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, 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.
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
Bow porcelain mug, 1750s
Jug in Staffordshire stoneware, before 1806
Pâte-sur-pâte is a French term meaning "paste on paste". It is a method of porcelain decoration in which a relief design is created on an unfired, unglazed body, usually with a coloured body, by applying successive layers of (usually) white porcelain slip with a brush. Once the main shape is built up, it is carved away to give fine detail, before the piece is fired. The work is very painstaking and may take weeks of adding extra layers and allowing them to harden before the next is applied.
Berlin porcelain plate.
Pâte-sur-pâte decoration by Henry Hollins, a former apprentice of Solon, on a pair of vases from Mintons, c. 1882. Birmingham Museum of Art
Berlin porcelain plate, 1900.
Mintons vases designed by Solon in the pâte-sur-pâte style, 1880, on display at Mount Holyoke College Art Museum
