January, 1914 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
27 
Tulip Ware 
By Costen Fitz-Gibbon 
Photographs by courtesy of the Metropolitan 
Museum of Alt 
HE small boy who ardently collects postage- 
stamps, post-cards, pictures, express tags, or 
any other set of objects possessing especial 
attractions for the juvenile mind, is only 
obeying the behests of a natural instinct that 
is born in all of us. It is the acquisitive in- 
stinct. And a most salutary instinct it is when rightly 
directed. Coupled with a sense of pleasure in making dis- 
coveries, it ultimately contributes no small share to the 
general store of human knowledge. Quite apart from the 
intrinsic value of the objects collected, there is an undeniable 
fascination in comparing and analyzing new iinds, especially 
if an intimate strain of human interest attaches to them. 
The old Pennsylvania “Tulip Ware” exerts this fasci- 
nating appeal in an unusual degree. It is the outcome and 
evidence, albeit crude and humble, of a native and intensely 
racial and local striving for artistic expression. The peas- 
antry of every country has sought and found some outlet, 
some mode of expressing its innate artistic sense, and this 
“folk” expression often has no little degree of real merit 
wholly distinct from its refreshing individuality and vigor. 
Thus it was among the Bavarians, thus among the Hun- 
garians, thus also among the early German immigrants to 
the fertile lands of Pennsylvania. 
Then, too, there is an added bit of glamor about the 
Tulip ware because its manufacture as an important Colon- 
ial craft had been altogether lost sight of till about twenty- 
five years ago. Investigations carried on since that time 
have proved that it was widely made and esteemed among 
the “Dutch” communities of Eastern Pennsylvania, the pot- 
teries being most numerous in Montgomery and Bucks. 
Some of the pieces date from early in the second quarter 
of the eighteenth century. It seems strange that this craft 
should have fallen into such utter oblivion, for it was prac- 
tised, more or less, till about the middle of the nineteenth 
century. 
Now, perhaps, you are asking “What is ‘Tulip Ware’?” 
It is a variety of slip-decorated earthenware made among 
the “Pennsylvania Dutch,” taking its name from the pre- 
dominance of the tulip as the favorite decorative motif used 
by the potters, although it was by no means employed to 
the exclusion of other decorative or emblematic devices. 
Various fioral subjects besides frequently occur, as well as 
beasts, birds, fishes, and even the human form, though the 
last named could scarcely be called in any sense “divine” 
in its usual presentation. 
Slip-decorated earthenware is earthenware on whose sur- 
face, before burning, a design has been applied in slip, or 
liquid clay. The slip, about as thick as batter, is applied 
with a quill through which it trickles, the (low from the con- 
taining cup being regulated by the craftsman. In color the 
slip is usually lighter than the object to be decorated, and 
its hue may be controlled pretty much according to taste. 
The process of applying the slip in a design is known as 
slip-tracing or slip-painting. A kindred process, termed 
slip-engraving, consists in covering the whole surface of the 
Sgraffito plates decorated with human figures, birds and flowers. The design is scratched or cut through the coat of cream slip to the red 
underlying body 
