Stoneware is a broad term for pottery fired at a relatively high temperature.[2] A modern definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay.[3][4] End applications include tableware, decorative ware such as vases.
Stoneware is fired at between about 1,100°C (2,010°F) to 1,300°C (2,370°F). Historically, reaching such temperatures was a long-lasting challenge, and temperatures somewhat below these were used for a long time.[5]
Three contemporary stoneware mixing bowls
It was developed independently in different locations around the world, after earthenware and before porcelain. Stoneware is not recognised as a category in traditional East Asian terminology, and much Asian stoneware, such as Chinese Ding ware for example, is counted as porcelain by local definitions.[6] Terms such as "porcellaneous" or "near-porcelain" may be used in such cases. Traditional East Asian thinking classifies pottery only into "low-fired" and "high-fired" wares, equating to earthenware and porcelain, without the intermediate European class of stoneware, and the many local types of stoneware were mostly classed as porcelain, though often not white and translucent.[7]
One definition of stoneware is from the Combined Nomenclature of the European Communities, a European industry standard. It states:
Stoneware, which, though dense, impermeable and hard enough to resist scratching by a steel point, differs from porcelain because it is more opaque, and normally only partially vitrified. It may be vitreous or semi-vitreous. It is usually coloured grey or brownish because of impurities in the clay used for its manufacture, and is normally glazed.[4][8]
Types
Five basic categories of stoneware have been suggested:[9]
Traditional stoneware: a dense and inexpensive body. It is opaque, can be of any colour and breaks with a conchoidal or stony fracture. Traditionally made of fine-grained secondary, plastic clays which can be used to shape very large pieces.
Fine stoneware: made from more carefully selected, prepared, and blended raw materials. It is used to produce tableware and art ware.
Chemical stoneware: used in the chemical industry, and when resistance to chemical attack is needed. Purer raw materials are used than for other stoneware bodies. Has largely been replaced by chemical porcelain.[10]
Telegraph insulator, 1840s-1850
Thermal shock resistant stoneware: has additions of certain materials to enhance the thermal shock resistance of the fired body.
Electrical stoneware: historically used for electrical insulators, although it has been replaced by electrical porcelain.
Another type, Flintless Stoneware, has also been identified. It is defined in the UK Pottery (Health and Welfare) Special Regulations of 1950 as: "Stoneware, the body of which consists of natural clay to which no flint or quartz or other form of free silica has been added."[11]
The compositions of stoneware bodies vary considerably, and include both prepared and 'as dug'; the former being by far the dominant type for studio and industry. Nevertheless, the vast majority will conform to: plastic fire clays, 0 to 100%; ball clays, 0 to 15%; quartz, 0%; feldspar and chamotte, 0 to 15%.[13]
The key raw material is either naturally occurring stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay. The mineral kaolinite is present but disordered, and although mica and quartz are present their particle size is very small. Stoneware clay is often accompanied by impurities such as iron or carbon, giving it a "dirty" look, and its plasticity can vary widely.[14] Non-refractory fire clay may be another key raw material. Fire clays are generally considered refractory, because they withstand very high temperatures before melting or crumbling. Refractory fire clays have a high concentration of kaolinite, with lesser amounts of mica and quartz. Non-refractory fire clays, however, have larger amounts of mica and feldspar.[15]
A Staffordshire pottery stoneware plate from the 1850s with white glaze and transfer printed design. Visually this hardly differs from earthenware or porcelain equivalents.
Stoneware can be once-fired or twice-fired. Maximum firing temperatures can vary significantly, from 1100°C to 1300°C depending on the flux content. Most commonly an oxidising kiln atmosphere is used.[16] Typically, temperatures will be between 1180°C and 1280°C. To produce a better quality fired glaze finish, twice-firing can be used. This can be especially important for formulations composed of highly carbonaceous clays. For these, biscuit firing is around 900°C, and glost firing (the firing used to form the glaze over the ware) 1180–1280°C. After firing the Water absorption should be less than 1 per cent.[17]
History
Asia
Chinese Yixing teapot, Qing dynasty, c. 1765–1835, with painted slip.
The Indus Valley civilization produced stoneware,[18] with an industry of a nearly industrial-scale mass-production of stoneware bangles throughout the civilization's Mature Period (2600–1900 BC).[19][20] Early examples of stoneware have been found in China,[21] naturally as an extension of higher temperatures achieved from early development of reduction firing,[22] with large quantities produced from the Han dynasty onwards.[23][24]
In both medieval China and Japan, stoneware was very common, and several types became admired for their simple forms and subtle glaze effects. Japan did not make porcelain until about 1600, and north China (in contrast to the south) lacks the appropriate kaolin-rich clays for porcelain on a strict Western definition. Jian ware in the Song dynasty was mostly used for tea wares, and appealed to Buddhist monks. Most Longquan celadon, a very important ware in medieval China, was stoneware. Ding ware comes very close to porcelain, and even modern Western sources are notably divided as to how to describe it, although it is not translucent and the body often grey rather than white.
In China, fine pottery was very largely porcelain by the Ming dynasty, and stoneware mostly restricted to utilitarian wares, and those for the poor. Exceptions to this include the unglazed Yixing clay teapot, made from a clay believed to suit tea especially well, and Shiwan ware, used for popular figures and architectural sculpture.
In Japan many traditional types of stoneware, for example Oribe ware and Shino ware, were preferred for chawan cups for the Japanese tea ceremony, and have been valued up to the present for this and other uses. From a combination of philosophical and nationalist reasons, the primitive or folk art aesthetic qualities of many Japanese village traditions, originally mostly made by farmers in slack periods in the agricultural calendar, have retained considerable prestige. Influential tea masters praised the rough, spontaneous, wabi-sabi, appearance of Japanese rural wares, mostly stoneware, over the perfection of Chinese-inspired porcelain made by highly skilled specialists.
Stoneware was also produced in Korean pottery, from at least the 5th century, and much of the finest Korean pottery might be so classified; like elsewhere the border with porcelain is imprecise. Celadons and much underglazeblue and white pottery can be called stoneware.
Historical stoneware production sites in Thailand are Si Satchanalai and Sukhothai. The firing technology seems to have come from China.[25]
In contrast to Asia, stoneware could be produced in Europe only from the late Middle Ages, as European kilns were less efficient, and the right sorts of clay less common. Some ancient Roman pottery had approached being stoneware, but not as a consistent type of ware. Medieval stoneware remained a much-exported speciality of Germany, especially along the Rhine, until the Renaissance or later, typically used for large jugs, jars and beer-mugs. "Proto-stoneware", such as Pingsdorf ware, and then "near-stoneware" was developed there by 1250, and fully vitrified wares were being produced on a large scale by 1325.[26] The salt-glazed style that became typical was not perfected until the late 15th century.[27]
Gutter pipe. 1850-1875
England became the most inventive and important European maker of fancy stoneware in the 18th and 19th centuries,[28] but there is no clear evidence for native English stoneware production before the mid-17th century. German imports were common from the early 16th century at least, and known as "Cologne ware", after the centre of shipping it rather than of making it. Some German potters were probably making stoneware in London in the 1640s, and a father and son Wooltus (or Woolters) were doing so in Southampton in the 1660s.[29]
In the second half of the 18th century Wedgwood developed a number of ceramic bodies. One of these, Jasperware, is sometimes classified as stoneware although its raw materials differ considerably from all other stonewares; it remains in production. Other manufacturers produced their own types, including various ironstone china types, which some classified as earthenware.
Significant amounts of modern, commercial tableware and kitchenware use stoneware, and it is common in craft and studio pottery. The popular Japanese-inspired raku ware is normally stoneware.
Bartmann jug: A decorated stoneware form that was manufactured in Europe throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in the Cologne region of Germany.
Redware: Unglazed stoneware with a terracotta red, initially imitating Chinese Yixing ware teapots. Mostly c. 1680–1750. The Dutch-German Elers brothers brought it to Staffordshire in the 1690s.
Böttger Ware: A dark red stoneware developed by Johann Friedrich Böttger by 1710, a superior form of redware. It is a very significant stage in the development of porcelain in Europe.[30][31][32]
Cane Ware: An eighteenth-century English stoneware of a light brownish-yellow colour (like bamboo), developed by Josiah Wedgwood in the 1770s. During the 19th and the earlier part of the 20th century, cane ware continued to be made in South Derbyshire and the Burton-on-Trent area as kitchen-ware and sanitary-ware. It had a fine-textured cane-coloured body with a white engobe on the inner surface often referred to as cane and white.[10][33][34]
Crouch Ware, now often just called Staffordshire: salt-glazed stoneware. Light-coloured, developed in 1696 in Burslem. It is one of the earliest types of stoneware made in England. The origin of the name has been disputed: on one theory, the ingredients included a clay from Crich, Derbyshire, the word "crouch" being a corruption. On another, it comes from Creussen near Bayreuth in Bavaria, whose type of tall cruche jugs were called "crouch" when imported to England.[35]
Jasperware: Another Wedgwood development, using tinted clay bodies in contrasting colours, unglazed.
Rosso Antico: A red, unglazed stoneware made in England during the 18th century by Josiah Wedgwood.[36] It was a refinement of the redware previously made in North Staffordshire by the Elers brothers.[10][37]
Coade stone: A type of artificial stone moulded into sculptures and architectural details, imitating marble. Developed in England around 1770.
Ironstone china - patented in 1813, often classed as earthenware, but very strong and vitreous, and popular for wares with heavy usage.
Stone china - made in Staffordshire, mainly in the first half of the 19th century. Very hard, opaque, giving "a clear ring when lightly tapped". Typically brightly decorated by transfer printing, often with outlines that were finished in overglaze enamels by hand.[38]
American stoneware: The predominant houseware of 19th century North America, where the alternatives were less developed.
Gallery
Brown Bottger tea caddy, ~1710
Caneware teapot in the form of cut bamboo, 1779-1780
English red stoneware, early 1700s
Glazed Chinese stoneware storage jar from the Han dynasty
Stoneware ginger beer bottle
Stoneware toilet bowl. Royal Doulton, 1898
Advertisement for Chemical stoneware, Germany 1888
↑ Rhodes, Daniel and Hopper, Robin. Clay and Glazes for the Potter. Iola, Wisc.: Krause Publications, 2000, p. 109.
↑ Cuff, Yvonne Hutchinson. Ceramic Technology for Potters and Sculptors. London: A.&C. Black, 1994, p. 64.
↑ Cripss, J.C.; Reeves, G.M.; and Sims, I. Clay Materials Used in Construction. London: The Geological Society, 2006, p. 408.
↑ Paul Rado An Introduction to the Technology of Pottery; 2nd ed. Oxford: Published on behalf of the Institute of Ceramics by Pergamon, 1988 ISBN0-08-034932-3
↑ W. Ryan & C. Radford. Whitewares: production, testing and quality control. Oxford: Published on behalf of the Institute of Ceramics by Pergamon, 1987 ISBN0-08-034927-7
↑ Mark Kenoyer, Jonathan (1998). Ancient Cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. Oxford University Press. p.260.
↑ Satyawadi, Sudha (July 1, 1994). Proto-Historic Pottery of Indus Valley Civilization; Study of Painted Motif. D.K. Printworld. p.324. ISBN978-8124600306.
↑ Blackman, M. James; etal. (1992). The Production and Distribution of Stoneware Bangles at Mohenjo-daro and Harappa as Monitored by Chemical Characterization Studies. Madison, WI, USA: Prehistory Press. pp.37–44.
↑ The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Stoneware". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
↑ Sato, Masahiko. Chinese Ceramics: A Short History (1st edition). John Weatherhill, Inc. (1981), p.15.
↑ Li, He. Chinese Ceramics: A New Comprehensive Survey. Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. New York, New York (1996), p. 39.
↑ Rhodes, Daniel. Stoneware and Porcelain: The Art of High-Fired Pottery. Chilton Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1959), pp. 7 - 8.
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, sanitary ware, 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.
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between 1,200 and 1,400 °C. The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arise mainly from vitrification and the formation of the mineral mullite within the body at these high temperatures. End applications include tableware, decorative ware such as figurines, toilets and washbasins, and products in technology and industry such as electrical insulators and laboratory ware.
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.
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 advance in the history of pottery. The invention seems to have been made in Iran or the Middle East before the ninth century. A kiln capable of producing temperatures exceeding 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) was required to achieve this result, the result of millennia of refined pottery-making traditions. The term is now used for a wide variety of pottery from several parts of the world, including many types of European painted wares, often produced as cheaper versions of porcelain styles.
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.
Creamware is a cream-coloured refined earthenware with a lead glaze over a pale body, known in France as faïence fine, in the Netherlands as Engels porselein, and in Italy as terraglia inglese. It was created about 1750 by the potters of Staffordshire, England, who refined the materials and techniques of salt-glazed earthenware towards a finer, thinner, whiter body with a brilliant glassy lead glaze, which proved so ideal for domestic ware that it supplanted white salt-glaze wares by about 1780. It was popular until the 1840s.
Yixing clay is a type of clay from the region near the city of Yixing in Jiangsu Province, China, used in Chinese pottery since the Song dynasty (960–1279) when Yixing clay was first mined around China's Lake Tai. From the 17th century on, Yixing wares were commonly exported to Europe. The finished stoneware, which is used for teaware and other small items, is usually red or brown in colour. Also known as zisha (宜興紫砂) ware, they are typically left unglazed and use clays that are very cohesive and can form coils, slabs and most commonly slip casts. These clays can also be formed by throwing. The best known wares made from Yixing clay are Yixing clay teapots, tea pets, and other teaware.
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 speciality of Islamic ceramics.
Biscuit porcelain, bisque porcelain or bisque is unglazed, white porcelain treated as a final product, with a matte appearance and texture to the touch. It has been widely used in European pottery, mainly for sculptural and decorative objects that are not tableware and so do not need a glaze for protection.
Royal Doulton is an English ceramic and home accessories manufacturer that was founded in 1815. Operating originally in Vauxhall, London, and later moving to Lambeth, in 1882 it opened a factory in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, in the centre of English pottery. From the start, the backbone of the business was a wide range of utilitarian wares, mostly stonewares, including storage jars, tankards and the like, and later extending to drain pipes, lavatories, water filters, electrical porcelain and other technical ceramics. From 1853 to 1901, its wares were marked Doulton & Co., then from 1901, when a royal warrant was given, Royal Doulton.
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.
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, decorative techniques, and "a glorious pot-pourri of styles - Rococo shapes with Oriental motifs, Classical shapes with Medieval designs and Art Nouveau borders were among the many wonderful concoctions". As well as pottery vessels and sculptures, the firm was a leading manufacturer of tiles and other architectural ceramics, producing work for both the Houses of Parliament and United States Capitol.
Ceramic glaze, or simply glaze, is a glassy coating on ceramics. It is used for decoration, to ensure the item is impermeable to liquids and to minimise the adherence of pollutants.
This is a list of pottery and ceramic terms.
John Philip Elers and his brother David Elers were Dutch silversmiths who came to England in the 1680s and turned into potters. The Elers brothers were important innovators in English pottery, bringing redware or unglazed stoneware to Staffordshire pottery. Arguably they were the first producers of "fine pottery" in North Staffordshire, and although their own operations were not financially successful, they seem to have had a considerable influence on the following generation, who led the explosive growth of the industry in the 18th 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".
Biscuit refers to any pottery that has been fired in a kiln without a ceramic glaze. This can be a final product such as biscuit porcelain or unglazed earthenware or, most commonly, an intermediate stage in a glazed final product.
Lead-glazed earthenware is one of the traditional types of earthenware with a ceramic glaze, which coats the ceramic bisque body and renders it impervious to liquids, as terracotta 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, which coats the ware with an opaque white glaze suited for overglaze brush-painted colored enamel designs; salt glaze pottery, also often stoneware; and the feldspathic glazes of Asian porcelain. Modern materials technology has invented new glazes that do not fall into these traditional categories.
Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take varied forms, including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is a visual art. While some ceramics are considered fine art, such as pottery or sculpture, most are considered to be decorative, industrial or applied art objects. Ceramic art can be created by one person or by a group, in a pottery or a ceramic factory with a group designing and manufacturing the artware.
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