Six urns and vessels are on offer, as well as centerpieces, figurines and tableware.
We love creamware for its pure creamy white color and also because the shapes are sculptural, fanciful and can be at home with lots of color in the room. That may be all you want to know, but just in case, read more below about the development of this art form.
Creamware is a cream-colored refined earthenware originally with a lead glaze over a pale body. It fires at a lower temperature than porcelain and doesn’t slump in the kiln like hard porcelain does. It was created about 1750 by the potters of Staffordshire, England, who refined the materials and techniques of salt-glazed stoneware towards a finer, thinner, whiter body with a brilliant glassy glaze. This became such popular tableware that it edged out the well-known and popular white salt-glaze wares around 1780. The tableware was heavily in use until the 1840s. (as stated in Wikipedia.)
Mottahedeh’s creamware features the elaborate Roccoco forms and crisp strawberry leaf design that Longton Hall, the first porcelain factory in Staffordshire, England, produced between 1754 and 1757.
This melon or pumpkin tureen is offered in the Tony Duquette collection. Hutton Wilkinson imagined a this as an individual tureen that makes a grand statement on the table. Here we used a white matt glaze over faience and hand-painted the embossed leaves. The shape is as important as the decoration.
The most notable producer of creamware was Josiah Wedgwood, who perfected it.
Wedgwood Company supplied this creamware to Queen Charlotte and Catherine the Great (in the famous Frog Service) and used the trade name Queen's ware. Later, around 1779, he was able to lighten the cream color to a bluish white by using cobalt in the lead overglaze. Wedgwood sold this more desirable product under the name pearl ware. The Leeds Pottery (producing "Leedsware") was another very successful producer. By the 1780s Josiah Wedgwood was exporting as much as 80% of his output to Europe rather than selling the majority of it in his home country of England.
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With hard porcelain, it is possible to leave areas unglazed.
In keeping with the fashion of the Day, President Washington and Martha, his wife, served meals at Mount Vernon on the salt glazed Staffordshire stoneware. Mottahedeh decided to produce this very detailed design in hard porcelain instead, as it is extremely more delicate looking still and very durable. Look at the Prosperity Dinner Service and the wonderful shapes it offers in pure white. With hard porcelain, it is possible to leave areas unglazed as the body is vitrified all the way through and water will not go in. This pattern is a play of glossy and matt, showing the fine detail on every piece. Prosperity is licensed of Mount Vernon Association.
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Creamware or white faience is easily shaped into many forms from the complex lacey shapes of our table items to figurines.
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Creamware segued neatly into the next fashion.
Creamware segued neatly into the next fashion of English ceramics when the creamware, in fantastic and elaborate shapes, was painted with glossy bright colors. This was the modern-day Majolica (popular around 1900) as different from earlier Italian and Spanish majolica. This majolica is the vibrantly colored, frequently naturalistic style of earthenware, developed and named "Palissy ware" by Minton and Co. and introduced to the public as early as 1851 at the Great European Exhibition. The style of earthenware and painting was widely produced throughout Europe in the 1900’s. Today we make our own brightly colored painted faience, primarily, in Italy. Each piece is hand painted and may come from an original antique piece we have collected over the years.
The individual lettuce tureens and rabbits are inspired by originals produced by the Chelsea Manufactory of England.
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Mottahedeh expresses many styles and mediums of ceramics.
Often this is in collaboration with historic foundations or museums and sometimes it is just because a design strikes our fancy. The artichoke centerpiece above is the first design that Mrs. Mottahedeh made with our friends in Italy. It was all in an olive color. They have been our partners all this time. When we returned more than 50 years later, we asked them to paint it with pink and green with tips of gold. This is custom work and the base can be painted in a variety of colors. The birds are sculpted from the famous wallpaper that was once in the Lightfoot House at Colonial Williamsburg and the colors are true to the original wall paper. The birds have been in our line for more than 25 years.
I remember going into our little work area and putting on my apron. Do you remember that Dunkin’ Donuts commercial? The baker gets up bleary-eyed before the sun to make donuts every day “Time to make the Donuts”.
I would say, “Time to paint the birds, AGAIN.” I think we painted them about 15 times before the color and the form were approved. Looking back, we are happy that we did, but very few people see what goes into perfecting a design. It takes time. You are done when you are done. If it is good design, it will endure. The moral of the story, key words…persistence and patience. Happy trails.