Staffordshire ware
Staffordshire ware,
various products of the PotteriesPotteries, the,area, c.9 mi (15 km) long and 3 mi (4.8 km) wide, Staffordshire, W central England, extending northwest-southeast in the upper Trent valley. The area includes Stoke-on-Trent and part of Newcastle-under-Lyme.
..... Click the link for more information. district, one of the most famous areas in England for the production of pottery. Late 17th-century slipwareslipware,
pottery decorated with various colors of slip, a thin mixture of clay and water. Slip may form a design on a contrasting background, or lines may be scratched through a coating of slip to show the color beneath, in the style called graffito.
..... Click the link for more information. such as that attributed to Thomas Tofts shows a naïveté and liveliness that make its examples among the most desired objects of ceramics collectors. Stonewarestoneware,
hard pottery made from siliceous paste, fired at high temperature to vitrify (make glassy) the body. Stoneware is heavier and more opaque than porcelain and differs from terra-cotta in being nonporous and nonabsorbent.
..... Click the link for more information. also was produced in the late 17th cent. and attained high quality. A white salt-glazed ware appeared in the first half of the 18th cent. Enamel glazes on top of salt glazing allowed for increasing richness. The end of the 18th cent. saw the advent of porcelainporcelain
[Ital. porcellana], white, hard, permanent, nonporous pottery having translucence which is resonant when struck. Porcelain was first made by the Chinese to withstand the great heat generated in certain parts of their kilns.
..... Click the link for more information. manufacture. Among the famous Staffordshire potters were Josiah WedgwoodWedgwood, Josiah,
1730–95, English potter, descendant of a family of Staffordshire potters and perhaps the greatest of all potters. At the age of nine he went to work at the plant owned by his brother Thomas in Burslem, and in 1751, with a partner, he started in business.
..... Click the link for more information. , Thomas MintonMinton,
English family of potters. The first important member of the family was Thomas Minton, 1765–1836, who founded a small pottery at Stoke-on-Trent. He first engraved the famous willow-pattern ware.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Josiah SpodeSpode, Josiah, I,
1733–97, English potter. He founded a pottery firm in 1770 at Stoke-on-Trent in the Staffordshire pottery district. Creating many of his patterns after Japanese designs, he developed a highly effective method of transfer printing with blue underglazes.
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