Identifying pottery and ceramics

Fabric, surface, and how it was formed.

Look first at the fabric in a fresh break: colour, hardness, and inclusions (sand, grog, shell) all help place it. The break tells you more than the decorated surface ever will.

Wheel-thrown pots show fine spiral “throwing rings” inside; hand-built and molded wares do not. Glaze, slip, and paint sit on the surface and can be later than the body.

Rims are the most diagnostic sherds — a rim profile can often be matched to a published form series and give a date range on its own. Note sooting, limescale, and wear inside the base too: they record how the pot was actually used.

Black-figure and red-figure Greek wares, glazed medieval jugs, and unglazed earthenwares each have distinct fabrics and finishes — compare against published types, and record fabric, form, and surface treatment as three separate observations.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on pottery

Identifying terracotta figurines — Mould lines and vent holes.

Identifying amphorae and transport pottery — Shape equals cargo.

Identifying tiles and brick — Fabric, stamp, and format.

Identifying Roman samian ware — Glossy red tableware with moulded scenes and potters' stamps.

Identifying Roman coarse wares — The kitchen pottery of the empire — greywares, mortaria, and flagons.

Identifying Greek painted pottery — Black-figure, red-figure, and the glossy slip that defines them.

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