Description:

This saucer may be attributed to John Bartlam's pioneering American porcelain factory at Cain Hoy, South Carolina, which was in operation c1765-69.  It came to light in association with tea bowls that bear underglaze blue prints that were found on shards excavated at Cain Foy.  This pattern is not known on any attributable English porcelain and it has, as a prominent part of its decoration, a small palm tree.  Similar trees are present, less prominently, within the patterns found at Cain Hoy.

Bartlam's factory is now recognised as the first to produce porcelain in America, preceding by about five years the better known Bonnin and Morris factory in Philadelphia.