Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

glaze, in pottery

(Encyclopedia)glaze, translucent layer that coats pottery to give the surface a finish or afford a ground for decorative painting. Glazes—transparent, white, or colored—are fired on the clay. Of the various art...

glaze, in meteorology

(Encyclopedia)glaze, in meteorology: see sleet.

pottery

(Encyclopedia)pottery, the baked-clay wares of the entire ceramics field. For a description of the nature of the material, see clay. American art pottery flourished in the first half of the 20th cent., with wor...

firing

(Encyclopedia)firing, process of treating clay or other plastic ceramic materials with heat to produce a hard, durable but brittle material such as pottery. Primitive potters baked their clay in an open fire, but f...

chinaware

(Encyclopedia)chinaware, hard, white, translucent pottery with soft glaze, known as porcelain. It originated in China but is now produced in various countries. Its composition is of kaolin and petuntse. ...

Rookwood pottery

(Encyclopedia)Rookwood pottery, American artware. Made in Cincinnati by one of the earliest American pottery firms (est. 1880), it achieved an international reputation. The ware exhibits a range of full, rich color...

Belleek ware

(Encyclopedia)Belleek ware bəlēkˈ [key], pottery with a highly lustrous and often iridescent glaze. It is made at Belleek, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. ...

delftware

(Encyclopedia)delftware. The earliest delftware was a faience, a heavy, brown earthenware with opaque white glaze and polychrome decoration, made in the late 16th cent. Some of the earliest imitations of Chinese an...

faience

(Encyclopedia)faience fāĕnsˈ, –änsˈ, fī– [key] [for Faenza, Italy], any of several kinds of pottery, especially earthenware made of coarse clay and covered with an opaque tin-oxide glaze. The term is part...

stoneware

(Encyclopedia)stoneware, hard pottery made from siliceous paste, fired at high temperature to vitrify (make glassy) the body. Stoneware is heavier and more opaque than porcelain and differs from terra-cotta in bein...