These are the names used for stylistically distinct types of European pottery that are all covered in an opaque glaze made white by ashes of tin.

Right colours are lost if they are painted onto earthenware with a clear lead glaze — the earliest type widely used—since the glaze deepens the underlying clay colour. However, a primary coat of white or cream tin glaze creates a pristine surface on which other colours stand out brilliantly. (more…)

Unadorned simplicity still inspired serious designers but the ever- younger mass of consumers with the spending power imposed their own taste for ease and, above all, fun.

Victorious and wealthy, the United States emerged from the Second World War in 1945 as the most powerful nation, and its influence spread quickly across much of the globe. The USA was the world leader in industrial technology, and was also the main maker of films, whose images of style and manners fed the dreams and aims of the Western world’s cinema-going millions. (more…)

Monteiths, punch bowls and punch ladles

The monteith, which looks like a punch bowl with an ornate rim arid lifting handles, fir ^whist appeared some 20 years after the Restoration but became more general during the later years of the seventeenth century and earlier years of the eighteenth. Monteiths are comparatively rare pieces, and therefore fetch high prices. Their scalloped and notched rims were generally removable. The monteith was filld with cold water, then glasses were hung by their foot upon the notchese, and thus allowed to cool in the water. When the monteith was not being used in l filled it punch. (more…)