Alloy- a mixture of two or more metals. Bronze is alloy of silver and copper. Brass is a alloy of copper and zinc.
Amber- A translucent fossil resin. Ranging in color from yellow to brown.
Art-Nouveau- A style of art popular mainly from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. Known for flowing, curving, and interlacing lines. Slender supple design in light cool colors.
Bakelite- a synthetic plastic invented by Dr Leo H. Baekeland between 1907 and 1909. A combination of carbolic acid, formaldehyde, and lye.
Battersea- A town in England where a factory for making enameled articles was founded about 1750. Many beautiful enameled pieces were made in this factory before it’s bankruptcy sale in 1856.
Brocade- A fabric woven with a raised design.
Cabochon- An unfaceted stone or piece of glass imitating stone. Dome shaped and polished with the back of the stone being left flat.
Cased- a term from the glass industry used to designate glass that has an overlay of one glass on another. The core may have been clear opaque glass and the casing over it may have been clear or opaque and colored.
Celluloid- material used in a variety of ways to make goods. Discovered in 1869 by john W. Hyatt. It was first used to imitate tusk ivory. To test this material, apply a low degree of heat and the celluloid will produce a carbolic acid odor. Dyed celluloid bas been used to imitate other materials such as tortoiseshell and colored glass.
Champleve- Enameling where the item was decorated by stamping
or hand-tooling a design, creating wells for the enamel (ground glass) . The
wells were filled one color at a time and fired. The process was repeated until
all spaces were filled. Each with its own color.
Cinnabar- A name given to the only important ore of mercury.
It is used as a pigment. Lacquer and other materials colored with cinnabar
vary from a bright to a brownish red in color. A putty like material is built
up on the base and carved with fine tools. This soft material hardens as
putty does. And when it has hardened a Cinnabar lacquer or varnish is applied
to the whole item.
Cloisonné- Decorating with enamel. Fine wires were
soldered to the item to form the pattern. The wells, or cloisons, were usually
deeper than those stamped for champleve items. But the process of filling the
wells and firing were the same.
Composition-Any material made up of a mixture of substances.
Coral- A hard formation of calcareous skeletons built up
from tiny sea creatures. Has a distinctive pink shade all its own.
Crazing- The fine network of cracks in a glaze produced by uneven
contracting of the glaze after firing or later reheating of a piece during
usage.
Cream ware- a light colored fine earthenware developed in England in the late 18th century.
Daguerreotype-An early process of photography invented by Louis Daguerre. Around 1837. The picture was made on a thin sheet of copper coated with a light-sensitive chemical.
Damask- A type of fabric woven on Jacquard looms. A tone on tone scene was woven Jacquard style over a solid background.
Earthenware- A class of fine-grained porous pottery fired
at low temperature and then glazed. Widely used by the potteries of Staffordshire.
Eglomise-A type of reverse painting on glass This art had
been known by the Chinese for centuries was introduced into France by M. Glomy
and became popular there and in England in the latter part of the 18th century.
Enameling- Thought to have started in the East, long before the birth of Christ. Came to Europe in the 13th century Without any knowledge that it had been practiced for years before in China. Glass is ground by hand, the coatings of powdered glass must be applied to the metal with much care. Then is heated in a kiln. This colored sand once heated, produces different types of enameled finishes.
Faience- a form of fine earthenware featuring a tin glaze and originally inspired by Chinese porcelain. Includes Dutch Delft and items made in Germany, France, and areas of Europe.
Majolica- A type of tin glazed earthenware pottery developed in Italy and named for the island of Majorca. Revived in Europe and America in the late 19th century and usually featured brightly colored shiny glazes.
Married- A close match or a substitute for a missing piece.
Moriage- Japanese term for the slip-trailed relief decorations used on various forms of porcelain and pottery.
Pate-sur-pate- French for paste on paste. A decorative technique where layers of porcelain slip in white are layered on a darker background.
Plique a Jour- Enameling an item using wires to form the
designs. The wires were soldered to each other there was no base, The filigree
pattern was then filled with ground glass and fired. The finished effect resembled
a stained-glass window.
Porcelain-General term for translucent ceramics made in America
and Europe. Hard-paste porcelain is the true porcelain and soft-paste is the
other version
developed to imitate hard-paste.
Salt-glaze- Stoneware pottery Fired with rock salt thrown in the kiln during the process. This produces a hard shiny glaze like a thin coating of glass with pitted orange peel surface.
