Database of Patterns & Sources Count
19,314 patterns, 1,158 sources now available in the Database Patterns and Sources.
| |
Dear Transferware Enthusiasts:
| |
The TCC Announces Its 2025 Spring Conference | |
TCC Spring Conference
Hartford, CT
May 15-18, 2025
Link to more information.
|
This year’s conference celebrates the many Landscapes, Real and
Imagined, on British Transferware!
| |
Be a Conference Sponsor! Businesses and Individuals are invited to help support this event. Please contact Loren Zeller if interested: lzeller829@aol.com | |
It's Not Too Late to Renew Your Membership for 2025! | |
Dear TCC Members,
Membership in the Transferware Collectors Club expired on December 31, 2024. We value your membership and encourage you to renew now (if you haven't already done so) by simply clicking on this link: renew my membership.
Important Information: We’ve developed a new program to provide improved services to our members. Please know that the next time you log into the TCC website or the Database of Patterns and Sources, you will be asked to create a new password, unless you have already done so. Your existing password will no longer be valid! Use your email to sign in. To create your password now, please click on the following link: create my new password.
Donations Welcome! When you renew your membership, please consider making a tax deductible donation to support our club’s educational mission. Your contributions ensure that member benefits like the Database of Patterns and Sources, the Bulletin, Annual Meetings, the Transferware Worldwide Lecture Series, and our many other online activities continue to provide the information and enjoyment you seek. It's easy, you can donate when you renew your membership!
| |
Rabbitware: Rabbits Playing Baseball
Rabbitware, an uncommon transferware genre, was produced around the turn of the 20th century (some patterns possibly earlier) for the American market (as exemplified by eBay offerings only from American sellers, and a printed mark indicating Smith Patterson Company, a Boston importer). It is a combination of transfer printing and stick sponge with hand painting. Forms produced include (primarily) plates, chargers, (rarely) oval platters, and (rarely) mugs, small jugs and a few additional, miscellaneous, forms. There are four pattern categories or series. Two series are anthropomorphic: Sports (including this example, Rabbits Playing Baseball, one of six in the Sports series), and Vignette. The two additional, much more common series, are Border Rabbits and Center Rabbits (both series commonly including frogs!). We’ll post examples of each series over following months. The maker of the Sports Series is William Baker & Co, High Street, Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent (1839 - 1932), identified by the registration number shown on the reverse. This example is Rabbits Playing Baseball; each of the six Sports Series patterns dates 1905, as identified by its registration number. The maker(s) of the other three series is (are) unknown, as the wares are never marked. The TCC Database of Patterns and Sources currently documents 12 Rabbitware patterns (simply search under “rabbitware”, with more (including the example shown herein) due to be recorded. For more information, view the DB records and an introductory article on the subject by Siddall and Hoexter in the 2010 Vol. XI no. 1 TCC Bulletin, available to download at TCC website. View larger image. See past Patterns of the Month.
| |
Thanks to David Hoexter for preparing the "Pattern of the Month." | |
Rabbitware!
This image is of a search result in Google Images for Rabbitware. Yes, these are transfer-printed (with a lot of added color), although a few of the items do not belong. See the parallel posting of the Pattern of the Month for more information. See larger image. See past Photos of the Month.
| |
Thanks to David Hoexter for preparing the "Photo of the Month." | |
Arctic Scenery Platter Puzzle
This platter shows one of at least thirteen scenes found in this series, representing episodes in the travels of Sir Edward William Parry around the northern part of Canada in 1819-1820. Many of the scenes are copied from illustrations in Parry's "Journal of a Voyage to discover a North-west Passage," published in 1821. A further source for the arctic views is John Franklin's "Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the years 1819 to 1822," published in 1823. The animals in the borders of the series come from other sources and are not arctic animals. It appears the latest source for one of the animals was published in 1834, which may indicate the series was produced after that date. One author has attributed the series to Thomas Godwin (in business 1834-1854, Burslem, Staffordshire) but no marked pieces are known.
Thanks to Scott Hanson for preparing the "Puzzle of the Month."
| |
19th Century English and Low Country Vessels Created by Makers Josiah Wedgwood, Enoch Wood, and Enslaved David Drake
Lecturer: Scott Alves Barton, Faculty Fellow in Race and Resilience at Notre Dame
Description: Scott Alves Barton holds a Ph.D. in Food Studies from New York University, is a faculty fellow in Race and Resilience at the University of Notre Dame. He had a 25-year career as an executive chef and culinary educator. Ebony magazine named him one of the top 25 African American/Diaspora chefs. His research and publications focus on women’s knowledge, the intersection of secular and sacred cuisine as a marker of identity politics, cultural heritage, political resistance, and self-determination in Northeastern Brazil. Recent publications include “Radical Moves from the Margins: Enslaved Entertainments as Harvest Celebration in Northeastern Brazil,” in The Body Questions: Celebrating Flamenco’s Tangled Roots, “Food and Faith,” in Bryant Terry’s Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes from the African Diaspora. His exhibition, Buried in the Heart: A Repast for Angels and Martyrs focusing on anti-black violence, funerary foods and African Diaspora ancestral worship opened in January at Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee as part of his ongoing Call & Response residency as public scholar. Barton’s previous residencies include Juba/Sanctuary, honoring the beginning of enslavement, 1619-2019. Barton is currently writing a companion manuscript for this exhibition, Reckoning with Violence and Black Death: Repasts as Community Ritual.
Our Speaker: Scott has been a fellow at Instituto Tepoztlán, Vanderbilt’s Issues in Critical Investigation, Fundação Palmares and has served as a board member of the Southern Foodways Alliance. Scott is a board member of The Association for the Study of Food and Society, Secretary/Treasurer of The Society for the Anthropology of Food and Nutrition, Co-Chair of the African Diaspora Religions Unit within the American Academy of Religion, and a board member of The Indigo Diaspora Arts Alliance. Scott has been working as a curriculum consultant to the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, N.Y., the African Diaspora Heritage educational gardens at the New York Botanical Gardens, and the Center for Culinary Development. This autumn, Scott will continue at Notre Dame as a an Assistant Professor in Africana Studies. Watch video.
| | |
|
A Transferware Blog by Judie Siddall
TRANFERWARE EGG HOOP OR EGG RING
I thought this small item, 1.75 inches high, was a napkin ring. I did some research and discovered that it is called an egg hoop or egg ring. Read more.
| |
Colin Knight
We remember with fondness Colin Knight, who with his wife, Patricia, formed a formidable ceramic collecting team. Born in England in 1934, Colin was always proud of his British heritage. He experienced the horrors of World War II in Ceylon when the house they lived in was bombed by the Japanese. His father, a civil engineer had worked with the British army to fortify the harbor at Trincomalee.
The family returned to England and settled in Southampton. At the age of 17 Colin discovered semi-conductors and decided this was his project for life. At Southampton University he met Patricia; they married and emigrated to the USA. Colin spent the rest of his life in Silicon Valley researching and developing electronic devices. You can think of him when you use your cell phone and computer.
Colin had always been intrigued by the manufacture of porcelain, so when he retired he decided to collect ceramics. He joined the San Francisco Ceramic Circle to learn more about both pottery and porcelain. He was president of this society for three terms and worked closely with the Legion of Honor museum, and co-hosted a TCC regional meeting with Pat. He gave lectures and wrote several articles for different ceramic clubs. He wrote three for the TCC, one identifying the maker of a dish by its molded handles and a second about a view of Mount Vesuvius on a Wedgwood pink transfer cup and saucer. Colin and Pat also composed a fascinating compilation of the transferware plates they had collected, each representing a phase of their lives and corresponding to a location where they had lived. The primary article can be found in TCC Bulletin 2023, Vol. 25, No. 2, with a supplement in Bulletin 2024, vol. 26, No. 1.
Colin died January 2025 at the age of 90. His enthusiasm made the collecting of ceramics exciting. He will be missed.
Patricia Knight and David Hoexter
| |
LECTURE, SYMPOSIA, and MEETING INVITATIONS | |
The English Ceramic Circle
February 15, 2025 6PM UK
‘What did nuns read? Looking at inscriptions on porcelain nuns and monks’,
Matthew Martin
Zoom
Check the ECC website for more info.
|
The English Ceramic Circle
March 20, 2025 6PM
Wedgwood & The Society of Dilettanti
The ECC is running a seminar at the V&A Museum devoted to Wedgwood and the Society of Dilettanti.
In person event.
Check the ECC website for more info.
|
Transferware Worldwide Lecture Series
April 10, 2025 1PM EDT
Texian Campaigne and other Transfer-printed Wares at Bayou Bend
Speaker: Bradley Brooks, Curator, Bayou Bend Collection Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
| |
Description: Ima Hogg (1882-1975), daughter of James Stephen Hogg, the first native-born governor of Texas, lived for a time in the Texas governor’s mansion in Austin. The experience helped shape her appreciation for both antiques and history. In the early 1920s, she began to collect American antiques, including glass, ceramics, and furniture. Later in the decade, she embarked on the construction of Bayou Bend in Houston, which would be her home until the 1960. As her collection grew, Miss Hogg resolved that she would establish a museum. She made gifts of her home and collection to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Bayou Bend opened to the public in 1966. This presentation will explore Miss Hogg’s interest in transfer-printed ceramics, with emphasis on the Texian Campaigne pattern.
Members, please check your email in early April for the Zoom link to this lecture. Non-members are also welcome to view future Transferware Worldwide lectures: simply provide your email address to receive the Zoom links and news and information about future TCC programming.
| |
TCC Bulletin Latest Issue: 2024 Vol. XXV No. 2
Current issue is available for members to download here. Printed version has been mailed. Free to all is a sample article: An Exceptionally Unusual Leaf Border by David Hoexter.
The TCC Bulletin Index -- incorporating listings of articles from the Fall 1999 issue through to the most recent issue. A rich resource! Search Index.
The Bulletin editors are seeking contributions for the upcoming bulletin. Contacts: Dan Sousa: dsousa1775@gmail.com or David Hoexter: davidhoexter@icloud.com
Transferware Collectors Club (TCC) Bulletin writers guidelines: Download writers guidelines
| |
|
#13 - Yes – Transfer-Printed Tiles are in the Database by Connie Rogers
Tiles are among the earliest examples of the use of ceramic material for decorative purposes. We may think of the blue and white Dutch Delft tiles found on fireplace surrounds in the 18th century. As the popularity of tin-glazed tiles declined, the production of tiles dwindled away until the 1830s when heavy encaustic floor tiles were introduced. Other tiles used for major architectural schemes such as the adornment of walls also became popular. Our main interest is in the decorative art tile that came into its own from about 1870 to 1900, many of which were transfer-printed. Read more.
| | |
1820s Pearlware Filled-In Transfers; Patterns And Attributions by Pete Christmas A research paper supported by TCC Grant funding
A distinct type of English filled-in transfer on pearlware appeared for a brief period in the 1820s, during the reign of George IV, made by some 17 small factories. Predominately jugs and mugs, they stand out with their brightly enamelled colouring on deep blue backgrounds, with transfer patterns that reflect the popular taste for Chinoiserie at the time. Of this filled-in transfer type on pearlware, the most common and widely copied pattern is ‘Boy in the door’, but a dozen or so other patterns have been found in this genre. Read more.
| | |
The Blue China Book by Ada Walker Camehl
Early American Scenes and History Pictured in the Pottery of the Time. With a Supplementary Chapter describing the celebrated Collection of Presidential China in the White House at Washington, D.C., and a complete Checking List of known Examples of Anglo-American Pottery. More information.
| | |
Blue and White Transferware 1780-1830, by A. W. Coysh
Blue and white transfer-printed earthenware was produced in vast quantities in the early nineteenth century. It was made in the Staffordshire Potteries, and also in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Northumberland and South Wales. After the Napoleonic Wars a large export trade to North America was established. The wares that have survived are now avidly collected on both sides of the Atlantic and some are now exported from Britain as antiques. More info.
| | |
CLUB & INFORMATION WEBSITES | |
The English Ceramics Circle
By becoming a member of the ECC, you will join an organisation where you can enhance your knowledge of ceramics. The ECC is very welcoming and helpful to new members whatever their level of knowledge. At our regular meetings, seminars, visits to museum reserve collections, and members’ collections, you will meet the world’s ceramic experts. Our annual Journal, Transactions, contains the latest research and our Newsletters contain much useful information: ceramic events, new books etc. Lastly the online archive has a full-text search facility of the Journal going back to 1928. Visit the site..
Flow Blue International Collectors' Club
They are a group of the world's friendliest collector folks, including many generous dealers, bound together by their love, and occasional lust, for flow blue and mulberry china. Visit the site.
Find more of the informative resources we've compiled here.
| |
|
Sampson Bridgwood and Son of Longton, Staffordshire
This porcelain cup and saucer was made by Sampson Bridgwood and Son of Longton, Staffordshire. It is decorated with the pattern, printed in puce, Faith, Hope & Charity, the three well known Biblical virtues from 1 Corinthians 13. Faith and Hope are on either side of the cup and Charity graces the saucer. The saucer carries the impressed mark Bridgwood & Son. According to Geoffrey Godden, Bridgwood porcelains seldom bear a mark, except for the rarely found impressed mark Bridgwood & Son which can occur on porcelains (see page 189 Encyc. of British Porcelain Manufacturers). There are two very small chips to the footrim of the cup and loss of the enamel to the cup rim. C 1860. Link to more info and purchase.
| | |
Please contact us if you are interested in placing a classified ad
with an emphasis on transferware.
| |
The online membership directory is a feature of our new program to improve members services. You must sign in to your account to view and search the directory. Please check your listing and make the appropriate changes in your account or transmit any corrections to the Member Chair. This list is for use of Transferware Collectors Club members only. It is intended to facilitate contacts between members. The list is not to be used for commercial purposes. If you are a current member and believe your name should be on this list please contact the Member Chair. View the directory.
| |
There are no auctions listed at this time.
Please contact us if you know of an auction with an emphasis on transferware.
| |
Please contact us if you have recommendations of
newly published transferware books.
| |
Has Your Postal Mailing Address Changed?????
If you have moved but are not receiving your quarterly TCC Bulletin, you probably forgot to notify our member chair of your new address (this applies to email address changes also). The bulletin is mailed “bulk” and is not forwarded to new addresses by the USPS. Please notify the member chair directly: membership@transferwarecollectorsclub.org or make the necessary changes to your account online.
| |
MORE ABOUT TRANSFERWARE COLLECTORS CLUB | |
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS
We are now accepting simple classified (not display) advertisements from TCC member transferware dealers as well as non-dealer members and auction houses. There is no charge for this member service. Following are the criteria:
- Limited to three quality images of item(s) for sale or example(s) of an item(s) you wish to purchase.
- Include a very short description paragraph, including a link to your website and/or email address.
- Dealers must be TCC members, limited to once/year maximum.
- Requests will be processed in the order received, and there is no guarantee as to when your ad will be posted.
- The TCC Web Administrator at his/her discretion has the right to reject inappropriate or inadequate submittals.
Contact:
webadministrator@transferwarecollectorsclub.org
| | |
The Database Needs Editors
Do you love a good mystery? Do you fancy yourself to be a Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple? If your answer is "yes", then you are the perfect candidate to join the ranks of TCC Database Detectives! Download more information.
New Database Discoveries
Articles Needed
Please contact the web administrator with suggestions or contributions of future Database Discoveries articles. See Database Discoveries archives.
Contributions Needed for Bulletin
Bulletin editor Richard Halliday is seeking contributions for the upcoming bulletin.
Contact: bulletineditor@transferwarecollectorsclub.org.
| | |
LOOKING for a FEW (MORE) DATABASE EDITORS | |
Looking for anyone with a passion for the beauty and history of transferware who would like to help record lovely old patterns for a worldwide audience. The Database of Patterns and Sources is maintained by a team of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. You could be one of them! We're currently looking for editors in Romantic patterns, Literature and Performing Arts, and Tiles, but let us know your interests and we can find a spot for you. Contact Len at otlink@aol.com for more information! | |
SEEKING BULLETIN SUBMITTALS | |
The TCC Bulletin editor seeks submittals to future editions, particularly from first time or occasional authors. We have an extremely knowledgeable member base, yet many of our members seldom or never share their knowledge, at least in printed form. Now is your chance. Bulletin submittals do not need to be extremely technical or lengthy. They just need to be interesting and relate to British transferware! And they need to be accompanied by quality images. We would especially welcome articles from our growing number of archaeologist members.
Don’t fret if you have little experience. We will be pleased to work with you, to formulate your concept and bring your article along. Simply send us your ideas, if that is where you are, or text, even in preliminary form, if you are further along. Please submit in MS Word format, and separately, images in png, pdf or jpeg format. Please do NOT convert to PDF. Don’t worry if this is a problem for you; we’ll work with you to bring your article from preliminary to final, printed, stage, no matter your level of computer and word processes experience. Download the Guidelines.
Suggested topics:
- Your favorite transferware piece, either your own or displayed elsewhere (why is it your favorite?, how did you acquire it?, what is the pattern, maker if known?).
- What is your favorite place to view transferware: museum? stately home? Historic or archaeological site?
- Tell (and show) us your own collection (really good pictures required).
- New discoveries.
- Archaeological sites: overall summary of the excavation as relates to transferware; discuss a particular pattern or piece; context/importance of the transferware.
- In-depth research of a pattern, series, maker.
Contacts:
Dan Sousa, Interim TCC Bulletin Editor: dsousa1775@gmail.com
David Hoexter, Co-Editor: davidhoexter@icloud.com
Michael Sack, Co-Editor: msack@michaelsack.com
| | | | |