PilgrimPottery3

Imported Pilgrim Pottery continued

The craze for expensive Chinese porcelain wares was revived when China again opened its doors (closed in 1657) in 1699 and flourished in Europe throughout the 1700s. There were undoubtedly a few wealthy households in the North American colonies who boasted a few pieces of true Chinese porcelain.

Europe produced its first true porcelain in Dresden in 1707/8 when an alchemist named Johann Friedrich Bottger was ordered to uncover its secrets by Augustus the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony in the late 17600s. Thus began Europe's first porcelain works at Meissen on the Elbe River near Dresden.

Tin-glazed earthenware fell out of favor when English potteries developed creamware in the late 1700s. Creamware was not porcelain but it was thin, sturdier and of moderate cost. From about 1800 to the mid-century when China's Opium Wares (1839-1860) curtailed the flow, American ports became the largest conduits for Chinese export porcelain.

By the late 1800s, the United States government required all important to be marked with their country of origin. Although paper labels could still be found in the early 1900s, in 1894 the U.S. Stamp Act mandated the imprint of "Made In China" on all export porcelain.

Selected Bibliography
Backlin-Landman, Hedy and Edna Shapiro. The Story of Porcelain. New York: Odyssey Press, 1965.
Fairbanks, J.F., Robert Trent et al. New England Begins. 3 volumes. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1982.
Gleeson, Janet. The Arcanum: The Extraordinary True Story. New York: Warner, 1999. (A fictionalized account of the intrigue, drama and individuals involved in Europe's race to discover the "Arcanum," or secret formula for porcelain.
Lange, Amanda E. Delftware at Historic Deerfield 1600-1800. Deerfield: Historic Deerfield Inc., 2001.
Medley, Margaret. The Chinese Potter. New York: Scribner, 1976.