Salt Glaze
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Large Salt Glazed Stoneware Pierced Dish, England, Circa 1760
$1,280.00This beautiful pierced salt glazed stoneware dish was made in England circa 1760.
The dish was molded with basketweave panels and raised rococo scrolls.
It has eight lobes, each with pierced latticework.
The central well has a geometric diaper pattern, framed by a raised circular border.
The panels, the rococo scrolls, and the piercings are all arranged in a carefully balanced composition.
The surface retains excellent definition, with light passing through the pierced sections and animating the sculptural relief.
The precision of the piercing and the sharpness of the molded ornament create one of the most exceptional, ambitious, and technically demanding forms produced in eighteenth-century English salt glaze.
Forms of this type were produced with the American colonial market in mind and are today studied and collected within the field of eighteenth-century Americana.
An example of this model is preserved in the Colonial Williamsburg collections.
It is illustrated on page 151 of Salt-Glazed Stoneware in Early America by J. Skerry and S. F. Hood.
The authors note: ” the front of the pierced dish is press-molded with a variant of the basket-dot-diaper pattern, so favored in America for dinnerware, underscoring the close relationship between English ceramic production and colonial taste.”
Pieces of this caliber were luxury wares in their own time and are today regarded as true icons of eighteenth-century Americana stoneware.
Dimensions: 11.75 inches in diameter
Condition: Excellent with a slight kiln burn on the underside only (see last image)
Decoration: Press-molded relief with pierced latticework
Material: Salt glazed stoneware
Style: Mid-Georgian with Rococo influence
Origin: England
Date: Circa 1760
We also have in our collection a pair of oval-shaped salt-glazed dishes, and several other pieces .
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Salt-Glazed Solid Agateware Cat with Mouse England Mid-18th C. 1745-1760
$1,900.00A seated cat with upright ears and grounded paws, holding a small brown mouse in its mouth.
The figure is formed from two press-molded halves, joined vertically along the spine, with the seam carefully smoothed but faintly visible.
The marbling of the body flows in soft waves of buff, grey, and brown clay, the darker layers derived from an iron-rich brown marl that fires through the body to a deep chestnut tone.
The mouse, modeled separately in that brown clay, fuses seamlessly into the main body at the mouth, its form distinct beneath a continuous glaze.
A delicate cobalt-blue wash is brushed across the ears, shoulders, and body.
Under magnification, the blue is visible beneath the glaze, slightly diffused into it — clear evidence of pre-firing cobalt staining rather than post-firing enamel.
In the 1740s–1750s, potters around Fenton and Shelton perfected agateware by laminating clays of contrasting colors, an innovation traceable to John Astbury and refined by Thomas Whieldon.
Decorative animal figures served as tests of technical control: the joining of laminated clays, color migration under salt vapor, and shrinkage in complex forms. The cat-and-mouse theme combined domestic humor with a nod to natural history—apt for display on a mantel flanking a mirror, where reflected light animated the marbling.
The rhythmic flow of marbled strata across shoulders and haunches mimics the direction of fur, lending vitality.
The restrained cobalt accents provide cool contrast to the warm iron tones, a color harmony characteristic of Whieldon’s palette.
The modelling, neither naïve nor over-refined, aligns with other Staffordshire salt-glaze animals produced before 1760, when finer engine-turned wares supplanted press-molded novelty figures.
Material & Technique: Salt-glazed stoneware composed of laminated buff, grey, and iron-bearing brown clays (“laid agate”).
The mouse modeled separately in solid brown clay of the same iron-rich body, joined at the mouth before glazing.
Body and mouse salt-glazed together in a single firing.
Extra fine orange-peel texture typical of mid-18th-century salt-glaze kilns when using a saggar.
Entire open underside glazed, indicating firing on refractory stilts or within a sagger rather than on a raw kiln shelf.
Press-molded in two halves and luted vertically along the spine.Dimensions: Height 5.25 in (13.3 cm)
Current Condition: Excellent, with minor chips restored to the tips of both ears, a tiny flake on the edge of one ear, and tiny chips at the tips of both mouse ears.
Clay Composition: The alternating buff and brown laminations penetrate through the entire wall thickness, visible on the open inside of the body, proving genuine laid agate construction.
The brown strata and the mouse share identical color and hardness, confirming that mid-18th-century Staffordshire iron marl is the pigmenting agent rather than a later-applied oxide.
Further, very fine chips at the ends of the mouse’s ears indicate that the brown coloration is uniform throughout.
Salt-glaze Texture: The surface exhibits uniform micro-pitting. Later imitation glazes lack this micro-cratering.
The glaze is continuous and finely fused, exhibiting only the faintest granular texture visible under magnification.
This smooth surface results from moderate sodium-vapor exposure within a protective sagger, a technique employed in Staffordshire kilns to preserve the clarity of agate marbling.
Although lacking the coarse “orange-peel” found on heavier utilitarian wares, the microscopic pin-pitting and flow lines confirm a true salt-glazed surface rather than later imitation.
Cobalt Wash: The translucent blue tone blooms through the glaze, proving sub-glaze cobalt oxide, a technique current at Whieldon’s Fenton Vivian works and nearby potteries in the 1750s.
Press-Mold Join: The vertical seam corresponds precisely with known mold construction from Staffordshire animal figures c. 1745–60.
References:
1stDibs Antique English Saltglaze Agateware Cat Carrying a Mouse, (listed US $4,463.39).
Burnap Collection, English Pottery 1675–1825, no. 362.
Christie’s, London 2010, lot 82.
Chipstone Foundation, Marbled Agateware: Techniques and Identification, 2005.
John Howard Antiques, Antique English Saltglaze Agateware Cat Carrying a Mouse,
Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury 2021 sale, lot 950.
Henry Sandon, Staffordshire Pottery, 1970, pp. 52–53 (on blue staining and salt-glaze firing) -
Salt-Glazed Solid Agateware Cat with Candle Holder, Staffordshire, Mid-18th C. 1745-1760
$2,400.00This solid agateware cat was hand-crafted in Staffordshire, England, circa 1745-1760 from laminated salt-glazed stoneware.
An exceptional example of 18th-century English ceramics, it combines the technical innovation of early stoneware with the charm and whimsy of regional folk art.
A separately molded socket atop the cat’s head allows the figure to function as a candle holder.
The cat was made by pressing and molding sheets of layered and stained clay—white ball clay, manganese-stained brown, and cobalt-stained blue—to produce a swirling marbled effect that runs throughout the form.
Unlike surface slip decoration, this technique creates marbling through the entire body.
A clear salt glaze adds brilliance and enhances the depth of the pattern.
Cobalt blue highlights appear at the ears, neck, and across the figure’s body.
The eyes are formed from a darker brown clay that gives the cat an expressive, alert expression.
This is a rare and superb example of antique English agateware, a technically demanding and visually arresting ceramic technique pioneered in Staffordshire in the mid-18th century.
Marks: The underside bears the red ink mark “78.79.7B,” indicating prior ownership by a collector or institution.
Dimensions:
5.5 in. tall × 3 in. deep × 2.5 in. wide
Condition: Excellent; small chips to the tip of one ear and the top edge of the candle holder professionally restored
Price: $2,400
Key Features:
• Material: Laminated salt-glazed stoneware
• Decoration: Solid agate marbling from laminated, stained clays
• Construction: Press-molded figure with luted candle socket
• Glazing: Clear salt glaze enhances contrast and color depth
• Style: English Folk Art / Whieldon style Agateware
• Origin: Staffordshire, England
• Date: Circa 1750-1760 -
Americana Pair Antique English White Salt Glazed Stoneware Dishes 18th Century
$630.00Pair of 18th Century English Salt Glazed Oval Dishes — A Style Favored by George Washington
This lovely pair of small salt glazed oval dishes is a true piece of Americana—a style admired and imported by George Washington himself.
In the fall of 1757, Washington received the first of several shipments of white salt glazed stoneware from Thomas Knox, a merchant in Bristol, England.
These refined ceramics were fashionable and practical additions to his Virginia table.
In a letter dated December 26, 1757, Washington noted that the shipment arrived “incomplete with two things broke,” reflecting not only the fragility of the ware, but also its desirability and significance.
Made in England circa 1760, this pair of dishes is crisply molded in the Basket-Dot-Diaper pattern, one of the most elegant and technically accomplished designs of the period.
The fine white body, achieved through a blend of Devonshire clay and calcinated flint, marked a turning point in English stoneware production. Its cleaner, whiter surface distinguished these wares from earlier, browner-bodied examples.
Salt glaze stoneware of this kind was widely used in Colonial America and admired for its beauty and durability.
Shards of this pattern have been recovered archaeologically in Colonial Williamsburg, providing direct evidence of its presence and popularity in 18th-century American homes.
(See: Salt-Glazed Stoneware in Early America, Skerry & Hood, p. 151.)
This pair offers not only elegant design but also a tangible connection to the ceramics that helped shape the material culture of early America.Dimensions: 7.25″ long x 6″ wide
Condition: Excellent, with only minor original firing anomalies typical of 18th-century production
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