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.
Surrey whitewares were in widespread use in London during the late medieval era. The pottery was produced from a number of kilns in Surrey and along the Surrey-Hampshire border. [1] Three major classifications of Surrey whitewares were identified by archaeologist Clive Orton: Kingston-type ware, Coarse Border ware, and Cheam whiteware. Tudor Green ware is now viewed by scholars as a fourth, minor class. Surrey whitewares were later separated into two classes: the pottery produced in Cheam, known as "Cheam whiteware", and the pottery produced from kilns in the Surrey-Hampshire border area. This second group was referred to as "Coarse Border ware". [2]
Surrey whitewares first appeared in London in the mid-13th century. [3] The pottery, similar in fabric and form to ware produced from a kiln at Kingston upon Thames, was named "Kingston-type ware". [2] Locally manufactured pottery and Kingston-type ware accounted for the majority of pottery being used in London from the late 13th century to the early 14th centuries. [4] Small quantities of white-fired, sandy textured jugs, cooking pots and bowls also appeared during the mid-thirteenth century in London. The green-glazed earthenware with a coarse fabric resembled pottery being produced along the Surrey-Hampshire borders, and was later named "Coarse Border ware". [5]
In 14th century London, the demand for Coarse Border ware grew rapidly as demand for Kingston-type ware diminished. At the end of the 14th century, the Kingston-type pottery industry was in decline; By the early 15th century, Kingston-type ware was no longer used in London. Coarse Border ware continued to be the most widely used pottery in London from the mid 14th to the mid 15th century. [6]
Cheam whiteware, named for the pottery manufactured from kilns at Cheam, was first seen in London in the late 14th century. The earthenware products increased in popularity in London during the 15th century. Cheam whiteware and Coarse Border ware dominated the pottery market in London and its surrounding areas during the 15th century. [7] Tudor Green ware first appeared in the late 14th century. By the early 15th century, Tudor Green ware had grown in popularity and eventually outnumbered Coarse ware and Cheam whiteware use in London. [8] Demand for Cheam whiteware declined by the end of the 15th century. [6]
Surrey whiteware is a white-fired sand tempered ware, "made from a white-firing clay consisting of angular quartz of fine silt and sand grade, and tempered with varying quantities of rounded quartz sand." [9] The pottery can be separated into four groups. Kingston-type ware, Coarse Border ware, Cheam ware, and Green Tudor ware. All four pottery types have similar sandy textures. [10] The term, "Tudor Green ware" is used to describe the thin-walled, green-glazed white-fired earthenware produced during the Tudor era. [2] [11]
The fabric colours of Surrey whiteware are: buff, beige off-white, cream, and pale grey. Kingston-type pottery fabric is hard with a rough surface and a fine texture. Coarse Border ware fabric is hard with a rough surface and an uneven texture. Cheam whiteware's fabric is similar to Kingston-type ware in hardness and texture. Tudor Green ware has a fabric that varies from soft to hard, with a smooth surface and a fine texture. [12]
The Surrey potters typically used a clear lead glaze or a mottled green glaze on their pots. On Kingston-type ware, the glaze was typically crazed and usually varied in finish from thin and uneven to thick and glossy. Glaze colour could vary from green to dark green to brown. Course Border ware glaze was crazed, with a similar finish to Kingston-type ware. The colour varied from light to dark green and was sometimes mottled. Cheam whiteware's glaze generally was crazed with a finish ranging from thin and uneven to thick and glossy. Glazes varied in colour from yellow to light green to dark green. Tudor Green ware glazes were crazed and finishes were thick and evenly distributed. Glaze colours were different shades of green and were typically mottled. [12]
The decoration of Surrey whitewares ranged from plain and unadorned to more elaborately ornamented items. A clear or coloured lead glazed was commonly used by potters. Additional decoration techniques include one or more of the following: coating individual pieces with a white or red slip, the application of stamps or the marking of lines on an item with a comb. Stamped decoration is often found in Kingston-type ware and Coarse Border ware, but not Cheam whiteware. [13] Other decorative techniques included the application of a bichrome glaze, yellow on the inside with a green exterior. The application of a glaze on the upper part of the pottery vessel was popular in the 13th century. The painting of simple decorations or lines was a common decorative technique. [4]
Kingston-type ware had the greatest variety of decoration and Cheam whiteware had the least. [14] Kingston-type decoration typically consisted of regularly spaced combed or engraved lines. The more embellished vessels generally had a lead glaze coloured green with the addition of copper. Another common decorative technique was the application of strips or bands of clay to the individual pot. More complex designs include stamped bosses, floral patterns, overlaid scales, and pinecone impressions. Anthropomorphic decorations, although not common, are primarily depictions of human faces. [15]
The primary market for Coarse Border ware was individual households; pottery items were generally used for preparing food. The pottery was typically simple, without decoration. [16] Besides the application of a green glaze, horizontal bands and engraved lines are some of the simplest forms of decoration for Coarse Border ware. Painted decoration was used on Coarse Border ware, primarily for cisterns. [17] [10]
Cheam white ware was primarily functional in nature, used primarily for vessels used for storage and drinking of liquids. Glaze was used sporadically on most pottery forms. The application of green or yellow glaze was generally applied to the upper half of the body, and internal glazing was common on the inside of the vessels used for storage of liquids. Painted or incised bands or lines were simple forms of decoration. [18] There are fewer examples of Tudor Green ware available, due to its very fine, thin-walled fabric. Tudor Green ware is known for its green-glazing. [19]
Surrey whitewares were produced in the traditional forms of the medieval era. These items include jugs, cooking pots, large deep bowls and pans, small bowls, dripping dishes, lobed cups, chamber pots, money boxes, candlesticks, chafing dishes, lids, pipkins, skillets, costrels (portable flasks) and storage jars. [20]
Large jugs with cross-hatched engraving are a distinctive form of Coarse Border ware common in London in the late 13th to early 14th centuries. Cooking pots and bowls are also popular forms of Coarse Border ware. [21] From the 14th to the mid-15th centuries, new types of pottery forms were being produced for the market in London. These new forms were typically plain pottery items, undecorated or decorated simply with grooved lines. [22]
The white-firing clays used to produce Surrey whitewares were collected from the Reading Beds in Surrey and 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 sites had been an excellent source of clays for pottery manufacturing since the early Roman period. [23] The northern outcrops of the Reading Beds that extend past Farnham and continue to Guildford and Cream, also provided a good supply of white-firing clays for pottery manufacturing. Most pottery kilns were located within a few miles of these crucial sources of clay. [24]
Medieval pottery kiln sites were established in locations near the raw clay needed for manufacturing. Farnham was the hub of the flourishing Surrey pottery industry. Kingston upon Thames was most likely the earliest center of pottery production, producing whitewares in the 13th century. Kingston upon Thames is situated far from the Reading Beds; Raw clay for the kilns was probably transported to the Kingston upon Thames by an overland route or by river transport. The Cheam and the Surrey-Hampshire border potteries are positioned close to the Reading Beds. [25]
The method of distribution of Surrey whiteware was a combination of trade at the production sites along with trade in London and surrounding areas. The pottery products destined for the London marked were probably hauled first by wagons to the River Thames and then by river transport to London. Cheam whiteware was primarily traded from the production locations or from nearby markets. [26] In the late 14th century to early 15th century, Coarse Border ware was distributed over a much wider area than the other Surrey whiteware types. Along with the London market and surrounding area, the pottery was traded along the River Thames, as well as in Hampshire, as far south as Winchester and Berkshire. [27]
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.
Pottery and porcelain is one of the oldest Japanese crafts and art forms, dating back to the Neolithic period. Kilns have produced earthenware, pottery, stoneware, glazed pottery, glazed stoneware, porcelain, and blue-and-white ware. Japan has an exceptionally long and successful history of ceramic production. Earthenwares were made as early as the Jōmon period, giving Japan one of the oldest ceramic traditions in the world. Japan is further distinguished by the unusual esteem that ceramics hold within its artistic tradition, owing to the enduring popularity of the tea ceremony.
Celadon is a term for pottery denoting both wares glazed in the jade green celadon color, also known as greenware or "green ware", and a type of transparent glaze, often with small cracks, that was first used on greenware, but later used on other porcelains. Celadon originated in China, though the term is purely European, and notable kilns such as the Longquan kiln in Zhejiang province are renowned for their celadon glazes. Celadon production later spread to other parts of East Asia, such as Japan and Korea, as well as Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand. Eventually, European potteries produced some pieces, but it was never a major element there. Finer pieces are in porcelain, but both the color and the glaze can be produced in stoneware and earthenware. Most of the earlier Longquan celadon is on the border of stoneware and porcelain, meeting the Chinese but not the European definitions of porcelain.
Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese porcelain wares made for the imperial court and for export. Porcelain was a Chinese invention and is so identified with China that it is still called "china" in everyday English usage.
Bucchero is a class of ceramics produced in central Italy by the region's pre-Roman Etruscan population. This Italian word is derived from the Latin poculum, a drinking-vessel, perhaps through the Spanish búcaro, or the Portuguese púcaro.
This is a list of pottery and ceramic terms.
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.
Qingbai ware is a type of Chinese porcelain produced under the Song Dynasty and Yuan dynasty, defined by the ceramic glaze used. Qingbai ware is white with a blue-greenish tint, and is also referred to as Yingqing. It was made in Jiangxi province in south-eastern China, in several locations including Jingdezhen, and is arguably the first type of porcelain to be produced on a very large scale. However, it was not at the time a prestigious ware, and was mostly used for burial wares and exports, or a middle-rank Chinese market. The quality is very variable, reflecting these different markets; the best pieces can be very thin-walled.
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.
York Glazed Ware is a type of Medieval ceramic produced in North Yorkshire, England in the 12th and 13th 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.
A Tudor money box is a glazed earthenware container used in late Medieval Britain as a small, portable bank for collecting and saving money. The typical money box was a round, sealed, green-glazed pot with a vertical coin slot. These sturdy, small pots were commonly used by Elizabethan theatres to collect ticket earnings. Money would be retrieved from the full money box by breaking it open and destroying the pot.
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.
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.
Highhays Ware is a term used for medieval pottery produced at the Highhays pottery site in Kilkenny, Ireland. It was previously referred to as "Kilkenny-type ware". The pottery found during the excavations at the site included jugs, cooking pots, storage jars, money boxes, parts of pottery like spouts and ridge tiles or parts thereof, in total "42 sherds of [...] pottery and 160 ridge-tile fragments" from the kiln alone.
