Blue and white china shard - what pattern?

tlowery04

Sr. Member
Apr 29, 2011
413
117
Cashion Oklahoma
Detector(s) used
White Eagle II, Minelab ETrac
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
i would like to find a pattern or style for these few shards of blue and white porcelain china i found on a dig, I really like the hazy nature of the design and would like to see the whole piece if any still exist.

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Those pieces of pottery is what you call blue and grey salt glazed.. that kind of stoneware has been made since the 16th century and most of those pieces from the 16th up to the 19th century are mostly purely blue & grey, the one you have is like the one I posted in the photo and would date to the early and mid 20th century.
 

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I can tell you that to me it looks like the glaze is called flow blue and it looks to be an English made piece of earthenware versus Chinese porcelain. It is a style that was copied from the Chinese who perfected it in the 1600's I believe. During the mid 1800's many English potters shipped their lessor patterns and blanks to America in order to try and keep up with demand. From the couple pieces you have, i'd say your shards probably date to the late 1800's based on the simplistic floral design which was popular during the late Victorian period. As far as the pattern, good luck. This stuff was produced in so many patterns that identifying your shards would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. For me anyway.
That's my 2 cents
 

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well, that fits, it doesn't have a rough surface like a salt glaze, and i found it in a yard I'm going through in Victoria Australia, the house that was just demolished was on the 1856 map, so it should be pretty old. guess i'll have to find some bigger pieces to identify a pattern back at it in a few days, not much time left to hunt this one.
 

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The photos below are typical 18th and 19th century pottery, the glazed with blue & white or grey are very common in that time period...
 

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I'm quite sure that Flow Blue is correct (earthenware, like diggummup mentioned, not stoneware). But this style started in the 1820's, was very popular in the later 1800's. It is debated whether this blurry effect was discovered by accident or intentionally.
No help with the pattern though. Here's an example of an intact piece. http://ihccfieldexperience.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/grindley_argyle_flow_blue_luncheon_plate_.jpg

wow, thats an awesome plate! I never thought I would be interested in tableware other than silver utensils.
 

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