Cauliflower & Pineapple - Green & Yellow Ceramics (1750s) Photos

In early European efforts to compete with real porcelain imports from China, one big problem was finding colored glazes which worked consistently in kilns and lasted well. Around Staffordshire, green & yellow were early colors which worked on the region's off-white creamware. Cauliflower-shaped wares were a logical use of green glaze because this plant was a large object with a white upper part and a solid green leaf lower part, making this vegetable-shape efficient to glaze. Likewise pineapple shapes worked for yellow and green. Even while Josiah Wedgwood was a student & partner of Thomas Whieldon (1754-9), it is thought they prepared Cauliflower wares. After Wedgwood started his own firm (1759), he improved his creamware and probably his green + yellow glazes. He continued production of such designs until about 1765. Since other Stoke potters also copied these styles, this page features both works attributed to Wedgwood's firm and others.