Production strategies in the Nottingham salt-glazed stoneware industry
Eddy Faber and Pamela Wood (Nottingham City Museums and Galleries)
The production of high quality salt-glazed stoneware was an industry in which Nottingham potters excelled during the 17th and 18th centuries despite competition from producers elsewhere such as London, Staffordshire and Derbyshire (Wood 1980: 2; Cochrane 2001: 23-9). Archaeological evidence suggests that there were several contemporary potteries in the north east of the old city of Nottingham producing similar brown salt-glazed stonewares. Of particular interest are the two Morley family potteries that together represent production spanning from c. 1690-1790, as this provides a unique insight into the development of salt-glazed ware production in Nottingham.
A further understanding of the Morley family production techniques is possible due to the production of salt-glazed ware at the Thomas Morley pottery in Crich, Derbyshire which was active in the second half of the 18th Century. This project focuses on the relationship between the Morley potteries in Nottingham and the Thomas Morley pottery in Crich, aiming to investigate the use of raw materials at the two centres and to examine the technological processes behind the glaze production.
Elemental distribution maps for sodium (a) and iron (b), indicating the presence of sodium in the glaze and white layer, and illustrating the enrichment of iron in the glaze and depletion in the white under-glaze layer. Scale bar = 0.1mm.
References
Cochrane, R. 2001. Salt-Glaze Ceramics. The Crowood Press Ltd: Marlborough.
Wood, P.J. 1980. Made at Nottm: a History of Saltglazed Stoneware. Nottingham Castle Museum.