European ceramics is the broad term for the pottery and porcelain produced across Europe, from medieval earthenware to the great porcelain factories of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the antiques trade it is often used to distinguish Continental wares from British and Asian ceramics, although it can also include British production.
Tin-glazed earthenware was one of the first major achievements, developing from Hispano-Moresque lustreware into Italian maiolica during the Renaissance, French faience and Dutch Delftware, which imitated Chinese blue and white porcelain. True hard-paste porcelain was first made in Europe at Meissen in Saxony in the early eighteenth century, and factories soon followed at Vienna, Sèvres, Nymphenburg, Berlin, Frankenthal and elsewhere, often under princely patronage. Britain developed its own soft-paste porcelain, bone china and refined earthenwares such as creamware, which in turn influenced Continental production. The nineteenth century brought industrial manufacture, historic revivals and art pottery, followed by the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements. Collectors identify European ceramics through factory marks, body and glaze, decoration and form, but marks were often copied, so experience in handling genuine pieces is essential to avoid later imitations.
