Agate ware was made by ‘wedging’ together clays of different colours, which, when slabbed or thrown and turned, produced a variegated or marbled effect reminiscent of hardstones. Salt-glazed agate ware has survived mainly in the form of figures. Tablewares were usually lead-glazed, which gave them an attractive glossy surface and made them less subject to staining. In the mideighteenth century the dark red-brown agate of the 1720s and 1730s (see no. 22) gave way to combinations of white clay with light and dark brown, or brown and blue-stained clays. The former can produce fascinating toffee-like markings, while the latter gives a more subtle effect approaching the reflectiveness of silver. This hexagonal coffee pot with its handle at right angles to the spout is similar to silver pots of about 1720. The unassuming teabowl and saucer have walls as thin as porcelain and are pleasantly light in the hand.

Agate ware was made by numerous mid-eighteenth-century Staffordshire potters. It was still being made in the 1770s, but by then creamware had become the fashionable body for tableware.