Setting' a stylish table.

The journey from penury to prosperity in colonial America was often marked by the acquisition of objects now largely taken for granted. In his memoirs, Benjamin Franklin recalled such a transition when he described his household dining the early years of his marriage:

We kept no idle Servants, our Table was plain and simple, our Furniture of the cheapest. For instance my Breakfast was a long time Bread and Milk, (no Tea,) and I ate it out of a twopenny earthen Porringer with a Pewter Spoon. But mark how Luxury will enter Families, and make a Progress, in Spite of Principle. Being Call'd one Morning to Breakfast, I found it in a China Bowl with a Spoon of Silver. They had been bought for me without my Knowledge by my Wife, and had cost her the enormous Sum of three and twenty Shillings, for which she had no other Excuse or Apology to make, but that she thought her Husband deserv'd Silver Spoon and China Bowl as well as any of his Neighbors. This was the first Appearance of Plate and China in our House, which afterwards in a Course of Years as our Wealth increas'd, augmented gradually to several Hundred Pounds in Value. [1]

Franklin's recognition of ceramics and silver as potent symbols of worldly success rang true. Britons, both at home and in the American colonies, enjoyed a newfound way to express themselves with fashionable tableware during the eighteenth century. The desire of the middling sort to emulate the habits of their economic betters was enhanced by a rapid succession of new products and technologies that lowered costs and brought forth fashionable and well-made goods in seemingly ever-increasing quantities. Between about 1740 and the eve of the American Revolution, three especially significant advancements occurred in the field of English ceramics that had far-reaching and enduring significance. The introduction of plaster of Paris to mold-making, the development of transfer printing, and the perfection of a refined white earthenware body all had a profound impact on ceramics production and consumption.

Colonial American attempts to produce fine quality tableware met with very limited success, with the result that virtually all fashionable ceramics were of foreign manufacture. Barred from direct trade with nations other than Britain, Americans relied for most goods upon the mother country. Even Chinese porcelain and German stoneware, both present in the earliest settlements, arrived aboard British ships. Either directly or indirectly, England was the source of all legitimately imported wares. However, Americans were not yet so disenfranchised by the middle of the eighteenth century as to be without pride in the state of English manufacturing. Although once a seemingly reluctant consumer, Benjamin Franklin was all too happy to indulge in the acquisition of fine ceramics on a trip to England. He wrote to his wife, Deborah, from London on February 19, 1758, that he was sending her.

some English China; viz. Melons and Leaves for a Desert of Fruit and Cream, or the like; a Bowl remarkable for the Neatness of the Figures, made at Bow, near this City; some Coffee Cups of the same; a Worcester Bowl, ordinary. To show the Difference of Workmanship there is something from all the China Works in England; and one old true China Bason mended, of an Odd Colour...I also forgot, among the China, to mention a large fine Jugg for Beer to stand in the Cooler. I fell in Love with it at first Sight; for I thought it look'd like a fat jolly Dame, clean and tidy, with a neat blue and white Calico Gown on, good natur'd and lovely and it put me in mind of--Somebody. It has the Coffee Cups in its Belly, pack'd in best Chrystal Salt...Look at the Figures on the China Bowl and Coffee Cups, with your Spectacles on; they will bear Examining. [2]

Franklin's delight in these products of English ingenuity is clearly evident, and they were undoubtedly a source of much pleasure for his family--assuming his wife did not object to being compared to a beer jug (see Pls. II, IIa)! Few American colonists could afford English porcelain, however, as it was generally far more expensive than its Chinese counterpart and was imported in very limited quantities. Franklin's acquisition of items such as serving pieces for dessert and coffee or teawares reflects the range of goods produced by English factories. Because of the difficulty of firing large items like tureens and flat-wares such as plates, porcelain dinner services were not widely manufactured in England until the later eighteenth century. [3]

Residents of Williamsburg, Virginia, the capital of the largest and wealthiest American colony owned an unusually high proportion of English porcelain during the pre-Revolutionary period. Shards unearthed there include forms such as teawares, mugs or tankards, punch bowls, fork and knife bandies, and sauceboats (see Pl. V). Fragments of plates are also found, but there is little evidence to suggest sets of such wares. The most unusual item represented is a shell-encrusted stem from a tiered pickle or sweetmeat stand. The overwhelming majority of the archaeological fragments of English porcelain from Williamsburg sites are blue and white and have been attributed to the factories at Bow, Worcester, and Liverpool. [4]