Salt-glazed stoneware is a hard, dense pottery fired to a high temperature, onto which common salt is thrown inside the kiln at the peak of the firing. The salt vaporises and combines with the silica in the clay to form a thin, glassy glaze with a characteristic pitted texture, often likened to orange peel.
The technique was developed in the Rhineland during the late Middle Ages and was used for German jugs and Bellarmine bottles exported widely to Britain. English production grew from the late seventeenth century, when John Dwight of Fulham made fine wares, and Nottingham and London potteries went on to produce brown stonewares such as mugs, jugs and tavern pots. In Staffordshire a refined white salt-glazed stoneware, sometimes moulded or enamelled, was an important tableware of the mid-eighteenth century before creamware replaced it. During the Victorian period Doulton of Lambeth and other makers used salt glaze for decorative art pottery as well as bottles, jars, drainpipes and chemical wares. Collectors value early dated pieces, crisp moulding and good colour. The robust, practical character of salt-glazed stoneware makes it well suited to kitchens and country interiors.
