=Body.=--The body of a piece of earthenware is the clay of which it is composed irrespective of the nature or colour of decoration applied to its surface.
=China.=--This term is applied to porcelain of all classes, whether true porcelain of hard paste, _e.g._, Chinese, Japanese, Meissen, Plymouth, Bristol, &c., or artificial porcelain of soft paste, _e.g._, Sèvres (_pâte tendre_), Worcester, Chelsea, Bow, Lowestoft, &c.
=China Clay.=--The whitest clay known. Obtained in England from Devon and Cornwall. Used for porcelain, and also for light-coloured earthenware.
=China Stone.=--Known also as Cornish stone; used in conjunction with the china clay for porcelain, and employed for stoneware bodies.
=Cream Ware.=--This term applies to all light-coloured English earthenware from about 1750 to the present day. It varied in character from the Queen's Ware of Josiah Wedgwood, 1760, to the "chalk body" used by Wilson at the end of the eighteenth century. Cream ware of later date when broken shows a pure white body--a puzzling fact to beginners in collecting.
=Delft Ware.=--A generic term given to earthenware with tin enamelled surface. True Delft ware was made at Delft in Holland after 1600, but it was successfully imitated at Lambeth, Bristol, Liverpool, &c.
=Earthenware.=--All ware may be termed earthenware which when in the _biscuit_ state is too porous for domestic use but requires a coating of glaze. As a rule, earthenware is opaque, differing in this respect from porcelain, which is translucent.
=Enamel Colours.=--The colours applied either in painted or printed decoration _over_ the glaze.
=Elers Ware.=--A generic term used in regard to unglazed red stoneware with applied decoration in the style of the Elers brothers.
=Glaze.=--The glassy coating applied to earthenware and porcelain.
_Lead-glaze._--The earliest form used in England was known as _galena glaze_, when sulphide of lead was in powder form dusted on the ware. Later liquid lead glaze was used, into which the vessels were dipped.
_Salt-glaze._--Common salt was thrown into the kiln, and the resultant vapour deposited a fine layer of glaze on the ware.
_Over-glaze._--This term applies to painted or printed decoration done _after_ the glaze has been applied to the object--_i.e._, over the glaze.