China Learn

Salt-Glazed Ware

I t is believed that the use of salt as a glaze was introduced into Staffordshire by the Elers, as it is known to have been employed in Holland some years before their advent into this country.

The ware which derived its name from this process was made at first from common brick clay and sand, but subsequently a finer body was used; indeed, the paste of some specimens is almost as fine as porcelain. The glaze was simply common salt cast into the oven when at its greatest heat. Being volatilized it combined with the silica in the clay, which formed a thin glassy coating over the piece.

The color of salt-glazed ware is a drab shade of white. Many early pieces were decorated in relief by pressing the moist paste into metal moulds. Fine examples of this will be seen on Plate II I. where the principal part of the design takes the form of a scallop shell. The large teapot is a very fine specimen of slip decorated salt-glaze, and the white slip on the pale drab ground is very effective and dainty. The smaller teapot, with raised decoration, is ornamented with size gilding. The mug has flowers and birds enameled in colors, and the plate is decorated with a design in Liverpool transfer.

From these illustrations it will be seen that many and beautiful specimens were made in salt-glaze ware, and most of the Staffordshire potters in the eighteenth century made it; in fact, there are few wares which are distinctive of any particular factory. Wedgwood’s basaltes and jasper wares were copied by almost every potter of his day, and of the latter, three examples are given on Plate IV. These three teapots are similar in color namely, pale blue jasper with design in white. No. I is by Neale & Co.; No.2 by Turner; and No. 3 by Adams.

Towards the end of the eighteenth, and early in the nineteenth, century much interesting pottery and porcelain was manufactured in Staffordshire, and many are the names and marks to be met with on the productions of that period. Figures in great variety were made, and many of them were well modeled and tastefully painted; some, with boskies of green leaves and May flowers, in imitation of Chelsea, are very desirable, especially those which bear the name “Walton” on a scroll at the base. “Toby” jugs, teapots with comic inscriptions, toad mugs, lambs, cows, houses, and many other devices were used. Unfortunately, most of these are copied in these days, and are planted in farmhouses and cottages to entrap the unwary. They will generally be found to have some neatly-executed flaw, and always appear aggressively dirty with a clean kind of dirt which might have been painted on with a brush.

In 1804 Miles Mason began to make his “Ironstone China” which is so well known and so much admired. As all his ware was stamped with his name, there is no difficulty in identifying it.