Stilt (ceramics)

Stilts are small supports used when firing glazed ceramics to stop the melting glaze from fusing them to each other or the kiln.[1][2] Stilts are a form of kiln furniture.[3] Their presence in archaeological sites along with other kiln furniture such as saggars and kiln bars can be used to support a case for local production.[3] Some potters avoid the need for stilts by not glazing the bottom of their products.[4] This is known as dry footing.[4]

History

Various types of stilts have been developed over the centuries:

Tripod stilt

The tripod stilt, which has three legs with a raised point on each end, appears to have been developed in China at least as far back as the third century AD.[2][5] Tripod stilts have been found during excavations in Ur.[6]

It was adopted by the Islamic world in the 9th century AD and was latter adopted by the Byzantines around the start of the 13th century.[2] The use of this stilt can be deduced from damage to the glaze where the three raised points were in direct contact with it.[2] A similar type of stilt appears to have been used in the Staffordshire area and perhaps Scotland between the 1760s and 1850s.[7]

Ring stilt

A slightly damaged ring stilt

Ring stilts, which consist of a ring with three raised points of clay placed at equal distances around the rim, were in use in the second half of the 18th century.[7]

Crown stilt

Crown stilts were in use during much the same time period as ring stilts.[7]

Other types

Saggars in the Gladstone Pottery Museum

A stilt has been found at a Roman kiln site near Holt, Wrexham County Borough dating to around the first or second century AD.[8] It was designed to be used within a saggar and has clay pads supporting it within the saggar.[8]

Manufacture

In the 19th century centralised industrial production of molded three-arm stilts began common in the UK with Staffordshire exporting them to other parts of the country.[9] Some of the manufactures appear to have used distinctive mold designs.[9]

Stilts are still used and produced today and are marketed by pottery suppliers.[6]

Non-pottery uses

Some researchers have used kiln stilts as a settlement substrate for coral larva including those of the species Dendrogyra cylindrus.[10]

References

  1. ↑ Elliott, Gordon (2006). Aspects of Ceramic History: A Series of Papers Focusing on the Ceramic Artifact As Evidence of Cultural and Technical Developments. p. 73. ISBN 0955769019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Papanicola-Bakirtzē, Dēmētra; Maguire, Eunice Dauterman; Maguire, Henry (1992). Ceramic Art from Byzantine Serres. University of Illinois Press. pp. 25–27. ISBN 0252063031.
  3. 1 2 Hunt, Alice M W (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Ceramic Analysis. Oxford University Press. p. 151. ISBN 0199681538.
  4. 1 2 Pat, Spark; Coreson, Linda; Houglum, Lyla (2006). 4-H cast ceramics. Oregon State University. Extension Service. p. 8.
  5. ↑ Stern, Edna J (1998). "Evidence of Early Islamic Pottery Production in Acre". 'Atiqot /עתיקות. 36: 23–25.
  6. 1 2 de Alarcon, Tessa (3 July 2014). "Standing on Stilts the Glazed Ceramics from Ur". Penn Museum Blog. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Retrieved 12 April 2018.
  7. 1 2 3 Haggarty, George Raymond. "Newbigging Pottery, Musselburgh:Ceramic Resource Disk" (PDF). National Museums Scotland Research Repository. National Museums Scotland. Retrieved 7 April 2018.
  8. 1 2 Peel, R.A (April 1965). "Ceramics: Pottery". The crafts of Roman Britain (PDF) (MA). Durham University. pp. 42–44. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  9. 1 2 Haggarty, George Raymond. "The Verreville Pottery Glasgow "CD Rom"" (PDF). National Museums Scotland Research Repository. National Museums Scotland. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  10. ↑ Marhaver, Kristen L; Vermeij, Mark JA; Medina, Mónica M (16 March 2015). "Reproductive natural history and successful juvenile propagation of the threatened Caribbean Pillar Coral Dendrogyra cylindrus". BMC Ecology. 15 (9). doi:10.1186/s12898-015-0039-7. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
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