Why is Wedgwood Black Basalt black?

Wedgwood Black Basalt gets its colour from the composition of the ceramic body rather than from a layer of ordinary black paint. Josiah Wedgwood refined a dark stoneware body during the eighteenth century that fired to a dense, rich black. This distinction is useful for collectors examining chipped or worn objects. On genuine black-bodied stoneware, a small old chip should normally reveal dark ceramic material beneath the surface. A white or pale body covered with black paint or glaze belongs to a different type of ceramic construction.

The dark colour gave Wedgwood another advantage: it suited the eighteenth-century taste for objects inspired by Greece and Rome. Black Basalt could imitate the visual character of ancient pottery, dark stone and bronze. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes Wedgwood's Black Basalt as a fine-grained black stoneware and records its use for classical forms at Etruria. Surface treatment can change its appearance, as some pieces have a subdued matt finish, and others contain areas that were burnished to create greater sheen. Engine turning, moulded decoration and applied ornament can catch light differently across the same black body.