Teapots Scramble Squares®

Description

The ladies in particular love this beautiful Teapots Scramble Squares® puzzle with its background of antique lace.

Fascinating Facts

Pottery has served humankind in both function and form for at least eight thousand years. The earliest known pottery is from Asia Minor, between the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea, and dates back to approximately 6,000 B.C. Painted pottery evolved one thousand years later in Syria, Mesopotamia and Egypt. Wheel thrown and kiln baked richly painted pottery emerged in these same regions between 4,000 B.C. and 3,000 B.C.

Lead glazed pottery, originally used by the Egyptians and Mesopotamians, was introduced by the Roman Empire throughout Europe and into China through Rome’s early trade with China. The classic period for pottery in China began around 1100 A.D. The Imperial Porcelain Factory was established during the Ming Dynasty in the 14th Century A.D., where pure white and cobalt blue porcelain was developed with underglaze painting, leading to a large export trade during the 17th Century. Japanese pottery used for the tea ceremony originated in the 17th Century and was exported to the West along with Imari porcelain.

The expansion of the British population and the availability of the British Empire’s huge overseas markets led to the world’s leading pottery industry, in both overall quality and quantity, in Britain during the 19th Century, while the world’s finest quality porcelain outside of China was produced in Meissen, Germany. The Great Exhibition in England in 1851 marked the start of the modern era of commercial art, uniting fine artists with skilled craftsmen to produce porcelain art objects sought by the large, affluent middle class which was emerging from the Industrial Revolution.