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How do I know if my stoneware is antique?
Antique stoneware crocks generally feature a gray or brown salt glaze with cobalt blue decorations. Antique crocks have a distinctive appearance. Each stoneware crock displays a shiny-looking surface that results from the salt glazing process.
How do you identify stoneware?
Stoneware has a coarse texture and is often decorated with a brown or gray salt glaze with blue decorations. Salt glaze is the tell tale sign of a piece of antique stoneware and it is recognizable by the salty or pebbled surface on a stoneware crock.
How can you tell if salt is glazed stoneware?
Salt glazed stoneware is pottery with a translucent glaze which has a slightly orange-peel texture
- brown using iron oxide.
- blue using cobalt oxide.
- or purple by using manganese oxide.
How do you restore a crock?
How to Fix a Cracked Crock
- Empty the crock of anything that may be stored inside it.
- Squeeze super glue into the crack while you move the tube up and down the length and/or width of the crack.
- Allow the glue to dry for a minute or two, then wrap elastic fabric or an elastic bandage two or three times around the crock.
How do you clean antique stoneware?
Remove layers of dirt and grime by soaking the stoneware in a mixture of 1 cup ammonia and 2 gallons of hot water. Allow the piece to soak for 24 hours, then scrub lightly with a soft-bristled brush. Remove pencil marks or remnants of silver and other plating with metal polish or a simple pencil eraser.
What is Spongeware pottery?
Spongeware: The name says it all. A sponge dipped in colored pigment is daubed onto a piece of earthenware pottery of a contrasting color, creating an overall mottled, “sponged” pattern. A clear glaze is applied, and the piece fired. Most spongeware, however, was factory-made, from the mid-1800s well into the 1930s.