Successful History of English Pottery

Potteryother places.
We use the pottery products almost everyday inJohn Astbury and Thomas Whieldon of
our life. But there are few people who know theStaffordshire were the foremost potters in the
history of the pottery and porcelain. Here we willmiddle of the eighteenth century, and their output
look into the difference of the pottery and thecomprised wares of all the types that were then
porcelain and try to understand the some of theknown.
different aspects of the pottery and porcelain.In particular, Whieldon's name is linked with wares
Pottery is defined as earthenware and includeswith pale-colored transparent glazes including early
Faience, or Majolica, cream ware and, according toversions of the famous Toby Jug, and Ralph
many authorities, a near-porcelain variety calledWood and his son, also named Ralph, made similar
stoneware. It is the commoner type oftypes.
chinaware; the features that place it apart fromAstbury is noted for pieces made from red clay,
porcelain are that it is opaque, and that the glazeeither 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 into the perfecting of lead-glazed pottery, a step
antiquity, and date from when Primitive Man foundthat 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 littlebeen for a few years in partnership with
is available that was made before the sixteenthWhieldon, but was a better business man, and his
century, although a considerable number of earliercream-colored lead-glazed earthenware, known
examples can be studied in museums. They arefrom 1765 as Queen's Ware, was so successful
seen to be of simple shapes, mostly in the formthat it competed with porcelain, and was imitated
of jugs; sometimes with decorative patterns cutnot only by other English makers but also all over
or impressed into the red or buff clay; withthe Continent of Europe.
patterns rubbed on or dribbled in wet clay (slip) ofThe closest imitator in England was the factory at
a contrasting colour or with designs stamped onLeeds, Yorkshire, which approached the high
pads of clay stuck on the article. Many arequality 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 shapesdecorated much of Wedgwood creamware, or at
used varied from place to place and from centurya workshop he had for a time in London at
to century, and it is not always possible to nameChelsea, but a quantity was sent to Liverpool to
where or when a piece was made. Kilns withbe 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 potteryand effective, it was typical of Wedgwood to
The type of pottery described in the previoustest the possibilities of something as novel and
chapter continued to be made in all parts ofpromising. For the collector it is reassuring to
England throughout the seventeenth, eighteenthknow that the majority of Wedgwood ware is
and nineteenth centuries, and the so-called studiomarked.
potters are still making much. Among the moreSome of the types of pottery could be studied in
important later centers that have been identifiedthe museums. The pottery comes in different
with certainty, are: London (known as Metropolitanshapes and sizes and they are decorated in
Ware); Wrotham, Kent; and Staffordshire, wheredifferent ways and styles. Pottery making
the names of Toft, Simpson and Malkin are thebecame popular from the seventeenth century
best known. A further technique, known asand continued till the eighteenth and nineteenth
sgraffito and consisting of decoration incisedcentury in England. These activities were located in
through a coating of light-colored slip to a darkdifferent places of England.
body, was practiced in north Devonshire and