China painting, or porcelain painting, is the decoration of glazed porcelain objects such as plates, bowls, vases or statues. The body of the object may be hard-paste porcelain, developed in China in the 7th or 8th century, or soft-paste porcelain, developed in 18th-century Europe. The broader term ceramic painting includes painted decoration on lead-glazed earthenware such as creamware or tin-glazed pottery such as maiolica or faience.
Wucai plate, Chinese export porcelain, Kangxi period c. 1680
Painters' workshop at the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory in Vienna c. 1830
Porcelain painting in Weimar, Germany in 1989
Vintage Royal Worcester bone china
Transfer printing is a method of decorating pottery or other materials using an engraved copper or steel plate from which a monochrome print on paper is taken which is then transferred by pressing onto the ceramic piece. Pottery decorated using this technique is known as transferware or transfer ware.
A typical platter from the heyday of transferware, 1820–50; an American scene ("Fair Mount near Philadelphia") in English earthenware Staffordshire pottery
A transfer-printed Wedgwood tea and coffee service. c. 1775, Staffordshire, Victoria & Albert Museum
A steel roller for transfer printing with the resulting end product
Tile designed by Walter Crane, c. 1890, made in Wheeling, West Virginia.