20,234 patterns, 1,193 sources now available in the Database Patterns and Sources. | |
Dear Transferware Enthusiasts:
| | We’ve entered the new year, an excellent opportunity to join the TCC and take full advantage of our many available services and features. | | |
The new bulletin (April 2026, 32 pages) is complete, posted to the website, printed, and mailed. Members can download the bulletin in PDF format here, and anyone can download the issue’s two sample articles here.
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: David Hoexter: davidhoexter@icloud.com or Michael Sack: msack@michaelsack.com
Transferware Collectors Club (TCC) Bulletin writers guidelines: Download writers guidelines
| | | |
Steamship Arabia\Museum to Close
by Suzanne Nolan Reicheneker
Another piece of history could be coming to an end as early as July 31, 2026. I wrote an article back in the Spring of 2009 for the Transferware Collectors Club Bulletin which featured the steamer Arabia (see following article). The steamer sunk in the Missouri River back in 1856 near present day Kansas City, Missouri. The boat and its wares were found decades later, excavated in the 1980’s, and the museum was founded as a result. However, after decades of business, the Arabia Steamboat Museum has decided to close its doors in its present location. A new location has yet to be found. So, there is little time to visit this awesome treasure trove of history. For more information on the Arabia, please download my article “The Missouri Yields a Ceramic Treasure Trove: The Cargo of The Great White Arabia”, TCC Bulletin, Spring 2009 , Vol. X No. 2. For more information on the museum closing, please visit the Arabia museum website at https://www.1856.com/ Read the article.
| | | |
Pots of Orchids: the Spode Bateman Connection, by Pam Woolliscroft
Pam writes: I have a fondness for botanical illustration and a passion for pots. It is these personal interests together with my role as Curator at the Spode museum which led to me noticing the elements of this story. It is a tale of discovery - an unexpected connection between a Staffordshire pottery and a Staffordshire plantsman. Read the article.
| |  | |
Surprising Spout Prints, by DeeDee Dodd
Every once in a while, when working as an editor in the TCC Pattern and Source Print Database, one is completely surprised. It might be when one finds evidence of copper plates being purchased by one potter at another potter’s bankruptcy sale, explaining why the patterns of the two potters appear to be identical. Read the article.
| | | |
2019 Paul and Gladys Richards Foundation Research Grant Program Recipient.
British transferware in Portugal (1780-1920). Identity, domesticity and relations
This paper, also starting in ceramics aims to be a holistic approach to the domestic consumption of 19th century British transferware in Portuguese households... Read this article. See other grant recipients. Learn more.
| | VIDEO LECTURE OF THE MONTH | | |
The Morse Collection of Historical ‘Old Blue’ Staffordshire at the American Antiquarian Society by Professor Anne Anderson
In this lecture Professor Anne Anderson describes The Morse Collection of Historical ‘Old Blue’ Staffordshire.
From 1993-2007, Professor Anne Anderson was a senior lecturer on the Fine Arts Valuation degree course at Southampton Solent University, where she specialized in the Aesthetic Movement, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau and Modernism Academy, and at Christie’s. Anne published, The Cube Teapot! in 1999, and The Romance of Old Blue: collecting and displaying Old Blue Staffordshire China in the American Home c.1870-1930’, in Interpreting Ceramics, Issue 15, 2013. In addition, Anne has catalogued and written a guide to the ceramics at the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth, published in 2022.
Anne has also curated four national exhibitions, most recently, Beyond the Brotherhood The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy in 2020. She has received Research Fellowships at the Huntington Library, California, Winterthur Library and Museum, Delaware, and the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. It was her grant of 2015, which enabled her to research the basis of her lecture today entitled ,‘The Morse Collection of Historical ‘Old Blue’ Staffordshire at the American Antiquarian Society’.
It is available for viewing with members' login. View this video.
| | |
F. & R. Pratt & Co. “1851 Exhibition Buildings”
Shown is a 7.75 inch high vase produced by F. & R. Pratt & Co. This pattern is one of a number of polychrome (or “Prattware”) views on transferware of the main building exterior and interior at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. The view is also presented on a pot lid. Also shown is a lovely sepia printed floral design from the reverse (we have used an image from another vase with the same image on the front). Much more information is included in the description of the pattern in the TCC Database of Patterns and Sources, pattern #21525. There are currently 436 patterns identified as “polychrome” in the Database. View larger image. See past Patterns of the Month.
| | Thanks to David Hoexter for preparing the "Pattern of the Month." | | |
Brahmin-Bull House, London Zoological Gardens
“Brahmin-Bull House, London Zoological Gardens” by Ralph & James Clews in brown, based on a published print by artist George Scharf, the elder. The animals, a cow, a camel and brahmin bull, are all ruminants, and hence were exhibited together.
The London Zoological Gardens opened on April 27, 1828, as a center for scientific research. In 1847, the Gardens were opened to the general public. The opening of the Gardens stimulated enormous interest, and the Staffordshire potters, recognizing a good market, produced series that were decorative and filled with animals, in either their natural habitat or in the zoo.
Clews, Robinson, Wood and Brownfield, and Meigh are only three of the many potters who created zoological series. It is interesting to note that the abbreviation "zoo" was first used in the late 1860s. An article discussing the series can be found on pages 7-9 in the TCC Bulletin, Winter 2000, available to members on the TCC website. This is pattern 3047 in the TCC Database of Patterns and Sources.
Previously Puzzle of the Month of April 2022.
Thanks to Scott Hanson for photo and preparing the "Puzzle of the Month."
| | Thanks to David Hoexter for preparing the "Photo of the Month." | | |
A Transferware Blog by Judie Siddall.
Enoch Wood & Sons Sporting Series
I recently entered a sauce boat pattern into the Transferware Collectors Club database. It featured a reindeer, and was part of Enoch Wood & Sons (1818-1846) dinner service known as the Sporting Series. Read more.
| | CLUB & INFORMATION WEBSITES | | |
The San Francisco Ceramic Circle
The San Francisco Ceramic Circle brings ceramics enthusiasts together with people broadly interested in visual arts. Their topics range from earthenware to porcelain, from traditional handcrafts to art studios to industrial production, and from antiquity to the present—everything on view at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and beyond. They emphasize Europe and North America, but many areas of historic and contemporary ceramics appear in our programs.
Visit the site.
Scottish Pottery Society
Founded in 1972, the Society is a registered charity which exists to promote the study of Scottish ceramics. Their members are united by a passion for all types and eras of ceramic production in Scotland, including the output of:
- Industrial potteries from around 1750-1950
- Arts-and-crafts potteries and pottery painting workshops from around 1880-1930
- Hand-crafted studio potteries from around 1930 to today.
View the site.
Find more of the informative resources we've compiled here.
| | TRANSFERWARE RELATED WEBSITES & BLOGS | | |
Ceramics Network
The Ceramics Network is a group of ceramics collections in museums, galleries and archives together with some individual specialists. Set up to connect ceramic collections and share specialists' knowledge, here you will find information about collections. Visit site.
Chipstone Foundation
In 1946 Polly and Stanley Stone began collecting early American furniture and historical prints, as well as seventeenth- and eighteenth-century British pottery. The collection was housed in a colonial revival brick home in the residential neighborhood of Fox Point, Wisconsin. By the early 1960s their collection was impressive enough to capture the attention of Charles Montgomery, then Senior Research Fellow and former Director of the Henry Francis DuPont Winterthur Museum. View the site. Facebook page: Ceramics in America.
Find more of the informative resources we've compiled here.
| | LECTURE, SYMPOSIA, and MEETING INVITATIONS | | |
San Francisco Ceramic Circle
Yixing Teapots and the Discourse of Originality
Dr. Katharine Burnett, Professor of Art History, UC Davis
June 7, 2026 11AM PDT
In person at the Gunn Theater and virtual via Zoom. Contact: sfceramiccircle@gmail.com
| | |
Connecticut Ceramics Circle
Hanns Weinberg and The Antique Porcelain Company
by Nick Stagliano, ceramics
specialist and Director of Michele Beiny, Inc.,
Monday, June 8, 2PM Live and Thursday, June 11, 2026 2PM ET Zoom
| |
| |  | Hanns Weinberg (1900–76) fled Germany in 1938 and settled in London, where in 1945 he opened The Antique Porcelain Company – a large shop in New Bond Street that sold carpets, furniture, sculptures, and predominantly porcelain. He became the most important dealer of antique porcelain in England and America in the second half of the twentieth century, with shops opened in New York in 1957 and in Zurich in 1972. The Antique Porcelain Company sold porcelain to every significant collector and to the many important museums, from the Getty to the Met and the Louvre. He was regularly mentioned in the newspapers in London and New York for the astronomical prices he paid for works of art at auction, and he was notorious as much for the huge prices he charged as for his inimitable personality, and always for the quality of his stock. In addition to porcelain, Weinberg also dealt in Renaissance jewels, gold boxes, Chinese jades, French furniture, and more. This richly illustrated lecture will discuss some of the most significant objects that passed through Weinberg’s hands and which today are in some of the greatest collections in the world.
In person at the Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT
and via Zoom. Register here.
For more information contact connecticutceramicscircle@gmail.com
| | |
English Ceramic Circle
The Politics of the Punch Bowl, Part II: British Political Movements
Francesca John
June 18, 6-8PM via Zoom
Contact ECC for more information: membership@englishceramiccircle.net
| | |
Transferware Collectors Club Worldwide Lecture Series
Speaker: Miranda Goodby
(title to be announced)
Save the Date: July 16, 2026 1PM EDT
| | |
Join the Zoom Meeting. Members, please check your email in early July 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.
| | Please contact us if you know of any lectures with an emphasis on transferware. | | |
There are no auctions at this time.
Please contact us if you know of an auction with an emphasis on transferware.
| | |
Charles Heathcote & Co
I am currently researching the little known Longton (Stoke) factory of Charles Heathcote & Co and its association with the William Turner factory patterns. I would appreciate knowing of any items from this factory with either of the two marks in the images attached, one impressed and the other printed. There are some entries in the TCC Database under this maker but there are other patterns not included. Please respond to Brian Allaker at ballaker@pettonhall.uk
| | | |
The Minton Archive
Registration Digitisation
By Andrew Dawson on April 24, 2026
Around this time last year we released a catalogue update that added images to the Minton Archive’s Registration of Designs section, specifically to 141 records that cover the Patent Office’s diamond mark period between 1842 and 1883. Since then, we’ve had the rest of that section’s certificates – another 101 records – on our digitisation “to-do” list, but when a recent enquiry took us to the Summary Register Of Designs Patented from the same section we realised it was actually the best item to next make available online… Read more.
| | | |
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 printed 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.
| | |
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 will ensure that you will continue to receive the paper copies of the Bulletin. With bulk mailing, they are not forwarded if a member has moved. However, the Bulletins are available on the TCC website for current members. This online membership directory 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.
| | 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 David Hoexter 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:
David Hoexter, Interim TCC Bulletin Co-Editor: davidhoexter@icloud.com
Michael Sack, Interim TCC Bulletin Co-Editor: msack@michaelsack.com
| | | | |
