Pride of place LEEDS CREAMWARE

In its heyday the pre-eminent rival to Wedgwood's Queens ware, Leeds creamware is still much revered by collectors for its understated elegance

- Janet Gleeson

Chestnut baskets pierced with complicated lacy designs and exquisitely moulded handles. Towering table centrepieces fashioned as oyster shells supported on the backs of frolicking dolphins. Table services with delicate reticulated borders, the surfaces unadorned so the lustrous pale cream body shines. Welcome to the wonderful world of Leeds creamware, a ceramic genre christened after the city pottery that was once a major centre of production, although far from being the first - or the only factory to make these distinctive wares.

Inspired by the quest to find a material to rival porcelain, creamware is a fine form of earthenware pottery. White clay from Cornwall or Devon was mixed with local flint to add resilience, then finished with a lead glaze, also mixed with flint, to give a slightly golden tinge.

The material was developed by Staffordshire potter Enoch Booth of Tunstall in the 1740s and refined by Wedgwood two decades later. Wedgwood's creamware was as fine as porcelain, and he proudly supplied dinner services made from this wonder material to Queen Charlotte and Catherine the Great, christening it Queens ware to add a splash of royal cachet.

Other potters were quick to catch on, and in its heyday, from 17801820, the Leeds factory became Wedgwood's pre-eminent rival, making plain creamwares decorated with elaborate moulded and pierced decoration, as well as enamelled creamwares and a wide range of other products including stoneware, pearl and transferprinted wares.