G l o s s a r y - Pottery & Porcelain
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'Rose engine turning'. See Engine turning.

Rosso antico. The name given by Wedgwood to his red stoneware, which was a successor to imitations of the 'Boccaro' ware imported from China in the seventeenth century. It was decorated by being polished on a grindstone and by means of 'engine turning' applied on a lathe.

'Ruby-back' plates. See Famille rose.

Sadler, John [1720-89], of Liverpool. Decorated with transfer prints pottery, porcelain, and enamels obtained from various sources - notably delftware tiles [from 1756] and Wedgwood's cream-coloured earthenware [from 1761].

Salt-glazed stoneware. Stoneware in which the glaze is formed by throwing common salt into the kiln when it reaches the maximum temperature. The salt decomposes, forming sodium oxide and hydrochloric acid, the former combining with the alumina and silica of the surface of the wares to form a thin coating of glass.

Salt kit. Dome-topped ovoid jar surmounted by a knob and loop handle with a wide circular aperture at one side; used for storing salt, etc.

Samson. This Paris porcelain factory is well known for clever copies of old armorial Chinese porcelain, which have been made there for more than half a century. The coats-of-arms are often those of Great Britain or of France, or of some famous person, such as Lord Nelson. Examined closely, these copies should not deceive the collector, but in an ill-lighted room a costly mistake might easily be made. Samson's productions sometimes bear a simulated Chinese 'seal' mark or a disguised 'S' beneath the base in red.

'S. & G.' mark. See Isleworth.

San Ts'ai [three-colour] ware. Generally implies the Ming three-colour ware, but also describes porcelains enameled 'on the biscuit' in famille verte yellow, green, and purple during the K'ang Hsi period, and hence also Ming porcelains with this technique.

'Scratch blue'. Decoration characteristic of white [p. 507] salt-glazed stoneware comprising incised floral arabesques and inscriptions into which clay stained with cobalt was rubbed. Examples dated from 1724 to 1776 recorded.

'Scratch-cross' porcelain. Mainly mugs and jugs, marked underneath with an incised cross and/or strokes inside the foot rim. Analogies with Worcester and Bristol [soft-paste] porcelain suggest that they were made at one or both factories, c. 1751-5.

Schwarzlot. Black monochrome decoration, sometimes heightened with iron red or gold. This technique, originating with Dutch glass workers and Nuremberg Faîence painters was probably first applied to porcelain by Daniel Preissler [1636-1733] of Bohemia, whence it became characteristic for the decoration of du Paquier porcelain, executed by Jacobus Helchis and others.

Sgraffiato. Cutting away, incising, or scratching through a coating of slip to expose the colour of the underlying body. Popular technique in South Wales, Devonshire, Somerset, and Staffordshire. In the U.S.A. used on redware, especially the Pennsylvania-German showplates. An important class of lead-glazed earthenware of this type was made in Italy from the fifteenth century onwards. The great centre was at Bologna. Incised patterns were sometimes reinforced by adding touches of coloured pigment, and by staining the glaze with metallic oxides.

Shou. A Chinese ideogram which is actually a wish for longevity. It occurs in a large number of stylized, ornamental forms. The word Shou also means peach, and for this reason the peach is a common symbol of longevity. The words fu shou mean a bat and a peach respectively, but the same words also mean happiness and long life. Hence the two things are often associated in porcelain decoration.

Shrinkage. The contracting of porcelain after firing by about one-seventh of the size of the mould. Hence the supports, in the shape of tree trunks or rockery, to prevent contortion after the cooling process. The supports take the weight of the body of the legs, which at maximum temperature would not be strong enough to hold it.

Shu fu ['Privy Council'] ware. Yüan dynasty porcelain of Ching-tê Chêna with slightly opaque, bluish-tinged glaze covering moulded relief designs of flying cranes, lotus sprays, and the characters shu fu.

Siamese twins. The 'monstrous' birth in Somerset, 19 May 1680, recorded on a sgraffiato dish and Bristol Delft platter. The Kentish Siamese twins, Eliza and Mary Chulkhurst [d. 1734, aged 34], occur on redware copies of the 'Biddenden' cake.

Skillet. Earthen saucepan with three legs.

Slip. A clay watered down to a creamy consistency and normally used either to coat a pot of another colour or to decorate it with lines or dots produced by means of a spouted can.

Slipware. Earthenware decorated with white or coloured slip. [See also Combed slip, Sgraffiato, Trailed slip, and Inlaid decoration.]

Smaltino. The contemporary Italian name for a pale -blue tin glaze on sixteenth-century Italian maiolica; especially at Venice.

'S' mark. See Caughley.

'Snowman'. Family of porcelain figures, with glaze partially obscuring the modeling. Mainly of animals, often with a clumsy rosette on the base, made at Longton Hall about 1750.

Snufftaker. Standing Toby jug in the form of an ugly man taking a pinch of snuff, usually with a deep purple-brown lustrous 'Rockingham' glaze.

Soapstone. An ingredient in Bristol [soft-paste], Worcester, Caughley, and Liverpool porcelain. [See English porcelain.]

Soft-paste ['frit' or 'artificial'] porcelain. Is compounded essentially of white clay mixed with a glassy substance. In England bone ash was used in some grit porcelains as a flux. [See also Soapstone.]

Somerset. Lead-glazed pottery, with incised designs and glaze stained green in patches, was made at Donyatt from mid-seventeenth century onwards, and at Crock Street in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Southwark. See Lambeth.

Spatter. A cheerful range of wares with sponged colour and painted designs, made c. 1820-50 in Staffordshire for the American market.

Spinario. Figure of boy extracting a thorn from his foot, copied from statue in the Capitoline Museum, Rome.

Spode. Josiah Spode I [1733-96], once a workman of Whieldon, started a pottery at Stoke-on-Trent about 1770. His son, Josiah Spode II [1754-1827] added porcelain [c. 1810] to the productions, and is considered the inventor of 'bone china'; in 1805 'sonte china' was manufactured. W. J. Copeland became a partner in 1813, and manager in 1829. MARKS: 'Spode', impressed, in blue and red, blue-printed, etc., and as diagram, blue-printed.

'Sponged' ware. A crude, easily recognized peasant style originally made by Adams of Tunstall, and, because of its 'bright fancy character' [Jewitt], extensively exported.

Sprigging. The term used to describe the method of ornamenting wares by means of applied reliefs. The 'sprigs' are moulded separately and attached to the plaque, vase, or other object by means of water or thinned clay. Wedgwood used sprigging for the decoration of his jasperware.

Steen. Originally an earthen vessel with two ears to hold liquids, later used for bread, meat, or fish.

'Stone China'. A hard white earthenware containing china stone, made as a cheap substitute for porcelain in Staffordshire from 1805.

Stoneware. A variable family of hard, high-fired wares mostly salt-glazed, from the thin white Staffordshire stonewares of 1720-50 to heavy crocks and jugs of blue-painted grey stoneware so common in the nineteenth century.

Stubbs, George, R.A. The painter who excelled in the delineation of the horse was an acquaintance of Josiah Wedgwood. In 1777-8 the latter was attempting to assist the painter, who wished to attempt enamel painting by using large plaques of china for the purpose. Three of these made of creamware, one of which is a panel 36 inches [91.4 cm] in height, painted with a portrait of the potter by Stubbs, are in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight. Stubbs also designed some cameos with equestrian subjects, and painted on canvas a characteristic 'conversation' portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Wedgwood and their family. This was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1780.

Sunderland [Co. Durham]. Several potteries here made creamware, often decorated with transfers and/or pink lustre [late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries].

Sung dynasty [960-1280]. See Chinese pottery.

Supper set. For this style of article there is a contemporary notice from which its introduction can be dated with reasonable accuracy. Mrs. Philip Lybbe Powys, who carefully recorded the events in her daily life in a series of diaries covering the years from 1755 to 1809, entered under the year 1797: 'August 31st. - In the morning we went to London a'shopping, and at Wedgwood's, as usual, were highly entertain'd, as I think no shop affords so great a variety. I there, among other things, purchas'd one of the newly-invented petit soupee trays, which I think equally clever, elegant, and convenient when alone or a small party, as so much less trouble to ourselves and servants.'

Sussex. Rustic lead-glazed earthenware was made in Sussex [at Cadborough, Chailey, Brede, Rye, Wiston, Dicker, Burgess Hill, etc.] from the second half of the eighteenth century onwards. The characteristic ware was a red pottery decorated by incisions or stamped depressions [often printer's type] filled with white clay.

Sussex pig. Pottery jug with a loose head used as a cup, enabling the user to drink a hogshead of liquor without disquieting aftereffects. Peculiar to the Sussex factory of Cadborough, Rye, nineteenth century.

Swansea [Glamorgan]. [1] 'The Cambrian Pottery' [1765 onwards], mainly run by L. W. Dillwyn from 1812 until 1831, made most of the typical contemporary Staffordshire wares, including a white earthenware ['opaque china'] and a creamware with a rippling surface, blue-printed or painted in lustre or colours [botanical painting done by Thomas Pardoe; birds, butterflies, and flowers by W. W. Young]. At this factory was made the Swansea porcelain [see Nantgarw]. [2] 'The Glamorgan Pottery' [c. 1813 onwards] made earthenwares of the same types as [1] above.

'Swatow' ware. Porcelains with thick, 'fat' glaze and roughly finished, glazed, gritty base, made in South China and probably exported from Swatow, especially to Japan. Dishes, with wild, powerful painting in red, green, and turquoise enamels and similar underglaze-blue wares date from the late sixteenth to seventeenth centuries: also celadon, light-brown and pale-blue monochromes with white slip flowers.

Syngchong. A dealer in Canton c. 1800. A large bowl belonging to the Corporation of the City of New York, bearing a view of the city and the arms of the corporation, and dated 1802, is inscribed on the outside of the rim of the base: This bowl was made by Syngchong in Canton, Fungmanhe Pinxt.

T'ang dynasty [A.D. 618-906]. See Chinese Pottery.

T'ang figures, forgeries of. There have been forgeries of T'ang tomb-figures from the time when these first became popular in Europe. The unglazed figures are the most deceptive, but experience teaches that, however convincing the quality of the modelling may be, the body will have been fired at a higher temperature than genuine examples, and will therefore be harder and less absorbent. A useful [but not completely certain test] is to wet the finger-tip with saliva and dab it on an unglazed part. If the moisture is absorbed like ink on blotting-paper the figure is probably genuine. If it remains on the surface and is not absorbed the specimen is likely to be spurious. Glazed figures present less of a problem. The T'ang lead silicate glazes exhibit a finely-meshed crackle under a magnifying glass, and it is doubtful whether a single genuine specimen exists without this feature. Modern forgeries either have no crackle, or one with a larger mesh. On excavated specimens the green glaze is likely to have degenerated to a greater extent than the yellow. A forger can induce glaze iridescence, but not selective deterioration. [p. 509] All T'ang figures, being of soft earthenware, are likely to have some degree of restoration, but it is necessary to beware of specimens which have been assembled from largely unrelated fragments. Chinese restorers are very skillful, and they know that if a minor piece of restoration is just about visible to a buyer he will conclude that this is the sum total, and not look for more or less invisible repairs elsewhere. The ultra-violet lamp is very useful in the detection of repairs, revealing the site and extent by a colour different from that exhibited by unrestored parts.

Tao Kuang period [1820-51]. Characteristic wares are those minutely painted in famille rose style, employing low-toned enamels, and graviata coloured grounds. Tou ts'ai decoration was also popular. The body is coarser than in eighteenth-century wares, and the glaze has an oily sheen.

Taws. Marbles or small balls made in earthenware.

Teapoy. An incorrect name for a tea caddy.

Tê Hua porcelain. A fine white porcelain with a glaze aptly described by Hobson as looking 'like milk jelly' made at Tê Hua [Fukien Province] from the sixteenth century onwards. In colour it ranges from cream-white to chalk-white, and the former colour is likely to be the earlier. Early examples, also, are often firecracked, like the more primitive European porcelains. Little is known of wares manufactured in the district before the introduction of the porcelain which became known in Europe as blanc-de-Chine, but by the seventeenth century the kilns at Tê Hua were the largest in China after Ching-tê Chên, and its wares were extensively copied by almost every eighteenth-century European porcelain factory, especially the familiar type decorated with prunus blossom or tea -blossom in relief. The kilns specialized in the production of figures, the most frequent being the Buddhist goddess, Kuan Yin, in many poses. Especially sought today are figures of European merchants. Early figures particularly were often made with detachable head and hands, and with holes pierced in the face for the provision of a mustache and beard of natural hair. A few examples of Tê Hua porcelain painted in enamel or lacquer colours are known. Those painted in lacquer colours are obviously European work. Those painted in enamels may have been decorated in one of the Canton studios, or in Europe. It seems unlikely that the factory would have been responsible. The kilns are still working and modern figures of Kuan Yin are not unusual.

Temmoku. Japanese name for wares with lustrous brown glazes, especially Sung Chien wares.

Texts. Wall plaques with lustre 'frames' and cottage mantelpiece ornaments in the shape of pedimented façades enclosing a clock, sun, and moon, and boldly lettered scripture verses ['PREPARE TO MEET THY COD'], nineteenth century.

'TF' mark. See Bow Worcester.

Tickenhall [Derbyshire]. Pottery has been made at Tickenhall since the Middle Ages, but 'Tickenhall' ware usually connotes a hard, dark-brown lead-glazed earthenware decorated with shaped applied pads of white clay [seventeenth century], although the name is sometimes loosely applied to other slipwares.

Tiles. All the main English delftware factories made tiles [Lambeth and Bristol, late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Liverpool and Wincanton, eighteenth century]. Some very rare relief-moulded salt-glazed stoneware tiles are known. Creamware tiles were made at Liverpool and in Staffordshire [late eighteenth century].

Ting. The small three-footed cauldron used as an incense burner.

Tin glaze. Lead glaze made opaque by the addition of tin ashes.

Ting ware. One of the classic wares of the Sung dynasty. Ting ware is a porcelain of variable translucency, orange by transmitted light, which was made at kilns near Ting Chou [Chihli Province] from the T'ang dynasty onwards. The finest variety is pai[white] Ting, and most surviving specimens are bowls, either with moulded or carved and incised ornament, the latter being the most valued. The bowls were fired mouth downwards in the kiln, and the unglazed rim is usually bound by a copper or silver band. The glaze on the exterior is inclined to run into drops, which the Chinese call 'teardrops' and regard as a sign of genuineness. Most of the finest Ting ware is ivory-white in colour, but there are literary references to black, red, and purple Ting. Of these, one or two specimens of black Ting exist, notably in the Percival David Foundation, London, and the Schiller Collection, Bristol, but the other two have not been identified. The [p. 510] Chinese recognize two other varieties of Ting ware - tu Ting [earthen Ting] and fên Ting [flour Ting]. Tu Ting has a yellowish glaze and a coarse body, and probably belongs to the Yüan dynasty. Fên Ting has only been conjecturally identified. Ting ware is often divided into northern and southern types, since manufacture was moved south about 1127 under pressure from invading Mongols. Of the other white wares of the period made in various places, perhaps the best known are those of Chü-lu Hsien. Although Ying Ch'ing ware has a faintly blue glaze instead of white it has some points of resemblance otherwise with Ting ware.

'Tithe pig'. Figure subject in porcelain and earthenware, also used as decoration of mugs and jugs accompanied by such rhymes as 'In Country Village lives a Vicar/Fond as all are of Tithes and Liquor'. A well-known Toby jug is inscribed 'I will have no child tho the X pig'. The collection of tithe in kind was abolished by the Tithe Commutation Act, 1836.

'T' and 'T°' marks. Probably for the modeler Thibaud [Bow, Bristol, Plymouth].

Toad mug. Surprise mug with a large toad inside, seen only as the vessel is emptied, and causing consternation because of popular superstitions connected with toad poison. Often inscribed 'Tho' malt and venon seem united, etc.'. Made at Sunderland, late eighteenth to the end of nineteenth centuries.

Tobi seiji ['buckwheat celadon']. Japanese name for brown-spotted Sung celadon wares of Lung Chu'Äan.

Toby Fillpot. Nickname of a noted toper, Harry Elwes, who through contemporary engravings, served as model for the original Toby jug.

Toby jugs. Are shaped like a man seated holding a mug of beer and a pipe, his tricorn hat often forming a detachable lid. Made by Ralph Wood and numerous Staffordshire and Yorkshire imitators, late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many variants are recorded. Also produced at various U.S. factories.

Toft. An often-recurring staffordshire name on slipware [late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries], probably that of the potters [see Introduction, English pottery].

Torksey [Lincolnshire]. W. Billingsley is supposed to have made porcelain here [1802-3]. Some rare pieces of coarse material and primitive decoration [cup and saucer in the Victoria and Albert Museum] have been identified.

Tortoise. Representing the North from the Four Quardants and Winter from the Four Seasons, the Tortoise is one of the Four Supernatural Creatures. Its shell was used for oracular purposes during the Shang dynasty and the markings thereon were probably the origin of the Eight Trigrams. In Japan the water-tortoise occurs on Arita porcelain in the style of Kakiemon. It trails a quantity of water-weed and this was misunderstood in Europe which led to it being called the 'flaming tortoise'. The Japanese call it minogame or 'raincoat tortoise' because the trailing weed was thought to resemble the Japanese straw raincoat.

Tortoiseshell glaze. Mottled glaze stained with manganese and cobalt used by Thomas Whieldon, of Fenton.

'Tortoiseshell ware'. A Staffordshire earthenware with mottled, usually brown, lead glaze [mid-eighteenth century].

Tou ts'ai ['contrasting colour'] enamels. Delicate, sparing designs in underglaze blue set off by transparent enamel colours, chiefly red, yellow, and green; their jewel-like quality was perfect under Ch'êng Hua [1465-87]. Deceptive imitations and new-style wares were made under Yung Chêng and Ch'ien Lung; and again revived under Tao Kuang [1820-51]

Trailed slip. Slip applied by trailing it from a spouted or tubular vessel.

'Transitional' period. The years of the seventeenth century between the Ming period of Wan Li and the K'ang Hsi revival, when blue-and-white and Ming 'five-colour' style wares of some quality were made.

Turner, John [d. 1788]. Potter of Stoke and Lane End [Staffordshire], made fine creamware and Wedgwood-type stonewares. His sons continued until 1803. MARKS: TURNER and TURNER & CO., impressed.

Turquoise blue glazes. See Medium-temperature glazes.

Tyg. Beaker-shaped drinking vessel with from two to twelve handles.

Tzû Chou ware. The Tzü Chou neighborhood [Chihli Province] has made stonewares from before the Sung dynasty until the present day. The characteristic body is hard and greyish white, covered with slips and glazes of creamy-white, brown, or black, and occasionally green colour, often ingeniously combined. The Sung wares are remarkable for bold, sensitive shapes - especially tall, swelling vases and jars with loop handles at the shoulder. Plates and dishes are rare. One type of decoration has leafy floral designs strongly incised or caved through the glaze to reveal another colour beneath. Another is bold painting in brown or black. Black painting under a turquoise glaze was popular about the fourteenth century. Red, green, and yellow enamel painting is sometimes of Sung date. Ming wares employed similar techniques, and elaborate landscape and figure subjects became more common; but there is a marked decline in their vitality.

Unaker. See China clay. [p. 511]

Underglaze blue. Well known from Chinese porcelain, particularly of the Ming period. David Köhler, assisted by Johann Georg Mehlhorn, both working under Böttger at Meissen, rediscovered the secret of applying cobalt blue beneath the glaze. Apart from its decorative qualities, their discovery made it possible at Meissen to introduce the well-known factory mark of two crossed swords in underglaze blue in 1724.

Underglaze colours. Until the nineteenth century only a few metallic oxides, notably cobalt, stand the high temperature of the glaze firing. Manganese purple was occasionally used.

Underglaze copper red. Legend has it that this colour was unattainable until a potter sacrificed his life by throwing himself into the furnace, whereupon the ware emerged shining and perfect. Unlike most legends, this one could well have some foundation in fact, since the combustion of a body would induce the reducing atmosphere essential for the development of this colour. To the Chinese underglaze copper red is 'sacrificial red' [chich hung], but this has nothing to do with the legend, and it probably refers to the use of the colour for religious vessels. It was first used during the Yüan dynasty, but specimens from this date are exceedingly rare. By the beginning of the fifteenth century it was being used to decorate stemcups, often with three red fish or three peaches, of a type repeated in the eighteenth century. For reasons unknown copper red was replaced by iron-red during the reign of the Emperor Chia Ching, but it was being produced once more by the reign of K'ang Hsi, when some vases with a pale celadon ground and landscapes [shan shui] in underglaze blue and copper red in reserved panels are a remarkable technical achievement. This combination is rare at any period, since blue develops in an oxydizing atmosphere and red in a reducing atmosphere, so extremely close control over this aspect had to be exercised. It is usual to find that one colour or the other is more or less deficient.

Underglaze decoration. Decoration applied to biscuit pottery before the addition of glaze.

Venisons. Bowls 'made to fit into one another ... in capacity ranging from a pint to a peck' [George Bourne], made at Frimley, Cove, and Fanborough, c. 1800-50.

'Vicar and Moses'. Popular satire on the drinking parson, showing a clergyman asleep in the pulpit with the parish clerk conducting the service. First made by Ralph Wood of Burslem, c. 1775.

Wall, Dr. See Worcester.

Wall pocket. Flower or spill vase shaped as a mask, fish, or cornucopia, made in Staffordshire salt glaze, and in Liverpool and Lambeth Delft, eighteenth century.

Walton, John. Burslem. Made small earthenware figures, often with bocages and painted in opaque enamels [c. 1820-30]. MARK: WALTON, impressed.

Wan Li period [1573-1620]. Most of the Chia Ching styles were continued. Porcelain with enamels and underglaze-blue painting [the wu ts'ai] are especially characteristic. The numerous blue-and-white export wares are very variable in quality, often with poor blue and careless drawing. Pieces expressly intended for Europe become common.

Warburton. Family of potters of Hot Lane, Cobridge [Staffordshire], late eighteenth century. Made creamware. MARK: WARBURTON, impressed [rare].

Wassail bowl. Two-handled loving cup passed clockwise around the company on convivial occasions.

'Wassailing'. Originally a rite to ensure fertility in cereals, fruit crops and cattle, but later a term of abuse to describe Christmas revels.

Webber, Henry. A modeller employed by Josiah Wedgwood between the years 1782 and 1794, both at Etruria and at Rome with John Flaxman. He was engaged in the copying of the Portland Vase. Webber received a gold medal from the Royal Academy in 1779. On that occasion he gave his address as 'Etruria', and his association with Wedgwood may be ante-dated perhaps from the accepted period given above.

'Wedgewood' mark. Used by W. Smith, Stockton-on-Tees, mid-nineteenth century.

'Wedgwood & Co' mark. See Ferrybridge.

Wedgwood, Josiah W. [1730-95]. After apprenticeship with his brother and participation in a works at Stoke, entered into partnership with Thomas Whieldon in 1754. These associations made him master of the contemporary Staffordshire pottery techniques in most branches, and in 1759 he set up for himself, first at the Ivy House, Burslem, subsequently at the Brick House Works [1764]. In 1768, in partnership with Thomas Bently [1730-80], he built a new factory, called 'Etruria', for making ornamental wares. At these two works he produced: [1] green and yellow-glazed 'cauliflower', etc., wares; [2] creamware from about 1765, called 'Queen's ware', [p. 512] enamelled either in the factory or at an establishment in Chelsea, or sent in the white to various outside enamellers or to Liverpool for transfer printing [see Sadler]; [3] 'marbled' wares; [4] 'pearlware', from about 1779; [5] unglazed stonewares: [a] black basaltes from about 1767, [b] red [rosso antico] often rose-engine-turned, from about 1763, [c] canecoloured, [d] 'jasper' in various colours, from about 1774 and 'jasper dip' from about 1780. Additions to the repertory after Wedgwood's death were 'silver'-lustred pottery [up to about 1810], pink lustreware, and bone porcelain [1812-16]. Wedgwood wares after c. 1770 were nearly always marked 'WEDGWOOD' impressed; 'WEDGWOOD & BENTLEY' or 'W. & B', occur on decorative pieces 1768-80. [See also English porcelain.]