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Photographer: Toni Hafkenscheid

Creamware

Creamware is a type of fine earthenware with a cream-coloured body produced in England and Europe during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Various versions of creamware were developed by potters in the mid-eighteenth century. Josiah Wedgwood, however, deserves recognition for improving the formula in the 1740s and for transforming it into a popular, mass-produced commodity in the 1760s.

Creamware possessed many of the same practical and aesthetic qualities as porcelain, but could be produced for a fraction of the cost. For this reason, it quickly emerged as the ceramic tableware of choice for middle class consumers. Competition from creamware producers put great pressure on many English and European porcelain and earthenware factories, forcing some of them to modify their products and others to go out of business.

The creamware collection, which was donated by Jean and Ken Laundy, includes objects made in Staffordshire and illustrates the spread of the medium to other regions of England and to factories of continental Europe.

Collection Highlights
Milk jug with sprigged grapevine decoration
Artist / Maker: Unknown Artist
c.1760
Object number: G08.2.1
Orange or Chestnut Basket
Artist / Maker: Wedgwood
c.1775-1785
Object number: G08.2.2a-b
Monteith
Artist / Maker: Wedgwood
1770-1780
Object number: G08.2.3
Pair of shell-form dishes
Artist / Maker: Wedgwood
1770s
Object number: G08.2.4.1-2