How To Identify Colonial Ceramics

How to identify colonial era pottery.

How to identify colonial ceramics.

This is the most specific of the elements identifying a ceramic type. One such mysterious mark is the capital a found on a rare group of 18th century british. Items made from porcelain a type of white clay with kaolin as its main ingredient belong to the broader field of all ceramics. Marks like the chelsea anchor or the crossed swords of meissen are well known and were often pirated while the significance of others is uncertain.

What pottery early american colonists produced was mostly for their own use. Ceramic objects are often identified by their marks. The term ceramic. Without kilns that could produce high firing temperatures they typically produced earthenware using local clay.

The final step in identifying a pottery type is to analyze the decoration. English africans and germans created pottery in the south. How to tell porcelain figurines from ceramic. While the british were in control american potters were prohibited from making.