Figure 69. — DEi.rr I'IAIK. Lambeth, about 1720. 

 (See ill. 29.) 



Figure 70. — Delft plate. Probably Lambeth, about 

 1730 to 1740. (See ill. 30.) 



in an attracti\e whitcware. Many wheel-turned 

 forms were produced, and these were liberally repre- 

 sented at Marlborough in fragments of pitchers, 

 mugs, teapots, teacups, bowls, posset pots, and 

 casters (fig. 67d). 



In the nriddle of the 18th century a process was 

 developed for making multiple plaster-of-paris molds 

 from brass or alabaster matrices '*' and then casting 

 plates and other vessels in them by pouring in the 

 stoneware clay, diluted in the form of slip. The slip 

 was allowed to dry, and the formed utejisil was 

 removed for firing. This molded salt-glazed ware 

 occurs in quantity in the Marlborough finds, suggest- 

 ing that there were large sets of it. One design pre- 

 dominates in plates, platters, and soup dishes: wavy 

 edges, borders consisting of panels of diagonal lat- 

 tices- with stars or dots within the lattices framed in 

 rococo scrolls, and areas of basket-weave designs 

 between the panels. On a large platter rinr the lattice- 

 work is plain, somewhat reminiscent of so-called 

 Chinese Chippendale design. The pattern is pre- 

 sumably the design referred to in the Boston News 

 Letter for May 29, 1764: "To be sold \ery cheap. 

 Two or three Crates of white Stone Ware, consisting 



chiefl\ of the new fashioned basket Plates and Oblong 

 Dishes." '*^ One fragment comes from a cake plate 

 with this border design and a heavily decorated 

 center (fig. 67e). 



Other molded patterns include gadrooning com- 

 bined with scalloping on a plate-rim sherd. A rim 

 section with molded rococo-scrolled edge is from a 

 "basket weave" sauceboat. Considerably earlier are 

 pieces of a pitcher or milk jug with a shell design 

 (USNM 59.1894, ill. 27). One rare sherd appears to 

 come from a rectangular teapot or tray. All the white 

 salt-glazed ware from Marlborough represents the 

 serviceable but decorative tableware of everyday use. 

 It must have been purchased during the last 10 years 

 of Mercer's life. 



Tin-enameled earthenw.are. — The art of glazing 

 earthenware with opaque tin oxide and decorating 

 it with colorful designs was an Islamic innovation 

 which spread throughout the Mediterranean and 

 northward to Holland and England. Practiced in 

 England before the close of the 16th century, it 

 became in the 17th and the first half of the 18th 

 centuries a significant source of English tableware, 

 both at home and in America. Because of its close 



"*' Kackuam, op. cit. (footnote 185), p. 92. 



:i6 



"» Dow, op. cit. (footnote 178), p. 92. 



