ceramics

ceramics. Historically ceramics production was widely dispersed, its main branches being brick and tile, pottery and porcelain manufacture. Brick-making was highly localized, wherever suitable clay deposits coincided with a lack of cheap building stone, or where coal, the main fuel used in firing the kilns, was itself cheap. The most primitive form of production was in clamps or piles, covered with earth or turves, and fired with small coal. By the late 18th cent. this was abandoned in favour of fixed kilns, which gradually became larger and more efficient. Continuous methods of firing were introduced during the second half of the 19th cent. Another important product, which played its part in the modernization of agriculture during the 18th and 19th cents., was the field drain. Decorative tile manufacture reached its peak during the Victorian and Edwardian eras.

Also widely manufactured, pottery was an important item of everyday use and of both short- and long-distance trade from prehistoric times, and hence can be an invaluable aid in the dating of archaeological and historic sites. Suitable clay is found in many parts of Britain, but the differences in quality arise from the variability of the raw material. According to material, methods of production, and finish, pottery can be classified in three categories—earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. The high-domed furnace was introduced from the continent before 1600, but this was replaced in the 18th cent. by a bottle-shaped kiln, of the kind once common in the Potteries of Staffordshire, and still to be seen at the Gladstone Pottery Museum in Stoke-on-Trent or at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Telford.

Stoneware was probably the most common variety of pottery still in use in the 18th cent. It was made from a mixture of clay and 20 per cent ground flint, with a salt glaze, and was a typical product of the Staffordshire industry. Porcelain was imitated as a substitute for expensive East India Company imports from China, first pioneered by the Dutch in Delft. After 1740 imitation of Delft-ware was widespread, notably at Lambeth, Bristol, Liverpool, and Glasgow. Around the same time, fine porcelain began to be produced, among other locations, in Chelsea, Derby, and Worcester. Following Meissen and Sèvres products, British potters began to use china clay or kaolin, when in 1768 William Cookworthy, a Plymouth chemist, proved the potential of the kaolin reserves of Cornwall. Due to the availability of local skilled labour and cheap coal, this new industry concentrated on Staffordshire, where one of the best potters was Josiah Wedgwood, whose Etruria works and products became world famous.

During the late 18th and early 19th cents. ceramics became one of the leading mass-production industries, though alongside cheap earthenware, high-quality porcelain was produced by potters like Spode, Minton, and Coalport. These and other famous names in the history of ceramics survive in the modern industry, which has become geographically more concentrated, but still manufactures a diverse range of products. The Arts and Crafts movement of the later 19th and early 20th cents. saw a revival of traditional pottery techniques, emphasizing artistic skill and design as a counter to mass production.

Ian Donnachie