This is an overview of pottery (specifically vases) from around the world, focusing on examples from the six main continents.

1. Vases from the Six Main
Continents

2. Native American Vases
American Indian pottery traditions are difficult to
generalize about because they developed so
differently in different tribes. The fact of the matter
is, everybody needs someplace to store their corn.
As far as I know just about every culture that does
any farming at all developed pottery in ancient
times, and American Indians are no exception.
Southwestern pottery is probably the most famous,
for its colorful designs and figures, distinctive forms
like the double-spouted wedding vase (seen to the
right), and unique techniques like the Pueblo "black
on black" firing. The Southwest tribes are
unquestionably the ones who have preserved their
ceramics heritage the best--and, not coincidentally,
the ones who still live nearest to their original
homelands. Elsewhere in North America, Native
Americans were forcibly transplanted to
reservations where their traditional agriculture was
not viable; some tribes, like the Sioux and
Cheyenne, abandoned their farming practices and
adopted a more nomadic lifestyle when they
acquired horses from the Europeans and were able
to pursue the buffalo herds.

3. Some artists from non-
Southwestern tribes
have recently begun to
reclaim their ceramic
traditions. Though
Native American pottery
styles, firing and
finishing methods, and
decorative patterns
varied widely, the basic
technology did not--as
far as I know no tribe
ever used pottery
wheels or other
spinning instruments.
All of them made coil
and pinch pots by hand,
as their descendants
still do today.

4. South American (Incan) Vases
• Hiram Bingham, the American explorer who
found the ruins of Machu Picchu in 1911,
wrote: In addition to agriculture and the
breeding of useful plants and animals, the
Incas carried to a remarkable extreme the
manufacture of graceful, symmetrical pottery.
They learned to recognize different kinds and
qualities of potter's clay. It seems likely that a
form of potter's wheel must have been used in
the manufacture of their jars.
• There was nothing crude or uncouth about
their pottery. Most of it was made with the
utmost skill, hard finished with polished and
painted surface from which every trace of the
process of manufacture had been removed.
Unlike the primitive pottery of the Indian tribes
in the Amazonian Basin, and in many parts of
America, Inca pottery gives abundant
evidence, in its symmetry and fine proportions,
as well as in its finish, that the makers were
the inheritors of a thousand years of culture
and love of beauty. Their pieces were
admirably designed for the uses to which they
were put and just enough decoration to please
and satisfy the most fastidious owner.

5. • Inca designs were nearly always
geometrical and conventional.
They included squares repeated
one within the other, cross-
hatching, rows of triangles,
parallel lines, rows of lozenges,
elaborate scrolls, a
conventionalized necklace
design consisting of a large
number of disks each
suspended by separate strings
from the principal cord. The bar
and double-cross pattern which
occurs frequently on the
handles of Inca pottery is clearly
imitative of ancient basketry and
derives from the easiest from of
making handles.

6. Asian (Chinese) Vases
• The Ming Dynasty saw an extraordinary
period of innovation in ceramic manufacture.
Kilns investigated new techniques in design
and shapes, showing a predilection for color
and painted design, and an openness to
foreign forms. The Yongle Emperor (1402-24)
was especially curious about other countries
(as evidenced by his support of the eunuch
Zheng He's extended exploration of the Indian
Ocean, and enjoyed unusual shapes, many
inspired by Islamic metalwork, During the
Xuande reign (1425–35), a technical
refinement was introduced in the preparation
of the cobalt used for underglaze blue
decoration. Prior to this the cobalt had been
brilliant in color, but with a tendency to bleed
in firing; by adding a manganese the color
was duller, but the line crisper. Xuande
porcelain is now considered among the finest
of all Ming output.

7. • In addition to these
decorative innovations, the
late Ming period underwent
a dramatic shift towards a
market economy, exporting
porcelain around the world
on an unprecedented scale.
Thus aside from supplying
porcelain for domestic use,
the kilns at Jingdezhen
became the main production
centre for large-scale
porcelain exports to Europe
starting with the reign of the
Wanli Emperor (1572-1620).
By this time kaolin and
pottery stone were mixed in
about equal proportions.
Kaolin produced wares of
great strength when added
to the paste; it also
enhanced the whiteness of
the body - a trait that
became a much sought after
property, especially when
form blue-and-white wares
grew in popularity.

8. European (Greek)
Vases
Between the beginning of the sixth and the end of the fourth
centuries B.C., black- and red-figure techniques were used in
Athens to decorate fine pottery while simpler, undecorated
wares fulfilled everyday household purposes. With both
techniques, the potter first shaped the vessel on a wheel.
Most sizeable pots were made in sections; sometimes the
neck and body were thrown separately, and the foot was
often attached later. Once these sections had dried to a
leather hardness, the potter assembled them and luted the
joints with a slip (clay in a more liquid form). Lastly, he added
the handles. In black-figure vase painting, figural and
ornamental motifs were applied with a slip that turned black
during firing, while the background was left the color of the
clay.
Source:
Athenian Vase Painting: Black- and Red-Figure Techniques | Thematic Essay |
Heilbrunn
Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

9. • Figures could be
articulated with glaze lines
or dilute washes of glaze
applied with a brush. The
red-figure technique was
invented around 530 B.C.,
quite possibly by the
potter Andokides and his
workshop. It gradually
replaced the black-figure
technique as innovators
recognized the
possibilities that came
with drawing forms, rather
than laboriously
delineating them with
incisions. The use of a
brush in red-figure
technique was better
suited to the naturalistic
representation of
anatomy, garments, and
emotions.
Source:
Athenian Vase Painting: Black- and Red-Figure Techniques | Thematic Essay |
Heilbrunn
Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

10. African Vases
• The continent's master
potters--primarily
women--display their
dexterity by
handbuilding a variety
of vessels, coloring their
surfaces with slips or
other concoctions
prepared from clay or
vegetable sources,
incising or impressing
decorations with wood
or metal tools, and firing
the vessels at low
temperatures. The rich
earthen bodies of their
creations are often
decorated and
sometimes burnished.

11. • The malleable quality of moist clay and a potter's skill
allow her to create forms ranging from bowls of minimal
form to water bottles of complex shapes. These objects,
often cherished by individuals and families, may remain
undecorated or may be embellished in various ways.
• Once a vessel is formed and dried to a leather-hard
state, a potter has a series of choices. She may cut
intricate designs into the clay surface with a wood or
metal blade; create a roughened, textured surface by
impressing patterns with a roulette; burnish the surface
to a high sheen; or alter the original form by adding
handles, clay pellets, or strips. She may color the entire
surface or apply a slip (colored, clay wash) to highlight
the decorative areas, which often appear on the most
visible parts of a vessel--namely, the neck and
shoulders.
• http://www.nmafa.si.edu/exhibits/ceramics.htm

12. Australian Vases
Like other areas of the world,
Australia does not a have a
rich heritage of creating
pottery. In this section,
contemporary (current) or
recent ceramic pieces are
shown.

13. • This wheel-thrown
Majolica glazed
earthenware Garden
urn, was made by
John Koster at his
Premier Pottery in
Norwood, Adelaide, in
1901, to mourn the
death of Queen
Victoria.
It is hand decorated
with the profile
portraits of Queen
Victoria, Prince Albert
and the Royal Coat of
Arms.