Edged "wares" were another type of tableware which was available to the housewife in Victorian Canada until about the last quarter of the nineteenth century. After the beginning of the 1870s, there were few Canadian advertisements for "edged" wares, which were in much the same price range as wares described as "common painted" (illustration 2). A wholesaler's advertisement in the MontrΘal Gazette (October 7,1867) lists "Crockery suitable for Country Stores" and includes: "C.C., PAINTED AND SPONGED TEAS... and BLUE EDGE PLATES." "C.C." was an abbreviation for cream-coloured ware, in this context a very much coarsened form of the creamware of the eighteenth century. The blue-edged platter seen here has a faintly cream-coloured body and is more ornate than much "edged" ware of the time in that in addition to the painted blue line over a moulded edge, it has additional embossed decoration on the broad rim. It is unmarked but is the work of a British potter, and dates from the beginning of the Victorian period.
Courtesy: National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada (S81-7)
