Do Dutches Need To Be White?

[orbboy]

Crappy phone pics sorry. What's the deal with the brown one? Measures a hair under 1 11/16" and has a very light glaze. Will get better pics if needed.

[ann]

Best guess is impurities in the clay. Pure kaolin will give you white (porcelain), but a touch of iron or something else in it would give you an off-white to tan color once it was fired. I don't know that any were deliberately made that way, but then I don't know everything. Don't remember Paul Bauman mentioning it in his antique marbles book . . . which is basically what I go by.

[MC Marbles]

One glazed (white) and one unglazed??

[Steph]

Could it have been glazed and all the glaze have worn away with a remnant of color bleeding through?

I had a clay boulder once which looked completely undecorated but under blacklight you could see that it once had a floral decoration.

[ann]

I once crossed my fingers and held my breath while ducking an old unglazed china in some soapy water and scuffing it lightly with a toothbrush. Figured it wasn't worth anything the way it was, and I could just make out that some kind of decoration had been on it. I was in for a surprise. It whitened up nicely (not as white as a glazed one would be) and revealed that the now-faded but obvious decoration was a pinwheel.

I don't think I've ever used a black light on my Chinas. What have I been thinking?? Work work work work . . .

[eggie]

I like Dutch

[William Marbles]

Ann, I wash all my marble's. Glass, glazed and unglazed, never had a bad result yet. I never know where they have been before I get them. River, privy and shhhhhh (out house dig) LOL.

Thanks a neat marble Orbboy.