Ceramics

Sardinian ceramics of ancient tradition have been expressed essentially in terracotta, in some cases glazed with galena piombifera, made on a lathe. The island, rich in clay, had the most active and excellent center of excellence in Oristano; others were Assemini, Villaputzu and Dorgali. The potters of Pabillonis, south of Oristano, were specialized in making baking dishes (pots and casseroles). But a limited production of terracotta was present in many other centers scattered throughout the island. In many villages, for example, the memory has been preserved of local production, cooked in a primitive furnace, of tiles (“Sardinian cup”, on average larger than the current size) or, more rarely, of solid bricks. However, the tiles thus obtained were short-lived due to the imperfect cleaning of the clay from foreign materials that facilitated its cracking.
The most common forms of domestic use were two: the jug, the main one, and the basin. The jug was intended for the collection of drinking water, in the absence of a public water network. In the house he had a reserved place that included the collection of transudate fluids; in summer he covered himself with a damp cloth to keep the temperature of the water constant. Enlarged in the mouth and neck, and carried by two to four handles ('asas'), it became a container for food (honey, lard, fruit, olives). Widespread widely throughout the island, the jug has remained the symbol of the skill of Sardinian turners (who had to know how to make this artifact in scalar dimensions to join the corporation) and of bakers, specializations encompassed in the generic definition of clay craftsman.
It showed slight differences in the shape of the belly, the neck, the handles, depending on the production center where, of course, they were made in different sizes, from the small ('brocchittolu'), to the medium ('brocchitta'), to the largest. An occasional variant of the jug, made in Oristano, was the one called “of the party” or “of the bride”, enriched by plastic additions with real thematic narrative cycles. This ritual jug, a piece of skill often bearing the author's name, was, unlike the usual one, glazed with the galena that gave it its characteristic color in shades of green or yellow, depending on whether copper or iron prevailed.
The basin (“scivedda, tianu”), a large trunk-conical basin, was mainly intended to aid the phases of baking: with a low edge the one intended for the processing of the dough, high if it were used for leavening. This baking practice, widespread in the fruit-producing areas of Sardinia, and therefore in the central-south, determines the maximum diffusion of the basin in these areas. Rare historized specimens, intended for ritual use, are known.
The modeling of jugs and shells, still in the fifties of the twentieth century, took place by means of a lathe operated by the foot. A medium-sized jug filled with water, once carried over the head through the mediation of a fabric circle, had a certain weight: the turn's goal was therefore to create an artifact with thin edges (in this sense, the original Pabillonis pyrophilic pots have thicknesses of impressive thinness), a practice completely betrayed by current production for tourism purposes.