cobalt blue glass	Dark blue colored glass. Cobalt was added to silicate recipe for desired color.
	earthenware	A vessel with a soft, somewhat porous paste. In general, it is permeable by water, unless it has some sort of glaze or slip.
	ironstone	Usually white pasted earthenware, more vitreous and harder than whiteware. Later ironstone is thicker and 'chunkier' than whiteware. Also known as white granite ware, stone china, and hotel ware.
	lead glass	An early type of glass made with lead oxide and resulted in clear or white appearance.
	lead glaze	Often a clear or light greenish glaze used on redware or pearlware vessels; sometimes speckled with dark unmelted lead crystals.
	mocha	Painted design often a black or brown branching tree or fern on a colored slipped background. Also includes other designs commonly known as "cats eye," or "balloon."
	old blue	Early transfer print design characterized by very dark, dense, even-hued blue coloration.
	pearlware	A late 18th century attempt to make white pasted ceramics. Virtually all pearlware was decorated in some form, either in under glazed enameling, transfer printing, edge decoration, or annular banding. Pearlware was replaced on the market by less expensive and harder whitewares by the 1830s.
	pontil scar	A circular scar left on the base of the bottle from a glass, graphite, or iron rod used during the shaping of vessel.
	porcelain	True hard porcelain is a mixture of kaolin, flint, and feldspar that is fired at an extremely high temperature, resulting in a vitreous, glass-like, white to bluish white paste. Soft porcelain is not as vitreous as hard porcelain. Hard porcelain is somewhat translucent and soft is opaque.
	redware	Utilitarian earthenware with a red paste due to the type of clay used and the low temperature required to vitrify. Hardness can vary, but generally has one of the softest types of paste of the earthenwares. Found on archaeological sites in Iowa that date from the 1830s to 1890s.
	shell-edge	A raised, sometimes hand painted and often sculpted, design around plate rims.
	spatter/sponge ware	Often mottled, colorful design applied with a sponge or spattered on with a brush. May cover entire surface or frame a designed area.
	stoneware	A utilitarian vessel that has a hard, but grainy, and generally less refined paste than earthenware. Often salt glazed or coated with a brown or buff slip, but should be vitrified enough to be waterproof without additional surface treatments.
	transfer print	Decorative technique commonly used on earthenwares. Early transfer prints were paper impressions on glazed vessel surfaces made from inked copperplate engravings. Later transfer prints were placed on bisque vessels, glazed, and then fired or re-fired.
	whiteware	Very common white to off white pasted earthenware, more durable than earlier pearlware or creamware. Mass production began in the 1820s and continues today.
	yellowware	Unrefined earthenware with a paste that may be any shade of yellow or drab yellow.

A Territorial Period Site in Dubuque [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 ]