April 2005
| Table terminology Why do we say “china” when we really mean dishes? China wares set a new standard: Though the Chinese didn’t exploit the full power of gunpowder (which they’d invented by 1215 ad), the use they made of kaolin clay was aesthetic dynamite. By 1700, the impact of Chinese porcelain was felt eastward in Japan, westward all the way to the British Isles, and even around the world to the Americas. Biscuit or bisque: Ceramics fired once and left unglazed, ready to paint or to use. Bone China: Strong and lightweight porcelain made from clay mixed with bone ash and fired (baked at very high temperatures). Ceramics: Clay-based wares that are fired to make them hard, sometimes very hard: NASA’s space shuttles wear ceramic blankets and tiles to survive re-entry. Clay: An earthy material that is pliable when moist and hard when baked dry. Creamware: Developed in Staffordshire and improved by Wedgwood, it is a cream-colored English earthenware with a safe lead-oxide glaze. Earthenware: Fragile, heavy pottery made from clay fired at low temperatures, such as delftware (Dutch and English), faience (French), or majolica (Italian, Spanish). Embossing: A decorating process in which a raised design or relief is created on the surface. Encrustation: Heavy surface application, often in relief, such as gold-encrusted china. Firing: The process of baking ceramics in a special, very hot oven called a kiln. The firing hardens the clay, and also sets the glaze, a coating of metallic oxide that gives the object its basic color and makes it nonporous. An object may be fired many times for hardness and layered colors and glazes. Gilding: Surfacing with gold. Imari: Japanese port city that was the gateway for exports first of the blue-underglaze and later of the colorfully enameled dishes now known categorically as imariware. Ironstone: Serviceable, dense, hard, white-bodied, and glazed china developed in England by the Mason pottery to compete with stoneware, introduced by Spode in 1806. Kaolin: A Chinese white clay that is the base material of porcelain china--white, strong, amenable to decoration, and very hard when glazed with petuntse (“china-stone”). Limoges: A region in France where a kaolinlike clay was found; soon it was home to such famous potteries as David Haviland’s, established in 1842. Porcelain: A hard, white, nonporous, translucent ceramic made by firing a pure clay and then glazing it with variously colored fusible materials. Pottery: Describes both the wares and the manufacturer. Relief: Any decoration that protrudes from the surface of the object. High relief means it protrudes a lot; bas-relief means it protrudes less (bas is French for “low”). Stoneware: A heavy, nontranslucent, and nonporous ware made from fortified clay fired at high temperatures. It’s dishwasher- and oven-safe. Vitreous china: Made to be dense, strong, and nonporous with a glassy glaze, it’s used for soup tureens, wash basins, and toilet bowls. Willow ware: Blue and white patterned dishes produced in China or England for the European market. Similarly, Canton and Nanking wares, made for export to the West. |
