Ceramics
In a typical home there are likely to be more objects made of ceramics – earthenware, stoneware and porcelain – than any other single category of material. Most will be 1900s and 2000s, a fair proportion will be late Victorian and perhaps a few pieces will be earlier.Oriental ceramics have a far richer history than those in the west. Fine porcelain was made in China from at least the 800's and started to reach Europe around 1600s.
Despite their inherent fragility, many early Chinese pieces survive and are keenly collected.
Subcategories
General Article Count: 3
The earliest ceramics made by humans were pottery objects (pots or vessels) or figurines made from clay, either by itself or mixed with other materials like silica, hardened and sintered in fire. Later, ceramics were glazed and fired to create smooth, coloured surfaces, decreasing porosity through the use of glassy, amorphous ceramic coatings on top of the crystalline ceramic substrates. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, and brick. We will look at the long and rich history.
Makers & Marks Article Count: 0
Ceramics are generally made by taking mixtures of clay, earthen elements, powders, and water and shaping them into desired forms. Once the ceramic has been shaped, it is fired in a high temperature oven known as a kiln. Often, ceramics are covered in decorative, waterproof, paint-like substances known as glazes. In this section we will take a general look at some ceramic manufacturers and the long rich ceramic history.