scraffito

Noun

sgraffito (countable and uncountable, plural sgraffiti or sgraffitoes or sgraffitos)

1. (uncountable) A technique in ceramics, art and wall design, where the top layer of pigment or slip is scratched through to reveal an underlying layer.
   • Through color and tone Byzantine potters gave to sgraffito pottery qualities that go beyond the contrasts possible in metalwork. And the history of the colors in their use on Byzantine sgraffito ware again takes us back to Tang China.1992, Dēmētra Papanikola-Bakirtzē, Eunice Dauterman Maguire, Henry Maguire, Ceramic Art from Byzantine Serres (Illinois Byzantine Studies; III), Urbana and Chicago, Ill.: University of Illinois...
2. (countable) An instance or sample of sgraffito.
   • [I]n the corner room a sitting platform, 3 ft. broad, as well as a large fireplace, were brought to light, while in the hall (E. iii.), open towards the south, the rough plaster surface of the partly well-preserved east wall proved to be covered with sgraffiti both Tibetan and Chinese.1907, [Marc] Aurel Stein, Ancient Khotan: Detailed Report of Archaeological Explorations in Chinese Turkestan Carried out and Described under the Orders of H. M. Indian Government, Oxford: Clarendon...

See all 3 meanings of sgraffito