Jonathan Rickard and Donald Carpentiert
Coincidental Attribution

Ceramics in America 2021

Full Article
Contents
  • Figure 1
    Figure 1

    (Left to right) One-pint mug, one-quart jug, and half-pint mug, Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. H. of mug on left 5". (Unless otherwise noted, all objects and photos are courtesy of Jonathan Rickard.) These three vessels illustrate related slip-filled, engine-turned design elements and the same rouletted bands. The pint mug has a large and clear impressed mark. The jug retains a label from the antiques department of the Boston jewelry store Shreve, Crump & Lowe.

  • Figure 2
    Figure 2

    Detail of the impressed mark from the pint mug illustrated in fig. 1 at far left.

  • Figure 3
    Figure 3

    Details of the bottom handle rococo terminals from three related vessels, two of which are illustrated in fig. 1 (left and center). 

  • Figure 4
    Figure 4

    Detail of the press-molded snip from the quart jug illustrated in fig. 1. 

  • Figure 5
    Figure 5

    A key fragment from the Burslem waster pit placed on the quart jug illustrated in fig. 1. 

  • Figure 6
    Figure 6

    An excavated fragment from the site of the Bull’s Head Tavern in Baltimore, Maryland, that relates to the Wood & Caldwell vessels illustrated in fig. 1. (Courtesy, Patricia Samford, Archaeological Conservation Lab, Maryland Department of Planning.)

  • Figure 7
    Figure 7

    Punch bowl, attributed to Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. D. 8 3/4". (Carpentier collection.) This punch bowl has lettering formed by impressing metal type characters into the leather-hard clay and filling the resulting depressions with black slip. The repetition of “GOD SAVE THE KING” likely was a toast given at gatherings during the illness of George III. 

  • Figure 8
    Figure 8

    Detail of the multilevel engine-turned pattern illustrated in fig. 7.

  • Figure 9
    Figure 9

    Fragments from an archaeological investigation of the site of a warehouse at the Manchester Dock, Liverpool, England. (Photo courtesy of David Barker.) These examples, along with thousands of others, had been dumped as landfill during the remodeling of the dock between 1807 and 1808. The Staffordshire and other wares destined for export—most likely to the United States—seem to have been unsalable items discarded from one or more of the warehouses in the immediate vicinity of the dock. These fragments related directly to wasters found in Burslem and to archaeological examples in America.

  • Figure 10
    Figure 10

    Mug, attributed to Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. H. 6". Leaning against this one-quart mug is a matching biscuit fragment from the Burslem site. 

  • Figure 11
    Figure 11

    Excavated fragment from the Burslem site with a variation of the pattern on the surviving mug illustrated in fig. 10. 

  • Figure 12
    Figure 12

    Comparison of the handle terminal from the surviving quart vessel illustrated in fig. 10 (left) and a biscuit waster (right). An advantage of the engine-turning process is the easy modification of mechanical elements to change the design of the turning. Here the subtle pattern change was accomplished by changing the rose cam on the engine-turning lathe. 

  • Figure 13
    Figure 13

    Mug, attributed to Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. H. 6". This surviving one-quart mug with distinctive handle terminals is shown together with wasters from the Burslem dump site, typical of the bold slip-filled, engine-turned patterns of this group. One atypical waster has a lathe-turned molded foot. 

  • Figure 14
    Figure 14

    Mug, attributed to Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. H. 4 7/8". This one-pint mug was found in the pantry of a house in South Berwick, Maine, wrapped in 1937 newspaper together with a matching waster from the Burslem dump site. South Berwick borders the Piscataway River upstream from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 

  • Figure 15
    Figure 15

    Jug, possibly Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. H. 8 3/4". (Colonial Williamsburg Art Museums.) This large, engine-turned jug has a history of ownership in the Long Island, New York, home of the American poet and editor William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925). 

  • Figure 16
    Figure 16

    A fragmentary bowl excavated on the grounds of Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. (Courtesy, Strawbery Banke Museum.) The engine-turned pattern seen here nearly matches that on the jug illustrated in fig. 15, but is filled with colored slips rather than black. The bowl is nearly identical to the fragment illustrated in fig. 9 that was found in Liverpool. 

  • Figure 17
    Figure 17

    Jug, possibly Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. H. 8 1/2".

  • Figure 18
    Figure 18

    Detail showing the distinctive press-molded snips with attached pendant on the jugs illustrated in figs. 15 and 17. 

  • Figure 19
    Figure 19

    Detail of the handle terminals on the jugs illustrated in figs. 15 and 17. 

  • Figure 20
    Figure 20

    Mug, attributed to Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. H. 3 3/4". 

  • Figure 21
    Figure 21

    Mug, attributed to Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned slip-decorated redware. H. 4 1/4". This mug with matching pattern and terminals is unusual in that it has a red earthenware body. 

  • Figure 22
    Figure 22

    Mug, attributed to Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. H. 4 1/4". This half-pint capacity mug has what seems to have been the most popular engine-turned pattern exported to North America. 

  • Figure 23
    Figure 23

    Pitcher, probably Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. H. 7 3/4". (Collection of Shelburne Museum, gift of Edith C. Blum, 1976-74.27.)

  • Figure 24
    Figure 24

    Mug fragment, attributed to Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. H. 4 1/4". This fragment is a waster from the Burslem site. 

  • Figure 25
    Figure 25

    Mug, attributed to Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. Dimensions not recorded. This quart-capacity mug has vertical engine-turned ribs between colored slip bands

  • Figure 26
    Figure 26

    Detail of the handle terminals on the ribbed surface of the mug illustrated in fig. 25. 

  • Figure 27
    Figure 27

    A surviving one-pint mug with vertical engine-turned ribs similar to the example shown in fig. 25 and related Burslem ceramic wasters. 

  • Figure 28
    Figure 28

    Mug, attributed Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. H. 4 1/2". The frog figure attached to the inside of the mug might indicate why this mug has the exception of a protruding foot molding. 

  • Figure 29
    Figure 29

    Basin and ewer, Staffordshire or Yorkshire, England, ca. 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. Dimensions not recorded. This is likely the most heavily produced dipped-ware pattern made not only by Wood & Caldwell but by the Leeds Pottery in Yorkshire, not to mention Wood’s relative John Wood, who worked in Brownfield, Staffordshire, as well as other potters. While blue was by far the most popular color, these sets were produced with other ground colors as well. This ewer and basin is most unusual for its oval basin. 

  • Figure 30
    Figure 30

    Handle terminal from the ewer illustrated in fig. 29.

  • Figure 31
    Figure 31

    A one-pint-capacity blue-dipped mug with related wasters from the Burslem site

  • Figure 32
    Figure 32

    A waster from the Burslem site related to the blue-dipped examples illustrated in figs. 29 and 31. It was a universal practice to clear a patch of wet slip in order to provide a secure seal when attaching the handle to a pot. 

  • Figure 33
    Figure 33

    Dish and cover, attributed to Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Engine-turned pearlware. Dimensions not recorded. This pearlware serving dish has a typical Wood & Caldwell acorn knop and was decorated with a veneer of colored-ware shavings from the engine-turning process. 

  • Figure 34
    Figure 34

    An oval inlaid agate teapot shown with related Burslem biscuit wasters. The teapot is from the Carpentier collection at Eastfield Village. 

  • Figure 35
    Figure 35

    A biscuit waster of inlaid agate pearlware from the Burslem site. 

  • Figure 36
    Figure 36

    Bowl, attributed to Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Pearlware. D. 7". A hemispherical bowl with mocha dendritic decoration and typical color bands touching without intervening space. 

  • Figure 37
    Figure 37

    Mocha dendritic decoration biscuit wasters from the Burslem site. 

  • Figure 38
    Figure 38

    Spill vases, attributed to Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Encrusted pearlware. H. 7". These vases might have been part of a garniture. 

  • Figure 39
    Figure 39

    Glazed waster from the Burslem dump site. Note that the textured surface is made from white fragments adhered to the pot surface rather than shavings as seen in those illustrated in fig. 38. 

  • Figure 40
    Figure 40

    Mug, attributed to Wood & Caldwell, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, 1795–1805. Pearlware. H. 5 7/8". This one-quart pearlware mug has a brown slip ground which is enameled with fioral decoration. 

  • Figure 41
    Figure 41

    The enameled decoration of these fragments of biscuit wasters survived belowground for about two hundred and twenty years. 

  • Figure 42
    Figure 42

    An assortment of pearlware glazed and biscuit fragments excavated by Don Carpentier from beneath the tarmac at the unused parking lot of the empty Doulton factory in Burslem, Staffordshire, in 2006. 

  • Figure 43
    Figure 43

    Mug, Burslem, Staffordshire, England, early nineteenth century. Engine-turned pearlware. Dimensions not recorded. This waster, recovered from the Burslem dump site, is from a transfer-printed child’s reward-of-merit mug.