white glaze

Ingredients

silica, quartz, feldspar, lime, clay material, sodium antimonate

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Achaemenid glazes were applied to siliceous (silica or quartz-based) bodies, to which various glazed colors were adhered (p. 139). These silica/quartz-based bodies consist of sub-rounded coarse particles of quartz bonded together by fused feldspar, lime, and clay material (p. 141). The glaze itself belongs to the silica-alkali-lime type (p. 141). White glazes specifically utilize sodium antimonate (Na-Sb) as an opacifier agent (p. 148).

Evidence

"Tite and Shortland and Jung and Hauptmann reported the use of sodium antimonate (Na-Sb) as an opacifier for white glaze in Achaemenid Susa."

Remarks

The use of sodium antimonate as an opacifier is noted as unique when compared with the composition of glazed artefacts from Mesopotamia (p. 148). In the case of siliceous-based bodies, glazes interact with the bodies without forming an intermediate layer, as the glaze is synthesized with and penetrates into the quartz-based body (p. 148). Some bricks carry fitter-marks carved or depicted in white glaze on the back (p. 142).