Under-celebrated and misunderstood, this appealing speckled pottery, which was once mass-produced, is surprisingly elusive today. By Ellie Tennant
Spatterware is thought to have emerged in Scotland in the early 1830s, initially produced by a few independent potteries.
Cheap and cheerful, these simple ceramics, with their distinctive speckled designs, proved so popular that they were quickly copied in vast quantities by larger, more commercial Scottish potteries and, later, by firms across England, Wales and Ireland.
The term ‘spatterware’, which refers to the very specific ways in which the speckled effect is achieved, is often used incorrectly to refer to other types of spongeware, particularly in America. It is also frequently misspelt as ‘splatterware’, which causes further confusion for unwary collectors.
‘The raw difference between spatterware and spongeware is very clear,’ explains the refreshingly succinct Robert Young, of Robert Young Antiques. ‘Spongeware is pottery that has been decorated with a shape or motif that has been cut – either into a sponge, a potato, a root vegetable or even a cork – and applied individually, print by print, motif by motif.
By contrast, spatterware is freely decorated with flecks of colour and is, in effect, controlled splashing.’
So far, so simple.
However, there is a grey area, warns Robert. ‘Spatterware can be decorated with a natural sponge that has not been cut into a specific shape but is used to simply apply pigment loosely in a freestyle fashion, resulting in a random, mottled spatter effect.
Also, some spatterware with loosely sponged decoration features hand-painted brushwork motifs in the centre or borders with precisely sponged motifs.’
The ‘controlled splashing’ itself, which creates spatterware’s appealing dotty finish, reminiscent of the speckled surface of some birds’ eggs, was achieved using various methods. ‘Often, pigment was blown from pipes to create tiny little airbrush speckles, or else simply flicked from a brush,’ reveals Robert.
Stick spatter – where one stick was hit against another – was also used. ‘You’d hold a stick, which had a sponge on the end of it, loaded with pigmented liquid, then you’d hit it with another stick and literally spatter the colour onto the pottery.
Depending on how loaded the sponge was, what distance you held the sticks from the pottery and how hard you hit the sticks, you could control how fine the spray was.’
The same potteries that were manufacturing everyday, unmarked utilitarian spatterware were simultaneously producing much finer, higher-end pottery that would be sold at higher prices.
‘Spatterware was not only affordable, it was almost disposable,’ says Robert. ‘It was usually done on the cheapest pieces. Spatterware mugs, for example, often don’t even have a foot rim – they were very fundamental forms. Funnily enough, this is one of the reasons people like them now.’
Spatterware pieces were inexpensive to buy and they had a hard life. ‘Part of the rarity is to do with the fact that very few survived,’ explains Robert. ‘They went into rustic homes and they weren’t precious.’
Staffordshire became a hub of spatterware production. ‘Much of it was done on piece work,’ says Robert. ‘People would collect blanks, take them home and decorate them, then return them and be paid per piece – it was a cottage industry.’
Americans imported a lot of Staffordshire spatterware but also started to make their own. ‘The people who made it in England and Europe were settling in America so they took it with them,’ says Robert.
‘I don’t mean they took suitcases filled with pottery, but they took the skills, the designs and the
ideas with them. That’s how all American folk art developed. It has European roots, then takes on its own characteristics.’
In America, the term ‘spatterware’ is now often used to refer to all types of spongeware as well as spatterware. This confusion is compounded by online listings, as savvy auction houses and dealers tend to include both ‘spongeware’ and ‘spatterware’ in their descriptions and keywords to boost their Search Engine Optimisation, in order to reach as wide an audience as possible.
Pigment-decorated spatterware was mass-produced up until the 1930s when it became more commercialised and transfers were used to create the desired effect, reducing its character and charm. ‘The pottery firms found a method of doing it very quickly and, regrettably, it lost its individuality,’ says Robert.
Although the majority of British-made antique spatterware on the market today was surface decorated with pigment, you can also find slip-glazed earthenware with spatter decoration, though it is rarer.
‘These pieces were made more on the continent than in Britain. The Americans made more of it, too. You find it in Germany, France and Scandinavia,’ explains Robert. ‘Earthenware pottery was given
a slip coat and then another coloured slip was spattered over the top.’
In contrast to pigment-decorated spatterware, which is usually done using bright colours – mostly greens, blues and reds – and looks quite contemporary, slip spatterware is often in dull, muddy colours, and the various effects have unofficial names in the trade, such as ‘leopard spotted’ or ‘tiger pattern’.
Robert currently has an attractive French spatterware slip-decorated pitcher in stock for £280, which dates from around 1850. It’s an earthy orange with clay-coloured spatter decoration and has a rustic, simple silhouette.
Very early spatterware was all slip decorated. ‘I suspect it has roots way back – I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t happening in Greek and Roman times,’ muses Robert. ‘It’s a fundamental form of decoration for domestic wares and was certainly around before any ceramics were commercialised.
Pigment colours were very expensive, so early slip spatterware was always made using earthy colours. With these pieces, it’s the object itself that collectors want, whereas with the later pigment-decorated ones it’s the colours and freedom of pattern that appeals.’
While a rare object with a lovely combination of colours will still command a high price, demand for antique spatterware has waned somewhat in recent times. ‘It’s not such a collectors’ market as it was
a few years ago,’ says Robert.
It’s surprising really, because these pieces are fuss-free and embody timeless simplicity, suited to both contemporary and traditional interiors. New spatterware designs made by present-day artisans are emerging in trend-setting lifestyle boutiques on both sides of the Atlantic, too.
‘Spatterware pieces have a similar freedom of expression that artists like Jackson Pollock explored, although he used lines as well as dots,’ says Robert, with admiration. ‘It’s such a simple way to decorate pottery with colour, by loosely throwing it on, but the result is always so charming.’
The random individuality of each piece is the key to its appeal. ‘It’s more individual even than spongeware,’ argues Robert. ‘Spongeware changes plate by plate because the prints get wobblier edges, they get softer and harder depending on whether you have less or more pigment but, with spatterware, each object is different.
Even if they’re decorated with the same colours at the same time, you can’t control where the splashes land on the pottery, so they have a unique individuality.’