WHITE IRONSTONE NOTES

WHITE IRONSTONE NOTES
Volume 1 No. 1
PRESIDENT'S WELCOME
By Tom Moreland
Welcome to WICA. A number of us
from New York and New England have
formed this organization after enjoying
each other's white ironstone for many
years. Our fundamental purpose is to
propagate the faith, to collectors and dealers alike, and find new and interesting
ways in which to further our knowledge
and enjoyment of white ironstone (that is,
ironstone without blue stuff, copper luster
stuff, or any other stuff on it.)
Our steering committee of twelve has
been guided and encouraged by Jean
Wetherbee, whose three books on white
ironstone introduced many of us to the
subject and have educated all of us. We
will think of some appropriate title for
Jean: for now she is our eminence grise.
Let me briefly introduce our officers
and directors. My wife Olga, who serves
as WICA's secretary and I are both attorneys in Manhattan and have been collecting ironstone since the Ford
Administration. Vice president Jim Kerr
is a full-time dealer located in Howes
Cave, New York. Our treasurer is Jack
Allers, from Rhinebeck, New York, a
CPA and, of equal importance, married to
director Janet Allers, a long time ironstone dealer and collector.
Our other directors, in addition to the
aforementioned, are all long time ironstone dealers (and collectors): Jack
Anspaugh, from Sherman Connecticut:
Ernie and Bev Dieringer, from West
Redding Connecticut: Kathy and Tom
Lautenschlager, from Woodbury,
Connecticut: and Howard and Dorothy
Noble from New Britain, Connecticut.
I estimate that our 12 directors, in the
aggregate, own in excess of 3,000 pieces
of ironstone, and have sold many thousands of pieces beyond that. And yet,
(Continued on page 2)
Summer 1994
PATTERN PROFILE: PRESIDENT
by JACK ANSPAUGH
In the late fifties I was living and working in New York City and would occasionally spend weekends in Connecticut
with a friend from the office.
His house was furnished with a stylish
mix of serious and not-so-serious nineteenth century American country pieces,
and my friend identified his china as midnineteenth century English ironstone in a
pattern called Sydenham (pronounced,
before we knew better, side-in-ham.)
I grew up in the midwest, where the
kitchen dishes were Fiestaware and the
Sunday and special-occasion china was
Haviland Limoges. White ironstone was
all but nonexistent. I was immediately
attracted to these simple, sturdy, strong
country dishes, and when my friend told
me that they could be found for about the
same price as Arzburg "seconds" at the
Pottery Barn, I decided to collect a pattern.
This was some twenty years before Jean
Wetherbee's first book was published, and
there was no guide to the many patterns.
As much as I admired Sydenham, I didn't
want to ape my friend's pattern choice.
Furthermore, he spent a lot more time
looking than I would be able to, and he
could all but smell out pieces of
Sydenham in dusty, out-of-the-way
antique shops. I wanted a pattern of my
own.
I hadn't yet made up my mind when, at
an antique show in New York City, I
found a 9 1/4" dinner plate marked J.
Edwards President Shape, for fifty cents.
PRESIDENT'S WELCOME Continued.
almost every month somebody comes
upon a piece that no one has seen before.
That is part of the appeal of white ironstone: while it is a universe limited
enough to get your arms around, there is
always a potential new discovery just
around the corner. And who the heck was
J. F. anyway!
We look forward to involving you in
WICA, and to sharing with you our enthusiasm for these most basic and yet elegant
objects of our affection.
__________________________________
Editor's note:
For those of us that had to guess at what
eminence grise means, Tom Moreland
explained that it signifies wise confidential advisor.
__________________________________
WHITE IRONSTONE NOTES is published by WICA, Inc. and edited by Ernie
and Bev Dieringer. We are dependent on
you the members for photos and news
items. Please send all letters, news notes,
articles, suggestions, questions, and listings for the Spare Parts column to:
WICA,Inc., Box 536, Redding Ridge, CT
06876.
Drawings of seals unless otherwise
noted are from A Second Look at White
Ironstone by Jean Wetherbee And are
used with her permission.
Photos are by Bev Dieringer unless otherwise noted.
__________________________________
NEWS NOTE
As many of you know, Jean Wetherbee
is working on her next book on white
ironstone. She has identified more patterns and has new photos. The new book
will be published next year and we are all
anxiously awaiting it. Some photo copies
of a Second Look at White Ironstone are
still available.
added what later proved to be a piece of
PATTERN PROFILE Continued.
I had no idea what the President serving
pieces looked like, but the pattern on the
plate was similar to Sydenham. And this
bargain plate was the first purchase for a
collection that now numbers over 400
pieces and is used three times a day, 365
days a year.
Every time I weekended in Connecticut,
my friend and I would visit Francis Hills,
in the town of Wilton, and in a year or so,
I had enough plates and platters to serve
four people for dinner.
During the sixties, the B. Altman department store, now defunct, had a "country"
shop on its furniture floor. It sold good
pine and cherry country furniture and
appropriate accessories. On a lunch hour
one day, I found a spectacular piece of
President - a footed oval fruit bowl. It
was priced at $125.00 - far beyond my
means at the time. So I regrettably left it
behind. But I visited it occasionally, and
one day I found it marked down to half
price. I bought it in short order - and
great rarity to my meager collection.
One Summer early in my days of
President collecting, I spent a vacation in
Maine, and while waiting for the ferry to
Monhegan Island, I stopped into an
antique shop on the mainland and came
upon six President cups and saucers. I
asked the dealer for a price on all six sets
and she gave them to me for $30.00. (I
later paid more than that for one cup and
saucer.) And on that same trip, I found
the underplate to a President round soup
tureen. It took me several years to find
the matching tureen and cover and many
years beyond that to find the ladle. But
the complete set of four pieces is a permanent fixture on my dining table.
Like an "Oscar" winner, I have many
friends and fellow dealers to thank for
helping me assemble my President collection. Two consecutive Christmases, Bev
and Ernie Dieringer presented me with
President round relish dishes (the usual
shape is oval.) They also found a
President shaving mug to complete my
bathroom set. Dotty and Howard Noble
of the shaving mug) whch Jean Wetherbee
thinks was likely meant for a child. And
one Christmas, John Meekin gave me two
cereal bowls, somewhere in size between
berry dishes and small soup plates.
Janet and Jack Allers had long had a
President covered butter dish in a corner
cupboard, and Janet said that when she
found the piece in her pattern, she'd sell it
to me. But she evidently felt guilty about
keeping it when I coveted it and sold it to
me. About a month later, I found a second
one. (Which I quickly bought and just as
quickly sold.)
Along the way, I had found two sizes of
sugar bowls and creamers, but I had never
seen a waste bowl for the tea service. One
Spring at the Farmington show, there it
was! Several months later, Kathy and
Tom Lautenschlager found me the same
piece in a larger size. So I have two sizes
of sugar bowl, creamers and waste bowls,
but in forty years, I have only seen one
size tea pot. (I wonder if there's a
President tea pot taller than nine inches to
the top of the finial.)
Through the years, President pieces have
surfaced in unexpected places. At a
Connecticut flea market, I found a toothbrush holder, which I had never seen
before and have never seen since. For
years, I had assumed that the seven graduated pitchers atop my cupboard were a
complete set, but in a shop that stocked
more used dishes than collectible china, I
found an eighth size, 13 inches tall and
larger than any I had. (Is there an extralarge wash basin out there?)
When Jean Wetherbee's daughter Linda
decided to part with her President punch
bowl, Jean called me, and I bought it by
phone. (I had a dozen syllabub cups.) A
customer of mine, who collects a blueprinted ironstone pattern and knew that I
wanted a President oval soup tureen,
called me from a New England vacation to
say that he'd found one, which I also
bought, sight unseen, by phone. Jim Kerr
has a knack of turning up obscure pieces like a small, 8 1/4 inch baker, a honey
dish just 4 3/4 inches in diameter and a
second soup ladle for the oval soup tureen.
(President ladles are unique in that the pattern that borders the plates appears, greatly reduced, inside the bowl of the ladles.)
Occasionally at a show, neophyte collectors ask me if they should collect a pattern. I usually answer no. Too much
desirable white ironstone is stashed away
in cupboards like mine, and, with few
exceptions, all the many patterns go well
together and combine nicely with printed
ironstone. Still. there is a certain satisfaction in being able to serve a fairly elaborate dinner, literally from soup to nuts,
with a pattern that was introduced nearly
one hundred and forty years ago, in 1855.
__________________________________
Jack Anspaugh is a dealer/collector living in Sherman, Connecticut.
PRESIDENT SHAPE PROFILE
PHOTOS
Page 1. The Photo is Jack Anspaugh's
dining room cupboard with a table set in
the foreground. On top of the cupboard
are eight graduated pitchers. The top
shelf has an oval four-piece sauce tureen
with two waste bowls in different sizes
framing it. Two oval relish dishes and two
round relish dishes fill in the ends. On the
round relish dishes, each handle is slightly
different which may mean they were part
of the oval and round versions of the pattern or that one is a porridge bowl. The
tea pot on the middle shelf is framed by
two sizes of sugars and two sizes of
creamers with cups and saucers filling in
the ends. The serving surface has the
oval four piece soup tureen in the center.
Four covered oval and round vegetable
tureens. A rare large handled coffee cup
and saucer, a child's size mug, a gravy
boat and a round four piece sauce tureen.
Page 2, top photo. The table is set with
the four piece round soup tureen, a rare
covered butter dish is in front. The place
settings are large dinner plates as liners
for regular sized soups. The relish dishes
are used for salad, and cups and saucers
finish the setting.
Page 2, bottom photo. A stack of seven
graduated oval platters in the foreground,
a handsome round pedestaled fruit bowl,
the rare oval pedestaled fruit bowl with
handles. A punch bowl with twelve syllabub cups and matching ladle.
Page 3, top photo. The bathroom set
which resides in Jack's guest bathroom,
has a ewer and basin, large master waste
jar whose top is a round vegetable lid that
married very well. Jack thinks the real
top has a much higher dome. Two sizes
of covered potties, large shaving mug,
three piece soap dish and horizontal covered toothbrush holder or razor box complete the group. (This is one of the rare
complete bath sets in one pattern that
we've seen.) Note: If anyone has a complete or almost complete set in another
pattern, SEND PHOTOS!
page 3, bottom photo. A slightly
enlarged photo of the President shape
impressed seal that appears on almost
every piece of the pattern. The L indicates registration year 1856.
Page 3
EARLY SIX SIDED WHITE IRONSTONE
By HOWARD NOBLE
The patent granted C. J. Mason in July 1813 is generally accepted as
the origin of ironstone as we know it. There were those who claimed it
was impossible to make ironstone with the formula as written in the
patent. However, interest was stimulated, so that at the end of fourteen
years when the patent expired, other potters were in production.
Figure 1 is and example of an early Mason's teapot. This appears to be an adaptation of one of the well-known pitchers with a top
fitted to the pitcher and a vertical, perforated strainer built into the spout. It has a bark simulated handle and shows the PATENT
IRONSTONE mark used by Mason during the 1829-1843 period. The two small detail photos of figure 1 show the strainer and the
Mason's mark which is printed in blue.
Figure 2 and 3 are the hexagon shapes as potted by J. & G. Alcock, T. J. & J. Mayer and John Ridgeway & Co., both with and
without covers. These plain white ironstone pieces can be found in flow blue, mulberry, spongeware, Chelsea, sprig and the
Staffordshire transfer printed in many different colors. Those in the picture all have a nine leaf fan under the pouring spout.
Page 4
Figure 4 shows the same type of hexagon pitcher but has no nine leaf fan. It also is not marked with a potter's name. It can be
attributed to James Edwards, as the other pitcher in figure 4 with the black transfer printing is the "Domestic" pattern by James
Edwards, and it too, has no fan.
The two hexagon items in figure 5, a six inch syrup pitcher and an eight and a half inch milk pitcher, are both by T. J. & J. Mayer
1843-1855.
The three pieces in figure 6 are hexagon in the "Montpelier" pattern by John Ridgeway & Co. They show a registration mark of
1848. The handles on the soup tureen and sauce tureen are centered on the flat areas.
The three pieces in figure 7 are hexagon in an unnamed pattern by John Ridgeway & Co. They show a registration mark of 1844.
The handles on the soup tureen and sauce tureen are centered on the line between each section.
Figure 8, a Prize Bloom compote by T. J. & J. Mayer is another hexagon pattern which was registered in 1853.
Figure 9 shows two hexagon ewers. The thirteen inch framed panel by James Edwards and the twelve inch pedestal hexagon by
Frances Morley. It would be interesting to see what the shape of the wash bowl would be that was used with these hexagon ewers.
So far one has not been discovered. Good luck in finding them.
Page 5
EARLY SIX SIDED IRONSTONE, Continued.
After Howard wrote Six Sided Notes for us, he discovered a six sided teapot by James Edwards. It has an open blossom for a finial
and a sprig of leaves and buds on the sides by the handle. It matches a sugar he owns which has open half blossoms for handles.
Howard and his wife Dorothy are dealer/collectors in New Britain, CT. Their collecting has focused on sided pieces with 6, 8, 10,
12, 16 or more panels. This eight-sided "Scalloped Decagon" foot bath is one of their prized pieces.
WHITE IRONSTONE JUGS IN HEXAGONAL SHAPES
Primary
Pumpkin
Footed Primary
Fenton
Standard
Hydra
Drawings below are:
Classic
Pedestaled Lantern
Long Sided
Vertical Sided
Cockscomb
Prize Bloom
Drawings are from Jean Wetherbee with her permission and some additions by E Dieringer.
Page 6
FIRST WHITE IRONSTONE CHINA ASSOCIATION SHOW AND SALE
found me a small mug (about half the size
Our first annual gathering of WICA collectors, dealers and friends got off to a
delightful start at the Old Landmark
Tavern in Bouckville, New York on
Saturday evening, July 16th. Folks
arrived early, before the Sunday outdoor
show and sale. They came from Indiana,
Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
New Hampshire, Connecticut, Delaware
and West Virginia. They came from all
over New York State and Toronto and
Ontario, Canada.
During and after a dinner at the Tavern,
we talked of collections and showed each
other photos of rare pieces and described
others. Anne Earl of Napanee, Canada,
told of a rare Dominion pattern soup
tureen which is covered with water lily
pads and flowers and has a beaver for a
finial!
Sunday on the grounds of the Veranda, a
number of tents were filled with a remarkable amount of WHITE. Both the quantity and the quality were astonishingly high.
We counted over 30 sugar bowls, 21 tea
pots and more pitchers than we could
count. Ten dealers were set up.
Outstanding pieces we saw were threepiece Morning Glory and Ceres soup
tureens. A rare pewter topped syrup
pitcher with an elegant high pedestal foot
and interesting high pewter collar topped
with an unusual lid was in Helen Salevan's
booth. Good cake stands and large waste
jars and many tea sets were seen about.
WICA set up a table with an exhibit of
miniatures including child's tea sets in
Ceres, Wheat & Clover, Full Ribbed,
T&R Boote's 1851, Paneled Grape, Grape
Octagon, Fig, Lily of the Valley, ForgetMe-Not and a doll sized potty not to be
outdone by a child's sized octagon chocolate pot with a lid by J. Edwards.
After only the first three months of our
membership drive, we have over two hundred members from 29 States and Canada.
We will announce our second WICA gathering in our next newsletter.
The middle and bottom photographs
show the two display cases filled with
miniature tea sets and other miniature
pieces. Because of the limited space in
the show cases, sets of cups and saucers
were not on display. Some of the cups
had handles and some were handleless.
Some people say that these were salesmen's samples and others say they were
A view of some tents full of WHITE. photo by Tom Moreland
.
SPARE PARTS WANTED
Morning Glory mug, soap dish or a toothbrush holder.
Jane Diemer (302) 475 7412
---------------------------------Basket Weave, with band pattern by
Alfred Meakin. Wanted any.
Dorothy Riley
General Delivery, Rostock, Ontario
NOK ITO
---------------------------------Sydenham, cover for pancake server.
Tom & Kathy Lautenschlager
(203) 263 4296
---------------------------------Pankhurst Ribbed Bud underplate for
soup tureen, Fig toothbrush holder lid.
Tom & Olga Moreland (212) 744 0872
----------------------------------Dover tea pot bottom by Wm. Adams.
Jean Wetherbee
P.O.Box 856
Hillsboro, NH 03244
----------------------------------Sydenham soup tureen small round bowl
to fit 7 5/8" lid and underplate to match.
Jim & Mara Kerr (518) 296 8052
-----------------------------------
Curved Gothic soup tureen lid, James
Edwards, measures 7 3/4" x 9".
H.C. Noble (203) 225 2929
------------------------------1851 T. & R. Boote underplate to large
sauce tureen 9 5/8" across. Sharon Arch
vertical tooth brush underplate.
Janet Allers (914) 876 3757
------------------------------Dominion soup tureen base plate & ladle.
Anne Ballantine Earl, 168 John Street,
Napanee, Ontario, Canada, K7R 1R6
-------------------------------Sydenham Sugar lid 3 3/4" & sugar 4 3/4
high.
Joan M. Cole, (203) 263 3583
--------------------------------T&R Boote 1851 large & small underplates for Soup tureens. Adelle
Armbruster (313)453 2390
--------------------------------Ceres soup plates, cups and saucers.
Stefan Brecht
(413) 258 4734
---------------------------------Niagra coffee pot lid by Walley, 3 5/8"
across, Fig saucers, one large, one small.
Ann Miller (815) 664 2450
-------------------------------Berlin Sugar lid, oval 4 1/2" wide, Ceres
soup tureen under plate.
Jill O Hara, (212) 246 1984
--------------------------------President round vegtable lid, Pres lid to
master waste jar 7 1/8".
Jack Anspaugh (203) 354 8227
---------------------------------Ceres covered punch bowl, child's Corn
& Oats tea pot.
Bill Lancaster (606) 325 5724
----------------------------------Fig creamer & any child's tea sets.
Eric Osterlie, 162 Sumac Dr.
W. Lafayette, IN 47906
----------------------------------Cameo Octagon by Edwards, soup tureen
lid 9" across, small 1851 soup tureen lid
and base plate.
Dieringer c/o newsletter.
-----------------------------------We would also like to list items for sale
in this space in future issues. Send us
your lists. We must limit one listing per
member each issue.
COLLECTOR'S SHOWCASE
On the left is the first in a series of rare pieces from private collections.
This cheese keep is in the collection of Tom and Olga Moreland of New
York City, measures thirteen inches tall and is decorated with winding
ivy and branches with blossoms. There is no makers mark but there is an
incised number that is almost unreadable. This piece may have been
meant to be covered with a Majolica colored glaze but we are happy that
it wasn't. Photo by Tom Moreland.
--------------------------------------------------In the next issue we will be profiling T&R Boote's SYDENHAM and
1851 patterns, drawing from many collections. We will also be offering
an article on how to photograph white.
--------------------------------------------------????? HAS ANYBODY EVER SEEN ?????
A child's Sydenham tea set, a wine cooler in any pattern, a footbath or
large master waste jar in Sydenham, a large Fig soup tureen. If you have
ever wondered if there is a piece in your pattern that you have never
seen, send us a note and we will list it here.
Send all correspondence to WICA, P.O. Box 536, Redding Ridge, CT
06875.
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