Antique Pottery and Porcelain.
Ceramics offer considerable scope to the collector as the survival rate of pottery and porcelain from the last few centuries has meant that enormous quantities still exist, much in excellent condition. The production of earthenware, stoneware, hard-paste, soft-paste and bone china came from all areas of Europe and China.
Vast quantities of Chinese porcelain were imported into Europe and stood alongside European tin-glazed earthenware from Spain, Italy, France and England. Gradually new finishes and materials were introduced, such as, kaolin and bone to make bone china, which became the mainstay of the English Porcelain industry by about c.1815.
Slightly earlier examples include ironstone, pearlware, saltglaze stoneware, and now, gaining in prominence, the previously neglected creamware associated with Josiah Wedgwood c.1760.
Learning about ceramics is fun, yet surprisingly, you can acquire very cheaply, damaged pieces of almost every type of ceramic, from any era. The materials and decoration on these pieces will enable you to identify original, genuine examples.
