Best Earthenware

Satsuma ware is a category of Japanese ceramics associated with the former Satsuma domain, now part of Kagoshima Prefecture. Early examples were comparatively restrained, while much of the ware made for export in the 19th century used cream-colored earthenware, fine crackled glaze, intricate overgla...

Palissy Ware is a distinct category of French ceramics that encompasses lead-glazed earthenware decorated with naturalistic motifs in high relief. The style is named after Bernard Palissy, a 16th-century French potter known for his rustic figulines, who created platters and jugs featuring lifelike s...

Onggi is a Korean pottery tradition encompassing earthenware vessels that may be unglazed, slipped, or coated with a breathable glaze. Large jars are used for storing and fermenting foods such as kimchi, doenjang, ganjang, and gochujang, often outdoors on a raised platform called a jangdokdae. Their...

Kütahya pottery is a long-established ceramic tradition centered in Kütahya in western Anatolia, Turkey. Its workshops produced tiles, tableware, devotional objects, and decorative vessels using underglaze-painted floral, geometric, figurative, and inscriptional designs. The tradition developed alon...

Uriarte Talavera is a historic ceramics workshop in Puebla, Mexico, founded in 1824 and known for producing Talavera poblana. Its artisans make tin-glazed earthenware through a multistage process that includes shaping, firing, glazing, hand-painting, and a final firing. The workshop produces vessels...

Faïencerie de Gien is a French ceramics manufacturer established in 1821 in Gien, a town on the Loire River. It produces faience, a glazed earthenware used for plates, serving pieces, decorative objects, and coordinated table services. Its catalog is associated with richly colored printed and painte...

Burleigh is a British pottery brand associated with Middleport Pottery in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, an area central to the Staffordshire ceramics industry. Its earthenware tableware is decorated with transfer-printed patterns, particularly blue-and-white floral and pastoral designs. Production is dis...

Astier de Villatte is a Parisian ceramics studio founded in 1996 by Benoît Astier de Villatte and Ivan Pericoli. The studio produces handmade earthenware using black terracotta clay, finished with a white glaze that develops a characteristic crackle appearance over time. Each piece is hand-thrown or...

Swansea pottery commonly refers to ceramics made at the Cambrian Pottery and related works in Swansea, Wales. The Cambrian Pottery operated from 1764 to 1870, producing earthenware such as creamware, transfer printed wares, and decorated domestic pieces; porcelain was also made in Swansea during the...

Sarreguemines refers to the French ceramics industry centered in the Lorraine town of Sarreguemines, where large-scale pottery production began around 1790. Its factories produced earthenware, majolica, transfer-printed tableware, architectural ceramics, and decorative objects for domestic and expor...

This category represents the enduring spirit of American folk potteryfunctional, unpretentious, and deeply rooted in local traditions. These pieces prioritize utility and simple, honest forms over high polish. They are perfect for the kitchen or pantry where beauty is found in honest, hardworking ma...

Wemyss Ware is a type of Scottish decorative earthenware first produced in 1882 at the Fife Pottery in Kirkcaldy. It is recognized for freely hand-painted subjects, especially fruit, flowers, farm animals, birds, and cats, applied over a pale or white glazed ground. Individual pieces often display v...

Caldas da Rainha pottery is the ceramic tradition associated with the Portuguese town of Caldas da Rainha, an important production center from the early modern period onward. Its wares include glazed tableware, naturalistic forms, and satirical figurines, often using vivid colors and modeled relief....

Gorky González pottery refers to the work of Mexican ceramicist Gorky González Quiñones, whose workshop in Guanajuato revived the region's colonial-era majolica tradition during the 1970s. Its hand-painted, tin-glazed earthenware draws on historical forms and decorative motifs while remaining part o...

Sargadelos is a Galician ceramics enterprise whose origins lie in a factory founded in 1806 near Cervo in northern Spain. Production was revived in the 20th century as part of a broader project connecting modern design with Galician cultural identity. Its tableware, vessels, and figurines are especi...

Vietri sul Mare pottery is a tradition of brightly decorated earthenware from Vietri sul Mare in Campania, near the Amalfi Coast. Local workshops are associated with hand-painted tableware, tiles, and ornamental ceramics using vivid Mediterranean colors and recurring plant, animal, geometric, and co...

William Adams & Sons was a Staffordshire pottery associated with the Adams family of English ceramic manufacturers and with production at Tunstall. Its wares included earthenware decorated by transfer printing, especially blue printed tableware, as well as pieces influenced by jasperware traditions....

Aluminia was a Danish ceramics manufacturer founded in Copenhagen in 1863 and known particularly for faience, a form of glazed earthenware. The company acquired Royal Copenhagen in 1882, after which the two names continued to represent different parts of the combined ceramic business. Aluminia produ...

The Lunéville faience tradition developed around a ceramics manufactory established in Lunéville, Lorraine, in the eighteenth century. Its production included tin-glazed earthenware and, in later periods, broader ranges of decorated tableware and ornamental ceramics associated with several linked Lo...

Astier de Villatte is a Parisian workshop founded in 1996 by Ivan Pericoli and Benoît Astier de Villatte. The brand is highly regarded for its handmade black terracotta pottery, which is glazed in white and inspired by 18th-century French and Italian designs. Each piece is handcrafted on a potter's...

Gladding, McBean was an American ceramics company founded in Lincoln, California, in 1875, initially drawing on local clay deposits for architectural and industrial ceramic production. Its consumer tableware became widely known under the Franciscan name, with decorated earthenware patterns including...

Coimbra pottery refers to ceramics made in and associated with Coimbra, a historic production center in central Portugal. The city became known for tin-glazed earthenware decorated by hand, including blue and white designs influenced by imported Chinese porcelain and other European ceramic tradition...

Nove pottery refers to ceramics produced around Nove in the Veneto region of northern Italy. The town developed as an important ceramic center during the 18th century, with workshops making tin-glazed faience and other decorated wares before production expanded into porcelain and related bodies. Nov...

Enoch Wood & Sons was an English pottery manufacturer active at Burslem in Staffordshire from 1818 to 1846. It produced useful and ornamental earthenware, including transfer-printed tableware decorated with landscapes, historical subjects, and views intended for overseas buyers. Its blue printed pat...

Terre de fer is a French term used for a dense, durable refined earthenware related to ironstone, rather than the name of one decorative pattern. Sarreguemines, the ceramics manufacturer established in Lorraine in 1790, used the material for table and household wares in numerous printed, molded, and...

Amstelhoek was a Dutch decorative-arts enterprise founded in Amsterdam in 1897 and associated with the Nieuwe Kunst movement, the Dutch counterpart to Art Nouveau. Its pottery included hand-decorated earthenware with controlled geometric and organic ornament, often using restrained colors and matte...

Çanakkale pottery is a tradition of glazed earthenware associated with Çanakkale, a Turkish city on the Dardanelles. Produced from local red clay from at least the 18th century, it includes bowls, plates, jugs, ewers, and unusually modeled vessels. Examples are distinguished by bold glazes, incised...

Wächtersbach pottery refers to ceramics made by the German factory established in 1832 in Hesse. The factory produced earthenware tableware and decorative objects for a broad domestic market, using molded forms, colored glazes, printed patterns, and hand-painted decoration. Work from around 1900 is...

Arnhem pottery commonly refers to the work of the Arnhemsche Fayencefabriek, a Dutch ceramics factory active in Arnhem from 1907 until 1934. It produced ornamental and domestic faience, including vases, bowls, and other glazed earthenware decorated with painted patterns. Its changing forms and motif...