Posts Tagged ‘predecessors’

Ti-glazed earthenware was produced in France from at least the beginning of the 16th century when itinerant potters from Italy first introduced the technique. The ware is called “faience”, since much of the early ware resembled maiolica made in Faenza, Italy.
THE 16TH CENTURY
The dominant style for most of the 16th century was Italian; craftsmen from Italy appear to have settled in Lyons (1512), Nevers, Montpellier, and Nimes, and the output of these centres closely reflects the contemporary Italian polychrome maiolica of Urbino, Faenza, and Savona. The Italian istoriato (narrative) style is found on wares made in Lyons and Nevers, while the panelled a quartiery style associated with Faenza is seen on the faience of Nimes and Montpellier. However, in the north of France at Rouen around the middle of the century the work of Masseot Abaquesne (active 1526-59) is more sombre, and the designs show a strong affiliation with the Mannerist work of the Fontainebleau School. Early Rouen was noted for the manufacture of tiles some still extant in chateaux), albarelli (drug jars), saucer dishes, and flat-rimmed dishes.
THE 17TH CENTURY
The first half of the century continued to be dominated by the Italian tradition, but from the mid-17th century a more native French Baroque style developed. Mythological figures after contemporary prints were Popular subjects; drawn in a bold, muscular style in which ochre and blue are often dominant, they are somewhat livelier than their Italian istoriato predecessors. Dishes, which greatly outnumber hollow-wares (except apothecaries’ wares), were typically embellished with heavy foliated borders, usually interrupted with cartouches enclosing diverse subjects. During the second quarter of the century the influence of imported Chinese porcelain is evident, both in decoration and in form, and consequently the “hot” Italian colours declined in favour of blue and white. Nevers was probably the most important centre until the last 20 years of the century and was one of the first French pottery centres to decorate its wares with Chinese motifs. Here the earliest manifestations are garbled versions of the many imported late Ming blueand-white wares. A large proportion of production was painted in cobalt blue, sometimes outlined in manganese brown with figures in the manner of Chinese Transitional porcelain. Alongside the Italianate and Chinese styles, faience with solid-coloured grounds was made, including, most commonly, bleu persan (Persian blue), cobalt, and, more rarely, ochre.
Rouen, close to Paris and the French court, developed as a prominent centre for faience at the end of the 17th century. The Rouen style of the late 17th and early 18th centuries is formal, utilizing intricate motifs resembling ironwork (forronerie) or lacework (lambrequin) but probably owing as much to contemporary Chinese ceramic ornament. The lambrequin rayonnant style, so-called because of its radiating “snowflake” complexity, was copied by many other manufacturers in France, including those in Strasbourg and Moustiers. At its height (c.1695-1725) Rouen combined this style with vessels based on the shapes of silverwares because the French nobility had been ordered to melt down its silver in order to finance the wars of Louis XIV. Faience therefore became a fashionable substitute for silver.
THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES
Between c.1710 and 1720 polychrome wares became fashionable once again. For the next 20 or 30 years bold chinoiseries in high-fired (grand-feu) colours eclipsed the blue-and-white wares. From c.1750 low-fired (petit-feu) enamelled decoration became the focus of the leading faience factories of the day, located in Strasbourg, Niderviller, Luneville, Sceaux, and Marseilles. In an ultimately futile competition with porcelain, these manufacturers decorated their wares with botanical flowers, chinoiseries, and fantastical landscapes in the most delicate brushwork. Forms from the mid-18th century, in keeping with the innate intimacy of the Rococo, were diverse and lively, almost matching porcelain in some instances.
However, in the late 18th century, competition from porcelain and English creamware (cream-coloured earthenware) proved too much for faience manufacturers, and many failed around the turn of the century. Some potteries survived the onslaught from English creamware by manufacturing the same material, known
as faience fine, which although clean and crisp was never as creamy or warm as the English ware. In France, factories such as those in Creil, Pontaux-Choux, and Montereau, some active before the
mid-18th century, made great quantities of faience fine, thus helping to accelerate the decline of faience. Many of these factories decorated their wares with transfer-printing in the style of creamware from the Wedgwood factory (est. 1759) in Burslem, England.
By the mid-19th century Quimper was one of the few surviving faience factories in France, producing wares with simple figural subjects loosely imitative
of I 8th-century Rouen. Gien, active toward the end of the 19th century, appears to have concentrated on the manufacture of wares in revival styles, using printed designs based on classic Italian maiolica. The output of historicized faience was fairly limited as many factories preferred to produce the fashionable styles current in the dying years of the 19th century. The firm of Samson (est. 1845) in Paris made a wide range of good reproductions of faience. Although this factory applied the original marks, it usually put its own monogram alongside.
• BODY Rouen: red; Nevers and Marseilles: buff;
Strasbourg: creamy white; Moustiers: greyish
• GLAZE Strasbourg: thick and creamy white; Moustiers: creamy grey
• PALETTE “hot” colours inspired by Italian maiolica; from c.1625 blue and white inspired by imported Chinese porcelain; high-fired colours: cobalt blue, manganese purple, ochre, yellow, green, and iron red; enamels: from the late 1740s a wide range of colours
• DECORATION Rouen: lainbrequins and arabesques; Nevers: narrative style; Strasbourg: botanical studies; Marseilles: naturalistic flowers, bouillabaisse; Moustiers: potato flowers, fantastic creatures, Classical figures, and festoons
Marks
These were very randomly applied; marks arc usually the initials of the proprietor of the factory; most are in puce, blue, or black; care should be taken since marks of such collectable factories as Strasbourg, Sceaux, Marseilles,
Rouen, Lille, and Nevers have been widely copied on 19th- and 20th-century fakes
Strasbourg: Paul Hannong factory (c.1740-60) Marseilles: Veuve Perrin factory (c.1740-95) Moustiers: Olerys factory (1 738–c.1790) Quimper: Antoine de la Hal (est. 1782)
Quimper: Fougeray factory (est. 1872): copies of 18th-century originals

Although Italian maiolica reached its apogee in the masterpieces of the 16th century, there is still much to admire in the products of the following 100 years. Potteries in Deruta continued to make colourful albarelli (drug jars), although these
Undoubtedly lack the vigour of their 16th-century predecessors; and, while embossed wall plaques of the Madonna and Child were now virtually mass-produced at Deruta, some still convey a spirit befitting their imagery. The great istoriato (narrative) painting of Urbino became debased, and Montelupo dishes are of inferior quality. However, the depiction of soldiers boldly standing with legs apart – the characteristic Montelupo decoration of arlecchini – remained a powerful image on dishes and plates.
1650-1800
New varieties of fine maiolica were developed in the second half of the 17th century. At Castelli thin potting was combined with careful painting that employed perspective, quite unlike the Italian maiolica of the previous century. The workshops of the Gentile and Grue families in Castelli produced a large number of high-quality wares, including dishes, vases, and pharmacy jars, the best being made by Francesco Antonio Xaverio Grue 1686-1746) and Carmine Gentile. Most of their wares were essentially functional, but they also included plaques made purely for display. Dishes depicting Classical heroes, spirited hunting scenes,or biblical epics are the successors of 16th-century istoriato wares. Production continued at Castelli until the mid-18th century, although there was a gradual decline in quality.
Drug jars continued to be made, although with less spirit than in the past. Instead of [)right colours, the influence of Chinese porcelain led to borders of blueand-white scrollwork or naive landscapes, which were both pleasing and original. From the late 17th century, dishes produced in Savona represented the istoriato ato tradition in a fresh and lively fashion, combining somewhat sketchy painting with high-quality potting. The standard of maiolica produced by the various Savona workshops varies considerably.
In the 18th century, Italy was no longer the leading force in European pottery. Nevertheless the centres of Le Nove, Bassano, Turin, Milan, and Faenza produced good pottery influenced by silver forms, French faience, and Chinese porcelain. Potters in Milan made dinner services decorated with the Chinese famille-rose palette and Japanese Imari patterns. The Ferniani family in Faenza made good-quality dinnerware often decorated with potato flowers or carnations.
AFTER 1800
In the 19th century, Italian pottery was dominated by mostly debased copies of earlier models. Among these, the bold flower painting of G.B. Viero at the faience factory (est. 1728) in Le Nove stands out, as does the work of probably the best-known 19th-century Italian maiolica potter, Ulysse Cantagalli (1839-1901) of Florence. Original 16th-century dishes were already very valuable, and there was an eager market for high-quality reproductions. Cantagalli’s famous copies of wares from Urbino and other centres of Italian maiolica production were so good that they fooled many connoisseurs in the 19th century. Many other 19th-century potters also reproduced the glories of the past, maintaining a tradition that continues to the present day.
1650-1800
• BODY new, fine maiolica types, which were thinner than those made in the previous century were
developed after c.16-50
• GLAZE high quality, and generally a greyish cream
• STYLE influenced by silverware, Chinese porcelain, and French porcelain and faience
• FORMS decorative plaques, vases, dinner services
• PALETTE Castelli: naturalistic tones of olive green, brown, and yeIlov,
• DECORATION continuation of istoriato (narrative) painting; introduction of perspective in painting of landscapes; allegorical and mythological themes; flowers and figures; Oriental motifs, including Chinese landscapes and blue-and-white scrollwork
• IMPORTANT MAKERS the Grue, Cappelletti, and Gentile families
After 1800
• FORMS a return to classic 16th-century forms; many produced as tourist wares
• DECORATION high-quality reproductions of 16th-century designs (e.g. istoriato)
Marks
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries
Cantagalli used this distinctive cockerel mark,usually in black; collectors should tic wary as
unscrupulous dealers have often removed this mark in order to pass pieces off as originals
Savona: this late 17th/early 18th-century representation of the tower or beacon in the harbour of nearby Genoa has been much imitated

Kakiemon
A type of Arita ware, Kakiemon is a delicate porcelain with a distinctive palette. The name is derived from a family of potters and enamellers working in Arita, who are traditionally believed to have introduced overglaze enamelling on porcelain to Japan in the 1640s. The extremely fine, milky-white body (nigoshide) was believed to have been exclusive to the Kakiemon kiln, although this is now disputed. Wares include small dishes, bottles, bowls, and vases, many of which are of geometric form.
DECORATION AND FORMS
Although the Kakiemon kilns produced blue-andwhite porcelain, they are generally associated with wares expertly painted in a palette of iron-red, cerulean-blue, turquoise-green, yellow, aubergine, and gold. These delicate porcelains form a counterpoint to the heavier Imari wares.
Often asymmetrical, the designs enhance
the milky-white body of the best Arita porcelain. Kakiemon wares are usually painted with natural themes: birds in branches, flying squirrels, the “quail and millet” design, the “Three
Friends of Winter” (pine, prunus, and bamboo), trailing flowers, and banded hedges. Human subjects are rare; some have been given titles such as the “Woman and the Nightingale” and the “Hob in the Well”, the latter a design based on the story of a Chinese sage who saved his friend who had fallen into a large fishbowl.
The chrysanthemum, the national flower of Japan, is a very common form for
Kakiemon wares, as is the pointed bracket-shape. Many Arita wares, especially the Kakiemon type, are hexagonal or octagonal in form. An iron-brown dressing (fuchi-beni) was applied to the edges of many Kakiemon porcelains to embellish them and to protect the rims from being chipped; this was probably introduced around the mid-17th century, following the example set by Chinese potters. Kakiemon porcelain was arguably the most influential Japanese porcelain in Europe; after it was exported to Europe at the end of the 17th century, the forms and decoration were copied by many major factories including Meissen, Saint Cloud,Chantilly, Chelsea, and Bow.
• BODY a pure milky-white (nigoshide)
• GLAZE almost colourless
• PALETTE iron red, cerulean blue, turquoise, brown, yellow, and gold; black is used for detailing; iron-
brown edges (fuchi-beni) are typical
• FORMS geometric; dishes are hexagonal, octagonal, or decagonal
• DECORATION mainly flower motifs and only rarely figures; asymmetrical and sparse; popular patterns include the “quail and millet”, the “Three Friends of Winter” (pine, bamboo, and prunus), banded hedges, flying squirrels, and the ho-ho bird (phoenix)
• COPIES made in many European factories from the end of the 18th century, including Meissen, Chantilly, Saint Cloud, Chelsea, and Bow

Arita blue-and-white wares
Almost all early Japanese porcelain was produced in Arita on Kyushu, the westernmost of the main Japanese islands and, significantly, the closest to Korea. It is most unlikely that the manufacture of porcelain would have developed in Japan as early as this without the know-how of Korean potters, who were brought to Japan when Toyotomi Hideyoshi returned from his invasion of Korea at the end of the 16th century. Early Arita porcelain is generally, if superficially, classified into three main types: Arita blue and white, Imari, and Kakicmon.
A Ming-style blue-and-white dish
This large dish is a fairly faithful rendition of late Ming kraak porcelain Emblems used by the Chinese as decorative motifs, including the “Eight Precious Objects” of the scholar (a musical stone, jewels, a coin, a pair of books, an open tied lozenge and a closed tied lozenge, and the artemisia leaf), were often copied by the Japanese. The artemisia leaf can be seen in this dish in the broad panels in the top right corner. (c. 1660-80; diam. 40cmll6in, value H)
DOMESTIC WARES
The earliest Arita wares wore crude-bodied, heavily potted porcelain, casually decorated in blue and white, and were generally not exported. These wares were clearly influenced by both Korean blue-and-white and imported late Ming porcelain. By the mid-17th century the Arita potters were producing a more refined and broader range of objects for the newly established export market, as well as for the domestic market. The type of decoration on these later wares was complex, combining natural themes with geometric patterns; dishes or bowls featured leaf or flower forms and, more rarely, bird or animal shapes. The underglaze blue used ranges from a poor-quality grey or blackish blue through to a bright purplish blue. Wares made for the domestic
EXPORT WARES
In 1647 the civil war in China between the Dynasty and the invading
disrupted the well-established trade between Japan and Europe. The Japanese were persuaded by Dutch East India Company to supply - white wares in the style of either the Chinese kraak porcelain or the Transitional
decorated with semi-botanical subjects narrative themes applied in a mechanical These are not close copies but loose
Japanese decorators were hampered by she they had to work from wooden models of originals supplied by the Dutch.
Wares produced at this time included
northern European metal or ceramic forms example the Enghalskrug (narrow-necked
or Kugelbauchkrug (bulbous globular rank:_
and the Birnkrug (pear-shaped tankard
specifically Chinese shapes as the kendi a
drinking vessel) and the klapmuts (a wide-dish) were also made. The trade with Europe continued until the kilns in China were reestablished in 1683, after which the Dutch mainly
returned to their patronage of Chinese porcelain. which was much less expensive than Japanese wares. However, porcelain made in the kilns at Arita continued to be exported to the West until the mid-18th century
market include small dishes and c.1640 Japanese wares include The third type of blue-and-white solely for the export market.

Korea’s close proximity to China has resulted in a marked Chinese influence in its ceramic production, ev ident in both the forms and the techniques used by potters. However, Korea has also produced stonewares and porcelains unique to its culture.
THE SILLA AND KORYO PERIODS
During the Silla kingdom (57 BC—AD 935) ceramic production in Korea consisted of grey- or brownish-bodied stonewares of distinctive architectonic form. Tall vessels with hemispherical bowls on an elongated spreading foot were decorated with geometric
windows and incised bands. Bowls were decorated with punched circlets, small repeated motifs, scratched geometric patterns, and, occasionally, animals or humans. Drawing inspiration from the Yue wares of south-eastern China, Korean potters developed celadon wares during the Koryo period (918-1392). Even if some of the forms are noticeably Chinese, there is almost always a distinctive Korean feel to them.
The green glaze is of a subtle tonality akin to the colour of the famous Ru wares of the northern Song Dynasty. However, er, the sangam celadons, which are painstakingly inlaid with black-and-white clays, are unique to Korea. A wide range of objects was made, including large blossom vases, ritual water ewers, and tiny covered boxes. Porcelain was also produced, albeit in very limited quantities, during the Koryo period.
CHOSON DYNASTY (1392-1910)
Developed from the sangam celadons of the Koryo period are the robust and often crude punch’ong wares, a greyish-green celadon-type stoneware made for about the first 200 years of the dynasty. Production ceased at the time of the invasion of Korea by the Japanese leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1592-8). The wares are decorated by stamping and washing through with slip. Decoration may feature tiny repeated motifs, flower-heads, or scrolls. Korean wares are generally very heavily potted with a curiously sticky glaze. The greyish-green glaze is thin, translucent, and mostly crackled, and it occasionally flakes. Choson whitewares were made throughout the period; earlier wares were often plain white, although many pieces can be painted in underglaze copper red, iron brown, or blue. Bulbous forms, often with faceted sides, are characteristic of the later Choson period, as are pierced vessels such as brushpots, pipe rests, and waterpots.
Early stoneware
• BODY dull dark grey or brown; potting tends to be very thick, and there is strong tendency for the items to warp
• FORMS “architectural”
• TYPES funerary wares
• DECORATION pierced and incised; often geometric patterns, rarely figures
celadon
• BODY generally a distinctive greyish blue-green like the classic Ru ware of the northern Song Dynasty
• GLAZE of greyish-olive tone; usually irregular; frequently crackled
• IDENTIFICATION celadon wares were fired on gritty kiln supports, often leaving crude patches on the underside of the foot-rim
• DECORATION the miniaturized inlay technique (sangam), using black-and-white clay, is unique to Korea
Porcelain
• BODY heavily potted; sometimes large pieces are warped or cracked; pierced and carved wares of the 18th and 19th centuries are very sophisticated
• GLAZE bluish or greenish irregularly crackled glaze
• DECORATION most common is the dragon; also cranes, tigers, and other animals
Marks
Most ceramics are unmarked before the late 19th century

Qing after 1800
During the Qianlong reign period (1736-95) the directorship of the imperial kilns passed from imperial officials to regional supervisors, and from that time there followed a slow decline in the quality of wares from Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province. While some fine pieces continued to be made, there was a general tendency to over-elaborate in both form and decoration.
BODY AND GLAZE
The changes in the quality of the material were gradual and, when wares are unmarked, it can be very difficult to distinguish between one reign period and another. The dragon and phoenix wucai bowls, which were first made during the Kangxi reign period (1622-1722), continued to be made right into the 19th century and are a good example of the problem; their smooth bluish-white glaze and neatly drawn enamelling are virtually the same whether they are from the Qianlong or the Jigging reign periods (1736-1820). Without reference to the seal marks, most specialists would be hard put to tell the difference.
There was, however, a perceptible decline in quality during the Daoguang reign period (1821-50), and the inferior quality persisted to the end of the dynasty. The cool and lustrous glaze gave way to a grainy off-white, while the enamels were duller or harsher than their
brilliant predecessors. The decoration of enamelled porcelains was arranged in a crowded or ineffective manner, with over-complicated colour combinations.
STYLES, SHAPES, AND DECORATIVE THEMES The porcelains that had been produced in the 18th century continued to be made in the 19th. They included Ming-style blue-and-white wares such as moon flasks and pear-shaped bottles, as well as large saucer dishes. Likewise, monochromes continued to be produced, notably sang-de-boeuf red, “peachbloom”, and yellow. There were also artistic innovations, among them the production of “medallion” bowls.
• GLAZE marked deterioration in quality from the Daoguang period; “European-green” turquoise wash appears on the inside of many vessels
• DECORATION tendency to over-elaborate, complicated colour schemes and overcrowding; greater use of gilding; introduction of “medallion” bowls and “rice-grain” pierced wares; use of show and other auspicious characters; heavy use of enamels
Reign marks
Reign marks were inscribed on most 19th-and 20th-century domestic, imperial, and export porcelain; the mark shown here is in conventional script for the Guangxu reign period (1875-1908)