About 1500, the production of tiles was introduced into Holland, quantities of small blue and white ones decorated with scriptural subjects, being made at Delft, and thence exported to England for the lining of fire places, &c. Some fine painted tiles or “Azulejos” were made at Valencia about the 17th century.
In the 16th century, the porcelain of China was introduced into Europe by the Dutch and Portuguese traders, and much of the Delft and Rouen ware subsequently produced, was in imitation of this oriental porcelain. “Delft” ware which takes its name from the small town of that name in Holland, dating from 1500 A.D., is a ceramic coated with stanniferous enamel, decorated with a full and liquid brush upon the absorbent enamel ground, and then glazed with a plumbeous glaze. Some of this Delft ware is very fine in quality, the cobalt blues under the glaze being remarkably soft and rich in colour. Early examples were decorated with historical subjects, often containing numerous figures, the middle period being notable for its imitation of Chinese porcelain, and the application of coloured enamels on coloured grounds. Vast quantities of this kind of ware were manufactured up to 1760 and exported to all parts of Europe. The production of Delft ware was first introduced into England at Lambeth by some Dutch potters in 1676, being subsequently extended to Fulham, Bristol and Liverpool.
The use of stanniferous enamel was introduced into France by Girolamo della Robbia, son of Andrea della Robbia, during the reign of Francis I., 1516, and enamelled ware similar to the later productions of Urbino was made at Nevers, where also was produced a fine ware decorated with Persian Motifs in yellow and blue. At Rouen, also, a fine earthenware covered with tin enamel was manufactured, the decorations consisting of the lambrequins or scallop pattern, symmetrical in arrangement, and converging to the centre of the plate or dish. The ornament was based upon Chinese examples, influenced by the contemporary woven fabrics of France. The decorations were usually in blue and with overglaze painting, i.e., after the white enamel was fired, finer and more delicate detail being obtained by this process, but at the cost of the purity and liquid softness of colour which is so characteristic of Delft and Oriental underglaze painting.
In Rouen ware, the ground is generally white, but some fine examples at South Kensington have a soft yellow ground, a rich Indian yellow being sometimes introduced with the blue decoration. It was under the directions of Louis Poterat, 1673, that this most beautiful faience was perfected.
Bernard Palissy, 1510-90, by repeated experiments discovered the stanniferous or tin enamel. His first productions were Jasper ware, warm and brilliant in colour and richly enamelled. In the second period, rustic dishes elaborately decorated with carefully modelled fishes, reptiles, and plants or natural foliage, covered with an enamel of great brilliancy and purity, were the chief productions. The later pottery of Palissy consisted of salt cellars, inkstands, ewers, &c., the elaborate figure decorations of which were probably executed by some contemporary artist.
Henri-Deux or St. Porchards ware, now more properly described as Oiron ware, originated at St. Porchard in 1524, perhaps by the hand, certainly under the patronage of Hélène de Hangest, widow of A. Gouffier, a former Governor under Francis I. This Oiron ware, of a pale straw colour, is enriched with inlays of yellow, blue, green, and brown coloured pastes, the interlacing and arabesque ornamentation carried out under the direction of Jehan Bernart and François Charpentier, being similar in type to the contemporary bookbinding of Grolier and was probably executed with similar tools.
Many early examples of Staffordshire slip ware are to be found in England, consisting chiefly of candlesticks, cups, tygs, posset pots, piggins and plates, the slip decorations being in yellow, white and brown. This ware was made at Wrotham as early as 1649, and by Thomas Toft, at Shilton, 1660 (fig. 9). Marbled, combed and tortoise-shell ware were formed by using colour slips or clays. Agate and onyx ware were formed by layers of different coloured clays, crossed, cut, and pressed into moulds. These methods were perfected by Thomas Wheildon, 1740-98, and Josiah Wedgwood, 1730-95, who perfected both the Queen’s and the variegated ware. Queen’s ware of a creamy colour was made chiefly for dinner and dessert services, being decorated with painted flowers in enamel.
In 1781, Wedgwood introduced his famous Jasper ware, and Jasper dip or washed Jasper. This latter ware was dipped into admixtures of metallic oxides, producing blue, lilac, pink, sage green, olive, yellow, and black colours as desired. The decorations in low relief, are of the purest white (fig. 10) and in the traditional classic style, the figures being arranged as cameo medallions, or in bands with the scroll, the festoon, and the vine in delicate relief. Many of these beautiful cameos were designed or modelled by Flaxman, 1755-1826; Pacetti and Angelini, 1787; Bacon, 1740-99; Hackwood, 1770; Roubiliac, 1695-1762; Stothard, 1755-1834; Tassie, 1735-99; and Webber, 1782.
Stone-wares differ from earthenwares, owing to the presence of a larger percentage of silicia in the plastic material, which, being fired at a greater degree of heat, vitrifies the body or paste into a kind of glass, thus ensuring a closeness and hardness of material not possessed by ordinary earthenware. Stoneware is usually glazed during the firing by throwing common salt into the kiln, which being volatilized, re-acts upon the silicia in the body, forming with it a silicate of soda or glass, having a minute granular texture. The usefulness and the artistic character of stoneware was perfected by the Flemish and German potters of the 16th century.
The principal varieties of this ware are the grey and white “Canette” of Siegburg, near Bonn, and the pale brown or grey ware of Raeren, near Aix-la-Chapelle, with its incised and stamped enrichments, sometimes with blue decoration. Frechen, near Cologne, probably supplied the “Bellarmines” or “Grey beards,” largely imported into England under the name of “Cologne Pots.” Examples of this Frechen ware were frequently ornamented with a raised scroll of oak leaves. Grenzhausen, in Nassau, produced a beautiful grey ware, having delicately moulded reliefs filled in with blue and purple. Many grey jugs ornamented with the initials of William III., Queen Anne, and George I., were imported into England from the Nassau kilns.