Audio tour First floor / 2.1 Creamware

Creamware was a key contribution by English potters to the history of ceramics. It consisted of a very fine light-coloured clay to which was added calcined flint and lime. A lead glaze covered the whole body. Developed around 1740 in Staffordshire, this new ceramic technique reached its zenith twenty years later. Its large-scale manufacture was one of the first concrete manifestations of the Industrial Revolution.

As well as the innovative use of the engine-turning lathe for shaping, the English factories were the first to print designs on ceramics through a transfer printing process.

More refined and resistant than the traditional tin-glazed earthenware (or faience) and cheaper than porcelain, creamware enjoyed considerable success among the middle classes in Britain and Europe.