| Pottery | | | | light-colored slip to a dark body, was |
| We use the pottery products almost | | | | practiced in north Devonshire and other |
| everyday in our life. But there are few | | | | places. |
| people who know the history of the | | | | John Astbury and Thomas Whieldon of |
| pottery and porcelain. Here we will look | | | | Staffordshire were the foremost potters |
| into the difference of the pottery and | | | | in the middle of the eighteenth century, |
| the porcelain and try to understand the | | | | and their output comprised wares of all |
| some of the different aspects of the | | | | the types that were then known. |
| pottery and porcelain. | | | | In particular, Whieldon's name is linked |
| Pottery is defined as earthenware and | | | | with wares with pale-colored transparent |
| includes Faience, or Majolica, cream | | | | glazes including early versions of the |
| ware and, according to many authorities, | | | | famous Toby Jug, and Ralph Wood and his |
| a near-porcelain variety called | | | | son, also named Ralph, made similar |
| stoneware. It is the commoner type of | | | | types. |
| chinaware; the features that place it | | | | Astbury is noted for pieces made from |
| apart from porcelain are that it is | | | | red clay, either engine-turned on a |
| opaque, and that the glaze does not | | | | lathe or with white clay ornaments in |
| combine with the paste, or clay body. | | | | relief. These two men led the way to the |
| The origins of the making of pottery are | | | | perfecting of lead-glazed pottery, a |
| lost in antiquity, and date from when | | | | step that was the achievement of Josiah |
| Primitive Man found that the heat of a | | | | Wedgwood. Wedgwood was a good practical |
| fire would harden clay. | | | | potter, he had been for a few years in |
| So far as the modern collector is | | | | partnership with Whieldon, but was a |
| concerned little is available that was | | | | better business man, and his |
| made before the sixteenth century, | | | | cream-colored lead-glazed earthenware, |
| although a considerable number of | | | | known from 1765 as Queen's Ware, was so |
| earlier examples can be studied in | | | | successful that it competed with |
| museums. They are seen to be of simple | | | | porcelain, and was imitated not only by |
| shapes, mostly in the form of jugs; | | | | other English makers but also all over |
| sometimes with decorative patterns cut | | | | the Continent of Europe. |
| or impressed into the red or buff clay; | | | | The closest imitator in England was the |
| with patterns rubbed on or dribbled in | | | | factory at Leeds, Yorkshire, which |
| wet clay (slip) of a contrasting colour | | | | approached the high quality of |
| or with designs stamped on pads of clay | | | | Wedgwood's products, but often used |
| stuck on the article. Many are colored | | | | original patterns. His own men in |
| with transparent glazes made from lead, | | | | Staffordshire decorated much of Wedgwood |
| in shades of yellow, brown or green. The | | | | creamware, or at a workshop he had for a |
| shapes used varied from place to place | | | | time in London at Chelsea, but a |
| and from century to century, and it is | | | | quantity was sent to Liverpool to be |
| not always possible to name where or | | | | ornamented by a newly invented process. |
| when a piece was made. Kilns with | | | | This was by means of engravings printed |
| fragments of broken ware have been | | | | on paper and transferred to the china |
| excavated, and these are a guide. | | | | article; quick, cheap and effective, it |
| English pottery | | | | was typical of Wedgwood to test the |
| The type of pottery described in the | | | | possibilities of something as novel and |
| previous chapter continued to be made in | | | | promising. For the collector it is |
| all parts of England throughout the | | | | reassuring to know that the majority of |
| seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth | | | | Wedgwood ware is marked. |
| centuries, and the so-called studio | | | | Some of the types of pottery could be |
| potters are still making much. Among the | | | | studied in the museums. The pottery |
| more important later centers that have | | | | comes in different shapes and sizes and |
| been identified with certainty, are: | | | | they are decorated in different ways and |
| London (known as Metropolitan Ware); | | | | styles. Pottery making became popular |
| Wrotham, Kent; and Staffordshire, where | | | | from the seventeenth century and |
| the names of Toft, Simpson and Malkin | | | | continued till the eighteenth and |
| are the best known. A further technique, | | | | nineteenth century in England. These |
| known as sgraffito and consisting of | | | | activities were located in different |
| decoration incised through a coating of | | | | places of England. |