A Brief History of Majolica
The history of majolica spans more than a thousand years. Its evolution and what different cultures have expressed through this medium make a complex and fascinating study. What follows is a brief sketch.
Tin-glazed wares (majolica) originated in 9th century Mesopotamia, most likely from a desire to imitate white T'ang Chinese wares. Islamic potters created a semblance of the white surface by opacifying their transparent alkaline glazes with tin oxide, effectively masking the buff-colored earthenware clay body. Seduced by the white surface, artisans began to decorate it with oxides. In time, distinctive patterns emerged, becoming more sophisticated. The other important development was that of the use of reduced-pigment lusters on tin glaze in a third firing.
With the spread of Islam through North Africa and into the Iberian peninsula, lusterware and in-glaze painting techniques - on-surface decoration that fuses into the glaze in the second firing - became well established in Spain, possibly as early as the 11th century. Throughout the 13th century these Hispano-Moresque ware, produced in such important centers as Malaga and later, Valencia gave visual evidence, both in technique and iconography, of the successful fusion of eastern and western cultures.
During the 14th and 15th centuries the Moresque lusterwares found an active market in Italy via such trading ports as Majorca. The term majolica by which such wares are now known may come from the name Majorca.
Until the mid-16th century majolica referred exclusively to lusterwares of Spanish and Islamic origin. By the second half of the 16th century the term was being used in Italy to refer to tin-glaze wares made there. These, usually in the form of dishes, large charger, and jars, were valued as both useful and decorative objects. Often the image side of the piece consisted of a poor tin glaze, highly decorated, and then enriched with a thin lead-glaze covering, to give brilliance of color, and gloss. The backs were sometimes just glazed with transparent lead glaze.
By the mid-1500s, majolica was spreading to France, and to central Europe. As techniques changed, in some places the covering was replaced by the all-in-one tin glaze. This favored the simpler process of in-glaze painting. These kinds of wares came to be known as faience, from the name of the city of Faenza, in Italy - the near-dominant producer and exporter of fine tableware in the later 16th century.
As majolica production spread, each part of Europe produced stylistic innovations. Antwerp, in Flanders, became an important tin-glaze production center and from here tin glaze found its way to Holland and England in the late 1500s. In the Netherlands, the passion for Chinese blue and white porcelain imported by Dutch traders led to the immensely popular imitative blue and white delftware.
Around 1800, the new and thriving industrialized porcelain factories such as Wedgwood in England supplanted the traditional European Faience potteries. Using the newly discovered European porcelain clays and more sophisticated casting and production techniques, these factories catered to a broad and growing market. New popular attitudes and tastes, allied to mass production, change the face of European ceramics. However, in the mid-18th century, notably in southern Europe, traditional tin glaze was still in demand, and local production continued alongside porcelain, though at a lower level in the market in such places as Gubbio and Deruta in Italy, traditional majolica is still being produced. -Excerpted from "The New Majolica" by Matthias Ostermann.
Today, instead of using tin as the opacifier, some potters - myself included - use a non-tin based opacifier, such as Zicropax. Lead is not used at all in the production of my line of Maiolica ware. Various colorants, such as Mason stains and oxides like copper are used to create the decoration on the ware. Commercial gold luster can be used to highlight the piece in an optional third firing.
The history of majolica spans more than a thousand years. Its evolution and what different cultures have expressed through this medium make a complex and fascinating study. What follows is a brief sketch.
Tin-glazed wares (majolica) originated in 9th century Mesopotamia, most likely from a desire to imitate white T'ang Chinese wares. Islamic potters created a semblance of the white surface by opacifying their transparent alkaline glazes with tin oxide, effectively masking the buff-colored earthenware clay body. Seduced by the white surface, artisans began to decorate it with oxides. In time, distinctive patterns emerged, becoming more sophisticated. The other important development was that of the use of reduced-pigment lusters on tin glaze in a third firing.
With the spread of Islam through North Africa and into the Iberian peninsula, lusterware and in-glaze painting techniques - on-surface decoration that fuses into the glaze in the second firing - became well established in Spain, possibly as early as the 11th century. Throughout the 13th century these Hispano-Moresque ware, produced in such important centers as Malaga and later, Valencia gave visual evidence, both in technique and iconography, of the successful fusion of eastern and western cultures.
During the 14th and 15th centuries the Moresque lusterwares found an active market in Italy via such trading ports as Majorca. The term majolica by which such wares are now known may come from the name Majorca.
Until the mid-16th century majolica referred exclusively to lusterwares of Spanish and Islamic origin. By the second half of the 16th century the term was being used in Italy to refer to tin-glaze wares made there. These, usually in the form of dishes, large charger, and jars, were valued as both useful and decorative objects. Often the image side of the piece consisted of a poor tin glaze, highly decorated, and then enriched with a thin lead-glaze covering, to give brilliance of color, and gloss. The backs were sometimes just glazed with transparent lead glaze.
By the mid-1500s, majolica was spreading to France, and to central Europe. As techniques changed, in some places the covering was replaced by the all-in-one tin glaze. This favored the simpler process of in-glaze painting. These kinds of wares came to be known as faience, from the name of the city of Faenza, in Italy - the near-dominant producer and exporter of fine tableware in the later 16th century.
As majolica production spread, each part of Europe produced stylistic innovations. Antwerp, in Flanders, became an important tin-glaze production center and from here tin glaze found its way to Holland and England in the late 1500s. In the Netherlands, the passion for Chinese blue and white porcelain imported by Dutch traders led to the immensely popular imitative blue and white delftware.
Around 1800, the new and thriving industrialized porcelain factories such as Wedgwood in England supplanted the traditional European Faience potteries. Using the newly discovered European porcelain clays and more sophisticated casting and production techniques, these factories catered to a broad and growing market. New popular attitudes and tastes, allied to mass production, change the face of European ceramics. However, in the mid-18th century, notably in southern Europe, traditional tin glaze was still in demand, and local production continued alongside porcelain, though at a lower level in the market in such places as Gubbio and Deruta in Italy, traditional majolica is still being produced. -Excerpted from "The New Majolica" by Matthias Ostermann.
Today, instead of using tin as the opacifier, some potters - myself included - use a non-tin based opacifier, such as Zicropax. Lead is not used at all in the production of my line of Maiolica ware. Various colorants, such as Mason stains and oxides like copper are used to create the decoration on the ware. Commercial gold luster can be used to highlight the piece in an optional third firing.
