Frit

Head of a king
MFA# 04.1842

Description

Chinese bottle
MFA# 1997.182

A fine, glassy powder used in the production of Glass, glazes, and enamels. Frit is made by melting inorganic materials with Flux, Silica, and glass colorants. The melted material is cooled to a vitreous mass then pulverized into a fine powder. When heated, frit will turn into a glassy film. Frits are used on industrial pottery glazes to ensure color uniformity.

Turkish plate
MFA# 85.478

Synonyms and Related Terms

frita (Esp.); fritte (Fr.); fritta (It.); frit (Ned.); frita (Port.)

Physical and Chemical Properties

Insoluble in water.

Resources and Citations

• Wikipedia: frit accessed August 2022
• Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1969 (also 1945 printing)
• Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993
• Robert Fournier, Illustrated Dictionary of Practical Pottery, Chilton Book Company, Radnor, PA, 1992
• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997
• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998