English dry-bodied stoneware was the ultimate ceramic expression of the neoclassical wave which erupted in England and on the Continent in the mid-eighteenth century. Initially basalt commanded the scene, with its imposing black stoneware forms imitating Greek vases. However, it was Wedgwood's invention of the jasper body which was to be the tour de force associated with his name. Wedgwood's jasper vases, purchased by gentry and nobility alike, were soon imitated by a myriad of potters. This book is the first to explore the vast subject of English dry-bodied stoneware with discussions on the antecedents of the eighteenth century neoclassical wares, the red stonewares of the seventeenth century, as well as the other bodies produced by Wedgwood and his contemporaries: caneware, white felspathic stoneware and, of course, the flagship of the Wedgwood name, jasper. The authors have, for the first time, utilised Wedgwood's surviving sales records from 1774-1794 and these have made it possible to allow

For nearly three hundred years, from the late seventeenth to the middle twentieth century, stoneware was a major part of British ceramic output. This book concentrates on that particular area of ceramics, and covers the history and development of stoneware in all its many variations. Those variations range widely from brown salt-glazed tavern wares to such refined wares as jasper, Castleford ware and the later art wares, to name a few. A specific aspect of the book is to give anyone interested in ceramics, and collectors in particular, very comprehensive information on the manufacture of the different types of stoneware, from the preparation of the clay, or body, through the forming, decorating and glazing techniques to the firing. Such is likely to provide a greater appreciation and understanding of stoneware in its many variations.There are separate chapters on the later art wares and their makers, bottle wares, and marks and identification, as well as an appendix listing manufacturers, a comprehensive glossary and a list of museums. The illustrations cover a wide range of types. Many books on ceramics include information on stoneware, but this in-depth book benefits from the experience of a writer who is both a collector and ex-potter.

This is the first book on salt-glazed stoneware since 1971. This book is the first to cover salt- glazed production in the whole of the British Isles, not simply the production in Staffordshire. Beginning with the introduction of salt-glazed stoneware into England by German and Dutch potters in the mid-17th century, this book goes

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"Based around the matchless collections of British ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which curators began to assemble as early as the 1840s, this book charts the story of their development from the simple slipware drinking-vessel of the seventeenth century to the sophisticated enamelled and transfer-printed tableware of the early 1800s. The narrative takes us through successive changes of taste and manners, as British potters assimilated and adapted new, and often disparate, influences from Europe and the Far East. Ceramics, ubiquitous, disposable and quintessentially domestic, tended to reflect social changes quicker than other branches of the applied arts; for example, new fashions in dining and the taking of tea were responsible for major aspects of design and decoration, while the rapid rise of the Staffordshire figure enabled it to become a vehicle for satire, religion, or the commemoration of wildly popular but ephemeral events such as boxing matches and visits from touring menageries." "Keeping carefully chosen pieces, illustrated, at the forefront of his discussion, Robin Hildyard treats the subject variously by material, form, decoration or by broader theme, sometimes cutting across traditional boundaries in order to look behind established myths and the often misleading evidence of what has survived. The methods and history of manufacture are fully explored, from the workshop of the independent village potter to the industrialized nineteenth-century factory struggling with the stormy beginnings of trade unionism. The complex trade in ceramics both at home and abroad, and the transition from utilitarian household object to cherished item in collector's cabinet is also examined, along with the symbiotic relationship between collector and museum. This volume, filling the gap in current ceramic literature between narrower scholarly studies and the opulent catalogues of private collections, presents an expert and yet highly accessible view of a particularly rich seam of British material culture, guiding us from familiar ground into wider and sometimes uncharted territory."--BOOK JACKET.

The great age of European ceramic design began around 1500 and ended in the early 19th century with the introduction of large-scale production of ceramics. In this illustrated history, with nearly 300 color and black and white photos and reproductions, curator Howard Coutts considers the main stylistic trends�Renaissance, Mannerism, Oriental, Rococo, and Neoclassicism�as they were represented in such products as Italian Majolica, Dutch Delftware, Meissen and S�vres porcelain, Staffordshire, and Wedgwood pottery. He pays close attention to changes in eating habits over the period, particularly the layout of a formal dinner, and discusses the development of ceramics as room decoration, the transmission of images via prints, marketing of ceramics and other luxury goods, and the intellectual background to Neoclassicism.