Pottery

Pottery comprises three distinctive types of wares. The first type, earthenware, has been manufactured using the same basic techniques since ancient times. Mass production of the modern era has delivered the first changes in materials and methods. Earthenware is basically composed of clay or a blend of clays that are baked firm, the degree of rigidity depending on the intensity of the firing.

With the advent of glazing technologies, earthenwares were coated with glaze for decoration and to render the piece waterproof. It was discovered that, when fired at great heat, the clay body became nonporous producing the second type of pottery, called stoneware.

The third type of pottery was invented by the Chinese and consists of feldspathic material in a fusible state being incorporated in a stoneware composition. The ancient Chinese called decayed feldspar kaolin, meaning high place, describing the location where the substance was originally found); this material is known in the West as china clay. Petuntse, or china stone, a less decayed, more fusible feldspathic material, was also used in Chinese porcelain; it forms a white cement that binds together the particles of less fusible kaolin.

Two distinct types of porcelain evolved, true porcelain consisting of a kaolin hard-paste body that is produced by high firing temperature resulting in an extremely glassy and smooth surface; and soft porcelain, which is produced from a composition of ground glass and other ingredients including white clay that is fired at a low temperature.

It is believed that Chinese potters first made porcelain during the Han period (206 BC-AD 220), when pottery techniques became more refined. The Chinese made early vitreous wares before they developed their white vitreous ware known as true porcelain.