Best Pottery

The Manufacture de Sèvres is a historic French porcelain factory founded in 1740. Initially near Paris, it moved to Sèvres in 1756 and became renowned for producing luxury tableware and decorative objects using soft-paste porcelain. Its signature “bleu de Sèvres” glaze, a delicate blue ground color,...

Established by Josiah Wedgwood in Staffordshire in 1759, the original Wedgwood firm holds an important place in the history of British pottery. Its innovations included jasperware, an unglazed stoneware associated with colored bodies and contrasting relief decoration, and black basalt stoneware. The...

Rooted in late-sixteenth-century Kyoto, Raku family pottery developed through Chojiro's work for the tea master Sen no Rikyu. Its hand-formed tea bowls, or chawan, occupy an important place in Japanese tea practice. Shaping without the usual reliance on a potter's wheel allows subtle asymmetry and a...

Working in Biloxi, Mississippi, George Ohr developed American art pottery distinguished by exceptionally thin walls and dramatically altered forms. His mature work belongs to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and he stopped producing pottery in 1909. Folded rims, twisted bodies, and...

Established in 1763, KPM Berlin is a German porcelain manufacturer with a history connected to royal patronage. Its tableware and decorative objects belong to a tradition of luxury ceramic production in which the shape of a piece and its decoration both contribute to its character. The manufacturer'...

San Ildefonso Pueblo pottery represents a longstanding Native American ceramic tradition originating in New Mexico. The style is characterized by hand-built vessels often finished with a distinctive matte black glaze achieved through careful reduction firing. This technique, perfected over generatio...

Arita ware is porcelain made in and around Arita in Saga Prefecture, Japan, where production began in the early seventeenth century after suitable porcelain stone was identified. Much of this porcelain was historically shipped through the nearby port of Imari, causing exported examples to become kno...

Founded in 1826 in the Hungarian town of Herend, this porcelain manufacturer is associated with hand-painted tableware, figurines, and ornamental objects. Floral compositions and animal motifs appear alongside geometric decoration, often with gold accents. The appeal lies partly in the relationship...

Associated with the Northern Song imperial court, Ru ware is a rare Chinese ceramic tradition produced during a brief period around the turn of the twelfth century. Its defining feature is a restrained blue-green celadon glaze, often showing fine crackling across a softly lustrous surface. Simple ve...

Newcomb College Pottery was an American art pottery enterprise operated through the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College in New Orleans from 1895 to 1940. It trained and employed women as designers and decorators, while male potters commonly formed the vessels during much of its history. Its Arts and...

Nabeshima ware is a refined type of Japanese porcelain developed under the patronage of the Nabeshima domain in present-day Saga Prefecture during the Edo period. It was produced in controlled kilns for presentation to the Tokugawa shogunate and other elite recipients rather than for ordinary commer...

Santa Clara Pueblo pottery is a ceramic tradition practiced at Santa Clara Pueblo in northern New Mexico. Potters build vessels by hand from locally gathered clay, then polish, carve, slip, and fire them using techniques transmitted through families and the wider community. The tradition is especial...

Iittala is a Finnish design brand whose origins lie in a glass factory established in the village of Iittala in 1881. It produces glassware, tableware, cookware, and decorative objects shaped by Finnish and broader Scandinavian modernist design traditions. Its catalog includes work associated with d...

Mino ware is the collective name for ceramics produced in the historic Mino region of present-day Gifu Prefecture, Japan. The region became especially influential during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, when kilns developed distinctive tea wares including Shino, Oribe, Yellow Seto...

Bizen ware is an unglazed Japanese stoneware tradition centered on the Bizen area of Okayama Prefecture and recognized as one of Japan's Six Ancient Kilns. Pieces are fired for long periods in wood-burning kilns, where flame, ash, temperature, and contact with other objects produce natural colors an...

Jingdezhen porcelain originates from Jiangxi Province, China, a region renowned for its ceramic production since approximately 600 BC. This pottery is notable as the historical source of many world-renowned blue-and-white porcelains favored by emperors and affluent collectors throughout history. The...

Goryeo celadon is a type of Korean stoneware created during the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392). Its notable characteristic is the distinctive jade-green glaze, achieved through complex firing techniques. The pottery also features intricate sanggam decoration, a unique inlay method developed in Korea. The...

Raku pottery is a historic Japanese ceramic style developed in the 16th century. It’s notable for its unique firing process involving reduction atmospheres and rapid cooling, creating unpredictable surface effects like crackle glazes. Traditionally crafted by the Raku family, this pottery was initia...

The Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, established in France in 1756, was a state-run pottery producing luxury porcelain. It became notable for its highly skilled artisans and significant contributions to European decorative arts during the Rococo and Neoclassical periods. The factory primarily served...

Meissen is a German pottery renowned for pioneering hard-paste porcelain in Europe during the early 18th century. This innovation established it as the first European manufacturer of true porcelain and set a benchmark for luxury ceramics. The company's products are highly valued by collectors, museu...

Copeland Spode refers to wares produced through later phases of the English pottery business established by Josiah Spode in Stoke-on-Trent around 1770. The Spode enterprise played an important role in developing underglaze blue transfer-printed earthenware and in establishing commercially successful...

Kyoto ware, or Kyo-yaki, is a broad designation for ceramics made in Kyoto rather than a single clay body, glaze, or production method. It flourished during the seventeenth century in connection with the imperial capital, tea culture, and affluent patrons, with Nonomura Ninsei and Ogata Kenzan among...

Augarten Porcelain is a Vienna-based Austrian porcelain manufacturer whose institutional lineage reaches back to the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory founded in 1718. Production was revived in 1923 at Augarten Palace, where pieces continue to be formed, glazed, painted, and gilded using extensive handwo...

Acoma Pueblo pottery is a ceramic tradition practiced by potters of Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico, one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in North America. Vessels are generally hand-coiled rather than wheel-thrown and are known for thin walls, light-colored surfaces, and finely painted g...

Yixing zisha pottery is a traditional Chinese stoneware crafted from unique purple, red, or green clay sourced primarily in Jiangsu Province. This durable material has been shaped into functional objects like teapots since the Song Dynasty. The resulting pieces are valued for their ability to subtly...

Clarice Cliff was an English ceramic artist associated with Newport Pottery in Burslem, Staffordshire. Beginning in 1927, her Bizarre wares used vivid colors, geometric patterns, stylized landscapes, and angular forms that became closely identified with British Art Deco ceramics. Her work encompasse...

Shigaraki ware is a Japanese ceramic tradition centered on Shigaraki in present-day Shiga Prefecture and counted among Japan's Six Ancient Kilns. Its stoneware is associated with coarse local clay, visible feldspar inclusions, warm orange or reddish firing colors, and natural ash deposits produced i...

Clarice Cliff Bizarre Ware is a line of boldly hand-painted English pottery designed by Clarice Cliff and produced by A.J. Wilkinson Ltd. of Burslem, Staffordshire, from 1928, celebrated for its vivid geometric and landscape patterns that became emblematic of Art Deco in Britain.

Faenza maiolica is tin-glazed earthenware associated with Faenza in Italy's Emilia-Romagna region, where documented ceramic production extends back to the Middle Ages. An opaque white glaze provided a surface for painted decoration, including geometric, heraldic, figurative, and Renaissance narrativ...