Makers, Periods & Styles Library

The Paragon China Company was a bone china manufacturer of tea and breakfast wares. It started life as The Star China company in 1897, a partnership between Hugh Irving and Herbert Aynsley (the great-grandson of John Aynsley the founder of Aynsley China in 1775). The company started using the ‘Paragon’...

Parquetry – is a decorative technique using a geometric mosaic of wood pieces to create a decorative effect. It is used as veneer patterns on furniture and as block patterns for floors. Parquetry patterns are always geometrical and angular using triangles, squares and lozenges. The word is French coming from the...

Are an art medium comprising sticks made from powdered pigments and a binder in a wide range of colours. The pigments used are the same as those for all coloured artists materials, including oil paints. The colour effects produced by pastels are thought to be the closest to natural dry pigments than any other art...

A Piano accordion is a musical instrument with a small right-hand keyboard similar to a piano or organ. The sound is produced by pulling and squeezing a bellow-like acoustic mechanism which produces sound based on air flowing past a vibrating reed in a frame. The first accordions were invented in 1829 and were of...

Pietra dura is an inlay technique using highly polished cut and fitted stones to make images usually geometric or flower patterns. The Italian use of the term embraces all hardstone (including gem) carving which also includes carving items from a single piece such as with Chinese jade. However, in English, the term...

Pirkenhammer Porcelain is a porcelain manufacturer based in the Czech Republic town of Karlovy Vary also known as Carlsbad. The porcelain factory was established in 1802 in Karlovy Vary using the tradename Pirkenhammer and the symbol of crossed hammers. It rapidly developed a good reputation and by the 1820s was...

Pollard Oak is the wood derived from oak trees that have been ‘pollarded’. Pollarding is a system of pruning the top branches of a tree which then promotes a dense head of branches and foliage. It’s a technique that has been used in Europe since medieval times and is used today to keep trees in […]

A Portrait miniature is a very small and portable portrait painting usually painted in watercolour, enamel of gouache. The techniques used developed from the painting of illuminated manuscripts and became popular amongst the upper classes of 16th century England and France and went on to spread across Europe,...