Cauliflower Ware

Cauliflower Ware

Creamware was modelled and glazed in green and yellow to simulate a cauliflower, the term also applying to other fruit or vegetable forms.

About 1760, William Greatbach undertook the potting and modelling (jobbed out to him by Josiah Wedgwood) of cauliflower tureens and stands, lettuce pots, and pineapple teapots, which were returned to Wedgwood for glazing. Production was busy and was often imitated by other Staffordshire potters, yet it died out after 1769, when Wedgwood's new Etruria works was opened.

The cabbage or cauliflower spout, however, was a moulded detail still used by Wedgwood. The Rococo vogue for plant forms can be seen in the many Chelsea dishes and small tureens of the 1750s in the form of cauliflowers and cabbages, as well as melon, quince, cucumber, and lemon tureens, very rare in "Wedgwood-Greatbach" ware.

Etruscan majolica cauliflower plate. 

questions / comments? email Steve Birks steveb@netcentral.co.uk