How to Store Your Washcloths (why in transferware of course!)
Several years ago I wrote a post about a purple transferware soup tureen that I had come across and now use as a storage container for washcloths in our master bathroom. I roll the towels up lengthwise so they resemble roses and place them in the tureen. It mimics a huge bouquet of roses in a beautiful vessel.
This is one of my favorite pieces of transferware and I throughly enjoyed researching and learning about, though it took a little time to gather the information I found.
The stamp / makers mark on the bottom of the tureen reads Chantilian (pattern name) and R & C. R & C which stands for Read and Clementson, Staffordshire potters at High Street at Shelton, Hanley.
This firm, as with many of the early transferware manufacturers, had a short production period from 1833-35, when many potters sprang up out nowhere because of the huge business transfer printing had become in England. I was elated to know I had found such an early piece, nearly 200 years of age, and that it must be quite rare being that it was produced by a firm that had a short life. I researched further and found nothing about the pattern and little, only two or three mentions of R & C, in my Staffordshire books. One mention was in Jeffrey Snyders Romantic Staffordshire Ceramics where he shows a photo of a plate in another pattern by R & C but no additional information is given. I continued looking and looking until one day I found something that had me totally soupified…er, eh, er, I mean stupefied! I discovered that a shipwreck had taken place about 7 nautical miles off the coast of England. The site has been named the Bottle Wreck for the many beer, wine bottles and bottle shards found in the scattered cargo around the bow area. It has been determined that the ship was a wooden merchant sailing vessel that sank between 1833 and 1835. This is based on the fact that…guess what….broken pottery shards just north of a large cargo mound were found, some of them being attributable to Read and Clementson (R & C). Quoting the article linked to about the Bottle Wreck:
"The identification of the maker of one of the blue and white transfer printed willow pattern plates allows more accurate dating, as the pottery Read & Clementson only existed between 1833 and 1835. The terminus post quem for the sinking of the vessel is thus 1833. The terminus ante quem could tentatively be defined as 1835, but there is a possibility that Read & Clementson transfer printed ware continued to be traded after the pottery closed down."
Today, some remaining pieces from the works of Read and Clementson are housed at a nautical and archaeological museum in Littlehampton. That makes me feel like I've found a really special piece.
Below is a photo taken in our bathroom. The bathroom is a large, open room but oddly there isn't lots of storage and not much room at all around the sinks but for a soap dispenser. My sink is just to the right of the large floral picture seen below so they are easily within reach. You can see the tureen in the niche built into the wall along with some other transferware, towels, figurines and a favorite non-transferware plate that belonged to my Grandma.
And, next to the niche, on the wall are three other pieces that I'm really fond of. They are all antique two color transferware plates that bring together the colors in the room.
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