Object Number 1952.0203.001

Object Name

Plate (Dinner plate)

Category

Ceramics

Credit Line/Donor

Museum purchase

Place of Origin

Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Date

1765-1780

Materials

Earthenware (creamware); Lead glaze

Techniques

Press-molded, Sponged

Dimensions (inches)

1 (H) , 9.5 (Diam)

Dimensions (centimeters)

2.54 (H) , 24.13 (Diam)

Object Description

Web - 03/27/2025

During the mid to late 1700s an increased interest in designs after Nature inspired a new range of ceramics to be produced in England, especially Staffordshire. So-called tortoiseshell, “tortoise” or “turtle” ware attempted to copy the appearance of shells of increasingly endangered marine turtles (rather than actual tortoises). The lead-glazed pale-bodied earthenware (creamware) featured sponged-on colors that more or less realistically resembled natural marine turtle shell patterns.

Leslie Grigsby, discusses early written and archaeological evidence for tortoiseshell ware in “British Earthenware and Porcelain in Eighteenth Century America” (see References). She writes, “The earliest documentary reference to tortoiseshell creamware may be that in the Boston Evening Post of 11th March 1751, where Henry Barnes offers for sale ‘Cream coloured and Tortoiseshell Tea Pots, Sugar Dishes’. [Ceramics of this type have] been unearthed at domestic and tavern sites from all over English-speaking America. The ware was available in a broad range of dinner and beverage ware types. Providence Rhode Island inventories reveal that ‘turtle shell’ and tortoiseshell creamware, before the American Revolution, typically resided in the best room of the house, but by the 1780s, such ware was more common in lesser rooms, such as kitchens. Floral-relieved and smooth-surfaced sugar bowls and teapots, as well as plates and dishes, were excavated in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at Philadelphia's New Market site, at a number of Williamsburg, Virginia sites, and elsewhere up and down the East Coast. Further inland, at Michigan's Fort Michilimackinac, tortoiseshell teaware with incised and applied relief ornament has been discovered.”

When creating molds for plates, ceramics manufacturers were economically-minded. Mold-making was a costly process and, ideally, one could reuse the same mold when creating different types of wares. For example, many plate shapes used for tortoiseshell creamware also were appropriate for uncolored creamware or for salt-glazed stoneware.

Bibliography and Bibliographic Notes

[Article] Grigsby, Leslie B. 2005 British Earthenware and Porcelain in Eighteenth Century America, in Gray, Jonathan. 2005. Welsh Ceramics in Context. 2. 71-91.
• Discussion of tortoiseshell ware in early America: p. 73-74, no. 4.2.