POTTERY

one of the oldest and most widespread of the decorative arts, consisting of objects made of clay and hardened with heat. The objects are commonly useful ones, such as vessels for holding liquids and plates or bowls from which food is served. Earthenware is the oldest and simplest form of pottery; stoneware is a pottery compound that is fired at a sufficiently high temperature to cause it to vitrify and become extremely hard; and porcelain, finer than stoneware and generally translucent, is made by adding feldspar to kaolin and then firing at a high temperature. Throughout history different cultures have made pottery objects using local materials and traditional techniques. Undoubtedly the most sophisticated pottery culture was in China, where pottery has been made since the Neolithic Period. Porcelain was made in China as early as the 9th century, but its secret was not discovered by Europeans until the 18th century. Chinese porcelain, or "china" as it was commonly called, was widely exported to Europe and had a profound influence on European manufactures and on taste. Clay is easily modeled into almost limitless shapes. Sun-dried pottery does not harden as heat-fired clay does, and a clay vessel that has only been sun-dried will soften if filled with water. Firing, in an oven known as a kiln, at extremely high temperatures renders the clay vessel virtually immune to deterioration, though brittle. After the first firing, pottery remains porous, and eventually liquids such as water or wine will transpire through it. For this reason, pottery is frequently glazed with a powdered glass that is applied to the hardened pottery and fired again at high temperatures. The intense heat causes the glaze to melt and fuse to the clay body, rendering the surface of the object vitreous. Glazes can be either clear or opaque. Tin glaze-used on maiolica, faience, or delft-gives a white opaque surface like paint. Glazing is also a commonly used type of decoration, and it can be applied in a variety of colours and designs. Sometimes pottery or porcelain objects are painted before glazing (a technique called underglaze decoration), and other times the painted decoration is applied after glazing. Other decorative techniques include slip painting, which is a method whereby a thin mixture of clay and water, called slip, is used like paint, in different colours and for a myriad of effects. Incising, carving, or piercing the raw clay or adding separately modeled appendages are other types of decoration. The well-known Wedgwood jasperware is ornamented with applied reliefs. Coloured oxides are added to glaze to create different colours. Ferrous iron oxide, for example, creates the greenish glaze characteristic of Far Eastern celadon wares. The techniques of shaping pottery objects are equally varied and include the coiling of clay "ropes" as in coiled basketry, molding by hand or in a plaster mold, and turning with the aid of the potter's wheel. Pottery objects are among the oldest man-made artifacts discovered, often preserved virtually unchanged after thousands of years. Pottery is not prone to the corrosion or disintegration that affects metal, wood, or cloth. Pottery dating from the Neolithic Period has been recovered, and the history of pottery made by ancient cultures in China and the Middle East has been extensively documented. In the West the art of pottery reached an early high point in classical Greece in the making and decorating of vases. The two techniques of vase painting were "black figure," in which the decorative design was painted in shiny black pigment onto the reddish clay, and "red figure," in which the design was left reserved in red clay and the surface outside the design was covered with black paint. The Islamic cultures of the Middle East developed sophisticated forms of pottery, yielding some important technical achievements such as the rediscovery of tin glaze (first used by the Assyrians) in the 9th century and the development of lustre painting, which simulated the effect of precious metals. Chinese potters influenced those of Islam, and Islamic potters in turn greatly influenced Europeans and also passed some technical innovations on to China. In Europe tin-glazed ware was perfected from the 15th to the 18th century. The technique was introduced in Italy in the 13th century from the Middle East via Spain. Italian tin-glazed ware was called maiolica and by the 15th and 16th centuries was elaborately painted in strong, vibrant colours by some of the best Italian artists. The technique spread to France, where the wares were called faience, and to the Netherlands, where objects were decorated in imitation of Chinese designs, usually in blue and white, and called delft, or delftware. In the 17th and early 18th centuries, many potters sought the secret of true, or hard, translucent Chinese porcelain, which had become widely imported into Europe, but this type of porcelain was not made in Europe until about 1707 in Germany and slightly later in England. Soft porcelain, an imitation, was made both in Italy and in France, where the most important factory, at Svres, began production in 1745. Its elaborately decorated wares painted with decorative designs of the highest quality received royal patronage. In Germany important porcelain factories developed at Meissen and Nymphenburg and in England at Chelsea and Bow. Josiah Wedgwood started his famous manufactory in Staffordshire, Eng., in the mid-18th century in an area that was to become the centre of that country's pottery industry. By 1765 Wedgwood was well-known for producing a type of earthenware called creamware, which rapidly replaced tin-glazed ware in popularity. He also introduced jasperware, an unglazed stoneware, in about 1775 and bone china, a porcelain to which ground bone was added for hardness, in about 1800. In China fine pottery was made in the T'ang period, but it was only in the Yan dynasty that the best white porcelain ware was widely made. Japanese porcelain was influenced by that of China and Korea, the finest being made from the 16th to the 18th century. Two decorative styles, Kakiemon and Imari, became popular in the West. one of the oldest and most widespread of the decorative arts, consisting of objects made of clay and hardened with heat. The objects made are commonly useful ones, such as vessels for holding liquids or plates or bowls from which food can be served. Additional reading Books on pottery are fairly numerous, but of those that have been written for the popular market many are not always reliable and much information is duplicated among them. The following titles may be regarded as standard or major works. Two good introductory surveys are George Savage, Pottery Through the Ages (1963) and Porcelain Through the Ages, 2nd ed. (1963). Robert J. Charleston (ed.), World Ceramics (1968), is a lavishly illustrated history of ceramics written by many noted specialists in Europe and the United States. Highly recommended is W.B. Honey, European Ceramic Art, from the End of the Middle Ages to about 1815, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (1963), which has a comprehensive list of marks and an excellent bibliography. Also useful is Emil Hannover, Keramisk Haandbag, 2 vol. (1919-24; Eng. trans., Pottery and Porcelain, 3 vol., 1925); and Warren Cok, The Book of Pottery and Porcelain (1944). George Savage, The Dictionary of Antiques (1970), includes information about continental wares on a less comprehensive scale, but its extensive bibliography has been brought up to date. It also differentiates between works in print and those available only in libraries or secondhand. For the technical side of pottery, see Bernard Leach, A Potter's Book (1940); W.B. Honey, The Art of the Potter (1946); and Paul Rado, An Introduction to the Technology of Pottery (1969). Factory marks are discussed and listed in W.B. Honey and John P. Cushion, Handbook of Pottery and Porcelain Marks, 3rd rev. ed. (1965); Cushion has also published separate handbooks on English Ceramic Marks and Those of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland (1959), on German Ceramic Marks and Those of Other Central European Countries (1961), and on French and Italian Ceramic Marks (1965). Geoffrey Gooden, Encyclopaedia of British Pottery and Procelain Marks (1964), is another recommended source. William Chaffers, Marks and Monograms on Pottery and Porcelain, 14th ed. (1931), formerly the standard work, has now been superseded and is sometimes inaccurate. More specialized is Arthur Behse, Deutsche Fayencemarken-Brevier (1955), which should be consulted for German wares. Ceramic terms are defined by George Savage and H. Newman in the Illustrated Dictionary of Ceramic Terms (1973). See also Robert Fournier, Illustrated Dictionary of Pottery Form (1981). Books dealing specifically with the pottery of the ancient Near East and Egypt are scarce. See Walter Andrae (ed.), Coloured Ceramics from Assur (1925); and Henry Walles, Egyptian Ceramic Art (1898). More information will be found in books dealing with the arts of the ancient Near East and Egypt. Works on ancient pottery from the Aegean region and pottery from ancient Greece and Italy are fairly numerous. A comprehensive selection is listed below. Henry B. Walters, A History of Ancient Pottery, 2 vol. (1905, reprinted 1971); Charles F. Seltman, Attic Vase-Painting (1933); Vincent d'Arba Desborough, Protogeometric Pottery (1952); G.M.A. Rechfer, A Handbook of Greek Art, 6th ed. (1969); Ancient Italy (1955); Attic Red-Figured Vases: A Survey, 2nd ed. (1958); and The Craft of Athenian Pottery (1923); Arthur Lane, Greek Pottery, 3rd ed. (1971); Robert H. Cook, Greek Painted Pottery (1960); T.B.L. Webster, Greek Terracottas (1951); Robert J. Charleston, Roman Pottery (1955); John D. Beazley, Etruscan Vase Painting (1947). Historical comparisons with modern methods and procedures are the basis of D.P.S. Peacock, Pottery in the Roman World (1982).There are few works on Islamic pottery easily available. The best are Arthur Lane, Early Islamic Pottery, rev. ed. (1958) and Later Islamic Pottery, 2nd ed. (1972); see also Maurece S. Dimand, A Handbook of Muhammadan Art, 3rd ed. rev. (1958); and Robert L. Hobson, A Guide to Islamic Pottery of the Near East (1932). Where they exist, the titles of English works on Western pottery are given below. Those listed in other languages are illustrated works that will supplement the deficiency of works in English. In the case of porcelain, English works that discuss the wares of individual factories are given only in special cases since they are extremely numerous and most general works on the subject include a bibliography. Contemporary European and American developments are well covered in Tamara Praud and Serge Gauthier, Ceramics of the 20th Century (1982); and Richard Zakin, Electric Kiln Ceramics (1981). (Spain): Alice W. Frothengham, Catalogue of Hispano-Moresque Pottery in the Collection of the Hispanic Society of America (1936); Talavera Pottery, with a Catalogue of the Collection of the Hispanic Society of America (1944); Lustreware of Spain (1951); Albert van der Put, Hispano-Moresque Ware of the XVth Century (1904). (Italy): Joseph Chompret, Repertoire de la Mojolique Italienne, 2 vol. (1949); Bernard Rackham, Guide to Italian Maiolica (1933); Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, 2 vol. (1940); and Italian Maiolica (1952)-Rackham's books are the best source of information in English; Arthur Lane, Italian Porcelain (1954); Giuseppe Morazzoni, Le Porcellane Italiane (1935). (France and Belgium): Charles Damiron, La Faience artistique de Moustiers (1919) and La Faience de Lyon (1926); Jeanne Giacomoffe, Faiences franaises (1963; Eng. trans., French Faience, 1963); Hans Haug, Les Faiences et porcelaines de Strasbourg (1922); Arthur Lane, French Faience, 2nd ed. (1970), the best introduction to the subject; Francois Ponceiton and George Salles, Les Poteries Franaises (1928); Paul Alfassa and Jacques Guerin Porcelaine franaise du XVIIe au milieu du XIXe siecle (1932); Emile Bourgeois, Le Biscuit de Sevres au XVIIIe siecle, 2 vol. (1909); W.B. Honey, French Porcelain of the 18th Century (1950); Eugene J. Soil de Moraine, La Manufacture imperiale et royale de porcelain de Tournay, 3rd ed. of his Ceramique tournaisienne by Lucien Delplace de Formanoir (1937); George Savage, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century French Porcelain (1960); Pierre Verlet, Serge Grandjean, and Marcelle Brunet, Sevres (1953). (Germany and Austria): Karl Koetschau, Rheinisches Steinzeug (1924); Hans Meyer, Bhmisches Porzellan and Steingut (1927); Gustav E. Pazaurek, Deutsche Fayence and Porzellan-Hausmaler, 2 vol. (1925, reprinted 1970) and Steingut: Formgebung and Geschichte (1921); D. Riesebieter, Die deutschen Fayencen des 17. and 18. Jahrhunderts (1921), the most comprehensive general work on the subject; Edmund W. Braun and Joseph Folhesics, Geschichte der K.K. Wiener Porzellan-Manufaktur (1907); Hans Christ, Ludwigsburger Porzellan-figuren (1921); John F. Hayward, Viennese Porcelain of the Du Paquier Period (1952); Friedrich H. Hofmann, Frankenthaler Porzellan, 2 vol. (1911); Geschichte der Bayerischen Porzellan-Manufaktur Nymphenburg, 3 vol. (1921-23); and Das Porzellan-Manufaktur Nymphenburg, 3 vol. (1921-23); and Das Porzellan der Europischen Manufakturen im 18. Jahrhundert (1932); V.B. Honey, Dresden China, 2nd ed. (1954) and Germain Porcelain (1948); Georg Lenz, Berliner Porzellan: Die Manufaktur Friedrichs des Grossen, 1763-1786, 2 vol. (1913); Hugo Morley-Fletcher, Antique Porcelain in Color: Meissen (1971); E. Poche, Bohemian Porcelain (n.d.); Karl Roeder and Hiche Oppenheim, Das Hchster Porzellan (1925); Hak Sauerlandt, Deutsche Porzellanfiguren des XVIII. Jahrhunderts (1923); George Savage, 18th-Century German Porcelain, 2nd ed. (1967); Christian Scherer, Das Frstenberger Porzellan (1909). (Switzerland): Siegfried Ducret, Zrcher Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts (1944). (The Netherlands); Caroline H. de Jonge, Delft Aardewerk (1965; Eng. trans., Delft-Ceramics, 1969) and Nederlandse tegels (1971; Eng. trans., Dutch Tiles, 1971); Ferrand W. Hudig, Delfter Fayence (1929); Jean Justice, Dictionnaire des marques et monogrammes de la faence de Delft (1920; Eng. trans., Dictionary of Marks and Monograms of Delft Pottery, (1930); Elisabeth Neurdenburg, Old Dutch Pottery and Tiles (Eng. trans., 1923); Bernard Rackham, Early Netherlands Maiolica (1926), a discussion of the earliest pre-Delft wares. (Scandinavia): Richard Karsson, Die Stralsunder Fayencefabrik, 1757-1790 (1920); Arthur Hayden, Royal Copenhagen Porcelain (1911); Erik Vettergren, The Modern Decorative Arts of Sweden (Eng. trans. 1926). (Russia): Georgy Lukomsky, Russisches Porzellan, 1774-1923 (1924); Karvin C. Ross, Russian Porcelains (1968). (England): Harry Barnard, Chats on Wedgwood Ware (1924); Geoffrey Bemrose, Nineteenth Century English Pottery and Porcelain (1952); Frederick H. Garner, English Delftware (1948); John E. and Edith Hodgkin, Examples of Early English Pottery, Named, Dated and Inscribed (1891); Eliza Heteyard, The Life of Josiah Wedgwood, 2 vol. (1865); Ernest Korton Nance, The Pottery and Porcelain of Swansea and Nantgarn (1942); V.J. Pountney, Old Bristol Potteries (1920); E. Stanley Price, John Sadler, a Liverpool Pottery Printer (1949); Bernard Rackham, Mediaeval English Pottery (1947) and Early Staffordshire Pottery (1951); Bernard Rackham and Herbert Read, English Pottery: Its Development from Early Times to the End of the Eighteenth Century (1924); George V. Rhead, The Earthenware Collector (1920); Josiah Wedgwood, Selected Letters, ed. by Ann Finer and George Savage (1965); Donald Touner, Handbook of Leeds Pottery (1951); Frederick Williamson, The Derby Pot Manufacturing Known as Cockpit Hill (1931); Hugh Wakefield, Victorian Pottery (1962); Patterson D. Gordon Pugh, Staffordshire Portrait Figures and Allied Subjects of the Victorian Era (1971); Muriel Rose, Artist-Potters in England (1955); Joseph L. Dixon, English Porcelain of the Eighteenth Century (1952); English Ceramic Circle, English Pottery and Porcelain: Commemorative Catalogue of an Exhibition Held at the Victoria and Albert Museum (1949); Stanley W. Fisher, The Decoration of English Porcelain (1954) and English Blue and White Porcelain of the 18th Century (1947); Geoffrey Godden, An Illustrated Encyclopaedia of British Pottery and Porcelain (1966); V.B. Honey, Old English Porcelain (1948); William King, English Porcelain Figures of the Eighteenth Century (1925); George Savage, 18th-Century English Porcelain, new ed. (1964); Cyril Cook, The Life and Work of Robert Hancock (1948); William Duesbury's London Account Book, 1751-1753, with an introduction by Mrs. Donald Mcalister (1931); William H. Tapp, Jefferyes Hamett O'Neal, 1734-1801 (1938). (American Indian pottery): G.H.S. Bushwell and Adrian Digby, Ancient American Pottery (1955); Wolfgang Haberland, The Art of North America (1964). (United States): John Ramsay, American Potters and Pottery (1939); Edwin A. Barber, Tulip Ware of the Pennsylvania-German Potters (1903); Warren Cok, The Book of Pottery and Porcelain, vol. 2 (1944). (China): The best general work is still V.B. Honey, The Ceramic Art of China, and Other Countries of the Far East (1945); but Robert L. Hobson, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, 2 vol. (1915), is often consulted. Hobson's Wares of the Ming Dynasty (1923) and Later Ceramic Wares of China (1925), are scholarly works, well illustrated for their period. Chinese Art, 4 vol. (1960-65), by a number of internationally known experts, covers the whole field of Chinese art, including pottery and porcelain, and is of considerable value to the student. The earliest Chinese wares are discussed in English by Chin-ting Wu in Prehistoric Pottery in China (1938). Wares till the Sung dynasty are discussed by Basil Gray in Early Chinese Pottery and Porcelain (1952); and by Arthur L. Heterington in Early Ceramic Wares of China (1922) and Chinese Ceramic Glazes, 2nd rev. ed. (1948). For wares of the Ming dynasty and subsequently, see Roger Soake Jenyns, Ming Pottery and Porcelain (1953) and Later Chinese Porcelain, 2nd ed. (1959). See also Yutaka Mino, Freedom of Clay and Brush Through Seven Centuries in Northern China (1981); Mary Tregear, Song Ceramics (1982). (Korea): G. St. G.K. Gompertz, Korean Celadon, and Other Wares of the Kory Period (1963); and Chevon Kim, The Ceramic Art of Korea (1961); V. B. Honey, Corean Pottery (1947). (Japan): Japanese porcelain is better documented than the pottery of that country. Roger Soake Jenyns, Japanese Porcelain (1965), is the definitive work in English on the subject. See also Taoanare Mitsuoka, Ceramic Art of Japan (1949); and Roger Soake Jenyns, Japanese Pottery (1971). (Chinese and Japanese export porcelain): This includes works on the erroneously termed Oriental Lowestoft. Michel Beurdeley, Porcelaine de la compagnie des Indes (1962; Eng. trans., Porcelain of the East India Companies; U.S. title, Chinese Trade Porcelain; 1962); Sir Harry M. Garner, Oriental Blue and White, 3rd ed. (1970), discusses early blue-and-white export wares; John A. Lloyd Hyde, Oriental Lowestoft (1954); Jean Mcclure Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain for American Trade, 1785-1835 (1962); John G. Phillips, China Trade Porcelain (1956); Walter A. Staehelin, The Book of Porcelain (1966), a book of Chinese illustrations relating to the export trade in the 18th century; Sir A. Tudor Craig, Armorial Porcelain of the Eighteenth Century (1925); T. Volker, Porcelain and the Dutch East India Company (1954), an examination of the records in relation to the import of Chinese and Japanese porcelain in the 17th century. American Indian pottery The American Indians are of Asiatic descent; their route to the New World was from Siberia into Alaska across the Bering Straits. The usually quoted period of their migration is between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago. Since they were nomadic peoples, it is unlikely that they brought the knowledge of pottery making with them. When pottery making did begin, it was fundamentally unlike any known work from the Old World, and the few remote resemblances to Oriental motifs are almost certainly fortuitous. The wheel remained unknown until the arrival of Europeans, although there is reason to think that a turntable, or slow wheel, may have been used occasionally. Most of the pottery was made by coiling, some by molding-both are techniques that could have arisen spontaneously. It is likely that most of the work was done by women rather than by the men. This is nearly always the case with primitive potters when the wheel is not used, and Pueblo Indian women still do this kind of work. Slips were used to cover the body, and coloured slips provided the material for much of the painted freehand decoration. Glazes are rare, although examples can be found among the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico from about AD 1300 onward, on a few vessels from the Chim area in the Andes, and occasionally in Central America. The effect of a reducing atmosphere was understood, so that gray and black pots are found as well as the red and brown ones fired in an oxidizing flame. Undecorated surfaces were often highly polished. North America The most important North American pottery was made in the southwest-an area including Arizona, New Mexico, and also parts of Utah and Colorado. The people who inhabited the plateau land from about 100 BC are often referred to as the Anasazi, a Navaho Indian word meaning ancient people. They are the ancestors of the Pueblo, who began to emerge about AD 700. The Anasazi were nomadic hunters; although they did not at first make pottery, they did make excellent baskets. Fixed dwellings appear about AD 50, and this probably marks the beginning of pottery manufacture. The earliest pots appear to have been baskets that were smeared with clay and then dried in the sun. Next came basket-shaped wares coiled in a gray body, used principally for cooking. They were followed by more decorative bowls and pots, with striking black and white geometric designs that seem to have been executed about AD 700. Slightly later there is another type of ware that has black decoration on a red slip. After the 12th century the earlier types began to disappear and were replaced by polychrome wares decorated with stylized birds, feathers, animals, and human figures amid the geometric patterns. The principal colours are yellow and red. A small quantity of glazed ware was made in the Zui area of New Mexico. The Hohokam tribes (a Pima word meaning "those who have gone"), who lived in the desert of southern Arizona and were approximately contemporary with the Anasazi, made pottery figures for religious purposes, usually of crudely modelled naked women. Some of this pottery is a gray ware, but most of it is buff, with decoration in iron red that has a quality lacking the stiffness of the Pueblo designs. The Mogollon culture of New Mexico produced, during the Mimbres period of the 11th and 12th centuries, a ware remarkable for its lively black and white decoration depicting human, animal, and insect forms in a much less stylized manner than the paintings on most other wares from the southwest. There is little pottery of importance from other parts of the United States. Primitive pots have been found on the Atlantic coast, in Georgia and Florida, on the Gulf Coast, and elsewhere, some of which are based on basketwork. Geometric decoration, usually incised, is the rule. Eskimo pottery, which is generally rather crude, bears some resemblance to early Asiatic types. East Asian and Southeast Asian pottery China Nowhere in the world has pottery assumed such importance as in China, and the influence of Chinese porcelain on later European pottery has been profound. It is difficult to give much practical assistance on the question of Chinese marks. Most of the Chinese marks give the name of the dynasty and that of the emperor; however, many of them have been used so inconsequentially that, unless the period can also be assigned with reasonable certainty by other means, it is better to disregard them. The dating of Chinese pottery is further complicated by the fact that there were traditional and persisting types that overlapped; quite often, therefore, dynastic labels cannot be regarded as anything more than an indication of the affinities of the particular object under discussion. Chinese decoration is usually symbolic and often exploits the double meaning of certain words; for instance, the Chinese word for bat, fu, also means "happiness." Five bats represent the Five Blessings-longevity, wealth, serenity, virtue, and an easy death. Longevity is symbolized by such things as the stork, the pine, and the tortoise, the ling chih fungus, and the bamboo, all reputed to enjoy long life. The character shou, which also denotes longevity, is used in a variety of ornamental forms. Together, the peach and the bat represent fu-shou, long life and happiness. The "Buddha's hand" citron, a fruit with fingerlike appendages, is a symbol of wealth, and each month and season is represented by a flower or plant. The pa kua, consisting of eight sets of three lines, broken and unbroken in different combinations, represent natural forces. They are often seen in conjunction with the Yin-Yang symbol, which represents the female-male principle, and which has been well described by the pottery scholar R.L. Hobson as resembling "two tadpoles interlocked." The dragon generally is a mild and beneficent creature. It is a symbol of the emperor, just as the phoenix-like creature (feng-huang) symbolizes the empress. There are three principal religious systems in China: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Taoist figures, in particular, appear frequently on porcelain as decoration. The most important, Lao-tzu, has a large and protuberant forehead. He is usually accompanied by the "eight immortals" (pa hsien), and these are sometimes modelled as sets of figures. The eight horses of the emperor Mu Wang (Chou dynasty) are also frequently represented. The Buddhist goddess Kuan-yin and the 18 lohan, disciples of Buddha, were also modelled. The "eight Buddhist emblems" appear fairly frequently, as do the "eight precious things" and a collection of instruments and implements used in the arts and known as the "hundred antiques." The "lions of Buddha" (often miscalled dogs) are frequently represented, as is the kylin (properly ch'i-lin), which is a composite animal, not unlike a unicorn, that has a fierce appearance but gentle disposition. Most of these symbols were not used in pottery decoration before the Ming dynasty, although both the dragon and a phoenix-like creature (probably the Chinese pheasant), as well as some floral motifs, are earlier. The lei-wen, however, which resembles the Greek key fret (an ornament consisting of small, straight bars intersecting one another in right angles) and is sometimes used on the later ceramic wares, appears on bronzes as early as the Shang and Chou dynasties, where it is called the cloud-and-thunder fret. The t'ao-t'ieh, which is a grotesque mask of uncertain origin, also appears on early bronzes and on later pottery and porcelain. Decorations based on Chinese literary sources are usually extremely difficult to trace to their origin. The earliest Chinese pottery is of the Neolithic period and has been discovered in the provinces of Honan and Kansu. Perhaps the best known of these wares is a series of large urns of red polished pottery with geometric decoration found in the Pan-shan cemetery and at Mach'ang, both in Kansu Province. These were made by hand, the latest specimens with perhaps some assistance from a slow wheel, and are at least as early as 2000 BC. The only known complete specimen of a fine white stoneware dating from c. 1400 BC (Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) is decorated with chevrons (linked V-shapes) and a key-fret pattern, the shoulder motifs being reminiscent of those seen on contemporary bronze vessels. This ware is much better in quality than most other surviving pottery of the Shang period (18th to 12th century BC) or of the following Chou dynasty (1111-255 BC). Much Chou pottery is decorated with rudimentary incised ornament, some of which resembles the impress of coarse textiles referred to as mat markings. The shapes used for these pieces were often inspired by bronze vessels. The development of glazing in China may have started with the application of glass paste to some of the later Chou wares. Stoneware vessels of about the 3rd century BC have a glaze that is little more than a smear but one that has obviously been deliberately applied. This type persisted for several centuries. The first pottery to survive in appreciable quantities belongs to the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220); most of it has been excavated from graves. Perhaps the commonest form is the hu, a baluster-shaped vase copied from bronze vessels of the same name and sometimes decorated with relief ornament in friezes taken directly from a bronze original. The hill jar, which has a cover molded to represent the Taoist "Isles of the Blest," is another fairly frequent form, and many models of servants, domestic animals, buildings, wellheads, dovecots, and the like also have been discovered in graves. Some of this pottery is unglazed or decorated with cold (i.e., unfired) pigments, but much of it is covered with a glaze that varies from copper green to yellowish brown; often the colours have become iridescent from long burial. The body is usually a dark red and approaches stoneware in hardness. Han glaze is more glasslike than that of the Chou period and is of an excellent quality. It contains lead and was frequently coloured green with copper oxide. Yeh yao ("Yeh ware") was first made at Yeh-chou, Chekiang Province, during the Han dynasty, although all surviving specimens are later, most belonging to the Six Dynasties (AD 222-589). They have a stoneware body and an olive or brownish-green glaze and belong to the family of celadons, a term that looms large in any discussion of early Chinese wares. It is applied to glazes ranging from the olive of Yeh to the deep green of later varieties. These colours were the result of a wash of slip containing a high proportion of iron that was put over the body before glazing. The iron interacted with the glaze during firing and coloured it. T'ang dynasty (AD 618-907) Chinese pottery reaches an important stage in its development during the T'ang dynasty. Nearly everything that has survived has been excavated from tombs, many of them found accidentally by railway engineers and latterly by more systematic excavations. Excavations at Samarra' on the Tigris, a luxurious residence built by the caliph al-Mu'tasim (son of Harun ar-Rashid) in AD 836 and abandoned in 873, have uncovered many fragments of T'ang wares of all kinds. Perhaps the most important finds from a historical viewpoint are the fragments of what is undoubtedly porcelain. An Islamic record of travels in the Far East, written in 851, records "vessels of clay as transparent as glass." There can be little doubt, therefore, that translucent porcelain was made in the T'ang period, although it was not until the Yan dynasty (1206-1368) that it began to resemble the type with which the West is most familiar. Perhaps the most important single development was the use of coloured glazes-as monochromes or splashed and dappled. The T'ang wares commonest in Western collections are those with either monochrome or dappled glazes covering a highly absorbent, buff, earthenware body. The dappled glazes were usually applied with a sponge, and they include blue, dark blue, green, yellow, orange, straw, and brown colours. These glazes normally exhibit a fine crackle and often fall short of the base in an uneven wavy line, the unglazed surface area varying from about one-third to two-thirds of the vessel. Dappled glazes are also found on the magnificent series of tomb figures with which this period is particularly associated. Similar figures were made in unglazed earthenware and were sometimes decorated with cold pigment. Although the unglazed specimen or those covered only with the straw-coloured glaze are occasionally modelled superbly, many are crude and apparently made for the tombs of the less affluent and influential. Most of the glazed figures are much better in quality and occasionally reach a large size; figures of the Bactrian camel, for instance, are particularly impressive, some being nearly three feet high. The Bactrian pony, introduced into China about 138 BC, is to be found in many spirited poses. This fashion for tomb figures fell into disuse at the beginning of the Sung dynasty (AD 960-1279) but was revived for a short while during the Ming period (1368-1644), when T'ang influence is noticeable. Marbled wares are seen occasionally. The effect was achieved either by combing slips of contrasting colours (i.e., mingling the slips after they had been put on the pot, by means of a comb) or by mingling differently coloured clays. Another type of T'ang ware (probably from Honan) had a stoneware body with a dark-brown glaze streaked by pale blue. Most vessels stand on a flat base; although later T'ang wares sometimes were given a foot ring, for the most part this can be regarded as evidence in favour of a Sung dating. Korea Western pottery Ancient Near East and Egypt In the early 1960s, excavations at a Neolithic settlement at Catalhyk, on the Anatolian Plateau of Turkey, revealed a variety of crude, soft earthenware estimated to be approximately 9,000 years old. A more advanced variety of handmade pottery, hardfired and burnished, has proved to be as early as 6500 BC. The use of a red slip covering and molded ornament came a little later. Handmade pottery has been found at Ur, in Mesopotamia, below the clay termed the Flood deposit. Immediately above the Flood deposit, and therefore dating from a time soon after the Flood (about 3000 BC), was wheelmade decorated pottery of a type usually called Al 'Ubaid. Perhaps the most richly decorated pottery of the Near East, remarkable for its fine painting, comes from Susa (Shushan) in southwest Iran. The motifs are partly geometric, partly stylized but easily recognizable representations of waterfowl and running dogs, usually in friezes. They are generally executed in dark colours on a light ground. Vases, bowls, bowls on feet, and goblets have been found, all dating from about 3200 BC. By 3000 BC pottery was no longer decorated. Earthenware statuettes belong to this period, and a vessel (in the Louvre, Paris) with a long spout based on a copper prototype is the ancestor of many much later variations from this region in both pottery and metal. Remarkable glazed brick panels have been recovered from the ruins of Khorsabad (Dur Sharrukin), Nimrud (Calah), Susa, and Babylon. They provide the first instance of the use of tin glaze; although the date of its introduction cannot be certainly determined. A well-known fragment from Nimrud in the British Museum belongs to about 890 BC, and by the 5th century BC extremely large friezes, one of them about 11 yards (10 metres) long, were being erected at Susa. The presence of lead in the blue glazes derived from copper suggests that the lead may have been added deliberately as a flux, and that this glazing technique, like that of tin-glazing, subsequently was forgotten-to be recovered only at a much later date. In Egypt, pottery was made in great variety in the predynastic period (up to c. 3100 BC), and a hard-fired ware of good quality was attained. The earliest forms of decoration were geometrical or stylized animal or scenic motifs painted in white slip on a red body. There is comparatively little variation until the 26th dynasty (c. 664-525 BC), when clay was probably imported from Greece. Most artifacts are vessels of one kind or another, although pottery figures of variable quality were made, some of the later examples (after 500 BC) showing signs of Greek influence. The so-called faience of Egypt is an unfired ware and thus, strictly speaking, falls outside the definition of pottery used in this article. As early as the 1st dynasty, figures, vases, and tiles of this material were covered with a fired glaze that was coloured turquoise and green with copper oxide. Later, the colouring materials common to the Egyptian glassmaker, including cobalt and manganese, were added. Western pottery European: to the end of the 18th century European wares made before the 19th century fall into six main categories: lead-glazed earthenware, tin-glazed earthenware, stoneware, soft porcelain, hard porcelain, and bone china. Lead-glazed earthenware was made from medieval times onward and owes little to outside influences. The body is generally reddish buff in colour; the glazes are yellow, brown, purplish, or green. The wares are usually vigorous in form but often crudely finished. Lead-glazed wares fell out of favour when tin glaze became widely known toward the end of the 15th century, but they returned to popularity with the advent of Wedgwood's creamware shortly after the middle of the 18th century. The body of this later lead-glazed earthenware is drab white or cream, the glaze clear and transparent like glass, and the forms precise. The first important tin-glazed wares came from Italy during the Renaissance, and these colourful examples of the painter's art exerted a profound influence on later work elsewhere. Manufacture spread rapidly, first to France, then to Germany, Holland, England, and Scandinavia. Under the name of maiolica, faience, or delft, it enjoyed immense popularity until the advent of Wedgwood's creamware, after which the fashion for tin-glazed ware declined rapidly. Stoneware is first commonly seen in Germany during the 16th century; its manufacture was developed in England during the 18th century, culminating in the unglazed ornamental jaspers and basaltes of Wedgwood. Two other types of ware, less common than those already discussed, are slipware and lustreware. Slip was applied both as a covering over an earthenware body and in the form of decoration, for example on the sgraffito wares of Italy (which owe a good deal to similar wares from Byzantium) and the dotted and trailed slips of 17th- and 18th-century England. Lustre pigments were used in Spain, where they are the principal decoration on the magnificent series of wares referred to as Hispano-Moresque; in Italy, where they supplement other modes of decoration; and much later, in England-although in the last case they are no longer artistically important. The manufacture of soft porcelain was essayed in 16th-century Italy under the patronage of Francesco de' Medici, grand duke of Tuscany. Similar attempts were made elsewhere in Italy about the same time, and manufacture is supposed to have been continued at Pisa and at Candiana, near Padua (Padova). The first production of soft porcelain on a considerable scale did not take place, however, until toward the end of the 17th century in France. In Saxony about 1675 Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus started experiments to make porcelain from clay mixed with fusible rock. Almost certainly he had made hard porcelain by the end of the century, but manufacture did not become a practical commercial proposition until the year of his death, in 1708. Experiments were continued by his assistant, an alchemist named Johann Friedrich Bttger, who is sometimes credited with von Tschirnhaus' discovery. The factory was established at Meissen about 1710, and the first porcelain sales of any consequence took place at the Leipzig Fair in 1713. Later, at the end of the 18th century, Josiah Spode the Second added bone ash to the hard porcelain formula to make bone china. Byzantium In AD 330 Byzantium became the imperial capital of the Roman Empire and was renamed Constantinople. The term Byzantine, however, is applied to the period that ended in 1453, when Constantinople was captured by the Ottoman Turks (and renamed Istanbul). Since it was not a Christian custom to bury pottery with the dead, few wares survive, and chronology is difficult. Most of the surviving wares fall into two classes: one is a red-bodied type, sometimes with stamped relief decoration under a clear glaze; the other, a sgraffito type with human figures, animals, birds, monograms, foliate designs, the Greek cross, and the like, engraved through a white slip and covered with yellow and green glazes. The latter is the commonest type after the 12th century. Both styles were fairly widespread and have been recovered in fragmentary form from excavations at Istanbul, and in Greece, Cyprus, and the Crimea. Western pottery 19th c