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Creamware
Creamware and pearl ware, two types of English ceramics that originated in the 18th century, often confuse collectors because they can look very similar. Creamware is made of a fine earthenware clay with a cream-colored glaze, sometimes with a hint of gray, green, or iridescence. The earliest creamware pieces date to the 1740s, a period when many English potters were experimenting with different clays and glazes to develop a highly refined tableware in response to the then wildly popular white Chinese porcelain. Creamware could be fired to an exceptional hardness, used for both tableware items and decorative pieces such as small sculptures, and took a wide range of decoration. Pearl ware, which was introduced in the last quarter of the 18th century, is an offshoot of creamware and shares man of its traits. It, too, is an earthenware ceramic, but its glaze has a blue tint, which is most obvious in areas where the glaze might puddle—near rims, spouts, handles, and bases. (Because porcelain can also hold a blue tone, hold a questionable piece up to the light. Pearl ware will completely block the light; porcelain will not.) Creamware and pearl ware are particularly notable because they took decoration so well. They could be gilded, enameled (painted), molded, reticulated (pierced), and transfer printed. Transfer decoration, in which images were first engraved onto steel and then inked and then transferred onto the earthenware, was done of both creamware and pearl ware. Brown and green transfers were usually done on creamware; blue transfers were done on the whiter pearl ware. Antique creamware and pearl ware are both actively sought in a well-developed market. In general, creamware tends to be rarer, finer, and more valuable.
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, Apr 19 2007, 12:20 PM EDT
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