Note Type
Curatorial RemarksNote
In consultation with Albany Institute chief curator W. Douglas McCombs, Ph.D., who is a ceramics expert and friend of Kate Johnson, this piece definitely is salt-glazed stoneware, not creamware. The impressed detail is one clue to this identification. Since creamware is achieved by a glaze, not by the salt-steam process in firing, detail is often lost in creamware under the application of the glaze. The finished stoneware is more blue-ish or grey-ish (as this plate is) and the finish can be more dimpled (or like orange peel) compared to smoother creamy or even yellow-appearing creamware. This specific plate design is also identified in the book If These Pots Could Talk by Ivor Noël Hume and there is a plate of this same design in the Metropolitan Museum of Art collection. This plate is identified as a "fruit plate" in If These Pots Could Talk. Also of note is the description of this piece as "bat-molded" or formed on a mold for the entire plate, requiring no throwing skill and therefore very cheap to produce. White salt-glazed stoneware predates creamware slightly [Jessa J. Krick, Associate Dir. of Collections, 7/18/2019].Note Type
StorageNoteNote
Home Location: Historic Hudson Valley, Union Church, Storage, Shelf 08C
