Posts Tagged ‘wedgwood’

The Exotic: the 1860s and 1870s
In the 18 6os hair went up again and earrings returned to favour. Their comeback was marked by a great variety of types and styles. Size fluctuated throughout the period, but grew to enormous proportions in the late i 86os and early 18’70s, when earrings almost rested on the shoulder. This fashion, although started in France and England, spread throughout Europe, and we also learn from an article in the trade-paper Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith of 187 5 that: ‘long pendent earrings are coming into fashion again in America.’
It was the great age of novelty. Women suspended from their ears any unusual and bizarre object they could think of. Among the favourite shapes for earring pendants
were windmills, buckets, shovels, hammers, hens brooding in baskets, and hum P. 78 ming birds. Even exotic creatures such as Brazilian beetles were suspended from ears
in the place of gemstones. Goldfish swimming in bowls were simulated by tinted in P 03 taglios. The Chinese-inspired ‘willow pattern’ is seen on many plate-shape gold earrings from 1870, enamelled in blue and white with the traditional pagoda, willow tree and figures on a bridge. Arrow earrings also appear to have been in great favour, P 79 either simply attached to the earlobe or designed in two sections so as to appear to transfix it.
Earrings of these types were not products of ‘haute joaillerie’ and not intended to be particularly artistic-, they were meant to be amusing and decorative, ‘novelty’jewellery to be worn for a season and then discarded. This explains firstly why they are always of little intrinsic value, being made of thin gold leaf decorated with enamel rather than gemstones, and secondly why few of them survive. They were certainly not the type of jewel to pass down in the family as an heirloom.
Interest in travel and advances in scientific knowledge together with the development of new industrial techniques, all affected the design of earrings around the middle of the century. New materials such as ‘Blue John’ or Derbyshire spar, lava from Vesuvius, colourful feathers of hummingbirds from Mexico, and beetles from Brazil, whose hard and green iridescent shell proved a successful and unusual sub-
stitute for gemstones, all made their appearance. The beetles were either simply at P. 107 tached to a gold hook to be inserted through the pierced earlobe or grouped more 126 elaborately in girandole arrangements. There were also exotic flowers, such as cas- P. roe
cades of stained ivory fuchsia blossoms; bunches of bulrushes set with turquoises baskets of flowers held by a hand, and acorns. The popularity of the latter is demon-
1o6 strated by its appearance among the drawings of Mellerio and by the firm’s ad-
vertisement in the magazine La Femme et la Famille et le Journal des Jeunes Personnel. p. 102, Animals were also favourite subjects; among the most amusing are frogs ready to
103 spring from bulrushes, nesting birds, brooding hens and coiled serpents entwined
with a vine spray. Hammers, ladders and well-pulleys with buckets reflect an interest P. 78 in industry. Although the fashion for novelty earrings appears to have started in
France, it assumed its most bizarre forms in England.
Classical revival
Another leitmotiv of i 9th-century jewellery is revivalism, a means of enriching the present by looking at the past. This had developed in the I 830S when designers such as Pugin in England and soon after Froment Meurice in France turned to Gothic art as a source of inspiration. Few examples of earrings in Gothic style are known, and those are usually made from Berlin iron, a material particularly well suited to reproducing Gothic tracery. The full bloom of revivalism occurs in the 18 6os and I 870s and this is particularly true of jewellery. The styles to be revived were mainly pre-Classical and Classical, Italian and French Renaissance and the period of Louis XVI.
Contemporary archaeological discoveries in Etruria and in the Greek Islands such as Knossos, Melos and Rhodes were bringing to light large quantities of exceptional ancient jewellery. The importance and popularity of earrings in antiquity was in some ways comparable to the 18 6os and 18 70s- It was natural, therefore, that antique shapes, designs and techniques were copied or reinterpreted in this period.
Among the leaders in this style were the Castellanis in Rome and Naples; they not only copied and reinterpreted the examples of the past but also set antique fragments such as engraved gemstones and coins as part of their interpretation of ancient jewellery. This is particularly evident in works like the gold and cornelian earrings set with Roman intaglios depicting a trophy of arms and a hunting scene.
P 97 Ernesto Pierret was another famous jeweller in Rome who produced earrings of Etrusco-Roman inspiration. A good example is the pair designed as a triangular panel decorated with bead-work and corded wire typical of Greek and Etruscan goldsmithwork flanked by baton motifs with spherical drop terminals probably inspired by the Roman crotalia which Pliny describes as ornaments designed to tinkle at every movement. This was a favourite motif for earrings and many examples survive where the baton-shaped drops are combined with various surmounts such as the Athenian owl with spread wings perched on a pediment.
The taste for Classical designs was widespread throughout Europe. Similar examples were produced by firms such as Robert Phillips in England and Eugene Fonte-
P 109 nay in France. Fontenay made great use of bead-work and corded wire in the mounts of his earrings, which were frequently set with carvings or enamel miniatures of scenes from Pompeian frescoes and had fringed drops and palmette or rosette surmounts.
Gold and pearl earring in archaeological revival style, circa 1870, inspired by the ancient Roman `crotalia’.
This archaeological fad was such that as early as 18 59 it became the target of satirical sketches. In ‘A Young Lady on the High Classical School of Ornament’, Punch (15 July 1859) depicted a devotee of the Antique style with an excess of jewels, tiara, hair ornaments, necklaces, bracelets, pendants and long earrings, all of Greek and Etruscan inspiration.
Some revivalist earrings derive specifically from well known antique prototypes while others are merely pastiches of different archaeological motifs. A good example
of the first type is the Etruscan a baule earring of 6th/5th century BC pedigree, which p. io, reappears, almost identical, in the late i 86os. It has one closed side, with a decoration of applied stylized flowerheads, rosettes and wirework typical of ancient examples. The enamel decoration is undoubtedly prompted by close examination of ancient a baule earrings, where inlays of glass paste, which unfortunately have barely survived, were used to enliven the decoration. This represents an attempt by the 19th-century jeweller to reproduce in its entirety the ancient prototype and stresses the past importance of polychrome work.
Subjects such as rams’ heads, miniature Eros figures riding birds, amphorae of p. 99, various shapes and blackamoors’ heads popular in late Classical Greek, Hellenistic and Etruscan earrings were revived in abundance. Not only were the forms derived from Antiquity but also the techniques: granulation was largely used — although never reaching the finesse of Antiquity — with wirework and beading to pick out details, and, as in the past, enamels were preferred to gemstones.
Other popular shapes of Antiquity which had never been related to ear ornaments were now converted into earrings, e.g., Carlo Giuliano’s miniature oil lamps decorated with black enamel, modelled on lamps used for votive offerings in temples and sanctuary precincts.
Even 19th-century ‘novelty’ materials such as lava from Vesuvius, Wedgwood jasper-ware and tortoiseshell were adapted to earrings inspired by the Antique. Somehow the frilliness typical of the 19th century creeps through the severe and linear shapes of archaeological Classicism, so that they could never be mistaken for
the real thing. This is particularly true of two pairs of earrings where Roman gold p. 98 low-relief and Greek amphorae are suspended from circular surmounts decorated with frivolous 19th-century flower motifs.
The typical fitting of all these earrings is a thin S-shaped gold hook inserted in the ear from front to back, at times secured, like many ancient examples, by an additional semicircular catch at the back.
Notable as a successful reinterpretation of Classical ideals is the emerald and diamond parure commissioned by Napoleon III from Mellerio; although its overall design is definitely archaeological, its pendent earrings of sober, sculptural shape p. 8o have no strict connection with any ancient prototype.
Besides Greek, Roman and Etruscan art, Egypt provided an important source of inspiration, not only in terms of shapes and designs but also of colour choice and com-bination. Interest in ancient Egypt was stimulated by the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869 and by the contemporary excavations in the Nile Valley carried out and
P 96, published by Auguste Marlette. Falcons, papyri, mosaic or gold Pharaoh masks and
113 scarabs were soon fashionable motifs to adorn the ears, and dramatic combinations of bright colours such as lapis or turquoise blue, deep red and opaque white typical of Egyptian art gained favour throughout Europe.
Renaissance and 18th-century revival
The Renaissance revival, with its interest in sculptural and figurative shapes and enamel-work, began in the 1840s in France but did not affect earrings until the 18 6os and 18 70s. Among the influential jewellers working in this style was Carlo Giuliano, an Italian who spent most of his working life in England. Among his most
P. striking works is a pair of earrings in gold and polychrome enamel, opaque and translucent, each in the form of a stork devouring a serpent. In this case not only does the enamel technique and the bold sculptural shape remind us of the famous Renaissance figurative pendants, but the symbolism too is Renaissance; the stork devouring a snake standing for the soul overcoming carnal pleasure derives from a well known Renaissance emblem.
Fantastic creatures such as dragons and griffins with pronounced sculptural quality and the widespread use of polychrome enamels were typical of the French Renaissance revival. What gives away the fact that these belong to the 19th and not the 16th century is their passion for ornate and frilly detail, which always tends to creep in and
P. detract from the boldness of the sculptural effect. This is particularly evident in the
fringe of pearls and rosette surmount of the griffin earrings reproduced.
P 79 The gold, polychrome enamel and hardstone cameo earrings, each set with a cameo mask holding a floral festoon suspended from a tree-headed mask surmount, which the London jeweller John Brogden exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition oft867, although imbued with a certain Renaissance feeling, are closer to late i 8th-century Neoclassicism. The choice of differently coloured agate for the two cameos of Classical Dionysus masks is a rather unusual feature for the period. It is interesting that in this case both the original design and the finished jewels survive.
P. 74, In France, among other revivals, that of the Louis XVI style was particularly
77 favoured by the Empress Eug6me who, anxious to emulate Marie Antoinette in establishing in France a ‘grand’ monarchic tradition, revived, together with the crinoline, all the girandoles, bows and ribbon motifs of French 18th-century jewellery. She commissioned J. -E. Bapst, the famous French jeweller, to remount part of the crown jewels in Louis XVI style. The great majority of pendeloque and girandole earrings revived at this time in France were set with pearls and diamonds, but Eugenie’s favourite stone was the emerald, and it quickly became the most popular coloured gemstone in France.
Fin de sihle
As a consequence of the opening up of Japan to trade with Europe in the 18 5os and of the revolution there in 1866, Japanese art, until then little known in the West, started to exert considerable influence on the evolution of ornament and decoration. In the mid- i 870s it became popular in Europe to mount small pieces of Japanese metalwork as jewellery. Shakudo and shibuichi, the metal inlay techniques developed by Samurai swordmakers for the decoration of sword mounts and guards, entered the world of jewellery. Shibuichi and shakudo plaques and miniature fans decorated with flowers, butterflies, insects, birds and bamboo provided with a small suspension hook became very fashionable earrings and the Europeans soon began to imitate them in chased gold and silver. A good example is the pair of pendent earrings in the shape of a rectangular plaque decorated with fan-shaped motifs.
The increasing ease of travel in Europe encouraged interest in foreign countries and people liked to bring home souvenirs of the localities they visited. Italy with its sights and monuments was amongst the favourite destinations. Souvenir earrings are usually made of materials which are typical of a certain location: Roman mosaics, or micromosaic, made of minute glass tesserae depicting sights of Rome or scenes from the Campagna, and Florentine mosaic made of larger pieces of variously coloured inlaid semiprecious hardstone, usually in floral patterns, were extremely popular. Roman and Florentine mosaics had in fact been used in jewellery since the early i 800s; the earliest form of mosaic earrings consisted of a simple oval plaque connected to a smaller panel surmount with fine gold chains. Later examples dating from the i 86os and 187os are much more varied in shape and often reminiscent of archaeological revival designs. Early examples of Roman mosaic earrings have almost unbelievably tiny glass tesserae, producing a precision of detail which matches that of painting. Later examples are much coarser.
Among the plethora of 18 6os and 18 7os earrings another type can be clearly distinguished, known as the ‘fringe’ earring. This usually consists of a circular or oval surmount above a fringe of articulated pointed drops. It was popular throughout Europe but especially fashionable in England around 1870 where the drops tight-
Three earring designs in pencil and gouache of the late i 870s, from the archives of Mellerio, Paris. Note the fringe ornament typical of the time.
ened up to form a compact fringe of tapered gold chains in contrast to their Continental counterparts where the pendent elements are frequently fewer and well spaced. The distinction is clear if one compares the French designs illustrated in Mellerio’s archives with English examples set with carbuncles, Wedgwood jasperware plaques
P. 123 or decorated with white and royal blue or turquoise coloured enamel. The inset of small pearls or diamonds in a starshaped motif at the centre of the gemstone or enamelled boss surmount is another typical feature of jewellery of the time. Archaeological influence is frequently noticeable on the surmounts of these earrings. Most examples are fairly voluminous and long, measuring approximately 6 to io cms; in spite of this, their weight is negligible since the fringes that constitute a large portion
p. i 1 of the earring are made of hollow gold drops or of light gold chain. More expensive examples of diamond-set fringe earrings, though less common, are well known.
Naturalism in jewellery reached its peak in this period under the spell of the Parisian Oscar Massin, whose naturalistic and botanically accurate creations characterized by tremblant and pampille decoration became a model for jewellers throughout Europe. Cascades of flowerheads, sprays of leaves and flowers and single flowerhead
P. 124, clusters were to be seen on grand occasions. The designs by Mellerio and by the Ger-
125 man Frederick Kreuter reproduced here illustrate the variety of forms fashionable at the time.
The star motif had been popular in jewellery since the 18 6os. At first its design was exploited mainly for brooches, and only in the late 18 6os was it introduced into earring design. Typical of this date are earrings mounted with large carbuncles, amethyst cabochons or enamelled gold bosses inlaid at the centre with a pearl or diamond
p. 116, star-shaped motif. In other examples the whole earring takes on the shape of a star
117 suspended by a simple hook from the ear. The basic six-pointed star offered scope for many variations: the points could multiply up to eighteen, of different lengths and widths. In the late 18 8os and 189os knife-wire settings came into favour and this, together with a taste for light and less symmetrical shapes, prompted the creation of elaborate earrings in the form of off-centre stars, comets and shooting stars. The favourite gemstones for this type of ornament were diamonds since they could best suggest real stars; less expensive versions were set with half pearls and very pale opals. Many sets were made in this style, comprising earrings, a brooch, and a necklace which could also be worn as a tiara; a design by Mellerio commissioned by Queen Isabella II of Spain is a good example.
Towards the end of the century the fashion for large and varied earrings subsided in favour of smaller and more sober ear ornaments, either clusters or single gemstones, simply claw- or collet-set in very unobtrusive, delicate mounts provided at the back with a flattened hoop fitting. The fashionable design for daywear in the 18 gos consisted simply of a single pearl embellished with small diamonds. At night the favourite earring would be a single diamond of varying size. The change towards smaller earrings was this time dictated not so much by hairstyles, since the ears were
Four ink designs for pendent earrings by Kreuter, Germany, 1867-70. The top one is star shaped; the second and fourth decorated with star and fringe motifs; and the third with a fringe only.
A collection of North Italian gold
pendent earrings, circa i 800. Their large size, linearity and two-dimensional, geometrical quality are typical of early t9th-century earrings in Europe. Many include a central plaque in relief stamped out of a thin sheet of gold, to simulate a cameo with a profile of a Classical warrior, a type of imagery which had become popular at the time of the Napoleonic campaign in Northern Italy Of 1796-97. Note the contrast between the austere profiles and the delicate lace-like filigree border decorated with typical hollow hemispherical motifs.
still left uncovered, as by the fashion for high frilled collars during the day and for the ‘collier de Chien’, or dog collar, at night, both of which dressed the neck and filled in the space between ears and shoulders. Long pendent earrings which visually interfered with high collars and neck ornaments disappeared almost completely. The few pendent earrings of the 189os were of moderate size, in the shape of very delicate pearl and diamond articulated drops which moved and reflected light.
The discovery of the Cape diamond mines in South Africa brought a plentiful supply of fine stones onto the market. A single, large, flawless, white diamond of high quality was now usually preferred to a fussy arrangement of small stones. The new abundance of diamonds also led to new ways of cutting: cushion-shaped diamonds, fat and bulky in order to retain the maximum carat weight of precious material, became thinner and circular in shape, with the culet or back facet reduced to a pin-point, thus exploiting to the maximum the exceptional optical quality of diamonds to reflect and disperse light. The new brilliant cut involved a waste of up to 5o% of the rough crystal but the final result was thought to be worth it.
Apart from diamonds, a variety of other stones were set in cluster earrings; often a larger coloured stone would be mounted within a border of smaller diamonds. Black Australian opals, together with pale and metallic sapphires from Montana, appeared on the market in the 189os; amethysts and peridots were great favourites and with their purple and lime green colours well complemented the pastel tints of contemporary dresses. In the 189os pearls and half-pearls were the preferred alternative to the more expensive diamond borders and with their delicate sheen particularly suited the soft silks in fashion during the last decade of the century.
The Art Nouveau movement, which reacted against the repetitiveness and lack of imagination in the decorative arts and jewellery and challenged the excessive emphasis placed on intrinsic value, promoted many new, original and daring designs — but not for earrings. There are hardly any Art Nouveau earrings, and the few that survive must be considered exceptions. An extraordinary pair created by Rene Lalique is definitely a ‘one off’. They are typical in their choice of less expensive materials (large milky opals, translucent enamels echoing the colour of the opals, richly coloured matt gold) and in the flowing line of the decorative thistle motif rendered in enamel at the front and engraved at the back. But they are unique in their unconventionally large size and their detachable clip fitting, a feature which became normal only in the I 930s. It is possible that such clip fittings were devised to allow the earrings to be worn as necklace pendants.

MID 19TH CENTURY LATE VICTORIAN BRITAIN ANTIQUE FURNITURE

THE LATER VICTORIAN PERIOD saw agrowing distinction between general “trade” furniture and what came to be known as “Art Furniture” – that is, furniture made by firms that retained architects and specialist designers.
PARALLEL. INDUSTRIES Cabinet-makers in London’s West End, and their downmarket counterparts in the East End, continued to employ the cabriole legs and rounded backs that had already been made for many years. Newer developments in furniture included a proliferation of corner and mantelshelves for displaying decorative objects, and the adoption of a gallery of turned spindles, from the French style. Art Furniture, in whatever guise it took, tended to adhere to certain structural or philosophical principles, leaving the manufacturers who ploughed the trade furrow to concentrate on such lesser concerns as comfort, practicality; and –most of all – affordability.
That British furnishers were operating on a two-tier basis can be demonstrated by the way they reacted to overseas influences. The gradual emergence of Japan from its isolationist shell led in a great deal of interest in Japanese culture and aesthetic traditions in all spheres of the arts, including the furniture industry. Trade furnishers responded by churning out “AngloJapanese” pieces, adding fake Japanese decoration to existing Victorian forms. Exponents of Art Furniture, meanwhile, took a more studious and disciplined approach. The influential designer Christopher Dresser visited Japan in 1876 and became a champion of authentic Japanese style. Similarly, the designer Edward Godwin made close studies of Japanese art and carefully incorporated what he learned into his furniture designs, as evident in his striking juxtapositions of horizontal and vertical pieces. Bamboo became very popular because it was very sturdy
yet cheaper than exotic hardwoods.
NEW STYLE FROM THE PAST
A perennial favourite of historically minded furniture-designers, the Gothic style was as widespread as ever during the late Victorian period. Among its principal exponents was Bruce Talbert, a practitioner of the “Early English” predilection was for honestly constructed furniture of the Gothic school. He celebrated mortise-and-tenon joining and despised the use of glue for, as he stated: “Glue leads

to veneering and veneering to polish.” Rather than commit the sin of veneering, he offset the dark wood bodies of his work with decorative panels of contrasting colours.
REGIONAL FURNITURE-MAKERS A number of provincial furniture centres flourished. Gillows of Lancaster built on an established reputation for quality furniture and continued to expand during the mid-19th century. Lancaster port provided Gillows with steady supplies of Caribbean mahogany.
Wylie and Lochhead of Glasgow employed craftsmen to make furniture for their department store as well as for the grand liners that were built on the Clyde. Established in 1829, by 1870 Wylie and Lochhead made, upholstered, and sold Furniture for the middle classes of Glasgow and beyond.
High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire was one of many centres of Windsor chair production.
LATE VICTORIAN WRITING TABLE
This top of this writing table is lined with green leather and framed by a brass edge moulding. The serpentine frieze, containing two narrow drawers, is faced with panels of floral marquetry, crossbanded in tulipwood and set into a zebrawood ground.
CHAMBER CUPBOARD SIDE CABINET
This inlaid Adam-style side cabinet is made of mahogany with satinwood banding, and was designed by Gillows. The upper section of the cabinet has a consoled reverse-breakfront cornice with a central bevelled mirror below. The mirror is flanked by
cupboards on either side, each with a grotesque-inlaid door in the Renaissance style. The deeper, lower section of the cabinet has three drawers in the frieze, above a central glazed door; on either side of the glazed door is an open shelf. The whole stands on bracket feet. Late 19th century.
This Gothic-revival pedestal cupboard has a galleried top and stands on a chamfered plinth. The door has a central harewood panel with stylized flowers and circular rosettes. 1865.
DINING CHAIR
One of a set of 21, this walnut chair has a curved back rail, solid splat, and upholstered bow-fronted seat. The Greek-revival chair is supported on turned, tapering legs. c.1880.
A glazed cupboard door allows ornaments to be seen.
Adam-style gilt wall mirror The bevelled rectangular plate is flanked by panels with ribbon-tied husk pendants, and surmounted by an urn, anthemion, and floral swag design.
Chippendale mahongany open armchair This chair has a splat with pierced, interlaced strapwork headed by acanthus sprays. It stands on cabriole front legs with carved acanthus knees and clawand-ball feet.
Many Victorians turned their backs On contemporary furniture design and imitated the 18th-century Neoclassical style instead. Many of the great cabinetmakers of that period had bequeathed the industry detailed pattern books, making it easy to recreate their products. In 1867, Wright and Mansfield made a cabinet designed by Crosse, which is credited with sparking the interest in Neoclassical decoration and style. It has a satinwood carcase, and incorporates marquetry in various woods, with giltwood mounts and Wedgwood plaques. The cabinet is now at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Reproductions of 18th-century pieces by Chippendale, Sheraton, Hepplewhite, and Adam were pervasi during the
second half of the 19th century. Many of them were of very high quality and, now that they have aged, can be difficult to distinguish from the originals.
The look was characterized by profuse use of inlay and banding. Satinwood was highly prized for its pleasing Colour, useful for contrasting banding, and gilt lacquer provided an alternative to the dark colours of the Gothic style. Cameo carving
featured Classical motifs, such as urns, shell, and acanthus. The style was such a success, that unscrupulous salerooms would apply fake Neoclassical ornaments to plain 18th-century furniture. Popular at various times throughout the 19th century, the Neoclassical revival-style was especially fashionable during the 1870s.
George III-style partner’s desk The rectangular desktop has rounded corners and is inset with a leather writing surface. Below are four opposing frieze drawers. The whole stands on acanthus-carved cabriole legs, which terminate in claw-and-ball feet. Late 19th century.
Sheraton-revival satinwood, semi-elliptical commode This commode is painted with swags of flowers and female figures within ovals in Neoclassical style. The commode has a frieze drawer above a central panelled door and stands on square-section feet. Late 19th century.

Glass is distinguished from other materials by its transparency.
People like glass because of its shine and the way drinker.
glass refracts the light that passes through it. Glass is also extremely practical. It does not allow liquids to permeate it and is a poor conductor of heat. On the other side of course is glass’s only disadvantage — its fragility. Glass today is something modern humankind takes for granted. There is an involved process before glass objects reach the consumer.
Glass is formed by heating various metal oxides and quartz. In addition to the raw materials of glass (quartz and borax), there are also alkaline substances (potassium or sodium oxide). These make the silicates indissoluble.
The right composition of substances for glass is the result of centuries of experience. Glass was probably first made about 4,000 years ago — perhaps discovered in ancient Egypt by chance.
The production of glass was then a relatively straightforward process. The glass-makers first smelted glass in earthenware vessels over an open fire. The glowing pieces of glass adhered together and were then plunged into cold water where they splintered.
These shards of glass-like material were known as frit. The frit was then ground between millstones under powdered when it was smelted once more to achieve the desired result.
This principle was in use until some time after 1500. Old illustrations often show two glass furnaces: one is for the initial smelting of the raw materials and the second for melting the powdered frit.
The production of glass was changed in the eighteenth century in Britain. Coal replaced wood for the glass furnace but this turned the glass yellow from the sulphur dioxide that is released. This meant that glass had to be smelted in a sealed kiln.
This also made it more difficult to keep an eye on the smelting process. A solution was found by producing softer glass mixtures.
Means of decoration
Glass can be decorated in a number of ways. The most direct method is to apply layers of other glass or to mark the surface during the glassblowing process while the glass is soft. Such results depend on the skill and artistry of the glassblower. Glass has been blown since early times and had reached a state of high art in Roman times.
There are various waysin which glass can be decorated during blowing. One way is to add small pieces of glass or `prunts’. Another way is to spin the glass of the same or contrasting colour so that it forms a spiral on the glass surface. Many of the varying techniques are based upon centuries old traditions.
An entirely different way of decorating glass is to enamel or paint it.
This technique does not rely on the artistry of the glassblower. This is done with either ‘cold’ or fired enamel. Glass can also be gilded with precious metals such as silver or gold. Further ways of decorating glass are by cutting or engraving it. Glass is engraved with a diamond which ‘draws’ a design on its surface and it can also be stippled (a Dutch invention) with either a diamond or softer stylus.
Different effects can be created by making either open or dense stipple marks.
Glass has been cut since early times but etching was discovered by the Swede Sheele who notice that the acidic gases of hydrogen fluoride ate in to glass. Glass can also be ‘etched’ by sand-blasting. Encapsulation is done by placing objects in glass while it is still soft that then become fixed in the solid glass. This method was especially popular in Europe between 1800 and 1850.
Glass production from east to west
The production of glass spread to other countries from Egypt around 1000 BC. The techniques were extensively improved between the sixth and second centuries before Christ.
A very important discovery was made at Sidon in Syria in the first century before Christ – the glassblower’s ‘blowing iron’.
This enabled objects to be made of thin glass. It was a technique that spread throughout the Roman empire to Italy and Spain to the west but also to Gaul (France), Britain, and Germany in the north. The major glassblowing centres were established along the Rhine and in Gaul (France).
Production in the east
In common with many other techniques, glass-making was also largely forgotten following the fall of the Roman empire but this was not true in the east. The most important glass-producing region was Byzantium where new techniques were also developed that can be seen in cut and engraved goblets, bottles, ewers, and mosaics of the era.
Arabs were extremely fond of glass embellished with gilt or enamel and major Arab glass centres were Damascus and Aleppo in Syria.
Very fine coloured glass goblets, bottles, ewers, lamps, and dishes were made in these towns between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. These were often decorated with bright painting.
Persian glass-making took over the leading position in the fifteenth century and Persian glass even influenced Spanish glass. Surviving Persian glass from this era consists mainly of bottles of green or blue glass.
Medieval European glass
Glass production in the former western Roman empire after its fall only survived in Gaul (France), Germany, Flanders, and Britain.
In the early Middle Ages the preference was for decoration with grooves, flattening, and decoration with ‘threads’
of glass. Several new types of object appeared such as `trunked’ and ’studded’ beakers. Otherwise just simple medicine bottles were made from green glass that was far from perfect.
Glass production even went into decline in the ninth century and many in Christian countries regarded glass as a heathen product. After all the heathens used bottles for their ‘pagan’ burials. Pope Leo IV even banned the liturgical use of glass. Not everyone was of the same opinion.
Bishop Isidorus of Seville in Spain wrote a treatise about glass based on Naturalis Historiae, written by the Roman Plinius. The monk Theophilus wrote an extremely important work about glass —probably during the late tenth or early eleventh century, somewhere along the Rhine.
In a piece about the art of glass he described the constituents of Roman and Asian glass, wrote down many legends, and described the process of glassblowing in great detail.
Venice
Sometime around the birth of Christ, glass was produced in northern Italy. The technique was maintained by cloistered orders and spread from these during the Middle Ages throughout Europe. It was in this region that the one of the most famous glass-making centres was established.
Benedictine monks in Venice specialised in making bottles by the year 1000. Following the conquest and pillage of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204, many Byzantine glassblowers sought to escape to the powerful trading city of Venice.
They strengthened Venetian glass-making with techniques such as glass mosaics. The first thin and hollow glass-ware and first glass jewellery were made in Venice in about 1250. Soon afterwards the production of glass became a monopoly of the Venetian state. The glassblowing works though were forced to move outside the city. With their extensive use of fire they threatened the safety of the city and hence were moved to the island of Murano.
The first reports of exports of glass from Venice are also recorded around 1250. They also made optical glass for spectacles and window glass.
A great deal of glass incorporating soda from burnt seaweed was made in the fourteenth century. The Venetians also began to make latticinio glass with thin white threads around 1400. The Venetians were also known to make golden coloured glass by chemical means and other colours too with copper and cobalt.
They also decorated their glass by `burning’ colours into it. This is very characteristic of fifteenth century Venetian glass. In the sixteenth century the Venetians mainly decorated their glass with patterns of opaque white threads. Vegetal and abstract designs were also created on the thin-walled soda glass.
In addition to clear cristallo glass, Venice also made opaque white lattimo glass that was translucent but not transparent, millefiori containing tiny rods of coloured glass, and frosted glass with a cracked surface. The glassblowers also produced all manner of decorative forms with glass. The chemical composition of Venetian glass was a secret with severe penalties for anyone who revealed the procedures to make it. Despite this, many Venetian glassblowers left for other parts in the early sixteenth century and became involved abroad in the production of imitations of Venetian glass. Excellent copies of glass d la facon de Venice were made in Spain, France, and the Low Countries. These are so good that it is very difficult to determine whether a piece is made in Venice or elsewhere. The main differentiation is that the metal (body of the glass) of the imitations is not so clear, fine, and thin as that produced on the Venetian island of Murano.
Developments elsewhere in Europe
In Bohemia and Germany they also tried to join in Venice’s success. The glass works there only flourished after the Middle Ages. Many attempts were made in France employing Italian immigrants to make totally transparent and clear glass. Dutch glass makers began to make diamond engraved fluted glasses in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and it was the Low Countries too that made glasses with a characteristic ‘winged foot’. It was also quite common for glass made in one place to be decorated elsewhere.
BOHEMIAN AND GERMAN FOREST GLASS
The extensive forests of Bavaria were home to many glass works. The production area lay within an area bordered by the Thuringia and Bavarian forests, and the Alps and Fichtel mountains. Because of iron and potash in the raw materials the glass produced was mainly green.
New types of glassware were created that were primarily functional with the main output being glass beakers but ink pots and alchemists’ and apothecaries’ jars were also made.
This was often decorated with prunts and molten threads of glass. Glass was also decorated with bizarre relief forms. All these products were small icrean size in the fourteenth and fifteenth century. Larger pieces were noss bt made until the sixteenth century.
The most widespread of these are so maigelein: shallow beakers of blown gas
A 17th century Dutch green Romer glass. This type first appeared in the 15th century.
of which the bottom is pressed inwards. There were also much larger Pasglas measured glasses, beakers in the form of cabbage stalk, beakers with finger grips, and vertically ribbed cylindrical beakers. The classical slim and tall beakers of Bohemian glass were made in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Their small stems are externally decorated with prunts of molten glass. The Romer glass was first made in the fifteenth century. These wine glasses were extraordinarily popular in the Rhineland. A bellied glass, shaped like an onion with a curved neck consisting of several plaited tubes of glass also appeared in Bohemia in the late Middle Ages.
ENAMELLING
Every glass works outside Italy strived to improve on Italian glass with their local products but the shape of their glassware is clearly different from that of Renaissance Italy. This is because of different local drinking customs. Wine was drunk in Italy but north of the Alps people mainly drank beer. This caused different demands of glasses. The Humpen beer glasses were made from the middle of the sixteenth century.
At first these were conical in form but later only cylindrical Humpen were made. This latter type had a low sole and sometimes also had a hinged lid. The style of painting was intended to give the impression of an Italian product and this also helped to mask the imperfections in the glass.
Enamelling was commonplace on sixteenth century central European glass. The best period for this form of decoration was reached in the earlier seventeenth century. The quality of glass was then improved through the addition of chemicals.
Another category of glassware was the beakers that bore the owner’s crest of arms.
These were also monogrammed and dated. Others, known as ’state eagle’ Humpen were decorated with the German state arms. Quite separate from these glasses though were the Fichtel mountain ox-head glasses that were painted with pictures of the wooded hills from which the Eger, Main, Naa, and Saale rivers rise. Old and New Testament references, fables, and allegories were also common painted decorations in both the Renaissance and Baroque eras.
Although enamelled glass originally came from Venice it gradually became the speciality of central Europe. This method of decoration was used for more than 250 years.
Spun stem Dutch glass. Spinning a thread of glass of the same or contrasting colour around a glass core is one method of decoration.
Enamel became less expensive in the later seventeenth century so that ‘ordinary’ citizens were able to buy it. Finally it became a product for the masses and when applied to milchglass became a cheap alternative to porcelain.
Finding out the origins of a piece is no easy matter. There are countless different types with regional and local characteristics but these became less pronounced as glassblowers moved to work at different places.
PAINTED TRANSPARENT GLASS
A new manner of decorating hollow glass objects was introduced in the later eighteenth century using transparent enamels instead of opaque ones. The porcelain artist Samuel Mohn of Dresden was the first to use this technique.
His ‘friendship’ glasses are painted with portraits, landscapes, allegories, and verses. He customarily signed his work with Mohn fecit. His son, Gottlob Mohn, established himself in Vienna in 1811 and signed himself G. Mohn in Wien. His first work was the painting of town views.
The Viennese porcelain and glass artist Hothgasser took up this popular subject, working mainly on bell-shaped glasses on long branched stems. He mainly signed his work with his monogram between the ‘teeth’ of the branched stem.
Sometimes though he used his full signature on his glasses. These were given as a present or friendship’s token, or served as souvenir. Kothgasser’s glasses with playing cards were very popular around 1875. Kothgasser’s work was in great demand and hence widely copied but reproductions are easily spotted by the naive compositions and lack of technique.
BOHEMIAN ENGRAVED GLASS
The process of engraving was already known during Roman times but the ancient technique was re-invigorated during the sixteenth century in southern German with fresh demand for this style of decoration. This arose because of exports of engraved crystal from Milan. The so-called ‘mountain’ crystal was rare and hence expensive. This led to people in southern Germany deciding to apply the decorative technique used with crystal on glass. Lehmann One of the most famous engravers is
Kasper Lehmann, engraver to the court at Prague. Until recently he was even deemed to have been the ‘inventor’ or glass engraving.
Engraved ginger glass, circa 1700. Although known since Roman times, it was not re-introduced until the 16th century, in southern Germany. Engraved glass became very popular in the north of the Low
Countries.
He established himself in Prague around 1600 and in 1609 he gained a monopoly from the king for the engraving of glass. Lehmann had a number of students, including Georg Schwanhardt, the most important of them, who returned to his home town of Nuremberg following Lehmann’s death. There were many engravers working in this town but each had his own area of speciality.
Schwanhardt mainly worked with Venetian-type goblets, although Venetian glass itself is not suitable for engraving because it is too fragile. Glass with lime added was used for engraving. This sparkling glass was clear and pure with strong refractory properties. It became known as Bohemian crystal.
Bohemian ‘crystal’ was discovered between 1670 and 1680 more or less simultaneously in three glashutten in southern and northern Bohemia. Knowledge of the process spread quickly throughout Bohemia.
Painting with enamel was depressed here by engraved Bohemian ‘crystal’. The first decorations were copies of motifs used in Venice. Because of the high quality of the new material it quickly became a formidable competitor for Venetian glass. Traders not only succeeded in selling Bohemian glass throughout Europe, it was also shipped to other parts of the world.
When the engraving switched to the Baroque style Bohemian glass was even more successful.
SILESIAN ENGRAVED GLASS
The successful formula of Bohemian glass works was also followed in Silesia. The works of Count Schaffgotsch were very important to this region. The glashut in Hermesdorf in particular produced some fine pieces. This was due to the engraver Friedrich Winter who engraved a series of friendship goblets and beakers there after 1690.
The engraved glass from the works at Lobkowitz in Wiesau and Warmbrunn were also of exceptionally high quality. Silesian glass is characterised by the narrowing at the bottom of the drinking vessel. Although Bohemian glass itself was of higher quality, the exceptional Silesian engraving was better than that of Bohemia.
Glass production was advanced following Prussia’s capture of Silesia from Austria in 1742. Glass production in Silesia and Bohemia began to become less significant in the mid eighteenth century due to a number of factors. These included a smaller market through European wars that had caused economic collapse and also a reduction in the size of the market through the development of porcelain and lead crystal. Superb glass goblets made way for simple beakers. Both form and decoration were simplified and more suited to the new circumstances.
The Bohemian glass industry searched for a way to emerge from the crisis.
One of their developments was milchglas that was supposed to compete with the rapidly growing market for porcelain. Entire sets of tableware and drinking services were produced from 1760 to the mid nineteenth century by works at Harrachov in Bohemia.
The opaque ‘milk glass’ was much cheaper than porcelain but could emulate it in both form an enamelled decoration.
GERMAN DEVELOPMENTS
The discovery of the addition of lime to forest or potash glass in Bohemia was also important for the German glashutten.
This was especially true of those works of the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg which bordered Bohemia. Silesian experience in both glass making and engraving was utilised at Brandenburg works at Potsdam, Berlin, and later also at Zechlin. Potsdam attracted Martin Winter, brother of the highly regarded Helmdorf engraver.
The glass specialist and alchemist Johann Kunckel was given the task of researching the best composition for glass. He is credited with discovery of Zwischengoldglas or ‘gold-ruby’ glass. Other gifted engravers also worked for Brandeburg glass makers in addition to Winter.
Glass from this time is solid and heavy. The foot or stem, drinking vessel, and lid were decorated with leaf motifs. Pieces were lighter after 1720 under the influence of the engraver Elias Rosbach. Zechlin glass though (which had gilt medallions melted into its surface) remained fairly robust.
Knowledge of how to produce Bohemian glass spread via Nuremberg northwards. Important centres were established at Brunswick and Hesse, while the glashutten of Thuringia were also important parts of the German glass industry. Just as with porcelain, the electors of Saxony also initiated establishment of glassworks in their domain.
The Saxon works copied Bohemia so precisely that their glassware closely resembles Bohemian glass. Saxon glass though uses slightly different forms, such as horizontal, diagonal, and faceted rims on the stem and underbelly of the bowl. There is a difference too in the gilded relief and gilded engraving
‘RUBY GOLD’ GLASS
In addition to engraved glass, Bohemian glass works also produced ‘ruby gold’ glass or Zwischengoldglas during the prime era for Baroque style. This type of glass had been known in Roman times but forgotten. Following its rediscovery by Johann Kunckel in Brandenburg, Bohemian glass makers also started to make it. The same type of decoration was employed as was used for Bohemian `crystal’.
This consisted of engraving, silver gilt or gilt leaf motifs placed between two layers of glass. Only a few pieces were double layered at that time.
English lead crystal and Dutch glass
Around 1750, glass that was stabilised with lead became important in Europe. The heavy lead ‘crystal’ was well adapted to practically-shaped pieces following
Painted glass box, circa 1850. This type of movingly painted glass boxes were made in Friesland in the Low Countries Classical lines. Lead crystal has unique properties.
It is absolutely clear and is decorated in an entirely different way. By use of a diamond cutting disc a large number of facets can be created that cause light refraction — acting as a series of prisms. Dutch glass was extensively engraved with diamond cutters and lead crystal became extremely popular there. After 1750, some exceptional Dutch pieces were made by stippling the glass with a diamond.
The solid goblets used for this purpose were partly imported from Britain.
Nineteenth century glass
Bohemian crystal found a strong competitor with English lead crystal cut glass. This was because the lead crystal was ideally suited to the forms of the fashion for Classicism. The Bohemian glass makers reacted by adopting the English cut-glass technique but Bohemian glass was not suitable for cutting. The consequences were therefore limited and the technique was restricted so that cutting remained solely an extension to engraving. The subjects for engraving were determined by the current fashion and this can be seen by the motifs used.
Count Georg Buquoy of Neugrdtzen in southern Bohemia became very taken with Wedgwood’s ‘Egyptian Black’. In common with Friedrich Egermann in Haida, Neugrdtzen began making black Hyalith glass that was mainly decorated in a golden chinoiserie style.
The wares included carafes, coffee services, dishes, and vases. Egermann created Lithyalin, a different form of opaque glass that resembled jasper and agate. Like these stones it could be facet cut. Egermann’s glass works also used a golden yellow glass paint that he invented. This was used on goblets and beakers from 1820. Egermann’s greatest achievement though was his contribution to the enriching of glass.
With the help of copper he was able to create cheap imitations of expensive
golden-coloured ruby glass. Glass makers sought an ever greater range of colours and forms for their wares. On the one hand they attempted to improve the process of applying coloured glass to a clear glass base while on the other they sought to develop new methods.
This led to a new technique in which several layers of coloured glass were applied to a base. It was a process that had originated in China. By cutting away parts of the different coloured layers, all manner of colour effects could be created. The use of several layers of milchglas was particularly popular. With this, when a pattern had been cut out it was further decorated with enamel.
Bohemian glass companies exported lots of this type of ware in the 1850’s. Around 1820 the Bohemian glassworks also made glass that was smelted with embedded plaster or porcelain with portraits of famous persons. From 1830 onwards the glass market changed radically because of the major changes in how glass was made. Until that time each piece was individually crafted by a glassblower. During the nineteenth century factories began to press mould glass. This process made it possible to mass produce glass making.
The artistic level of the output dropped of course but commercial considerations were generally more important than aesthetic ones. Very few managed to avoid this trend. One who did was the Viennese artist Ludwig Lobmeyr, who owned a quality glass making works in Steinsch6nau. He was one of a group of artists who opposed the levelling down and increasing lack of taste of the mass produced wares.
This group studied ancient and exotic forms of glass and this led to their works making new types of glassware with simple and functional shapes. Before this trend gained wider acceptance though it was consumed in an even more radical movement that swept Europe under the Art Nouveau and Jugendstil names. The artists A. Daum and E. GaI16 gave glass-making back its individual power of expression and returned to the old traditions. In the United States Louis Comfort Tiffany was inspired by oriental and classical glass. His work was widely admired and echoed in Europe.
One glass works that copied his lead was the Liitz works at Klostermiihle in Bohemia.
Glass and jewellery
Glass paste and beads were used for jewellery back in the age of the ancient Egyptians. Alexandria supplied the then known world with glass beads during the
ancient Greek civilisation and during the Roman empire. The strings of beads made with them were of different colours. The glass was decorated with wavy melted threads of lighter-coloured glass. The production of beads spread through Constantinople and the other towns of the Roman empire to Europe.
Venice was an important production centre for glass beads in the eleventh century. Imitation gem stones had been made in Bohemia as early as the fourteenth century. In the eighteenth century
Louis XIV style mirror of the 19th century.
They also started to make glass beads. Production of glass beads had started in the German Nuremberg in the sixteenth century followed by the Fichtel mountains area of Bavaria in the seventeenth century, and soon afterwards by Potsdam and Thuringia.
Bead production of importance got under way in France in the seventeenth century.

Coloured glass
Coloured glass is made by adding metallic oxides to the glass batch. This technique was widely practised in ancient Egypt and Rome, where brightly coloured glass was often favoured over clear glass. In the 15th century opaque white glass, slightly translucent glass, and glass in imitation of hardstones were produced in Venice; in Bohemia glass in bold colours of blue and
ruby-red was widely produced before 1800. In the 19th century, with advanced technical and mass production methods production was much more widespread with notable firm operating not only in Italy and Bohemia but also in Britain France, and the USA. Experimention with new staining any overlay techniques produced a wide array of coloured designs.
EARLY GLASS
The Egyptians experimented with coloured glass, exploiting their extensive trade routes to acquire the necessary materials. Ancient Egyptian glass comes in a myriad of bright, pure colours. One of the most common was bright turquoise blue, coloured by adding copper oxide to the batch. Antimony and tin oxide, imported from Assyria, were used to colour glass an opaque white, while pure opaque yellow was trailed over dark blue core-formed objects, with white or pale blue, and
combed into festoons or feathery patterns and zigzags. Fine alabastra (bottles or flasks) known as “gold-band” incorporate stripes of real gold.
The Romans continued to experiment with coloured glass, producing most famously dark blue glass overlaid with opaque white and cut with cameo decoration. Mosaic glass was made from brilliantly coloured canes of glass cut into tiny slices and fused together in a mould. Most coloured glass was blue, although purple and amber pieces are also found. Much excavated Roman glass will have an iridescent surface; this is the result of a chemical reaction with the metal oxides in the earth after the glass was buried. Roman wares include bowls, bottles, flasks, and cups.
VENETIAN GLASS
From the mid-15th century the sophisticated know-how of Venetian glassmakers gave rise to many different types and effective combinations of coloured glass. In the late 15th century a “milky” opaque-white glass made by adding tin oxide to the batch was developed. This glass (known as lattimo in Italy) resembled porcelain, and it became particularly popular in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, when imported Chinese porcelain was in vogue. From the late 15th century a fine marbled glass known as “chalcedony” ” or “agate” glass was created by mixing together coloured opaque metals to resemble hardstones. Opaline glass, which was slightly translucent and less dense than opaque-white glass, was probably first made in Venice in the 17th century by the addition of oxides and the ashes of calcified
bones to the batch; when held to the light it can be distinguished from opaque-white glass by a red or yellow tint, which is known as the “fire’
BOHEMIAN GLASS
In the 16th century a distinctive dark-blue glass was produced in Bohemia by the addition of cobalt oxide. The clear vivid body colour was a perfect canvas for the brightly coloured naive enamelling popular at that time. At the end of the 17th century a deep pink glass was invented by by Johann Kunckel (c.1630-1703), a chemist and director at the Potsdam Glasshouse (est. 1679). The colour was produced by adding gold chloride to the batch. This “gold-ruby” glass (known as “Kunckel red” or, in German, Rubinglas or Goldrubinglas) was also produced in Nuremberg and other glasshouses in southern Germany. Gold-ruby glass was decorated with engraving, cutting, or gilding, and was considered a luxury product.
• MAIN AREAS OF PRODUCTION ancient coloured glass was made in Egypt and Rome; it was produced from c.1450 in Venice and from the 16th century in Bohemia
• TYPES blue glass; porcelain-like “milk” glass; coloured glass in imitation of hardstones; opaline glass; gold-
ruby glass
• FORMS densely coloured pieces may appear heavy bodied
• COLOURS ancient glass: many pieces have dark blue bodies sometimes with yellow and white decoration
• COLLECTING ancient Egyptian glass is very rare and valuable; generally colour will not play an important part in its value; gold-ruby glass is rare and valuable
Bohemia
The 19th century was an age of experimentation in glass technology. Glassmakers, some of whom were also skilled chemists, developed new colours, new ways of applying colour, and innovative techniques to produce glass
The most celebrated types of Bohemian glass from this period are “Lithyalin”, “Hyalith”, stained, and flashed glass.
LITHYALIN AND HYALITH GLASS
Count Georg Franz August Langueval von Buquoy 1811-1851), the owner of a number of glasshouses in southern Bohemia, produced an opaque black glass c.1817, which was inspired by the black basalt wares produced from the end of the 18th century at the Wedgwood factory (est. 1769) in England. In 1819 lie produced another dense opaque glass, known as -Hyalith”, usually in sealing-wax
red or jet-black. Hyalith was usually decorated with gilding.
Von Buquoy’s experiments may have inspired Friedrich Egermann (1777-1864), who in 1829 at his factory in Haida, northern Bohemia, patented “Lithyalin” glass, a polished opaque glass that resembled hardstones, which he continued to produce until 1840. The surface of the glass was brushed with metal oxides to resemble veining and marbling. Strong colours are typical, especially red; more unusual are dark-green, blue, and purple. Wares were usually cut and polished and occasionally gilded or enamelled. Lithyalin glass was used mainly
~, vases,
for purely decorative items, notabl
and scent bottles. Lithyalin glass was also produced at the Harrach Glassworks (est. 1`14) in Neuwelt (now Novy Svet in the Czech Republic), and by Hautin & Co. in France. Although these copies are difficult to distinguish from pieces by Egermann, they are usually slightly lighter in colour.
STAINED, FLASHED, AND OVERLAY GLASS Egermann also invented an effective and inexpensive method of colouring glass with a
thin stain of colour, which was called flashing. This involved painting a clear object with a stain and firing it at a low temperature to fix the colour. This gave a solid, even, pale colour. Egermann is particularly noted for his yellow coloured stain, developed in 1818 using silver chloride, and his ruby-red stain, perfected in 1832, using gold
chloride and copper oxide. Wares were often cut through to the thin colour to reveal the clear glass beneath.
In casing – a technique reinvented by Egermann –the glass vessel is covered in a differently coloured glass and then fired; as the glass cools, the two layers fuse together. Some pieces were “double-cased”, i.e. dipped into two differently coloured batches of glass to give a multicoloured effect. The flashing technique is sometimes confused with casing as the terms were used interchangeably by some glassworks; however, in casing the layers of glass are much thicker. If there is a sharp line between the two colours, this suggests flashing, whereas shading or thinning between two colours suggests overlay. Flashing and staining are characteristic of 19th-century Bohemian glassmakers as they are inexpensive methods of colouring glass and thus well suited to the mass-produced wares made during the 19th century.
OTHER COLOURED GLASS
During the 1820s and 1830s a series of
industrial exhibitions held in Prague gave rise to the development of other types of coloured glass, including violet, pink, green, and blue. Further experimentation with colour in the early
I 9th century sparked the discovery in Bohemia of other ways to colour glass. Of particular note is the work of Josef Riedel (active 1830-48), who in the 1830s used uranium to produce a vivid fluorescent greenish-yellow (Annagriin) and yellowish-green (Annagelb) glass, both named after his wife Anna. However, this glass was mildly radioactive, and the process was later abandoned.
Lithyalin and Hyalith glass
• CONDITION ceramic restoration techniques are often used, so repairs can be difficult to spot
• COLLECTING display vessels such as vases and bowls arc most common; display cups and saucers and pieces with gilt oriental and chinoiserie decoration are rarer; lithyalin overlaid on dark-green hyalith is valuable
Flashed, stained, and overlay glass
• CONDITION check pieces carefully, as damage is often hard to detect on coloured glass; good condition is vital
• COLLECTING the condition and depth of the colour determine the value; beware when collecting blue stained glass as it fades easily and can lose value
Other Bohemian coloured glassTYPES
• vivid green Annagriin and Annagelb glass
Britain, France, and the United States after 1800
Coloured glass was widely produced during the 19th century in Britain, France, and the USA. In Britain two important events gave a new impetus to the manufacture of coloured glass in the middle of the century. The first was the removal of excise tax on glass in 1845, which encouraged makers to experiment with new techniques and styles, among them coloured glass. The second was the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851 at which glassmakers from Europe and the USA were keen to show their new skills and techniques. In France glassmakers at all the major factories manufactured coloured glass in a range of styles and forms, and in the USA firms experimented widely with colour, producing an extensive range of designs, most characteristically in delicate pastel shades with subtle
BRITAIN
All blue, green, and amethyst glass produced in Britain from the end of the 18th to the middle of the 19th century is generically described as “Bristol” glass. The most characteristic colour is a brilliant royal blue, produced by adding cobalt oxide to the batch; such glass is frequently embellished with cold gilding. Drinking glasses were generally green, ranging from grass green to a turquoise green. Amethyst glasses are rare, but when found the colour is true and clear, with no sign of red, unlike the plum tone found on later Victorian glass.
In the mid-19th century the influence of coloured glass manufactured by well-established glass companies in Bohemia became increasingly visible in the products of British factories. Not only did important Bohemian factories such as the Harrach Glassworks (est. 1714) in Neuwelt (now Novy Svet in the Czech Republic) exhibit quantities of coloured glass at the Great Exhibition, but Bohemian glassworkers were also employed by British factories where, freed from the constraint of having to produce wares in traditional styles, they were able to manufacture very exciting wares in an outstanding range of new colours.
In the late I 870s a type of
type
opalescent glass, known as
“Vaseline” glass due to its greasy,
vaseline-like appearance, was developed
in Britain and designed to resemble 15th-
and 16th-century Venetian glass. The opalescent colour was produced by using tiny amounts of uranium together with other metal oxides to create shades of yellow, green, blue, and, more rarely, red. Stevens & Williams Ltd (est. 1847), of Brierley Hill, near Stourbridge, was one of the leading innovators in the field of patent colours and colour combinations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The company’s rare double-cased “Rockingham” ware is particularly sought after, as are the Bohemian-style
pieces with alternating panels of engraved colour-flashed and clear glass produced by WIT.,
B. & J. Richardson (est. c.1836), also near Stourbridge. Amber was the most commonly used colour for the vases, decanters, and claret jugs in this style, although some pieces were also produced in purple, green, and red.
Gold and uranium oxides combined with sodium nitrate were used to manufacture the “Queen’s Burmese” range of glass by Thomas Webb & Sons (est. 1837), near Stourbridge, patented in 1886. Queen’s Burmese was inspired by the “Burmese” glassware patented in 1885
by the Mount Washington Glass Co. (est. 1837), in South Boston, Massachusetts, and favoured by Queen Victoria who ordered a set – hence the name. It had a body colour that shaded from a pale lemon-yellow (sometimes light green) at the bottom through to salmon-pink at the top. Some pieces feature enamelled and gilded designs. Although Queen’s Burmese ware was made by other British companies – including WIL, B. & J. Richardson –pieces by Webb are the most desirable. Typical wares include vases, posy bowls, and lampshades. Another type of glass introduced by Webb was “Peach” glass, a type of cased glass that shaded from pink through to a deep red.
A Tazza
The tazza is a distinctive Venetian form of serving dish. The revival of 15th- and 16th-century Venetian glass forms and styles of decoration was started in Venice during the mid-19th century and gradually spread throughout Europe. In Britain the Revival was supported by William Morris, who disapproved of the heavily cut glass prevalent at the time. One of the leading British manufacturers of Venetian Revival glass was James Powell & Sons (est. 1834), which produced “Vaseline” glass wares similar to the example shown above, and in delicately tinted glass from the 1870s.
FRANCE
In France, the Baccarat Glassworks (est. 1764 as the Sainte-Anne Glassworks) in Baccarat, near Luneville, Lorraine, produced glass c.1880 in a distinctive, delicate shade of pink known as “tinted-rose”.Many
wares feature acid-etched Classical decoration. Another fashionable trend was the production of coloured opaline glass, a semi-opaque white glass, opacified by the addition of the ash of calcined bones and coloured with metallic oxides. The Venetians had been the first to introduce this translucent glass, which was later made in Bohemia and Britain, but the French opaline glass first produced c.1823 at Baccarat was more translucent. The finest French opaline was made at Baccarat, at the Saint-Louis Glassworks est. 1767) near Bitche, in the Munzthal, Lorraine, and at the Choisy-le-Roi Glassworks (est. 1821) in Paris. Wares were made in delicate pastel shades such
as turquoise, pink, and pale green, and include pairs Of vases with enamelled decoration, and vases, jugs, and dishes of inventive forms, often with coloured cane rims. Saint-Louis Glassworks made many pieces IT soft pink or blue, with latticinio decoration and glass cane rims.
THE UNITED STATES
Throughout the 19th century American glass manufacturers launched and developed a range of innovative coloured glass. One of the most popular and now widely collected colours is the transparent “Cranberry” glass, which has a distinctive raspberry pink tint, first produced in the glassmaking region of Stourbridge in England. Huge quantities of useful and ornamental wares were made, most notably at the Boston & Sandwich Glass Co. (1826-88) in Sandwich, Massachusetts.
However, it was only during the 1880s, when there was a move away from cut and pressed glass by the leading glass manufacturers, that they began to experiment in earnest with a more sophisticated range of coloured art glass. One of the leading companies at this time was the Mount Washington
Glass Co., which launched the widely copied and enormously popular “Burmese” glass in 1885. Most Burmese glass has a satin finish, although some has a glossy surface, and is characterized by subtle gradations of shading from a light lemon at the bottom of the piece to a delicate pink at the top. In 1883 the firm of Hobbs, Brockunier & Co. (est. 1863) in Wheeling, West Virginia, developed “Peachblow” glass and incorporated it into its range of coloured wares. This cased glass is a warm buttery yellow at the base shading through to a purplish-red at the top and is lined in a white opal glass. Peachblow was made at other companies, including the New England Glass Co. (1818-90), originally in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, which called it “Wild Rose”. New England was also notable for its “Amberina” range of glass, which it produced as “Pressed Amberina”. Both Wild Rose and Pressed Amberina were developed by Joseph Locke (1846-1936), an English glassworker, who emigrated to the USA in 1882. Patented in 1883, Amberina glass contained small amounts of gold, and graduated from pale amber at the base through to a rich fuschia at the top. It was made until 1900. Hobbs, Brockunier & Co. also made Pressed Amberina under licence from the New England Glass Co.
France
• MAJOR FACTORIES Baccarat, Saint-Louis, Choisy-le-Roi
• TYPES pastel-coloured opaline glass and wares with decoration are most notable
• COLLECTING wares by Baccarat are sought after
Marks
Saint-Louis: this mark was used from 1870 to the present day; some pieces marked “Argental” or Munzthal the German for Argental, often with a tiny cross of Lorraine
The United States
• COLLECTING Cranberry glass: very popular with
collectors; later Cranberry tends to have a less warm hue and a bluey tinge when held to the light
Marks
Mount Washington Glass Co.: mark used on Burmese ware from the 1880s
New England Glass Co.: Amberina ware; mark used from 1880s
Britain
• TYPES Bristol glass, overlay glass, Vaseline glass, decorated opaque and opaline glass
• BEWARE there are many early 20th-century copies of Bristol glass: beware of glasses that are larger than usual (more than c. I Ocin/4in high) and thin glass
Marks
Thomas Webb & Son

Art DecoCeramics
In the 1920s and 1930s the Art Deco style filtered through into the designs of commercial ceramics manufacturers throughout Europe. Factories such as Sevres in France employed top designers to create fashionable pieces with such typical Art Deco motifs as stylized flowers, plants, female nudes, and exotic animals in bold colours. Commercially produced pieces survive
in larger numbers than those of artist-potters and are becomin with Geometric shapes an increasingly popular with collectors.
clean, functional forms were a legacy of the Bauhaus 1 Germany, being eminently suitable for mass production. British ceramics remained essentially traditional, but bold, bright Art Deco designs were produced by Clarice Cliff.
FRENCH ART POTTERY
Immediately prior to and following World War I, many potters continued to work in the tradition of the reform movements of the 19th century, in which the artisan was responsible for all phases of the production of his or her work. Most of these artist-potters were based in France and explored a wide variety of techniques, including
painting, sgraffito and crackle glazing. Many of them employed the typical Art Deco motifs of stylized female figures and animals, often representing episodes from Classical myths, or geometric forms.
An influential forerunner of the artist-potters was Andre Metthey (1871-1921), who produced richly coloured faience and stoneware vases with decoration designed by such well-known avant-garde artists as Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, and Edouard Vuillard. After World War I Metthey turned to painting his wares with pure geometric motifs of his own design, as well as stylized flowers, plants, and Classical figures in bright colours, usually in friezes or set in medallions.
In the early 20th century many French potters were strongly influenced by Oriental ceramics. Among these was Raoul Lachenal (1855–c.1930), who produced simple, symmetrical stonewares inspired by Oriental forms and painted with stylized floral or geometric patterns in strong, plain colours. Henri Simmen (18801969) was greatly interested in French peasant pottery, and worked with salt and flambe glazes before World War I. After the war he produced handmade stonewares, using natural products to create rich glazes. Simmen’s wares were sometimes incised with symmetrically placed
geometric motifs; ivory, precious wood, or horn lids, finials, and stands were carved by his Japanese wife, O’Kin Simmen. The early designs of Emile Decoeur (18761953) were in the Art Nouveau style, but in the 1920s and 1930s he rejected elaborate surface decoration in favour of pure, symmetrical, Oriental-style forms with a single, brilliantly coloured glaze.
One of the best-known figures in Art Deco French ceramics was Rene Buthaud (1886-1987), whose work is rare and highly collectable. In the mid-1920s he produced simple, bulbous vases and bowls with painted, crackle-glazed, or incised decoration, generally in brown tones. His designs of linear, stylized female figures were influenced by the paintings of Jean Dupas and by African art. Buthaud was among the artists who designed wares for Primavera, the design studio of the Printemps department store in Paris. The Longwy factory also produced wares for Primavera, including pieces with crackle-glazed grounds, which were used as a base for painted decoration.
The painter Jean Mayodon (1893-1967) turned to working in ceramics in 1912 but did not exhibit his pieces until after the war. His vases, bowls, and plates are painted in rich colours and decorated with Classical figures. As well as small decorative pieces, Mayodon produced panels and tiles, some of which were used for the French ocean liners of the 1930s. The French painter Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) collaborated with the Catalan potter Josep Llorens Artigas (1892-1980) on ceramic vases, fountains, and planters decorated with Duty’s trademark motifs of dancers, flowers, and nymphs.
COMMERCIAL WARES
Some of the highest-quality Art Deco ceramics were produced at Sevres from 1920, when the factory came under the direction of George Lechevallier-Chevignard. At the 1925 Paris Exhibition, Sevres displayed vases and tablewares with decorations designed by a number of eminent contemporary artists, including Suzanne Lalique (b.1899), daughter of the jeweller and glassmaker Rene Lalique 1860-1945), Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann
933), and the painter Jean Dupas (1882-1964). These wares were traditional in form but were elaborately embellished with Art Deco motifs. The restrained use of gilding to highlight or outline motifs is also a familiar feature of Sevres wares.
The Limoges firm of Theodore Haviland & Cie (est. 1-9–) also employed Suzanne Lalique and Duty and consequently produced pieces similar to those of Sevres. Lalique designed plates depicting grapes and vines in a palette of black, silver, and green, while Dufy’s wares featured foliage and floral motifs in bright colours. Tableware for Haviland by the glass designer Jean Luce 1895-1964) is characterized by gold-and-platinum stylized clouds, angular sunbursts, and zigzags.
In the 1920s and 1930s the design studios of Parisian department stores produced a wide variety of Art Deco wares for the mass market. La Maitrise, the studio of Galeries es Lafayette, produced a range of household wares manufactured in Belgium. The Compagnie des Arts Francais (est. 1919) produced a variety of utilitarian and decorative wares in an architectonic style, as well as tablewares such as tureens and vegetable dishes with heavy scrolls and floral motifs.
The most important manufacturer of Belgian Art Deco ceramics was the firm of Keramis, owned by Boch Freres, in La Louvriere. Its artistic director from 1907
was Charles Catteau (1880-1966), who designed simple, ovoid-shaped vases, with thickly applied glazes on an often ivory, crackle-glazed background. Like Lachenal, Catteau sometimes used patterns imitating cloisonne enamel, although in the 1920s and 1930s his favoured forms of decoration included Such animals as leaping gazelles and stylized pendant flowers and plants.
In Italy the architect Gio Ponti (18911979) created a range of wares between 1923 and 1930 for the porcelain manufacturers Richard-Ginori (est. 1896) in Doccia. His range included tableware, vases, and urns, which were painted with strongly stylized geometric patterns, architectural forms,
figures, or drapery.
FIGURES
Most French figurative ceramics reflect the general trend for stylized forms. Among the earliest Art Deco examples are the porcelain tea- and coffee-sets (1916-17) designed by the Swiss sculptor Edouard Marcel Sandoz (1881-1971) for Haviland. The teapots, creamers, and other items are modelled as formalized, angular animals and birds. The Parisian firm of Robj produced useful wares in the form of brightly coloured, almost toylike figures in national dress or representing different professions.
From 1928 the Italian firm of Lenci (est. 1919) in Turin produced earthenware and porcelain figures, mainly of women, either nude or in contemporary dress. These figures are more naturalistic than most French examples and are distinguished by elongated limbs, bright-yellow hair, and a combination of matt and glossy glazes. Most Lenci designers are anonymous.
French art pottery
• DECORATION sgraffito, painting, and crackle glazing
• INSPIRATION Classical and Oriental wares
Marks
Buthaud: painted “R. Buthaud”, or painted or incised monogram “RB”
Primavera: Dufy/Artigas: each piece w0.V
should be individually numbered (1-110) C)
Sevres
• STYLE conventional forms based on 18th-century designs are typically decorated with stylized leaves and flowers, and geometric patterns; gilding is common
• COLLECTING pieces are high quality so are relatively expensive even though mass-produced
Keramis/Boch Freres
• FORMS simple, ovoid shapes
• DECORATION patterns imitating cloisonne enamel; stylized flowers, plants, or animals; colours: turquoise, also blue, black, green, and brown
France
• FORMS useful wares such as tea- and coffee-services and decanters, as well as decorative pieces, made in the form of stylized animals, birds, or human figures
Lenci
• FORMS figures of women, nude or in stylish modern dress, often wearing hats; mostly single subjects
• GLAZES matt often combined with shiny finish
• COLLECTING sophisticated pieces most sought after
COMMERCIAL WARES
In Germany, the Bauhaus (est. 1919) opened a ceramics workshop at Dornburg near Weimar, but ceramics were abandoned when the school moved to Dessau in 1925. However, the pure, functional forms used by Bauhaus designers did have some influence on mass-produced ceramics. In 1930, at the State Porcelain Factory in Berlin, Marguerite Friedlander-Wildenhaim (1896-1985), a former Bauhaus student, created the simple, geometric designs of the “Halle” service. Geometric shapes, with soft, rounded contours, were also used by Dr Hermann Gretsch for his designs for the “Arzberg 1382″ service of 1931, which was manufactured by the Carl Schumann factory in Arzberg.
Among the factory’s most collectable products today are its terracotta wall masks. These elongated, highly stylized female faces are hand-painted in bold colours, typically red, yellow, green, and black, and usually have
brightly coloured hair in ringlets. The firm also had a subsidiary in Paris, which at the 1925 exhibition displayed Cubist-inspired, angular statuettes with simplified features. In the late 1930s the British firm of Myott, Son & Co. Ltd produced Goldscheider figures. These pieces, clearly marked with their origin, are less collectable than Goldscheider figures made in Austria.
In Germany, fine-quality, detailed, naturalistic porcelain figures of dancers in colourful costumes, women in modern dress, and animals were produced by the firm of Rosenthal (est. 1879) in Selb. However, some of its most distinctive figures of the late 1920s and 1930s are very different in style; modelled by the artist Gerhard Schliepstein (b.1886) they depict svelte, elongated, and stylized women and greyhounds in pure-white porcelain. The Art Deco taste for the exotic was reflected in the figures of snake-charmers, Spanish dancers, and belly-dancers made by the Dux porcelain factory in Bohemia in the 1920s and 1930s.
Among the most distinctive Art Deco ceramics are those designed by Wilhelm Kage (1889-1950), artistic director of the Gustavsberg porcelain works in Sweden. His “Argenta” range of hand-thrown or moulded green-glazed vases, bowls, plates, and boxes (1929-52) is inset with chased silver in typically Art Deco motifs of mermaids, nude female figures, and flowers. Such wares are becoming more popular with collectors but are still relatively inexpensive.
FIGURES
Along with tableware, figures are among the most widely collected Art Deco ceramics today. While some factories continued to produce figures of traditional subjects, such as characters from the Italian commedia dell’arte, many Art Deco figures represent women, either nude or in contemporary dress. Some are accompanied by elegant greyhounds or borzois. Stylized human, animal, or bird figures and wall masks, influenced by contemporary Cubist abstract sculpture, were also popular during this period.
During the 1920s and 1930s the Vienna firm of Goldscheider (1885-1954) was one of the few Austrian producers of earthenware and porcelain in the Modern style. Figures made by Goldscheider include dancing couples in contemporary dress, ballerinas, and Pierrettes from the commedia dell’arte. Colours are typically rich and contrasting, and costumes are exotic.
German commercial waresSTYLE
• , usually influenced by the Bauhaus designs; simple, geometric shapes are typical, often with soft, round contours
Gustaysberg porcelain works
• STYLE Argenta tablewares, vases, and boxes with green-glazed grounds, inset with chased silver motifs; some with diaper-patterned or floral borders
• COLLECTING Argenta wares are increasingly collectable; hand-thrown pieces are more heavily moulded
Marks
Printed in black or gold ( 1910-40) 19
Goldscheider
• FORMS figures of couples in modern dress, dancers, and stylized wall masks
• COLOURS wall masks are painted in bright tones of red, yellow, green, and black
• CONDITION masks are prone to chipping as they are made of earthenware; paint may also be worn
American Art Deco ceramics were mainly inspired by European design, and today many collectors in the USA actually prefer French Art Deco porcelain or pottery to American-made pieces.
COMMERCIAL CERAMICS
Cleveland, Ohio, was the centre for progressive American ceramics during the inter-war years, owing to the influence of Julius Mihalik, a Viennese professor at the Cleveland Institute of Arts and follower of the Wiener Werkstatte. Several students and independent designers worked for the Cowan Pottery, founded outside Cleveland in 1913 by Reginald Guy Cowan 3. 19 30). Cowan designed most of the pottery’s early pieces himself; these consist mainly of inexpensive, slip-cast earthenware figures and figural “flower frogs” with matt monochrome glazes. The work of independent designers, generally made after 1927 for the Cowan Pottery Studio, was often issued in limited editions, and is most collectable. Some pieces show a distinctly Austrian influence, while others, particularly the work of Paul A “Jazz” punchbowl by Victor Schreckengost for the Cowan Pottery Studio
-,-is well-known design depicts scenes of New York City on New Year’s
and is glazed in “Egyptian Blue”. Each piece in the rare limited edition of 50 is slightly different A commercial, mass-produced edition also exists. (1931; ht 20cm18in; value of limited-edition bowl K)
Manship (1885-1966), are sculptural. The designs of Waylande Gregory (1905-71), who worked at Cowan from 1928 and later at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, near Detroit, Michigan, are often Neo-classical in inspiration.
A famous allegorical image, “Radio”, personifies the medium as a woman depicted in the Classical style, holding a lightning bolt.
The Rookwood Pottery (est. 1880) of Cincinnati, Ohio, produced an extensive range of Art Deco ceramics, mostly figures, bookends, and paperweights, in monochrome glazes. The Art Deco wares of the Roseville Pottery, in Zanesville, Ohio, are generally considered inferior to those of Rookwood, but such lines as “Futura”, introduced in 1928, are lively and attractive, which
makes them of greater interest to collectors. Most common in this line are well-marked vases featuring angular handles or “skyscraper” stepping.
In 1936 Frederick Hurten Rhead (1880-1942) introduced the “Fiesta” line for the Homer Laughlin China Co. (est. 1877) in East Liverpool, Ohio. This was a popular kitchenware in vibrant colours. Collectors are widespread, and Fiesta is sold at special auctions throughout North America. Comparable to Fiesta ware are the monochrome teapots and dinnerware in streamlined style made at the Hall China Co. (est. 1903) in East Liverpool; like the Fiesta range, these have been authentically reproduced.
STUDIO POTTERY
Studio potters active in the inter-war years in the USA include Susi Singer (1895-1949) and Vally Wieseltheir (1895-1945), who were both potters at the Wiener Werks6tte before emigrating in 1932. Typical . pica] of their work are hand-modelled earthenware figures, most of which are clearly signed. Wieseltheir produced designs for General Ceramics in New York. From 1923 to the early 1930s the designer Wilhelm Hunt Diederich (1884-1953) made a limited amount of pottery, rare and now highly sought after, at his studios in Woodstock, New York. Other potters of note include Henry Varnum Poor (1888-1971), Carl Walters, and Maija Grotell.
Cowan Pottery
• COLLECTING Cowan Pottery Studio is the most collectable commercial ware; pieces by independent designers after 1927 (especially limited-edition “Jazz” bowls) are more collectable than early
pieces
Marks
Most pieces are impressed or printed with marks showing artist’s name or monogram
Other commercial ceramics
• ROOKWOOD Art Deco pieces are less collectable and valuable than pre-1914 pieces, although colourful, abstract-patterned vases are popular with collectors
• ROSEVILLE more collectable than Rookwood; “Futura” is most popular; beware of modern forgeries, which arc difficult to distinguish from originals
• FIESTA made until 1972 and reintroduced in 1986; widely collected in USA; early pieces include red (most desirable), blue, yellow, green, and ivory (least popular); most new colours are pastel; modern versions are widely available
Studio pottery
• TYPES various pieces, including polychrome, hand-modelled earthenware figures, and platters hand-painted with stylized figures and animals
• VALUE pieces by independent studio potters are higher in value than mass-produced ceramics
• COLLECTING wares arc generally signed by the artist; work by Hunt Diederich is rare and very collectable
Art Deco had little immediate impact on the forms of commercial British ceramics; most firms simply added the newly fashionable, brightly coloured, geometric, and abstract designs to existing shapes. By the late 1920s the success of such innovative designers as Clarice Cliff (1899-1972) encouraged others to develop original shapes alongside traditional ranges, and by the 1930s the influence of Modernism was evident in the increasingly functional and geometric forms of tableware, minimally decorated in neutral matt glazes. A whimsical trend in ceramics continued in the range of popular ornaments, from Wedgwood’s sculptural animal designs to porcelain figures embellishing such items as dressing-table wares.
CLARICE CLIFF
British Art Deco ceramics are virtually synonymous with Cliff. In 1916 she joined the firm of A.J. Wilkinson Ltd (est. 1896), near Burslem, Staffordshire. In 1920 the firm acquired the nearby Newport Pottery and its range of old-fashioned white wares, and, recognizing Cliff’s talent, set her up in a studio there. Cliff and her team of decorators hand-painted biscuit-fired tablewares with brightly coloured enamels over a distinctive ivory-coloured glaze, known as “honey” glaze. In January 1928 the “Bizarre” range of inexpensive and cheerful pottery for or everyday use was launched; by October of the same year the range had become hugely successful. Cliff went on to design more than 500 shapes, including the “Conical”, “Bonjour”, and “Stamford” ranges, and 2,000 patterns, including “Inspiration” (now rare and desirable), “Applique”, “Tennis”, “Sunray”, “Solitude”, and “Mountain”. As well as traditional shapes, she designed many futuristic or otherwise innovative forms,
such as beehive-shaped honey-pots, cone-shaped sugar-sifters, and highly stylized, geometric versions of conventional items. The majority of her output was tablewares, but she also produced a range of novelty wares, among the most collectable being figures and the newly fashionable wall masks, which usually depicted the subject face-on and featured a floral headdress. Cliff also commissioned designs from other artists, among them Laura Knight ( 1877-1970), who produced the now highly collectable “Circus” series.
SUSIE COOPER
Although somewhat overshadowed by Cliff’s bright, flamboyant designs, Susie Cooper (1902-95) designed an equally distinctive and now sought-after range of shapes (including “Kestrel”,
“Curlew”, “Wren”, “Jay”,
“Falcon”, and “Spiral”) and
patterns (including “Dresden
Spray”, “Tadpoles”, “Scarlet
runner beans”, “Nosegay” “Polka
dots”, and “Cromer”). In 1922 she
undertook a work placement with
A.E. Gray & Co. Ltd (1912-61) in
Hanley, Staffordshire, and her success
in designing surface patterns in lustre
pigments and enamel colours for bought-in
white wares was such that she was given her
own mark. By 1929 she had established a ceramic decoration company at George Street Pottery, Tunstall, and by 1932 was designing her own shapes; these were produced at Wood & Sons, in Burslem, Staffordshire, where Cooper had her own production unit, Crown Works. Most sought after are her tablewares in traditional, rounded shapes such as “Kestrel”, “Curlew”, and “Wren”. Other early and desirable ranges include the more brightly coloured, abstract, geometric designs such as the banded patterns, polka dots, and exclamation marks produced for the large retail outlets of the John Lewis Partnership in the early 1930s. Her hand-painted designs were carefully adapted for transfer-printing, and the two methods of decoration are virtually indistinguishable and equally collectable. After World War II Cooper produced light, translucent, bone-china teawares made in Longton and sent to Burslem for decoration; these are less collectable.
WEDGWOOD AND DOULTON
The commercial giants Wedgwood (est. 1759), in Burslem, Staffordshire, and Doulton & Co. (est. 1815), in London, both produced ranges of functional tablewares and purely decorative Art Deco pieces. For Wedgwood the Modernist architect Keith Murray (1892-1981) designed a range of simple, geometric forms, including vases and bowls, with lathe-turned decoration and semi-matt glazes, often in soft grey, green, and ivory white. In complete contrast to Murray’s plain, functional designs were Wedgwood’s more conventional, intricately decorated lustrewares, the most popular and expensive of which was the “Fairyland” series.
Although the imagery on the “Fairyland” pieces bears no resemblance to that usually associated with Art Deco, the original shapes and bright colours are typical of the period, and the success of Wedgwood’s lustrewares inspired other manufacturers to produce more strictly Art Deco lustre ranges. From 1926 the modeller and sculptor John Skeaping (1901-80) designed a range of 14 stylized Art Deco earthenware animals and birds for Wedgwood in black basalt, cream, celadon, and tan glazes; these pieces proved popular and were produced well into the 1950s.
Doulton produced a range of Art Deco tableware –such as the “Dubarry” dinner service – but it is the company’s decorative bone-china figures of the 1920s and 1930s, many designed by Lesley Harradine (1887-1965), that are particularly collectable
toda.
These figures, most of which are full length, usually depict young, fair-skinned women in informal poses, and as such are celebrations of women’s increasing freedom and independence.
OTHER FACTORIES
The Art Deco wares produced by the Shelley Pottery Ltd (1872-1966; originally Wileman & Co.; trading as Foley 1892-1925, and as Shelley from 1925) owe their continuing popularity at least in part to the talented designers employed by the company in the 1920s and 1930s. These include the illustrator Mabel Lucie Attwell (1879-1964), who in 1926 introduced a range of charming nursery wares. In 1930 Eric Slater (1).1902) introduced two new, Modernist forms – “Vogue” and “Mode” – in clean, streamlined, architectural shapes that were perfectly suited to Shelley’s fine bone china. However, more successful was the “Eve” range of
tablewares, introduced c.1932, combining practicality with stylish, geometric design; it featured cup rims narrowed to prevent heat loss, and
triangular handles pierced, rather than
solid, for easier handling.
The Poole Pottery in Dorset (est. 1873
as Carter & Co.; trading as Carter, Stabler
& Adams from 1921, and from 1963 as
Poole Pottery, the name now also used to
describe early wares) produced collectable
Art Deco tablewares during the 1930s. Designs include “Studland”, which has elaborate angular handles combined with a
plain body of mottled green or blue, or the fashionable leaf and floral pattern; “Picotee” and “Everest” in plain colours with solid diamond-shaped handles, and rounded and ribbed shapes respectively; and “Streamline”, which as the name suggests was influenced by the American streamlined style.
The Carlton Works at Stoke-on-Trent (est. 1890; from 1958 Carltonware Ltd) produced a distinctive range of ceramics during this period. Rare and highly sought after are their geometric-shaped vases, hand-painted in bright contrasting colours. The success of Wedgwood’s lustrewares inspired Carlton to produce a range of richly coloured pieces, featuring enamelled decoration
on a dark glaze and a pearlized effect on the interior. Most of the company’s production took the form of moulded tableware, with leaf-moulded dishes being especially common.
Clarice Cliff
• DESIGNS strong geometric forms in bold, bright colours; some traditional shapes
• BEWARE fakes proliferate: check for washed-out colour,
poor-quality painting, and an uneven or murky glaze
• COLLECING increasingly rare and expensive; pieces are collected by pattern or type; desirability is determined by pattern, shape, and condition; wall masks and “Age of Jazz” figures are highly sought after
Marks
Most pieces marked, with the pattern
name alongside the signature, and a 00″‘ stamped factory mark
Susie Cooper
• DESIGNS traditional, rounded forms; tea-sets usually in autumnal colours
• COLLECTING pre-1939 wares are most collectable; archive catalogues help to distinguish between pre-and post-war issues of the same designs; hand-painted, transfer-printed or lithographed designs
arc all equally collectable
Marks
Printed in brown on carthcnwares from c.1932
Major manufacturers
• DESIGNS Murray for Wedgwood: geometric, often ribbed pieces; Doulton figures: young women, typically bathing or dancing; Shelley: architectural forms with conical bodies and solid, triangular handles; Poole: streamlined shapes produced in combinations of subdued, two-colour glazes
• DECORATION Carlton: flowers, butterflies, chinoiserie, and silver-lustre lightning motifs are typical
• COLLECTING a wide range of tablewares is available; porcelain figures command premium prices;
Wedgwood: designs by Murray and Skeaping are highly sought after, particularly Murray’s lathe-turned wares, “Annular” teawares, and the “Bournvita” drinking set; Shelley: designs by Slater are highly desirable; Carlton: leaf-moulded forms are abundant but not popular with collectors
Marks
Poole Pottery: almost all pieces are impressed with this mark or the entwined initials “CSA” and will include the decorator’s monogram; few pieces are dated

19th Century Victorian English Busts and Statues
Parian, or “statuary porcelain”, was possibly the most significant ceramics development in Britain during the Victorian period. Named after the Greek island of Paros for its resemblance to the white marble quarried there, parian was a bone china that contained a high degree of feldspar, which meant that it did not need a separate glaze. Decorative wares could therefore be displayed without becoming dirty, unlike earlier biscuit, or unglazed, white porcelain, which was coarse and difficult to clean. First made in the 1840s, parian was capable of being moulded without losing any detail, with the result that contemporary sculptors could have their works successfully reproduced for the mass market. Parian was also made in the USA at the United States Pottery in Bennington, Vermont.
IMPORTANT MAKERS
There remains Uncertainty as to which factory invented parian. The firms of Minton & Co. (est. 1793) and Copeland (1833-1933), both in Stoke-on-Trent, claimed to have discovered the secret; both were making parianlike porcelain by the mid-1840x, and at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London they displayed an extensive range of parian subjects. Other famous makers included Royal Worcester (est. 1862), Coalport (est. c.1796), and Wedgwood (est. 1759), all of whom made a range of wares, figures, and busts, while Wedgwood also made impressive, large figure groups. Smaller portrait busts were the speciality of Robinson & Leadbeater (est. early 1860s), in Hanley, and others were made by the firm of Goss ( 1858-1940), in Stoke-on-Trent. Parian dominated English porcelain production for display objects for about 40 years, and a great deal survives.
PORCELAIN BUSTS AND STATUES
Models for parian were provided by eminent Victorian sculptors, whose full-sized statues could be reduced in size and reproduced in quantity for commercial sale without losing quality. The work of contemporary sculptors such as John Bell (1812-95), Raphaelle Monti (1818-81), and Sir Thomas Brock (1847-1922), together with famous Classical statues housed in museums, could be reproduced and sold to a wide public. A device known as “Cheverton’s
Reducing Machine”, patented by Benjamin Cheverton in 1844, was developed to allow subjects to be scaled down and cast in moulds for the ceramics factories. Busts were made of various subjects, including royalty, politicians, philanthropists, poets, composers, and
characters from antiquity. Figures ranged from meaningful allegories to barely disguised eroticism; for example, The Greek Slave, a controversial sculpture by the American sculptor Hiram Powers (1805-73), was displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and copied by Minton & Co. Many parian figures were made either for the Art Union of London or for the Ceramic and Crystal Palace Art Union, which were lotteries set up by philanthropic Victorians to raise funds for the arts; parian works were frequently offered as prizes. The manufacture of artistic parian gradually diminished in favour of the large-scale mass production of portrait busts, and little of any consequence was nude after c.1880.
• BODY fine, highly vitrified, generally pure white
• FINISH matt, semi-matt, or with a slight surface sheen
• PRODUCTION usually slip-cast, therefore quite light
• FORMS sentimental figures; figures Of politicians, royalty, and composers; literary, religious, and allegorical subjects; copies of famous Classical statues housed in museums; works by Victorian sculptors
• IMPORTANT MANUFACTURERS Minton & CO.,
Copeland, and Robinson & Leadbeater

Paris became an important centre of porcelain production from the 1780s. Several factors led to the vast increase in the number of porcelain factories: the discovery of kaolin in the Limoges area in 1768, which enabled the production of hard paste; sponsorship by members of the French royal and later imperial families; and the relaxation of laws protecting the monopoly of the Sevres factory. The heyday of the Paris factories was from the 1790s to the 1820s, during which period at least 15 factories and large workshops were operating.
THE DIHL FACTORY
Christophe Dihl ( 1753-1830) and Antoine Guerhard (5.1793) founded a factory on the rue de Bondi in 1781 under the protection of the Duke of Angouleme. The factory’s wares of the 1780s are decorated with cornflowers (known as the “Angouleme sprig”), geometric motifs, and landscapes. The factory’s finest period was the early 19th century, when the popularity and quality of its wares rivalled Sevres. During this period the factory specialized in decoration imitating hardstones. Dihl carried out research into ground colours, producing “jaspered” effects simulating agate and tortoiseshell, usually in combination with fine gilt borders and sometimes reserved scenes. The factory also made biscuit figures of children and allegorical subjects in the Rococo and later Neo-classical tastes; these were sometimes mounted on plinths decorated in matt blue and gilt in imitation of lapis lazuli. Following financial problems during the 1820s, the factory closed in 1828.
THE NAST FACTORY
One of the most successful of all Paris factories, the Nast factory was founded in 1783 by the Austrian Nepomucene-Jean-Hermann Nast (1754-1817). The factory, which operated until 1835, produced a huge variety of items, from luxury tablewares to domestic items such as chamber-pots, jars, and lamps. Its best period was following the Revolution (1789), when it was well known for its development of matt ground colours, in particular a chrome green. Decoration could be very lavish, with high-quality gilding and painted landscapes, Classical subjects, and grotesques; in 1810 Nast developed gilt relief borders imitating bronze, used mainly on cups and saucers. The factory made a range of biscuit figures and busts of Classical and mythological subjects, Napoleon, and other personalities of the Empire period, as well as blue-tinted biscuit wares in imitation of Wedgwood, such as clockcases and candlesticks. It also sold large quantities of undecorated porcelain, which sometimes bears the marks of other Paris factories, such as Darte Freres.
THE DAGOTY AND HONORS FACTORIES
The Dagoty and Honore factories formed a partnership between 1816 and 1820, after which they operated independently again. The best-known products of the partnership were richly gilded dessert, tea, and coffee services with animal-shaped handles and spouts, and butterfly-shaped knops. Eggcups and inkwells were modelled as snails or mythological figures, and larger cups as swans, shells, and tulips. On some pieces a red ground with gilt chinoiseries, imitating lacquer, was used, which is rare and highly sought after. Coloured grounds combined with landscapes, fable subjects, and figures based on Pompeian paintings were popular.
• BODY pure white, and even, hard paste with glassy, clear glaze; the dense, slightly sugary appearance of the paste can be seen on the often unglazed foot-rims
• DECORATION simple gilt borders of Classical motifs and scattered flowers; painted scenes with coloured and gilt grounds; painted imitations of hardstones and lacquer; rich gilding
• FIGURES biscuit figures of children, allegorical subjects

Majolica
Although the English word “majolica” derives from “maiolica”, the term for Italian tin-glazed pottery, the inspiration for this purely Victorian phenomenon in fact came from several quarters: not only Italian Renaissance pottery but also the pottery of the Frenchman Bernard Palissy (c.1510-90), who was famous for dishes with realistically applied reptiles, crustacea, and vegetation. Closer to home, the pottery of the Staffordshire makers Thomas Whieldon (1719-95) and Ralph Wood (1715-72) was also influential. Elements of each of these were combined in the late 1840s into a decorative ceramics material that enjoyed great popularity in mid-Victorian Britain. Majolica was also made in France, Germany, and the USA, where it is popular with collectors.
IMPORTANT PRODUCERS
Majolica was produced by many small manufacturers, but three Staffordshire factories - Minton & Co. (est. 1798), Wedgwood (est. 1759), and George Jones & Sons (est. 1861) - dominated the market and between them account for most of today’s collectable pieces. Minton and Wedgwood, the
largest makers of ornamental pottery in Staffordshire, made excellent majolica ware, and indeed both claimed to have invented it. Monumental pieces by Minton astounded visitors at such important international exhibitions as the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. Huge fountains with life-sized human and animal figures formed centrepieces at the major trade shows, surrounded by other furnishings and sometimes by whole tiled rooms that glowed with the coloured glazes. Such pieces were too expensive for profitable production and were intended primarily to enhance the companies’ prestige at such events. The third important maker is less well known outside this specialist field. George Jones & Sons in Stoke-on-Trent produced some of the finest majolica, but made little else of note and consequently had nothing to fall back on when the fashion for majolica declined at the end of the 19th century. Other British factories that produced majolica, but as a sideline to their mainstream production, include Spode (under the name of Copeland, from the 1840s to the 20th century) in Stoke-on-Trent, and the Worcester Royal Porcelain Co. (est. 1862).
Staffordshire figures
The popularity of porcelain figures in Britain during the 19th century led to a demand for less expensive imitations for the mass market, and the Staffordshire potteries obliged by making exact reproductions of the fine-quality figures made by porcelain factories such as Derby. The rustic charm of Staffordshire figures proved popular at the time, and successive generations have continued to enjoy collecting these generally inexpensive mantelpiece ornaments.
BOCAGE AND SQUARE-BASED FIGURES
The products of John Walton’s factory in Burslem (active 1810-30s) were typical of early 19th-century Staffordshire figures. Copying the tradition set by Chelsea and Derby, the factory included flowering trees, a feature known as “bocage”, behind its figures. Classical deities and allegorical figures (such as the popular set of three female figures representing “Faith”, “Hope”, and “Charity”), aimed at more educated customers, were usually mounted on the same style of square base edged with a brown line. Rustic groups of children playing and shepherdesses were mounted on similar bases or on raised green mounds with streams. Biblical characters proved immensely popular, especially “Elijah and the Widow”. One distinctive type of group, mounted on “table bases” (scroll-footed platforms), is conventionally referred to as being by Obadiah Sherratt (d.1841) after a potter who worked in Burslem from c.1815; however, it is now considered unlikely that Sherratt was responsible for the unmarked table-based models usually ascribed to him.
CHARACTERS AND FAMOUS PEOPLE
Victorian Staffordshire figures were intended to be viewed on a mantelpiece from the front only, and consequently the backs were neither modelled nor painted: hence the name “flatbacks” for such pieces. Many figures were simple but highly decorative images of children or lovers. However, from the 1840s there was a demand for portraits of famous people, whose features were copied from journals or the covers of popular printed music. In an age when the public rarely knew what famous people truly looked like, potters sometimes reused discontinued moulds to represent more topical individuals. Some figures were even wrongly named, such as a portrait of Benjamin Franklin labelled as George Washington.
Some popular figures were produced for many years and often require a close examination to determine whether they are earlier or later examples; this can greatly affect the value. There are many fake Staffordshire figures on the market, and it is important to learn the correct “feel” of genuine pieces, and to buy only from reputable dealers or auctioneers.
A Boy and “zebra”
This “flatback” figure portrays a schoolboy with a horse that has curiously been painted to resemble a zebra. Flatback
figures have little or no modelling on the back, a feature that made them easy to mass-produce. It was assumed that flatback pieces would stand on a mantelpiece above a fireplace, and this piece incorporates a spill vase at the back to hold the rolled-paper spills that were used in the 19th century for lighting the fire.
ORIGINAL AND FAKE STAFFORDSHIRE
• FORMS pairs of animals (very popular from the 1840s), portraits of royalty, politicians, military and naval heroes, sportsmen, theatrical celebrities, religious figures, notorious villains
• CENTRES OF PRODUCTION most figures were made
in the towns centred around Stoke-on-Trent, although a number were made in north-eastern England and Scotland
• COLLECTING a pair of figures will always be worth more than twice the price of a single piece; later examples are less sharply moulded than the originals, with particularly crude painting
• REPRODUCTIONS AND FAKES fake Staffordshire figures
are frequently made of pure white porcelain, stained to look old; “crazing” – a network of tiny cracks or veins in the surface glaze – affects most old figures, and fakers sometimes go to such lengths to reproduce it that they over-emphasize; the resulting effect is too regular and pronounced
Marks
Only a few Victorian Staffordshire figures are marked in any way, but research can identify some factories; earlier figures by John Walton and Ralph Salt (both active early 19th century) have their names impressed into a strap of clay at the back of the base COLOUR, GLAZE, AND TYPES
Majolica colours are not enamelled but are contained within the substance of the glaze. They are applied either as separate coloured glazes or as stains painted onto the body that are picked up by the viscous lead glazes. A sign of good-quality manufacture is that the glazes are well controlled, without blurring or dribbling. The usual majolica palette is blue (including a vivid turquoise), green, yellow, orange, black, and brown.
Majolica wares include jardinieres of every size and proportion, conservatory seats, vases, dishes, teapots, and tureens. To suit the high Victorian taste, factories vied with each other to cram ornament onto their wares, leading to the creation of extraordinary objects that are both beautiful
and bizarre. Such pieces are not to everyone’s
taste, but after years of neglect majolica
is now keenly collected and can be
surprisingly highly priced. Nothing
exemplifies the frivolity of majolica
better than the range of eccentric teapots
made by Minton and George Jones in the shape of Chinese people, monkeys, boats, fish, and cats. However, most were too costly for everyday use and survive because they were kept largely for display; some of these pieces fetch very high prices at auction.
• GLAZES semi-transparent lead
• PALETTE blue, green, yellow, brown, black, orange
• FORMS domestic wares: teapots, dishes, jugs, vases, dessert baskets, tazzas, centrepieces; umbrella stands; garden ornaments
• DECORATION highly ornamented with an eclectic range
• COLLECTING an exhibition in 1982 organized by the dealers Jeremy Cooper Ltd in London ignited interest in majolica and caused the international collector’s market to take off
• FAKES collectors should beware of unmarked pieces by minor makers that have been doctored by the addition of the Minton name etched or engraved through the glaze, in an attempt to pass them off as originals
Marks
Most of the larger producers marked their pieces; marks were usually impressed into the clay under the glaze and can therefore be difficult to see; George Jones & Sons did not always employ a company mark, but did use a distinctive design number, painted in black, usually positioned in the middle of the underside of the pieces; Wedgwood and Minton also impressed date marks into their pieces
George Jones & Sons (est. 1861)
A Vase and cover by Minton & Co.
This large ornamental vase is decorated in typical high Victorian taste, inspired by the designs of the Renaissance. Well modelled and superbly glazed in a typical, strong, majolica palette, the piece incorporates three seated Bacchic figures (one unseen here), rams’ heads, and thick leafy swags, with a cherub on the finial, and such Classical motifs as the Greek key pattern.

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

Creamware and pearlware
In the 18th century Staffordshire became the most important area for the manufacture of everyday pottery. Tin-glazed earthenware, for centuries the European staple, was never made there, and very little porcelain was produced before the late 18th century. From the late 17th century north Staffordshire potters gradually refined their wares, until by the middle of the century they were making some of the finest pottery in Europe.
CREAMWARE
Thomas Astbury (1686-1743), Enoch Booth, and Josiah Wedgwood (1730-95) are all associated with the invention and development of creamware (cream-coloured earthenware). By the 1760s Wedgwood’s creamware was sufficiently developed to excite the interest of Queen Charlotte, who ordered a tea service (1765), and it was subsequently renamed “Queen’s ware”. For the next 100 years, creamware remained the standard pottery body in Britain and throughout much of continental Europe and North America. The close-grained body was composed of clay from
Devon mixed with flint and covered in
a very thin but smooth lead glaze. It could be finely moulded or cut with great detail. Furthermore, it was very receptive to underglaze blue, overglaze enamelling, or printing. English creamware includes ornamental wares and sophisticated pierced wares, which were made in Staffordshire and Leeds, and also figures. However, most of the output was of more mundane items such as dinner services, tablewares, and teawares. The versatility of creamware and its acceptance among the higher classes of European society (the 926-piece “Frog” service was made by Wedgwood for Catherine the Great of Russia in 1773-4) ensured its financial success,
as well as undermining virtually the entire European tin-glazed pottery tradition.
PEARLWARE AND PRATTWARE
Introduced by Wedgwood c.1779 as an improvement on his creamware, pearlware includes more white clay and flint in the body than creamware does. Suggesting an iridescent appearance, “pearlware” is a misleading term; the addition of cobalt oxide to the glaze imparted a bluish-white cast, which is particularly visible where there is pooling. Much pearlware is decorated in underglaze blue by painting or, later, by transfer-printing. Among the most famous printed themes are versions of the “Willow” pattern. In the early 19th century, manufacturers broadened the range of patterns to include Classical designs and English landscapes.
Prattware is associated with the Pratt family from Lane Delph in Staffordshire, although it was also made by a number of other factories. The body is similar to pearlware in weight and colour, but the ware is distinguished by a strong, high-temperature palette comprising ochre, brown, green, and blue. Wares include moulded teapots, jugs, and figures. From the 1840s the firm of E & R. Pratt & Co. was famous for multicoloured printing, used extensively on pot lids.
• BODY cream, thin, and lightweight
• GLAZE ivory-tinted lead glaze
• FORMS ornamental Neo-classical wares, tablewares, and more rarely figures
• DECORATION underglaze blue, overglaze enamels, or transfer printing
Pearlware
• BODY white flinty earthenware
• GLAZE bluish glaze to counteract the cream body
• FORMS mainly useful wares: dishes, plates, teapots, coffee-pots, and jugs
• DECORATION usually painted or printed underglaze
blue of English landscapes, Grand Tour ruins, etc.
Prattware
• BODY similar to pearlware
• PALETTE high-fired colours: ochre, yellow, brown, green, and blue
• FORMS jugs, teapots, and figures
Marks
The practice of marking pottery became more widespread from c.1800; some factories impressed their marks, but the majority are transfer-printed in underglaze blue; in addition the factory might also supply the title of the pattern on the back
Wedgwood: mark used on creamware
Leeds: impressed mark for the firm of Hartley, Greens & Co. (1800-30)