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Sprigging (pottery)

Two teapots with sprigged decoration: on the right a Chinese Yixing teapot dated 1627, on the left an English imitation of the 1690s by the Elers brothers, who introduced sprigging to modern English pottery
Wedgwood teapot in Jasperware, c. 1840

Sprigging or sprigged decoration is a technique for decorating pottery with low relief shapes made separately from the main body and applied to it before firing. Usually thin press moulded shapes are applied to greenware or bisque. The resulting pottery is termed sprigged ware,[1] and the added piece is a "sprig". The technique may also be described by terms such as "applied relief decoration", especially in non-European pottery.

The alternative way to achieve similar effects without sprigging is to mould the whole body, which is also common. Pâte-sur-pâte is a very labour-intensive, and so expensive, method of producing similar, but more refined, effects in contrasting colors, invented in China and then in France in the mid-19th century.

  1. ^ Fleming, John; Honour, Hugh (1977). The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts. London: Allen Lane. p. 751. ISBN 0713909412.

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