: Through July 25, the Brandywine River Museum's exhibition,
"Extreme Creamware: Surprising Forms and Diverse Decorations,"
showcases approximately 50 examples of popular Eighteenth and
early Nineteenth Century English earthenware that are dramatic
and often surprising.
The word creamware usually brings to mind images of pale,
cream-colored earthenware, elegantly formed in classic shapes,
lustrously glazed and embellished, if at all, with subdued
decoration - hardly suggesting the term "extreme." Eighteenth
Century potters, however, applied a variety of methods to make a
surprising array of colorful, sometimes sculptural, wares. Many
of their techniques were used simultaneously resulting in
striking combinations.
When Enoch Booth of Staffordshire mixed light-colored earthenware
clay with flint in 1740, covered it with a lead-based glaze, and
fired it at a lower temperature, creamware was born. Originally
known as cream colour, creamware was inexpensive and durable, and
it boasted a smooth surface and brilliant glaze perfect for
further ornamentation.
Early creamware was made in the prevailing rococo style.
Characterized by S-curves, asymmetry and naturalism, rococo
decoration of creamware included leaves, shells, flowers and
other organic forms, some of which functioned as knobs, handles
or spouts. Such ornamentation came from both molding and
coloring. Molds enabled potters to make intricate
three-dimensional shapes in bas-relief, while smaller motifs
could be made in molds and applied to the shaped body.
Creamware's popularity soared in the 1760s due in large part to
Josiah Wedgwood. In 1763, he developed a clay mix that fired to a
paler color than previously used clays. This paler creamware
became exceedingly popular with the upper and middle classes due
to Wedgwood's tireless marketing of an extensive product line.
Two years after its introduction, he shrewdly advertised the
improved ware as queen's ware after England's Queen Charlotte
ordered a tea set from his Burslem factory. Royal patronage
increased the merit of creamware in the eyes of the middle class.
Other potteries copied Wedgwood's refined creamware; by 1770,
nearly 70 factories were making it.
Late creamware of queen's ware coincided with a stylistic shift
from curving rococo forms to the restrained order of the
neoclassical, a style based on the art and architecture of
ancient Greece and Rome. Neoclassicism was less florid and more
restrained and influenced creamware forms. Potters then
embellished the plain ware with elaborate lacelike patterns
similar to those found on silver by punching small, shaped holes
in leather-hard clay before the first firing. They also used the
technique of transfer printing, introduced in the 1750s, to apply
images taken from contemporary engravings. This process allowed
multiple copies of the same design without the variations
resulting from painting by hand.
Like fine porcelain pieces, creamware was also painted in vivid
enamel colors applied over the glaze of finished pieces.
Manufacturers employed off-site painters and other potteries to
provide creamware blanks with their final embellishments. While
most creamware made prior to 1772 is unmarked, some pieces have
been attributed to particular pottery manufacturers because their
decorations suggest the work of particular painters.
Although great quantities were manufactured in the early
Nineteenth Century, the forms and decorations of creamware became
standardized, and pieces with extreme decoration became
anomalies.
Creamware may never again dominate the ceramics market as it did
in the Eighteenth Century, but it continues to be made today by
many large companies and independent potters who imitate the
extreme forms and decoration of older pieces.
The exhibition "Extreme Creamware: Surprising Forms and Diverse
Decorations" offers visitors a view of many magnificent examples.
Located on US Route 1 in Chadds Ford, the Brandywine River
Museum is open daily, 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. Admission is $8 for
adults; $5 for seniors ages 65 and over, students with ID and
children ages 6 to 12; and free for children under 6 and
Brandywine Conservancy members. For information, 610-388-2700 or
www.brandywinemuseum.org.
