Welcome to "Old World Pottery". We feature a large selection of hand painted Italian Ceramics, fine gifts and home accents. Our authentic Majolica wares are museum quality reproductions from the 15th and 16th Century originals. We offer a wide variety of jugs, urns, canisters, dinnerware, cache pots and wall plates in classic Arabesque-Renaissance styling. We also carry unique decorative contemporary pieces.
Enjoy the Tuscany look? Just bought a new home or wanting to redecorate? Come visit our showroom and let us help you find the perfect accent piece. Don't forget about the outside. We also have house number tiles, pots, planters and wall decor to decorate the outside of your home. Gift Certificates Available. Interior Designers and Decorators Welcome. We Ship Anywhere.
About Pottery
The production of pottery is one of the most ancient arts. The oldest known body of pottery dates from the Jomon period (from about 10,500 to 400 BC) in Japan); and even the earliest Jomon ceramics exhibit a unique sophistication of technique and design. Excavations in the Near East have revealed that primitive fired-clay vessels were made there more than 8,000 years ago. Potters were working in Iran by about 5500 BC, and earthenware was probably being produced even earlier on the Iranian high plateau. Chinese potters had developed characteristic techniques by about 5000 BC. In the New World many pre-Columbian American cultures developed highly artistic pottery traditions.
About Majolica
 Majolica, spelled Maiolica in Italian, the tin-oxide-glazed, painted earthenware pottery of Italy, reached a summit of artistic quality during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Majolica resulted from the grafting of the Islamic ceramic tradition of tin-glazing onto the ancient traditions of native Italian pottery. This occurred early in the 15th century, when sophisticated Hispano-Moresque wares from Valencia were imitated by Italian potters. The name majolica is derived from the island of Majorca, the headquarters of trading vessels sailing between Spanish and Italian ports. One of the principal Italian centers of majolica production, the town of Faenza, later gave its name to the French term for the ware, faience.
The molded or thrown clay piece was given a first, or "bisque" firing, then covered with an opaque lead- and tin-oxide glaze. (Leadless glazes are the standard for contemporary majolica potters, however.) Decorations were painted on the dry glaze, and a second firing fused both glaze and decoration to an even, glossy surface. This direct painting technique led to vigorous designs and novel imagery, producing some of the most delightful and artistically satisfying creations in European ceramic history. |
