| Backstamp |
The name used to refer to the manufacturers mark, tradename and/or logo placed on the back of pieces. These will sometime incorporate pattern numbers and dates or dating codes. |
| Basalt |
Developed by Wedgwood around 1768 this refers to very hard, unglazed stoneware stained with cobalt and manganese oxides. |
| Blank |
Pottery or porcelain which has been left undecorated. These are often sold from the factory shops as white ware and are the base shape for many designs of the time. |
| Bone China |
This is a soft paste porcelain. It is made from a mix of dried bone, kaolin and petuntse. |
| China |
This was originally an alternative name for Chinese porcelain, but from the 19th century it has predominantly been used to refer to bone china. However, in recent decades it has become more generic and people will often use it to refer to their collections and services even when they are in fact heavier earthenware or stoneware. |
| Chintzware |
This is normally a dense floral pattern, often covering the whole piece. |
| Crackle Glaze |
An effect produced by firing pieces at very high temperatures (over firing), appearing as a cracked effect in the glaze. Very similar to, if not the same as, crazing. |
| Crazing |
Surface cracks in the glaze, sometimes localised, and sometimes covering a whole piece. It is usually regarded as undesirable and is caused by shrinkage and other firing problems, but is often brought on by changes in temperature during long term storage of older pieces. The thicker pottery glazes are more susceptible to it than porcelain. Some potteries are now introducing it as a feature e.g. Poole Pottery's "Living Glaze" range, although they would argue that this is in fact crackle glaze rather than crazing. |
| Decal |
This is an image, usually multicoloured, printed using a copper plate on tissue paper. The images are then soaked to remove them from a backing sheet and to transfer them to the ceramics, before the glazing process. This process is more commonly known as transfer printing. |
| Earthenware |
Porous pottery. |
| Firing |
This is the baking process in the manufacturing of a ceramics. Earthenware is usually fired at temperatures from 800-1100 degrees centigrade, while the second firing of hard-paste porcelain can reach as high as 1400 degrees centigrade. |
| Flambé |
Made from copper, this is a crimson glaze, sometimes flecked with brown, blue or purple, and often with a crackle glaze effect, due to a high temperature firing process. |
| Flatware |
Strictly speaking, this refers to any flat items on the table including plates and platters, but is more commonly used to refer to cutlery, particularly in the US and Canada. |
| Gilding |
Originally refering to a method of applying gold finish to ceramics, glass, silver or electroplated items, it is now used more generically to refer to the gold, silver or platinum trims often appearing on the rims of plates, cups and dishes etc, and sometimes within the pattern itself. |
| Glaze |
This is the shiny, glassy coat , giving a smooth and protective surface to china, pottery and porcelain. |
| Holloware |
Holloware is the collective term for items that are hollow, such as teapots, jugs, vases, pots, casseroles and so on. |
| Jasper Ware |
Jasper ware refers to a coloured stoneware, originally created by Wedgwood in 1770s but used since and popularised by a one or two additional potteries such as the Adams Pottery. |
| Kaolin |
A fine white granite based clay sometimes referred to a china clay. |
| Lustre Ware |
Refers to pottery with a surface of seemingly changing colours, rather like "mother of pearl". The effect is achieved using silver or copper metallic pigments. |
| Majolica |
A 19th century earthenware often on elaborate shapes and with a thick brightly coloured glaze. |
| Parian |
A fine white semi matt porcelain, so called because of it's similarity to the white statutory marble of the Greek Island of Paros. |
| Petuntse |
China stone. |
| Porcelain (Hard Paste) |
Sometimes referred to as true porcelain, it first appeared in China using a mix of kaolin, petuntse and quartz. |
| Porcelain (Soft Paste) |
Made from similar ingredients to hard paste porcelain but without the kaolin. |
| Pottery |
1. A potter's factory or workshop. 2. The potter's work/art e.g. the manufacture of earthenware. 3. Pottery-ware, earthenware. |
| Salt Glaze |
At the peak of firing salt is thrown into the kiln, producing a thin glassy glaze; a technique used with some stoneware. |
| Sgraffito |
A decorative technique achieved by cutting through one colour to reveal the colour beneath. |
| Slip |
Diluted water and clay mixed to a smooth workable form for the decoration of pottery. |
| Spongeware |
Designs produced through the application of plaint or glaze with a sponge. In it's simplest form this produces an all over mottled effect, but inceasingly sponges are used to create elaborate shapes and sometimes, quite specific prints, e.g. leaf designs. |
| Stoneware |
Pottery which is fired at a higher temperature than earthenware. Generally very durable and porous. |
| Studio Pottery |
Pieces of pottery individually designed and crafted. |
| Throwing |
The potter's skill of shaping pieces of pottery on a turning potter's wheel. |
| Transfer Printing |
The process of soaking decals (images) to remove them from the backing sheet and transfer them to unglazed ceramics before firing. |
