Saturday, November 17, 2007

Industry in Britain

Great Britain 1700-1800: Industrial Revolution brings huge changes to industry. Eventually, small potteries can not compete, but this encourages development of genuinely alternate "art pottery" or studio potters. Technical improvements introduced into Staffordshire (main pottery area): Stoneware produced by John Dwight and Elers brothers (from Holland) end of 17th c--lathe-turned, precise shapes influenced by Chinese Yixing wares. Calcined flint added to make white body, salt glaze stoneware. Creamware perfected by Wedgwood--low fire earthenware, cheap, light colour takes decoration, industrial parallels development of consumer culture, emphasis on dining, etiquette, fashion. Creamwares after 1760 revolutionize tablewares available to middle classes, replace tin glaze.
Ralph Daniel introduces plaster of Paris from Continent for molds in 1740s--used for press molding salt glaze wares (slip casting not economical until introduction of deflocculants in 19th c.). Transfer printing introduced 1753. First used on enamels, but adapted to pottery. Copper plate printed ink on tissue or oil on gelatin bat. Oil transferred to pot, dusted with oxides for colour. Allowed for efficient, mass-produced decoration, popularity of prints (Hogarth and others), political commentary, souvenir jugs etc. Thomas Whieldon (1719-95) "agate wares" (white clay body coloured with iron, manganese, cobalt—clay wedged together to marbleize, imitate stone) and "tortoiseshell wares" (glaze colours dusted on, mix with streaky glaze). Enoch Booth introduces biscuit firing, which allows pots to be produced one place, decorated at another.
Redware, or red stoneware, was a popular type of unglazed pottery in the mid-eighteenth century in many parts of Europe, especially the Low Countries and England. It was principally intended to imitate Chinese tablewares for the preparation and serving of tea. In Stafforsdshire, the preparation of the red clays, using local Stafforsdshire clays which fired at a high temperature, had been perfected at the end of the seventeenth century by the Dutch brothers John Philip and David Elers. They produced exceptionally finely made teapots, mugs and tea canisters. The subsequent manufacture in the 1760s of unglazed red 'useful' wares was one of the ways in which Josiah Wedgwood established his name as a potter in the late eighteenth century. Wedgwood refined the body, and called it “rosso antico.” The most common surviving pieces are mugs, tankards, teapots and coffeepots. Shapes were made using plaster moulds.
Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795): brilliant innovator, businessman, encourages canals, opposes slavery, supports French/American revolutions (real paradox!). Capitalizes on vogue for consumer goods, neoclassical decorative wares, improves creamware body--"Queensware"--admired by Queen Charlotte, wife of George III. "Frog Service" 1773 for Catherine the Great of Russia. Designs often based on metalwares, pierced wares, transfer printed. Jasperware: body coloured with cobalt other minerals (later, just dipped)--designs by leading neoclassical artists, copied from archaeological designs published by Sir William Hamilton and others from Pompeii, Herculaneum--used in furniture, tea services, jewellery, decorative vases—extremely elaborate and ornate.
Wedgwood produced a copy of the celebrated Portland Vase in black-and-white jasper-ware. The original, attributed to the Roman gem-cutter Dioskourides, is in the style of works made between 30 and 20 B.C. After its discovery in the late sixteenth century in the tomb of the Emperor Septimius Severus, it became one of the most admired works of antiquity and passed through an illustrious series of collections, among them those of Cardinal Barberini, Sir William Hamilton, and finally, the duchess of Portland, who donated it to the British Museum. The iconography remains a mystery, though many interpretations have been offered. A recent theory is that the frieze depicts (as the vessel is turned) Peleus entering to meet Thetis in the presence of her parents and Aphrodite and that the vase was made as a wedding present for the Emperor Augustus's daughter Julia on her marriage to Marcus Claudius Marcellus, her cousin, in 25 B.C. Wedgwood continued to issue editions of the vase throughout the 19th and 20th c.
The research of Josiah Wedgwood I (1730-95), and his experiments with various types of clays and methods of firing led to the production of creamware from the early 1760s. Wares made at Wedgwood in Burslem were sent to Liverpool to John Sadler (1720-89) and Guy Green (retired 1799) to be decorated with transfer prints.

French Porcelain

French Porcelain: Develops under court patronage. Soft-paste porcelain—made without the ingredient kaolin—was first manufactured in France in the late 17th century. No source of kaolin in France until 1768; soft paste still favoured until 19th c. Several important factories were founded, most around Paris. The earliest commercial porcelain was made at Saint-Cloud in about 1693. The Chantilly factory was founded by Louis-Henry de Bourbon, prince de Condé (1692–1740) in 1730. Chantilly moves to Vincennes (1738).
At bequest of Mme. Pompadour (favorite of Louis XV) moved to Sevres outside Paris 1756. Sevres granted exclusive privilege to make wares "in the style of Saxony" (Meissen) for 20 years—no need to pursue commercial success. Completely tied to system of power, intrigue of court. Employs hundreds of workers, some of greatest French artists, 7 specialist workshops—fashionable decorative objects, special effects--reserves ("camaieu") painted with fantasy scenes-Chinoiserie, rococo influence--potpourris, garnitures, plaques, opera glasses, ice buckets, table wares.
At the château of Vincennes, east of Paris, in 1740, under the aristocratic patronage of Jean-Louis Orry de Fulvy (1703-51), a soft-paste porcelain factory was established by former Chantilly workmen, In 1745, the factory, under Charles Adam, Orry de Fulvy’s valet, was granted a 20-year royal privilege to manufacture porcelain painted in the Meissen style with figures and gilding. Following Orry de Fulvy’s death, the factory experienced financial difficulties but began a new phase in 1752 when Louis XV, king of France (1723-74) acquired one quarter of the shares. The factory was then renamed the manufacture du roi (royal manufactory) and was granted official permission to mark its pieces with the royal cipher of interlaced L’s. In 1756 the factory moved to Sèvres.
Sèvres: In 1756 the factory of Vincennes relocated to Sèvres, a village near Versailles close to the château of Bellevue, owned by Madame de Pompadour (1721-64) the mistress of Louis XV and an important patron. In 1759 Louis XV took over complete financial control of the factory. A goldsmith, Jean-Claude Duplessis (c.1695-1774) was appointed as the artistic director of sculpture. The factory’s products were strongly influenced by the designs of François Boucher (1703-70), whose graceful, rococo style superseded imitations of Meissen and Asian porcelain.
In 1769 Sèvres began producing hard-paste porcelain, following the discovery of kaolin at Saint-Yrieix, near Limoges, in 1765. Although restrictions on the establishment of porcelain factories in France were relaxed to encourage the development of hard-paste porcelain, Sèvres retained its royal patronage and excusive right to produce sculptural, multi-coloured and gilded porcelain. The factory was nationalized in 1793, following the abolition of the monarchy, and is still in existence today.
Coloured grounds: rose pompadour, bleu celeste, bleu lapis. Inkstand: 1758, soft paste, green ground, decorated with cherubs, gilding-likely made for daughter of Louis XV, Mme Adelaide—crown once contained bell; terrestrial globe-ink; celestial globe contained sand-sprinkled through holes to dry ink on page-little cameo of Louis XV on side. Wallace Collection (London-collected Sevres especially with aristocrats fleeing Revolution). 19th c. under Alexander Broignart, factory abandons soft paste for hard. More "high-tech," clean, industrial, imitate any material: virtuosity and luxury. Soft paste examples from ancien regime highly sought after by wealthy reliving fantasy of past.

German Porcelain

German Porcelain: First "true" or hard paste porcelain produced in Europe 1709 under Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland by goldsmith and alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger. Initial experiments produce high-fire red stoneware, could be carved, polished. Often based on designs by Johann Jakob Irminger for metalwares. Böttger discovers use of kaolin to make true porcelain paste ("arcanum"—see great book, The Arcanum by Janet Gleeson). Meissen factory employs 500 people by end of century. Unpainted blanks smuggled out or sold to be decorated by independent artists--Hausmaler tradition ("house painters").
Most important Meissen designer Johann Joachim Kandler--creates numerous table figures based on Italian comedy (commedia dell'arte—stock characters wealthy merchant Pantaloon, beautiful Columbine, jester Harlequin) and pastoral shepherd groups (after French painters Watteau, Boucher), heraldic animals decorate Japanese palace of Augustus (large, difficult to fire, often cracked—based on actual animal studies), Swan service for Count von Bruhl. Johann Gregor Horroldt--major painter, develops overglaze colours (1669-1775) Porcelain also produced in Nymphenburg (Swiss modeler, Franz Anton Bustelli), Berlin, Vienna.
The first European hard-paste porcelain factory was founded in 1710 in Dresden by decree of Augustus II (1670-1733), King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, as a result of the successful porcelain experiments of Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682-1719), and Ehrenfried Walther, Count von Tschirhausen (1651-1708). Following Böttger’s death, the factory was administered by Johann Melchior Steinbrück, who appointed Johann Gregor Höroldt (1696-1775) as manager of the decorators’ workshop.
After 1731, the factory was directed by a treasury board, under the presidency of the king. In 1733, the factory came under the direction of Heinrich, Count von Brühl (1700-63), with whose patronage the outstanding modeler Johann Friedrich Kändler (1706-75) developed the medium of small-scale sculpture in European porcelain. The factory was disastrously affected by the Seven Years War (1756-63), and fell gradually into decline and financial hardship, reviving in the late 19th century. The factory survives today.
Overglaze enamels: Under the direction of Johann Höroldt, Meissen greatly expanded the color palette available for decoration. First a piece of porcelain would be fired to high temperature On on top of this hard, fired surface, overglazes would be applied. Overglaze colors are very low temperature glazes, mixtures of glass, lead, binder, and pigment. The lead acts as a flux, melting the glass at a very low temperature (around 1300° F). The binder used was often a thick (very toxic, turpentine-based) oil, which would allow the overglaze to 'stick' to the glazed surface.
During the firing the oil would burn away, leaving the melted glaze sitting on top of the previously fired high temperature glaze. Pigments used were the usual oxides of iron, cobalt, copper, manganese, antimony, and chrome. By blending and mixing these colors, Höroldt was able to create a rich and nuanced palette of colors with which to work. The main advantage of overglazing is that colors that cannot be achieved at porcelain temperatures can be attained at this lower temperature. The main disadvantage is their relative impermanence. Abrasion will cause the color to wear away.

European Porcelain

Hard Paste porcelain: original formula, developed in China under T'ang—vitrified mixture of kaolin (low iron, high alumina clay, china stone—quarz, mica and feldspar). Glazes include lime, feldspar—fires at about 1300C.
Soft Paste porcelain: ("pate tendre") low clay content, high quartz, glass frit, lime or gypsum—fires lower (1240 C or lower)—not as strong, slumps, cracks, but beautiful effects with glazes—used in France 18th c (Sevres) and Britain (Bow, Chelsea etc.).
Hard paste porcelain (“true porcelain”) consists of a “triaxial” blend of quartz, feldspar and kaolin. Fired at 1300 C, a dense vitreous body with an iron content less than 1% results in a white, translucent and very strong porcelain. Soft-paste porcelain is produced by a very different method, which was in common use around Paris by the mid-18th century. Soda ash, sea salt, potassium nitrate, silica and lime (or gypsum) were milled together and heated for 30 or more hours to form a white opaque product. The alkali and quartz react to produce an alkali silicate glass using a sintering technique very similar to that used since the 10th c. to make maiolica and faience glazes.
After 1750, calcined alum was added to provide a further source of potassia and alumina. The mixture was washed to remove any un-reacted alkali, as soluble alkali would migrate to the surface and cause blemishes. The sinter was milled wet and combined with 16.5% white limestone and 8.3% washed, decanted calcareous marl clay from Argenteuil, which added plasticity. This mixture was dried, wedged and stored for several months to ferment organic constituents and to improve plasticity. In this state, the material could be moulded.
However, to throw the material, black soap and parchment glue were added to increase green strength. Thrown ware was trimmed in the bone-dry rather than leather-hard state. This created dust that was very dangerous to the lungs. Soft-paste wares were fired for periods of up to 90 hours at temperatures of about 1240 C or lower. Soft-paste porcelains are generally twice-fired; lead- alkai-silicate, lead-silicate or lead-borosilicate glazes are applied to biscuit wares and re-fired to a lower temperature (Ceramic Masterpieces, Kingery and Vandiver).

Bone china: developed by Josiah Spode c. 1800--up to 50% bone ash, equal parts china clay, feldspar--ideal for casting, economical. By 1825, used extensively in Britain. Bisqued at around 1250C, then glazed and refired at around 1080C. Used lead-borosilicate glaze.
Wedgwood's cream ware/pearlware: Improved existing earthenware body after 1763--refined ball clay, calcined flint (pure silica withstands higher temperature), china stone/ china clay. Glazes lead-soda. cobalt added to glaze after 1779 to produce pearlware.
The first porcelain in Europe: In Florence, Grand Duke Francesco de'Medici (died 1587) was recorded in 1575 as having found the secret of making porcelain after years of trials and experiment. This is generally considered the first European porcelain, although the body and glaze are in fact based on Near Eastern and maiolica techniques. The paste formula and the high temperatures required in the firing kilns were difficult to achieve, and the project proved extremely costly: after Francesco's death, production dwindled.

German Salt Glaze

Germany: Salt-Glaze: Rhineland early centre of Roman occupation, pottery traditions. Large scale production by 7th c.; kiln improvements in 9th made for tougher wares. Stoneware (steinzeug) produced between 1000-1200 CE—first in Europe (China: 500 BCE). Area favoured with wood supply, stoneware clays, river transport, population base, bronze-working traditions. Developments relate to brewing industry—introduce hops c. 1500—big upsurge in beer consumption requires hygienic, sturdy wares. Canette--in Germany, short fat pint; Schnelle: ("fast")--tall, tapering mug; Bellarmines (face modelled on neck—satirize Cardinal opposed to drinking).
By the sixteenth century workshops in Siegburg, Raren, Cologne and elsewhere were producing highly artistic wares applied with moulded decoration of mythological and biblical scenes, often based on contemporary engravings, or naturalistic foliate ornament, political images and armorial devices. Siegburg was renowned for the production of an almost white stoneware with delicately modelled relief decoration in the Renaissance style. Merchants from Cologne were granted licence from 1570 to transport and sell Siegburg stoneware to merchants in Hamburg.
Salt glaze--at stoneware temperatures (1100-1200C), salt added to kiln decomposes to form sodium oxide and hydrogen chloride—released as (noxious) gas—sodium fluxes with silica and aluminum in pot surface, forms tough, thin, shiny glaze--colour based on reduction/oxidization and iron content of clay. Salt firings on this scale environmentally bad: chlorine gases unhealthy. (note: many contemporary studio potters use salt glaze, but on a much smaller scale, in which case the environmental effects are less concerning.) Salt glaze likely produced by 1400s, but first dated ware 1539. Control by trade unions, foreigners only for menial tasks, limit supply.
Defining characteristics of Salt Glaze: use of molds; originals cut in fine sandstone, impressions taken in pipe clay--double negative (to protect original mold)--crisp, detailed. Clay mined from shafts, salt imported from Low Countries (used to salt Newfoundland cod). Wares wheel-thrown, profiles crisped up with templates, bone tools. Colour added—"scratch blue" cobalt frit (smalt) rubbed into incised lines. Production of wares stimulated by improvements in beer (addition of hops). Potteries disrupted by Thirty years war (1618-48), relocate. Main centres: Seigburg—throw marks, pie crust foot, elaborate modelled friezes based on engravings, developing print culture, white-burning clays. Raeren brown salt-glaze imitated bronze, often friezes modelled, pious inscriptions around waists.
Jan Emens Mennicken active 1566-1594--best-known-classical scenes, nudes, festival and religious scenes. Wares widely exported. Koln: early centre, dark chestnut pots—dispute with potters; they move to Freschen. Kannenbacherland--land of potters--in Westerwald where potters fled to avoid war—produced Seigburg-style wares—grey or blue-grey, intricate engravings, pious sayings—eventually more geared towards colour (fashions change).
Kreussen (Bavaria): most elaborate, costly salt-glaze—inspired by/compete with maiolica, overglaze enamels—colourful, popular 1620-1750. Salt-glaze wore silverware down, eventually replaced by maiolica, creamwares in 18th c.

More on Tin Glaze

Netherlands: tiles, pottery first made at Antwerp by Italian émigré potters 16th c. --closely related to Italian traditions. Founding of VOC (Dutch East India Company) introduced Chinese porcelain--Dutch compete with Delftware--get boost from collapse of Ming. Potters admitted to Guild of St. Luke on basis of painting skill--often copy engravings, portraits, landscape, figural works, genre--use quality clays, industrial methods to produce quality product. Tiles popular in kitchens on walls (Spanish, Italians had used on floors)--hygienic, easy to clean.
Flower holders specially designed to accommodate tulips--pyramid shape, interlocking parts with water holders, spout-shaped necks for blooms--pyramids symbolized the “glory of the Prince” (in Emblem tradition--Caesare Ripa)--also called to mind Roman/Egyptian obelisks, Chinese pagodas. Most exuberant examples produced by van Eenhorn family with Adrien Kocks--popular for funerals, weddings, all sorts of celebrations, display. First mentioned in household inventories of wealthy between 1654-1668. Popularized with English court with accession to throne of William and Mary (Glorious Revolution, 1688--Mary huge fan of blue and white porcelain, Delftware.)
Tin-glazed earthenwares had been imported into England from the Mediterranean from the 13th century. They were called galleywares, probably because they were imported on ships. In 1567 Jaspar Andries and Jacob Janson (dates unknown) arrived in England from Antwerp, and in 1571 they applied for permission to establish a maiolica pottery in London, and helped to introduce the tin-glaze technique to England. It involved coating fired earthenware with a layer of glaze that was opacified with oxides of tin. The resulting fragile white surface was ideal for decoration with colours that were fired at the same time as the glaze. This style of pottery, which had spread all over Europe from Italy, is now known as delftware. There were three principal centres for the production of delftware in England in the 17th and 18th centuries: London, Bristol and Liverpool. (Gar.)
England: John Stow’s Survey of London 1603 reports religious refugees from Antwerp making Delftware in London--also made floor tiles, “apothecaries” (drug jars, albarellos, mortar and pestles etc.) Tin-glaze produced in Aldgate (East Anglia) and Southwark (London) by Flemish potters early 17th to late 18th c. --hard to tell Dutch and other foreign examples. Lambeth, Bristol other important centres--exported to Indies, Americas. Many potteries small family businesses; produced figures, decorated plates, puzzle jugs, candle holders etc.--tendency to chip limited use--surviving objects usually for display. Eventually replaced by Staffordshire creamwares late in 18th c.

Bernard Palissy

Bernard Palissy (1510-1590): Amateur scientist, theologian (Hugenot), potter, artist--invented ways of casting from life, developed innovative glazes based on tin and lead. Faced religious persecution most of his life but also produced wares for aristocracy--grottos (for Anne de Montmorency, Catherine de Medici), “rustic wares” (often snakes, crayfish, turtles, lizards, seashells, in marshy environment on large oval basins, platters--also pitchers). Naturalistic grottos actually contain complex allegories of his faith.
Bernard Palissy - artisan to kings, writer, savant, philosopher, lecturer, naturalist, religionist, scientist, and discoverer - was born in 1510. His father was probably an artisan because Palissy was able to draw and paint, skills that were often passed from father to son. A talented student, Palissy learned the arts of portraiture, stained-glass painting, cartography and possibly glassmaking. In the latter 1530s, Palissy settled in Saintes, a small town in southwestern France about sixty-five miles north of Bordeaux. There he married and raised his family of six children. Around 1539 or 1540, he was introduced to ceramics, an event that changed his life. He devoted the next decade to studying and developing a range of white enamel and coloured, lead-based glazes. This was no simple task, as little or nothing was known about chemistry, firing techniques or kilns.
Many colours burnt out while others under-fired. Finding technology that allowed a number of colours to be used on a single piece required extraordinary patience, method and constant experimentation. He and his family were often near starvation.
By about 1550, Palissy developed his "figulines rustiques," or rustic ware style of ceramics (the representation of pond life in naturalistic settings), for which he became renowned. He moulded his subjects: snakes, lizards, frogs, shells, fish, insects, leaves, and ferns--from actual specimens, colouring them with elaborate, multi-coloured glazes. His unique work soon attracted wealthy and powerful patrons, including the high constable Anne de Montmorency, the most powerful man in France next to the king.
France during this time was wracked by religious strife between Catholics and Protestants. In late 1562, the town of Saintes was pillaged by Catholic troops. Palissy's workshop was ravaged by a frenzied mob, his pottery was destroyed and he was arrested. He was saved from execution only by the intervention of Anne de Montmorency and the king, Charles IX. He was appointed Potter to the King and set about designing a garden grotto for Catherine de Medici's Palace de Tuilleries, on the site of the former tileworks. The project was abandonned in 1572 when religious strife again tore through France. Unfortunately, nothing remains of the grotto, but remnants of his studio were found during excavations at the Louvre in the mid-1980s.
Fearing for his life, Palissy left Paris for Sedan, where he continued to make ceramics and study natural history. Encouraged by the Peace of La Rochelle in 1573, he traveled to Paris and invited other scholars, philosophers, scientists and physicians to meet in free discussion. Palissy held the first open lectures on natural history ever delivered in Paris. Around 1576 or 1577 Palissy returned there to live. He continued to be persecuted for his faith and was imprisoned in the Bastille in 1588, where he died at the age of 80, having refused an offer of freedom in return for reverting to Catholicism. He continued to be a figure of speculation and interest, spawning many followers. The highpoint of interest in Palissy came in the 19th c., when interest in natural history and decorative arts led to a revival of Palissy ware.

European Tin Glaze

Origins of European Tin-Glaze from Muslim technology Hispano-Moresque: Cordoba centre of Western world during Ummayad period (CE 756-1031). Around 1000, potters began to use tin-glaze on biscuit-fired pots. Lustres applied on third fire. Real upsurge in 13th c. as potters flee Mongol advance and come to Spain. Moslems reduced to southern Spain--cross-fertilization with Christian potters. Wares made at Malaga (Andalusia) and Valencia under Islamic influence. Later, Mudejar style (1450-1700) under Christian rule--fusion of Islamic and Gothic traditions. Often cobalt and lustre patterns--leaves, vines arranged in registers used on albarellos (drug jars)--Portinari Altar by Hugo van der Goes (1478). Crisp profiles, elaborate presentation, communal dining wares--exported in large quantities to Italy in Majorcan ships--possible origin of term Maiolica. Talavera de la Reina in central Spain popularized white glaze as “appetizing.” Royal patronage sent group to Mexico to start tradition.
The Islamic tradition of lustred earthenware was introduced into Europe in the workshops of Malaga, in Islamic southern Spain. By around 1400, the Christian region of Valencia had become the major centre of production. Large quantities were exported to Italy, particularly to the wealthy families of Tuscany, many of whom had trading links with Valencia. Many Italian families commissioned lustreware painted with their arms. Manises is a suburb of Valencia. Some of the finest lusterware ever produced was made here in the 14th and 15th centuries. These pieces incorporated Gothic motifs into Muslim designs, using Muslim technology, and are referred to as mudejares (or mudejar) style.
Italy: Wares from Islamic countries imported from early date--began to use tin-glaze themselves around 1300. Extensive trade between Tuscany and Barcelona. Valencia introduces mudejar style. Early maiolica very decorative—often oak leaf shape in raised, runny cobalt glaze on tin-glaze surface, heraldic animals—found on bulbous 2-handled drug jars. Major pottery centres develop at Castle Durante, Deruta, Cafaggiola, Faenza. Painters apply mineral paints to tin-glaze using popular prints, paintings as motifs--style called istoriato (historiated--narrative subjects)--mythological, religious, patriotic, popular images in orange, yellow, blue, manganese, purple/brown.
Lustres first made at Deruta--possibly introduced by Islamic potters fleeing Christian advance in Spain—only made at a few centres. Cipriano Piccolpasso wrote Three Books of the Potter’s Art—major source of textual and visual references to pottery techniques of the day. Major work produced by largest ateliers—required real skill, division of labour to decorate and fire properly (lots of wasters)--lead poisoning a real occupational hazard. Istoriato goes out of favour with Baroque—often are monochrome blue or yellow with grotesques--called Faience in France (after Faenza).
Religious wars/Reformation saw potters locating north, east --spread tin-glaze to Netherlands, Central Europe (Anabaptists/Haban wares), England. France, Germany, Netherlands. Duc de Berry (owned Très Riches Heures) brought potters from Spain to produce tin-glaze in 1432. Muslim potters fleeing Catholic inquisition come also to southern France--early French wares resemble Italian closely. Traditional maiolica (faience) called “in-glaze” as colours painted on unfired glaze and fuse with it. Covered with coperta (Italian) or kwaart (Dutch)--transparent lead glaze enhances brilliance, seals surface. Range of wares produced in emulation/competition with Chinese porcelain--tureens, stove tiles, decorative plates.

Notes on Islamic Ceramics

Arabic Alphabet and numerals
The Arabic alphabet is written from right to left and consists of twenty-eight letters which are created from seventeen different letter shapes. In modern Arabic dots above and below letters help to distinguish them from each other. In early Arabic these dots were frequently omitted. Many of the letters change their shape depending on where they are situated within a word. Arabic numerals were developed in India in the fifth century AD and spread with Islam, replacing Roman numerals. In the ingenious Indo-Arabic method, any quantity could be represented by figures using a decimal point. The numerals, unlike the alphabet, are written from left to right. Their shapes have evolved over the centuries.
Arabic scripts
Following the revelation of Islam in the seventh century AD, Arabic was established as the language and script of the Muslim empire. Muslims must learn the Qur'an in its original Arabic. Therefore Arabic spread with Islam and was eventually used to write languages such as Persian (Iran), Urdu (India and Pakistan), Dari (Afghanistan), Ottoman Turkish (until 1928) and the languages of Indonesia and Malaysia (until recently). There are many different styles of Arabic scripts.
Kufic developed around the end of the seventh century in Kufa, Iraq (from which it takes its name) and other centres. Until about the eleventh century it was the main script used to copy Qur'ans. The simple and elegant forms were embellished over time. There are several variations on kufic script. It was particularly useful for decorative tile work and inscriptions.
As the decorative potential of Kufic was increasingly exploited, it became ever more difficult to read and was gradually abandoned for general use during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Rounded scripts were used since early Islamic times for everyday writing on papyrus for example, whereas Kufic was reserved for more formal public texts.
Naskh is the 'copyists' hand mainly used from the twelfth century for writing government documents and also for copying the Qur'an.
As the decorative potential of Kufic was increasingly exploited, it became ever more difficult to read and was gradually abandoned for general use during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Rounded scripts were used since early Islamic times for everyday writing on papyrus for example, whereas Kufic was reserved for more formal public texts.
Naskh is the 'copyists' hand mainly used from the twelfth century for writing government documents and also for copying the Qur'an.
First major Dynasty, Umayyad, centred in Syria (Damascus)—replaced by Abbasid, who move capital from Mediterranean and Classical influence to Middle Eastern capital at Baghdad. With fall of Umayyad, Egyptian potters bring technology of lead-based glazes to Baghdad—city rivals Constantinople for richness, elegance, sophistication. Harun al-Rashid (r. 786-809) in contact with Charlemagne in West and with T’ang Dynsasty in East. Tin-glaze invented to imitate Chinese porcelain.
The Abbasid made white vessels with simple decoration applied in blue were exported to China, where they inspired a new tradition of ‘blue-on-white’. Today this is perhaps the most characteristic ceramic style associated with China, but originally the Chinese did not know the cobalt-blue pigment, which they called ‘Muhammadan blue’. Over the centuries, this ‘blue-on-white’ tradition brought Europe ‘chinoiserie’ (again through the medium of the eastern Islamic lands – the Safavids were very keen on it!), and ultimately the ubiquitous ‘willow pattern’ (Ashmolean).
Islamic Lustre: Forms based on everyday utilitarian wares. Beauty is in the decoration--long-standing traditions of well-executed designs. All Islamic wares earthenware (including faience/fritware). Tin added to lead glaze to opacify white surface in emulation of imported T’ang Dynasty stonewares, Yuan and later porcelains. First use of cobalt, but design blurs in lead glaze. Lustre requires 2-3 firings: biscuit, tin-glaze, then low-fire (muffle kiln) lustre.

Lustre is mixture of metal oxide plus ochre. Under reduction, thin layer of pure metal deposited on surface. Ochre burnished to remove it. Islamic custom forbade use of gold or silver plates at table--lustreware next best thing. Difficult to control; only certain centres capable of producing it. Technology possibly derives from Egyptian glass making. Samarra: outside Baghdad, Abbasid capital--floral, geometric patterns, exported around Islamic world including Spain.
Production moves from Baghdad to Cairo (Fatimid court) to Spain, to Persia (Kashan wares)--widely traded. Kashan 25 miles south of Tehran, major centre, high technical and aesthetic standards. Lustre applied to artificial body (included glass frit) from 10th to 14th c. White body didn’t require masking slip or tin glaze. Can trace genealogies of potters for 400 years. Survived Mongol invasion because Mongolians liked fine crafts.
Other Iranian/Persian centres at Rayy (often on blue background), Gurgan (huge cache of wares hidden from Mongols in 1221—town decimated—rediscovered in 1942.) Seljuk Turks improved faience body--manual written 1301 discusses addition of quartz pebbles, potash frit and borax to imitate qingbai porcelains. Polychrome wares include minai (overglaze, designs based on manuscripts), haft-rang (over and underglaze colurs). Lustre tiles very popular for mosques, tombs.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Ceramics terms, glossaries

Hello,
There are many convenient and easy-to-access ceramics glossaries on the web, so this post will give you a few. Note: every glossary is directed towards a particular audience--amateur, scholar, scientist, professional ceramist, so it might help to consult more than one. When using a definition from an on-line glossary, be sure to cite the source properly. For more help on citing electronic sources, consult the Writing Centre, or check the following helpful website:
Diana Hacker, Research and Documentation Online, http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/
From the drop-down menu, check "Humanities/Documenting Sources/ "MLA List of Work Cited."
Here are some helpful sites for ceramics terms:

Glossay of Ceramics Terms
http://www.jnevins.com/glossary.htm
very basic, more for the hobby potter than the historian or scholar (still, helpful first step)
Anth 461/761 Ceramic Analysis Glossary of Ceramic Terms
http://www.tulane.edu/~kidder/Anth%20461/ceramic%20terms.html
excellent, scholarly, cited for source--great for historian and more technical approach to ceramics
Ceramic Terms to know
http://www.pottery.netfirms.com/assignments/docs/ceram_glossary.doc
Usefully broken down into handbuilding terms, decorating terms, firing terms etc. Note: when you arrive at this site, you are asked if you wish to open or save it--just opening it is okay.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Good websites for ceramics research

Good Websites on Ceramics AHIS.335/Instructor Amy Gogarty
The web has literally exploded with material on ceramics. Not all of it is useful--much is very commercial--but many universities and museums now have outstanding access to their collections and research on-line. I have listed sites that are useful for research/links and/or presentations. This is anything but comprehensive--we will collect and expand our “bookmarks” as the class goes on.

Classical Wares (Greek, Roman)

http://www.acad.ab.ca/assets/pdf/Programs/Ceramics/ACAD_Ceramics_Newsletter_Fall_2007.pdfUniversity of Colorado at Boulder, Classics Exhibits. Interesting material on pots, uses--“wining, dining and dying in ancient Greece,” good images of pots in collection etc. http://www.colorado.edu/Classics/exhibits/GreekVases/exhibit.htm

Potsherd: Atlas of Roman Pottery. Excellent, useful collection of pages on pottery and ceramics in archaeology, principally of the Roman period (1st cent. BC - 5th cent. AD) in Britain and western Europe. http://www.potsherd.uklinux.net/index.php
Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum--fabulous archive of over 100,000 classical vases in museum collections in Europe--a project of Union Académique Internationale, the Beazley Archive (Oxford U.) and other acadmic institutions. http://www.cvaonline.org/cva/projectpages/cva1.htm

Industrial Archaeology (Early-Modern Europe to 19th c.)
Diagnostic Artifacts in Maryland. Good introduction to First Nations/pre-historic and European historic wares in Maryland--scientific analysis, good images shards, descriptions of wares. http://www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/index.htm

SMU Archaeology Lab Ceramics Database (St. Mary’s University, Nova Scotia). Similar approach to Maryland website, but for Nova Scotia/Canadian ceramics--very detailed, many 17th/18th c. ceramic wares described http://www.smu.ca/academic/arts/anthropology/ceramics/welcome.html

The Potteries.org--Stoke on line. Good introduction to historical archaeology of important site for production of British ceramics. http://www.thepotteries.org/index.html

Contemporary Studio Ceramics
One of the interesting new sites I will include here is for the ACAD Ceramics Newsletter. It comes out several times a year and provides information on professional activities of students, alumni and faculty--it gives a real sense of what fellow Canadian ceramic artists are doing in their field--check it out!
http://www.acad.ab.ca/assets/pdf/Programs/Ceramics/ACAD_Ceramics_Newsletter_Fall_2007.pdf

University of Wales Aberystwyth, Ceramic Collection (excellent for contemporary British studio ceramics). Computer data base for archives (pottery guilds, correspondence, sales, supplies etc.), should you have the opportunity to visit! http://www.aber.ac.uk/ceramics/index.htm

Interesting Chinese conceptual artist who uses ceramics
http://www.galerieursmeile.com/nav/top/artists/works/default.htm?view_ArtistItem_OID=18
Ai Weiwei constructs sculptures from discarded doors from Ming Dynasty houses or furniture, commenting on the way in which China is eating up its past in its rush to modernize. He also works with both new and historical ceramics--check out this good selection of his work at Gallerie Meile.

Miscellaneous:
Yakimono-net. Japanese potters, supplies, tools, books etc. http://www.e-yakimono.net/index.html

Palissy Ware. Good information on this important potter, some images, links, discussion of later manifestations of this type of rustic ware, books. http://www.palissy.com/NEWhistory.html

Museums (Listed are ones with extensive searchable databases of ceramic objects)

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK--Britain’s oldest museum--fantastic ceramics collection. Luck of draw as to what is on-line, but excellent for British, Islamic ceramics--see “Web-Based Teaching Course on Islamic Ceramics”; also check “Potweb--Ceramics online.” http://ashmolean.org/

British Museum, London, UK--Go to the main site and navigate through the “Research” button, using the search tools. It takes a bit of time to get the hang of the search engine, but the British Museum does have excellent collections in addition to the new Percival David Foundation collection of Chinese ceramics (see below).
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK. Fantastic collection--much of which is on-line but hard to search (poorly indexed). Best to try “browse” from Collections/On-Line Collections links.
http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/

Freer and Sackler Galleries, Washington DC (part of the Smithsonian complex)--Excellent collections of Asian Art in general, outstanding ceramics in particular. Excellent photos--be sure to look at Korean wares. http://www.asia.si.edu/

Gardiner Museum, Toronto--Canada’s premier museum of ceramic arts--European, Asian, Pre-Columbian and contemporary work. http://www.gardinermuseum.on.ca/default_flash.aspx

Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit College, Wisconsin. Excellent material on North American First Nations ceramics--well researched, illustrated. http://www.beloit.edu/~museum/logan/index.html

Peabody Museum, Harvard University. Collections on line--excellent collection of ethnographic artifacts including ceramics from North and South America, Iron Age Europe and numerous historical photographs. http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/col/default.cfm

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City--the big one! Reasonably good database of historical ceramics in collection, but not easy to search. Excellent, useful “Time Line” helps orient you historically and geographically. http://www.metmuseum.org/

Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, England. This collection was recently folded into the British Museum as an independent entity. While we lost the charming 18th c. building in which it was housed, we gained in accessibility. Go to the British Museum site and click on "Research." An option to search the collection will come up--click on that and type in "Percival David Foundation." You might want to click "images only" to avoid a lot of text without images. Here is the website: http://www.britishmuseum.org/default.aspx The images are beautiful and the infomration useful.

This next is a personal website from Terrance Frank Lazaroff, Information and Program Officer in Canada for the Sanbao Ceramics Studio. In addition to many fascinating photographs, Terrance has a lot of information about residencies in China, and is a good contact for those wishing to travel to China for a ceramics residency.
http://clayart.ca/.
Electronic Resources (available online using your ECUAD student id)
· Groves Dictionary of Art OnLine--detailed analysis of arts of Asia, Africa, Americas, Pacific and Europe--good links to images.
· Art Full-Text--better for contemporary and “fine arts,” but can find useful articles/abstracts for over 450 periodicals.
· Art Museum Image-Gallery (AMIG)--Over 96,000 digitized images from major museums. Some areas of ceramics well represented--others less so.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Notes for the course

I will paste in notes I have distributed in the past. If they are useful to you, please download all or part of them. They will give you basic information on names, dates, places, technologies. Lectures might or might not follow them closely--I will try to let you know if material is in the notes so you can follow more in class without having to worry about writing everything down.
Brief Notes: AHIS.335: History of Ceramics Practice/Gogarty
Notes may be downloaded or photocopied
Main Points, Early Ceramics: Mesopotamia, Iran, Egypt
Significant Dates:
Neolithic (New Stone Age, Farming, permanent settlement): 8000 to 2300 BCE; Chalcolithic (copper tools begin to replace stone): 5000-3000 (?);
Bronze Age: 2300-1000;
Iron Age (begins Anatolia/spreads): 1600-1200.
Oldest kiln sites/figurines: 32,000 BP (Before the Present).
First pottery in Middle East: 7000 BCE
First Potter's Wheel: (Painted Attic Pottery, p. 203, note 10) Sumer: 3250+/-250 BCE Syria/Palestine: 3000BCE; Egypt 2750 BCE; Crete 2000 BCE; Americas: after 1550 CE; Mainland Greece: 1800 BCE; South Italy: 750 BCE; Danube: 400 BCE; S. England 50 BCE; Scotland 400 CE. (note: dates are tentative, relative and disputed). Earliest pots for which we have details: Anatolia, late Mesolithic (8-7mil BCE).

Mesopotamia:
Proto-Hassuna/Hassuna Period: late 7th mil. BCE, Zagros region, low-fire coarse ware, organic temper, slab technique, bonfire (kilns date from Hassuna), separate ceramic district, incised/painted line patterns from basketry. Samarra ware (5500-5000 BCE): better kilns, animal and geometric, "whirling pattern," trade.
Halaf/Ubaid: 6000-5000 BCE-Halaf (north): settlements built on top of deserted Hassuna ones. Fine clays for thin-walled, coarse for storage, cooking.
Arpachiya--painted wares, fired polychrome, images of bulls, snakes, humans—black core (see p 151PMCT) indicates careful firing. Analysis of trace elements (p.42) suggests extensive trade, uniformity.
Ubaid (6000-4000) (south): five identified stages, under later cities/Sumer. Asphalt coated baskets, wood wares, but also large-scale ceramic production, self-slipped, banding (tournette), polychrome, off-site production and wide trade networks (Red Sea, Persia).
Fourth Millennium: Uruk, Sumer, fortified cities, monumental architecture, potter's wheel, updraft kilns, wide-spread trade, new shapes.
Third Millennium: ceramics important to economy, grey wares, seasonal production, royal patronage, grave goods, development of stoneware, fast wheel, uniformity, emulate metal wares--"fruit stands," goblets, spouted jars, funerary wares, dairy equipment, basalt-tempered (thermal shock), calcareous clay fabric.
Second Millennium: Urban production, regional wares, powerful patronage, improved wheel, utilitarian and finewares, decoration relates to wall painting.
First Millennium: fine palace wares imitate metal, animal-headed rhytons, regional styles, fast throwing, glazed wares/tiles (Ishtar Gate, Babylon).

Iran (Persia): High plateau, distinct regional cultures. Iron age(12-10 c BCE): new metalwares, architecture, burial and ceramic traditions—real cultural, ethnic mix. Amlash: north/west Iran, by Caspian sea, migrant herders. Marlik Tepe: Iron-age tombs—gold and silver goods, mosaic glass, fritware, cylinder seals, grey and red burnished wares, basins, globular flasks, double flasks, jars with beaked spouts (distinctive)—self-slipped, burnished, carefully fired. Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic (bulls, stags, leopards) pouring vessels. Greywares: burnishing imitates sheet metal—beaked pots, repousse. Tepe (oasis) Sialk/Khurvin region-­long stable occupation. Cemetery wares copy metal—rivets, fluting, bold geometric patterns, hatching, diamonds, human and animal figures—related to textiles. Luristan: famous for bronzes. Baba Jan painted ware: relates to hammered sheetware, lost-wax casting. Tribes seasonally nomadic. Wares sandy, buffer brownish, painted with reddish-brown circles, wheels, "kites", ladders, rosettes; spouted and anthropomorphic relate to Amlash wares, decorative tiles. 8-7th c., wheel thrown, mica tempered, loop handles, animal-headed terminals, ribs (from metal—no function in ceramics), red-slipped. Large pithoi coil-built, crumbly trays (made and used today by women)--

Achamenids conquer Medes-- new influences, but metals still important.

Partho-Sasanians: Parthians rivals to Rome—stretches Bactria to Babylon, capital at Ctesiphon. Regional, fragmented traditions. In Mesopotamia, use of wheel, plain wares, hand-thrown and wheel-finished plus mold-made—great variety. Innovative decoration—press-molded sprigs, elaborate pictorial motifs (Hellenized), abstract patterns (dog's tooth rocker patterns, diamond shaped, stamped designs) eggshell wares turned after thrown. Glazed wares—rare (5%) but blue, green, yellow and brown, sodium-alkaline glazes—tradition back to Bronze Age. Incorporated potash from burned plants, added metal oxides. Often rim dipped in contrasting colour. Cookware glazed for "easy-clean surface." Real sophistication in tableware forms, "slipper coffins."
Sasanian: AD 224, conquer Parthians, consolidate power--bureaucratic, efficient government and military--lay basis for later Islamic rule. Superb metal, stucco, glass and ceramics produced in large industrial sites adjacent to canals. Square updraft kilns 12 feet across. Widespread trade in region, as far as Africa. Metalwares influence new shapes--dippers, trefoil spout pitchers, animal/portrait head rhytons, elaborate lid seatings on casseroles. Forms that imitate other media called skeumorphs.

Egypt: Earliest wares (7000 BCE) found Middle Nile (Sudan)--Sahara at time more hospitable. Some contact east and west 4200-3800 BCE, not just along Nile. Calciform Beaker—found in Sudan, distributed widely—bulbous base, wide flaring rim. Pottery contributed to sedentism--find it in nomadic, hunter/gatherer cultures--local production, Readily available clay--river course itself changes through time. No evidence of making/firing sites. Likely fired in open clamps (bonfires) short time, 800-900 C., likely made by women, sand or organic temper, rounded bottom (stand in soft sand), grave goods, burial containers. Pots slipped and polished-rocker stamp designs—dog's tooth, zig-zag fields.
Pre-dynastic period: (5000-3100 BCE)--uniformity, some regional variation in Delta, but eventually, assimilated by South (Upper). Pottery in delta plain, uniform; in south, fine decorated wares (could reflect excavations to date--graves survive better in south). Most pottery found as large component of graves. Paddle and anvil, slab, coil technique—use of roulette to facilitate hand techniques. Rilling marks on hand-made differ from fast wheel (spiral) Bonfires and pit kilns. Badarian wares: most significant—thin-walled, silty clay, combed or grooved exterior, burnished, finely finished.
Black and red wares: black rims with red body: buried rims in sand, re-oxidized, or piled organic material in bowl, buried lower portion: Fine pots repaired carefully. Unusual shapes/decoration—polished red slip body with creamy white slip designs--"White Cross line"--geometric, animal. After 3600, painted ware common-purple iron slip on dull beige body. Contain Marl—sea shells-large jars, coil technique, lively drawings, some with circular patterns imitate stone jars. Gerzean Pottery (3200 BCE)-lively drawings; Nagada 3200 BCE: wavy handled jars plain, but carefully finished.

Dynastic period: utilitarian wares, competent, but many a bit dull, except for XVIII dynasty. Fast wheel introduced 2400 BCE—Middle Kingdom (foreign contact): spiral rilling, string-cut base-often finished to remove marks; sometimes be seen with x-ray. Turned by stick in hole; kick wheel introduced 5th c BCE. Hand techniques not abandoned especially for traditional grave goods. Red-slipped wares: jars, spouted ewers, bowls (from 2600 BCE), Meydum bowls (2500 BCE). Whole class of wares for tomb use organic temper, mold-formed. Kilns much improved: updraft, circular or oval, chimneys. Pots stacked in separate chamber, pierced clay grate. Fabric not diagnostic—Egyptians interested in final product, whatever the fabric.

Two basic clay bodies: Secondary Nilotic silt and primary calcareous marl clays. Latter is finer, whiter, take paint better, more common in south. In north (delta) imitate marl clays by putting white slip on reddish silty clays. Faience: fritted glaze molded in to shapes (thousands of molds found), fired, finished like stone—for jewellery, small vessels, amulets, inlays, often found in graves—rich blue colour, used for tiles, related to glaze techniques-based on alkali silicates with mineral oxides, quartz, little or no clay.
Main Points: Aegean, Greek and Roman Pots
Minoan: Pottery on Crete long predates civilization (3000-1400 BCE, destroyed by earthquakes, invasions etc.). Neolithic: develops from simple utilitarian wares; people live and worship in caves, leave offerings. Bronze Age: sophisticated wares spurred on by Palace patronage, trade, influences from around Aegean.
Pyrgos wares: selective burnishing, chalices, reduction fired, tectonic syntax to decoration (emphasizes structure of pot). Vasiliki ware (2500-2300): unusual decoration in blotches (direct contact with flame, uneven glaze), imitates expensive stone, metalwares (rivets etc.), globular shapes, prominent spouts, bird-like--sophisticated firing techniques, kilns.
Potter's wheel common by Middle Minoan (2100-1650); fast wheel after 2000 BCE. Palaces required huge storage containers, standardized sizes and shapes, fine wares—interested in display; supports all the arts—murals, metal wares, ceramics. Kamares ware (1900-1700) red and white on glossy black ground, barbotine (slip-trailed), nature-based (floral style, marine style), plastic additions, egg-shell thin—complex syntax. Burial in larnakes (chests) and pithoi (large urns). Late Minoan--sophisticated shapes, beaked jugs, complex concave/convex profiles, molded decoration, references to murals, seascapes.

Mycenean: Helladic culture Achaeans (1500) and later Dorians (1200) invaders in Greek peninsula. Absorb and dominate Minoans, ceramics, but preferred metal. Long-stemmed goblet ("epirote" 1300), broad bowls, craters—decoration more restrained than Minoan, often in registers, bands, geometric patterns, line drawings— soldiers, chariots in registers. Decline after 1200 until 1000 BCE. Greeks: Real respect for ceramics—utilitarian forms, display, grave monuments, athletic prizes. Most wares undecorated, but decorated wares survive from tombs.
Corinth and Athens big centres--excellent, crisp forms, highly-differentiated shapes--appropriate for task, remain consistent throughout classical period (amphora, hydria, crater, kylix), narrative (Athens) focus on human figure, mesh daily life/values with art. Finely prepared clay, potter's wheel, workshop and industrial production (100 vase painters active in Athens at any given time), potter's quarters (ceramicus), marketing, mainly male production--competition, development, change, fashion.
Attic clay secondary, iron impurities, easily mined, worked, very plastic. Some complex shapes thrown all-in-one, later turned to crisp-up shape. Large pots thrown in sections, assembled. Unfired pots washed with red ochre--fired brighter red. Slips iron-rich, finely levigated, wood-ash (potash/alkali) added. High in illite--in reduction, vitrified, remained black/slightly glossy after re-introduction of oxygen—bichrome product of single firing.
Geometric (1000-700 BCE)~stick figures (prothesis-corpse on bier, mourners, chariots), geometric figures arranged in bands—used as grave markers, pot burials.
Orientalizing: (700 BCE) influence from Anatolia, Middle East-organic designs, florals, spirals, composite animals, "horror vacuii."
Black Figure: (700-550; height, 550-530 BCE): figures painted in black slip, details incised, emphasis on 2-D design, graphic, simplified patterns. Individual artists identified after 700 BCE--Exekias, Amasis Painter. Continues to be used for Panathenaic vases, required on industrial scale—1400 to 2000 amphora filled with olive oil! Red Figure: develops around 530-520 BCE, competes with wall painting, more realistic rendering of figures, emotion, spatial effects. By 300 BCE, in decline; power shifts to Rome.
White Ground Lekythos/oi: primarily used for funeral urns, white slip very fragile, paintings often in fugitive pigments, touching memorial themes, sometimes small double vase inside (conserved oil!).

Italian Peninsula: Villanovans: 8th c. BCE—predate Etruscans, excellent metal workers—cremated dead, cinerary urns, also large heavy storage jars. Etruscans enter peninsula c. 700 from Near East— true arch, metal, ceramics. Grey pottery (reduction) called Bucchero ware—burnished, iron-rich black slip, shapes often from metal wares, influenced by imported Greek pots (shapes, designs).
Rome: 500 BCE, Republic; by 275, rule peninsula, absorb Greece, move into Africa and Europe. Introduce technology and styles into new areas—absorb local traditions. Ceramic production often follows armies.
Red Gloss Wares: begin with Augustan/Imperial age, influenced by Hellenistic designs (figures in relief, scrolls, garlands, floral designs—black-slipped Megarian ware), often produced by Greek workers (have signature seals, industry records). Red gloss slip easier to fire than black—called terra sigillata—from sigillum (seal)--stamped designs. As with Greeks, made elaborate embossed and incised molds from plaster and fired clay—threw clay inside molds, feet, rims etc. added separately.
Arezzo (Arretium) 30 BC-30-50 AD (Augustan period): Large-scale industry, moves with army to Gaul. Centres: South Gaul--La Graufesenque; Central Gaul--Lezoux (late 2nd, early 3rd c AD); Germany--Rheinzabern. Barbotine coloured slips on dark ground popular; eventually North Africa (African Red Slipware “ARS”)--large scale industry--found Cornwall to Russia, Persia to Sudan. Empire exported technology, industry, skills etc; after fall of Empire, these remained to be developed by indigenous cultures (some debate whether residual or reintroduced.) Further from Rome, the more potters experimented with shapes--i.e., unusual flagon shapes in Rheinzabern, use of lead glazes, barbotine wares.

Pottery Lamps: mass-produced, copied successful designs, specialization, industrialization Popular consumer item, shipped with more expensive/bulky wares—particularly with ARS. Cheap, simple light form used until Victorian age. Burned olive oil—similar lamps in bronze. Cheap transport often permitted Roman wares to supplant local production (as British wares did in North America.) Pax Romana stimulates demand for consumer goods, markets, transportation routes-as areas conquered, skilled artisans often emigrated to areas of Roman production—led to real mixing of influences, technologies, skills.
Main Points: Southwest U.S. Painted Pottery/South American Pottery
Region of present-day Arizona, New Mexico, northern Mexico (Chihuahua): Anasazi ("the old ones" in Navajo; modern-day Pueblo—live north of Mogollon rim); Hohokum (live south of Phoenix in Sonoran desert, Salt and Gila river valleys, modern-day Pima and Papago); Mogollon (main group Mimbres, live Mogollon rim in Arizona to south-west New Mexico, modern-day Zuni).

Each group distinctive culture, language, pottery.

Hohokum: agriculturalists—extensive system of canals for irrigation; main site on Gila River Snaketown, inhabited by 500 CE; originally came from Mexico--share many aspects of Mexican culture--ball courts, pyramidal temples, pottery figurines, language. Main wares red-on-buff, figural motifs include dancers, flautists, animals. Wares contain mica, shaped with paddle and anvil, smooth surfaces.
Colonial Period: 600-900, mounds with temples, painted vessels, chert arrowheads, shell mosaics, stone palettes. Sedentary Period: 900-1200, elaborate designs on wares imitate textiles, gila shoulder--gentle curving side meets rounded base in sharp angle; men are superb weavers. Circa 1300-1400, Salado people from Anasazi join Hohokum, help with irrigation, keep own traditions of pottery. Many very large pueblos built--i.e. Casa Grande; disperse c. 1400.

Mogollon: in area by 200 CE. Circular pit houses; agriculturists and hunter/gatherers. 300 AD. Expand up against Anasazi, Hohokum. Disaster strikes c. 500 CE; recover.
After 1000 CE, villages amalgamate to form large multi-room dwellings-square, up to 275 rooms each, with circular semi-subterranean kivas for ritual space, men's clan meetings (matrilocal). First black-on-white distinctive "Mimbres" pottery appears 750-800 CE—bowls (90%), seed jars, water jars. Figured wares (20% of production) complex designs, birds, insects, humans. Possibly illustrate legends, beautiful figure/ground, geometric bands, often buried with dead with "kill" hole. Appear to have left area after 1100- general disaster (droughts? population pressure from Apache, Navajo?) hits area.
Anasazi: Basket makers, dry land farmers. Earliest pottery c. 400-700CE. Modified Basketmaker stage--line baskets with clay, mold pots over baskers. Make true pottery--coiled and scraped greyware.

Developmental Pueblo: 700-1050 CE. Multi-room settlements near Four Corners, matrilineal, men are weavers. Produce white-slipped wares with black decoration, corrugated wares, circular underground ceremonial chambers. Ancestor figures--kachinas-- very devoted to spiritual rituals re: rainfall, birth, death, fertility etc. Great Pueblo Period: 1300-1700-- many storied cliff homes, large populations, each village own distinct ware.

Regressive Pueblo Period: 1300-1700-population/area occupied contracts, but continue to make beautiful pottery-­open bowls, seed jars, pitchers, bird effigy bowls; black-on-white mineral paint-­often fugitive—geometric patterns—stepped triangles, zigzags, serrated bands, frets, spirals and various combinations—very dramatic and carefully designed all-over patterning, also have polychrome black, white and red in Regressive period--black and white disappears. Duck or Shoe pot: one end sits in fire, lead or lead/copper glazes used for decorative patterns. Cremated dead, placed ashes in one jar, covered with other. When Spanish enter area and try to enslave, revolt 1680s, succumb 1690s. Navajos in area by then (from Canada)--adopt pastoralism, stop fighting Anasazi, culture survives, flourishes.

South America: Andean region--bounded by deserts to west, jungles to east, many high mountain valley spur distinct regional cultures. Earliest utilitarian pottery 1200 CE. By 800 CE, culture based on large temples, worship cat god (puma?), highly specialized pottery, firing techniques. Chavin or Cupisnique (800-400BCE)—likely developed elsewhere, moved in and dominated region. Maize culture, decorated ritual pottery small part of total production.

Stirrup spout or handle distinct feature throughout region and time. Pots take many forms, mold-made—animals, fruits, vegetables, sea shells, humans. Often greywares, smudged (not true reduction), coarse temper. Textiles in region highly developed—also work in gold, copper, silver. First whistling pots appear. Viru culture (300 BCE-500CE) near present-day Trujillo--pyramidal temples, war-like, excellent metal workers, hand and mold-made pottery similar to Chavin--daily life (buildings), animals, often decorated with patterns, lines, dots.

Paracas Cavernas (400 BCE-CE) from peninsula of Paracas (southern coast), region famous for textiles--polychrome bright colours yellow, green, red, black--applied after firing, often flakes off--faces with fangs, deformed trophy heads.

Mochica (CEl-1200)--most important, near Chicama river (north coast), related to other groups living in south by Nazca valley, Paracas. Outstanding plastic wares—eventually, most are mold-made, many nearly identical with some variety in finish—delicate stirrup spout, some with flat bridges, often in shape of human or animal head, dippers and corn poppers.

Burnished unmolded wares have delicate, complex line drawings. Realism on some give insight into culture and cosmology: priests, figures in combat, demons, elaborate headdresses on warriors, diseases and mutilations, prisoners, corpses, skeletons; also some sculptural wares: fruits, animals, lots of sex, whistling jars often in form of birds.
Nazca culture evolves same time on south coast. Pottery thin, well-made, globular jars with two spouts and thin bridge, polychrome--up to 8 colours of slip, highly-stylized birds, demons, fish, pumas, condors. Nazca and Moche seemingly conquered by Huari or Tiahuanaco culture--their wares found over large region ("Horizon wares"). Build monumental architecture, colossal stone sculptures, very war-like—typical motifs involve running figures with bird masks, pumas, condors, brightly painted--spherical vessels, tapering spouts connected by flat bridge, beakers, jars with high necks with face or head on top--huge llama vessels--some 4’ high.

Three states emerge on coast-north, centre and south. Most important Chimu--1200-1450 successors to Mochica, city of Chan-chan capital. Pottery single colour--black, grey or red, highly polished, rarely painted. Stirrup spout usually more square with small animal at junction. Double and whistling vessels common. Conquered in 15th c. by Inca--control Andes from Ecuador to Chile—highly centralized. Aryballos shape characteristic—water jar with lugs, carried by roped-made from huge to miniature, plates with bird-head handles. Wares well-made, polished, often red, sometimes polychrome. Decoration is geometric plus images of plants, insects, llamas. Spanish conquer 1533. Continued whistling vessels; covered ancient forms with European glazes.

Questions to think about with contemporary tribal production:
1) How do contemporary tribal pottery practices differ from historical ones?
2) How can information from contemporary potters contribute to our understanding of historical pottery? How valid are contemporary interpretations of ancient traditions?
3) How do both contemporary and historical tribal potters challenge our concept(s) of ceramics and artistic/artisanal production? In what ways are you challenged?


Brief Notes: China and Japan
Chinese culture radically different from West. Trade contact with Rome and Near East. Consolidate, build wall under short-lived Ch'in or Qin (221-206 BCE). Philosophical/ spiritual influences Confucius, Lao Tzu (Taoism) and Buddha (Ch'an Buddhism).
Eight Taoist Emblems—sword, gourd, flower basket etc.or traditional symbols of Emperor (Dragon) or Empress (phoenix).

First stoneware Chou Dynasty (or Zhou 1027-256 BC). (Not in Europe until 14th c.) Early vessels imitate bronze and jade originals. Lead glazing known from imports of lead frit (called liu-li) from Roman Empire. Yueh district (south-east) develops dragon kiln during Han. Lead glazing lost during break-up of Roman Empire.

T'ang Dynasty (618-906)—peaceful, prosperous, many foreign influences, technologies, religions. Female ruler—Empress Wu Zetian (AD 625-706)--women very fashionable, liberated, educated. Reintroduce lead glazing with tomb figures, globular jars often white-slipped and decorated in three colours (sancai)--very runny glaze, spontaneous, emphatic painting. Perfect high-fire stoneware, possibly make first porcelain at Jingedezhen.

Song (Sung) Dynasty: Northern (960-1127); Southern (1127-1279) Sophisticated aesthetic wares, cross-draft kilns; contours of forms take precedence. Glazes imitate jade. Ding or Ting wares produced at Ting-chou (Hopei province, near Beij ing)—fine white or ivory porcelain—one of Song great wares—press molded or carved with elegant floral-based designs. Chun or Jun wares—lavender opalescent glaze, spashes of brignter purple, exposed rim often covered with metal band. Celadon glazes range of colours—greenish, olive, amber—reduction fired. Most prized celadon called Ju (or Ru) ware made 1107-1127 for exclusive use of court. Glaze smooth, opalescent, greenish blue. Stoneware made in Hopei province--Tzu-chou--light grey body, vigorous free­hand painting of flowers, foliage, bands etc. in black or brown iron pigment. Sometimes designs scratched through glaze in forms of peony, diaper patterns, red and green overglaze enamels added.

Southern Song: move to southern capital to avoid Ch'in, attempt to replicate northern wares. Porcelain production characterized by very high degree of industrialization, specialization. Lung-ch'uan is pale green with wide crackle, often molded dragons on handles—sometimes have dots of iron pigments that fire irridescent brown. Opacity formed by minute bubbled in glaze that refract light. Huge factory production—20 to 25,000 at time. Kuan wares for Imperial court-­attempt to replicate Ju-yao wares—materials and effects differ widely. Thick grey-green glaze applied in multiple layers to achieve marvelous depth, luminosity. Crackle controlled as visual effect. Southern counterpart of Ding is Ch'ing pai (or qingbai—shadowy blue) from Jingdezhen (Ching-te-Chen—in Kiangsi or Jiangxi province) most prized—translucent, pale blue-green, reminiscent of jade. Porcelain comprises alumina rich clays called kaolins. In north, sedimentary kaolin associated with coal seams. Low in fluxes, high in mullite (alumina) low translucency. In south, primary kaolins produced by alteration of igneous rocks-­found in close association with china stone (quartz, fine mica (serite) and feldspar (albite)). Southern porcelain mixture of kaolin and china stone—very translucent; glazes consist of clay with lime flux added, reduction fired (blueish). Early qingbai pure cishi (china stone)~thrown thicker and pared down—fired upright in individual saggars—later fired on rims in stepped saggars, metal bands applied to rims, or interiors wiped clean and stacked one inside other. Shufu body made for ceremonial and official wares—more opaque—introduced kaolin into body. Teawares made with black or brown temmoku glaze—many variations: "hare's fur" "oil spot"--trade item with Japan.

Yuan Dynasty: (1280-1367) Foreigners take over China—stimulate trade (Blue and White).

Ming: (1368-1644): Reject anything Mongol. Eventually come to prefer blue and white, support Imperial courts at Jingdezhen--spare no expense. White wares made at Te-hua (blanc de chine)--Guan-Yin. Stoneware mold-made or incised, painted with "secret decoration." Incredible sophistication, intimacy, variety to wares. Blue and White use cobalt originally imported from Persia, later indigenous source (Chinese cobalt greyer, finer higher in manganese). Exploit Chinese skill with calligraphy--soft washes, figures often in landscape, deliberately avoid horizon, shadows, express inner vitality of nature. Copper red glazes and underglaze developed for court, difficult to control--fires tomato red. During reign of Cheng-Hua (1465-87), begin using domestic cobalt for blue and white, polychrome enamels developed as doucai (tou-ts'ia—contrasting colours) using blue underglaze or "five colour" enamel (wucai) no underglaze.

Beginning of global export trade. Ch'ing Dynasty (1644-1912)--technically brilliant but sometimes a bit dry. New colours ("foreign colours") introduced—Famille Verte, Rose, Noire fuse traditional decorations (peonies, chrysanthemum) with new colours. Major reign K'ang Hsi (1662-1722) personally overseas restoration of kilns-wares show incredible delicacy, aesthetic awareness. During reign of Yongzhen (Yung'cheng) (1723-35) use colloidal gold to make pink, lilac-mixed with tin as opacifier. Asked Jesuits for novelties from Europe to copy. Permitted fine details as didn't run with heat. Fa-hua—like cloisonnes—slip trailed and interiors filled in with enamels. Ch'ien Lung (Qianlong) period (1736-1795) also important for trade with westerners. Swatow wares: thickly potted, widely traded around south-east Asia, very freely painted-almost folk art. Yi-shing from Kiangsu province, unglazed stoneware, original shapes--often very tiny--teapots speak to rising vogue for tea. Influence development of red stoneware in Europe.

Japan: traditions extend back 12,000 years.
Jomon period (10,000-400 BCE)--hand coiled, impressed braided cord design.
Yayoi period (400 BCE-300 CE) influences of China and Korea, better firing techniques. Buddhism introduced 7th c.
Chano-yu, or tea ceremony introduced with Zen Buddhism from Song Dynasty China. Sophisticated range of utensils for ceremony: bowls, braziers, incense burner, blossom vase, water carrier etc. Most famous tea master Sen no Rikyu (d. 1592).

Some slip glazes (Oribe, Shino) but prefer "natural" ash glaze introduced from Korea with anagama (tunnel) kiln. Allows Nature to express itself through medium of potter, pot. Admire rustic appearance of ash glazes--wabi--the beauty in unspoiled, rustic or simple things. To simulate rusticity, wares thrown/ beaten off-centre with paddle, fired without saggars. Roughness appeals to sense of touch--beauty of bowl apparent in handling.
Major advances introduced by Korean potters forcibly relocated to Japan by Hideyoshi end of 16th c. Bizen pots—heavily potted unglazed stoneware, show marks of straw burning/ smudging—hidasuki—emulate older ceremonial, funeral wares called Sue. Bizen pots often have potter's mark indicating communal kiln. Shigaraki—more robust shapes, swelling shoulders, ash glaze--inclusions of feldspar push up to surface, deposited on surface—seen as part of "character" of pot, not as flaw.

Shino ware: Kilns active 1570 to early 1600s. White body, luminous white glaze (inclusion of feldspar to basic ash glaze formula)—associated with tea master Shino Soshin (1440-1522), Shino possibly influenced by Korean wares called ido. Several kinds: undecorated, decorated with nature-inspired floral, plant designs in iron wash—charming, unaffected; marbleized (looks like agate ware), grey and red shino-affected by iron slip, method of firing, thickness of glaze over wash~if thin, red or grey shows through.
Oribe—named again for tea master, pupil of Rikyu named Furuta Oribe. Oribe preferred imperfect bowls with character. New revolutionary multi-chambered climbing kiln (nobori-gama) introduced into Mino region-Shino kilns (O-gama-large kiln) fall by wayside. New kiln permits consistent firing, high temperatures-­fired in saggars. Walls made from granite-coated with clay. Patterns influenced by textile designs—glaze pours in like dye in kimono pattern—samurai collectors also big textile connoisseurs.
Brief Notes: Everyday Ware--Europe
Great Britain: Medieval period in Britain dates from Norman conquest (1066) to
Tudor period (1500-1600). Pottery utilitarian, working-class—aristocracy ate off gold, silver and pewter, later imported Chinese porcelain. Early forms sturdy, robust—tall jugs with "pie crust" feet (to sit on tables), spotty lead glazes (applied as powder—very poisonous!)--best examples from thirteenth century. Also made pipkins, cooking and storing vessels, frying pans, pilgrim flasks, aquamaniles. By Tudor period, stove tiles, candle brackets, applied sprig molds influenced by German salt-glaze. Cistercian wares stained dark brown (manganese), some with decorative white clay pads or slip designs. Forms: tyg--squat mug, often 2 or more handles; canette—tall drinking tankard, tiles—produced for abbey floors, mold-made, often heraldic designs, lead glazed—reduction and oxidation fired to vary colour, make simple attractive patterns.

Staffordshire (Burslem): most important centre for slipwares (particularly in period around Civil War 1646-50), later industrial production—good supply of clay, coal, transportation. Earliest slipwares first half 17th c. Made in Wrotham (outside Kent), Essex (outside London—Metropolitan wares) and elsewhere. Reaches peak 1670-1730—hollow wares (cups, bowls), flatwares (decorative chargers), miscellaneous wares (boxes, cradles for fertility/wedding presents), posset pots, chimney decorations—most famous made by Toft family (Thomas, Ralph and others)—contrasting slip designs with naive figures, political and religious slogans, "jewelling" (dots of slip). Other slipwares trailed, combed, sgraffito designs with long inscriptions, poems (harvest jugs). In general, potters poor, work is seasonal, family-based. Wares are wheel-thrown, modelled, stamped, inscribed—kilns primitive but developing—beehive or bottle shape common.

Early Modern period (16th c.): expanding economies, movement of social and ethnic groups, intermixing of cultures, technologies, styles lead to expansion in ceramic production as even artisan class has more disposable income. Imports from France (Rouen wares-red and white slip designs), China, Holland (tin-glaze), Germany (salt-glaze) in 17th c. encourage diversification to keep up with trends in fashion. Wares produced for local and urban consumer—construct sense of national and regional identity (deliberately archaic wares with patriotic sentiments, heraldry) particularly in wake of immigration, industrialization. Trade flourishes with Ireland, Continent, Atlantic colonies. Robert Plot--History of Staffordshire 1686--production details, styles, economics. Good source of info on potteries. Press molding introduced late 17th c.-mass-production of highly-finished goods.

Germany: Salt-Glaze-Rhineland early centre of Roman occupation, pottery traditions. Large scale production by 7th c.; kiln improvements in 9th made for tougher wares. Stoneware (steinzeug) produced between 1000-1200 CE—first in Europe (China: 500 BCE). Area favoured with wood supply, stoneware clays, river transport, population base, bronze-working traditions (knowledge of high-temp, work, design). Developments relate to brewing industry—introduce hops c. 1500—big upsurge in beer consumption requires hygienic, sturdy wares. Canette--in Germany—short fat pint; Schnelle: ("fast")--tall, tapering mug; Bellarmines (face modelled on neck—satirize Cardinal opposed to drinking).
Salt glaze--at stoneware temperatures (1100-1200C), salt added to kiln decomposes to form sodium oxide and hydrogen chloride—released as (noxious) gas—sodium fluxes with silica and aluminum in pot surface, forms tough, thin, shiny glaze--colour based on reduction/oxidization and iron content of clay. Salt glaze likely produced by 1400s, but first dated ware 1539. Control by trade unions, foreigners only for menial tasks, limit supply.

Potteries disrupted by Thirty years war (1618-48), relocate. Main centres: Seigburg—throw marks, pie crust foot, elaborate modelled friezes based on engravings, developing print culture, white-burning clays. Raeren brown salt-glaze imitated bronze, often friezes modelled, pious inscriptions around waists.

Jan Emens Mennicken active 1566-1594--best-known-classical scenes, nudes, festival and religious scenes. Wares widely exported.

Koln: early centre, dark chestnut pots—dispute with potters; they move to Freschen.
Kannenbacherland--land of potters--in Westerwald where potters fled to avoid war—produced Seigburg-style wares—grey or blue-grey, intricate engravings, pious sayings—eventually more geared towards colour (fashions change).
Kreussen (Bavaria): most elaborate, costly salt-glaze—inspired by/compete with maiolica, overglaze enamels—colourful, popular 1620-1750.

Defining characteristics of Salt Glaze: use of molds; originals cut in fine sandstone, impressions taken in pipe clay--double negative (to protect original mold)--crisp, detailed. Clay mined from shafts, salt imported from Low Countries (used to salt Newfoundland cod). Wares wheel-thrown, profiles crisped up with templates, bone tools. Colour added—"scratch blue" cobalt frit (smalt) rubbed into incised lines. Salt firings environmentally bad: chlorine gases unhealthy; salt-glaze wore silverware down, eventually replaced by maiolica, creamwares in 18th c.
Tin Glaze (Lustreware, Maiolica, Delftware, Galleryware etc)
Islamic Lustre: Forms based on everyday utilitarian wares. Beauty is in the decoration--long-standing traditions of well-executed designs. All Islamic wares earthenware (including faience/fritware). Tin added to lead glaze to opacify white surface in emulation of imported T’ang Dynasty stonewares, Yuan and later porcelains. First use of cobalt, but design blurs in lead glaze. Lustre requires 2-3 firings: biscuit, tin-glaze, then low-fire (muffle kiln) lustre. Lustre is mixture of metal oxide plus ochre. Under reduction, thin layer of pure metal deposited on surface. Ochre burnished to remove it. Islamic custom forbade use of gold or silver plates at table--lustreware next best thing. Difficult to control; only certain centres capable of producing it. Technology possibly derives from Egyptian glass making.

Samarra: outside Baghdad, Abbasid capital--floral, geometric patterns, exported around Islamic world including Spain. Production moves from Baghdad to Cairo (Fatimid court) to Spain, to Persia (Kashan wares)--widely traded. Kashan 25 miles south of Tehran, major centre, high technical and aesthetic standards. Lustre applied to artificial body (included glass frit) from 10th to 14th c. White body didn’t require masking slip or tin glaze. Can trace genealogies of potters for 400 years. Survived Mongol invasion because Mongolians liked fine crafts. Other Iranian/Persian centres at Rayy (often on blue background), Gurgan (huge cache of wares hidden from Mongols in 1221—town decimated—rediscovered in 1942.)

Seljuk Turks improved faience body--manual written 1301 discusses addition of quartz pebbles, potash frit and borax to imitate qingbai porcelains. Polychrome wares include minai (overglaze, designs based on manuscripts), haft-rang (over and underglaze colurs). Lustre tiles very popular for mosques, tombs.

Hispano-Moresque: Cordoba centre of Western world during Ummayad period (CE 756-1031). Around 1200, potters began to use tin-glaze on biscuit-fired pots. Lustres applied on third fire. Real upsurge in 13th c. as potters flee Mongol advance and come to Spain. Moslems reduced to southern Spain--cross-fertilization with Christian potters. Wares made at Malaga (Andalusia) and Valencia under Islamic influence. Later, Mudejar style (1450-1700) under Christian rule--fusion of Islamic and Gothic traditions. Often cobalt and lustre patterns--leaves, vines arranged in registers used on albarellos (drug jars)--Portinari Altar by Hugo van der Goes (1478). Crisp profiles, elaborate presentation, communal dining wares--exported in large quantities to Italy in Majorcan ships--possible origin of term Maiolica. Talavera de la Reina in central Spain popularized white glaze as “appetizing” Royal patronage sent group to Mexico to start tradition.
Italy: Wares from Islamic countries imported from early date--began to use tin-glaze themselves around 1200. Extensive trade between Tuscany and Barcelona. Valencia introduces mudejar style. Early maiolica very decorative—often oak leaf shape in raised, runny cobalt glaze on tin-glaze surface, heraldic animals—found on bulbous 2-handled drug jars. Major pottery centres develop at Castle Durante, Deruta, Cafaggiola, Faenza. Painters apply mineral paints to tin-glaze using popular prints, paintings as motifs--style called istoriato (historiated--narrative subjects)--mythological, religious, patriotic, popular images in orange, yellow, blue, manganese, purple/brown. Lustres first made at Deruta--possibly Islamic potters fleeing Christian advance in Spain introduce technology—only made at a few centres. Cipriano Piccolpasso wrote Three Books of the Potter’s Art—major source of textual and visual references to pottery techniques of the day. Major work produced by largest ateliers—required real skill, division of labour to decorate and fire properly (lots of waster)--lead poisoning a real occupational hazard. Istoriato goes out of favour with Baroque—often are monochrome blue or yellow with grotesques--called Faience in France (after Faenza). Religious wars/Reformation saw potters locating north, east spread tin-glaze to Netherlands, Central Europe (Anabaptists/Haban wares), England.

Bernard Palissy (1510-1590): Amateur scientist, theologian (Huguenot), potter, artist--invented ways of casting from life, developed innovative glazes based on tin and lead. Faced religious persecution most of his life but also produced wares for aristocracy--grottos (for Anne of Montmorency, Catherine de Medici), “rustic wares” (often snakes, crayfish, turtles, lizards, seashells, in marshy environment on large oval basins, platters--also pitchers). Naturalistic grottos actually contain complex allegories of his faith.

France, Germany, Netherlands: Duc de Berry (owned Très Riches Heures) brought potters from Spain to produce tin-glaze in 1332. Muslim potters fleeing Catholic inquisition come also to southern France--early French wares resemble Italian closely. Traditional maiolica (faience) called “in-glaze” as colours painted on unfired glaze and fuse with it. Covered with coperta (Italian) or kwaart (Dutch)--transparent lead glaze enhances brilliance, seals surface. Range of wares produced in emulation/competition with Chinese porcelain--tureens, stove tiles, decorative plates. Tin-glaze chips easily. Industry at Kreussen (salt-glaze) use stoneware shapes for maiolica and overglaze enamels--produce highly decorative, ornate style. Lots of cross-fertilization as potters move around, fashions demand specialized wares, decorative and display objects--industry collapses in face of cheap creamwares end of 18th c.

Netherlands: tiles, pottery first made at Antwerp by Italian émigré potters 16th c. --closely related to Italian traditions. Founding of VOC (Dutch East India Company) introduced Chinese porcelain--Dutch compete with Delftware--get boost from collapse of Ming. Potters admitted to Guild of St. Luke on basis of painting skill--often copy engravings, portraits, landscape, figural works, genre--use quality clays, industrial methods to produce quality product. Tiles popular in kitchens on walls (Spanish, Italians had used on floors)--hygienic, easy to clean.

Flower holders specially designed to accommodate tulips--pyramid shape, interlocking parts with water holders, spout-shaped necks for blooms--pyramids symbolized the “glory of the Prince” (in Emblem tradition--Caesare Ripa)--also called to mind Roman/Egyptian obelisks, Chinese pagodas. Most exuberant examples produced by van Eenhorn family with Adrien Kocks--popular for funerals, weddings, all sorts of celebrations, display. First mentioned in household inventories of wealthy between 1654-1668. Popularized with English court with accession to throne of William and Mary (Glorious Revolution, 1688--Mary huge fan of blue and white porcelain, Delftware.)

England: John Stow’s Survey of London 1603 reports religious refugees from Antwerp making Delftware in London--also made floor tiles, “apothecaries” (drug jars, albarellos, mortar and pestles etc.) Tin-glaze produced in Aldgate (East Anglia) and Southwark (London) by Flemish potters early 17th to late 18th c. --hard to tell Dutch and other foreign examples. Lambeth, Bristol other important centres--exported to Indies, Americas. Many potteries small family businesses; produced figures, decorated plates, puzzle jugs, candle holders etc.--tendency to chip limited use--surviving objects usually for display. Eventually replaced by Staffordshire creamwares late in 18th c.

Industrial Production in Europe
By the early 18th c., porcelain from China and Japan was reaching Europe in large quantities, consumed by aristocratic elite. Europeans strove to discover the secret of porcelain. Court patronage in Germany, Austria and France led to the development of porcelain factories that supplied luxury artifacts, while in Britain, commercial interests pursued industrial and technical advances to produce less expensive functional wares for the middle classes.
· Hard Paste porcelain: original formula, developed in China under T'ang—vitrified mixture of kaolin (low iron, high alumina clay, china stone—quarz, mica and feldspar). Glazes include lime, feldspar—fires at about 1300C.
· Soft Paste porcelain: ("pate tendre") low clay content, high quartz, glass frit, lime or gypsum—fires lower (1240C or lower)—not as strong, slumps, cracks, but beautiful effects with glazes—used in France 18th c (Sevres) and Britain (Bow, Chelsea etc.).
· Bone china: developed by Josiah Spode c. 1800--up to 50% bone ash, equal parts china clay, feldspar--ideal for casting, economical. By 1825, used extensively in Britain.
· Wedgwood's cream ware/pearlware: Improved existing earthenware body after 1763--refined ball clay, calcined flint (pure silica withstands higher temperature), china stone/ china clay. Glazes lead-soda. cobalt added to glaze after 1779 to produce pearlware.

German Porcelain: First "true" or hard paste porcelain produced in Europe 1709 under Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland by goldsmith and alchemist Johann Fried rich Böttger. Initial experiments produce high-fire red stoneware, could be carved, polished. Often based on designs by Johann Jakob Irminger for metalwares. Böttger discovers use of kaolin to make true porcelain paste ("arcanum"—see great book, The Arcanum by Janet Gleeson). Meissen factory employs 500 people by end of century. Unpainted blanks smuggled out or sold to be decorated by independent artists--Hausmaler tradition ("house painters"). Most important Meissen designer Johann Joachim Kandler--creates numerous table figures based on Italian comedy (commedia dell'arte—stock characters wealthy merchant Pantaloon, beautiful Columbine, jester Harlequin) and pastoral shepherd groups (after French painters Watteau, Boucher), heraldic animals decorate Japanese palace of Augustus (large, difficult to fire, often cracked—based on actual animal studies), Swan service for Count von Bruhl. Johann Gregor Horroldt--major painter, develops overglaze colours (1669-1775) Porcelain also produced in Nymphenburg (Swiss modeler, Franz Anton Bustelli), Berlin, Vienna.

French Porcelain: Develops under court patronage—Chantilly (Prince de Condé) moves to Vincennes (1738)—at bequest of Mme. Pompadour (favorite of Louis XV) moved to Sevres outside Paris 1756. Soft Paste (no source of kaolin in France until 1768; soft paste still favoured until 19th c.). Sevres granted exclusive privilege to make wares "in the style of Saxony" (Meissen) for 20 years—no need to pursue commercial success. Completely tied to system of power, intrigue of court. Employs hundreds of workers, some of greatest French artists, 7 specialist workshops—extremely fashionable decorative objects, special effects--reserves ("camaieu") painted with fantasy scenes-Chinoiserie, rococo influence--potpourris, garnitures, plaques, opera glasses, ice buckets, table wares. Coloured grounds: rose pompadour, bleu celeste, bleu lapis. Inkstand: 1758, soft paste, green ground, decorated with cherubs, gilding-likely made for daughter of Louis XV, Mme Adelaide—crown once contained bell; terrestrial globe-ink; celestial globe contained sand-sprinkled through holes to dry ink on page-little cameo of Louis XV on side. Wallace Collection (London-collected Sevres especially with aristocrats fleeing Revolution). 19th c. under Alexander Broignart, factory abandons soft paste for hard. More "high-tech," clean, industrial, imitate any material: virtuosity and luxury. Soft paste examples from ancien regime highly sought after by wealthy reliving fantasy of past.

Great Britain 1700-1800: Industrial Revolution brings huge changes to industry. Eventually, small potteries can not compete, but this encourages development of genuinely alternate "art pottery" or studio potters. Technical improvements introduced into Staffordshire (main pottery area): Stoneware produced by John Dwight and Elers brothers (from Holland) end of 17th c--lathe-turned, precise shapes influenced by Chinese Yixing wares. Calcined flint added to make white body, salt glaze stoneware. Creamware perfected by Wedgwood--low fire earthenware, cheap, light colour takes decoration, industrial parallels development of consumer culture, emphasis on dining, etiquette, fashion. Creamwares after 1760 revolutionize tablewares available to middle classes, replace tin glaze. Ralph Daniel introduces plaster of Paris from Continent for molds in 1740s--used for press molding salt glaze wares (slip casting not economical until introduction of deflocculants in 19th c.). Transfer printing introduced 1753. First used on enamels, but adapted to pottery. Copper plate printed ink on tissue or oil on gelatin bat. Oil transferred to pot, dusted with oxides for colour. Allowed for efficient, mass-produced decoration, popularity of prints (Hogarth and others), political commentary, souvenir jugs etc. Thomas Whieldon (1719-95) "agate wares" (white clay body coloured with iron, manganese, cobalt—clay wedged together to marbleize, imitate stone) and "tortoiseshell wares" (glaze colours dusted on, mix with streaky glaze). Enoch Booth introduces biscuit firing, which allows pots to be produced one place, decorated at another. Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795): brilliant innovator, businessman, encourages canals, opposes slavery, supports French/American revolutions (real paradox!). Capitalizes on vogue for consumer goods, neoclassical decorative wares, improves creamware body--"Queensware"--admired by Queen Charlotte, wife of George III. "Frog Service" 1773 for Catherine the Great of Russia. Designs often based on metalwares, pierced wares, transfer printed. Jasperware:body coloured with cobalt other minerals (later, just dipped)--designs by leading neoclassical artists, copied from archaeological designs published by Sir William Hamilton and others from Pompeii, Herculaneum--used in furniture, tea services, jewellery, decorative vases—extremely elaborate and ornate.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007



We will be looking at ceramic objects dating from 10,0000 years ago up until the present day. The following posts will focus on test images for the mid-term exam.
Here are the sorts of questions I will ask about these objects in slide exams:

•Under what sorts of conditions (i.e. household/domestic use, nucleated workshops, small-scale manufactury etc.) were pots like these made? What evidence do we have to support this?
•How were objects like this formed and fired? How was the decoration made or applied?
•On what material or objects was this pot modelled? (i.e. textiles, gems, stone for decoration, metalwares or leather pouches for form)
•What are the primary ingredients in this material (i.e. faience)? How was this worked? To what use(s) was this put, and why was it particularly appropriate for that use?
•Under what conditions were pots like these made? (i.e. Roman sigillata) How did they contribute to the export of the cultural values of the maker? What were sources for the designs?
•What device is contained within pots like these? (i.e. whistling pots) How do we know? What purpose did this device serve, and what beliefs were held regarding that?