ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996               TAG: 9610220112
SECTION: HOMES                    PAGE: D1   EDITION: METRO 
COLUMN: Antiques & Designs 
SOURCE: KATHY SUE GRIGG 

IDENTIFYING PORCELAIN AND POTTERY PIECES

Once while helping a friend go through her mother's belongings after the mother's death, I came across a jug in a dust-covered box in the attic. With my hand I cleaned away some of the years of neglect that had settled on the piece and saw a camel painted on it.

In a second box, I found another treasure - a black vase-like piece that turned out not to be a vase at all.

Cleaned and sitting side-by-side, both looked to me to be pottery, but I soon learned a lesson in how to tell the difference between pottery and porcelain. Can you?

Pottery is baked clay and is porous. It can be sun-baked or fired in kilns and is also known as earthware or stoneware. However, the type of pottery is sometimes known by the name of its maker, such as McCoy or Red Wing.

Different types of glazes were used. In the 15th century salt was thrown directly onto the fire of the kiln to create a glaze for housewares, such as crocks and jugs.

Terra cotta also is a form of pottery. It has no glaze at all.

Porcelain is made from a nonporous hard paste, which is a white clay virtually free of impurities. Ancient Chinese were known for their beautiful porcelain pieces. Europeans tried to imitate by adding ground glass to the clay formula.

That created a translucent look, but the pieces, which came to be known as soft-paste porcelains, lacked the hard finish of real porcelain. Most of the early 18th-century English porcelain pieces were made this way, and they were so fragile that eventually they became rare and valuable. It wasn't until the mid-18th century that Europeon porcelains were made of the hard-paste formula.

So how can you tell the difference between pottery and porcelain? Easily. Hold the piece up to a bright light. If it's porcelain it will absolutely glow because it is translucent. If it's pottery, no light will pass through. Pottery is opaque.

The jug I found in that dusty attic is porcelain; the black piece, is pottery.

LENGTH: Short :   49 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:   NHAT MEYER STAFF This black jug (left) is really a 
          Victorian garden light. Oil  was put in the top and the jug was 
          placed on a pole. The vase (right) is a  decorative piece.  color