Border ware is a type of post-medieval British pottery commonly used in the South of England, London and then later in the early American colonies beginning in the sixteenth and ending in the nineteenth century with a height of popularity and production in the seventeenth century. The lead-glazed, sandy earthenware was produced from kilns along the border between Hampshire and Surrey. There are two classes of Border ware, fine whitewares and fine redwares.
Border ware evolved from a medieval pottery known as Surrey whiteware. Surrey whiteware consisted of four classes: Kingston-type ware, Coarse Border ware, Cheam whiteware and Tudor Green ware. The earlier whitewares were produced from the 13th to the 16th centuries. [1] [2]
Border ware was manufactured in the Surrey-Hampshire border area from the 16th century to the 19th centuries, although the whitewares were produced only during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The demand for whitewares declined during the 17th century while the demand for redwares increased. [3] The production of whitewares ended most likely during the early 18th century; Redwares continued to be produced until the 19th century. [4]
The term, "Border ware" was introduced by archaeologist, Clive Orton, to describe the lead-glazed, sandy earthenware produced along the Surrey-Hampshire borders during the early post-medieval period. The pottery is divided into two classes, whitewares and redwares, although the term "Border ware" generally refers to the whitewares. The redwares are known as "Red Border ware. [4]
Whiteware fabrics are generally hard with a smooth and fine texture. Fabric colours include off-white, yellow, brown, buff, olive and pinkish grey. Glazes are often crazed and finishes range from thin and spotty to thick and glossy. Glaze colours include yellow, brown, olive clear, and green. [5]
Redware fabrics range from smooth to slightly rough in feel. Fabric colours generally range from brick red to reddish-yellow. Finishes range from thin and uneven to thick and glossy. A clear lead glaze was often used, giving the pottery products an orange or reddish-brown colour. Other glaze colours include olive, brown and green. Green glaze was created by potters by adding copper to lead glaze. [6]
Pottery products were traditional household items commonly used during the post-medieval period. [7] Skillets, saucepans, chafing dishes and tripod pipkins were common cookware products manufactured by the Border ware pottery industry.
Border ware forms used for serving and storing food begin with dishes, which are divided into flanged dishes and deep dishes. Bowls were manufactured in a wide variety of shapes and sizes: wide bowls, deep bowls, bowls with handles, and porringers. Vessels for storing and serving liquids include drinking jugs, cups, goblets and mugs.
Other Border ware forms include costrels (portable flasks), which can be divided into two categories, mammiform costrels and bottle shaped costrels. Candlesticks were two styles: upright and saucer. There were also lanterns, chamber pots, money boxes, jars, double dishes, whistles, fuming pots and strainers.
"The Hampshire-Surrey border potters had a natural advantage through an accident of geology which is not repeated in other areas near London north of the Thames, nor in Kent, and it applied to every kind of vessel they produced."
— F.W. Holling, 1971. [8]
The source of the white-firing clays used to produce Surrey whitewares was the Reading Beds along the borders of Hampshire and Berkshire. The Reading beds between Farnham and Tongham were the best source of potting clay for medieval potters producing wares for the London market. These outcrops of white-firing and red-firing clay deposits had provided an abundant source of clays for pottery manufacturing since the early Roman period. [9]
Border ware manufacturing sites were selected for their proximity to plentiful clay and fuel supplies. [10] The area northeast of Farnham became the centre of the Border ware pottery industry. Three sites have been identified as producing the pottery best representing Border Ware fabrics, forms and glazes. These sites are: Farnborough Hill Convent in Farnborough, Hampshire, Ye Old Malthouse in Hawley, Hampshire and The Lime, Ash, Surrey. [11]
Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a potter is also called a pottery. The definition of pottery, used by the ASTM International, is "all fired ceramic wares that contain clay when formed, except technical, structural, and refractory products". End applications include tableware, decorative ware, sanitaryware, and in technology and industry such as electrical insulators and laboratory ware. In art history and archaeology, especially of ancient and prehistoric periods, pottery often means vessels only, and sculpted figurines of the same material are called terracottas.
Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below 1,200 °C (2,190 °F). Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ceramic glaze, and such a process is used for the great majority of modern domestic earthenware. The main other important types of pottery are porcelain, bone china, and stoneware, all fired at high enough temperatures to vitrify. End applications include tableware and decorative ware such as figurines.
Stoneware is a broad term for pottery fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay. End applications include tableware, decorative ware such as vases.
Islamic pottery occupied a geographical position between Chinese ceramics, and the pottery of the Byzantine Empire and Europe. For most of the period, it made great aesthetic achievements and influence as well, influencing Byzantium and Europe. The use of drinking and eating vessels in gold and silver, the ideal in ancient Rome and Persia as well as medieval Christian societies, is prohibited by the Hadiths, with the result that pottery and glass were used for tableware by Muslim elites, as pottery also was in China but was much rarer in Europe and Byzantium. In the same way, Islamic restrictions greatly discouraged figurative wall painting, encouraging the architectural use of schemes of decorative and often geometrically patterned titles, which are the most distinctive and original specialty of Islamic ceramics.
This is a list of pottery and ceramic terms.
Tin-glazed pottery is earthenware covered in lead glaze with added tin oxide which is white, shiny and opaque ; usually this provides a background for brightly painted decoration. It has been important in Islamic and European pottery, but very little used in East Asia. The pottery body is usually made of red or buff-colored earthenware and the white glaze imitated Chinese porcelain. The decoration on tin-glazed pottery is usually applied to the unfired glaze surface by brush with metallic oxides, commonly cobalt oxide, copper oxide, iron oxide, manganese dioxide and antimony oxide. The makers of Italian tin-glazed pottery from the late Renaissance blended oxides to produce detailed and realistic polychrome paintings.
Farnham Pottery is located in Wrecclesham near Farnham, Surrey. This is one of the best preserved examples of a working Victorian country pottery left in England and is a grade II listed building. Its significance in the local area is shown by it featuring on the emblem of Wrecclesham Cricket Club.
J.A. Bauer Pottery is an American pottery that was founded in Paducah, Kentucky in 1895 and operated for most of its life in Los Angeles, California. It closed in 1962.
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 and the near continent. The most popular forms were jugs, spouted pitchers, and small bowls. Distribution of Stamford ware has been used to map trade routes of the period.
Deritend ware is a distinctive style of medieval pottery produced in Birmingham, England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. There are three types of Deritend ware; a fine to moderately sandy, micaceous orange to red ware, used mainly for jugs, with some examples of bowls, dripping trays and aquamaniles, dating to the 13th to early 14th centuries; a black or, less frequently, grey ware with a brown core, also micaceous, used mainly for cooking pots/jars and less commonly for large unglazed jugs and skillets/pipkins, dating from possibly the late 12th century to the early 14th century; and a sandy brown ware with grey core used for cooking pots, dating from possibly the late 12th century to 13th century. Wasters i.e. pottery misfires have been found for all three wares in Birmingham. Glazed Deritend ware jugs were decorated with white slip lines and applied white clay strips, often roller stamped, and white clay pads, The more complex decorative schemes are in the North French style ; the decorated jugs closely resemble London-type ware and it is distinctly possible that the Deritend ware industry included migrant potters from the London area in the thirteenth century.
Redware as a single word is a term for at least two types of pottery of the last few centuries, in Europe and North America. Red ware as two words is a term used for pottery, mostly by archaeologists, found in a very wide range of places. However, these distinct usages are not always adhered to, especially when referring to the many different types of pre-colonial red wares in the Americas, which may be called "redware".
York Glazed Ware is a type of Medieval ceramic produced in North Yorkshire, England in the 12th and 13th centuries AD.
Brandsby-type Ware is a type of Medieval ceramic produced in Brandsby, North Yorkshire, England, in the 13th and 14th centuries AD.
Humber ware is a type of Medieval ceramic produced in North Yorkshire, England in the late 13th to early 16th Centuries AD.
Sandy ware, also known as Early Medieval Sandy ware, is a type of pottery found in Great Britain from the sixth through the fourteenth centuries. The pottery fabric is tempered with enough quartz sand mixed in with the clay for it to be visible in the fabric of the pot. Sandy ware was commonly used in Southeast England and the East Midlands.
Shelly ware, is a type of pottery found in Great Britain from the seventh through the twelfth centuries. Shelly ware includes Late Saxon Shelly ware, Early Medieval Shelly Ware, and Lincolnshire Shelly Wares. The pottery fabric is tempered with shell powder or reduced shell. Shelly ware was typically handmade until the tenth century, when potters transitioned to wheel-thrown pottery. Shelly wares were manufactured and distributed in the Upper Thames Valley, southeastern coastal areas of Britain and the East Midlands.
Surrey whiteware or Surrey white ware, is a type of lead-glazed pottery produced in England from the 13th to the 16th centuries. The white-fired sandy earthenware was produced largely from kilns in Surrey and along the Surrey-Hampshire border. Surrey whitewares were the most commonly used pottery in London during the late medieval period. There are four classes of Surrey whiteware: Kingston-type, Coarse Border ware, Cheam whiteware and Tudor Green ware.
Shelly-sandy ware(SSW) is a type of medieval pottery produced in Great Britain. The pottery fabric is tempered with both sand and shell, most commonly quartz sand and ground-up shell. The fabric is generally dark grey in colour with brown oxidised surfaces. SSW was typically handmade until the potters transitioned to wheel-thrown pottery production. The pottery was manufactured and distributed primarily from 1140—1220 AD in the Greater London area.
Werra ware and Weser ware are related classes of slip-decorated earthenware made in central Germany from the second half of the sixteenth century to the first half of the seventeenth century. Werra and Weser wares were part of a wider flourishing movement of Renaissance slipware manufacture in Europe which began in the early sixteenth century. This included the French pottery of Beauvais and Saintonge, North Holland slipware and similar wares made in other parts of the German-speaking lands, as well as in Switzerland, Poland and Hungary. In Britain, imports of these and similar wares are thought to have influenced the slip-trailed ‘Metropolitan’ pottery made in Harlow, Essex, throughout the seventeenth century as well as some Staffordshire and other wares.
