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Patterns in Ebony I Art Print Mallett, Keith 27.5 in. x 27.5 in. Buy at AllPosters.com Framed Mounted Pottery is one of the oldest crafts and was already known in the earliest agricultural societies, which have often been named after the particular form of pottery they produced (corded-ware, 'Bandkeramik', painted pottery, etc.). The invention of the potter's wheel gave the ceramic arts a new impetus and carried them to great heights -- notably the unsurpassed Athenian vase. Some of the greatest potters were the Chinese, the Islamic peoples and also the inhabitants of Ancient Peru. The progress of ceramics is not only marked by more elaborate forms, by painting and ornament, but also by the use of glaze (q.v.).
The most important forms of pottery are earthenware (Faience, or Majolica) and porcelain. Faience (named after the Italian city Faenza, where this type of ware was made at an early date) is a form of earthenware, covered with an opaque and non-porous tin glaze. The Italians call it Maiolica, after the island of Mallorca, from which Spanish 'faiences' were imported to Italy. To-day, the name 'faience' is mostly used to describe French earthenware; Italian earthenware is called majolica; Dutch and English earthenware of a similar type are known as 'delft'. Like porcelain, earthenware can be decorated in a few, but brilliant, 'hard enamel' colours; these fuse with the glaze during the second firing, or, having been fired twice, with a wider range of less durable 'muffle colours'. They are fired in so-called muffle kilns, as distinct from the open flame kilns used for coarser wares or where great heat is required.
Glazed pottery was already known in Ancient Egypt. The Babylonians invented a white tin glaze. This technique was taken up in the East, especially amongst the Islamic peoples, whose pottery is outstanding (Rhages, Sultanabad, Samarkand, etc.). The Arabs brought Islamic pottery to Spain (Malaga, Valencia), whence it found its way to Italy and the rest of Europe. The most famous Italian workshop was in Florence ( della Robbia family, q. v.), where whole paintings, based on the work of famous masters ( Dürer and Raphael, amongst others), were used to decorate large platters and bowls. The fame of the Delft potters was based on the imitation of Chinese porcelain (mostly blue and white). The Rouen, and, later, the Moustiers factories, were the most important centres of production in France; in Germany, faience was first made in the region around Hanau, but soon gained popularity everywhere.
The most important centres in England were Lambeth, Bristol and Liverpool. English delft was at first based on Dutch models, from which it is often almost indistinguishable. Here, too, 'Chinese' decoration continued until fairly late in the 18th century. A number of typically English designs were already developed in the 17th century, amongst them the so-called blue dash chargers, i. e. large platters decorated with blue dashes along the edge and with paintings of Adam and Eve, or royal portraits, in the centre. Other types are the tulip chargers, and the brown slipware of Thomas Toft. By 1800, Wedgwood's invention of hard earthenware put an end to 'faience' almost everywhere. In recent times, there have been many attempts at a revival of the old technique (Karlsruhe, Copenhagen).
One of the early predecessors of porcelain is stoneware, which becomes non-porous in firing and whose handsome, shiny glaze is produced by the addition of salt, which evaporates in firing. Stoneware, known to the Chinese since the Han dynasty ( 206 B.C. -- A.D. 220) was widely made in Germany during the 16th and 17th centuries. Important centres of production were in the Rhineland (in the region of Cologne), where the so-called 'grey-beards' -- jugs with a bearded face near the spout -- and the 'Kurfürstenkrüge' with their medallions of local rulers were made.
The 'Schnellen', slender mugs of white stoneware, were made in Siegburg, other types of vessels in the Westerwald region and in Franconia and Silesia. In England, John Dwight of Fulham claimed to have discovered the secret of German stoneware in 1671 and took out a patent. He founded the Fulham factory, which has continued to the present day. Dwight's early wares were statues and jugs copied from German models. Other important pioneers were the Elers brothers, who made red stoneware teapots in the Chinese manner. Hard salt-glazed earthenware was also made by John Astbury and by Thomas Whieldon. This type of earthenware is not a stoneware, but has merely had ground flint added to the clay.
Earthenware of this type must not be confused with the so-called 'soft' porcelain, made at Chelsea and Worcester, and also in Persia. Hard earthenware was perfected to the highest degree by Josiah Wedgwood. His vases, tea-pots and medallions, mostly decorated with classical motifs, were often finished on the lapidary's wheel. Experiments were also made with various other techniques. Transfer printing, i. e. the application of transfer pictures, which were secured by firing, came into vogue at the beginning of the 19th century; stone china was invented slightly later.
The ceramic arts have also been used in architecture from the earliest days. The decorations of Gothic red brick churches are often of terra-cotta, as were the statues or ornaments on the roof of the Greek temple (Akroterion). Glazed earthenware played an important part in the prehistoric civilisations of Mesopotamia (Ishtar gate in Babylon, see ill. 94 ) and, above all, in the architecture of Islam. The walls of the Alhambra (Granada) are faced all over with coloured earthenware tiles, the so-called azulejos. Painted pottery has, in fact, existed since the Stone Age; but the term, in its narrower sense, is only applied to the pottery of prehistoric or early historic times. Painted pottery is classified according to cultural epochs.
With the exception of an area in the Rhineland in the Early Middle Ages (Pingsdorf ware), it was unknown in the Germanic North. But it was known in Asia Minor between 3000 and 4000 B.C., and spread throughout the Balkans, the Danubian plain and southern Italy, as early as in the Neolithic Age, although it had fallen into disuse by the Bronze Age, except in the Aegean peninsula and the surrounding islands. Painted pottery only seems to have returned to favour in the Iron Age, when it occurred in Italy, Spain and within the orbit of the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures.
In porcelain -- not discovered in Europe until the 18th century, although known to the Chinese at least a thousand years earlier -- the dreams of the potters of the past seemed to have been fulfilled. A material suitable both for bowls and jars of all kinds and for small statues hitherto made of terra-cotta had at last been found.
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