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Antique Italian Majolica, the refined, white-glazed pottery of the Italian Renaissance. The range of object do not vary from traditional ceramics. Italian majolica dishes, bowls, serving vessels, and jugs where made in different measurements and designs.
You can distinguish antique Italian majolica by its white, opaque glaze, due to the presence of tin-oxide. Because tin was an expensive substance to import in those days antique Italian majolica is far more rare then other sorts of ceramics. An Italian majolica workshop was manned by at least 8 men. Each specialized in there own department like gathering fuel, preparing and firing the ovens, preparing the raw clay, molding it in to shape, mixing and applying the glaze, and decorating it with ceramic pigments. In charge of this group was the "masterpotter". Normally he was the owner of the Majolica workshop.
Examples antique Italian Majolica pottery
Example Dutch antique Majolica pottery
In the 15th century Italian majolica changed. The colors became more vivid by adding a second layer of glaze. The tin glaze of the antique Italian majolica itself was a mixture of the elements of ordinary lead glaze and tin-oxide. This was liquefied with water and (most likely) a little gum arabic, into which the clay objects were dipped. Also around that time the colors of Italian majolica changed. By the early sixteenth century, a full range of colors was available: blues, greens, yellows, oranges, white, black, and brown, and several tones such as ruby red, pink and reddish brown. Several Italian majolica workshops in Deruta of Maestro Giorgio and his descendants in Gubbio specialized in those special color tones.
The Italian majolica production was led by the city of Florence. The technique of making Majolica originally came from Islamic Spain. How it was introduced to Italy is not clear, but at the turn of the 16th century the making of Italian majolica spread through the whole of Italy. The workshops were normally working commission based making custom-made designs for nobility.
Italian majolica had a last flowering at Urbino in the last third of the sixteenth century. But by the end of the century, production had declined due to economic constraints, although the so-called bianchi di Faenza, lightly decorated white wares made in Faenza, continued the tradition of new designs and fine workmanship.
Italian Majolica examples
www.majolicasociety.com/
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