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