Cauliflower Ware

cauliflower ware, in pottery, creamware 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 lively and was 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 molded detail still used by Wedgwood. The Rococo vogue for plant forms may 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. Meissen was the origin of most of these designs, and tureens in faience were the specialty of some Continental factories, notably Brussels and Holitsch. Particularly successful in this genre is a cauliflower teapot, small in scale and partially covered in Wedgwood’s green glaze.