The Story of the Stoneware Pottery

There were many potters whose names couldbefore this excellent salt-glazed material was being
not be recognized due the non-availability or onlypotted in quantity in the Staffordshire towns, in
the availability of their initials which does not helpLiverpool, and elsewhere. Most of the ware, which
the collectors to identify the makers of some ofwas made not only into domestic articles but also
the masterpieces that had been found in differentfigures, was ornamented with raised patterns, and
parts of the world.the thin smear of glaze with which it was covered
Much of the nineteenth-century ware wasdid not clog the delicate lines as a flowing
marked by the makers, but often only with initials,lead-glaze would have done. Both overgraze and
which do not help the collector very much. Printedunder glaze colors were used with great effect.
pieces usually have the name of the pattern.While white stoneware was finally unable to
Stonewarewithstand the competition of Queen's Ware and
Stoneware is a very hard non-porous type ofporcelain, a further refinement of materials and
pottery, introduced into England in the sixteenthtechnique enabled Wedgwood to produce with it
century from Germany. A feature of the ware ishis celebrated jasper ware. This is the pottery
that it was glazed by putting common salt intofrom which were made the thousands of relief
the kiln while it was being fired; thus arises theportraits, plaques and vases that spread the
term salt-glazed stoneware. The resulting potteryname of their inventor and maker throughout the
is hard, strong and watertight, and it can be madeworld. In addition to this ware, most familiar when
into objects much thinner in body than cancolored blue but made also in pale shades of
ordinary clay pottery.yellow, lilac and green Wedgwood developed a
Nottingham was a big centre for makingblack stoneware (basaltes), a red stoneware
stoneware from the late seventeenth century,(rosso antico) and a buflf-coloured (cane ware), all
and pieces with a hard grey body and a brownof which contributed to the fame and expansion
glaze of orange-peel texture came from there.of Staffordshire.
Many such pieces bear names and dates. OtherIt is as well to remember that the descendants
factories nearby in Derbyshire made similar wares.of Josiah Wedgwood are still making jasper and
John Dwight founded a factory at Fulham, abasaltes wares, and have done so continuously
suburb of London, in 1671. A number of piecessince the eighteenth century. The oldest examples
made by him, after two centuries in thereveal their age by the superior fineness of their
possession of his family and now in the British andmodeling and the velvet-like smoothness of their
Victoria and Albert Museums, are extraordinarilysurface.
well modeled, and it has been suggested thatBrown stoneware was made throughout the
they are the work of the wood-carver andnineteenth century, but the productions are far
sculptor, Grilling Gibbons. Dwight claimed to havefrom exciting. Flasks in the form of politicians and
invented a method of making porcelain, butpistols were made, and a large number of jugs in
nothing resembling our modern meaning of theimitation of seventeenth-century originals often
term can be attributed to him.deceive collectors.
In Staffordshire, red stoneware in imitation ofStoneware was introduced into England in the
some imported from China, was made by twosixteenth century from Germany. This is a glazed
Dutch brothers named Elers, who had worked atware. Nottingham was a big centre for making
one time with Dwight at Fulham. By 1725Dwight'sstoneware from the late seventeenth century.
greyish stoneware had been improved in colourThere were some potters who mastered the
until it was nearly white, and it was not longmaking of the stoneware products.