Posts Tagged ‘etruscan pottery’

Wedgwood stoneware
NEO-CLASSICAL STONEWARE
By the 1760s Britain was in the early stages of Neoclassical fever, exemplified in the work of the Adam brothers in architecture, and greatly stimulated by the excavations of the Classical ruins at Herculaneum and Pompeii that had begun in 1738 and 1748 respectively. Seeking to capitalize on the popularity of the Neo- classical style, Wedgwood worked on the refinement of his stonewares throughout the 1760s and 1770s. His first success (c.1768) was black basalte, a fine-grained, unglazed stoneware stained with cobalt and manganese oxides. This type of ware was sometimes decorated with red figures, a style inspired by ancient Greek pottery.
Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95) almost single-handedly transformed British pottery-making into a highly
mechanized industry, which supplied
fine ceramic wares to a worldwide market. Throughout his life Wedgwood researched and experimented tirelessly with materials and methods of manufacture. The
enormous success of his factory was owed not only to his artistic abilities but also to the realization that a wide-based market catering for all levels of society was the key to advancement in such an erratic profession.
From 1754 to 1759 Wedgwood worked in partnership with the potter Thomas Whieldon (1719-95), making experimental and tortoiseshell wares. Because of a leg injury Wedgwood was unable to practise as a potter, and therefore spent much of his time developing pottery bodies and glazes, making very detailed recordings of his discoveries. By 1759 he had set up his own business at the Ivy House Works in Burslem, Staffordshire, where he made redware, Whieldon-type ware with translucent lead glazes, blackware, salt-glazed stoneware, and creamware (cream-coloured earthenware). In 1769 he formed a partnership with the Liverpool merchant Thomas Bentley, and opened a bigger factory called “Etruria” (after Etruscan pottery, which inspired some of the factory’s production). During the ensuing decade, until Bentley’s death in 1780, the company expanded and consolidated its position at the forefront of the market.
Jasper tricolour ware is relatively scarce, and even small Uncomplicated examples such as this cachepot are much sought after by collectors Tricolour wares were first made during the 1780x. The decoration was often arranged in a grid-like or trellis design (called a “dice pattern “), with the bars and niches applied with delicate jasper quatrefoils and floral scrolls Here the decorator has Lived sage green and yellow on a white ground; the range of available stains Included a deeper green, dark blue, and lilac A cachepot is similar to a jardiniere and serves the same purpose, it is an ornamental container used to conceal a more utilitarian plant pot the name is derived from the French cacher, to hide).
Other types of stoneware made include “rosso antico”, a red-bodied ware largely based on Classical forms, and the yellow-bodied “caneware”. However, the most famous type of Wedgwood stoneware is the hard, fine-grained, unglazed “jasper” ware introduced in 1774-5, typically with applied white decoration of Classical figures and motifs. John Flaxman (1755-1826), 1755-1826), George Stubbs (1724-1806), and other artists produced designs for ornamental wares, including vases, plaques, cameos, and medallions, based on the illustrations of the excavated Greek and Roman material.
• silky,mostly fine grained, and unglaze
FORMS mostly Neo-classical in style; ornamental vases and urns; portrait plaques; busts; some teawares
• COLOURs jasper: first coloured all the way through the body and later as a surface wash only, in pale blue, sage green, olive green, lilac, lavender, and black; rosso antico: a refinement of the existing Staffordshire redware made by the Hers brothers; caneware: yello
smade by Wedgwood and other Staffordshire
potters from the 1770S
• DFCORATION the stoneware body is capable of taking extremely fine detail; early wares are more detailed than later wares; black basalte is often ornamented with engine-turned ornament, sprigged Neo-classical motifs and mythological figures are typical
Marks
Pre-Etruria wares are rarely marked, but thereafter most wares are impressed with the name; “WEDGWOOD” used after c.1820

Imari Porcelain
Imari is a port on the eastern coast of the island of Kyushu. The name has become associated with a certain type of porcelain, but it has two different Interpretations, one used in Japan and the other in the West. The Japanese terms Shoki and Ko Imari describe blue-and-white wares made in Arita. However, what is generally known in the West as “Imari” is export porcelain decorated in a palette that usually includes underglaze blue, iron-red, and gilding.
There are also other categories beyond the conventional colour scheme; for or example, “green family” Imari is dominated by green, with red or other colours being used in a minor role. Kenjo Imari (presentation ware) is
- sub-group,
another -group, which uses a similar palette but with a more formal arrangement of panelled zones of colour.
Initially developed in the second half of the 17th century, the Imari style matured c.1800.
The finest examples of the style feature a complex symphony of overlapping geometric or leaf-shaped panels often decorated with conflicting themes, as seen in the vase and cover below. Unfortunately the variety of these anti-rational patterns makes it difficult to categorize and present a chronology for this group of wares. Much decoration appears to be based on brocade a rich silk textile run through with gold or silver thread. The majority of Imari wares are decorative, with pieces intended for display en masse. In the late-17th and 18th centuries the most common objects made were high-shouldered, dome-covered jars, trumpet-shaped beaker vases, and saucer dishes. Tea and coffee wares were alsc produced, but these are scarce.
WEAR AND TEAR
Arita porcelain, particularly blue-and-white and Imari, is generally extremely robust and not easily cracked, unlike its more fragile Chinese counterpart. However, although Arita ware is strong, its softish, pale, greyish-blue glaze may be more easily scratched than that of Chinese wares. Some of the Arita export porcelains have crackled glazes, and an intended purchase must be carefully examined to make sure that the body itself is not cracked.
• PALLETTE the basic Imari palette comprises underglaze blue, which can be an intense, almost black, colour or a pale grey, iron red, and gold; other colours include yellow, manganese brown, green, and turquoise
• P0TTING Japanese porcelain is thickly potted and has a tendency to warp during firing, kiln supports were therefore used under the bases of even relatively small wares to prevent them from saggingCOPIES
• made in porcelain at Meissen and in tin-glazed earthenware particularly at Delft during the first third of the 18th centuryBEWARE
• some late-17th- and 18th-century Imari porcelain wares are inscribed with spurious Chinese reign marks