Combined Decoration

How it works

An underglaze layer — usually cobalt blue — is painted and fired at high temperature first. Overglaze enamels are added afterwards and fixed in a second, lower firing. The two layers are planned together from the start: the first firing fixes a structure the second must respect.

Why it matters

The combination brings together the depth of colour seen through the glaze and the brightness of colour lying on it. Its quality is judged by registration: how precisely the enamel meets an outline that was fixed weeks earlier and can no longer be changed.

Two underglaze pigments on one object, such as cobalt blue with copper red, remain Underglaze Decoration: both lie beneath the glaze and are fired together.