CALIFORNIA: La Purisima "Blue Willow" China from Mission Era Discovered!

*****UPDATE 12/5/2017: OPEN HOUSE AT HEARST CASTLE! We got the opportunity to attend the annual holiday Open House at Hearst Castle at the invitation of our son James. We were able to casually stroll around the ground floor of the main "Castle" building, which includes the main kitchen and the grand dining room. Both of these areas provided the opportunity to photograph Phoebe Hearst's Blue Willow "China". After writing this article, I was extremely excited to view these china patterns for myself. The 2 photos are below - enjoy.  

Figure A: Hearst Castle Kitchen display of their Blue Willow China. It can't be seen in the photo, but there is a glass pane separating us "tourists" from the China, so we can't touch it or get an "up close" photo of it. 

Figure B: I was able to get a bit closer to the Blue Willow setting in the enormous dining hall. I was still 6 or 8 feet away from it, and could only get this marginal photo with bad lighting. Likely that this particular Blue Willow China from "Gilman Collamore" of New York was made in the 1920's. Note that this version of Blue Willow is both scalloped and gold-trimmed!

*****UPDATE 8/25/2017: SAN LUIS OBISPO / SANTA BARBARA COUNTY: You are invited to be a California State Park Foundation's ("CSPF") Park Champions Volunteer Leader in training, or a volunteer (no training necessary!).  If you are interested, please contact Tim Waag at 805.440.9144 TimWaag@gmail.com

Figure 0: La Purisima "Linear Mission" in the background

I’ve been a Central Coast Concerned Mountain Bikers cccmb.org volunteer for 25+ years, and a CCCMB “Crew Leader” for 4 years. I am in training to be a “Volunteer Crew Leader” (technically, “California State Park Foundation’s - Park Champions Core Leader") for Mission La Purisima near Lompoc. My role will be to organize and lead work days at La Purisima Concepcion, the 11th of 21 missions in the California chain, founded in 1787.

We are recruiting a few more “Volunteer Crew Leaders” for La Purisima Concepcion work days. There are 4 work days scheduled per year. If you have the skills to direct a group of volunteer workers, and have safety and construction skills to go with it, I would like you to contact me about becoming a La Purisima Crew Leader. There is some useful of State Park instruction in order to be a certified “Core Leader”.

La Purisima Concepcion is an amazing mission, and is by far the most preserved of all 21 California missions, located in the pristine La Canada de Los Berros (Canyon of the Water Cress). Who should I consult with within CCCMB to get permission to make this simple request? I really think some of our CCCMB crew leaders would be interested in “touching history” and saving it, instead of the current trend to “tear it down”.

---Tim Waag, CCCMB Crew Leader

*****ORIGINAL ARTICLE: By Tim Waag (Docent, Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa). This article was written for "The Artifact" - the newsletter of the San Luis Obispo County Archaeological Society.

Figure 1: California State Parks Logo - since 1864.

Figure 2: Sue and Theo at La Purisma with the main Church and belltower in the background.

The central coast is blessed with a rich and tragic colonial history, in the form of five Spanish era missions (out of 21 in total): La Purisima Concepcion, Santa Ines, San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, San Miguel Arcangel, and San Antonio de Padua. Of these five, La Purisima State Historic Park is by far the most extensively restored, having benefited from a concentrated and authentic rebuilding effort by the Civilian Conservation Corp. (“CCC”) during the Great Depression era in the 1930s.

Figure 3: Adobe ruins in foreground, and CCC tent city in the background, in the 1930's at Mission La Purisima 

Imagine my excitement when my great love of our California mission history was combined with the California State Park Foundation's ("CSPF") Park Champions volunteer program. Not long ago, CSPF's Park Champions Program was created in response to park budget cuts.  his created an opportunity for volunteers like me to “touch history” and get our “hands dirty” contributing to Mission La Purisima improvements. The next La Purisima “Park Champions” volunteer day is October 29, 2017, but first I want to tell you a bit more about our most recent effort on July 23, 2017. 

Figure 4: The author finishes up the troweling of the Adobe Floor.

Park Champions program: www.calparks.org/parkchampions
A brief history of CCC at La Purisima: https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=24893

First, the briefest of La Purisima History: Originally established at the Indian village of Algsacupi (on the edge of present day Lompoc) in 1787 by Fr. Fermín Lasuėn. The year 1812 in California was known as "El Año de los Temblores," or "The year of the Earthquakes." In late December, a series of massive earthquakes leveled the mission, followed by torrential rains (and flooding that can still be seen to this day!). Fr. Mariano Payeras moved the mission 4.5 miles away to its current (and superior) location at "La Cañada de los Berros," or “the Canyon of the Watercress.” Uniquely, the mission was rebuilt in a linear fashion, unlike all others which were built in a traditional “quadrangle” arrangement.

Figure 5: Author at the original ruins (all that is left!) of the original mission site in Lompoc.

Back to the July “Park Champion” work day: First thing in the morning on 7/23, volunteers from across the state lined up to listen to the Park Champion “Field Coordinators” and La Purisima maintenance staff instruct us in the activities for the day. Our main activity would be laying an adobe floor in the “Soldiers Barracks Kitchen”. Unlike the CCC days, we would not be working using only authentic Spanish mission-era techniques. A tractor was used to dig up and transport suitable adobe material to our site, and a locally purchased bail of hay was the source of our plant-based binding material. 

Figure 6: Layout of the "original" La Purisima, before the earthquakes and floods of 1812 forced a move to the more optimal "Los Berros" site.

The field coordinators handed out tools and assignments to the volunteers, and the maintenance staff communicated some vital instruction, using tips from a book called “Adobe Conservation: A Preservation Handbook”. As always, it turns out that there was more to it than meets the eye. The “adobe Bible” (as I like to call it - yes, I already bought my own copy) also detailed how in “earlier days”, the adobe floors were sealed with “bulls blood” and other available ingredients to create a much more durable floor surface. We preceded this effort with a tour of an earlier “Park Champion” adobe floor project. This floor was in the “Master Weaver’s Quarters”, and instead of bull’s blood, it was finished with several coats of linseed oil that was thinned with turpentine. Amazingly, despite heavy traffic, this floor showed no wear whatsoever. Smart.

Figure 7: Keith from the La Purisima State Historical Park Maintenance Staff holds up the guiding book on "Adobe Conservation" - aka the "Adobe Bible"

In the course of the work day, I was assigned to direct the bulldozer to dump clay for mixing into adobe over the tall mission wall. As I was about to toss out an unwanted stone in the dirt, it felt just a little bit too smooth in my hands. Stopping and turning it over, I was thrilled to see a crude “little blue boat” staring back at me (see photo). Cool. A mission-era artifact, perhaps? Indeed, the CCC had collected tens of thousands of artifacts during their restoration, but this was entirely unexpected on this day. I shared it with our supervisors, and nobody knew what to make of it. I dutifully hiked over to the clay excavation site and GPSed the location, as we are trained to record location information for all artifacts. Our group eagerly gathered around and photographed the fascinating but tiny blue boat (a mere 1 inch square remnant).

Figure 8: Bulldozer dumps first load of clay over the wall.

During adventures like this, it’s always the unexpected that turns out to be the most fun. It wasn’t until I returned home that the secrets of La Purisima’s "Tiny Blue Boat" emerged. I emailed the photo to one of my favorite archeologists, Christina MacDonald of San Luis Obispo County Archaeological Society ("SLOCAS") and she immediately knew what it was: Blue Willoware - perhaps the most common tableware on the planet – just my (bad) luck! Was it mission era, Californio era or beyond? Short answer: I don't know yet, but let's find out.  But before that, let's learn a little bit about Blue Willoware, shall we?

Figure 9: 1917 Explanation of the "Classic" elements of the Blue Willow pattern.


“Classic” Blue Willoware contains a set of illustrations that together complete a compelling Asian “Romeo and Juliet” story of love and utimately, their romantic demise. The components include our little boat (a chinese sailing vessel with 2 cabins, a mast and a human “poler”), a poor man, a rich man, a bridge, a garden, a weeping willow - you get the idea. What is curious is that I was not able to find any crudely-styled “willow boats” like ours among the thousands of “willow” images online, so perhaps it is unique and able to be dated? 

Figure 10: Illustration of the common Blue Willow theme of love and tragedy - it never gets old! That's one of the reasons why it remains so popular.

Blue Willoware was “invented” around 1780 to 1790 in England, but since then, has been produced in recorded volumes by over 500 different manufactures in dozens of different countries, and continues to this day. In fact, in my very own home, I happen to have found an antique hand-made Willoware stamped on the back by the maker in Russian! Amazingly, the china of choice at William Randolph Hearst's "La Cuesta Encantada" Castle? Gold-rimmed Blue Willow from Gilman Collamore, New York - of course! (Phoebe Hearst's favorite china).

Figure  11: Comparison - Left, our "Little Blue Boat" unearthed from its hiding place on 7/23/2017. Right, a boat image obtained from a "Blue Willow China" internet image search.

Blue Willow Archaeology: cartarchaeology.wordpress.com/2016/06/10/bluewilllow/
Blue Willow story: research.omicsgroup.org/index.php/Willow_pattern

Figure 12: Source of La Purisima's "Little Blue Boat" Tableware.

Back to the question: Is our "Little Blue Boat" of mission era, Californio era or beyond? Recently, I started re-reading the amazing Hageman and Ewing reports on the CCC rebuilding of La Purisima. This rebuilding of La Purisima by the CCC took place from approximatley 1933 to 1941 and is highly recommended reading for La Purisima mission fans.

Figure 13: Book containing the Hageman and Ewing reports on La Purisima. 

On page 21 (Figure 29), I noticed some “China fragments” recovered from the mission restoration of the 1930’s. The caption of Figure 29 reads: “China fragments, No. 3011; Puebla ware fragments, No. 3043”. Of the 5 fragments of china in the photo, I noticed one that looked suspiciously like our “Blue Willoware” China.

Figure 14: Page 21, Figure 29 of the Hageman / Ewing book show the Blue Willoware china plate fragment (lower left corner).

Figure 15: Pink arrow points towards the "Little Blue Boat" in this Blue Willow china fragment. 

The image was small and lacking in detail, so I started wondering to myself: “where is this shard of a plate stored (or the photo of it), and how can I access it?” On a hunch that “there may be more here than meets the naked eye”, I pulled out my scanner and recorded an image of the plate at 1,200 dots per inch. I zoomed in on this high resolution image, and it would seem that this scrap of plate contained our little blue boat! 

Figure 16: Zoom in from 1,200 dpi scan shows a distinction boat of Blue Willow fame. 

Figure 17: Cut out of a Blue Willow plate taken off the interne, matching the plate fragment from Mission La Purisima. There is a 100% match of the Blue Willow theme of the two plates.

Requesting help in locating this artifact: I am 100% sure the china plate in Figure 29 is the Blue Willoware pattern/romance story. The boat within the Figure 29 plate may not be our exact Little Blue Boat, but it could be; without seeing the original photo or the plate itself, we’ll never know. Obtaining either one would allow us to determine with a high probability whether the little “chip” of china recovered from La Purisima is an exact match of the mission era fragment found by the CCC in the 1930's. It would be amazing to find out where this artifact or its photo is stored to confirm a match between the two.message and any attachments.

After the main part of the work day had finished, Keith from the park maintenance staff ask for assistance in completing some adobe touch-ups in the "Spanish Soldier Barracks", located in an adjacent room to our adobe floor project kitchen. We were disappointed to learn that everything in the Soliders barracks were modern re-creations, with no items of antiquity. However, I was just happy to be able to access a space at the mission that was not open to the public!

Figure 18: Old black bottle located in the "Spanish Solider's Barracks".

During this effort, I spotted the black glass bottle in the barracks (see Figure 18), and recognized it immediately! I own the exact same bottle, and it is dated from the 1850’s to the 1870’s. My matching black bottle is shown in Figure 19 below. They are made by hand in 4 pieces in a “wood water mold” process. This same bottle also appears on the front page of the “bottle identification” web page (link to web page supplied below). This style of black bottle was used for beer or distilled alcohol products, and was produced in high volumes. Though common, it took about 1 hour of later to make it, and was often re-filled with spirits and re-used.

Figure 19: The author with an identical bottle to the one spotted in the "barracks".

Black Glass Bottle origins: https://sha.org/bottle/examples.htm

Figure 20: The mission bottle appears identical to the one identified above with a pink arrow. This image was found on the above referenced "bottle identification" web site.

Conclusion: Finishing up our work day, we admired our completed adobe flooring. While wrapping it up, a few of us hiked out to a remote corner of the park where we had been told there were numerous ruins from the post-mission secularization rancho era. Sure enough, we found fascinating and seldom-visited habitation and industrial sites, including windmills, springs with clay water pipes, old car carcasses, wood and stone structural remains, etc. - a story for another time, perhaps?

Figure 21: The classic beauty of the mission style of architecture at La Purisima’s “Residence” building never gets old or out of style - always amazing!