American Ceramic Circle
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
November 2-5, 2006

Pre-symposium tour on Thursday to Northern Kentucky University for demonstration of raku firing, throwing, and burnishing by ceramist Ana England, lunch and tour at the Art Deco Museum Center, and preview of ceramics to be auctioned at Cincinnati Art Galleries. Post-symposium tour on Sunday to private collections of chinese ceramics or Rockingham glazed wares. The collectors' tea on Friday afternoon will feature discussion of members' pieces or questions at tables organized by country and ware (e.g., Italian maiolica, Chinese porcelain).

( More on ACC symposium )

NCS Summer School
"Blue and White in Context"
University of Chester, August 7-12, 2007

This course will examine the origins and history of the use of cobalt in ceramics. The popularity of blue and white decoration in Britain will be studied in the context of the imports of such wares from other countries and their subsequent production by local potters.

Highlights will include a trip to the Potteries Museum with an opportunity to see the reserve collection and to enjoy a handling and discussion session. For some, this will include pots from the recently refurbished studio gallery.

Course members may present their own research on one evening. Members are invited to bring two pieces for display and discussion at the pot session.

( More on NCS summer school )

The 52nd Wedgwood International Seminar on "The Wedgwood World," including Wedgwood and his associates, will be held May 23-26, 2007, in Baltimore, Maryland, at the Tremont Plaza Hotel.

Talks
"Thomas Bentley"
Gaye Blake Roberts

"Thomas Byerley"
Lynn Miller

"Wedgwood Glass"
Susan Tobin

"Ladies: Their Lives, Times, & Travel"
Brian Dolan

"Hackwood: The Man & His Art"
Nancy Ramage

"Norman Wilson"
Sharon Gater

"Medallions for the Many"
Monie Kanter

"Appraisals & Auctions"
Stuart Slavid


Other highlights
Walters Art Museum visit
commentary by Gaye Blake Roberts, Lynn Miller, & Sharon Gater

see ceramics at the Baltimore Museum of Art
commentary by Diana Edwards & David Curry

The Tremont Plaza Hotel is at 222 St. Paul Place in central Baltimore. Rate $139/day plus tax double or single. Hotel reservation deadline April 25, 2007. Call the Tremont Monday through Friday 8 to 5 at 1.800.873.6668 and specify WEDGWOOD for group rate. Fly into Baltimore/Washington Airport, take Super Shuttle to hotel, about $15; must buy shuttle tickets in advance at 1.800.BLUEVAN. Taxi fare $25-35.

Registration $490 (payable in two installments of $245; includes two dinners, annual banquet, museum visits , gift, exhibit, receptions, speakers, and publication). Final payment due April 1. Payments refundable until May 18. All participants must be WIS members. Contact membership chair Mickey Hightower at 1.800.801.8171. Registration information Keith McLeod 1.416.489.7761.

Send registration and payment by check payable to WIS-52 to
Mr. E. Knowles
1616 Hollins Street
Baltimore, MD 21223

The Northern Ceramic Society presents its 4th annual winter weekend on the topic "Collectors & Collecting," to be held at the University of Manchester from January 26-28, 2007.

Talks
"Lady Charlotte Schreiber: The Doyenne of Ceramic Collectors"
Ann Eatwell

"A Dealer's View of Collectors and Collecting"
Geoffrey Godden

"Augustus the Strong and 'La Maladie de Porcelaine'"
Errol Manners

"Dr J. W. L. Glaisher (1848-1928) and His Collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum"
Julia Poole

"'A Roomful of Crockery': H. R. Marshall and His Collection of Early Worcester"
Dinah Reynolds

"'I've Got Three of Those!': Bernard Watney as a Collector"
Simon Spero


Other highlights
"A Box, A Fox, and Two Goats: A Collector's Reverie"
Simon Spero
Friday evening

"The Highest Prices: The Market in Ceramics, Past and Present, East and West"
Errol Manners
Saturday evening

Pot session

Chancellors is the University of Manchester's residential conference center. Accommodation is in single bedrooms with en-suite bathroom, TV, telephone, and tea/coffee making facilities. The center is 3 mi from Manchester city center and easily reached by road, rail, or air and has ample parking.

Residential registration £199 (includes accommodation, tuition, tea/coffee, meals, wine reception); nonresidential £189. Nonrefundable deposit £30, balance due December 1. Early booking recommended. Personal cheques in pounds sterling only.

Contact
Seminar Organiser
9 Newton Lane
Chester CH2 3RB
UK

The Northern Ceramic Society sponsors "A Feast of Porcelain & Pottery" with Dr Geoffrey Godden & guest speakers
Tullie House Museum & The Crown & Mitre Hotel

Talks
An introduction to the main London porcelain factories: Chelsea, Bow, Vauxhall, and Isleworth

18th century creamers: their variety & characteristics

Early English studio pottery: The Martin Brothers

130 years of underglaze blue & overglaze printing at Coalport
with Roger Edmundson

Coalbrookdale floral encrusted porcelain
with Gordon Bushnell

Late 18th century Staffordshire figures
with Dr John Black

Plus identification session

Residential rate (includes bed/breakfast, lunches, evening meals, lectures, refreshments, en-suite room) £220 single plus £15 extra per person per night. Hotel 5 minutes flat walk to Tullie House. Nonresidential rate (lectures, coffee/tea, scones, biscuits, and lunch on Saturday and Sunday) £120 per person. Deposit £60 nonresidents and £120 full residents.

Contact
Wendy Mitton
Quarrybeck House
Brampton, Cumbria CA8 2EY
UK

The 7th annual Transferware Collectors Club meeting will span three nights and four days in Philadelphia from October 19-22, 2006.

Topics
Historic Views on Pink Staffordshire

Richard Jordan, the Preacher and the Pattern

Philadelphia, the Little Athens of the Federal Period

Selling Your Collection through the Auction Process (presented by Freeman's, America's oldest auction house)

Historical Liverpool Pottery

Staffordshire Exports to America, 1806-1830: The Hard Facts

In the Footsteps of Lewis & Clark: Transferware Invades the American West


Other highlights
Guided tour of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, including a view of the Pennsylvania German collection, the Bonnin & Morris and Tucker collections of American porcelain, and selected pieces from the museum's transferware collection

Visit to the historic Fairmount Water Works

Bus tour of Fairmount Park houses and sites commemorated on transferware pottery

Dinner at the historic City Tavern in old town Philadelphia

The optional Thursday schedule includes a visit to two collections in Lancaster County: the Fred and Ruth Buch collection, featuring the Landing of Lafayette pattern, and the Bill and Terry Kurau collection; travel and lodging for Thursday are not included in the overall price.

Residential rates (includes 2 dinners, 3 continental breakfasts, 1 boxed lunch at the Hilton Garden Inn, 1100 Arch Street, all taxes and gratuities) range from $810 for a double (1 person) to $1245 for a junior suite (2 people). Day tripper rates $140 for meeting, tours, and sale (incl. tax but no hotel, no meals), $15 for Sunday sale only (members only), meal rates additional. Undercover parking in the hotel garage is $21/day.

Registration, including the show and sale, is for members only.
Membership $30/year
http://www.transcollectorsclub.org/membership.htm

Registration form:
http://www.transcollectorsclub.org

Checks payable to TCC should be sent to
Peggy & Fred Sutor
120 Bridle Lane
Lower Gwynedd, PA 19002
No refunds after September 1.

Historic Deerfield will host a symposium in conjunction with the exhibit, "The Canton Connection: Art and Commerce of the China Trade, 1784-1860," and its accompanying catalog. A group of internationally renowned curators, dealers, and scholars will lecture on China trade paintings, porcelain, furniture, and interiors. Workshops on Friday, September 15, will include fakes and forgeries in Chinese export porcelain and interaction between Chinese ceramics and European wares.

Ceramic-related speakers
"Good, Better, Best: The Connoisseurship of China Trade Paintings"
Carl Crossman

"Made in China: Export Porcelain from the Leo and Doris Hodroff Collection at Winterthur"
Ron Fuchs

"Chinese Export Art for the Western Interior"
Christiaan Jörg

"The Canton Connection: Art and Commerce of the China Trade"
Amanda Lange

"New Theories for New Acquisitions at the Peabody Essex Museum"
William Sargent

Workshops
"Chinese Export Porcelain Connoisseurship: Fakes and Forgeries"
William Sargent

"Chinese Export Art in the Marketplace"
Carl Crossman

"East-West Interactions in Ceramics: Chinese Porcelains and Their Imitations"
Christiaan Jörg

Registration rates $350 for Historic Deerfield member (includes all lectures, two Deerfield Inn lunches, one gala reception, one cocktail party, one Deerfield Inn dinner, coffee and tea breaks, guided tours of the exhibit, "All of Deerfield" admission ticket, and Historic Deerfield magazine);
nonmember $380 (includes all of above plus an individual museum membership for one year). Registration does not include lodging.

Workshops $25 each
Friday buffet luncheon $15
Payment by check, Visa, Mastercard, American Express
Accommodations available at the Deerfield Inn, 413.774.5587, or call 413.775.7214 for local bed and breakfasts, other lodging

Contact
Amanda Lange 413.775.7206 or lange@historic-deerfield.org
Canton Connection Symposium
Historic Deerfield, Inc.
Box 321
Deerfield, MA 01342
413.775.7214
http://www.historic-deerfield.org

The Northern Ceramic Society will examine what documents, archaeology, scientific analysis, and connoisseurship can contribute to our understanding of ceramics and ceramic history and will discuss the interpretation of such evidence in a variety of contexts. Thorny topics of fakes, forgeries, and redecoration also will be addressed.

Members will have the opportunity to examine and handle sherds from a number of excavations, including three 18th century porcelain factories. Participants will visit Rode Hall, the home of the Wilbrahams since 1669, with its splendid collection of ceramics and wonderful gardens.

One evening will be set aside for members to present their own research. Members are invited to bring two pieces for display and discussion at the pot session.

Lectures include
"Absence of Evidence Is Not Evidence of Absence: Unearthing Staffordshire Pottery"
David Barker

"Good Cross Chapel: Looking for the Evidence"
John Bussey

"Ceramic Analysis: How To Be a Healthy and Challenging Skeptic!"
Simon Chenery

"Useful Knowledge?"
Robin Emmerson

"Retail Archaeology: Purchasing the Evidence"
Peter Francis

"How To Write a Bible: Collecting and Assessing the Evidence"
Geoffrey Godden

"An American Pottery in Wales? Looking at the Evidence"
Jonathan Gray

"What Is Industrial Scottish Pottery?"
George Haggarty

"The Green Green Glass of Chrome"
Pat Halfpenny

"The Distribution and Consumption of British Ceramics in North America: Unique Insights from Archaeology"
Terry Majewski

"Staffordshire's Trade with the USA, 1806-1833: The Hard Facts"
Roger Pomfret

"Redecoration: When and Where"
John Sandon

"Chetham & Woolley, Forgotten Master Potters: The Evidence"
Colin Wyman

( accommodations & costs )

Contact
Lyn Hillis
Summer School Organiser
9 Newton Lane
Chester CH2 3RB
UK

The 4th annual Pacific Coast Ceramics Seminar will be held the weekend of September 1-3, 2006, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

A wide variety of lectures on:
Pottery Fit for a Queen
A Concise Chronology of Early Meissen Porcelain
Studio Pottery: 20th Century Phenomenon
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Great Exhibition of 1851
Art Pottery
French Soft Paste Porcelain
The French Influence on British Ceramics
Deceit, Deception, and Discovery: The Curator as Detective
The First English Porcelains: The Pioneers of the 1740s
Images from the Past: English Earthenware Figures, 1740-1880
Lustres in the 20th Century
Geoffrey Godden Looks at Teapots

More information:
Pacific Coast Seminars, Box 56546, Burnaby, B.C., V3J 7W2 Canada
604.444.0808 voice
pacificcoastseminars@shaw.ca
http://www.pacific-coast-seminars.com

The Hampshire County Council Museums Service now has all of its catalogued teapots online. These are mostly English but include Yixing and other Chinese pots dating from the 1690s to the present. Marks and other details are shown.

http://www.hants.gov.uk/museum
Click on "Our Collections" to access searchable database. Search by stoneware, porcelain, or earthenware bodies or Search All to browse.

http://news.collectors.org/Show_News.asp?z=1016

Thanks to Abe A.!

The updated schedule for the POTS conference in Newark is on the POTS website:

http://www.potteriesoftrentonsociety.org/events/symposium3.html

Only $20-25 advance registration!

Both at the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature

"Traditions in Miniature: The Louise Westbrook Collection of Chinese Ceramics"
through Sept. 24, 2006

This exhibition features miniature ceramic artworks dated between from 3,000 B.C.E. and A.D. 1911, selected from more than 130 pieces from the Louise Westbrook Collection of Chinese ceramics. A variety of forms used for ritual, functional, and decorative purposes are chronologically displayed to examine the influence of imperial taste on ceramic design and style.


Parian Porcelain: A Nineteenth-Century Passion
April 7 to September 17, 2006

Developed in the mid-nineteenth century, European and American parian ware was notable for its affordability that allowed the middle class to bring sculpture into their homes. Featuring works from the permanent collection, this exhibition will present an overview of parian and will include additional information such as the process of making parian, major U.S. makers, and the history of American collectors of parian ware in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

http://museums.richmond.edu/lrg/

The Potteries of Trenton Society and the New Jersey Historical Society announce their 2006 Symposium

"Making Pots in Trenton, 1775-1950"

Ever wonder how your Trenton pots were made? This is your opportunity to learn about clay-forming techniques, kilns and firing practices, glazes and decorating skills, and shop organization as practiced in Trenton, New Jersey, from the early days of William Richards’s stoneware and John McCully’s redware to John Maddock’s hotelware to Lenox’s fine china dinnerware.

April 8, 2006
at The New Jersey Historical Society
52 Park Place, Newark, New Jersey

Preliminary Program

9:00 Registration and continental breakfast

9:30 Welcome

10:00-12:30 Demonstration and lectures with questions following each presentation

Potter (to be determined), Demonstration of wheel techniques

Speaker (to be determined), Factory clay forming techniques

Richard Hunter, Shop Organization from Pottery to Factory

12:30-2:00 Lunch Break

2:00-4:30 Lectures with questions following each presentation

Bill Liebeknecht, Kilns

Rebecca White, Firing Practices

Ellen Denker, Decorating Techniques

4:30-5:00 Wine Reception

See http://www.potteriesoftrentonsociety.org in coming months for details

The English Ceramics Study Group of Philadelphia celebrates its 35th year with this fall season.

Winterthur Ceramics in America Conference 2006
Doing the Continental: European Ceramics as Design Inspirations
April 21-22, 2006
Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library

Highlights
Geoffrey Godden, "Continental Influences on English Porcelain in the mid-1800s"

Beverly Straube, "Catching the Drift: Continental Ceramics from the Ground"

Deborah Skinner, "The French Connection: Continental Influences on
English Ceramics of the Victorian Period"

Sebastian Kuhn, "The Story of Utz: Intrigue in the Meissen World"

Stephen Harrison, "European Influences on American Ceramic Tableware"

Registration $250 members, $295 nonmembers, $175 students

Brochure in pdf format:
http://www.winterthur.org/calendar/calendar.asp?Month=4&Year=2006


Henry Glassie lecture in Philadelphia
Folklorist Henry Glassie on "Folk Potters of the American South"
5:00 pm
book signing of Glassie's The Potter's Art follows

Material Culture's 10th anniversary
4700 Wissahickon Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19144
November 5, 2005 Saturday
7:00 pm to midnight
RSVP 215.849.8030 or
http://www.materialculture.com

October 15
Tomoko Suda, "18th century glass bonding repairs to porcelain"
Errol Manners, "Continental cross-currents in English ceramics"

November 26
Charlotte Jacob-Hanson, "The Deux-Vivier? A critical re-appraisal of the Duvivier family tree"
Robin Gurnett, "Exports of ceramics to India, 1768-1818"

December 17
Mary White, "A Bovey Tracy caudle cup"
Michael Archer, "Delftware chinoiserie of Bridlington"

January 21
Felicity Marno, "A previously unknown Derby bisque figure subject"
Francesca Altman, "Orientalism and Englishness in 19th century ceramics"

February 18
Jonathan Gray, "Cambria clay source: some insights and attributions"
Mavis Watney, "The Bow muses"
Emmanuel Cooper, "Industrial devil"

March 18
A miscellany of pieces. Members are invited to bring up to 2 pieces from their own collections.

April 22
Annual general meeting
Dr. Christopher Holloway, "Unrecorded Caughley"
Diana Edwards, "A cache of salt glaze excavated at Cockpit Hill, Derby"

All talks are at Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, The Strand, London, at 2:30 pm

Answers from the CM Technical Staff from Ceramics Monthly (October 2005, pp. 26-28)

Q I have started making pots and firing them at earthenware temperatures. I am finding 80% of my pots are leaking when water is poured into them. I am using the following recipes:

Clay Body A
Cone 06-04
fluxes
whiting 5%
talc 10%
filler
silica (flint) 15%
clays
ball clay 40%
china clay 30%

Clay Body B
Cone 06-04
feldspar 5%
silica (flint) 15%
clays
fireclay 10%
china clay 20%
ball clay 50%

I am bisque firing to 900 degrees C (1652 degrees F) in 4 hours in an electric kiln and glaze firing to 1070 degrees C (1958 degrees F) in 5 hours, plus a one-hour soak.

A The leakage you describe is probably caused by the combination of a crazed (finely cracked) glaze and a porous clay body. The porous body is normal for earthenware, and not generally a problem as long as the glaze remains uncrazed.

There are several things that can cause a glaze to craze . . . The first is a mismatch in thermal expansion. This occurs when the clay body and the glaze contract at different rates during the cooling phase of the glaze firing. If the glaze contracts more than the clay body, then it will be stretched over the surface of the clay, causing it to craze.

Another cause of crazing is moisture expansion. In this case, the crazing occurs sometime after the piece cools. This delayed crazing can begin an hour, day, week or even a month after the firing. If you've ever watched the swelling of a dry sponge when it is placed in water, then you've seen an exaggerated form of moisture expansion. As the clay body absorbs water, whether from washing or from the air, it expands slightly, stretching the glaze and causing it to craze.

. . . It's not the total amount of porosity that matters; it is the nature of the pore structure. Some clay bodies (such as the low-fire white talc bodies used to manufacture wall tiles) can have a very high porosity yet not suffer from moisture expansion. On the other hand, a high-fire body with very little absorption can suffer from both moisture expansion and leaking. The ability of a pottery body to absorb water without expanding is one of the main criteria for defining maturity.

In the case of the clay bodies you list, both have sufficient free quartz to provide enough contraction to ensure good glaze fit. In other words, thermal expansion should be just fine on these bodies . . . On the other hand, neither has enough alkaline earth content to prevent delayed moisture expansion. As a general rule of thumb, the combined talc, whiting and quartz contents in a low-fire body should equal about 40-50% of the dry weight of the body. The other 50-60% of the body would be made up of a blend of clays. Juging from your current recipes, you have access to kaolin, ball clay and fire clay, which is an excellent group of clays for blending. The kaolin will give you the whitest body, the ball clay will make the body more plastic (malleable), and the fireclay will provide the ability to stand up, and also tend to make the clay body more forgiving during fabrication and drying. You can blend these in whatever proportion gives you the color and workability you want. Here is a potential clay body you might try:

Pinnell Test Body
Cone 06-04
fluxes
whiting 5%
talc 30%
filler
silica 5%
clays
kaolin 10%
ball clay 20%
fireclay 30%

. . . What if this recipe doesn't work? It is not unusual for a low-fire white or buff body to have up to 50% of its content consist of fluxes (talc, whiting) and fillers (quartz). If the glaze initially fits but suffers from delayed crazing, you could either raise your firing temperature a bit (1100 degrees C/2012 degrees F might be enough to take care of the problem), or you could readjust the clay body as described above.
Peter Pinnell
University of Nebraska

Judith and Richard Wagner. Frank Beardmore: A Potter's Tale. 2005.

This CD documents Frank Beardmore's relatively small Sutherland pottery in Fenton (1901-1916) through historical data and antique examples of his wares. The Wagners' interest in Frank Beardmore dates back to archival work for their book on the Adams potteries of Staffordshire. A large number of Frank Beardmore & Co. engravings for souvenir coupe plates ended up in Adams' stock. "Beardmore edge" coupe engravings were combined with Adams backstamps (Adams Ceramics, pp. 248-249).

Chapter 1 (pp. 1-20) describes the Beardmore family and their pottery. Beardmore family records include those of writer Arnold Bennett, whose sister married Frank Beardmore, and Beardmore's son George, who also became a writer.

Chapter 2 (pp. 21-60) illustrates Sutherland Pottery wares. Souvenir wares are presented in Chapter 3 (pp. 61-88). The most common Beardmore wares occurring in the U.S. are printed souvenir wares, including the frequently seen coupe-shaped plates made for the George H. Bowman Co. of Cleveland and New York. Other production included Art Nouveau-style Sutherland Art Ware and badged whiskey wares.

The only two known surviving Beardmore catalogs are reprinted in Appendix A (artistic pottery, pp. 89-114) and B (hotel ware, pp. 115-126). Although the art ware catalog was advertised as containing the firm's latest shapes and designs, Beardmore's Sutherland Pottery also produced shapes and patterns from related firms Hulme & Christie (1893-1900) and Christie & Beardmore (1900-1901). Available printed table and toilet wares also included 27 patterns and 5 dinnerware and 4 toiletware shapes from the late firm Brownfield & Sons (ca. 1871-1891). Brownfield's colors (flown neutral, flown green, flown blue, Berlin blue, and chocolate) reflect both the Japanese style of the 1870s and 1880s and the flow blue revival at the turn of the 20th century. The hotelware catalog offered tea and table wares with rolled rims in badge and lines of any color. Toilet wares were available badged in any color and finished in gold.

The Wagners are co-authors of Adams Ceramics (Schiffer Books, 1999) and editors of the Transferware Collectors' Club quarterly bulletin.

135+ pp., 220+ color photos, historic b/w photos, index.
pdf format requiring Adobe Acrobat 5.0 or higher (free download)
$25 postpaid to U. S. addresses

Contact the Wagners
bygones@gte.net
Bygones
PO Box 1558
North Bend, OR 97459

New permanent exhibit at the Dudson Museum, Stoke-on-Trent

The Dudson company has been a family business for eight generations, since 1800. After a long history of stoneware and other production, in 1891 the company specialized in hotelware or catering ware. The upstairs exhibits show these 20th-21st century wares, including those for railroads, shipping lines, airlines, hotels, and restaurants.