stoneware

Chinese Jun Yao bowl of a type made in the 11th and 12th century

Is a pottery which is fired at a high temperature between 1200 and 1400 degrees centigrade so that the clay particles are fused together. Consequently it has a hard body and is non-porous to liquids. Usually it is given a salt glaze which is applied by throwing salt into the kiln whilst the pots are being fired when the kiln has reaches a certain temperature. 

Stoneware was made in Syria in the third millennium BC and in China during the second millennium BC some very fine pieces were produced. The production reached northern Germany sometime in the 13^th Century. Early European stone wares were mostly grey or red bodied.

 
German Westerwald type stoneware 17th and 18th century

Wine was imported to the U.K in stoneware bottles made in Germany (Rhenish Stoneware) from the Cologne area and by the 17^th Century bottles similar to these were being made in Britain. In1693 John Dwight obtained a patent from the king to produce stoneware at Fulham though such wares were also being produced at other factories in London as well as in Staffordshire and Nottinghamshire among other places.

18th century salt glazed jug

Sometime in about 1730 a much more refined white body was produced which was popular as an alternative to porcelain often being decorated in over glaze enamels. These pieces are highly collected today and can achieve three or occasionally four figure sums of money. In the early 19^th Century Turner produced a body which was so refined it had some degree of translucency.

 
20th century Muchelney Jug

Stoneware has been very popular through the ages for it’s practicality and strength in the manufacture of useful wares such as tavern jugs, tankards, bottles and drainpipes etc. as well as for it’s decorative properties as in the types of ware produced by Doulton, the Martin Brothers, Wedgwood etc. It has also been favoured by many studio potters right up to the present day.