Lead-glazed earthenware is one of the traditional types of earthenware with a

ceramic glaze Ceramic glaze is an impervious layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fused to a pottery body through firing. Glaze can serve to color, decorate or waterproof an item. Glazing renders earthenware vessels suitable for holding ...

, which coats the ceramic biscuit body and renders it impervious to liquids, as

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

itself is not. Plain lead glaze is shiny and transparent after firing. Coloured lead glazes are shiny and either translucent or opaque after firing. Three other traditional techniques are

tin-glazed Tin-glazing is the process of giving tin-glazed pottery items a ceramic glaze that is white, glossy and opaque, which is normally applied to red or buff earthenware. Tin-glaze is plain lead glaze with a small amount of tin oxide added.Caiger-Smith, ...

(in fact this is lead glaze with a small amount of tin added), which coats the ware with an opaque white glaze suited for

overglaze Overglaze decoration, overglaze enamelling or on-glaze decoration is a method of decorating pottery, most often porcelain, where the coloured decoration is applied on top of the already fired and glazed surface, and then fixed in a second firing ...

brush-painted colored enamel designs;

salt glaze pottery Salt-glaze or salt glaze pottery is pottery, usually stoneware, with a glaze of glossy, translucent and slightly orange-peel-like texture which was formed by throwing common salt into the kiln during the higher temperature part of the firing pro ...

, also often

stoneware Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay. Whether vi ...

; and the feldspathic glazes of Asian

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...

. Modern materials technology has invented new vitreous glazes that do not fall into these traditional categories. In lead glazes, tints provided by impurities render greenish to brownish casts, with aesthetic possibilities that are not easily controlled in the kiln. The Romans used lead glazes for high-quality oil lamps and drinking cups. At the same time in China,

green-glazed pottery Green-glazed pottery () was a type of colored pottery developed in China during the Eastern Han period (25–220 CE). The body of green-glazed pottery ceramics was made of clay, coated with a layer of glaze, and fired at a temperature of 800 degr ...

dating back to the

Han period The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...

(25–220 AD) gave rise eventually to the ''

sancai ''Sancai'' ()Vainker, 75 is a versatile type of decoration on Chinese pottery using glazes or slip, predominantly in the three colours of brown (or amber), green, and a creamy off-white. It is particularly associated with the Tang Dynasty (618� ...

'' ('three-color')

Tang Dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

ceramics, where the white clay body was coated with coloured glazes and fired at a temperature of 800 degrees C.

Lead oxide Lead oxides are a group of inorganic compounds with formulas including lead (Pb) and oxygen (O). Common lead oxides include: * Lead(II) oxide, PbO, litharge (red), massicot (yellow) * Lead(II,IV) oxide Lead(II,IV) oxide, also called red lead o ...

was the principal flux in the glaze.

Polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. Ancient Egypt Colossal statu ...

effects (i.e. the colours) were obtained by using the oxides of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

(which turns green),

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

(brownish yellow), and less often

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

(brown) and

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, p ...

(blue). Much of Roman technology was lost in the West, but coarse lead-glazed earthenwares were universal in medieval Europe and in Colonial America. In England, lead-glazed

Stamford ware Stamford ware is a type of lead-glazed earthenware, one of the earliest forms of glazed ceramics manufactured in England. It was produced in Stamford, Lincolnshire between the ninth and thirteenth centuries. It was widely traded across Britain a ...

was produced in

Stamford, Lincolnshire Stamford is a town and civil parish in the South Kesteven District of Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 19,701 and estimated at 20,645 in 2019. The town has 17th- and 18th-century stone buildings, older timber-framed ...

as early as the ninth century. It was widely traded across Britain and the near continent. In Italy during the 15th century lead-glazed wares were improved by the incremental addition of tin oxides under the influence of Islamic wares imported through Sicily, giving rise to

maiolica Maiolica is tin-glazed pottery decorated in colours on a white background. Italian maiolica dating from the Renaissance period is the most renowned. When depicting historical and mythical scenes, these works were known as ''istoriato'' wares ...

, which supplanted lead-glazed wares in all but the most rustic contexts. The French 16th-century

Saint-Porchaire ware Saint-Porchaire ware is the earliest very high quality French pottery. It is white lead-glazed earthenware often conflated with true faience, that was made for a restricted French clientele from perhaps the 1520s to the 1550s. Only about seventy p ...

is lead-glazed earthenware; an early European attempt at rivalling Chinese porcelains, it does not properly qualify as

faience Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major a ...

, which is a refined tin-glazed earthenware. In 16th-century France

Bernard Palissy Bernard Palissy (c. 1510c. 1589) was a French Huguenot potter, hydraulics engineer and craftsman, famous for having struggled for sixteen years to imitate Chinese porcelain. He is best known for his so-called "rusticware", typically highly decor ...

refined lead-glazed earthenware to a high standard.

Victorian majolica Victorian majolica properly refers to two types of majolica made in the second half of the 19th century in Europe and America. Firstly, and best known, there is the mass-produced majolica decorated with coloured lead glazes, made in Britain, Eu ...

is predominantly lead-glazed '

majolica In different periods of time and in different countries, the term ''majolica'' has been used for two distinct types of pottery. Firstly, from the mid-15th century onwards, was ''maiolica'', a type of pottery reaching Italy from Spain, Majorca a ...

' earthenware, introduced by

Mintons Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, ...

in the mid-19th century as a revival of " Palissy ware". Victorian majolica also include Minton's rare tin-glaze products.Pottery, British Manufacturing Industries, Leon Arnoux, 1877, p.42 Pearlware Toby jug VA C42-1955

Lead-glazed earthenwares in Britain include the Toby jugs, such as those made in the late 18th century by Ralph Wood the Younger at Burslem, Staffordshire.

Notes

References

* Atterbury, Paul, and Batkin, Maureen, ''Dictionary of Minton'', Antique Collectors' Club, 1990. * Arnoux, Leon, ''British Manufacturing Industries, Gutenberg, 1877

External links

{{wiktionary, Majolica
The Majolica Society
Ceramic glazes Pottery

See also

Notes

References

External links