Figure 8. Molded white ironstone chamber pot, probably American made, c. 1860-1900.
The dinnerware that pre-empted transfer-printed earthenware was plain stone china of the sort pictured in [Figure 2]. Late nineteenth century stone china, also known as ironstone, graniteware, and semi-porcelain, was not a new ceramic but a variant of the stone chinas and ironstones first produced by Josiah Spode and Charles Mason in the first two decades of the century. The novelty of the stone chinas sold after 1840 lay in the new inexpensive methods of mass-producing them, and in their hitherto unthinkable absence of painted decoration. Early nineteenth century stone chinas had been elaborately decorated with Oriental wildlife and transfer-printed patterns, but by mid-century it was almost all stark white, with only embossed or molded decoration. After about 1870, it was often produced with no decoration at all.
Stone china at its best was nearly unbreakable, and thus admirably suited to life in the still rough-and-ready American states. Like earlier wares, most of the stone china sold in the United States was imported from Great Britain. The fledgling American pottery industry did not begin producing hard-paste whitewares until after 1860, and throughout the nineteenth century American-made ironstone was considered inferior to imported china. Much of the early American potter’s energy went into the production of common utility items, which, like the probably American-made chamberpot in [Figure 8], were often unmarked to hide their domestic origins.
At the opposite extreme of the decorative scale was English majolica, a gaudily painted ware introduced by Minton & Co. at the 1851 “Great Exhibition” in London ([Fig. 9]). Early Minton majolica was intended as an imitation of sixteenth century Italian majolica and featured hand-painted romantic scenes on an opaque white background. The style quickly evolved, however, into a fancifully molded pottery decorated with a wide range of colorful semitranslucent glazes. Produced by a number of factories after about 1860, majolica was used through the end of the century both for inexpensive domestic items and for sometimes massive ornamental objects such as jardinieres.
Figure 9. English majolica, c. 1860-1910. This brightly colored ware was often molded into shapes resembling trees or other plants. The brown-glazed handle is from a pitcher apparently colored with blue, yellow, and brown.
Manufacture of European porcelain had not ceased during the years British earthenware dominated the American ceramic market, but the nature of the product had changed considerably. The French porcelain industry, in particular, had evolved from a restricted craft patronized by royalty to a number of independently owned factories turning out standardized dinnerwares for the public taste. These relatively inexpensive wares appealed to Americans as well as Europeans, and French porcelains were imported in quantity beginning around 1850. To Americans, the most prestigious French porcelain came from Limoges, where a number of factories had clustered to take advantage of extensive kaolin deposits. Of Limoges porcelain, the most highly regarded was that produced by Haviland & Co., a firm founded in 1842 by an American china merchant, David Haviland, to produce porcelain, specifically designed for the American market ([Fig. 10]). Cheaper French porcelains, often with no manufacturer’s mark, were sturdily and heavily made in an apparent attempt to capture the white ironstone dinnerware market.
Figure 10. Limoges porcelain, c. 1875-1891. The dinner plate at left bears the hallmark of Haviland & Co., an American-run French Company that produced porcelain especially for the American market. Three other undecorated plates, the least expensive kind of porcelain, were also recovered in the privy excavation.
