I1ERAMIC STUDIO 
61 
India China or Chinese Canton Wa 
THE COLLECTOR 
THE COLOR BLUE IN POTTERY AND PORCELAIN 
Mary Churchill Ripley 
H r ~piP it wi' blue, and then it '11 do" — sang merrily the old 
1 English potters, when after having learned their art 
from the Dutch, they gave to England a " blue and white," as 
essentially their own as were the more ambitious and better 
quality wares of China and Japan, productions of the Orient. 
Though the oldest "blue and white" to be found in Eng- 
land was doubtless brought by the East India Company 
from China, and handed down from its original owners to 
their American as well as English descendants, still old Staf- 
fordshire ware is most frequently referred to by inheritors of 
that old historical blue so loved by American housewives. 
The porcelain called "India China" was not made in 
India as its name would indicate, but in China and in various 
places in that far away land where famous potteries were lo- 
cated. It was called " India China" because originally carried 
by the East India Company to England and Holland. Most 
commonly these wares were decorated in Canton and Nankin. 
In the Staffordshire potteries in the latter part of the 
Eighteenth and early in the Nineteenth centuries, were made 
the famous historical plates so oft and well described in recent 
issues of " Old China." 
Early English ware was made of coarse clay, covered 
with material of a finer body, upon which designs were either 
printed or painted. The change from this ware to stoneware, 
and from stoneware to porcelain has been gradual, but the old 
Staffordshire blue and white was a coarse body. Potters 
everywhere in Great Britain were striving to produce better 
quality in their "table china," and while porcelain was being 
made in the potteries at Worcester, Chelsea, Derby, Plymouth, 
Bristol and numerous other places, many of the most skilled 
workers of the times contented themselves with indefatigable 
efforts to perfect the "cream color ware" which was invented 
by Astbury, and brought to perfection by Wedgwood and 
Spode. During the lifetime of Josiah Wedgwood no porcelain 
was made in the potteries bearing his name, but, as the Queen 
favored and honored the great potter, he called his "cream 
color" Queen's ware. As potters made their glazes and pastes 
of varying shades, the student collector may become acquainted 
with numberless methods of detecting differences in articles 
they examine. Old Spode "cream color" is unlike any other, 
and the blue painted and printed upon it has a different look 
from that which decorated Leeds and wares of other potteries. 
Famous patterns, that have from the beginning of the rage for 
blue and white, vied with each other for popular favor, are 
called by names that have been given them sometimes by the 
admiring public, but oftener by the designers of the patterns 
produced by them, for the use of their potter patrons. Chief 
among these is the " Willow pattern," designed by Thomas 
Minton for the use of Turner, who at that time owned potteries 
in Caughley. The story of the pattern has been oft and 
quaintly told, but whether always correctly rendered is a 
matter for discussion. It will be wise for collectors to com- 
pare their views on the subject of the origin of many of the 
English designs. 
Staffordshire Ware 
Delft was made in Holland. It was of coarse, friable, 
sonorous pottery, which when slightly baked was covered with 
a thick opaque enamel, which gave the ware the appearance 
of porcelain. In this enamel we note a different material 
altogether from that which was used by the English potters, 
called "Astbury Dip" when used to cover coarse clay bodies, 
and "cream color ware" when articles were made entirely of 
the finely prepared clay. The use of tin made the stanniferous 
enamel used in Holland absolutely opaque, and the firing con- 
verted it into a substance which appeared when viewed casu- 
ally, to be very like the porcelain imported from the far East. 
Decorations in blue upon this Holland Delft are as attractive 
as they are numerous. One may almost invariably trace 
Oriental inspiration when analyzing these designs. Baskets 
and fruits, flowers and animals, suggest life in the Orient, and 
have been copied from Chinese and Japanese drawings on 
plates, platters and jars. 
_ Among popular designs the onion pattern, in blue upon 
white porcelain, was copied by the Meissen (Royal Dresden) 
factory, from porcelain carried from China to Germany. In 
the Museum in Dresden is the original dish from which the 
