page_title: Thomas Whieldon
section_title: Tortoiseshell ware
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Whieldon / Tortoiseshell ware
caption_attribution_description: English: England, circa 1765 Furnishings; Serviceware Tortoiseshell ware, earthenware with lead glaze Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Denny B. Lotwin (M.82.206.10) Decorative Arts and Design Currently on public view: Hammer Building, floor 3
context_page_description: Thomas Whieldon was a significant English potter who played a leading role in the development of Staffordshire pottery.
  The attribution of actual pieces to his factory has long been uncertain, and terms such as "Whieldon-type" are now often used for a variety of different types of wares. Other terms reflecting the lack of certainty are "Whieldon ware" as a type, and "Astbury-Whieldon", used for early Staffordshire figures, where the two were pioneers. He worked in earthenware and stoneware, using a variety of types of body and ceramic glazes. He is especially associated with agate ware and tortoiseshell ware; in both cases Whieldon refined the techniques used, and made the types more popular.
context_section_description: Tortoiseshell ware is effectively an earthenware, often creamware, that is decorated with a limited, rather dark, palette to imitate tortoiseshell, as fashionable material in the period. It was made before Whieldon, by William Greatbatch and many others in Staffordshire and also Liverpool and Leeds. The original technique was to sprinkle the un-fired ("green") wares with "powdered lead oxide and calcined flint with a trace of manganese oxide".  This produced the colour effect within the glaze. 
  Whieldon's innovation, about 1750, was his "first important contribution to the pottery trade".  The pigments were applied under the glaze by painting or sponging with metallic oxides, and then a transparent glaze was applied. During the glost firing, the colours flow to produce the tortoiseshell effect.
  
  Tortoiseshell wares were first mentioned by Thomas Whieldon in his Account and Memorandum Book of 1749. In his Experiment Book, Josiah Wedgwood states that in 1759 tortoiseshell ware was the second most important ware at the Whieldon factory, but the market was declining:
  “[…] But as no improvement had been made in this branch for several years, the country was grown weary of it; and though the price had been lowered from time to time, in order to increase the sale, the expedient did not answer, and something new was wanted, to give a little spirit to the business."
  Historically, tortoiseshell wares have come to be associated almost exclusively with Thomas Whieldon, however, ceramics expert Pat Halfpenny warns that:
  “The ‘Whieldon’ label has inhibited scholarly research and limited our understanding of the pottery production dates in North Staffordshire.”
  In his 1991 study of William Greatbatch, David Barker also concluded:
  "Many of the wares manufactured by Whieldon are of types now known to have been made by Greatbatch and have been found on the Greatbatch site. Whieldon ware, or Whieldon-type ware are terms which are widely accepted in describing a variety of ceramics, particularly tortoiseshell wares, but which lead to problems in any objective research into the pottery of the period."
  In the absence of any supporting information, caution is therefore needed in ascribing any particular tortoiseshell wares to Thomas Whieldon.
caption: Tortoiseshell Ware plate attrributed to the Whieldon factory, c. 1765
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