Hand-Painted: Monochrome Blue
Monochrome blue is a specific style of hand-painted decoration that is applied using an all-blue palette. It usually features floral designs, but may also include geometric designs. For our own classification, we exclude handpainted Asian-style themes from this motif, which we instead designate as Chinoiserie. The popularity of blue and white ceramics can be traced back […]
Transfer Print: Floware
Floware is a specific type of transferprint with a blurred, watery effect. This decoration is created by exposing the surface of the ceramic to chlorine in the kiln, which causes the colours to “flow.” This motif features two distinct colours; blue or mulberry, with the dark purple mulberry pigment often reading as almost black. Floware occurs […]
Early Archaic Nettling Point
We present to you a 3-D scan of a gorgeous Early Archaic Nettling point discovered this past winter by our Field Director Robb Bhardwaj, who shared his story of discovery with us: Nettling Projectile Point by ASI on Sketchfab “Sometimes in archaeology, artifacts seem to want to be found. I came upon just such an […]
Stamped
This decoration is created by dabbing colour onto the vessel with a cut sponge or root vegetable. Designs included stars, diamonds, scrolls and daggers, flowers, various geometric shapes, eagles and other animals. From around 1845, it became common to see painted wares in which at least part of the motif was applied with a color-filled […]
Transfer Print: Juvenile
Juvenile transferprint motifs are found on vessels, such as small plates and mugs, that were made for children’s use. These ceramics were often smaller in size and had child appropriate decoration depicting moral lessons, nursery rhymes, educational themes or, images of children at play. Juvenile motifs can frequently be identified by the inclusion of text as well […]
Chinese Export Porcelain
In the Ontario archaeological timeline, Chinese porcelain is associated with some of our earliest Euro-Canadian sites dating to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Exporting porcelain was a huge industry in China with a long rich history, but by the time Chinese porcelain was making its way to Ontario, production was in decline. By […]
Pearlware
Many ceramic identifications are related to decoration, but when analysing historic ceramics we also look at the matrix of the vessel. White ceramics have evolved over time, and the changes in consistency, colour and glaze can do as much to help us identify a piece as decoration. Pearlware is one of the earlier types of whiteware […]
Lice Combs
Whether rich or poor, rural or urban, all people in the nineteenth century struggled with lice. Just over a hundred years ago, dealing with lice was a commonplace, unremarkable irritant. In fact, the lice comb is one of the most common personal artifacts that we dig up from Ontario historical sites. We find lice combs […]
Canary Ware
Canary ware is a refined whiteware with a glossy bright yellow glaze, which ranges from pale to deep yellow. The yellow in the glaze comes from antimony, which is toxic in certain forms. Potters who manufactured canary ware often developed blisters on their skin. Canary ware often has showy decorative motifs, including transfer printed mottos […]
Transfer Print: Olde Blue
Olde Blue is a style of transfer print where the image is almost a “negative,” the major elements are white or light and the background is dark blue. The shade of blue is very distinctive; it is a very dark cobalt, much darker than the blue used in later transfer prints. Unlike later transfer prints, […]
