June Feature Articles

Spring! Time to Get Organized, by Susan Ferguson

Here’s my new database for my Brown and White transferware collection. I’m finally getting organized. I created it because my word processing program just provided me with loose sheets of paper that I would need to (four letter word) file. An Excel spreadsheet, while sortable, isn’t flexible enough. What I needed was something searchable (like Google), so I could find any dish instantly. Or find all the pieces that were made by a particular maker. Or find all the pieces that have the same border. And then, of course, I want to sort them by pattern name and version number. And I want to print out that group as a list. And export the list, complete with pictures and source prints, to a pdf file; so I can share them with someone else in the Transferware Collectors Club. Read the article.

Surprising Spout Prints, by DeeDee Dodd

Every once in a while, when working as an editor in the TCC Pattern and Source Print Database, one is completely surprised. It might be when a marked piece in a pattern surfaces, and it suddenly becomes possible to identify the maker of that pattern. It might be when one finds evidence of copper plates being purchased by one potter at another potter’s bankruptcy sale, explaining why the patterns of the two potters appear to be identical. It might be when one finds evidence of a pattern being re-issued under a different name decades after it was originally introduced. Or, as in the case at point in this article, it might be when one finds some unexpected pattern anomalies. Read the article.