Plate

1780-1810

Maker

Possibly John and Richard Riley (partnership est. c. 1796)

Measurements

1-1/4 in x 10-1/4 in (dia)

Materials

Glazed refined white earthenware (pearlware)

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation

Accession Number

2007.29

Inscription

An unidentified maker's mark, possibly "RILEY," is impressed into the outside bottom.

Condition Notes

This plate survives in excellent condition.

Provenance

The plate was purchased from George W. Thomas.  His label, “G. W. Thomas / Antiques / Middletown, Del.” and a price label of $12, remains on the outside bottom.

Comments

This molded, blue-edged white plate is one of dozens of variations made from the 1780s to the mid-19th century.  It has a scalloped edge with deep blue coloring.  The glaze was blue-tinted to give the creamware body a cooler tone, more akin to expensive Chinese porcelains.  This so-called pearlware glaze is evident where it has pooled, such as in the impressed maker’s mark on the outside bottom—a mark that has not yet been identified.  Based on the scalloped shape of the plate rim and the blue edge with its sharply delineated gadrooning, this plate probably dates from the 1780s to the early 1800s.  Later examples included the very many blue and green feather-edged wares.

Possible identification of the maker's mark as of the Riley brothers, John and Richard, suggests an earliest date of manufacture for the plate about 1796.  The Rileys established a pottery in Burselm, Stoke-upon-Trent in Staffordshire.  John died in 1828 and Richard in 1831.