Pottery: Brief Background Types and Materials Techniques/Processes Forms Semiotic Reading

POTTERY
Brief background
Types and Materials
Techniques/Processes
Forms
Semiotic Reading
BRIEF BACKGROUND
• Pottery are functional and decorative objects
made from clay and fired at high
temperatures.
• Ceramics (from Greek “kermamikos”, potter) is
also a term used, although ceramics has a
wider application and includes objects for
industrial use
• Pottery is divided into three types:
Earthware/Terracotta, Stoneware, and
Porcelainware.
TYPES & MATERIALS
• EARTHENWARE
• STONEWARE
• PORCELAINWARE
TYPES & MATERIALS
EARTHENWARE- formed when surface shales and clay
are fired at low temperature between 1840 F to 2030 F.
TYPES & MATERIALS
STONEWARE- made from fine clay fired at higher
temperature from 2130 F to 2300 F
TYPES & MATERIALS
PORCELAINWARE- made from a mixture of kaolin
and feldspar and fired at very high temparature.
PROCESSES
• Preparing the material
• Working with clay
• Drying, firing, cooling
• Decorating, glazing
PREPARING THE MATERIAL
1. Quarrying clay
2. Cleaning/separating from the sediments
3. Drying to a doughlike consistency
4. Mixing in proper proportions
5. Kneading
WORKING WITH CLAY
1. Slab making
WORKING WITH CLAY
2. Coiling
WORKING WITH CLAY
3. Turn modelling or throwing
WORKING WITH CLAY
4. Hand modelling or anvil-and-paddle method
WORKING WITH CLAY
5. Cradling
WORKING WITH CLAY
6. Molding
DRYING
FIRING & COOLING
Bisque – fired pieces

- Can be the final stage or
can be further decorated
DECORATING/ GLAZING
FINISHED PRODUCT
DECORATIVE TECHNIQUES
• Modeling
• Incisions
• Impressions
• Carvings
• Paintings
• Incisions
• Impressions
• Carvings
• Paintings
• Modelling
FORMS
The Manunggul Jar
Ancient Jar
Wild-boar vessel from Casiguran, Sorsogon
Ethnic Masterpieces
Four-breasted jar from

Calapan, Mindoro
Pots of the North
Ilocano burnay Kalinga lidded jar

The Ethnic Tradition
Pottery associated with objects for daily use
Palayok
Banga
Tapayan
Tapayan
Most notable traditions that
represent Philippine pottery
• Sa-hyunh Kalanay pottery tradition

• Novaliches tradition
• Bau-Malay pottery tradition
Sa-hyunh Kalanay pottery tradition
 From the Kalanay cave site in northwest Masbate and other potteries in
the Philippines with the same characteristics as those from the original
site.
 Subdivisions:
 Kalanay pottery complex
 Tabon pottery complex
 Bagupanto pottery complex
 Asin pottery complex
Sa-hyunh Kalanay pottery tradition
*Kalanay pottery complex
 Generally have plain surfaces and
round bodies with plain, flared rims.
 Incisions are in a horizontal series of

diagonal-line combinations
bounded by straight or wavy lines.
 Cord-marked pottery is absent.
 Found in Cotabato and Batangas.

*Tabon pottery complex
 From various cave sites in western Palawan
 Distinct for its cord-marked pottery in the earlier cave sites and for its
simplicity in later sites.
 Dates back to 2000 B.C.
*Bagupanto pottery complex
Often classified with the

Kalanay complex as 17 of its
vessels were unearthed at the
Kalanay cave site
Generally have superior

quality, material, and artistry
Incisions are rare.

*Asin pottery complex
Distinguished by freehand-painted patterns,
which include horizontal series or curvilinear
scrolls
Found in the Asin cave sites in Davao del Sur
Novaliches tradition
Named after a
Novaliches cave
site north of
Manila
Its remnants are

also found in
northwest
Palawan and the
Calamianes
Islands
Dates from 250

B.C. to the fourth
century
Bau-Malay pottery tradition
• Geometric pottery of south China
• Named after a cave site in Salawak, Malaysia
• In the Philippines, it is found in the coastal sites in Mindanao,
Bohol, northern Palawan, and the Calamianes islands.
• Dates back to the 10th century
Bau-Malay pottery tradition
Unclassified pottery
• Ritual vessel from Cagayan
• Polished ritual vessels of Leta-leta
• Earthenware from Ngipe’t Duldug
• Two others from Palawan cave sites
• Others
Tradeware
– stoneware and porcelain from pre-colonial trade
with China and other Southeast Asian countries
Celadon (Sung and Yuan dynasty)
Blue-and-white porcelain (Ming
dynasty)
Others
• Blanc de chine ware

• Plain brown ware
• Monochrome ware (oxblood)
Thai or Siamese pottery
Thai celadon is slightly

heavier and often less
glossier (than Chinese
celadon)
Siamese and Anamese Pottery
Studio Pottery
– hand-made, usually one-of-a-kind pieces
by ceramic artists
Ceramic artists and their works
Tessie San Juan and

Jon Pettyjohn
• Lanelle
Abueva-
Fernando
• Nelfa
Querubin
The Jaime and

Anne de
Guzman family
Ugu Bigyan Fidel Go
SEMIOTIC READING
• Art and Power
• Art and Gender
• Art and Faith
Art and Power
Imported Ceramics
• In the Philippines, these generally symbolize
power and markers of elite status.
• It has been known that these were prestigious
because these were made of non-local
materials and/or unsual materials like gold,
jade and other precious stones
Lavish grave furniture
• For nobles and powerful people- The dead
bodies were buried along with various
articles of everyday use such as eating
utensils and weapons, and also with their
servants and domestic animals.
Terracotta Army
• The sole purpose of this immense
undertaking was to create a subterranean
army that would protect and support his
leadership in the after-life; reflecting the First
Emperor’s power, his much documented
obsession with immortality and the wider
cultural belief that you continued on the same
path in death as in life.
Art and Gender
Design
• Maitum burial jar • Four-breasted jar

Models of social organisation for the
production of pottery
(Rice 1981; Peacock 1982; van der Leeuw 1984;
Arnold 1991)
Based on patterns of increasing specialization in the
production of ceramics
1. Household production where each household produces its own pottery on an occasional, usually
seasonal basis.
2. Household industry where pottery continues to be a part-time activity depending on other factors such
as harvesting or weather limitations.
3. Individual workshop where potters are specialists although they may combine the activity with small-
scale agricultural work.
4. Nucleated workshops where potters are specialists and live or work in a particular area of the
community.
5. The manufactory where production is organised by an owner who has invested in equipment and pays
wages to specialist artisans.
6. The ceramic factory which appears in the post-industrial period and involves investment in powered
equipment to mass produce objects and market them effectively over a wide area.
7. Peacock has two further categories: estate production and military production where ceamics could be
mainly produced for a large organisation for its own consumption such as a military camp or a large
estate (Peacock 1982: 11).
Based on ecological factors
1. Land availability
2. Climate
3. Resources
4. Others
Among Ethnolinguistic Groups in the
Philippines
Pottery production
Some of the people who produce their own
pottery include the:
Kankanaey
Itneg
Maranao
Badjao
Etc.
Gender roles and significance
Among the Maranao, Badjao, Itneg, and other
groups of people, women usually do the
potting.
Among the Kankanaey, men engage in pottery.

Art and Faith
ART AND FAITH
• Native vision of the afterlife
• -belief in both the existence of the soul and
life after death
Burial jars
-related to the tradition of “grave
furniture”
Manunggul Jar (8th century BCE)
• found in a cave in the island of Palawan
• suggests the belief among early Filipinos in an
afterlife across a mythical body of water
• the designs were painted in red for emphasis and to
provide variation from the jar’s predominantly brown
color
Red – considered
as a sacred color
- Used
on special
burial jars
Talismans
• Celadons- considered as greater
talismans than local ware
- believed to change hue when
poisoned food was put on
them

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POTTERY

Bisque – fired pieces

Four-breasted jar from

Ilocano burnay Kalinga lidded jar

• Sa-hyunh Kalanay pottery tradition

 Incisions are in a horizontal series of

 Cord-marked pottery is absent.

 Found in Cotabato and Batangas.

Often classified with the

Generally have superior

Incisions are rare.

Its remnants are

Dates from 250

• Blanc de chine ware

Thai celadon is slightly

Tessie San Juan and

The Jaime and

• Maitum burial jar • Four-breasted jar

Among the Kankanaey, men engage in pottery.

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