Saucer

In the British American colonies of the eighteenth century, fine European porcelain appeared only rarely. It was a special commodity even in the households of the affluent merchants and landowners. The only porcelains excavated at Williamsburg, for example, have been of lesser quality, blue-and-white transfer-printed porcelain.

In 1751 the Worcester Porcelain Manufactory in England was formed to meet the growing demand for white, soft-paste porcelain tableware. By 1755 the use of transfer-printing increased production at the manufactory and widened availability to a larger market. Benjamin Franklin purchased some Worcester porcelain while in London; he wrote to his wife Deborah in 1758, “I send you by Capt. Budden a large Case.... In the large case is another small Box, containing some English China [including] a Worcester Bowl, ordinary.”