally, early ironstone was decorated as
colorfully as Chinese porcelains, with "transfer prints." Like
Josiah Wedgwood's all-white Queen's Ware and Pearl White
patterns, popular precursors in the previous century, white ironstone
found its own audience in the 1840s.
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