A rare Thetford Pulpware bowl. Measuring approximatly 8″ in diameter and 3¾” high. With a multicoloured body and gilded rim.
Thetford Pulp ware Manufacturing Co. was founded, in 1879.
The difference between papier mâché and pulp ware was that pulp ware was waterproof.
The chief raw materials were wood pulp, jute bagging and other vegetable fibres and rags.
Materials were first cleaned by boiling with lime and then shredded in rag engines for two days to form a slurry with water. Most water was extracted by feeding the pulp into sieve-like formers roughly the shape of the final object. Additional water was then removed with a vacuum pump and finally, a hydraulic press squeezed out the remaining moisture. These “blanks” were placed in a drying shed for one to four weeks and when dried, felt like cardboard. They were stamped or embossed into their final shape by powerful cam-operated machines, before being soaked in linseed oil to make them water repellent.
Pulp ware manufacture ceased in the late 1950s due mainly to the introduction of polyethylene, polypropylene and plastics.
