# Blue Pottery of Jaipur Pottery with almost no clay in it. The body is ground quartz and glass. The blue is cobalt, drawn by hand on a white ground and sealed under a glassy glaze in a single firing. It has been made in Jaipur since at least the 1860s. Page: - **Made in:** Jaipur district, Rajasthan - **Body:** ground quartz and glass, very little clay - **Decoration:** painted by hand, under the glaze - **Firing:** once, at about 800–850 °C - **Recognition:** Geographical Indication, registered 2008 ## How a tile-maker's blue came to Jaipur Jaipur blue pottery is a glazed ware made in and around Jaipur, painted by hand on a white ground. It takes its name from the cobalt blue that dominates it. Most Indian pottery is made of red clay; this is made of a dough of ground quartz and powdered glass. Ceramic historians call a body of this kind *fritware*, or stonepaste. The technique is old and well travelled. It developed in Egypt, Syria and Iran around the tenth and eleventh centuries, and in India it was used for the glazed tiles on Mughal-period buildings in Delhi. By the nineteenth century potters in Delhi were making fritware vessels, and it was from Delhi that the craft reached Jaipur. The date most securely attached to Jaipur is 1866, when Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II opened a School of Art in the city. A survey made that year found white glazed ware with blue patterns already being produced in the old city. A pottery workshop followed at the school, and its work was shown at the Jaipur Exhibition of 1883. Jars made there around 1880 are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. By the late 1950s the school had closed and the craft had declined. Its return is most associated with the painter Kripal Singh Shekhawat (1922–2008). Encouraged by the social reformer Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, he learned the process from a Jaipur potter named Nathibai and taught it in Jaipur from the 1960s, with the support of Rajmata Gayatri Devi. Others had tried to revive it before him; he is credited with modernising the practice. He received the Padma Shri in 1974. In 2008 "Blue Pottery of Jaipur" was registered as a Geographical Indication, with Rajasthan as its registered geographical area. ### In dates | When | What happened | | --- | --- | | 10th–11th century | Potters in Egypt, Syria and Iran develop fritware, a body of ground quartz and glass. | | Mughal period | The same kind of body is used for glazed tiles on buildings in Delhi. | | 1866 | Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II opens a School of Art in Jaipur. A survey that year records white glazed ware with blue patterns in the old city. | | About 1880 | Jars and vases are made at the school. Several are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. | | 1883 | The school's pottery is shown at the Jaipur Exhibition. | | 1950s | The school closes and the craft declines. | | 1960s | The painter Kripal Singh Shekhawat leads its revival in Jaipur. | | 2008 | "Blue Pottery of Jaipur" is registered as a Geographical Indication. | ### What is documented, and what is told - **Told in Jaipur:** that the Maharaja found his first potter at a kite-flying contest, where a potter's string, coated with the ground glass of his trade, beat the royal kite-master. It is a good story, and the craft's own GI application calls it a legend. We have not found a record of the contest. - **Often repeated:** that this is the only pottery in the world made without clay. The body does contain a little fuller's earth, which is a clay, and quartz-based fritware has been made in other places for about a thousand years. - **Not documented:** how long before the 1860s the ware was made in Jaipur. The earliest firm records are the school of 1866 and the pieces that survive from about 1880. ## The art of blue The classic piece is two colours on white: a deep cobalt blue, and a lighter turquoise that comes from copper. The colours are metal oxides, ground to powder with an edible gum and brushed on before the piece is glazed and fired. - **Cobalt blue** (cobalt oxide): the colour the craft is named for. - **Turquoise** (copper oxide): runs from light blue to green. - **White ground:** the coat of quartz, glass and flour that the painter works on. - **Yellow, green and brown:** newer oxide colours, added to the palette later. Pink is more recent still. ### What the painters draw The patterns have Persian roots: stylised flowers, scrolling stems and designs that repeat across the whole surface. To these Jaipur's painters added birds and animals, and more recently figures of deities. The records that document the craft name these motifs but give them no fixed symbolic meanings, so none are claimed here. Motifs shown on the page, from pieces in the Karigarh collection: a flowering scroll, a rosette, an elephant in a leaf border, chevron bands, a plate in yellow and turquoise, lotus flowers on a surahi vase, leaf scrolls in green alone, and a figure of Ganesha. ## How blue pottery is made The dough has no stretch. Pulled up on a potter's wheel it tears, so almost everything is pressed in moulds and built up in parts. The stages below follow the craft's published documentation, with the names artisans use. Details differ from workshop to workshop. ### What goes into the body One documented workshop recipe, by weight. Other accounts list borax, and proportions vary. | Ingredient | Share | | --- | --- | | Quartz powder | 80% | | Scrap glass, powdered | 14% | | Multani mitti (fuller's earth) | 2% | | Katira gond (a plant gum) | 2% | | Saaji (a salt) | 2% | ### The stages 1. **The dough.** Quartz, glass, Multani mitti, gum and saaji are ground, sieved and kneaded with water into a firm, non-sticky dough, then left to rest for several hours. 2. **The mould** (*bharan nikaalna*). The dough is flattened into a round about 4–5 mm thick, like a chapati, and laid in a plaster of Paris mould. The mould is packed with raakh (wood ash) to hold the shape, and the piece dries for a day or two. 3. **Cleaning and smoothing** (*regmaal ka kaam*). The ash is brushed out, the walls are evened with a blade and the surface is rubbed down with regmaal (sandpaper). 4. **Joining** (*pendi lagana*). A vase is two moulded halves. The neck and the foot are turned on the wheel and attached with the same dough thinned with water. 5. **The white coat** (*asfaar lagana*). The piece is coated with a slurry of quartz powder, powdered glass and maida (wheat flour), dried and sanded again. This is the white ground. 6. **Drawing.** Outlines are drawn freehand in cobalt oxide, mostly from memory. For bands, the brush is held still while the piece turns on the wheel. 7. **Colour** (*rangaai*). The outlines are filled with oxide colours that have been ground to powder with an edible gum. 8. **Glaze.** The painted piece is dipped in glaze: glass, borax and other minerals melted together, cooled, ground fine and mixed with flour and water. It dries in the sun. 9. **Firing and cooling** (*pakana*). Pieces are stacked in a closed kiln, kept apart on plates and stands because pieces that touch turn black. It is fired from below to about 800–850 °C for four to six hours, then stays shut for two to three days: a sudden change of temperature would crack the load. Only then is it opened and the pieces sorted. ### Where practice varies - **Kilns:** traditionally fired with wood and charcoal. Some workshops now use diesel or gas. - **Weather:** drying depends on the sun, so work slows or stops in the monsoon. - **Time:** makers quoted in recent reporting put one piece at about two weeks from dough to finished ware. ## The hands and judgement behind it Painters work without stencils. The outline is drawn straight on to the dry white coat, mostly from memory and rarely traced. A border is made by holding the brush still and letting the wheel carry the piece round beneath it. Much of the skill lies outside the painting. Someone has to judge when a moulded piece is dry enough to come out of its ash, how thin a wall can be scraped, and how to stack a kiln so that nothing touches. Much can still be lost at the end: reports from the workshops in 2023 and 2025 describe roughly a third to a half of a firing coming out unfit for sale. The work is done in Jaipur city and in villages of the district, among them Kot Jewar, Sanganer and Neota. Many of the makers come from families of potters, though the craft is not confined to one community. Making a living from the craft is hard. A 2023 report from Kot Jewar counted three workshops where there had been eleven, and makers there spoke of imitations sold under the same name. A national ceramics laboratory has worked with the workshops on stronger bodies and lead-free glazes. ## What sets it apart - **A quartz body.** Mostly ground quartz and glass, with very little clay and no red clay base. - **Moulded, not thrown.** The dough tears if it is pulled up on a wheel, so forms are pressed in moulds and joined. Only necks and bases are turned. - **Painted by hand.** Lines are drawn freehand under the glaze, so they swell and thin, and two pieces of one design are never quite identical. - **Fired once.** Body and glaze are fired together at a low temperature. Clay pottery is usually fired twice. - **Fragile.** Low-fired and less strong than high-fired ceramics. It needs careful handling. ### Jaipur blue pottery and the wares it is most often confused with | Ware | Body | Where it is from | | --- | --- | --- | | Blue Pottery of Jaipur | Ground quartz and glass (fritware); painted, glazed and fired once | Jaipur district, Rajasthan | | Khurja pottery | Clay body with a red clay base, then glazed | Khurja, Uttar Pradesh | | Blue-and-white porcelain | Fine white clay body, vitrified and usually translucent | First made in China | | Delftware | Tin-glazed earthenware | Delft, the Netherlands, from the early 17th century | ### Buying and looking after it - **Look at the line.** Printed imitations exist. On hand-painted work the brush line varies in weight and repeated motifs differ slightly from one to the next. A print repeats exactly. - **Ask where it was made.** A Geographical Indication protects the craft's name and origin. It is not a certificate attached to each piece, so ask where and by whom a piece was made. - **Check before using it for food.** Traditional glazes contained lead. Lead-free glazes have since been introduced and many makers use them, but practice varies. Treat a piece as decorative unless its listing says it is safe for food. - **Handle it like glass.** It chips on hard knocks. Wipe it with a soft, damp cloth, avoid abrasive cleaners and follow the care notes on the listing. ### Official recognition "Blue Pottery of Jaipur" is entered in India's Geographical Indications Registry: application no. 66, class 21 (handicraft), applied for on 14 August 2006 by the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Ministry of Textiles; certificate no. 74, dated 10 July 2008. A logo for the craft was registered separately (application no. 540, certificate dated 29 April 2017). The register lists the geographical area as Rajasthan and showed the registration valid up to 13 August 2026; its renewal had not been confirmed when this page was last updated. Source: [GI Registry](https://search.ipindia.gov.in/GIRPublicSearch/Application/Details/66). Karigarh groups crafts by the district recorded for them in its [ODOP & GI collection](/odop). ## Blue pottery at Karigarh Vases, plates, jars and small things for the home, from the Karigarh catalogue. Listings give the dimensions, material and care notes where the maker has provided them. - [Search the catalogue for blue pottery](/products?search=blue%20pottery) - [All products](/products) - [Customise a piece](/ContactUs?subject=Custom%20order) - [Bulk and gifting orders](/bulk-orders) - [Return policy](/ReturnPolicy) Prices are in Indian Rupees and include GST. Ships within India. The pieces can also be seen at the Karigarh(Rajasthali) showroom, M. I. Road, Opposite Ajmeri Gate, Jaipur, Rajasthan 302001. ## Blue pottery, briefly answered ### What is Jaipur blue pottery? A hand-painted glazed ware from Jaipur district in Rajasthan. Its body is mostly ground quartz and powdered glass rather than potter's clay. It is painted in cobalt blue and other oxide colours on a white ground, then glazed and fired once at about 800–850 °C. ### Is blue pottery made of clay? Mostly not. One documented recipe is 80 per cent quartz powder and 14 per cent glass, with small amounts of Multani mitti (fuller's earth), gum and a salt. Multani mitti is a clay, so "made without any clay" is not quite accurate. "Made without potter's clay" is. ### Why is it called blue pottery? For its dominant colour, a deep blue that comes from cobalt oxide. A lighter turquoise comes from copper. Yellow, green, brown and pink were added to the palette later. ### How old is blue pottery in Jaipur? The earliest firm records date from the 1860s. A School of Art opened in Jaipur in 1866, and pieces made there around 1880 survive in museum collections. The technique itself, fritware, is about a thousand years old and reached Jaipur from Delhi. ### Who revived blue pottery in Jaipur? The craft had declined by the 1950s. Its revival in the 1960s is most associated with the painter Kripal Singh Shekhawat, who was encouraged by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and supported by Rajmata Gayatri Devi. ### Does Jaipur blue pottery have a GI tag? "Blue Pottery of Jaipur" was registered as a Geographical Indication under application no. 66, with the certificate dated 10 July 2008. The registration protects the craft's name and origin. It is not a certificate issued with each piece. ### How is it different from Khurja pottery? Khurja pottery, from Uttar Pradesh, is made on a clay body with a red clay base and then glazed. Jaipur blue pottery has a quartz and glass body with no red clay base, and is fired once. ### Can I use blue pottery for food? Check the individual piece. Traditional glazes contained lead. Lead-free glazes have since been introduced and many makers use them, but practice varies. Unless a listing says a piece is safe for food, treat it as decorative. ### How do I look after blue pottery? It is fragile, so handle and store it as you would glass. Wipe it with a soft, damp cloth, avoid knocks and abrasive cleaners, and follow the care notes on the listing. Written by Karigarh. Updated October 2026. Sources on request: [write to us](https://www.karigarh.com/ContactUs). --- This is the markdown version of [Blue Pottery of Jaipur](https://www.karigarh.com/crafts/blue-pottery). Contact: support@enewbharat.com · 0141-237-2974 · +91 98998 88847.