We shall only deal at length here with those important kinds of pottery
that have exerted real influence on the historical development of the
art. Offshoots from the main stem that have developed little or no
individuality can only be briefly mentioned. When the characteristic
Spanish-Moorish lustre wares ceased to be desired by the wealthy they
rapidly sank into insignificance, though as a decorative peasant pottery
their manufacture never really ceased and has been revived again in our
day. The course of pottery importation was changed and the now
fashionable Italian majolica was brought into Spain in the 16th and 17th
centuries, as Hispano-Moresque wares had followed the opposite course
two centuries earlier. Besides the influence which these imported wares
had on the Spanish potters, a number of wandering Italian majolists
found their way into Spain, so that we find the use of painted colour,
particularly blue, yellow, orange, green and purple, making its
appearance at various centres, around Valencia, at Triana near Seville,
&c., but the most important manufacture was at Talavera in the centre of
the peninsula. The best of this ware recalls the late Italian majolica
of Savona, and the influence of Chinese porcelain designs, probably
filtered through to the Spanish potters by the then popular enamelled
Delft wares, is very apparent. The potteries of Talavera are mentioned
as early as 1560, and they continued at work, with varying fortunes,
down to the end of the 18th century. Many and varied wares were
produced, including tiles as well as pottery; the most common pottery
pieces are dishes, bowls, vases, _tinajas_, holy-water vessels,
drug-pots, and hanging flower vases, together with moulded and painted
snails, owls, dogs, oranges, almonds, walnuts, and every kind of fruit.
Apart from the poorer colour the baroque style of ornament also rendered
the ware much inferior to that of Italy or of France. The popular
Talavera wares were imitated elsewhere in Spain, and a number of
factories existed at Toledo in the 17th century, but their wares are
very inferior. In the 18th century, besides debased imitations of this
ware, some coarse but striking pottery was made at Puente del Arzobispo
near Toledo.
An interesting offshoot from the Talavera potteries is to be found in
the tin-enamelled wares made at Puebla, Mexico, from the early 17th
century. It is said that Spanish potters were settled at this place by
the Dominicans soon after 1600; and the making of a debased form of
Spanish majolica continued there for nearly two centuries. See Barber's
"Tin-Enamelled Pottery," _Bulletin of the Philadelphia Museum_, 1907.
During the 18th century determined efforts were made by King Charles
III. and by the famous Count Aranda to improve the Spanish pottery
wares, as well as to introduce the manufacture of porcelain. The efforts
of the king led to the foundation of the porcelain works at Buen Retiro
near Madrid, which will be mentioned later, and considerable success
also attended the revival of strong copper lustre, like that of the late
Hispano-Moresque wares; but the finest tin-enamelled wares were those
made at Alcora in the important factory founded by Count Aranda in 1726,
which continued in operation down to the French wars. For his purposes
the count brought from Moustiers, then one of the famous French pottery
centres (see above), Joseph Olerys, a well-known pot-painter. He went to
Alcora as chief draughtsman and designer, having charge of a number of
Spanish potters and painters. Olerys introduced the Moustiers style of
decoration, and the glaze and body of the Alcora wares of the best
period recall the fine quality of Moustiers faience. It is only fair to
add that Olerys in his turn learnt the use of various delicate yellow
and green colours from the Spaniards, and when he returned to France in
1737, having acquitted himself most honourably, he introduced this new
style of delicate polychrome decoration at Moustiers. The mixture of
motives and ideas that animated the duke and his potters may be seen by
the following list of wares produced about 1750. Vases of different
shapes; small teapots; teapots and covers, Chinese fashion; teapots and
covers, Dutch fashion; cruets, Chinese style; entrée dishes;
salt-cellars, Chinese style; _escudillas_ (bowls) of Constantinople;
_barquillos_ (sauce-bowls), Chinese style; cups, plates, and saucers of
different kinds with good painted borders in imitation of lace-work, and
finally fruit-stands, salad-bowls and dishes, trays and refrigerators.
Later in the century the manufacture of porcelain was introduced here,
as well as white earthenware made in imitation of the productions of
Wedgwood, and the tin-enamelled wares flickered out in Spain as they did
elsewhere.
The manufacture of a kind of debased majolica was also practised in
Portugal from the 16th century down to our own times; but the ware never
attained to any distinction and is little known outside that country.
The best-known specimens were made at Rato, near Lisbon, where a factory
was founded in 1767 under the patronage of the court.
Mention must be made of the unglazed native pottery of Spain and
Portugal, for wine-jars, water-jars and bottles, cooking pots, and other
domestic utensils are still made in these countries for ordinary
domestic use, in traditional forms and by methods of the most primitive
kind. Many of these vessels, especially the _tinajas_ (wine-jars) and
water-coolers, are based on ancient, classical or Arab forms, and in
every country market-place it is still common to see groups of vessels,
in unglazed pottery of fine shape and finish, exposed for sale--a very
different state of things from what obtains in France, Germany, and
particularly in England, where the primitive methods of the peasant are
being imitated by those who ought to know better. From the 16th to the
18th century a special kind of unglazed pottery vessels known as
_buccaros_ was extensively made both in Spain and Portugal. The body of
the ware is unglazed, whitish, black or red, according to the special
kind of clay. The curious point about this ware is that, if we may
believe contemporary documents, the vessels were delicately scented,
like a ware imported from Mexico; and the soft vessels are said to have
been eaten--a custom common enough in certain parts of Central and
Southern America. (See M.L. Solon, _The Noble Buccaros_, 1896.)
(W. B.*)