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The term “art pottery” is a largely Western designation for traditional ceramic forms such as vases and bowls whose design and decoration distinguishes them from more utilitarian wares. In Japan and China, ceramic art pieces had been made for...
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The term “art pottery” is a largely Western designation for traditional ceramic forms such as vases and bowls whose design and decoration distinguishes them from more utilitarian wares. In Japan and China, ceramic art pieces had been made for 1,000 years or more, but in Europe, the practice really only went back to the 16th century, when a Frenchman named Bernard Palissy produced vividly colored, high-relief, lead-glazed earthenware plates, platters, and pitchers in a style that came to be known as majolica. For centuries, majolica was mostly a creature of the continent. Tin-glazed majolica was common in Spain and especially in Italy, where firms such as Ginori and Cantagalli became leading producers. In Germany, the Royal Porcelain Manufactory was known for its majolica, but it wasn’t until the middle of the 19th century that English manufacturers embraced the look. In 1851, when Minton & Company of Staffordshire exhibited a new line of ceramics at The Great Exhibition in London, the firm called it Palissy ware after its French inventor, but by then the world knew this type of ceramics as majolica. Majolica quickly got a reputation for being a fun ware for the common man. The colors were bright, and the reliefs were frequently of animals and plants. Some potteries made teapots in the shapes of cauliflowers. Others, such as the staid Wedgwood, stuck mostly to basket-weave patterns and relief foliage on the outsides of its standard shapes—fun, in other words, but not too much. In 19th-century America, a similar fascination with majolica took hold. As in England, potteries coated their ware with clear glazes so that their pieces shined. Griffen, Smith & Hill was one prominent Pennsylvania manufacturer, who sometimes marked its pieces with “G.S.H.” or labeled them as “Etruscan Pottery.” Other American companies known for their majolica in the second half of the 19th century were Morrison & Carr, Chesapeake Pottery, and Edwin Bennett. They produced...
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