General Misecellany

Parian Busts

The finest English porcelain--both soft- and hard-paste--were made between about 1745 and 1775.

English potters in the late 18th and early 19th centuries became resourceful and inventive. Their contributions consisted mainly of a much improved creamware, and jasperware, so-called black basalt, and a series of fine figures created by famous modelers and artists. Of these, Parian ware was the most outstanding and commercially successful.

The name of this ware was derived from Paros, the Greek island from which sculptors in ancient times obtained the creamy or ivory-tinted marble that Parian ware resembled. The first examples of this new product, described as "statuary porcelain," issued from Copeland and Garret's factory in 1842 and were immediately acclaimed. Two varieties of Parian ware were produced: statuary parian, used in the making of figures and reproductions of sculpture, and hard-paste, or standard, parian, from which hollowware was made. Statuary parian, incorporating a glassy frit, is classified as soft porcelain. Standard parian, with a greater proportion of feldspar in the composition but no frit, is hard porcelain. Early parian statuary was ivory-tinted due to the presence of iron in the feldspar devoid of iron silicate. Suitable deposits were eventually located in Sweden and Ireland. Both English and American potters either obtained details of the original formula or worked out their own, and the resulting production of Parian wares on both sides of the Atlantic was enormous.

Click here to view the Parian Busts Gallery.