The dinnerware that pre-empted transfer-printed earthenware was plain stone china of the sort pictured in Figure 2. Late nineteenth century stone china, also known as ironstone, graniteware, and semi-porcelain, was not a new ceramic but a variant of the stone chinas and ironstones first produced by Josiah Spode and Charles Mason in the first two decades of the century. The novelty of the stone chinas sold after 1840 lay in the new inexpensive methods of mass-producing them, and in their hitherto unthinkable absence of painted decoration. Early nineteenth century stone chinas had been elaborately decorated with Oriental wildlife and transfer-printed patterns, but by mid-century it was almost all stark white, with only embossed or molded decoration. After about 1870, it was often produced with no decoration at all. Stone china at its best was nearly unbreakable, and thus admirably suited to life in the still rough-and-ready American states. Like earlier wares, most of the stone china sold in the United States was imported from Great Britain. The fledgling American pottery industry did not begin producing hard-paste whitewares until after 1860, and throughout the nineteenth century American-made ironstone was considered inferior to imported china. Much of the early American potter’s energy went into the production of common utility items, which, like the probably American-made chamberpot in Figure 8, were often unmarked to hide their domestic origins. At the opposite extreme of the decorative scale was English majolica, a gaudily painted ware introduced by Minton & Co. at the 1851 “Great Exhibition” in London (Fig. 9). Early Minton majolica was intended as an imitation of sixteenth century Italian majolica and featured hand-painted romantic scenes on an opaque white background. The style quickly evolved, however, into a fancifully molded pottery decorated with a wide range of colorful semitranslucent glazes. Produced by a number of factories after about 1860, majolica was used through the end of the century both for inexpensive domestic items and for sometimes massive ornamental objects such as jardinieres. [Illustration: Figure 9. English majolica, c. 1860-1910. This brightly colored ware was often molded into shapes resembling trees or other plants. The brown-glazed handle is from a pitcher apparently colored with blue, yellow, and brown.]