To celebrate the opening of Iridescence, on view through March 24, 2019, Object of the Day this week will feature iridescent objects in the collection. This turn-of-the-twentieth-century leaf-form pitcher utilizes the innovative eosin reduction glazing technique developed and trademarked by the Hungarian porcelain firm Zsolnay only a few years earlier. Lusterware, which had been revived...

In the early 1890s science teacher Emily Healey was working in her laboratory in Washington D.C. when she accidently dropped a certain uranium salt into some heavy oil. When she fired this compound onto a scrap of china, the effect was a brilliantly colored surface. Many experiments with the uranium followed and Emily determined that...