Gone To Pot

For many years our visits to the Midlands have been taken up with family and friends and there has been no time to explore the Potteries. Being retired we now have more time so we went to a factory shop at the Middleport Factory where Burleigh pottery is made.

This is now the only factory to use the tissue technique, dating from 1750, of underglaze decoration. It was explained to us that a copper engraving is inked, this is printed onto tissue paper which, when trimmed to shape, is applied to the unglazed (biscuit) pot and smoothed on with a brush and soap solution, transferring the pattern to the pot. The tissue is then floated off in water, the pot fired at 800 degrees C to bond the ink and then glazed.

Some examples of the tissues hang in the shop.

Backblipped after return home.