The high quality of porcelain, similar to the porcelain of China, was discovered about 1707 by Böttger, an alchemist, and Tschirnhaus, a physicist, the scientists and researchers in Meissen Porcelain factory in Dresden, Germany.

Later during the 18th century, each European country produced hard-paste porcelain. In this kind of porcelain, the hard-paste, named True Porcelain, differed from the soft-paste or the Artificial Porcelain. Hart-paste porcelain was more crack-resistant, most applied for hot liquids, and occasionally could be prepared for the second firing in which the glaze was fused. Conversely, the soft paste contained a small amount of clay, had fewer plastic characteristics and was difficult to shape. All European countries had their specific Neoclassical style and used both methods, but in Europe, the hard-paste became the primary porcelain production. Because of this progress, the prosperous class of European societies could consume Austrian, English, German and Italian porcelain.

Marco Polo brought porcelain to Europe and called it Porcellana. It was an Italian word for cowrie shell and an appropriate name for a delicate durable shiny object that seemed worthy as white gold. Europeans became fascinated by Chinese inventions such as porcelain pottery.

Primitive porcelain is the earliest porcelain in China during the Shang Dynasty. The Chinese developed their ancient skills to produce decorated coloured porcelain in the following centuries. The Europeans fell in love with these far east products and made great efforts to imitate the Chinese with the same delicacy and precision. It was a complicated task. Producing this fine-grained translucent material took great patience and expertise. Adding a small amount of the ingredients to its texture had caused cracks and breakage. The unevenness of clay, inconsistent thickness during the model making, and the high glazing temperatures made the process unstable. It wasn’t easy to produce porcelain with the certainty of the expected result.

The decorative style of Art Nouveau that flourished at the turn of the 20th century throughout Europe and the United States represented its fascinating designs in many genres of decorative art, including ceramic design and faience art. The pottery designers shaped dishware and vases with undulating asymmetrical lines influenced by the forms of flower stalks and buds, iris, arums and thistles and created curved porcelain objects based upon the natural shapes and forms. This new approach in art caused visual movement and dynamism in porcelain products and had long-standing popularity among art admirers.

Plateel is a Dutch word for a particular type of earthenware. This ceramic product in the Netherland had a motif painted on the pottery by a pottery painter before firing for the second time. The double-fired process had taken place in the pottery bakery.

The image below is a product of the Ram pottery factory in Arnhem, Netherlands. The pottery painters had created delicate floral patterns with watercolour techniques on unglazed white biscuit porcelain. The manufacturers fired the products once again directly after the paintings became visual. The factory glazed the pottery with enamel paint to reach an opaque appearance. The manual manufacture was expensive, and the price was high. Many products were put up for sale through the auctions in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities.

Plateelbakkerij (Pottery bakery) Ram was founded by several directors of Dutch museums and prominent Dutch artists in 1921. The name Ram (Aries) came from the Aries constellation and was selected by Theodoor Colenbrander, a Dutch architect and famous pottery designer. He thought of the brilliance of the stars formed by the mythological arie.

In the late 19th century, the artists of applied art design took inspiration for their work from the Arts and Crafts Movement. They created an elegant, new, dynamic style, the Young Art, the Art Nouveau, which stood against classical and traditional art. This unique manner of artistic expression, influenced by the beauty of Japanese woodblock prints, had tried to offer an inherent natural beauty to art. Artists of Art Nouveau took the organic floral and plant motifs to reveal their designs in delicate, curvy shapes with natural patterns. All the genres of applied art, especially glass art, metal art, jewellery, were included in this dominant movement, as also pottery and ceramics, which in these series of articles capture our attention today.

Émile Gallé was the famous glassmaker from France, the founder of the École de Nancy or Nancy School, a group of Art Nouveau artisans and designers working in Nancy, France at the turn of the 20th century. Gallé’s family members were glassware and ceramics merchants and manufacturers. As a young student, Émile Gallé studied philosophy, botany, sculpture and drawing and was later in charge of the entire management of the family glass industry in his 28th year. Émile Gallé expanded the business and hired 300 employees in the following years. His designers had some permissions and design options, but they were obliged to use curved and flowing natural shapes and follow the artistic rules of Art Nouveau. The designers of Gallé ‘s workshop were inspired by the plants and flowers and used them as models in their work.

Pottery and ceramics, what are the differences? We usually think that these are two separate processes and products. Do you know that pottery and ceramics are the same, made by shaping and then hardening the red sticky clay? Yes, It’s True. Moreover, pottery in Greek is ceramic.

But why clay is the best available and appropriate material for pottery? As a non-metallic fine-grained earth material, clay is malleable and proper for producing dishes, plates, bowls, jugs, and other tableware products.

The main types of pottery are earthenwares, stonewares, and porcelains. They are obtained from hot clay and have different characteristics and applications. Earthenwares are clay materials fired at relatively low temperatures than stonewares and porcelains. They are porous and must be glazed to become water proved. Stonewares possess a higher material density and are more durable due to the firing process of clay at higher temperatures. Stonewares have a stone look and a more natural appearance than the two other types. Porcelains are more durable materials supplied from firing refined clay at very high temperatures. Porcelains are shiny, white and translucent, but also too fragile. Therefore the quality of potteries depends on the clay’s purity and the temperature of the hardening process.