Description:
English tin-glazed stoneware jug decorated in blue with a chinoiserie garden array with a rock-like pattern under the spout flanked by a profusion of flowers and scratch-blue leaves, and a band of flowers around the rim and beak. Delftware was a very fragile ceramic body, often prone to cracking, chipping, and breakage, especially when in contact with boiling water. In the 1760s, Liverpool potters experimented with the basic delftware recipe, searching for a means to endow it with lightness, physical strength, and resistance to thermal shock, which resulted in the application of tin glaze to a stoneware body. These innovative wares are very rare and uncommon, with only about thirty pieces are known to survive. Stoneware bodies are fired to a temperature of around 1100 degrees Celcius, where clay vitrifies and becomes very hard and watertight. Since it was difficult for the glaze to adhere due to the impervious nature of the once-fired body, tin-glazed stonewares tend to have runny enamels and uneven glazes, as seen on this example. Because of their resistance to thermal shock, the majority of tin-glazed stonewares are tea and coffee wares; this example probably held hot water to dilute strong tea or coffee. Its overall shape and unusual upturned spout has its source in a Liverpool porcelain form. The pinched terminal at the end of its handle, commonly found on white salt glazed stoneware, links this jug with products from the Staffordshire potteries. Ultimately tin-glazed stoneware was not successful, and delftware's market continued to be eroded by creamware and other ceramic bodies. The plain, attached C-shaped handle is rounded on the top and flat on the inside. A salt-glazed stoneware body under tin glaze is quite rare. The combination usually is associated with shapes intended for serving hot beverages. The stoneware body may have been employed because of its tolerance for quick changes in temperature. Perhaps this also explains the small number of delftware tea and coffee wares that survive today.
As on the jug shown here, decoration on most tin-glazed stoneware is Chinese in inspiration. Although handles and teapots spouts take their inspiration from contemporary salt-glazed stoneware forms.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2001.4 |
