The Frog Service or Green Frog Service is a large dinner and dessert service made by the English pottery company Wedgwood for Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, and completed in 1774. The service had fifty settings, and 944 pieces were ordered, 680 for the dinner service and 264 for the dessert. At Catherine's request the hand-painted decoration showed British scenes, copied from prints, with a total of 1,222 views. In addition each piece had a green frog within a shield, a reference to the name of the palace it was intended for.
The green frog carried on every piece. According to Josiah Wedgwood's Victorian biographer "he was very unwilling to disfigure the service with this reptile [sic], but was told it was not to be dispensed with".
Serving-plate with Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, Birmingham Museum of Art
Detail of tureen with view of Longford Castle, Hermitage Museum
Dish, ladle and saucer with "husk" border, Wedgwood, c. 1780
Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below 1,200 °C (2,190 °F). Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ceramic glaze, and such a process is used for the great majority of modern domestic earthenware. The main other important types of pottery are porcelain, bone china, and stoneware, all fired at high enough temperatures to vitrify. End applications include tableware and decorative ware such as figurines.
Top section of a water jug or habb. Earthenware. Late 12th-early 13th century Iraq or Syria. Brooklyn Museum
Tea served in a kulhar, which are disposable earthenware teacups in South Asia
Terracotta flower pots with terracotta tiles in the background