Glossary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
B
Bakers are listed on almost all of the Staffordshire potters’ price fixing lists following the flat ware. These vessels are generally oval or oblong hexagonal and thus had to be pressed rather than thrown on a wheel. They almost never have a footring and the rims are flat. Most are undecorated, but they do occur with shell edging and painted patterns as well as printed patterns. These vessels often are listed as bowls in archaeological reports.
Baluster Jar
A tall pot or jar with a constricted neck that is used for food storage and shipping, such as for potted fish.
Bellarmine
A stoneware jug or bottle decorated with a molded bearded human face molded onto the neck. Also called a "Bartmann Krug."
Bianco Sopra Bianco
A white on white decoration found on tin-glazed earthenware and porcelain.
Bottle
A bulbous vessel with a narrow, cylindrical neck, used for storing and serving liquids.
Butter Pot
A large, cylindrical or slightly bulbous vessel, taller than it is wide, used to store dairy products.
C
A pedestaled vessel that holds coals used to warm food.
Chamber Pot
A sturdy, handled vessel with a flat, flared rim, used as a portable toilet.
Charger
A large flat dish with a diameter greater than ten inches, often made for decorative use.
China Glaze
China glaze is defined as a combination of ware and decoration. It is refined white earthenware manufactured in imitation of Chinese porcelain, i.e. the glaze is tinted blue for the correct look, the patterns are in a Chinese style, and the footrings on plates are often undercut in a Chinese style. Shell-edged plates with Chinese-style painted centers should be called China glaze; these date from c.1775 to c. 1810.
Cobalt
A blue pigment of cobalt oxide and alumina used for underglaze decoration.
Cobalt
A blue pigment of cobalt oxide and alumina used for underglaze decoration.
Coggle
An engraved wheel which is rolled over an unfired vessel to create notching or other patterns.
Colander
A pan-shaped vessel with perforations on the bottom or sides for drainage.
Combing
Dragging pointed instruments through wet slip bands in order to create a zigzag pattern.
Cordons
Molded bands encircling a vessel.
Crazing
Cracking in the glaze that occurs when the glaze shrinks more than the body after firing.
Cup
A small drinking vessel with or without a handle.
D
A large, flat serving vessel that can be shallow or somewhat deep.
Drug Jar
A cylindrical vessel for storing drugs, cosmetics, or condiments. Also called a galley pot or apothecary jar.
E
Ceramics containing a low proportion of silica and fired at low temperatures (900 – 1150o F). Earthenwares are porous and must be sealed with a glaze to hold liquids.
Enamel painted
Enamel painting is painting on top of the glaze. Pottery workers who did this type of painting were Enamellers. Individuals who painted underglaze patterns were called blue painters, regardless of the colors they used.
Engine Turned
A decorative technique where relief designs are cut into vessels while in the leather hard stage by turning them on a lathe.
Engobe
A coating of slip applied to the surface of a vessel for decorative purposes or to cover up an imperfection in the vessel's surface.
F
The clay body or paste of a ceramic.
Faience
French tin-glazed ware similar to delftware and maijolica.
Flat Ware
Shallow vessels such as dishes, platters, chargers, plates, and saucers.
Flux
A substance added to ceramics and glazes which lowers their melting point. Often used to fuse overglaze pigments to the glaze.
Fritting
Fritting is a process of melting the ingredients used in a glaze into a glass that is then broken up and ground into a fine powder that can be mixed in water for the dipping of bisque fired wares. When the wares are dipped in the glaze, they absorb some of the water that carries the glaze materials and in that process the fritted glaze is deposited on the vessel's surface. Fritting is essential for alkaline glazes that contain soda, potash, boracic acid, as a part of the glaze because they are soluble in water and would be diluted by the water used to carry the glaze to the bisque fired wares.
G
A thin coating applied to ceramic bodies for the purpose of making them impervious to liquid absorption and for decorative purposes.
Grog
Small pieces of crushed pottery or fired clay sometimes added to the primary fabric for strength or applied to a vessel's surface as decoration.
H
Referring to porcelains which are composed of feldspathic clay fired at a high enough temperature to vitrify them. Chinese porcelains are true hard-paste porcelains, while many 18th century Continental and English porcelains are considered to be soft-paste.
Hollow Ware
Container forms such as tea and coffee pots, bowls, pans, cups, jugs, jars, tankards, and pitchers.
I
Japanese porcelain or its Chinese imitations, decorated in underglaze blue and overglaze red and gilding.
Incising
Decorative technique in which lines are scratched, either mechanically or by hand, into the wet body of a ceramic.
J
A bulbous, handled vessel with a cylindrical neck, with or without a spout, used for drinking or serving liquids.
K
A fine-grained white clay that is a major component of porcelain.
Kiln
The oven in which ceramics are fired.
L
A standard glaze for earthenwares containing silica and alumina and a lead oxide flux.
Leather Hard
The stage in which unfired pottery is no longer in a plastic or wet state, and can be handled without distortion to the form.
M
A decorative technique in which a vessel covered with bands of wet slip is sharply twisted, causing the slip to run across the piece and form abstract patterns.
Marly
The flat part of a plate bordering the rim.
Milk Pan
A large pan with sloping sides used to cool dairy products, as a wash basin, or for cooking.
Muffin
Plate whose diameter ranges between four to seven inches. Muffin plates sometimes get misclassified as saucers. Small saucer size plates with a marly are muffin plates.
Mug
A straight-sided, handled drinking vessel, taller than it is wide.
N
Nappies are the same as baker but they have an everted curved rim. They are usually less common than bakers and, like bakers, are often listed as bowls in archeological reports. Like bakers, they almost never have footrings and are pressed rather than thrown.
Neoclassical
Characteristic of a style in decorative art and architecture prevalent during the mid 18th to the 19th century that drew inspiration from Western classical culture and art.
O
Painted colors applied on top of the glaze and lightly refired at a low temperature.
Oxidizing
Referring to the oxygen atmosphere inside a kiln during firing, which causes color changes due to chemical reactions in the glaze or body. For example, fine stoneware fired in an oxygen atmosphere can be turned brick red, while the same clay fired in a reducing atmosphere can be colored black.
P
The clays and other materials that constitute the body of a vessel (see fabric).
Pitcher
A bulbous, handled vessel with a pouring lip.
Pipkin
An small, rod-handled earthenware cooking vessel, that often has three legs.
Plate
A flat, round eating or serving vessel that is less than ten inches in diameter, smaller than a charger.
Porcelain
Ceramics with a vitrified body originally made from petuntse (feldspathic rock) and kaolin fired at a very high temperature.
Porringer
A small, hemispherical, somewhat shallow vessel with one or two handles, used for eating foods like soup or porridge.
Posset Pot
A large, bulbous drinking vessel, often with multiple handles, that is also referred to as as "loving cup".
Powdered Ground
A decorative technique, usually found on tin-glazed wares, that is produced by sifting or sprinkling a powdered oxide over areas of a vessel. This technique is also known as "Dusting."
Press Molded
A vessel or vessel element (such as a handle or spout) which was formed by pushing wet clay over a mold.
Puzzle Jug
A drinking vessel with a hollow handle and at least three spouts. A hole in the handle, and all but one of the spouts, had to be sealed with fingers to avoid spilling the liquids while drinking.
Q
R
The absence of oxygen in the atmosphere of a kiln during firing. The lack of oxygen can affect color in glaze or body.
Rococo
Decorative style that emulate seashells. Rococo shelled vessels have asymmetrical, undulating borders.
S
A high temperature glaze which is formed by the addition of common salt into the kiln when it is at the highest temperature.The vaporized sodium combines with the silica on the surface of the vessel to create a glossy, hard glaze. Salt glazes are characterized by a pitted "orange peel" texture and are only used on stonewares.
Scratch Blue
A decorative technique used on English white salt-glazed stoneware and pearlware. Before firing, decorative motifs were incised into the clay and filled with cobalt blue oxide. The excess paint was wiped away leaving only the blue filled lines. Referred to as Scratch Brown when a brown oxide is used.
Sgraffito
From the Italian word for "scratched" – a decorative technique involving the cutting away of a slip layer to reveal the color of the paste beneath.
Slip
A liquid mixture of clay and water applied to vessel surfaces.
Slip Casting
A manufacturing technique in which liquid clay is poured into a vessel mold and then allowed to dry to the leather hard stage. After opening the mold, the vessel form inside can be trimmed, decorated, and fired.
Slip Decoration
Designs created by applying different colored slips to a vessel.
Soft-Paste
Porcelain paste composed of white clay mixed with various additives, such as ground soapstone or frit (ground glass that is partially vitrified). Eighteenth century English and Continental porcelains are often soft-paste, while Chinese porcelains are hard-paste, and fired at a higher temperature.
Sprig-Molding
A decorative technique in which molded clay ornaments are attached to a vessel before firing.
Staffordshire
A pottery-producing district in England since the early 1700s.
Stamping
A decorative technique in which a die or other tool is used to impress designs or manufacturer's marks onto unfired clay.
Stoneware
Non-porous ceramic paste in which there is enough silica content that when fired at a high temperature (ca. 1200o C), partial vitrification occurs.
T
Ceramic vessels such as plates, cups, saucers, dishes, tureens, pitchers, or other pieces which are designed for serving or consuming food and drink at the table.
Tankard
A large, cylindrical or bulbous drinking vessel with a handle, that is taller than a mug.
Tea Ware
Ceramic vessels that are used specifically which is for serving tea, including teapots, teacups, saucers, sugar bowls, slop dishes, cream jugs, and tea caddies.
Throwing
The manufacture of pottery by hand on a wheel.
Tin-Glazed
A glaze to which tin oxide has been added to make it opaque and white.
Trailing
A decoration technique in which tubes are used to dribble lines or dots of colored slip on a vessel surface.
Transfer Print
A decorative technique developed in the 18th century, in which an engraved copper plate is coated with ink and the pattern is then transfered by a glue bat to the vessel being printed. An improved method used thin sheets of tissue paper to transfer the design.
Twiffler
In the Staffordshire potters’ price fixing lists from 1795 on to 1846, twifflers are listed as eight inch plates. Supper plates are nine inches and dinner plates are ten inches in diameter. However, through time, the sizes of these vessels were increased above their stated size. Plates ranging from four inches to seven inches were listed as muffins.
Tyg
A two-handled mug.
U
Painted decoration on leather hard or bisque vessel surfaces added before applying a glaze.
V
A process whereby the silicate fragments in a clay body fuse together when fired at high temperatures. Generally, the higher the firing temperature, the greater the degree of vitrification.
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