marbled ware

Is a type of pottery which is made from coloured clays which are mixed so as to reproduce marble or agate hence it is also known as agate ware and in the USA as scroddled ware or lava ware. There are two different techniques of production which can give fairly similar looking results.

 
Chinese marbled jar 11th to 13th century

Marbled ware was originally produced in china from the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907) onwards. These wares take the form of “solid agate” this is where the body of the piece is made up of different coloured clays worked so as to mingle them to a natural looking marbling which can be seen throughout the body usually being covered with a green or amber glaze and are very rare.

 
Chinese marbled bowl 11th to 13th century

The Romans also produced marbled ware from about the first or second century found in the area of Gaul from around the third century A.D. They used the method of coating the piece with slips of differing colours and then swirling them over the surface to produce the effect. This method was the first used in Britain on slipware from around the second half of the seventeenth century and later on creamware and pearlware. This technique probably led to the production of solid agates some time around the 1730s the most famous producer of which was Josiah Wedgwood.

 
solid agate teapot circa 1755

Solid agates were produced by a number of manufacturers in the eighteenth century and continued in production in to the nineteenth century. However the fashion for fine wares made in this way was quite short lived and seamed to be at its height from about 1745 – 1765 the Staffordshire potters producing most of the pieces. Later in the nineteenth century Wedgwood reintroduced some of the early patterns but these were never as well potted as the earlier wares being much heavier.

 
solid agate coffeepot circa 1750

Solid agates were produced by layering two or more coloured clays together which were worked by the potter until the desired effect was obtained. The potter would then use this mixture to produce the pot which was often turned on a lathe to increase definition by removing any smudging and to add further decoration if desired then finally fired with a lead glaze to waterproof the piece. 

 
solid agate teapot circa 1745

This technique was also used in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by some of the country / art potters in Scotland and Yorkshire often bearing names of people or places. The marbling on these wares was not as intricate as on the earlier wares with the division of clays being less well defined using only two colours often dark brown and light brown or ochre. Quite heavily potted and comparatively large they would have made a novel gift at the time and can occasionally be found with the name of a tearoom or café.

 When the decoration is applied to the surface of a ware with the use of coloured slips it has a more liquid appearance as though someone has swirled two or more thick paints into one another with the colours remaining separate. This gives a clue as to the application onto the pot which would have been leather hard at the time before the final firing with a covering of glaze.

 Whilst the production of solid agates was quite skilful and time consuming the method of applying the slips to the surface was probably more so as the correct consistency had to be achieved to avoid either the slips drying too quickly on the surface or merging with the other colours and smudging. Hence often the decoration was usually only applied to the areas that could be generally seen in use.