The Astbury A to Z of Pottery Terms
- Adderley
- Also Royal Adderley. Used marks "W A A" and "W A A & Co" for wares made at Longton, 1876 to 1905.
Later part of Ridgway Potteries Ltd.
- Agate Ware
- Earthenware made to look like agate by building up irregular layers of clays
coloured white, brown, green and blue.
- Astbury
- Astbury is a place near Congleton in Cheshire (England).
The Church of St Mary can be found in Astbury.
This is a large battlemented church built between the 13th and 15th centuries,
with the unusual combination of one spire and two towers.
[ See Black Astbury. ]
- Astbury Fine Bone China of Staffordshire Ltd
- A limited company, number 02187835, dissolved 08/03/1995.
- John Astbury
- Born 1688 died 1743 - Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire.
He was a pioneer of English potting technology and earliest of the great Staffordshire potters.
- Thomas Astbury
- Son of John Astbury.
- Aynsley
- In 1775, John Aynsley established a factory at Lane End (now Longton) and became
one of Stoke-on-Trent's earliest master potters.
In 1861 a factory was specially built, solely for the manufacture of fine bone china
made with the then new practice of adding calcined bone. This factory is now known as the
Portland Works and is still in Stoke-on-Trent today.
[Visit the official Aynsley site.]
- Bamboo Ware
- Fine cane coloured stoneware modelled to resemble bamboo,
fashionable in the Regency period.
- Belleek Ware
- Ware produced in the Belleek factory in Co. Fermanagh.
Characteristic was the decorative use of marine motifs.
- Biscuit
- Once-fired unglazed earthenware, stoneware or paste.
- Birbeck, Joseph
- Born in 1798 Joseph Birbeck was a member of an important and wide ranging family in the ceramic art circles of the early 1800s. He is known to have started at the Coalport factory in Shropshire in about 1820, presumably having served his apprenticeship elsewhere.
- Bisque
- Unglazed 'frit' porcelain figures with ivory-white velvety texture.
- Black Astbury
- Design is white in the centre and black around the rim.
There is a gold band separating the colours with some additional fine
gold designs on the black.
Supplied by Wedgwood, to special order.
[ View a price list .]
- Blunger
- Container in which slip is mixed.
- Bodley
- Edwin James Drew Bodley worked part of Samuel Alcock's Old Hill Pottery at Burslem
which had been divided into a china and a separate earthenware factory in 1867.
- Bone China
- Hard-paste porcelain plus bone-ash (Calcium Phosphate).
- Bretby
- Bretby Art Pottery, more properly known as Tooth & Co. Ltd.,
was started in 1883 by Henry Tooth and William Ault.
Ault left after four years to set up his own pottery at Swadlincote.
The company produced both inexpensive pressed wares and more costly thrown art pottery.
Bretby stayed in the hands of the Tooth family until 1933,
and after the second World War became known as Tooth and Company Limited Bretby Art Pottery.
Marks include the familiar rising sun over the name BRETBY, a stylized HT for Henry Tooth, and the brand names Clanta and Clanta Ware.
- Bristol
- Name given to a variety of wares made in Bristol.
Early porcelains include Lund's Bristol from 1749 by Benjamin Lund and William Miller.
The works were bought by the Worcester company in 1751.
William Cookworthy produced hard paste porcelains from 1772 to 1781.
- Brownware
-
[ See Nottingham Stoneware ]
- Burmantoft
-
Burmantofts (Messrs. Wilcox and Co. (Ltd.)), Leeds Yorkshire 1882-1904,
originally the firm made bricks sanitary tubes and other architectural goods.
When James Etches became manager in 1879 he began the production of tiles, art pottery and architectural faience.
Wares were dipped in majolica glazes in the popular 'Art Colours' of the period; Olive Green, Lemon yellow,
brown and dark blue. Although the Glazes, in combination with relief moulding, were the sole decoration on most pieces,
a variety of decorative techniques were sometimes employed. Modelled figures such as snakes,
dragons and lizards were applied to vases other ornamental wares. Sgraffito and barbotine techniques were also used.
The vast majority of Burmantoft's output consisted of relief moulded Jardinieres,
flower pots, pedestals and umbrella stands. They also offered a line of small 'uglies and grotesques'
which were dipped in the famous glazes. Speciality output included Anglo Persian influences introduced in 1887,
Anglo Moresque wares introduced in 1900 and Floruda ware, which was unglazed terracotta
with painted floral decoration. Later wares were increasingly in the Art Nouveau style.
- Cadogan Teapot
- A type of lidless teapot.
- Carrigaline
- Carrigaline Pottery was founded in Cork, Eire, in 1923. Pieces are marked 'Carrig Ware' or 'Carrigaline Pottery'.
- Casting
- Technique of making articles by pouring liquid or molten materials or metals into a cast.
- Ceramic
- From the Greek word keramos, originally the art of making pottery,
now a general term for the science of manufacturing articles prepared from pliable,
earthy materials that are made rigid by high-temperature treatment.
- China
- A country.
[see Bone China and Stoke China]
- Clanta
- [ See Bretby ]
- Clarice Cliff
- (1899 - 1972) Designer of the shapes and decorations applied to mass-produced Art Deco
style earthenware.
- Clobbering
- The addition of coloured enamels and/or gilding over the glaze to early wares printed in
blue under the glaze.
- Coalport
- Shropshire factory, founded by John Rose.
- Coil
- Way of building pieces from coils of clay. Can be used to make a pot without using a wheel.
- Cone
- Cones are specially formulated ceramics formed into triangular, pointy shapes.
When placed in a kiln they will soften and bend (or "mature") at a specific temperature
when the temperature is increased at a specific rate.
If fired faster or slower, the cones will mature at a different temperature.
Cones thus account for the firing history as well as the temperature.
[ See Kiln and Orton ]
- Copeland
- William Copeland became a partner with Spode in 1797 and after Josiah Spode II died in 1827, William Copeland's son,
William Taylor Copeland, bought the business from the Trustees of Josiah Spode III. Thus in 1833 William Taylor
became sole owner. But then took a partner, Thomas Garrett and the firm became 'Copeland and Garrett',
continuing until 1847.
[see Spode]
- Creamware
- Cream-coloured earthenware coated with a clear or opaque, cream coloured glaze.
- Davenport
- Staffordshire firm founded at Longport by John Davenport, 1794 to 1887.
Initially only earthenware, porcelain from 1805.
- delft
- Tin-glazed earthenware.
- Derby
- Factory established (1755) by William Duesbury.
Periods :
- Chelsea Derby (1770 - 1784)
- Crown Derby (1786 - 1811)
- Bloor Derby (1811 - 1848).
[Visit the official Royal Crown Derby site.]
- Delphine
- Delphine, Delphine china and Delphine crown china were produced by J H Middleton & Co of Longton, 1889 - 1941.
- Denton
- Pottery based in Longton, Stoke.
- Doulton
- Royal Doulton.
- Dudson
- Dudson specialise in supplying restaurants and hotels.
What their web site does not tell you is that they also have a cash-and-carry which is open to the public and which I recommend as well worth a visit if you want some good quality everyday ware at a sensible price. This is located at:
Nile Street, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent ST6 2BA
Telephone: 01782 821075
[Visit the official Dudson site.]
- Earthenware
- Course and opaque ceramic ware which is fired at a relatively low temperature.
- Elers Ware
- Unglazed smooth-surfaced red stoneware attributed to David and John Elers.
- Elton Ware
- 'Art Pottery' produced by Sir Edmund Elton (1846 - 1920).
- Embossed
- Surface decoration raised in relief.
- Faceted
- Decorated with shallow hollows forming a surface diamond pattern.
- Faience
- French version of tin glazed earthenware.
Also Lambeth Faience, nineteenth century revival of English,
Italian and French tin glazed earthenware made by Doulton at their Lambeth Potteries.
- Felspar percelain
- A refined paste developed by Spode at the end of the 18th century for bone china.
- Fettle
- Process where small flaws and imperfections are corrected.
- Finial
- Top ornament or decoration on lids of teapots, coffee pots etc.
- FlatWare
- Plates and saucers.
- Flint ware
- Earthenware body with the addition of powdered calcined flint.
- Fuddling cup
- A drinking cup, generally made prior to the 18th century, composed of three or more
interlining cups. To empty one, the entire contents must be drunk.
- Girl-in-a-Swing Factory
- (1749 - 1754) Early English porcelain, probably made in London. The name arises from a white figure
of a girl in a swing in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
- Glaze
- Applied to porcelain or pottery body to make it waterproof and enhance colour.
Glazes may be clear, opaque or coloured to various degrees.
[ See Lead Glaze and Salt Glaze ]
- Glost oven
- A separate oven used for glazing.
- Grimwade
-
[ See Royal Winton ]
- Grog
- Ground up fragments of already fired clay, then used to give a grogged surface.
- Ground
- The main colour on a piece of pottery or porcelain, usually applied under the glaze.
- Hard paste porcelain
- Immensely strong, translucent porcelain with the glaze fused to the paste so completely
that it is an integral part.
- HolloWare
- Cups and bowls.
- Honey gilding
- In use from around 1755 on English porcelain, made from powdered gold, oil of lavendar
and honey.
- Incised
- Marking leatherhard clay for decorative purposes
or to apply a mark .
- Ivory porcelain
- Glazed parian, a translucent porcelain paste contianing felspar developed in the
19th century.
- JasperWare
- The familiar densely uniform stone ware in solid colours ornamented in a contrasting hue
was Josiah Wedgwood's most important contribution to ceramic art.
Because of the popularity of the combination of a solid blue base with white bas-relief
ornamentation the beginning collector identifies that colour combination as Jasper when in fact
the pure jasper body is white. It was the ability of this new ceramic material to take an admixture
of uniform colour that gave the wide range of combinations that mark the development of the range
of decorative wares that Wedgwood and his successors at the Wedgwood potteries made into their
trademark product.
- Jigger
- Machine for making plates, saucers and other flatware.
Phrase "to be jiggered" means to be exhausted.
- Jolley
- Machine for making cups, bowls and other holloware.
- Kerr & Binns
- (1852 - 1862) Worcester partnership between William Henry Kerr and R.W. Binns.
- Kiln
- Clay is fired in a kiln to make pottery.
- Lead Glaze
- Transparent glassy glaze using lead oxide.
Often apllied to early English soft-paste and earthenwares.
- Lustreware
- An English ceramic decoration with pigments containing minute quantities of gold or platinum.
- Majolica
- Eathenware molded in bold relief and coated in various coloured glazes.
- Merry Andrew
- A seventeenth century term for buffoon or clown.
- Minton
- Henry Minton.
- Moorcroft
- William Moorcroft (1872 - 1945). Art Nouveau style, mainly floral.
- Nodders
- Porcelain figures with detachable heads which oscillate.
- Nottingham Stoneware
- A form of fine light weight saltglazed stoneware with a bronze sheen
(sometimes called Brownware).
- Orton
- Cones manufactured by the Orton Foundation are the most commonly used
in North America.
[ See Cone ]
- Ovalware
- Oval shaped wares, for example meat platers made on a offset jigger.
- Palissy Pottery
- Founded in 1946 in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent and made earthenwares.
Prior to this the trade name was used by A. E Jones (Longton) Ltd who began in about 1905
and traded from Palissy Pottery from 1930. Spode and Royal Worcester merged to form a new company
in July 1976 known as Royal Worcester Spode. In 1958 The Royal Worcester Porcelain Company had bought Palissy.
Palissy was closed in 1989 and the pottery was demolished in August of that year.
Aynsley China Ltd of Sutherland Road, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, unconnected with Spode and Worcester,
bought the trade name of Palissy in August 1989.
- Palissy ware
- Minton's name for relief decorated colour-glazed earthenwares.
Some of these wares imitated the work of sixteenth century potter Bernard Palissy.
- Parian
- Unglazed fine-grained porcelain.
- Pearlware
- Whiter than cream wares.
- Piggy Bank
- The term piggy bank dates back to 15th century England.
People would use a type of orange clay called pygg to make jars to hold loose change.
In the 18th century a potter misunderstood an order and made a pygg jar look like a pig.
The term stuck.
- Poole
- Earthenwares produced by Carter, Stabler & Adams Ltd from 1921 at Poole in Dorset
and generally known as Poole Pottery.
- Porcelain
- Fine variety of ceramic.
- Posset Pot
- Posset was a drink / remedy made from warm milk curdled with ale or wine and
flavoured with sugar and spices.
Posset pots usually had two handles and a cover, and some had a spout
through which the posset was sucked or poured.
- Queen's Ware
- Name originally used by Josiah Wedgwood for improved Creamware as presented to Queen Charlotte.
- Redware
- Red stoneware, usually unglazed and often decorated with applied motifs in relief.
- Ridgways
- Family of Staffordshire potters.
- Rogers
- Family of Staffordshire potters.
- Royal Albert Works
- In Tunstall, Stoke. The factory was built in 1858.
Between 1867 to 1874 was occupied by Turner, Goddard & Co.
From 1875 occupied by Alfred Meakin, later years Astbury China
then Holdenby Design occupied the works.
In 1999 Ravensdale Pottery Ltd occupied the works.
- Royal Winton
- The Royal Winton brand has roots in Stoke-on-Trent, England that go back over one hundred
years. Originally known as Grimwade Brothers it was founded by Leonard Lumsden Grimwade in 1885.
He was joined in the business by his older brother, Sidney Richard.
[Visit the official Royal Winton site.]
- Sager
- A container for firing in a bottle kiln.
As in 'Sager Maker's Bottom Knocker', a trade and also
a pub in Burslem.
- Saltglaze
- Staffordshire white stoneware glazed by throwing rock-salt into the kiln at its peak temperature.
- Sgraffito
- Style of slipware where a slip coat is used which is of a different colour to the body
of the pot and is then decorated by cutting a pattern through the dry
slip coat to reveal the contrasting colour of the body of the pot beneath.
[ See Wet Sgraffito ]
- Slip
- Clay mixed with water, into a liquid, sieved to remove any particles.
- Slipware
- Pottery, usually earthenware, whose decoration is based upon the use of slip.
- Spode
- Josiah Spode.
[Visit the official Spode site.]
- Sprigging
- Applying pre-molded relief motifs to the surface of a pottery object and
connecting them by curled stems formed of threads of thinly rolled clay.
- Stoke China
- Name used by Josiah Spode for English bone china.
- Stoneware
- Earthenware relatively rich in vitreous material and fired at so
high a temperature that it becomes as hard as stone and non-porous.
[ See Nottingham Stoneware ]
- Terracotta
- Unglazed porous earthenwares.
- Transfer printing
- Decoration of ceramics with printed designs transferred to them by specially prepared paper
from engraved and etched copper plates.
- Turner, Goddard & Co
- Earthenware manufacturer at the Royal Albert Pottery, Parsonage Street, Tunstall, 1867-1874.
[ See Royal Albert Works ]
- Tyg
- A drinking vessel with more than two handles or two set close together.
It is said to have been used in Staffordshire as another word for porringer,
but its use to denote taller drinking vessels with several handles has not been
traced further back than the nineteenth century.
- Under Glaze
- The decorating of biscuit ware before the ware is glazed and then fired.
- Vauxhall
- Mid eighteenth century porcelains produced at John Sanders' pottery at Vauxhall.
- Wade
- Manufacturers of special ceramics and limited edition ranges of novelty teapots,
mugs and miniatures.
[Visit the official Wade site.]
- Ware
- general term for pottery.
[ see Flatware, Holloware, Elers ware, Elton ware etc ]
- Waster
- A vessel or fragment which has been damaged during firing or later in the process
of manufacture, and has been abandoned as waste.
- Wedgwood
- Josiah Wedgwood.
[Visit the official Wedgwood site.]
- Well Street Pottery
- Works were formerly carried on by Clive & Lloyd, and, after Mr. Lloyd retired, by Stephen Clive
under the style of Stephen Clive & Co. from about 1875 to 1880. They were worked by
Cumberlidge & Humphreys from 1880 to 1885 (and later at the Gordon Pottery).
Their productions were the ordinary middle classes of earthenware goods for the home and foreign markets.
- Wet Sgraffito
- Crude style of slipware where a pattern is drawn through a trailed slip
while it is still wet.
[ See Sgraffito ]
- Wheel
- The potter's wheel, is a flat disk that revolves horizontally on a pivot.
Both hands one on the inside and the other on the outside of the clay
are free to shape the pot upward from a ball of clay that is thrown and centered
on the rotating wheel head. Some wheels are set in motion by a stick that fits into
a notch in the wheel (often activated by an assistant); called a handwheel,
this is the classical wheel of Japanese potters.
In 16th-century Europe, with the addition of a flywheel separate from the wheel head
and mounted in a frame, the potter could control the wheel by kicking the flywheel.
A kick bar, or foot treadle, was added in the 19th century.
In the 20th century the electric wheel with a variable-speed motor allowed greater
and better regulated rotating speed.
- Willow Pattern
- Mock Chinese blue and white transfer-printed pattern found on English pottery
and very rarely on porcelain.
The design usually shows two fleeing figures on a bridge and usually
a third in pursuit; a pagoda, boat, two doves, and top left the
island home; prominent in the foreground are a willow and an 'apple'
tree. Many variations occur.
- Wood
- The Wood family.
- X Class
- Unmarked English porcelain produced 1785 to 1815.
- Y Class
- Unmarked English porcelain produced 1795 to 1810.
- Z Class
- Unmarked English porcelain produced 1800 to 1820.
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Pottery homepage
Last revised 22 September 2007.
This document is Copyright © 2006, 2007 by Duncan Astbury. All rights reserved.
