History and Description of English Earthenware and Stoneware

From the potter's wheel to the museum shelf, the story of English clay is the story of a nation. Every shard holds a story. In A History and Description of English Earthenware and Stoneware, renowned ceramic historian William Burton opens a window onto workshops, kilns and tableware that shaped daily life from the early modern period to the high Victorian age. Blending meticulous scholarship with an instinct for beauty in use, Burton charts the history of English earthenware and the parallel rise of English stoneware pottery, from rustic kitchen wares to refined services for the drawing room. This classic illustrated pottery history works equally as a ceramics history reference, an antique pottery handbook and a practical collectors reference guide: as reliable as a museum curators resource yet written with a clarity that welcomes the curious general reader. From the great Staffordshire centres admired by Staffordshire pottery collectors to lesser-known regional potteries, the narrative illuminates techniques, glazes, forms and motifs that define eighteenth century English pottery and the exuberant surfaces of Victorian British ceramics, anchoring them within the wider story of British ceramic art history. A landmark work of William Burton pottery history, it preserves a vivid record of the makers, materials and aesthetics that transformed humble clay into enduring art. Out of print for decades and now republished by Alpha Editions. Restored for today's and future generations. More than a reprint - a collector's item and a cultural treasure.