slipware, pottery decorated with various colors of slip, a thin mixture of clay and water. Slip may form a design on a contrasting background, or lines may be scratched through a coating of slip to show the color beneath, in the style called graffito. The decorated plates of the Pennsylvania Germans are good examples of slipware. Great beauty in decoration achieved through the use of slip may be seen on Greek pottery.

Pottery that has been treated with semiliquid clay, or slip. The technique was originally used to cover defects in body colour, but later evolved into decorative techniques such as sgraffito, carving, painting, trailing, marbling, and inlay. In sgraffito a pattern is incised through the slip to reveal the different body colour underneath. The Staffordshire potters in 17th-century Britain were famous for the decorative figures, flowers, and patterns they created by using dotted and trailed slip.

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