Slipware is

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

identified by its primary decorating process where slip is placed onto the leather-hard (semi-hardened) clay body surface before firing by dipping, painting or splashing. Slip is an aqueous suspension of a clay body, which is a mixture of

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

s and other minerals such as

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

feldspar Feldspar ( ; sometimes spelled felspar) is a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagiocl ...

and

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into fragile elastic plates. This characteristic is described as ''perfect basal cleavage''. Mica is co ...

. The slip placed onto a wet or leather-hard clay body surface by a variety of techniques including dipping, painting, piping or splashing. Principal techniques include slip painting, where the slip is treated like paint and used to create a design with brushes or other implements, and slip trailing, where the slip, usually rather thick, is dripped, piped or trailed onto the body, typically from some device like the piping bag used to decorate cakes. The French term for slip is barbotine, and this term may be used for both techniques, but usually from different periods. Often only pottery where the slip creates patterns or images will be described as slipware, as opposed to the many types where a plain slip is applied to the whole body, for example most fine wares in

Ancient Roman pottery Pottery was produced in enormous quantities in ancient Rome, mostly for utilitarian purposes. It is found all over the former Roman Empire and beyond. Monte Testaccio is a huge mound, waste mound in Rome made almost entirely of broken amphorae u ...

, such as African red slip ware (note: "slip ware" not "slipware"). Decorative slips may be a different colour than the underlying clay body or offer other decorative qualities. Selectively applying layers of colored slips can create the effect of a painted ceramic, such as in the

black-figure Black-figure pottery painting (also known as black-figure style or black-figure ceramic; ) is one of the styles of Ancient Greek vase painting, painting on pottery of ancient Greece, antique Greek vases. It was especially common between the 7th a ...

red-figure pottery Red-figure pottery () is a style of Pottery of ancient Greece, ancient Greek pottery in which the background of the pottery is painted black while the figures and details are left in the natural red or orange color of the clay. It developed in A ...

styles of

Ancient Greek pottery Pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exerted a dispro ...

. Slip decoration is an ancient technique in Chinese pottery also, used to cover whole vessels over 4,000 years ago.

History

Many prehistoric and historic cultures used slip as the primary decorating material on their ware, especially in early periods. These include most prehistoric cultures of the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

and much later

Islamic pottery Islamic pottery occupied a geographical position between Chinese ceramics, and the pottery of the Byzantine Empire and Europe. For most of the period, it made great aesthetic achievements and influence as well, influencing Byzantium and Europe ...

, cultures in many areas of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, most pottery-making cultures in the Americas, early Japanese (and later Onta ware) and much

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

n pottery. Much Mycenean ware,

and

used slip, as did pre-industrialized potters in many areas of Europe, including

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

, most notably Thomas Toft in the

Staffordshire Potteries The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Tunstall and Stoke (which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent) in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of c ...

. Later potters mostly combined or replaced the use of slip with

ceramic glaze Ceramic glaze, or simply glaze, is a glassy coating on ceramics. It is used for decoration, to ensure the item is impermeable to liquids and to minimize the adherence of pollutants. Glazing renders earthenware impermeable to water, sealing th ...

s and pigments offering a tougher finish and a wider range of colours. But a variety of slipware techniques were revived by various

studio pottery Studio pottery is pottery made by professional and amateur ceramists working alone or in small groups, making unique items or short runs, especially those that are not intended for daily use as crockery. Typically, all stages of manufacture are ...

movements from the 19th century on. In England Bernard Leach and in America Mary Louise McLaughlin were among the leaders of these revivals.

Techniques

A coating of white or coloured slip (sometimes called by the French term engobe in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

) can be applied to the whole body of the article, or just one part, such as outside or inside of a cup or jug, to improve its appearance, to give a smoother surface to a rough body, mask an inferior colour or for decorative effect. Slip can also be applied by painting techniques, in isolation or in several layers and colours.

Sgraffito (; ) is an artistic or decorative technique of scratching through a coating on a hard surface to reveal parts of another underlying coating which is in a contrasting colour. It is produced on walls by applying layers of plaster tinted in con ...

(or "sgraffiato") involves scratching through a layer of coloured slip to reveal a different colour or the base body underneath. Several layers of slip and/or sgraffito can be done while the pot is still in an unfired state. One colour of slip can be fired, before a second is applied, and prior to the scratching or incising decoration. This is particularly useful if the base body is not of the desired colour or texture. Chinese pottery also used techniques where patterns, images or calligraphy were created as part-dried slip was cut away to reveal a lower layer of slip or the main clay body in a contrasting colour. The latter of these is called the "cut-glaze" technique.Vainker, 116-117 Slipware may be carved or burnished to change the surface appearance of the ware. Specialized slip recipes may be applied to biscuit ware and then refired.

Examples

An example of slipware artifact is the Harvest jug.

Gallery

File:Roman pottery barbotine cup (cropped).JPG, Simple slip-trailing in thick blobs, Roman Egypt, 0-200 AD File:Bowl with strutting bird, Sultanabad ware, Iran, Ilkhanid period, first half of 14th century, earthenware with gray englobe and underglaze painting in blue, black, white slip - Cincinnati Art Museum - DSC04054.JPG, Bowl with strutting bird, Sultanabad ware, Iran, Ilkhanid period, first half of 14th century, earthenware with gray engobe and underglaze painting in blue, black, white slip File:Korean punch'ong ware pear-shaped wine bottle, Choson dynasty, second half of 15th century, stoneware with glaze and white slip decoration, HAA.JPG, Korean ''punch'ong'' ware pear-shaped wine bottle, Choson dynasty, second half of 15th century, stoneware with glaze and white slip decoration File:Mug LACMA M.89.124.jpg, English Slipware mug, ca. 1740 File:Ashiwi Polychrome Water Jar, 1700-1750,03.325.4739.jpg, ''Ashiwi'' slip-painted jar, She-we-na Zuni

Pueblo Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...

, 1700-1750 File:Sugar bowl with combed, slip-marbled decoration, China, c. 1795, porcelain - Concord Museum - Concord, MA - DSC05753.JPG, Sugar bowl with combed, slip-marbled decoration, China, c. 1795, porcelain File:Tile, late 19th-early 20th century, X1047.7.jpg, Tile, Hopi Pueblo, late 19th-early 20th century File:Thrown, Slip Trailed Bowl by Takeshi Yasuda (YORYM-2004.1.1534).JPG, Modern slip-trailed bowl by Takeshi Yasuda File:Werra Ware - Glaisher Collection, Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, England.jpg, A fine

Werra The Werra (), a river in central Germany, is the right-bank headwater of the Weser. "Weser" is a synonym in an old dialect of German. The Werra has its source near Eisfeld in southern Thuringia. After the Werra joins the river Fulda in the to ...

ware slip-decorated dish dated 1590. (Germany)

Notes

References

* Eden, Victoria and Michael. (1999) ''Slipware, Contemporary Approaches.'' A & C Black, University of Pennsylvania Press, G & B Arts International. * Hamer, Frank and Janet. (1991) ''The Potter's Dictionary of Materials and Techniques.'' A & C Black, 3rd ed. . *Osborne, Harold (ed), ''The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts'', 1975, OUP, *Vainker, S.J., ''Chinese Pottery and Porcelain'', 1991, British Museum Press, 9780714114705 * Wondrausch, Mary. (2001) 986''Mary Wondrausch on Slipware.'' A&C Black, 2nd ed.

External links

{{Pottery Types of pottery decoration