Collecting: Turkey Transferware Platters For Thanksgiving

After witnessing the beautiful Flow Blue transferware that author/designer/hostess Kathryn Greeley collects on Kim Shaver’s beautiful interview post with her here, and shown below in her home, I was inspired to write today about a specific type of transferware, turkey transferware Thanksgiving turkey platters, a collecting category I did not know existed until I started researching it online.

According to Nancy Roberts, of Nancy’s Daily Dish, one of the country’s experts in turkey transferware, after Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving an official holiday in 1863, England’s potters began answering the desire of America’s middle class to have tabletop items for their homes that reflected their favorite Thanksgiving bird.

Transferware was named for the process by which patterns were imprinted onto china. An engraved copperplate was inked, and a damp tissue forced onto it with a press. The inked design was then pressed, or transferred, onto the china. After glazing and firing, the decoration became permanent.

Today, turkey transferware is a sought after vintage collectible from English potteries like Ridgway, Johnson Brothers, Royal Staffordshire, Wedgwood and others.  The two pictures below are from Love to Love Dishes blog, here.

I love the delicate colors in these and the beautiful edge detail, do you?

Flow Blue, the type Kathryn collects, is an especially collectible type of English transferware made by Staffordshire England potters beginning in about 1820. Flow blue’s name comes from the fact that the glaze was deliberately blurred, an effect achieved by adding a cup of lime or ammonia to the kiln during glazing.

Kathryn owns the Flow Blue turkey platter shown below.

Besides the popular brown turkey transferware and the Flow Blue, there are other colors, too. Purple looks especially pretty with Thanksgiving’s oranges and golds and below is a piece already sold that was made by Clarice Cliff, the first female potter for Royal Staffordshire. Do you remember when Leslie Hendrix Wood wrote about her, here?

I can just imagine the artist who created this pretty pattern many years ago, can you? 

And Hadley Court readers, a remarkable educational museum exhibition has just opened – online! The Transferware Collectors Club has just debuted this gorgeous online exhibition about the patterns, potteries, stories and people involved in printed British pottery and porcelain between 1750-1900.

What a wonderful learning opportunity this is for everyone who collects or has an interest in not only turkey transferware, but all British transferware patterns.

Click on the link below to enjoy it and, when you’re finished, please come back and share with us what you’ve learned.

http://printedbritishpotteryandporcelain.com/

And, if you’re interested in collected turkey transferware or any type of English transferware, Nancy’s Daily Dish, where several of these pictures came from, has you covered.

http://nancysdailydish.net/

~~~

Leslie Carothers

for

Leslie Hendrix Wood

Founder, Editor in Chief
Hadley Court

Decorator
Chancellor Interiors
Midland, Texas

Gracious Living. Timeless Design. Family Traditions.

~~~
Lead image here, large turkey platter on orange quilt, here, last image, here.

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