How To Identify Colonial Ceramics

One such mysterious mark is the capital a found on a rare group of 18th century british.

How to identify colonial ceramics.

How to identify colonial era pottery. What pottery early american colonists produced was mostly for their own use. The term ceramic. Not all pottery used during the colonial period originated in america.

This is the most specific of the elements identifying a ceramic type. Items made from porcelain a type of white clay with kaolin as its main ingredient belong to the broader field of all ceramics. While the british were in control american potters were prohibited from making. Germans influenced pottery in the northern states.

The final step in identifying a pottery type is to analyze the decoration. It is important to identify paste type and surface treatment first because the same decorative elements can occur on several different paste types and surface treatments. 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. Without kilns that could produce high firing temperatures they typically produced earthenware using local clay.