Editing Pottery (section)

===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.