Introduction to Majolica Pottery

Series Summary

Not enough glazed pineapples in your life? Perhaps a ceramic pitcher designed to look like a corn stalk is just what you've been looking for to top off your dinette set? Thinking about investing in a giant pottery watermelon with a green stripe exterior that lifts off to reveal a bright pink inside? Would you be buying an unwieldy centerpiece or an undercover womb/pod which would one day produce a half-formed garden gnome? Majolica pottery may or may not harbor armies of alien fairy tale creatures, but it is definitely not for everyone. High relief and bright hues allow ceramic gardeners to create artichoke ashtrays, fern pattern plates and bamboo napkin holders. If this is your thing, read on. If not, well, perhaps your good taste is still intact...

In this series of videos on collecting majolica pottery, our antiquing expert discusses the history of majolica and explains the basis for the broad range of colors and hues. Learn why this variety of pottery continues to chip over the years and how to restore these pieces once chipping does occur. Should you decide to collect this unique style, our expert will explain what determines the value of majolica. Once your friends and family know just how much those asparagus napkin holders are worth, they will surely change their opinion of you.

Video Transcript

"It was introduced in the crystal expedition in 1851 and they came out with a line of dinnerware it's a lead base glazed based pottery very porous and it's fired in a really high temperature. So what happens over the years is the pieces continue to dry and as they dry they become more riddling porous. So you'll see a lot of chipping and a lot of pieces that have a lot of grazing on it you'll see because of the way it's fired at a high temperature so, it continues to dry. This one is a fan leaf on a bamboo pitcher where this is a corn with the corn stocks rising up from the corn it's a really natural display of outdoor motif. You can see it in here with leafs in the fern pattern with flowers and this is Grecian Greek border on it, so that's another continuation of the outdoor motif. Here you can see a large leaf pattern and there's another extension of a large leaf pattern, and you'll see all the way through with a themes in here. This is a seaweed pattern very popular made by the Crushing Company, this is a beautiful platter behind it here's another motif with lilly pads and water lilly's with a button on the top. So there's an earthy tone with outdoor sea and forest motif with leafs and flowers that you'll see on a lot of these pieces, that are in the shapes of actually shells and here's a shape of a pineapple over here. You'll see an extension from all of these outdoors themes from high leafs to lead glaze pottery."