PORCELAIN AND FAIENCE.
269
ITALY.
Majolica.
Although specimens of majolica ware, as usually designated, were to be found from all the principal countries, it is chiefly to the Italian and Spanish sections that we should look for the typical specimens.
The name majolica is believed to be derived from Majorca, the Spanish island from which it is supposed the first specimens were taken or exported to Italy. The island, according to Fabio Ferrari, was called Maiolica by ancient Tuscan writers, and Dante writes, " Tra l’isola di Cipri e Maiolica.” Pottery was made there by the Moors from an early period in the Middle Ages, and it became famous. There is a statement, considered mythical by some, that, at the conquest of the Balearic islands by the Pisan fleets, in 1115, part of the spoil consisted of the famous Majorca ware, and that it was used for the decoration of the towers and façades of the Pisan churches. The term majolica, or maiolica, appears originally to have been restricted to the lustred wares,— those in which there was a nacreous chromatic effect, due to the partial reduction to the metallic state of the oxides forming part of the composition of the glaze. This lustre, though easily produced when the cause is known, was doubtless one of the great secrets of the art for a time, though doubtless produced, in the first instance, unintentionally by the imperfect combustion of the fuel in the kilns giving a smoky atmosphere containing free carbon, or carbonic oxide gas. A coarser ware, of potter’s earth, covered with a Avhite slip, upon which the designs were painted, and glazed with lead, • a vas known as mezza-maiolica. The true majolica was probably tin-glazèd, though it does not appear by any meftns certain that this constituted the distinction. Towards the middle of the sixteenth century, the terms seem to have been applied to all varieties of the glazed earthenware of Italy. Mr. Fort- num, with M. Jacquemart, M. Darcel, Mr. J. C. Robinson, and others, think that the word majolica, or maiolica, should be again restricted to the lustred wares, although in ftaly, and elsewhere, it is commonly used to designate all varieties