Editing Pottery (section)

==Main types==
===Earthenware===
{{Main|Earthenware}}

[[File:Neolithic Majiayao Culture Pottery 03.jpg|thumb|Earthenware jar from the [[Neolithic]] [[Majiayao culture]] China, 3300 to 2000 BCE]]
The earliest forms of pottery were made from clays that were fired at low temperatures, initially in pit-fires or in open [[bonfire]]s. They were hand formed and undecorated. Earthenware can be fired as low as 600&nbsp;°C, and is normally fired below 1200&nbsp;°C.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.getty.edu/vow/AATFullDisplay?find=earthenware&logic=AND&note=&english=N&prev_page=1&subjectid=300140803|title=Art & Architecture Thesaurus Full Record Display (Getty Research)|website=Getty.edu|access-date=30 April 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222053343/http://www.getty.edu/vow/AATFullDisplay?find=earthenware&logic=AND&note=&english=N&prev_page=1&subjectid=300140803|archive-date=22 December 2017}}</ref> 

Because unglazed earthenware is porous, it has limited utility for the storage of liquids or as tableware. However, earthenware has had a continuous history from the [[Neolithic]] period to today. It can be made from a wide variety of clays, some of which fire to a buff, brown or black colour, with iron in the constituent minerals resulting in a reddish-brown. Reddish coloured varieties are called [[terracotta]], especially when unglazed or used for sculpture. The development of [[ceramic glaze]] made impermeable pottery possible, improving the popularity and practicality of pottery vessels. Decoration has evolved and developed through history.

===Stoneware===
{{Main|Stoneware}}
[[File:Japan, Muromachi period - Storage Jar- Tamba Ware - 2002.66 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|thumb|15th-century Japanese [[stoneware]] storage jar, with partial [[ash glaze]]]]
Stoneware is pottery that has been fired in a kiln at a relatively high temperature, from about 1,100&nbsp;°C to 1,200&nbsp;°C, and is stronger and non-porous to liquids.<ref name="Cooper 2010, p. 54">Cooper (2010), p. 54</ref>  The Chinese, who developed stoneware very early on, classify this together with porcelain as high-fired wares.  In contrast, stoneware could only be produced in Europe from the late Middle Ages, as European kilns were less efficient, and the right type of clay less common. It remained a speciality of [[Germany]] until the Renaissance.<ref>Crabtree, Pamela, ed., ''Medieval Archaeology'', Routledge Encyclopedias of the Middle Ages, 2013, Routledge, {{ISBN|1-135-58298-X}}, 9781135582982. [https://books.google.com/books?id=mhqV-Of0DqgC&pg=PA326 At google books.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010095414/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mhqV-Of0DqgC&pg=PA326 |date=2018-10-10 }}</ref>

Stoneware is very tough and practical, and much of it has always been utilitarian, for the kitchen or storage rather than the table. But "fine" stoneware has been important in [[China]], [[Japan]] and the West, and continues to be made.  Many utilitarian types have also come to be appreciated as art.

===Porcelain===
{{Main|Porcelain}}
[[File:Sèvres - brunissage 54.jpg|thumb|Contemporary porcelain plate by [[Manufacture nationale de Sèvres|Sèvres]]]]
[[Porcelain]] is made by heating materials, generally including [[kaolinite|kaolin]], in a [[kiln]] to temperatures between {{convert|1200|and|1400|°C|°F|-2}}. This is higher than used for the other types, and achieving these temperatures was a long struggle, as well as realizing what materials were needed. The toughness, strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainly from [[Vitrification#Ceramics|vitrification]] and the formation of the mineral [[mullite]] within the body at these high temperatures.

Although porcelain was first made in [[China]], the Chinese traditionally do not recognise it as a distinct category, grouping it with stoneware as "high-fired" ware, opposed to "low-fired" earthenware. This confuses the issue of when it was first made. A degree of translucency and whiteness was achieved by the [[Tang dynasty]] (AD 618–906), and considerable quantities were being exported. The modern level of whiteness was not reached until much later, in the 14th century. Porcelain was also made in [[Korea]] and in [[Japan]] from the end of the 16th century, after suitable kaolin was located in those countries. It was not made effectively outside East Asia until the 18th century.<ref>Cooper (2010), pp. 72–79, 160–79</ref>

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