Anybody Know What this Kind of Ware is Called?

[JakePhelps]

I forget :P Its metal with a coating of light to dark blueish paint with different shades. I need to know when it was popular so i can date sites better. Thanks

 

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[vic910]

Kinda looks like enamel ware to me. Nice find!

vicki

 

[JakePhelps]

That might be it! sounds farmiliar anyway

 

[mojjax]

Graniteware .

 

[JakePhelps]

GraniteWare sounds farmiliar too :P So which one is it. i think its graniteware cause that sounds more farmiliar

 

[Monty]

It's porcelain ware and you can still buy it . I saw a whole set of it the other day at a hardware store advertised for boy scouting. Monty

 

[Noodle]

Jake,
Do a search for graniteware and you'll find there's a graniteware society, believe it or not. They'll be able to pinpoint the date of your find. Mostly used in the 40s and 50s, I believe. Maybe some earlier. There are reproductions out now. I don't have any because it won't go in my microwave.

Noodle

 

[rabajohn]

Hey, Jake!
Thay also sell that stuff at Wal-Mart in the camping supplies section. Coffee pots, cups, etc.. I don't think that I ever heard what that stuff is called. Graniteware sounds cool though!

 

[packerbacker]

I believe spatterware is blue with small white "spatters", small, polkadot looking pattern so I'd say it's not spatterware. That narrows it down some.

 

[Monty]

I guarantee you it is porcelain. My Dad worked at a porcelain plant for several years. He would bring seconds home and if too bad for use I would target practice on them with my BB gun. Every time you hit it it would leave a nice round spatter where the porcelain came off. Also, it would rust where the porcelain was missing. Monty

 

[Noodle]

Monty, I hate to disagree with someone I consider extremely knowledgeable, but I'm afraid you're wrong on this one. Porcelain is a highly prized item used for decorative items and expensive china, whereas graniteware is ironware coated with an enamel substance.

"gran?ite?ware
Pronunciation: (gran'it-w?r"), [key] ?n.
1. a kind of ironware with a gray, stonelike enamel.
2. pottery with a speckled appearance like that of granite.
3. a semivitreous white pottery somewhat harder than earthenware"

"porcelain [Ital. porcellana], white, hard, permanent, nonporous pottery having translucence which is resonant when struck. Porcelain was first made by the Chinese to withstand the great heat generated in certain parts of their kilns. The two natural substances used were kaolin, also known as china clay, a white clay free of impurities that melts only at very high temperature, and a feldspar mineral called petuntse that forms a glassy cement, binding the vessel permanently. Although proto-porcelain wares exist dating from the Shang, by the Eastern Han high firing glazed ceramic wares had developed into porcelain, and porcelain manufactured during the T'ang period (618?906) was exported to the Islamic world where it was highly prized. .. In Europe porcelain was first commercially produced (1710) in Meissen, Germany. Most of the European porcelain is soft paste (made from clay and an artificial compound such as ground glass) and is not as strong as the Chinese hard-paste porcelain. Important European centers for porcelain are Bow, Chelsea, Worcester, Staffordshire, Vienna, Meissen, S?vres, Limoges, and Rouen."

Maybe the plant your father worked for did produce porcelain, but if he brought home pots of metal covered in a porcelain-like substance (enamel, much weaker and more porous than porcelain), it was probably graniteware, if not enamelware.

In a way it's like comparing glass to plexiglass. Same use, different recipes.

Noodle

 

[JakePhelps]

I have actaully found some of these with bb and shotgun holes in them. One actaully had a shotgun pellet in it. Is it porcelain plated? It does rust when dented.

 

[beeper]

NOODLE IS RIGHT ON, THE ENAMEL OR GRANITE WARE IS A FIRED GLAZE ONTO METAL, GIVING A "GLASS" TYPE COATING, WHEN HIT BY A PELLET OR BB THE "GLASS" WILL BREAK ALOWING MOISTURE IN AT THAT POINT, THUS RUSTING.

 

[Monty]

Yes, we do disagree and I recognize your right to disagree and nobody better say different or I'll loosethe hounds on them! Monty

 

[Millie]

I agree with Noodle, sure appears to be granite ware.

 

[Monty]

It may be granite wear and I am probably wrong. All the granite wear I ever saw was gray with little blue specks in it. but I'm no expert on granite wear. But porcelain is not, or was not always an expensive finsh. They once used it on coffee cups, coffee pots, chamber pots, pitchers, cooking utensils, sets of camping gear and most large metal signs have a porcelain finish.. The porcelain I saw came from a very hard almost stone like material and it was powdered and mixed with adhesives and sprayed onto a base metal product. The finish is very slick, hard and durable except it tends to flake if the item is struck hard or flexed to a great degree. The porcelain plant went out of business because there wasn't much demand for chamber pots anymore! They were down to just making signs and couldn't make a profit on signs alone. So whatever the finish is on the cup in question I will bow to the experts. Monty

 

[warsawdaddy]

Affraid I agree with Monty.Being 70 yrs old and living in MO,I grew up camping and that is not graniteware.Graniteware is grey! All of our camp utensils were the blue fleck porceline on metal,wash basins cups coffepot,etc.This was in late 30's thru early 50's.And,yes,if it got dented,it would rust in a heartbeat.They only started to put a bluish coloring to graniteware in the recent past,maybe from the 70's on and graniteware is also much heavier.I would speculate that this found pot is kinda lightweight.

 

[Noodle]

Graniteware is all colors and patterns. Do a "graniteware" search on ebay to see some, or any google search for "graniteware." You'll see all sizes, shapes and colors, including some that looks like Jake's. Also referred to as enamelware.

NOODLE

 

[bobthedetector]

What do they call that shiny stuff covering your bathtub?

 

[Noodle]

On the older bathtubs, it was always porcelain on the inside. Painted cast iron on the outside. Nowadays you can still get porcelain, but you can also get ceramic and acrylic. Depends on the $$ you have to spend. There's a grading they look for, as far as permeability goes. Porcelain is very dense so is good for bathtubs; water is not absorbed greatly with it. Some of the harder ceramics come close, but not exactly. Acrylic coating is another option like ceramic. Both are inferior to porcelain.

I have an outdoor barbeque grill that is porcelain-coated. I love it. Holds the heat in better than any other cooker I've found.

NOODLE