Salt-glaze or salt glaze pottery is pottery, usually stoneware, with a ceramic glaze of glossy, translucent and slightly orange-peel-like texture which was formed by throwing common salt into the kiln during the higher temperature part of the firing process. Sodium from the salt reacts with silica in the clay body to form a glassy coating of sodium silicate. The glaze may be colourless or may be coloured various shades of brown, blue, or purple.
German Bartmann jug, c. 1600
Salt glazed containers
Salt glaze jug, 19th century
Salt glazed jug by Doulton. England, 1875
Stoneware is a broad term for pottery fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay. End applications include tableware, decorative ware such as vases.
Jian ware tea bowl with "hare's fur" glaze, southern Song dynasty, 12th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art (see below)
Three contemporary stoneware mixing bowls
Telegraph insulator, 1840s-1850
American stoneware jug with Albany slip glaze on the top, c. 1900, Red Wing, Minnesota