ENAMELLED OR STANNIFEROUS GLAZED WARES.
It was found that by the addition of a certain portion of the oxide of
tin to the composition of glass and oxide of lead the character of the
glaze entirely alters. Instead of being translucent it becomes, on
fusion, an opaque and beautifully white enamel, the intervening process
of covering the surface of the clay with a stratum of white earth before
glazing being unnecessary. It, moreover, was found to afford a better
ground for the application of coloured ornament. The process of
application was the same as for the “slip;” after immersion in the
enamel bath, and subsequent drying, the painting is applied upon the
absorbent surface; the piece being then subjected to the fire which, at
one application, fixes the colours and liquifies the glaze. This
“enamelled” pottery (_émaillée_) is by far the more important group of
the glazed wares, being susceptible of decoration by the lustre
pigments, as well as by painting in colours of great delicacy; and it
comprises the Hispano-moresque, the real Maiolica, and the perfected
earthenware of Italy and other countries.
It is true that the first trace of the application of oxide of tin to
produce a white opaque glazed surface is to be met with upon Babylonian
or Assyrian bricks, but we are disposed to think that it was then merely
used as a pigment to produce a white colour, and not as an application
to pottery for the production of a white opaque glaze capable of
receiving coloured enrichment by painting in other pigments. A
corroboration of this opinion would seem to exist in the fact that
throughout Asia Minor, Syria, Persia, and Egypt, a purely stanniferous
glaze on pottery has never been generally adopted, or taken the place of
that simple and beautiful siliceous coating, so dexterously applied and
with such richness of effect upon the Persian and Damascus earthenware.
Engraved is an example of an early Damascus plate (no. 6590), at South
[Illustration]
Kensington. Perhaps isolated and lying dormant in remote localities for
centuries, its use may have been learned by the Arabs, for its next
appearance is upon fragments of tiling apparently of their manufacture
or fashioned under their influence. How the knowledge of this enamel
travelled, when and where it was first used, and to what extent applied,
is still doubtful. We meet with an occasional fragment generally upon
mural decoration of uncertain date on various Arab sites, till at length
it becomes palpably appreciable in the Moorish potteries of Spain and
of the Balearic islands. The baron J. Ch. Davillier, in his excellent
work on pottery, states that he has not been able to discover any piece
which could reasonably be ascribed to a date anterior to the fourteenth
century, some two hundred years after the expulsion of the Saracens from
Spain. In Valencia, however, anterior to its conquest by Jayme I. of
Arragon in 1239, potteries had been long established, and were of such
importance that that monarch felt himself bound to protect the Moorish
potters of Xativa (San Filippo) by a special edict.
We must bear in mind that there were two periods of Mahommedan sway in
Spain, the first on the expulsion of the Gothic monarchy by the Arabs
and the establishment of the Caliphate at Cordova, in the eighth
century. Of the ceramic productions of this early period we have no
accurate knowledge, but we should expect to find them of similar
character to the siliceous glazed wares prevalent in the east. The
second period is after an interval of five centuries, in 1235, when the
Moors founded the kingdom of Granada, having driven out the Arabs. Then
first appear the wares usually known as Hispano-moresque, like the fine
vase (engraved) no. 8968, at South Kensington; for we find the tiles of
the Alhambra dating about 1300, the Alhambra vase about 1320, and
continuous abundant examples of tin glazed wares of Moorish origin,
until the period of the conquest of the country by Ferdinand and
Isabella; after which the pottery becomes more purely Spanish and
speedily declines.
Mr. Marryat remarks, in reference to the second or Moorish period, that
the art of the new invaders had the same origin as the old, but as we
have no specimens known to have been of the earlier or Arabian period we
cannot accept this verdict as conclusive. Moreover, some confusion has
arisen in classing together the glass glazed or siliceous pottery, with
or without metallic lustre, and the Moresque wares produced in Spain,
which are so distinctly characteristic as being enamelled with the
oxide of tin.
[Illustration]
We particularly refer to those somewhat rare examples of early siliceous
pottery, like the deep Rhodian plate next engraved, some enriched with
metallic lustre, others without, the designs upon all of which are
eminently Arabian or Saracenic, unreadable mock Arabic inscriptions
occurring (as in the textile fabrics of the same period) among the
ornaments; as in the thirteenth century vase in the woodcut, p. 17. Such
are the tiles of early date from various
[Illustration]
places in Persia and Arabia. Similar wares, of which there are specimens
at South Kensington, are supposed to have been made by oriental potters
in Sicily but it is difficult to say at what time. That island was
conquered by the Saracens in 827. Again, there is another variety of
pottery of Moresque character and ornamentation with vermicular pattern
in copper lustre on a seemingly stanniferous glaze, which is ascribed to
Moorish potters who went to Sicily and established works at Calata
Girone in the fourteenth century.
[Illustration]
It is not improbable that the existence in Spain of tin ores in
considerable abundance may have accidentally led to the discovery or to
the adoption of the stanniferous enamel, obtained by an admixture of the
oxide of that metal with glass and oxide of lead. We have no positive
proof of its use on pottery at an earlier date in any other country,
since the period of the Babylonian bricks. May there not be some truth
in the story of the Majorcan dishes built into the Pisan towers, and
that the single specimen of “Persian” ware found by the writer on the
church of Sta. Cecilia in that city, which in all probability was placed
there early in the twelfth century, may be one of the dishes brought
home by the Pisans, at a time anterior to the use of the tin enamel in
Majorca?
There is generally a foundation for fabulous stories, and it is not
unlikely that some few of those trophies were so applied; the more so as
the taste for such architectural decoration prevailed at that period. At
the same time there can be no doubt that many of the bacini adorning
churches in various parts of Italy, including Pisa, were of native
Italian manufacture, as would seem probable from their compositions and
designs. Engravings of these, and of the fragment of oriental ware above
alluded to, are published in the Archæologia, vol. xlii. We are indebted
to the council of the Society of antiquaries for permission (see next
page) to use the latter block.
The earliest traces of the use of stanniferous enamel glaze in Europe,
known to us, is always in connection with a decoration, produced by the
reduction of certain metallic salts in the reverberatory furnace,
leaving a thin film upon the surface, which gives that beautiful and
rich effect known as _reflet métallique_, _nacré_, _cangiante_,
_rubino_, _reverberato_, &c., and in England as lustred ware. In Italy
the use of a metallic lustre was apparently known and practised previous
to the introduction of the tin enamel, for we have abundant examples of
early “mezza-maiolica” from the potteries of Pesaro or Gubbio, glazed
only with the oxide of lead and glass, and which are brilliantly lustred
with the metallic colours. None of these can, however, be referred to an
earlier date than the latter half of the fifteenth century.
Of whom, then, did the Italian potters learn this art? We have no answer
to the question in any historical record, and we are forced to infer
that the name by which this lustred ware was known at the time and in
the country of its production, reflected that of
[Illustration]
the place from which it was derived. Accordingly we find that the
coarser lead glazed lustred ware was known as “mezza-maiolica,” while
that more nearly resembling its original, by the use of the tin enamel,
was known as “maiolica.” That the Moorish potters of Majorca conveyed
this knowledge, and that the Italians named their ware after that of the
island, would seem a reasonable conclusion. M. Jacquemart, however,
thinks it equally probable that although the Majorcan wares were well
known in Italy, this art may really have been communicated by Persian
potters, or their pupils, coming to the eastern ports of Italy; and that
the style of decoration on the early Italian lustred wares is more
Persian than Moresque. This would also in some measure explain why the
lustrous colours were used at some potteries anterior to the adoption
of the stanniferous enamel. The woodcut represents a bowl at South
Kensington, no. 503, possibly of this manufacture, and of great rarity.
In date it is somewhat late; about 1490.
[Illustration]
The general term “Maiolica,” also spelt “Majolica,” has long been and is
still erroneously applied to all varieties of glazed earthenware of
Italian origin. We have seen that it was not so originally but that the
term was restricted to the lustred wares, which resemble in that respect
those of the island from which they had long been imported into Italy.
It is a curious fact, proving their estimation in that country, that
nearly all the specimens of Hispano-moresque pottery which adorn our
cabinets and enrich our museums have been procured in Italy;
comparatively few pieces having been found in Spain.
Scaliger states in reference to the Italian pottery as comparable with
the porcelain of China, that the former derived its name from Majorca,
of which the wares are most excellent. Fabio Ferrari also, in his work
upon the origin of the Italian language, states his belief “that the use
of majolica, as well as the name, came from Majorca, which the ancient
Tuscan writers called Maiolica.” Thus Dante writes:--“Tra l’isola di
Cipri e Maiolica;” showing the then mode of spelling the name of the
island, and it would seem but natural to distinguish an imitation of its
produce as “à la Maiolica.”
The “mezza-maiolica” was the coarser ware, formed of potter’s earth,
covered with a white “slip” upon which the subject was painted; then
glazed with the common “marza-cotto” or lead glaze, over which the
lustre pigments were applied. The “maiolica,” on the other hand, was the
tin enamelled ware similarly lustred. As before stated, these terms were
originally used with reference only to the lustred wares, but towards
the middle of the sixteenth century they seem to have been generally
applied to the glazed earthenware of Italy. We think with M. Jacquemart,
M. Darcel, Mr. J. C. Robinson, and others, that the word _maiolica_
should be again restricted to the lustred wares, although in Italy and
elsewhere it is habitually used to designate all the numerous varieties
of glazed earthenware, with the exception of the more common “terraglia”
and in distinction from porcelain.
The Germans ascribe the discovery of the tin enamel glazing to a potter
of Schelestadt, in Alsace, whose name is unknown but who died in the
year 1283; and in the convent of St. Paul at Leipzic is a frieze of
large glazed tiles, with heads in relief, the date of which is stated to
be 1207. The potters’ art is said to have developed itself in that
country at an earlier period than in Italy; rilievo architectural
decorations, monuments with figures in high relief, and other works of
great artistic merit having been executed in 1230 at Breslau, where
there is a monument to Henry IV. of Silesia who died in 1290, an
important work in this material. Later, at Nuremberg, the elder Veit
Hirschvögel was born in 1441, and by him the use of the tin glaze was
known. Specimens ascribed to his hand and dating from 1470 are preserved
in museums. At Strehla a pulpit of glazed terra-cotta is of the date
1565, and at Saltzburg is the wonderful chimney-piece of the fifteenth
century, still in its original position in the Schloss. At that time,
also, Hans Kraut, of Villengen in Swabia, produced good works, but it is
probable that many of these larger examples are covered with an
admirably manipulated green or brown glaze which is produced without the
admixture of tin.
In Italy history has always awarded the honour of its discovery to Luca
della Robbia, whose first great work was executed in 1438; and however
recent observation may lead to the assumption that its use was known in
the Italian potteries before his time, there can be no doubt that his
was not merely an application of a well-known process to a new purpose,
but that he really did invent an enamel of peculiar whiteness and
excellence, better adapted to his purpose and of somewhat different
composition from that in use at any of the potteries of his time.