How Were Ceramic Pieces Repaired in the Past? Techniques and Secrets

Today we’re writing a post we find really fascinating – one we’ve been wanting to share for a long time.

As you know, in the past almost everything was repaired, and of course the same was true for ceramic pieces. People tried to restore them whenever possible to extend their life. Around the world, the techniques used to repair pots and vessels vary a lot. In future posts we’d also like to talk about other methods used in Japan (not only Kintsugi), in China (porcelain repair) or in India.

In this post, however, we’ll focus on the Iberian Peninsula and some areas of France.

We’ll separate a few different cases:

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1) Clay-based repair pastes

In wood-fired kilns it was common for many ceramic pieces to come out with defects. In these cases they were repaired with a special paste, whose recipe was often a closely guarded secret of each potter. It was also used for small breaks caused by knocks.

In most potteries this paste was made by mixing egg white and quicklime, then adding some clay. This paste was also used as a kind of “glue” to join broken pieces.

The colour was adjusted by adding clay, and in many workshops they also added a bit of lead (which they usually had on hand anyway, since lead was used for making glazes together with tin and sand, among other mixtures).

For porcelain, lead was also added, and the resulting paste was white, closer to the colour of the porcelain body. There were porcelain repairers in France, in England and of course in China.

In some prestigious potteries, such as the one in Estella (Navarre) and in several workshops in southern France, the paste was made with pig’s blood and quicklime (replacing the egg white with pig’s blood). This latter version was used a lot, for example, when metal staples were inserted to hold cracks together in vessels.

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2) Cracks in clay pieces (repairing ceramics with staples)

Using a hand drill (brace and bit) or rods from old umbrellas and similar tools, holes were drilled on both sides of the crack so that metal staples could be inserted (the staples were usually made of iron, sometimes brass).

Sometimes these repairs were done by the potters themselves, and other times by members of specific craft guilds, such as tinkers or metalworkers. The holes couldn’t go all the way through the wall of the vessel – they had to be blind holes, precise enough for the staple to fit but without piercing right through.

If by mistake they did drill all the way through – which happened from time to time – some potters would plug the hole with a small cork, soaked in the repair paste described in point 1.

Some guilds charged for repairs per staple. If a vessel needed 6 staples, the job cost twice as much as one that only needed 3.

For example, before the Spanish Civil War, a craftsman might charge about 1 real per staple. In around fifteen minutes they could fit roughly three staples.

They would take a short piece of wire and bend it with pliers into a staple shape. First one end was inserted into one hole, then the other end into the opposite hole. Finally, the staple was squeezed in the middle – along the curved back – until it sat flat and tight. That’s how it was locked in place.

Once all the staples were in, the potter would apply the repair paste from point 1 over the area to seal everything hermetically.

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3) Holes (not cracks)

When there were holes (rather than long cracks), the solution was to use two small metal plates shaped like a button, each with two holes: one plate on the inside of the wall and the other on the outside.

A wire was threaded through the holes of the inner plate, then passed through to the outer plate. The wire was then twisted (usually with the help of pliers), effectively “tightening” the outer plate against the inner one more and more. When everything was snug, the extra wire was cut off.

Before placing the two plates, both contact surfaces were coated with the repair ointment/paste mentioned in point 1, so that everything would be sealed properly.

If we compare the crack repair from point 2 with this method for fixing holes, the latter took more time than fitting a single staple. For each hole, a typical repair (assuming it wasn’t too complicated) might take around a quarter of an hour.

If a craftsperson charged about 1 real per staple before the Spanish Civil War, a repair using these plates could cost four to five times more.

Pretty curious, isn’t it?

Everything described above comes from testimonies of potters (from Zamora, Asturias, Aragón, the Basque Country, southern France, Navarre, etc.) as well as from books on the history of pottery.

If you have any questions or would like to know more about this bibliography, just ask and we’ll gladly send you more information.

Thanks a lot for reading!