Library of Ceramic Reference Books

o General Ceramics including Marks
Ceramic
The art or process of making articles from clay by shaping
and hardening thru firing.
Gerneral Ceramics including Marks link
o General China
China
Includes Soft Paste Porcelain, Soapstone Porcelain, Hard
Paste Porcelain. From the 1750's on, all manner of wares which
ressemble imported Chinese wares whether porcelain or pottery.
General China link
o General Porcelain
Porcelain
A translucent white substance made from paste containing
kaolin and petuntse, vitreous and extremely tough, ringing with
a metallic, echoing sound like glass when struck. Includes all
translucent paste bodies.
General Porcelain link
o General Earthenware
Earthenware
Pottery made from natural clays which remain porous after
firing and must be glazed to make them non-porous. Fired at least twice at low temperature.
General Earthenware link
o General Stoneware
Stoneware
Pottery made from natural clays with additional vitreous
substances such as sand or calcinated flint. The wares are
rendered non-porous when fired and do not need glazing.
General Stoneware link

Specialized Reference Books
o Staffordshire Transferware/Flow Blue
Transferware/Flow Blue
Transfer printing allowed a potter to duplicate a pattern by
transferring it from a copper plate to a ceramic vessel by use of a specially treated paper. John Brooks invented the process in 1751 and it was perfected by Sadler and Green in 1756. The ceramic vessels used were Porcelain and Earthenwares. A particular type of the transferware process was the use of a single color transfer print with the addition of enamelling in bright colors in parts of the design. This process is called Polychrome Enamelling. Another process is the decoration of ceramic items with blue under-glaze designs having a smudge or blurred apparence rather than a crisp, sharp and clean pattern. The blue colors bleed or flow onto the white body of the ceramic at the time the glaze decoration is fired. The resultant wares are known as Flow Blue Wares. They are found in Semi-Porcelain, Stoneware and Porcelain.
Staffordshire Transferware/Flow Blue link
o Jasperware/Sprig Molded Ware
Jasperware
A fine-grained white vitrified stoneware with translucent
properties, being developed by Josiah Wedgwood in 1774. An
applied relief in white jasper was added. Solid Jasper and Jasper Dip were two methods of coloring the Jasper.
Sprig Molded Ware
The process consists of pressing wet clay into a shallow
mold, peeling out the resulting thin impression and attaching it
to the surface of an item using liquid clay or slip. It was used on both earthenware and stoneware type bodies, the later being
more effective on stoneware-type bodies which required little or no surface glazing. Bodies used include Redware, Black Basalt, Caneware, Jasper and Jasper-ip. Few proved ideal for mass-produced utilitarian wares. They were better suited to ornamental pieces and were successful for teawares.
Jasperware/Sprig Molded Ware link
o Potters/Potteries
Potters/Potteries
These are the businesses that actually made the ceramic objects
and the genealogy of those businesses thru the years.
Potters/Potters link
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