Cleaning Historic Staffordshire Transferware: An illustrated method for effective stain removal and cleaning for antique decorated pottery.

Antique transferware collector Scott T. Hanson shares his process for removing grime and under-glaze stains from historic Staffordshire transferware dishes. Using close-up photographs and clear text, the process is illustrated and described using two examples. Antique dealers have had their secret methods for cleaning these beautiful pieces of pottery but have not wanted the public to discover how it can be done. After ten years of trial and error and experimentation, Hanson has developed a method that will remove the deepest stains from virtually any piece of glazed transferware, returning pieces to the bright colors and clean white backgrounds they had when they left the Staffordshire potteries in the 19th century. Clear, close-up photos walk you through the entire process, step by step. Two examples are shown to illustrate cleaning both a typically stained and dirty piece and a badly stained and grimy piece. Also included is a concise description of the process used to create transferware in the Staffordshire region of England in the 19th century. Understanding how the pieces were made will help you to understand how they became stained under the glaze and how the method illustrated works to remove the stains. Scott T. Hanson is a Maine based architectural historian who collects antique transferware to display and use in his 19th century home, Whitten House. Using documentary research into probate inventories of members of the original family to own the house, and shards of historic transferware found under and around the house in the course of restoration, he was able to identify the exact patterns that were in the house during the time two generations of the Whitten family called it home. Searching in shops, flea markets, auctions, and online, he has slowly found pieces of the patterns the Whitten family owned and assembled a collection reflecting their time in the house.Scott Hanson is also the co-author of The Architecture of Cushing's Island, written with Maine State Historian, Earle G. Shettleworth, and published in 2012. He has appeared, along with Whitten House, on the television program "If Walls Could Talk" on HGTV.