Staffordshire pottery in the context of Transfer printing

Jasperware, or jasper ware, is a type of pottery first developed by Josiah Wedgwood in the 1770s. Usually described as stoneware, it has an unglazed matte "biscuit" finish and is produced in a number of different colours, of which the most common and best known is a pale blue that has become known as "Wedgwood blue". Relief decorations in contrasting colours (typically in white but also in other colours) are characteristic of jasperware, giving a cameo effect. The reliefs are produced in moulds and applied to the ware as sprigs.

After several years of experiments, Wedgwood began to sell jasperware in the late 1770s, at first as small objects, but from the 1780s adding large vases. It was extremely popular, and after a few years many other potters devised their own versions. Wedgwood continues to make it into the 21st century. The decoration was initially in the fashionable Neoclassical style, which was often used in the following centuries, but it could be made to suit other styles. Wedgwood turned to leading artists outside the usual world of Staffordshire pottery for designs. High-quality portraits, mostly in profile, of leading personalities of the day were a popular type of object, matching the fashion for paper-cut silhouettes. The wares have been made into a great variety of decorative objects, but not typically as tableware or teaware. Three-dimensional figures are normally found only as part of a larger piece, and are typically in white. Teawares are usually glazed on the inside.

Transfer printing is a method of decorating pottery or other materials using an engraved copper or steel plate from which a monochrome print on paper is taken which is then transferred by pressing onto the ceramic piece. Pottery decorated using this technique is known as transferware or transfer ware.

It was developed in England from the 1750s on, and in the 19th century became enormously popular in England, though relatively little used in other major pottery-producing countries. The bulk of production was from the dominant Staffordshire pottery industry. America was a major market for English transfer-printed wares, whose imagery was adapted to the American market; several makers made this almost exclusively.

Lustreware or lusterware (the respective spellings for British English and American English) is a type of pottery or porcelain with a metallic glaze that gives the effect of iridescence. It is produced by metallic oxides in an overglaze finish, which is given a second firing at a lower temperature in a "muffle kiln", or a reduction kiln, excluding oxygen.

The technique of lustreware on pottery was first developed in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) in the early 9th century. Initially mostly decorated with geometric patterns, by the 10th century an Iraqi style with the design dominated by one or two large figures developed. After the Fatimid conquest of Egypt in 969, it became a great centre of lustreware production until the Fatimid Caliphate fell in 1171, soon after the potter's quarter of the capital Fustat (Cairo) was burned in 1169. It is thought that the Fustat potters dispersed to both Syria and Persia, and lustreware appears there about this time; later the devastating conquests of the Mongols and Timur disrupted these industries. The technique had spread to al-Andalus (the Islamic Iberian Peninsula). Hispano-Moresque ware in lustre was mostly produced in Christian Spain, especially in the region of Valencia – in particular Manises – and later Barcelona.

The Fulham Pottery was founded in Fulham, London, by John Dwight in 1672, at the junction of New King's Road and Burlington Road, Fulham, not far from Putney Bridge. Dwight is the earliest clearly documented maker of stoneware in England, although immigrant Dutch or German potters were probably active several decades before. By 1690 there was a rival stoneware operation in Fulham, run by the Dutch Elers brothers, who after a few years went off to become important early figures in transforming the Staffordshire pottery industry.

In its first years it was a pioneering force in English pottery in several respects, in particular salt-glazed wares and figures. After Dwight's death in 1703 the pottery made less ambitious stonewares until a revival in the later 19th century. It operated on the same site until 1956, and then until at least the 1980s as a base for studio pottery to be fired. Today, all that remains of the original pottery is one large bottle kiln, "probably 19th-century", which is now a Grade II listed building.

Wedgwood is an English fine china, porcelain and luxury accessories manufacturer that was founded on 1 May 1759 by the potter and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and was first incorporated in 1895 as Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd. It was rapidly successful and was soon one of the largest manufacturers of Staffordshire pottery, "a firm that has done more to spread the knowledge and enhance the reputation of British ceramic art than any other manufacturer", exporting across Europe as far as Russia, and to the Americas. It was especially successful at producing fine earthenware and stoneware that, though considerably less expensive, were accepted as equivalent in quality to porcelain (which Wedgwood made only later).

Wedgwood is especially associated with "dry-bodied" (unglazed) stoneware Jasperware in contrasting colours, in particular in "Wedgwood blue" and white, always the most popular colours, though there are several others. Jasperware has been made continuously by the firm since 1775, and also much imitated. In the 18th century, however, it was table china in the refined earthenware creamware that represented most of the sales and profits.

Thomas Whieldon (September 1719 in Penkhull, Staffordshire – March 1795) was an English potter who played a leading role in the development of Staffordshire pottery.

The attribution of actual pieces to his factory has long been uncertain, and terms such as "Whieldon-type" are now often used for a variety of different types of wares. Other terms reflecting the lack of certainty are "Whieldon ware" as a type, and "Astbury-Whieldon", used for early Staffordshire figures, where the two were pioneers. He worked in earthenware and stoneware, using a variety of types of body and ceramic glazes. He is especially associated with agate ware and tortoiseshell ware; in both cases Whieldon refined the techniques used, and made the types more popular.