Plate

Date1745-1770

MediumStoneware, salt-glazed, white

DimensionsOH; 15/16"; Diameter; 9 7/16"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1937-221,33

DescriptionOne of a set of forty-five white salt-glazed stoneware press-molded plates in the gadroon pattern (Gadroon E1) with six lobes. (See 1937-221, 1-45.)
Label TextThis plate is part of a white salt-glazed stoneware dinner service that includes tureens, sauceboat, plates and platters. All of the objects are in the gadroon pattern. (See 1937-215 through 1937-222)

Numerous advertisements appeared during the third quarter of the eighteenth century for stoneware plates and dishes, but only a few used descriptive terms suggesting shapes or patterns. For instance, Henry Barnes of Boston offered “white Stone Dishes, scolloped Plates, . . . [and] blue and white spriged Stone scolloped Dishes, [and] Plates” in 1751. Plain scallop-edged plates are rare survivals today and blue and white sprigged specimens, with or without shaped edges, are unknown. In 1758, Prussian and basket-worked plates and dishes were sold in Boston, and “new-fashion basket Plates and oblong Dishes” were available there in 1764. Fortunately, such all-too-rare period descriptions
are augmented by abundant archaeological evidence confirming a broad selection of patterns that range from plain, unadorned rims to gadroon, reel, and feathered edges; more complex borders of floral, vine, or moth motifs were also popular. Forty-eight plate patterns have been cataloged in white stoneware, of which twenty-nine have been found at archaeological sites in Williamsburg.
MarkingsNone found
ProvenancePurchased from Plummer, Ltd., New York, New York.

Exhibition(s)