The technique of tin-glazing earthenware came to Europe with the Moorish invasions of Spain in the 8th to 12th centuries, and 15th-century Hispano-Moresque armorial lustre ware chargers are considered among the finest examples of the potter’s art. Tin glaze soon spread to Italy where it was called `maiolica’. From the late 15th century, potters in Italy produced maiolica dishes decorated in blue, green, ochre and manganese. Many, notably from Urbino, are lavishly painted in the istoriato, or story-telling, style with rimto-rim scenes from mythology or the Bible, often based on works by the great Renaissance artists. Although usually damaged, istoriato wares sell for £5 000 up to £60, 000 today.

Meanwhile, in mid- 16th-century France, Bernard Palissy and his followers were working with coloured lead glazes to produce relief-moulded dishes applied with fruit, reptiles and insects (often moulded directly from specimens). Such pieces are very rare.

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However, a number of Portuguese factories copied the style in the late loth century and these decorative Palissy-style pieces can be bought for a few hundred pounds.

By the 17th century, tin-glazed chargers had become popular right across Europe, mainly through the Dutch potters of Delft. The Dutch used both European and Oriental designs, and it is not unusual to find a Madonna and Child within a Chinese-style floral border. Some purely Oriental designs come so close to Chinese `kraak’ chargers that they could almost be mistaken for genuine late Ming imports if they were not made of earthenware rather than porcelain.

British 17th-century tin-glazed ‘delftware’ chargers were displayed alongside pewter. Their subjects — often humorously depicted- range from Adam and Eve to royal commemoratives. Tulip designs were also popular and may have been influenced by Turkish dishes from Isnik. So-called ‘blue-dash’ chargers have a border of blue brush strokes around the rim. As tin was expensive, chargers often have a cheaper, clear lead glaze on the back. In the second half of the i7th century, English slipware potters such as Thomas and Ralph Toff William Talor and Ralph Simpson began to create striking chargers with freehand designs in slip (semi-liquid clay) of birds, animals and royalty. Prices start at around £3000, but royal commemoratives rarely fetch less than £20,000. Soon after 1700, the process was speeded up by using press-moulded designs filled in with slip.

A Traditional Renewed

The late 19th century saw a revival of handmade pottery in Britain as a result of the Arts and Crafts movement. Craftsmen such as William de Morgan produced decorative dishes, plaques and tiles in a variety of historic styles. Prices for his wares have doubled recently — his Renaissance-style maiolica `Apollo’ charger sold for over £40,000 in 1991, but items inspired by Islamic and

Hispano-Moresque designs typically fetch £2000-£5000. At this time also, Minton and Doulton set up ‘art pottery‘ studios in London to make chargers and other decorative wares, and in this century studio potters have continued the charger tradition.

Oriental porcelain Chargers

The Chinese art of porcelain manufacture reached Japan via Korea at the end of the 16th century. By the late 17th century, Japan was producing vast amounts of porcelain — including chargers.— for export through the port of Imari. ‘Imari’ wares are typically decorated in underglaze blue and iron-red with gilding, becoming more elaborate in the 19th century.

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