China Terms & Definitions

Baker: a vegetable or serving dish, open and often oval in shape.

Basaltware: unglazed stoneware, usually black, with a dull gloss.

Batch: the precise mixture of ceramic ingredients which, under heat processing, is transformed into either glass or clayware.

Bisque (or Bisquit): clayware that has been fired once for hardening, but has not yet been glazed.

Bisque fire: the first firing, or baking, in clayware manufacture, which hardens the ware in its final shape.

Blank: an undecorated piece of dinnerware or glassware, usually one that will be subjected to further processing for decorating.

Body: the physical composition of a piece of clayware as opposed to its glaze or decoration.

Bone china: china that contains animal bone ash for added translucency and whiteness. Developed originally in England, but now made in Japan and the United States as well.

Bright gold: a liquid gold paint decoration which, when fired, comes out bright and therefore requires no burnishing or polishing.

Burnished gold: a more expensive gold dinnerware or glassware decoration that comes out of the kiln dull and must be rubbed up to a shine.

Casting: a process in which slip, or liquid clay, is poured into a mold and then allowed to set. The result is a piece of clayware duplicating the shape of the mold.

Casual china: a non-porous type of clayware made of special white clay and fired at exceptionally high temperatures. The finer grades are generally thin, translucent, resistant to chipping, and ring clearly when struck. The word should not be used as a generic term for all dinnerware.

Ceramics: a generic term referring to articles made of so- called earth materials: (clay, sand, etc.) processed by firing, or baking. The classification includes pottery, earthenware, china, glass refractories, abrasives.

Coupe shape: a contemporary plate shape lacking a shoulder, flat across the diameter, and rolled up slightly at the rim.

Crackled ware: clayware or glassware whose surface is marked by a network of tiny cracks deliberately induced for decorative effect by sudden cooling.

Crazing: a defect in clayware glaze consisting of a network of tiny cracks caused by the difference in the rate of contraction between body and glaze. It is almost the same in appearance as deliberate cracking.

Decalcomania (or decal): a special design- bearing sheet used in dinnerware decoration. The sheet is first applied to a piece of ware. The paper is then removed resulting in the transfer of the decoration to the ware. Subsequent firing makes it permanent.

Delft: pottery originating in Holland. It is characterized by a colored clay, white glaze, and blue decoration.

Dresden: a white china generally very heavily decorated, originally developed in Dresden, Germany.

Embossing: a raised or molded decoration produced either in the mold or formed seperately and applied before firing.

Encrustations: a decoration of precious metal- gold, platinum- applied in liquid form then fired.

Engobe: a type of decoration in which white or colored slip, or liquid clay, is applied over the body of the ware.

Earthenware: a type of clayware fired at comparatively low temperatures producing a heavy porous body that is opaque, not as strong as china, and lacking that product's resonance. Because earthenware dinnerware is in the low- and medium-price brackets and lends itself to a variety of decorative styles and methods, it is well suited for everyday use.

Faience: originally a type of French- made pottery. The term is used today to refer to a fine glazed earthenware usually bearing highly colorful decoration.

Filling-in: a decoration process whereby transfer print outlines applied to a piece are filled in by hand to produce multi- color effects.

Firing: a baking process under carefully controlled temperatures to which all ceramic ware is subjected for either hardening, strengthen-ing, or fusing.

Fine china: thin, translucent china which, despite its delicacy, it is quite strong. It is made of top quality clays fired at high temperatures that cause them to fuse into a hard, non-porous body.

Flatware: in dinnerware, any flat or near-flat piece such as a plate or platter.

Glaze: a glossy transparent or colored coating baked onto clayware body for decorative purposes, and to make it non- absorbent and more resistant to wear.

Ground-lay: an underglaze dinnerware decoration generally taking the form of wide borders of dark colors such as maroon, deep blue, etc. The process consists of dusting the powdered color onto an oil coating.

Hollow ware, or holloware: any clayware, glass or metal pieces such as cups, pitchers, bowls, as opposed to flatware.

Hotelware: heavy china dinnerware made specifically for use in hotels, institutions, etc. It is stronger than china for home use, but has neither the transparency nor the delicacy of the latter.

Ironstone: a much abused term that should be used only in reference to earthenware of good quality and better-than-average strength. True ironstone was originally developed in England. Originally it was a form of stoneware said to contain powdered iron slag. Ironstone has a slightly porous body.

Jasper: a stoneware body, either white or colored, noteworthy for its fine, soft finish. This type of ware was first developed by Josiah Wedgwood, and its best known form today is the popular blue and white ware by Wedgwood.

Joan Martin: The president of China Traders and a really great wife, mother, and grandmother. Someone who really makes the world a better place because she is there. (Don't tell her I put this in here...Her husband, Lloyd)

Kiln: the oven in which ceramic ware is fired or baked.

Limoges: a china dinnerware produced by any of the many factories in or near the city of Limoges in France. The term should not be used for dinnerware anywhere but in France. It is probably one of the best-known dinnerware terms among consumers, although many do not seem to know what it means.

Lining: a dinnerware decoration, either machine- or hand- applied, consisting of one or several parallel lines running around the outer edge of a plate.

Luster: a ceramic glaze coating, metallic in nature, which gives the finished piece an iridescent effect.

Majolica: a type of Italian pottery glazed with tin enamel and generally decorated in rich colors.

Mat finish: a flat glaze finish without gloss.

Nappy: in dinnerware, a round vegetable dish. A glassware nappy, however, is any round or square dish from fruit size up, used for various serving purposes.

Open stock: an approach to dinnerware retailing in which the ware is sold in individual pieces or small groups rather than in complete, predetermined compositions or sets. Implied, also, is the fact that patterns offered in open stock will be available for an indefinate period following their introduction.

Ovenware: clayware that is able to withstand the heat of a kitchen oven without damage, thus permitting, a homemaker to prepare oven- cooked food in it and then use it for table service. In styling, such ware is usually of casual design and features bright colors.

Overglaze decoration: design applied to clayware after it has been fired and glazed. Because they are not subjected to high tempera-tures, the colors in such decoration tend to be more vivid than those in underglaze designs.

Place settings: usually five (although occasionally four or six) matched pieces of dinnerware for setting a single place at a table. The five pieces most commonly included are a dinner plate, salad, bread-and-butter, cup and saucer. Higher priced ware is generally offered in such a group to keep the price at a comparatively popular level.

Porcelain: a hard, translucent, clayware body that differs very slightly from china in ingredients and manufacturing process. In most respects the two are so much alike that the term may be used interchangeably.

Pottery: can be used as a generic term the same as ceramics. When referring to a specific ware, pottery refers to a very durable form of clayware made of crude clay and fired at comparatively low temperatures. It lends itself best to colorful, informal decoration and simple shades.

Potter's wheel: a round platform rotated either mechanically or manually upon which the potter throws, or forms, a circular shape.

Quimper ware: colorful French-made pottery of a peasant character which takes its name from the town of Quimper.

Reject: a piece of ware which, because of an imperfection, does not meet certain quality standards and therefore is withheld from shipment.

Run of kiln: (or R.K. or R.K. selects): a grading term indicating dinnerware most of which appears perfect after manufacture but which may not be completely perfect on close inspection.

Salt glaze: a semi-mat or half-glossy glaze obtained by injecting salt into the kiln during the glaze firing.

Screen printing: a method of ceramic and glassware decorating in which stencil-like screens are used in applying colors to the ware.

Second grade: ware that exhibits noticeable minor defects that do not effect the ware's usefulness.

Selects: near-perfect dinnerware pieces as indicated in a process of selection in which imperfect pieces are removed from the group.

Semi-vitrified (or semi-porcelain): a type of dinnerware about halfway between china and earthenware in appearance and durability.

Scraffito: a type of ceramic decoration produced by coating a piece with a layer of colored slip, or liquid clay, then incising a design in that layer to let the original body color show through.

Shoulder: the raised rim of the traditionally shaped plate.

Silica: one of the earth's most abundant minerals and a vital ingredient in ceramic manufacture. It is the basic component of glass as well as of ceramic glazes and high quality clayware bodies.

Slip: a mixture of clay and water with a cream-like consistency. It is used both for producing ceramic body and for ceramic decoration.

Slip coating: a layer of slip applied to a clayware body for decorative effect.

Stoneware: a hard clayware made of light-colored clay and dired at high temperatures. It is non-porous and quite durable but does not have the translucence of fine chine.

Texture glaze: a colored glaze in which dripping, eruption, or some other controlled disturbance is introduced to highten the decorative effect.

Throwing: forming clay manually by shaping it as it is rotated on a potter's wheel, or revolving platform.

Toby jug: a small jug or mug in the form of a stout old man wearing a three-cornered hat that serves as the mouth of the vessel.

Translucence: that quality of fine china or melamine dinnerware that makes it semi-transparent. It may be demonstrated by placing the hand across the back of a piece and holding it up to the light. A silhouette of the hand will be visible through the body of the piece.

Transfer printing: a decorating method similar to the one in which decalcomania is used but permitting only one color at a time to be applied.

Tunnel kiln: a long tunnel-like oven in which clayware is fired by being carried through on flat cars that move along very slowly.

Unbreakable: literally, a dinnerware piece that will not break under any circumstances. Because such ware does not exist--even glass-ceramic or melamine dinnerware will break under certain conditions--the phrase should never be used. The correct way to describe unusually strong dinnerware is "break-resistant".

Underglaze decoration: a ceramic decoration that is applied directly to the biscuit, or unglazed body, and then covered with a protective glaze coating that makes it highly resistant to ware.

Vitrified: literally, like glass, meaning the ceramic body is non-porous. Fine china is vitrified because its ingredients include silica which literally turns to glass when fired at high temperatures. This gives its translucence.