Hooray! Celebration time–this is the 100th myth for this blog! Who knew there were so many? Certainly not I, who originally hoped for a couple dozen and planned to stop when I ran out. No doubt I will run out, but not for a few more months, considering how many of you are sending in myths I hadn’t heard or hadn’t remembered. Don’t stop. So here’s the 100th myth, thank you Martin Willis.
Antiques dealer and auctioneer Martin Willis told me that he’d always believed this myth, one that he heard from his father decades ago, a man who was also in the auction business. Then he looked into it and learned it was false. He’s right on the money about that!
The story goes that in 1890, the McKinley Tariff established the requirement that all imports show their country of origin. Porcelain dinnerware was coming mainly from China and was marked accordingly. So far, so good. Here comes the myth in the punchline . . . So that’s why Americans refer to their dishes as “china,” because it said China on the back.
Americans do call plates, cups, and saucers “china” but not because of the McKinley Tariff. Historians find the word “china” in inventories from the 18th century. It became shorthand among early American settlers because much originated in China or was made in England to approximate Chinese wares, not because pieces were stamped CHINA.
Reblogged this on Rosedownplantation's Blog and commented:
Interesting
Quite right. No good New Englander would fall for that one, I hope, since the fortunes of Salem and many other towns were founded on their importation of goods from the east including “Canton ware.” In fact there is a town in Massachusetts called Canton. Visit the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem for much more….
No good New Englander, perhaps, but plenty of auctioneers seem to fall for this one.
You’ve introduced another myth. Americans do not call all dishes china. They call china china. Dishes that are not made of pocelain and ridiculously overpriced, well… they are called dishes
I stand by my original generalization. Americans call their dishes china. As in “my everyday china” for earthenware, for example.