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origins of tin glaze

updated tue 9 jun 98

 

Marcia Selsor on mon 8 jun 98

Dear Vince and others,
The paper I gave at NCECA, Las Vegas in 97 dealt with the origins of tin glaze
in the 9th Century Persian courts after the conquest of 30,000 Chinese who
brought with them their decorative crafts which included Tang Dynasty
proto-porcelain. The Persians appreciated the purity and the poetry of the
proto-porcelain and began the search for a fine white glaze to fit over their
sandy earthenware. That is how it began. It was an imitation and spread
throughout the Islamic Empire, across North Africa, into Spain into Valencia (
12th century), Manises on the Spanish Coast across from Maijorca.Itaty began
tin-glazing about the 14th Cent.
Purchase of commemorative lusterware plates by European aristocracy
helped move the tin glaze technicians to potteries throughout Europe because
of the demand (sort of industrial warfare).
Marcia in Montana