Saggar did the same on a smaller scale, constructing the round or banjo-shaped bottom. Again the mow was used to beat the air out of the clay and flatten the sheet. The saggar maker was an experienced craftsman who paid his assistants out of his piece-work earnings: he took the bottom and the sides onto a wheel and using his thumbs joined the sides to the bottom. The "green" saggars were dried and then placed on the top of bungs during the next firing of the kiln. The unfired ceramic ware was placed in saggars and then biscuit fired, before being
Saggar were expected to last for about 40 firings; each potbank made their own in a saggar making workshop. Saggars were made from fireclay, by a "saggar maker" and two assistants: the "framemaker" and the "bottom knocker". The framemaker beat the clay into a sheet on a metal table using a large mallet, the "mow" or "mawl". Using a "frame" he would cut it to size, sprinkle it with "sawdust" and wrap it round a wooden block to make the walls. The framemaker was usually an apprentice in his late teens. The bottom knocker, usually a boy in his early teens,