Plate: Gien, Fine earthenware, decor (polychrome)

fine porcelain

The fine earthenware is an opaque white clay paste, with a fine texture, dense and sonorous, covered with a lead glaze. It is placed between traditional earthenware and porcelain. The mixture of this white clay with calcined and crushed flint gave rise to a type of fine earthenware called English earthenware or pebble. It was developed in England by Josiah Wedgwood in 1769. If feldspar is added to the paste and the lead from the cover has been largely replaced by borax, a fine hard earthenware or fine feldspathic earthenware is obtained. It is commonly called opaque porcelain or semi-porcelain because it contains kaolin which is a refractory white clay cooking at high temperature. On trouve encore l’appellation commerciale terre de fer. Enfin, les termes de pétrocérame et kaolina indiquent que le pourcentage de kaolin est plus important. La faïence fine est recouverte d’une glaçure (ou vernis transparent) plus ou moins plombifère. Le décor peut être peint sur le biscuit ou imprimé sous la glaçure. Il a quelquefois été imprimé sur la glaçure.

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