engobe

thumb|Jar, Giyan IV type, Western Iran, 2500-2000 BC, earthenware with slip-painted decoration thumb|Charger with Charles II in the Boscobel Oak, English, c. 1685. Such large plates, for display rather than use, take slip-trailing to an extreme, building up lattices of thick trails of slip.

Slipware is pottery identified by its primary decorating process where slip is placed onto the leather-hard (semi-hardened) clay body surface before firing by dipping, painting or splashing. Slip is an aqueous suspension of a clay body, which is a mixture of clays and other minerals such as quartz, feldspar and mica. The slip placed onto a wet or leather-hard clay body surface by a variety of techniques including dipping, painting, piping or splashing.