Japan Pottery magnificence more the images
Japan Pottery magnificence more the images
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Bat Printing on Pottery and Porcelain by: Maurice Robertson
The invention of transfer printing on porcelain and pottery was, without doubt, one of the most important innovations in the development of the ceramic industry.
The honor of this development goes to the English engraver, Robert Hancock, born in Birmingham (1730-1817). We first meet Robert, recorded as a copper plate engraver at York House, at Battersea's enamel works in London.
Here, beautiful little copper boxes were made for the English 18th century luxury market and quite costly objects of vertu, the so-called bijouterie, scent bottles, little snuff boxes and practical wares, such as boxes to contain sewing implements, toothpicks, trays to hold pens, canisters for tea and sugar and even candlesticks, designed to imitated expensive silver pieces.
In 1756 the Battersea factory closed and we next find Robert at the Worcester porcelain factory in the same year. Robert Hancock had obviously taken his knowledge and expertise to the factory management, under the direction of Dr John Wall. The management was highly impressed with the idea of this rapid decoration technique!
Since the opening of the factory in 1751, porcelain painting had been a laborious and expensive process, undertaken by painters with coloured powdered enamels, mixed with lavender oil and brushes.
Robert was able to teach his printing skills and the process was soon mastered with the first, famous, copper plate engraved, black transfer print being produced in 1757. The subject being Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, ally and hero of the seven years war.
Transfer printing as developed at Battersea, began with the unique skill of the copper plate engraver, who deeply engraved, with a fine sharp steel, the desired design. The design was engraved in reverse!, allowing the final print to appear "right way around".
Pigment was then added, often mixed with oil and heated to allow the colour to run deeper into the copper plate engravings, the excess ink then wiped away with a palette knife. The copper plate, after being cleaned off with a cloth was then covered with a sheet of tissue which was dampened and pressed onto the plate. Next, the tissue was gently lifted from the plate and set carefully onto the shape to be printed. As the tissue was deftly lifted away, the design was left behind. This early printing style left the print on top of the glazed item, which was then fired to finally set the print onto the glazed surface.
As the 18th century turned into the early 19th century, new ceramic printing techniques were developed, to not only improve the technique, but make it faster, time is money! The great name at this point is Josiah Spode who is credited with the introduction of under glaze blue transfer printing into Staffordshire, during 1781-84.
During the early 1800's, the tissue was replaced by a sheet of paper, or sometimes fabric. With a layer of glue applied, this could easily be cut and shaped to fit around curved objects such as dishes and teapots. This is known as the "bat" print and gives the process its alternative name "bat printing".
The inked bat was then placed on the ceramic object and an impression left, leaving the print adhering to the shape. The item was then dipped into the glaze and returned to the kiln for the glost, or, low firing. The glue bats were reusable, plus they conformed better to curved surfaces. Cobalt blue, under glaze transfer printing became a standard of the Staffordshire pottery industry.
Men like Josiah Spode, Wedgwood, Thomas Minton and others, were all entrepreneurial types and leading figures of the great Staffordshire ceramic industry.
While sharing amicable business relationships, each kept an eye on the market! It was at this time that large export markets were opening or expanding in North America, Europe, and India where consumers sought elegant, matched sets of wares.
About The Author
The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co specialise in antique table lamp lighting with an on-line range of over 100 unique, antique and vintage lamps on view. Lamps are shipped ready wired for the U.S, the U.K and Australia. For more information you are invited to visit their web site at http://www.antiquelampshop.com
© The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co 2009
The honor of this development goes to the English engraver, Robert Hancock, born in Birmingham (1730-1817). We first meet Robert, recorded as a copper plate engraver at York House, at Battersea's enamel works in London.
Here, beautiful little copper boxes were made for the English 18th century luxury market and quite costly objects of vertu, the so-called bijouterie, scent bottles, little snuff boxes and practical wares, such as boxes to contain sewing implements, toothpicks, trays to hold pens, canisters for tea and sugar and even candlesticks, designed to imitated expensive silver pieces.
In 1756 the Battersea factory closed and we next find Robert at the Worcester porcelain factory in the same year. Robert Hancock had obviously taken his knowledge and expertise to the factory management, under the direction of Dr John Wall. The management was highly impressed with the idea of this rapid decoration technique!
Since the opening of the factory in 1751, porcelain painting had been a laborious and expensive process, undertaken by painters with coloured powdered enamels, mixed with lavender oil and brushes.
Robert was able to teach his printing skills and the process was soon mastered with the first, famous, copper plate engraved, black transfer print being produced in 1757. The subject being Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, ally and hero of the seven years war.
Transfer printing as developed at Battersea, began with the unique skill of the copper plate engraver, who deeply engraved, with a fine sharp steel, the desired design. The design was engraved in reverse!, allowing the final print to appear "right way around".
Pigment was then added, often mixed with oil and heated to allow the colour to run deeper into the copper plate engravings, the excess ink then wiped away with a palette knife. The copper plate, after being cleaned off with a cloth was then covered with a sheet of tissue which was dampened and pressed onto the plate. Next, the tissue was gently lifted from the plate and set carefully onto the shape to be printed. As the tissue was deftly lifted away, the design was left behind. This early printing style left the print on top of the glazed item, which was then fired to finally set the print onto the glazed surface.
As the 18th century turned into the early 19th century, new ceramic printing techniques were developed, to not only improve the technique, but make it faster, time is money! The great name at this point is Josiah Spode who is credited with the introduction of under glaze blue transfer printing into Staffordshire, during 1781-84.
During the early 1800's, the tissue was replaced by a sheet of paper, or sometimes fabric. With a layer of glue applied, this could easily be cut and shaped to fit around curved objects such as dishes and teapots. This is known as the "bat" print and gives the process its alternative name "bat printing".
The inked bat was then placed on the ceramic object and an impression left, leaving the print adhering to the shape. The item was then dipped into the glaze and returned to the kiln for the glost, or, low firing. The glue bats were reusable, plus they conformed better to curved surfaces. Cobalt blue, under glaze transfer printing became a standard of the Staffordshire pottery industry.
Men like Josiah Spode, Wedgwood, Thomas Minton and others, were all entrepreneurial types and leading figures of the great Staffordshire ceramic industry.
While sharing amicable business relationships, each kept an eye on the market! It was at this time that large export markets were opening or expanding in North America, Europe, and India where consumers sought elegant, matched sets of wares.
About The Author
The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co specialise in antique table lamp lighting with an on-line range of over 100 unique, antique and vintage lamps on view. Lamps are shipped ready wired for the U.S, the U.K and Australia. For more information you are invited to visit their web site at http://www.antiquelampshop.com
© The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The Different Types of Pottery
The making of pottery progressed with the progress of centuries. There are various types of pottery and coated or painted with different types and styles of decorations. We will see here how pottery has progressed till today.
Early in the nineteenth century came the introductions of pieces decorated with luster, both silver- and copper-colored, and there was a great variety among the finished products. Silver luster on a canary-yellow ground is the rarest, but silver in conjunction with under-glaze blue, especially if the latter is a sporting subject, is sought after and expensive.
Whole tea-sets were made at one period, each piece covered completely with a thin film of silver luster, and they were a passable imitation of the real thing for those who could not afford to buy the genuine metal. Copper-lusted pieces have been made since about 1800 and production has been continuous for some 150 years; which explains why so many 'early nineteenth-century' specimens are obtainable.
Although cream ware continued to be made, white-glazed pottery was developed from 1780 to compete with porcelain and was produced in great quantities by many makers. At first it had decoration printed solely in under glaze blue, but later developments included a wide range of colors. Whole services were made, and Spode, Wedgwood and Davenport (all of Staffordshire) were among the more prominent of the hundreds of names associated with it. The earlier blueprinted ware is very well finished and some of the patterns are most attractive; a few, including the willow pattern, are still being made.
One of the most popular introductions of the first half of the nineteenth century was ironstone china, said to contain ironstone slag in its composition and certainly very strong. The heavy ware, almost unbreakable, was both cheap and showy. It was made in the form of domestic pieces with pseudo-oriental decoration in vivid blues and reds, and many of the big dinner services are still being used. Sets of jugs, with handles in the shape of dragons, were made also and are not uncommon.
A style of decoration that is occasionally seen, particularly on jugs and tankards, is known as mocha, from a resemblance to a type of quartz of that name, and has brown moss-like blotches on it. The stains were made with the aid of tobacco-juice and hops, and doubtless gave pleasure to the potters making it.
Children were catered for from about 1830 with small plates printed with moral rhymes and other suitable subjects. Many were made in Staffordshire, but some came from Stockton-on-Tees, Co. Durham.
Enoch Wood and John Walton were prominent among makers of figures, many of them of small size and colored in opaque enamels with green predominating. Many of Walton's bear an impressed stamp with the name of the maker. Later pieces, introduced in about 1850, are the well-known Staffordshire chimneypiece ornaments in the form of portrait-figures, often unrecognizable without the name painted on the front of the base, ranging from politicians to murderers.
Besides the other the introduction of ironstone china in the first half of the nineteenth century. There were almost unbreakable and showy potteries. And potteries were also made to suite the different moods of people in different shapes and sizes as well.
About the Author
Mitch Johnson is a regular writer for http://www.kids-games-n-crafts.com//. His articles have also appeared on http://www.besttipsforcrafts.info/ and http://www.craftsforme.info/
Early in the nineteenth century came the introductions of pieces decorated with luster, both silver- and copper-colored, and there was a great variety among the finished products. Silver luster on a canary-yellow ground is the rarest, but silver in conjunction with under-glaze blue, especially if the latter is a sporting subject, is sought after and expensive.
Whole tea-sets were made at one period, each piece covered completely with a thin film of silver luster, and they were a passable imitation of the real thing for those who could not afford to buy the genuine metal. Copper-lusted pieces have been made since about 1800 and production has been continuous for some 150 years; which explains why so many 'early nineteenth-century' specimens are obtainable.
Although cream ware continued to be made, white-glazed pottery was developed from 1780 to compete with porcelain and was produced in great quantities by many makers. At first it had decoration printed solely in under glaze blue, but later developments included a wide range of colors. Whole services were made, and Spode, Wedgwood and Davenport (all of Staffordshire) were among the more prominent of the hundreds of names associated with it. The earlier blueprinted ware is very well finished and some of the patterns are most attractive; a few, including the willow pattern, are still being made.
One of the most popular introductions of the first half of the nineteenth century was ironstone china, said to contain ironstone slag in its composition and certainly very strong. The heavy ware, almost unbreakable, was both cheap and showy. It was made in the form of domestic pieces with pseudo-oriental decoration in vivid blues and reds, and many of the big dinner services are still being used. Sets of jugs, with handles in the shape of dragons, were made also and are not uncommon.
A style of decoration that is occasionally seen, particularly on jugs and tankards, is known as mocha, from a resemblance to a type of quartz of that name, and has brown moss-like blotches on it. The stains were made with the aid of tobacco-juice and hops, and doubtless gave pleasure to the potters making it.
Children were catered for from about 1830 with small plates printed with moral rhymes and other suitable subjects. Many were made in Staffordshire, but some came from Stockton-on-Tees, Co. Durham.
Enoch Wood and John Walton were prominent among makers of figures, many of them of small size and colored in opaque enamels with green predominating. Many of Walton's bear an impressed stamp with the name of the maker. Later pieces, introduced in about 1850, are the well-known Staffordshire chimneypiece ornaments in the form of portrait-figures, often unrecognizable without the name painted on the front of the base, ranging from politicians to murderers.
Besides the other the introduction of ironstone china in the first half of the nineteenth century. There were almost unbreakable and showy potteries. And potteries were also made to suite the different moods of people in different shapes and sizes as well.
About the Author
Mitch Johnson is a regular writer for http://www.kids-games-n-crafts.com//. His articles have also appeared on http://www.besttipsforcrafts.info/ and http://www.craftsforme.info/
The Spread of Pottery Styles
The Dutch not only exported dishes and other domestic wares they also exported the Dutch tiles to England and other European nations. Thus the making tiles became a separate branch of pottery making. And some of the important pottery making places was Hamburg, Frankfurt, Hanau and Bayreuth was outstanding centers. Bernard Palissy was one of the famous potters whose students spread his styles of pottery.
Dutch tin-glazed pottery, known by the name of the town of Delft where it became established eventually, was made in great quantities and much was sent to England. Not only was there a big trade in dishes and other domestic wares, but Dutch tiles were sent also. These were of sufficient importance to become a separate branch of pottery making; some men made them to the exclusion of all else, and sets of tiles were painted to be placed together and form pictures.
Germany, also, had numerous potteries making tin-glazed wares, and those of Hamburg, Frankfurt, Hanau and Bayreuth were outstanding centers; the first-named, together with Nurem-burg, being noted for making the great glazed and decorated pottery stoves used for heating rooms in many Continental countries. Much of the output resembled the earthenware being made elsewhere at the time, and much remains confused with contemporary English and Dutch work. Many German and Swiss potters made lead-glazed wares with slip and sgraffito decoration; much of it inscribed and dated. There were big centers for the making of stoneware at Cologne and Siegburg, the latter near Bonn. Much of the output was decorated elaborately with impressed patterns, and a large quantity of be liar mines was made; these are jugs with fat bodies and short thin necks, the head of a bearded man impressed on the front.
Bernard Palissy, whose life span embraced almost the whole of the sixteenth century, made dishes and other pieces modeled with lizards, shells, leaves and fishes. The clay of which these are made is whitish, and Palissy and his followers covered it effectively with colored transparent glazes. It is said that 'no class of pottery has been so widely copied for fraud'.
The white lead-glazed earthenware of St Porchaire was decorated in an unusual manner by impressing it in patterns with small metal stamps and filling the marks with colored clays. This small sixteenth-century pottery has had a chequered literary history, and a century ago was the subject of speculation and bitter argument among experts; first stated to have been at Lyons, then at Beauvais, and again Oiron, it has been decided that it was actually located at St Porchaire, north of Bordeaux. Only just over sixty pieces of the ware survive, and most of them are in museums. It has been faked, and the English Minton factory made exact copies of known examples.
Other French potters were affected closely by Italian work, but by the seventeenth century the factory at Rouen was making a tin-glazed majolica of character with decoration in red and blue. Potteries at Marseilles, Moustiers, Strasbourg, and elsewhere shortly became prominent, and today French faience is recognized as having a distinction of its own that rivals porcelain. It was well made and well painted; the shapes were interesting and often strikingly unusual.
The Swedish potteries at Marieberg and Rorstrand made excellent wares in original shapes with fine decoration towards the end of the eighteenth century. At about the same date a Norwegian factory at Herreboe made some equally interesting pieces. Productions from these factories are rare outside Scandinavia.
All types of wares were made in Portugal, but most are indistinguishable from those of Spain, Italy and Holland. A century ago, a pottery was founded at Caldas da Rainha by Manuel Mafra, and has made imitations of Palissy-ware and other colour-glazed pieces ever since. Some bear the maker's mark, others do not.
Different potters used in different countries and different styles of glazes. The Dutch potters use the tin-glazed known as Delft. Many German and Swiss potters used the lead-glazed wares with slip and sgraffito decoration and the white lead-glazed earthenware of St Porchaire. When a new design or style becomes popular different potters would fake it.
About the Author
Mitch Johnson is a regular writer for http://www.kids-games-n-crafts.com//. His articles have also appeared on http://www.craftstips.info/ and http://www.goodcrafts.info/
Dutch tin-glazed pottery, known by the name of the town of Delft where it became established eventually, was made in great quantities and much was sent to England. Not only was there a big trade in dishes and other domestic wares, but Dutch tiles were sent also. These were of sufficient importance to become a separate branch of pottery making; some men made them to the exclusion of all else, and sets of tiles were painted to be placed together and form pictures.
Germany, also, had numerous potteries making tin-glazed wares, and those of Hamburg, Frankfurt, Hanau and Bayreuth were outstanding centers; the first-named, together with Nurem-burg, being noted for making the great glazed and decorated pottery stoves used for heating rooms in many Continental countries. Much of the output resembled the earthenware being made elsewhere at the time, and much remains confused with contemporary English and Dutch work. Many German and Swiss potters made lead-glazed wares with slip and sgraffito decoration; much of it inscribed and dated. There were big centers for the making of stoneware at Cologne and Siegburg, the latter near Bonn. Much of the output was decorated elaborately with impressed patterns, and a large quantity of be liar mines was made; these are jugs with fat bodies and short thin necks, the head of a bearded man impressed on the front.
Bernard Palissy, whose life span embraced almost the whole of the sixteenth century, made dishes and other pieces modeled with lizards, shells, leaves and fishes. The clay of which these are made is whitish, and Palissy and his followers covered it effectively with colored transparent glazes. It is said that 'no class of pottery has been so widely copied for fraud'.
The white lead-glazed earthenware of St Porchaire was decorated in an unusual manner by impressing it in patterns with small metal stamps and filling the marks with colored clays. This small sixteenth-century pottery has had a chequered literary history, and a century ago was the subject of speculation and bitter argument among experts; first stated to have been at Lyons, then at Beauvais, and again Oiron, it has been decided that it was actually located at St Porchaire, north of Bordeaux. Only just over sixty pieces of the ware survive, and most of them are in museums. It has been faked, and the English Minton factory made exact copies of known examples.
Other French potters were affected closely by Italian work, but by the seventeenth century the factory at Rouen was making a tin-glazed majolica of character with decoration in red and blue. Potteries at Marseilles, Moustiers, Strasbourg, and elsewhere shortly became prominent, and today French faience is recognized as having a distinction of its own that rivals porcelain. It was well made and well painted; the shapes were interesting and often strikingly unusual.
The Swedish potteries at Marieberg and Rorstrand made excellent wares in original shapes with fine decoration towards the end of the eighteenth century. At about the same date a Norwegian factory at Herreboe made some equally interesting pieces. Productions from these factories are rare outside Scandinavia.
All types of wares were made in Portugal, but most are indistinguishable from those of Spain, Italy and Holland. A century ago, a pottery was founded at Caldas da Rainha by Manuel Mafra, and has made imitations of Palissy-ware and other colour-glazed pieces ever since. Some bear the maker's mark, others do not.
Different potters used in different countries and different styles of glazes. The Dutch potters use the tin-glazed known as Delft. Many German and Swiss potters used the lead-glazed wares with slip and sgraffito decoration and the white lead-glazed earthenware of St Porchaire. When a new design or style becomes popular different potters would fake it.
About the Author
Mitch Johnson is a regular writer for http://www.kids-games-n-crafts.com//. His articles have also appeared on http://www.craftstips.info/ and http://www.goodcrafts.info/
Choosing Ceramic Pottery as a Hobby
Every human being is unique so as the hobby. Pottery is one of the most unique and special hobby which very less people have. For a people having a good sense of creativity, pottery can be considered to be the best in developing their creative ability. Go through this article and learn more about this fascinating creative art.
In the cold, concise language of Webster's Dictionary, clay is "an earthy substance used in making pottery, bricks, etc". To the ceramist this definition seems much too objective and academic like saying the Hope Diamond is nothing more than a chunk of carbon which has undergone immense subterranean pressure and heat. Surely this flawless gem is worthy of a more full-flavored description.
So it is with clay. It can be shaped, colored and fired into myriad marvels of esthetic and utilitarian beauty. It has "life" and is capable of playing strange tricks under the influence of fire. Colors, too, are often capricious. Even under the strictest control they may affect results which are, to say the least, unexpected.
Every time you open the kiln, it is like Christmas. For you can never be certain about exactly what you will get. These surprise endings only add an extra dash of spice to an already absorbing hobby.
When you have started to work with ceramics, you will find that the more you know, the more there is to learn about this fascinating creative art. As with any worthwhile accomplishment, you will not become an expert potter merely by reading a book. You will have to taste your share of joys and disappointments during your trial-and-error apprenticeship. But don't be too easily discouraged if at first your trials turn out to be mostly errors.
Most educators agree that lessons learned by trial and error are lessons best remembered. With ceramics, moreover, all mistakes are not for the worst. On the contrary, many of a potter's errors result in his most attractive and original works. Usually these are the pieces which can never be duplicated.
Very popular in the ceramist's lexicon of phrases are the words "let us see what happens". The thrill of experimentation is not lacking in this hobby. For example, you could glaze a tray and toss on a few pieces of copper, just to "see what happens". After firing it, you may find the copper completely burned away, leaving a scrumptious splotch of green from the copper oxide. On the other hand, the copper might scale over the glaze and ruin the tray. You won't know until you remove it from the kiln and the suspense, as any ceramics enthusiast knows, can be unbearable.
Since the end of World War II, ceramics has mushroomed in popularity until today it is one of the nation's favorite pastimes. Its enthusiastic adherents are outnumbered, according to latest estimates, only by those of bowling, fishing and stamp collecting. As for creative hobbies, there are more ceramists in the country than any other breed of amateur artist.
Actually, it is difficult to put your finger on the reason for this sudden spurt in popularity. Perhaps it can be attributed to the war itself. Existing conditions then made it impossible to import pottery from abroad. Stores were eager to sell locally made merchandise. Critical shortages existed in metals and other materials that normally go into gift ware. But there has always been an abundance of raw material for the manufacture of pottery: clay. And the metallic oxides and carbonates that are used for pottery colors were likewise available throughout the war years.
No one can become an expert potter by just reading books, he has to gone through a long way of trail and error. Those who keep in going without feeling discourage can only be called an expert potter.
About the Author
Mitch Johnson is a regular writer for http://www.curtains-n-drapes.com/. His articles have also appeared on http://www.myceramicshub.info/ and http://www.myceramicsresource.info/
In the cold, concise language of Webster's Dictionary, clay is "an earthy substance used in making pottery, bricks, etc". To the ceramist this definition seems much too objective and academic like saying the Hope Diamond is nothing more than a chunk of carbon which has undergone immense subterranean pressure and heat. Surely this flawless gem is worthy of a more full-flavored description.
So it is with clay. It can be shaped, colored and fired into myriad marvels of esthetic and utilitarian beauty. It has "life" and is capable of playing strange tricks under the influence of fire. Colors, too, are often capricious. Even under the strictest control they may affect results which are, to say the least, unexpected.
Every time you open the kiln, it is like Christmas. For you can never be certain about exactly what you will get. These surprise endings only add an extra dash of spice to an already absorbing hobby.
When you have started to work with ceramics, you will find that the more you know, the more there is to learn about this fascinating creative art. As with any worthwhile accomplishment, you will not become an expert potter merely by reading a book. You will have to taste your share of joys and disappointments during your trial-and-error apprenticeship. But don't be too easily discouraged if at first your trials turn out to be mostly errors.
Most educators agree that lessons learned by trial and error are lessons best remembered. With ceramics, moreover, all mistakes are not for the worst. On the contrary, many of a potter's errors result in his most attractive and original works. Usually these are the pieces which can never be duplicated.
Very popular in the ceramist's lexicon of phrases are the words "let us see what happens". The thrill of experimentation is not lacking in this hobby. For example, you could glaze a tray and toss on a few pieces of copper, just to "see what happens". After firing it, you may find the copper completely burned away, leaving a scrumptious splotch of green from the copper oxide. On the other hand, the copper might scale over the glaze and ruin the tray. You won't know until you remove it from the kiln and the suspense, as any ceramics enthusiast knows, can be unbearable.
Since the end of World War II, ceramics has mushroomed in popularity until today it is one of the nation's favorite pastimes. Its enthusiastic adherents are outnumbered, according to latest estimates, only by those of bowling, fishing and stamp collecting. As for creative hobbies, there are more ceramists in the country than any other breed of amateur artist.
Actually, it is difficult to put your finger on the reason for this sudden spurt in popularity. Perhaps it can be attributed to the war itself. Existing conditions then made it impossible to import pottery from abroad. Stores were eager to sell locally made merchandise. Critical shortages existed in metals and other materials that normally go into gift ware. But there has always been an abundance of raw material for the manufacture of pottery: clay. And the metallic oxides and carbonates that are used for pottery colors were likewise available throughout the war years.
No one can become an expert potter by just reading books, he has to gone through a long way of trail and error. Those who keep in going without feeling discourage can only be called an expert potter.
About the Author
Mitch Johnson is a regular writer for http://www.curtains-n-drapes.com/. His articles have also appeared on http://www.myceramicshub.info/ and http://www.myceramicsresource.info/
The History of Oriental Pottery-Making in China
Almost every nation has different beginning of ceramic as per their culture and tradition. It has been given a new shapes and design base on their customs and culture. The following article will make you know how ceramic got its new shape in the hand of Chinese.
The history of Oriental pottery-making, for the most part, is much like that of the rest of the world. Improvements were made gradually over thousands of years, although the Japanese and Chinese apparently got a head-start in the field.
As early as 3000 B.C., Chinese ceramists were shaping some of the most artistic pottery in the annals of man, Europe at this date was still the home of roving bands of barbarians, who knew little more about making pottery than their earliest forebears.
Probably the most august age of Chinese ceramics was during the Sung Dynasty, which lasted from 960-1279 A.D. It was in this period that porcelain was first developed. The earliest known examples of porcelain are of the ying Ch'ing type a soft-looking, bubbly glaze, white in color but with a faint tinge of iridescent green or blue.
Chinese artisans jealously guarded their individual techniques for producing porcelain. The clay had to be properly aged, in many cases for centuries. Succeeding generations of potters inherited the family's supply of clay, which was buried in the ground to be dug up more than 100 years later by a potter's son or grandson.
When Oriental porcelain was introduced into Europe in the 15th century, it made even the most beautiful of western pottery look shabby by comparison. European ceramists regarded the Chinese and later, Japanese wares with awe and envy. Ambitious efforts were made to imitate the imported porcelain, which was in heavy demand among wealthy collectors. When Italian potters took to coating their earthenware with white enamel, which gave a superficial porcelain look, it was only the first of a long list of dismal failures.
The problem soon attracted the attention of Italian majolists and alchemists. The first reasonable imitation of porcelain was made at Florence in 1585 by a team of alchemists and potters working under the patronage of Francesco de Medici.
This Florentine "porcelain" was the forerunner of many European wares made in avowed imitation of true Oriental porcelain. They form a link between pottery and glass, for they may be considered either as pottery rendered translucent or as glass rendered opaque by shaping and firing a mixture containing a large percentage of glass with small amounts of clay.
But the search for the secret of true porcelain manufacture was excitedly continued by European ceramists for generations. The imitations ran the gamut of invention and ingenuity. By the mid-17th century, the research was considered so important that the experimenters, backed by such patrons as the Elector of Saxony and Madame de Pompadour, were more interested in solving the riddle of porcelain than they were in the transmutation of base metals into gold.
About the Author
Mitch Johnson is a regular writer for http://www.curtains-n-drapes.com/. His articles have also appeared on http://www.hubforceramics.info/ and http://www.interactiveceramics.info/
The history of Oriental pottery-making, for the most part, is much like that of the rest of the world. Improvements were made gradually over thousands of years, although the Japanese and Chinese apparently got a head-start in the field.
As early as 3000 B.C., Chinese ceramists were shaping some of the most artistic pottery in the annals of man, Europe at this date was still the home of roving bands of barbarians, who knew little more about making pottery than their earliest forebears.
Probably the most august age of Chinese ceramics was during the Sung Dynasty, which lasted from 960-1279 A.D. It was in this period that porcelain was first developed. The earliest known examples of porcelain are of the ying Ch'ing type a soft-looking, bubbly glaze, white in color but with a faint tinge of iridescent green or blue.
Chinese artisans jealously guarded their individual techniques for producing porcelain. The clay had to be properly aged, in many cases for centuries. Succeeding generations of potters inherited the family's supply of clay, which was buried in the ground to be dug up more than 100 years later by a potter's son or grandson.
When Oriental porcelain was introduced into Europe in the 15th century, it made even the most beautiful of western pottery look shabby by comparison. European ceramists regarded the Chinese and later, Japanese wares with awe and envy. Ambitious efforts were made to imitate the imported porcelain, which was in heavy demand among wealthy collectors. When Italian potters took to coating their earthenware with white enamel, which gave a superficial porcelain look, it was only the first of a long list of dismal failures.
The problem soon attracted the attention of Italian majolists and alchemists. The first reasonable imitation of porcelain was made at Florence in 1585 by a team of alchemists and potters working under the patronage of Francesco de Medici.
This Florentine "porcelain" was the forerunner of many European wares made in avowed imitation of true Oriental porcelain. They form a link between pottery and glass, for they may be considered either as pottery rendered translucent or as glass rendered opaque by shaping and firing a mixture containing a large percentage of glass with small amounts of clay.
But the search for the secret of true porcelain manufacture was excitedly continued by European ceramists for generations. The imitations ran the gamut of invention and ingenuity. By the mid-17th century, the research was considered so important that the experimenters, backed by such patrons as the Elector of Saxony and Madame de Pompadour, were more interested in solving the riddle of porcelain than they were in the transmutation of base metals into gold.
About the Author
Mitch Johnson is a regular writer for http://www.curtains-n-drapes.com/. His articles have also appeared on http://www.hubforceramics.info/ and http://www.interactiveceramics.info/
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