Parian ware is a type of biscuit porcelain imitating marble. It was developed around 1845 by the Staffordshire pottery manufacturer Mintons, and named after Paros, the Greek island renowned for its fine-textured, white Parian marble, used since antiquity for sculpture. It was also contemporaneously referred to as Statuary Porcelain by Copeland. Parian was essentially designed to imitate carved marble,[1] with the great advantage that it could be prepared in a liquid form and cast in a mould, enabling mass production.
- ^ Information on Parian Archived 27 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine (Stoke Museums)