Our last two posts included gaming tables and what games would be played in the early 1800s.
Well, let’s look at what your dining table might look like. These two photos include regular ‘china’ and ‘flow blue china‘. Flow blue china was primarily made in Staffordshire, England. It was bought up by an American audience as it was never popular in England. The edges of the patterns were intentionally obscured by adding a cup of lime or ammonia to the kiln during firing. These were considered fashionable place settings in the US from 1820 until roughly World War I.
It would have been tough to find such a refined set of dishes in the Dallas area before 1850ish. There were a few French and Spanish who ventured here to investigate the area, but never settled. This was Caddo land. John Neely Bryan built a cabin by 1840, but his family most certainly did not travel with such delicate luxuries.
