The Making Of Pottery Progressed With The Progress Of Centuries

Collectors of true Mexican talavera pottery will attest to the value of its craftsmanship. Thought to have originated in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Mexican talavera pottery is made through a process similar to that of Majolica in the Mediterranean. A generally accepted theory of how the craft was transported to the New World suggests that Spanish monks from Puebla, Mexico requested that pottery makers from Talavera de la Reina, Spain be sent to Mexico to introduce the craft to the people of the region. The skills and techniques to manufacture Mexican talavera pottery eventually became standardized, so that all pieces produced could be trusted as fine, uniform quality functional and decorative art. Today, the craft continues to be practiced using these same high standards by official guilds, or “fabricas”, in Mexico. Mexican talavera pottery is made by combining and soaking two types of clay, then draining and filtering it of its impurities.  Using a potter’s wheel or molds, artists create their pieces, dry them for eight weeks, and fire them at high-temperatures. Pieces are then dipped in glaze and hand decorated which, when fired a final time, produces creations of very rich color.

Ching-te-chen, the southwestern of Nankin, became a centre of manufacturing porcelain in the fourteenth during the Ming dynasty. These products of porcelain spread the fame of China throughout the civilized world exporting them to western countries. Let us have a look at the details of the Chinese pottery and porcelain history. The coming of the Ming dynasty saw the emergence of Ching-te-chen, to the southwest of Nankin, as a centre of manufacture. Here, in the fourteenth century, was organized the series of factories making the porcelain that spread the fame of China throughout the civilized world. The rare pieces decorated in under glaze blue of the reigns of Hsuan Te and Ch’eng Hua are the forerunners of the vast quantities later made for export to the West, and of which examples are still relatively commonplace.Each fabrica, fourteen of which exist today in Mexico, mark each of their pieces with their names and registry numbers to certify their origin.
There were many potters whose names could not be recognized due the non-availability or only the availability of their initials which does not help the collectors to identify the makers of some of the masterpieces that had been found in different parts of the world. Much of the nineteenth-century ware was marked by the makers, but often only with initials, which do not help the collector very much. Printed pieces usually have the name of the pattern. Stoneware Stoneware is a very hard non-porous type of pottery, introduced into England in the sixteenth century from Germany. A feature of the ware is that it was glazed by putting common salt into the kiln while it was being fired; thus arises the term salt-glazed stoneware. The resulting pottery is hard, strong and watertight, and it can be made into objects much thinner in body than can ordinary clay pottery. Nottingham was a big centre for making stoneware from the late seventeenth century, and pieces with a hard grey body and a brown glaze of orange-peel texture came from there. Many such pieces bear names and dates.

There are various types of pottery and coated or painted with different types and styles of decorations. We will see here how pottery has progressed till today. Early in the nineteenth century came the introductions of pieces decorated with luster, both silver- and copper-colored, and there was a great variety among the finished products. Silver luster on a canary-yellow ground is the rarest, but silver in conjunction with under-glaze blue, especially if the latter is a sporting subject, is sought after and expensive. Whole tea-sets were made at one period, each piece covered completely with a thin film of silver luster, and they were a passable imitation of the real thing for those who could not afford to buy the genuine metal. Copper-lusted pieces have been made since about 1800 and production has been continuous for some 150 years; which explains why so many ‘early nineteenth-century’ specimens are obtainable. Although cream ware continued to be made, white-glazed pottery was developed from 1780 to compete with porcelain and was produced in great quantities by many makers.

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