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Old and New World Spanish Majolica Technology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2013

Jacqueline S. Olin  and
J. Emlen Myers
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Extract

Majolica pottery is an earthenware covered with lead glaze opacified and whitened by adding a small percentage of tin oxide. The technology of majolica production, a Muslim contribution, was introduced into Spain and then diffused to the Western Hemisphere in the course of colonization very soon after the Spanish arrival in Mexico in 1521. (See Table I for Majolica production sources and excavation sites.)

In the 1980s there were two references on the organization of majolica production in both Spain and the New World. Descriptions of the layouts of the potters' workshops, of the sources of the clays, how the kilns were used, and how the glazes were made are taken from historical and ethnographic sources. These authors also discuss the interesting and important effect of the presence of Italian potters in both Seville and the New World. However, little has been written based on archaeologically excavated material from Seville, the main source of supply to the New World, or from known Puebia or Mexico City production.

In the 1970s a project involving neutron activation analysis of Spanish majolica ceramics was developed through the cooperative efforts of Malcolm Watkins and Richard Ahlborn of the National Museum of American History, Charles Fairbanks of the University of Florida, and Jacqueline Olin. Neutron activation analysis provides precise simultaneous determination of the concentrations of up to 35 elements. Two chemically distinct groups of ceramics were identified among sherds excavated at New World sites. They could be stylistically divided between Spanish and Mexican production with some important exceptions.

Type
Art and Technology
Information
MRS Bulletin , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , January 1992 , pp. 32 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1992

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