lead glaze A transparent glaze containing silica, alumina, and lead oxide, which can produce a high gloss and allow the use of transparent metallic pigments. maiolica Tin-glazed earthenware made in Italy during the Renaissance, usually decorated with opaque coloring. The term derives its name from the Spanish island of Majorca (maiolica in Italian), which exported popular Hispano-Moresque ware to Italy in the fifteenth century. Maiolica is the same technique as that used for delftware or faience. majolica Lead-glazed and/or tin-glazed porous earthenware decorated with transparent metallic pigments, introduced in England by Minton & Company around 1851. The company coined the term "majolica," an anglicized version of maiolica. Often used interchangeably in France and Portugal with faience. marks Names, letters, numbers, or symbols placed over or under the glaze on ceramic ware to indicate facts relevant to their origin and to the workers engaged in their manufacture. Marks may be impressed, incised, painted, printed, molded (sometimes raised from the surface), scratched, or stenciled. metallic oxide The oxide of a metal used as a pigment in the decoration of pottery and porcelain, either over or under the glaze. Oxides can be suspended in an oily medium for brush application, but the applied colors before firing are different from the final colors after firing. modeling For ceramics, the act of sculpting a ceramic ware (or from which a mold can be made for reproductions). Palissy ware Lead-glazed ceramics originated by Bernard Palissy in sixteenth-century France. In their most popular form, they are characterized by realistically rendered sea creatures and small forest animals, such as snakes, fish, insects, and foliage, usually in a pond setting. The term "Palissy ware" is also used for similar ceramics revived during the second half of the nineteenth century, principally in France, Portugal, and England. rustic ware The term applied to the genre of ceramics first devised by Bernard Palissy in the sixteenth century. They are characterized by realistically rendered sea creatures and small forest animals, such as snakes, fish, insects and foliage in a pond setting. Certain later ceramists stylized their designs. Saint-Porchaire ware White earthenware with inlaid decoration believed to have originated in Saint-Porchaire, France. Also called faiance d'Oiron or Henri Deux faience. It is believed to have been made during the reign of François I and to have continued under Henri II, the period of manufacture lasting from about 1520 to about 1550. The body is fine in texture, and the thin overlying glaze has the appearance of a varnish, giving the ware a cream color. Before firing, designs were impressed into the clay with metal stamps of the kind that bookbinders used for tooling leather. These impressed designs were filled with colored slip, especially yellow-ocher and brown. The inlaid designs were scrolls, coats of arms, and a variety of abstract motifs popular at the time, especially those used on book covers. Relief work in the form of masks and similar details was often added. Fewer than 100 pieces survive, and nearly all of these are in public museums. Recent findings suggest Bernard Palissy may have made some Saint-Porchaire ware at his Paris workshop (1565-72). shard (or sherd) A fragment of pottery or porcelain, often found in archaeological digs and excavations. slip Fine clay mixed with water in a creamlike suspension used to adhere appliques or pottery parts to a clay body. It can also be used to coat rough clay surfaces and for relief decoration. stoneware Pottery made of clay and a fusible stone; fired between 1200°C and 1400°C, halfway between earthenware and porcelain; opaque, very hard and nonporous; additional glaze is unnecessary except for decoration. tin glaze Glaze made white and opaque by adding tin oxide; applied to biscuit earthenware as a background for polychrome decoration with metallic-oxide glazes and can itself be colored by adding metallic oxides. *Certain definitions have been reprinted from "Majolica: A Complete History and Illustrated Survey" by Marilyn G. Karmason with Joan B. Stacke, Abrams, New York by permissions of the authors.