Tin glazed wares
London was the first major centre in Britain to make tin-glazed ware successfully and on a commercial scale at the end of the 16th century. The term 'delftware' was widely used from the 18th century onwards to refer to tin-glazed earthenware made in Britain, rather than the products of the famous Dutch centre of Delft. The chief attraction of tin-glazing is in allowing potters to decorate their wares with coloured pigments applied over a lead glaze made opaque by the addition of tin. During the later medieval period and into the 16th century, Londoners had only been able to enjoy such decorative pottery as it was brought into the capital from the Continent, with Spanish, Italian and Dutch or Flemish tin-glazed wares the most common types found on excavated sites.
The earliest manufacture of tin-glazed ware in Britain took place in 1567, when two potters from Antwerp, Jacob Jansen and Jasper Andries, set up a short-lived pothouse in Norwich. In 1570, they petitioned Queen Elizabeth I for a waterside site and a 20-year monopoly to practice tin-glazing in London. The patent was not granted and the potters had to set up their pothouse about half a mile north of the river, in Duke's Place, Aldgate, where Jansen is recorded in 1571 as a 'Pott-maker'. The factory closed around 1615, by which time production had already started on the south bank of the Thames in Southwark at Montague Close (c 1613), followed closely by the establishment of Christian Wilhelm's factory at Pickleherring (c 1618). During the course of the 17th century, further tin-glazed factories were set up close to the river in Southwark and Lambeth, at Rotherhithe and Still Stairs, Gravel Lane, Norfolk House, Copthall and Vauxhall. Another factory was established in Putney c 1680, south of the river and to the west of the main concentration of production sites, and c 1665 at the head of Hermitage Dock, Wapping, on the north bank of the Thames.
Featured types
| London factories (1570 - 1846) |
| Continental (1570 - 1846) |
Related objects
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NN15383 plate. | 16848 plate. | 11441a plate. | 11441b plate. |
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L235/10 tea bowl. | 79.53/2 tile. | 13477 tile. | 7048 tile. |
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