English pottery, principally earthenware, with applied decoration, produced from about 1730 to 1745 by two Staffordshire potters, John Astbury (Astbury, John) and Thomas Whieldon. Instead of the more common stamped relief decoration, the ornament was achieved by applying pre-molded relief motifs to the surface of the pottery object and connecting them by curled stems formed of threads of thinly rolled clay. The process was known as sprigging.