~ . 
 
 UBRAftV 
 
 OF THE 
 
 yevmstf OF m 
 
“touch me not.” 
 
 (From the Original Terra-Cotta by George Tinworth, by permission of 
 Messrs. Doulton & Co.) 
 
POTTERS 
 
 THEIR ARTS AND GRAFTS. 
 
 JOHN C. L. SPARKES, 
 
 ( Principal , Royal College of Art , South Kensington Museum ), 
 AND 
 
 WALTER GANDY. 
 
A PANEL BY GEORGE TINWORTH. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 T HE most superficial study of the Potter’s art is 
 sufficient to suggest the immensely varied nature 
 of the interests — historical, ethnographical, 
 artistic, technical — involved in its consideration. Many 
 have been the volumes written upon the subject 
 as a whole, or dealing with it in various separate 
 aspects. In fact, there is perhaps no other handicraft 
 that can compare with this, in the extent to which it 
 has been the subject of literary treatment. And there 
 seems little reason to add yet another to the long list 
 of works dealing with pottery, except that there may 
 perhaps be room for a sketch that, without ignoring 
 altogether the technicalities of the subject, will deal 
 more especially with the craftsmen. 
 
 For the art of pottery is so essentially human! In 
 
 it, more than in any other, can we see the personality 
 
 v 
 
VI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 of the worker. It is full of a vital interest, from its 
 oldest and most shapeless relic down to the most 
 modern and costly production from our huge present- 
 day hives of industry. No other material has recorded, 
 or can record, so faithfully as burnt clay, the minutest 
 touch and individual feeling of the craftsman. Here, 
 on a tiny cylinder, or a block of brick, disinterred but 
 yesterday from the rude mound that covers the long-ago 
 forgotten city of a vanished empire, is the little stamp 
 that gives the name of the builder of the once majestic 
 pile ; here, scrawled across the base of a Greek cup is 
 the name of artist and assistant, and the purpose for 
 which the piece was made ; here, on some queerly- 
 shaped posset-cup of our own English manufacture of 
 200 years ago is an oddly spelt 
 
 “ God bless the Queen and Prence Gorg e . Drink and be 
 mery and mary : B.B. John Meir made this cup, 1708.” 
 
 And there, lurking under the base of a beautifully 
 finished vase of modern manufacture, we shall find the 
 tiny impressions, little stealthy marks and modest 
 monograms that record the share of each skilled worker 
 who in turn helped forward its completion. Even on a 
 Wedgwood vase — for Wedgwood sternly repressed any 
 manifestation of individuality on the part of his work- 
 men — there may sometimes be detected a mark by 
 which an expert will identify the maker. It is remark- 
 able, too, that these personal touches upon many a 
 piece of old pottery, these revelations of the minds and 
 habits of otherwise forgotten workers, will often throw 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Vll 
 
 light upon doubtful points in the history of art and 
 literature, and confirm in unmistakable language of 
 form, or line, or colour, theories and speculations which, 
 as far as literary evidence went, would have remained 
 only theories and speculations. The gradual appropria- 
 tion by the potters of one country of decorative features 
 used by others, the sudden growths and cessations of 
 particular styles of work, the different languages used 
 in the inscriptions, even the variations in the forms of 
 the letters composing the inscriptions — these, and 
 similar details, have afforded a rich field of research for 
 those interested in the history of the arts of civilisation. 
 Little did the obscure potter of some bygone day 
 dream that a chance production of his might in the far- 
 distant future excite the keen attention of philosopher, 
 artist, or chemist, and with its primitive art and quaint- 
 ness help in the elucidation of history. 
 
 To carry art into the things of common life is not 
 given to all. It is, however, the privilege of the potter 
 to do this ; he is fortunate in being able to ennoble the 
 useful into the beautiful ; and many a piece of homely 
 ware produced originally with no idea but that of 
 serviceableness, is now treasured for its simple beauty. 
 
 It is a commonplace of the historian to remark how 
 very closely pottery reflects the degree of civilisation 
 and artistic attainment of a nation. It is no question 
 of wealth ; costly materials are not asked for by the 
 potter ; he takes a common material and manipulates 
 it with more or less skill, bakes it with more or less 
 care, and there is the story of it embodied for all time. 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Whatever there is of interest to us in the piece of work, 
 the workman put there ; the work has become the 
 permanent expression of the workers skill and taste — 
 the material comparatively nothing; the art almost 
 everything. Very often naive and childish enough to 
 our eyes is the art of a bygone day, yet its very imper- 
 fections are charming. 
 
 The Potters art is at once the most unprogressive 
 and the most progressive of arts. As its essentials are 
 constant — clay and fire — it must always be recreating 
 its ideals by continual contact with Mother Earth. 
 Having its origin in very primitive needs, and utilising 
 a very common and easily- worked natural material, it 
 is not surprising that, even to this day, there should be 
 races whose pottery is of very primitive type, scarcely, 
 if at all, in advance of what was being made 6000 years 
 ago. And yet, we have only to look at the varied 
 manufactures, beautiful, useful, costly, or cheap, that 
 our potters of to-day are producing, to realise that here 
 we have an art that has been and is steadily progress- 
 ing, adding to a practical knowledge whose precepts 
 have accumulated through many centuries, a newer and 
 more precise technical and chemical knowledge that is 
 pointing out new materials, more direct methods of 
 workmanship, and fresh fields for the manufacture to 
 occupy. 
 
 J. C. L. S. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PALISSY-WARE DISH, WITH REPTILES AND FISH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS, . . . .11 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ANCIENT POTTERY, 59 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MEDIAEVAL POTTERY, 113 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ORIENTAL PORCELAIN AND POTTERY, AND THEIR EUROPEAN 
 
 IMITATIONS, 177 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MODERN POTTERY, . 226 
 
ROMAN POTTERY. 
 
 POTTERS: THEIR ARTS AND CRAETS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 I T would be desirable, before entering upon any 
 historical sketch, to briefly summarise the charac- 
 teristics of the different classes of pottery, and 
 make some mention of the materials and processes 
 involved in their manufacture. 
 
 The term “ pottery” is, of course, applied to all 
 objects formed of clay and hardened by the application 
 of heat. It is certainly a very elastic term, and the 
 master-potter of to-day covers a much wider field with 
 his products than was ever dreamt of when poterium 
 was Latin for “ drinking vessel/’ 
 
 The essential constituent — clay — occurs in many 
 
 11 
 
12 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 varieties. All owe their origin to the decomposition of 
 certain rocks. Centuries of exposure to frosts and 
 rains have split up and worn down the out-cropping 
 surfaces of primitive granite-rocks, the fine silt being 
 washed down the slopes of the hills and gradually 
 deposited along the valleys below, often at great 
 distances away. The purest clay, kaolin, is found at 
 comparatively few places. Chemically speaking, it is 
 a hydrated silicate of alumina, a decomposition of the 
 felspar in the granite. Its more common designation, 
 china clay, reminds us that till last century it was 
 only known as forming the chief material of Chinese 
 porcelain, and it was not till happy accident revealed 
 its presence in Europe and America that true porcelain 
 could be made away from China. Its chief source in 
 England is in the neighbourhood of St. Austell, in 
 Cornwall, and, next to tin, it is the most important 
 mineral product of that county. 
 
 Pipe clay and potter’s clay occur more frequently 
 than kaolin. They contain a larger proportion of 
 silica; and iron oxide, occurring in larger or smaller 
 quantity, gives the clays their yellow or brown colour 
 when fired. The chief sources of supply for England 
 are the neighbourhood of Poole Harbour, in Dorset- 
 shire, and Newton Abbot and Torrington in Devonshire. 
 
 With a still larger proportion of silica, the clays 
 become suitable for architectural terra-cotta and tiles, 
 the infusible silica counteracting the tendency of the 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 13 
 
 clay to shrink excessively or twist in the baking. 
 Very valuable clays are found in thin seams among 
 certain coal measures ; thus, the fortunate potter digs 
 his clay and his fuel from the same pit. Certain 
 highly refractory fire-bricks used for furnaces are made 
 from clays composed almost entirely of silica. 
 
 The more impure clays suitable for bricks are most 
 abundant and varied in composition. The considerable 
 proportion of alkaline matters — lime, magnesia, or 
 potash — which they contain in combination with 
 different oxides of iron, influence the colour to a 
 marked extent. The range of tints available in natural- 
 coloured clays is fairly extensive, running from pale- 
 cream through orange, fawn, red, pink, grey, and blue ; 
 even the intense bluish-black of certain building- 
 bricks being a natural metallic colouring brought out 
 by over-firing. 
 
 When other tints than these natural ones are desired, 
 certain oxides of other metals than iron are used to 
 stain the substance of the clay ; thus, blues of various 
 shades are obtained from cobalt, greens from chromium, 
 lilac, pink, black and brown from manganese, yellow 
 from uranium, drab from nickel, dove colour by cobalt 
 and manganese, and so on. 
 
 Very few clays are used just as they are found. 
 They have to be “ corrected ” in various ways ; to add 
 or decrease stiffness, to render more or less fusible, or 
 more or less refractory in the baking. Mixtures of 
 
14 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 clays have, in the majority of potteries, to be resorted 
 to, calling for all the skill and experience of the potter. 
 In continually testing his materials, and experimenting 
 and deciding upon the best use to be made of new 
 sources of supply, the successful potter has to be more 
 or less of a chemist. 
 
 For chinaware an artificial clay is used, built up of 
 ground flints, kaolin, ordinary clay, and a large pro- 
 portion of calcined bones. The use of the last-named 
 ingredient (giving phosphate of lime) dates from the 
 middle of last century. 
 
 All the natural clays have a certain amount of water 
 contained in them. Of course, the plasticity of the 
 clay, or its capacity for being moulded or pressed into 
 different forms, is due to this moisture. Some of the 
 moisture ( i.e ., that which is “ mechanically ” combined) 
 can be driven off by evaporation, but the plasticity is 
 soon restored by adding water. Hence the sun-dried 
 bricks used so extensively in ancient Egypt and Baby- 
 lonia, and still used as adobe in Central America, 
 retain their forms for centuries in the dry air of those 
 countries, but would not have lasted a year in our more 
 humid atmosphere. There is present, however, water 
 in “ chemical ” combination with the clay — sometimes 
 only in small quantity — and this, once expelled by 
 baking, cannot be replaced. The burnt clay, though 
 powdered as fine as may be, will not regain its plasticity 
 on the addition of water. 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 15 
 
 Pottery may be roughly grouped into three main 
 divisions, according to the nature of the body or sub- 
 stance (Fr., pate ) : — 
 
 Earthenware . — Fired at low heats; earthy in texture; 
 sufficiently soft to be scratched with a knife. 
 
 Stoneware . — Fired at high heat ; hard, dense, and 
 vitreous ; not scratched by a knife. 
 
 Porcelain . — Fired at highest heat; still more vitreous, 
 semi-fused, and often translucent. 
 
 It is impossible, however, to make a quite precise 
 classification of pottery bodies ; there are many inter- 
 mediate conditions arising from the variable nature of 
 the clays and their mixtures, or from the effects of 
 varying degrees of heat. Some earthenwares can be 
 fired so hard as to practically become stonewares, while 
 some fine stonewares will exhibit almost the perfection 
 and translucency of hard porcelain. As a general rule, 
 it may be said, clays suitable for earthenware will not 
 retain their form if baked harder than earthenware 
 need be fired ; similarly, a stoneware clay, if over-fired, 
 is liable to fuse down into a shapeless mass ; while for 
 the highest heat of true porcelain only its special clays 
 are available ; clays that, as we shall see in the following 
 pages, European potters were for centuries seeking in 
 the attempt to rival the beautiful porcelain from China. 
 
 Such a simple grouping of pottery refers only to the 
 body . An earthenware clay when baked will present 
 an earthen and more or less porous surface, capable of 
 
16 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 absorbing liquids, and easily soiled. Such a body is 
 called terra-cotta (Italian, burnt earth), or biscuit 
 (which really means twice baked , and is therefore 
 rather inappropriate to a once-baked clay; the term 
 terra-cotta , too, is now made to mean rather more than 
 a merely baked earth, for architectural terra-cotta — 
 blocks for building purposes — has to be fired hard 
 enough not to be porous, as hard as stoneware in 
 fact). 
 
 When pottery was first made, it must soon have been 
 found that the merely baked ware was not altogether 
 desirable for holding liquids. To invent a glaze then, 
 or glassy covering, was a great step in advance, and the 
 usefulness and durability of pottery have by the use of 
 glazes been immeasurably enhanced ; often, indeed, the 
 glaze is of more importance, harder and finer in com- 
 position, than the body it may cover. The consideration 
 of the different methods of glazing makes it possible to 
 sub-divide the group of earthenware into — 
 
 (1.) Unglazed, as for instance, a common flowerpot. 
 
 (2.) Ware with transparent, glassy covering — 
 
 (i a ) Alkaline — as in Persian faience. 
 
 (b) Plumbiferous (formed from lead) — as in 
 
 Wedgwood's “ Queen’s" ware, and the 
 
 “ Oiron ” ware. 
 
 (c) Boracic (formed from borax) — as in 
 
 Staffordshire earthenware. 
 
 (3.) Enamelled ware, in which the body is hidden by 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 17 
 
 an opaque coating formed with tin — as in 
 Della Robbia and Delft w^ares. 
 
 In a general way, divisions (2) and (3) may be 
 spoken of as Faience , and (3) especially as Majolica . 
 These designations will be further dealt with when 
 speaking of Italian pottery. 
 
 The group of Stoneware will also fall into three 
 divisions of — 
 
 (1.) Unglazed — as in certain Chinese and Japanese 
 wares. 
 
 (2.) Ware with transparent glaze (generally a salt 
 glaze) — as in the common brown “ hunting- 
 jug,” or “Doulton” ware. (This ware is 
 sometimes referred to as “ Brown Porcelain.”) 
 
 (3.) Ware with enamelled or opaque covering (gener- 
 ally from the use of felspar) — as in, for 
 instance, a cream-glazed stoneware kitchen 
 sink. (Ware of this kind is sometimes styled 
 cream-enamelled porcelain.) 
 
 Porcelain is divided into two well-marked classes, 
 and these sub-divided according to their bodies and 
 glazes : — 
 
 (1.) Natural or Hard Porcelain, in which the body 
 is formed from kaolin (decomposed felspar), 
 and the glaze from china-stone (almost pure 
 felspar). 
 
 Occasionally, this ware is left in the un- 
 glazed or biscuit state, otherwise it is generally 
 
 B 
 
18 . POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 glazed, as in the porcelain from China, Japan, 
 
 Dresden, Limoges, and Sevres. 
 
 (2.) Artificial or Soft Porcelains — 
 
 (a) French. — Body formed from alkaline 
 
 materials (saltpetre, sea salt, alum, soda 
 ash, gypsum and sand melted together, 
 ground, and mixed with chalk and marl) ; 
 the glaze also alkaline (composed of lead, 
 sand, flint, soda, and potash). The old 
 Sevres porcelain comes into this class. 
 
 (b) English or “ China,” as it would be now 
 
 generally styled. — Body of calcareous 
 nature (bone ash, kaolin, china-stone 
 or felspar, flint, and sometimes clay) ; 
 the glaze generally boracic (formed with 
 borax). Minton, Worcester, Derby, Bow, 
 and Chelsea porcelains may be instanced 
 as examples of this group. Some of 
 the earlier bodies, however, approxi- 
 mate more in their composition to the 
 French type, and the glaze contains 
 lead. From the Derby, Chelsea, and 
 Bow works proceeded many pieces 
 (mostly statuettes) in unglazed biscuit 
 of pure white. This leads to the 
 mention of parian , an artificial body 
 used for unglazed models, with a large 
 proportion of felspar, and almost approxi- 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 19 
 
 mating in composition to the unglazed 
 biscuit of hard porcelain. 
 
 A few words now as to the more obvious processes 
 of manufacture, and it will be convenient to speak 
 first of the simpler methods of stoneware. 
 
 The raw clays (principally the “blue,” “ball,” or 
 potter’s clay from Dorsetshire and Devonshire), are 
 cut out from the pit in squared lumps. The deposits 
 are at some distance below the surface, and the purest 
 clay is the lowest reached ; the upper beds generally 
 contain more sand, and are of a nature that for some 
 kinds of ware require but little preparation. The blue 
 or grey tinge in the clay is due only to the stains from 
 organic matter, and will disappear in the burning. 
 Arrived at the pottery, the clay is stacked up and 
 allowed to “weather” for a longer or shorter period. 
 Some potters attach more value to this preparation 
 than others ; it is not uncommon for the clay, in some 
 cases, to be used at once, while it has been stated that 
 the materials for Chinese porcelain are allowed to 
 weather for a great number of years. 
 
 All materials are well and thoroughly ground. At 
 all stages of the manufacture there must be good 
 workmanship ; if the clay when used is not quite 
 similar throughout — perfectly homogeneous — inequali- 
 ties will manifest themselves in the firing. The lumps 
 of dry clay are ground to powder under pairs of iron 
 runners ; the powder falling over the edge of the pan 
 
20 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 is sifted automatically, the coarser particles are 
 returned for more grinding, and the fine dust is 
 carried off by buckets on an endless chain to a recep- 
 tacle from which it is fed as required into a “ blunger ” 
 or mixing-pan. Here is added a due proportion of 
 ground “ rough stuff” (broken burnt ware which has 
 also been “ under the runners ”), water is poured in, 
 and a rough sort of mixing takes place, the revolving 
 arms of the blunger churning the mass over and over. 
 It falls into a “ pug-mill,” whence, having been squeezed 
 in and out, and cut through again and again, it is 
 forced out in a condition almost ready for use ; some- 
 times, however, where finer work is intended, it is 
 again fed into a second pug-mill. The plastic clay is 
 now ready for the “ thrower’s wheel,” or the “ squeezing- 
 box,” or the moulding-bench. Such a clay would be 
 described as unwashed. 
 
 For fine stonewares, and for earthenwares, the clays 
 are washed , and the processes now to be described 
 take place in the slip-house. The ingredients — we 
 will speak of those for earthenware — having been 
 prepared separately (the ball clay and kaolin in the 
 blunger, the calcined flint and cornish stone brought 
 to fine slips, in the stone mill), are all fed into the 
 mixing-tank. The density of each has been carefully 
 tested (the weights per pint averaging respectively — 
 kaolin, 26 oz., ball clay, 24 oz., flint, 32 oz., cornish 
 stone, 31 to 32 oz.), and the right quantities having 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 21 
 
 been measured, and any colouring stain added if 
 desired, the mass is stirred together, strained through 
 lawns of graduated fineness, passed along a trough in 
 which magnets are suspended that any lingering iron 
 may be caught, and so to a store tank. From here the 
 mixture is pumped up to the press, which is an elabor- 
 ate arrangement of wooden frames (usually twenty-four 
 in number) placed up on edge in a row. Each frame 
 has a cloth of specially woven material, folded to form 
 a kind of flat bag, each with a small feeding pipe 
 communicating with the main supply. Long clamps 
 hold the frames all together. The pump being started, 
 the slip is forced into the frames, the excess of water 
 filtering out through the cloths and running away in 
 the channels under the apparatus. When the water 
 ceases to flow, the pump is stopped, the bolts are 
 loosened, the frames opened, the cloths unfolded, and 
 the soft clay lifted out. This is not a rapid process, 
 and where the bodies are varied in colour or otherwise, 
 the cleaning of the filtering-press occupies some time. 
 The clay — not yet suitable for use — is fed into the 
 hopper of a pug-mill, in which it is compressed still 
 further and beaten together. Exuding from the mill 
 in a fairly solid stream, it is carried away to the 
 “ makers.” Even there it is still further beaten and 
 tossed about so that any imprisoned bubbles of air 
 may be expelled before the “ thrower ” will use it. 
 This final cutting and throwing together again is 
 
22 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 called “ wedging/’ and is splendid exercise for the 
 arms of those who have to indulge in such violent 
 labours. 
 
 There are, of course, minor details in the preparation 
 of clays that it is impossible to mention. Not all will 
 need such careful treatment. A clay intended for 
 bricks will not perhaps pass more than one mill. 
 Some rough clays used for squeezed wares can be put 
 just as they are dug from the earth into the squeezing- 
 box, while some fire-clays entail a kind of “ steaming ” 
 operation. The clay in this case, having been ground 
 up and the due proportion of broken stuff added, is 
 mixed in water, and run out along a sloping trough 
 with slight hollows in its surface. Here the coarser 
 particles settle ; what passes over goes to an iron tank 
 surrounded by a steam-jacket. The excess of water 
 being evaporated off, the clay now goes through a pug- 
 mill, or is beaten by hand. 
 
 Most of the old and arduous hand-methods of clay 
 preparation have been fortunately given up in favour 
 of machinery. 
 
 Much can be said of the various ways of forming 
 pottery. The most characteristic, and certainly the 
 most interesting to watch, is that which is known as 
 “ throwing ” on the wheel, one of the oldest of pro- 
 cesses in the world. As represented in a wall painting 
 at Beni-hasan, the ancient Egyptian potter squatted 
 on the ground, and turned his wheel by one* hand 
 
THROWING, 
 
 23 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 25 
 
 while forming the vase with the other. The Greek 
 wheel was turned by the foot, a method that was in 
 vogue until quite recently. Where steam-power is 
 available, it is but natural to use it for small and 
 quickly-made articles ; but larger vessels and any- 
 thing requiring extreme care are still “ thrown ” on 
 a hand-wheel, the motive power being supplied by 
 an assistant, who can turn faster or slower at word 
 of command, and leave the thrower to concentrate 
 all his attention on the work in hand. The idea of 
 the wheel is simplicity itself : a horizontal revolving 
 disc, the fingers of the workman, and the lump of 
 clay between them — that is all. Thrown on the 
 centre of the disc, the ball of moist clay is manoeuvred 
 as it revolves by those skilled fingers ; — “ opened out,” 
 brought in again, brought up to a neck, mouth turned 
 out, lip formed by a touch of the finger — and there is 
 a jug complete all but for the handle. A few simple 
 bits of horn to clean off with, a gauge for height to be 
 used or not as the case may be, a wire to sever the 
 object from the wheel, and a pan of water, and that 
 completes the “ throwers ” outfit. A most fascinating 
 handicraft, and one that numbers among its humble 
 followers many a real artist ! 
 
 Many common articles (of circular form, it must be 
 understood) are finished on the wheel. Such would 
 be ink-bottles, ginger- beer bottles, and so on. An 
 approved pattern having been weighed, the same 
 
26 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 weight of clay is made to reach to the same height 
 in each case, and it will be found that the capacities 
 do not very appreciably vary. Most pieces, however, 
 require to be “ lathed,” to remove any excessive thick- 
 ness, or any irregularities of surface. This can easily 
 be done, as soon as the clay object has acquired suffi- 
 cient stiffness by _ drying. It has been sometimes 
 objected that this second process of lathing destroys 
 the characteristic feeling of a “ thrown ” piece of work, 
 and this is, without doubt, true. But it is also true 
 that by lathing we can have shapes more light and 
 graceful than could be made and finished on the wheel, 
 
 <D ' 
 
 for the clay at first is so soft that a certain thickness, 
 must always be left in order to avoid a collapse. 
 
 So far, these are interesting crafts. But now we 
 come to the mechanical “ potter.” At many a pottery 
 you will not see a “ thrower ” at all. How, then, do 
 they produce their circular articles ? The ingenuity of 
 the machinist has solved the problem, and it would be 
 ungenerous to lament the advent of machinery while 
 we enjoy a cheap dinner-plate or cup and saucer. 
 Cheap crockery is a great civilising agent, and the 
 mechanical potter confines his attention, for the most 
 part, to the production of useful articles that have to 
 be made in large quantities, and are sold at low prices. 
 For the making of a plate, the head of the throwing- 
 spindle is fitted with a humped block shaped to the 
 inside of the plate. On this hump is placed a thin 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 27 
 
 layer of the clay, pressed into form as the spindle 
 revolves by a fixed metal rib shaped to the outline 
 of half the back of the plate. The space between the 
 hump and shaped rib /is regulated by a set screw, and 
 plate after plate can then be turned out, each to the 
 same thickness. It was the uniformity of shape in his 
 useful productions that brought to Wedgwood his early 
 reputation, and the same merit of absolute similarity 
 still attaches to most English china for table use. 
 
 With cups, and other vessels of deeper form, a revolv- 
 ing mould is used for the exterior, and the interior is 
 finished by hand. Crucibles are made in the same 
 way ; here, however, the mould is lined with a remov- 
 able bag of canvas before the clay is put in ; the 
 inside is formed by a shaped arm hanging down into 
 the interior, and capable of adjustment so as to leave 
 the intended thickness of clay. Bottles and jars are 
 now often made in the same way, the necks being 
 narrowed in by hand after the shaping-rib for the body 
 is withdrawn. Oval objects are also made in a revolv- 
 ing mould, the forming arm for the inside being made 
 to follow the required curve by means of an eccentric. 
 
 A most important method of forming articles is by 
 moulding them in moulds made of plaster of Paris. 
 The first model of the shape having been made in 
 clay, plaster, or wood, the mould is formed round it in 
 convenient sections, each accurately fitted to its neigh- 
 bour. Larger articles are pressed in such moulds ; 
 
28 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 the clay, roughly batted out in sheets of a certain 
 thickness, is placed in the mould, and well thumbed 
 into all the corners. The plaster soon absorbs water 
 from the clay, thus causing the clay shape to shrink 
 away slightly from the mould, which is then opened, 
 and the object taken away to dry after the seams have 
 been cleaned off. The marks of the seams can gener- 
 ally be discerned on a moulded article, however carefully 
 the work may be done, and it is sometimes surprising 
 to see these seams on a circular shape that could have 
 been better “ thrown ” on the wheel. The plaster 
 moulds are very cumbersome and bulky, and the storage- 
 room necessary for their safe-keeping must be a serious 
 tax. So fickle, too, is fashion that it is always calling 
 out for fresh patterns, and a set of moulds that may 
 have cost a large sum of money may only run for one 
 season, and then be useless. 
 
 Moulds are also used in the process of slip-casting. 
 Statuettes and light fancy work are generally made by 
 pouring the liquid clay into the mould, and, after suffi- 
 cient time has elapsed for a certain thickness of clay to 
 have settled against the sides, the remainder is poured 
 out again. In these, again, the absorption of the water 
 by the plaster soon releases the casting, and the mould 
 can be emptied and used again. Slip-casting, however, 
 soon spoils the moulds, as the clay has to be used in so 
 liquid a condition, and if any large number of a par- 
 ticular model is desired, the workman has to be pro- 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 29 
 
 vided with a duly large number of moulds identically 
 made, which he will fill and empty in orderly rotation. 
 
 Enrichments, such as ornamental handles, spouts, 
 and shaped lips, are moulded separately, and attached 
 by fluid clay to the object they were designed for. 
 Plain handles for common jugs are “ pulled ’* out 
 between the fingers, a quick and pretty trick to watch 
 when a skilled workman is engaged upon it. 
 
 A further method of forming clay objects is by 
 mechanical expression. Such, for instance, as drain- 
 pipes, channel-pipes, coping tiles — in fact, anything of 
 identical section throughout its length, may be squeezed 
 out when plastic through a die. The clay is fed into 
 a cylinder, in the floor of which is an orifice of the exact 
 shape desired, the core — if it is a pipe or other hollow 
 section — being held by bridges so placed as not to 
 interfere with the passage of the clay. A descending 
 piston forces out the clay in a stream, which is cut, as 
 it exudes, into suitable lengths. The addition of a 
 socket to the pipe does not much complicate the pro- 
 cess. An iron mould of the socket is held against the 
 bottom of the press, so that the clay as it travels down 
 spreads out and fills the mould. Directly a thin jet of 
 clay comes from the pin-hole left for the air to escape, 
 the attendant knows that the socket is fully formed, 
 and he commences to lower the mould away from the 
 mouth of the press. It is followed by the stream of 
 clay in the form of the pipe of its proper diameter. 
 
30 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 The desired length is cut through by a wire, and lifted 
 away for cleaning off and drying. 
 
 The modern science of sanitation owes not a little to 
 the stoneware drain-pipe, now one of .the most common 
 objects of the street. The commercial manufacture of 
 this highly useful — if not very ornamental — example of 
 the potters trade is of comparatively recent origin, Sir 
 Henry Doulton having been the first — just fifty years 
 ago — to start a factory equipped with specially-designed 
 machinery for its production. The use of stoneware 
 for this purpose has suggested its application to all 
 kinds of utilitarian requirements in chemical, distilling, 
 electrical, and many other industries, and it would be 
 difficult now to point to any manufacture or trade in 
 which stoneware or other pottery does not somewhere 
 find a use. 
 
 Machinery is now used for moulding tiles and tesserae 
 (or cubes) for mosaic pavements. The floor tiles 
 made in mediaeval times, of which so many beautiful 
 examples remain in our cathedrals and churches, were 
 made in wooden moulds, the ornament being filled in 
 first in one coloured clay, and then another coloured clay 
 run in in a liquid state to form the background of the 
 pattern and also the substance of the tile. The tiles 
 were cleaned off, dried and fired, and glazed with a lead 
 glaze. Both body and glaze were soft, and, although 
 good in colour, not adapted to stand much wear. It is 
 only where the old tiles have been buried, or placed in 
 
31 
 
'c . • :•% 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 33 
 
 some position where they were not walked upon, that 
 the patterns are now at all clear. It was in 1840 that 
 Mr. Prosser, of Birmingham, patented a process of 
 making buttons from dry porcelain powder, using steel 
 dies in a strong press. The idea was suggested to 
 Mr. Minton that mosaics and tiles could be made in a 
 similar way ; and by the year 1844, the process was 
 worked out in conjunction with Mr. Blashfield, 
 machines being built to produce tiles and slabs of 
 large size. 
 
 The clays are prepared in the same way as for 
 plastic work, but are then dried again and ground to 
 powder. The metal box or die is filled with this 
 powder, which has been very slightly damped; the 
 workman gives the overhead flywheel a vigorous twist, 
 and the vertical screw brings down the plunger with 
 great force into the die. A twist in the reverse direc- 
 tion, and the plunger rises again ; at the same time a 
 lever, worked by the foot, causes the bottom of the die 
 to rise and lift the clay, now compressed into a tile, 
 clear of the box. Any slight roughness along the edges 
 of the tile is soon removed, and the tile is carried 
 away to join its fellows in the drying-racks and subse- 
 quent “ biscuiting ” and glazing. 
 
 The average size of a wall-tile is a square six inches 
 by six inches, and large quantities of these are now 
 manufactured for decorative purposes. They are easily 
 
 attached to walls, especially since the recent introduc- 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 tion of a method of keying or “ undercutting ” the 
 backs to enable the cement to have a better hold. 
 Floor-tiles are generally preferred unglazed, and the 
 body for these is a mixture of barytes and clay ; this 
 fires extremely hard, and vitrifies throughout its sub- 
 stance, so that, should the surface wear through, the 
 same colour will still be visible. 
 
 Of brickmaking, whether by the dry or plastic 
 methods, and of brick-burniug, we have hardly space to 
 treat. We must, however, mention the continuous kiln, 
 or “ Ring-oven,’ 5 patented by Friedrich Hoffmann in 
 1858, as introducing the valuable economy of utilising 
 what would otherwise be wasted heat, in drying the 
 contents of adjoining ovens. 
 
 Having dealt with various methods of forming 
 pottery, we can now turn to the subject of baking or 
 firing it. As may be supposed, there are many different 
 forms of kilns, according to the class of ware and the 
 amount of heat required. For the larger proportion of 
 pottery manufactured, for all earthenware and china, 
 the firing has to be done in instalments. The ware is 
 first baked as terra-cotta or biscuit, and is then, having 
 been decorated or not in the interval, dipped in a glaze 
 and fired in a second kiln for the glaze only. Some 
 wares are complete at this stage : others may be 
 intended to receive other decoration in colours placed 
 over the glaze, which require to be fixed permanently 
 by firing the ware in a third kiln — the “ enamel-kiln/’ 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 35 
 
 Still other decorations may be used, other enamels or 
 gold, and these will necessitate fresh firings. Each 
 kiln in such a series of burnings goes up to a lower 
 heat than its predecessor, in order not to spoil the 
 effect by burning out some of the more delicate colours. 
 Each' degree of heat involves a different set of colours, 
 many that are perfectly safe at a low temperature 
 being burnt right away, or seriously impaired, by a 
 greater heat. No colour that is not fixed by heat can 
 be seriously looked upon as a pottery-colour; and it is 
 not surprising, therefore, to hear a potter laugh dis- 
 dainfully at the brilliant effects obtained by the use of 
 oil-colours painted on red biscuit-ware in a style that 
 was much in vogue among amateurs a few years ago. 
 
 Preparatory to the biscuit-kiln there is of necessity a 
 drying-room. The ware might be allowed to dry 
 naturally, but who would wait for this ? The drying, 
 also, must be quite complete — the ware must, in 
 potters language, be “ white hard” — or damage will 
 inevitably be caused in the kiln by the steam thrown 
 off by any lingering dampness. The old form of 
 drying-room was a close, brick-built box, with a stove 
 in the middle, and shelves all round; boys had to 
 enter the heated atmosphere with the trays of pots, 
 and arrange them, and remove them when “fit.” Very 
 unhealthy work it must have been. Now, in most 
 well-appointed factories, a large revolving cage is 
 used, which fills the whole drying-chamber, the shelves 
 
36 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 being accessible in turn, as the revolution of the cage 
 brings them opposite the doorway or small shutter. 
 
 Being dry, the articles are now carefully placed in 
 fire-clay boxes, called saggers. The coarse clay of 
 which these are composed is highly refractory, and 
 serves to protect the enclosed articles from unequal 
 heating and smoke. The saggers are piled up in stacks 
 in the kiln, each stack called a bung , and there may be 
 forty or fifty bungs in a kiln of average capacity. The 
 door to the kiln is then bricked up, and the fires lighted. 
 Certain contrivances and dampers enable the fireman 
 to control the heat and direct the currents of heat in 
 the right direction. It is most usual now to use 
 “ down-draught ” kilns, in which the heat from the 
 fire-holes is first directed up the sides of the kiln, and 
 then drawn down through holes in the floor, and away 
 underneath the floor, to a separate shaft, which may 
 serve for one or more kilns. The test-pieces being 
 drawn at intervals, showing that the right heats are 
 being obtained, which will happen in from forty to 
 fifty hours, the firing is stopped, the fire-holes bricked 
 up, and the whole left to cool for forty-eight hours 
 or so. This cannot be hurried ; if the kiln is opened 
 too soon, the contact of cold air may cause the still 
 warm ware to “ stunt ” or fly. The saggers are care- 
 fully unpacked, and, if sound, are used again ; the 
 contents are taken away to the biscuit-warehouse. In 
 a large pottery the stock of pure white biscuit-ware is 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 37 
 
 of necessity large, and very imposing it looks in its 
 ordered array. Here it waits in turn for decoration 
 and glazing. 
 
 At this stage, stoneware has a great advantage over 
 other pottery. It is usual to bake it and glaze it in 
 only the one operation, stoneware clays admitting of 
 this fiercer ordeal. The kilns are of slightly different 
 construction from those for earthenware, the heat 
 desired being greater. They are built in both forms, 
 down-draught and up-draught. 
 
 Instead of placing the ware in saggers, it is the rule 
 to build up with slabs and props of fire-clay open 
 shelves in tiers, filling them with ware as tier after tier 
 is built over until the crown of the kiln is reached. 
 Extra large pieces will interrupt the orderly arrange- 
 ment of shelves by the -increased space they require, 
 but the greatest economy is displayed in utilising every 
 corner by filling in with smaller articles. Every object 
 must remain perfectly upright, or the great heat will 
 cause it to melt sideways, and perhaps spoil other 
 pieces beside itself. The pieces are prevented from 
 adhering to the shelves by standing them in flint-dust, 
 which remains infusible. 
 
 For salt-glazing, the articles receive the full force of 
 the open fire ; the flames play directly into the kiln 
 and circulate through all the shelves and cupboards. 
 When the highest temperature has been reached, com- 
 mon ground sea-salt is thrown into the kiln by means 
 
38 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 of the fireholes and little holes specially left in the 
 crown of the kiln. This operation is performed as 
 quickly as possible in order not to check the heat of the 
 kiln by admitting cold air, and the holes are at once 
 bricked up again. A comparatively small quantity of 
 salt — not over two cwt. for a large kiln — suffices. Dur- 
 ing the moments of salting, a dense vapour of hydro- 
 chloric acid emerges from the shaft, and if one happens 
 to be in the neighbourhood of a salt-glaze pottery at 
 the time, one finds the air by no means pleasant. 
 Although assumed to be deleterious to plants, the 
 vapour is by no means so in the case of human beings, 
 for the vicinity of the potteries is singularly free from 
 epidemics. 
 
 Salt-glaze, although obtained by such simple means, 
 is chemically and technically superior to other glazes, 
 in that it is really the ware itself that fuses. The salt 
 is volatilised in the intense heat, the chlorine escaping 
 in vapour, and the sodium combining with the silica 
 naturally present in the clay to form a glass of silicate 
 of soda, which covers all the exposed surfaces of the 
 ware with a wonderfully fine film of intensely hard 
 glaze. Sometimes a little manganese is added to the 
 salt to induce a better colour, or a little lead to increase 
 the fusibility. The purer the clay the less readily will 
 it glaze, and it often happens that the finest examples 
 of salt-glazing may be found among the common drain- 
 pipes or sanitary ware. 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 39 
 
 . DRAWING ” A KILN. 
 
 Those stonewares that are intended for cream-enamel 
 (at first known as “ Bristol ” glaze) are dipped, when in 
 
40 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 the dry clay state, into pans of the prepared liquid 
 glaze. This is a mixture of felspar, borax and oxide of 
 lead, and may be described as a rough kind of porcelain 
 glaze. The porous clay soon sucks the water out of the 
 coating of glaze and evaporates it, leaving the materials 
 in a dry film on the surface of the article, which is then 
 carefully placed in the kiln. The stacks of ware are 
 not so exposed to the fire as in the salt-glaze kiln, the 
 products of combustion passing up the sides of the oven 
 within small flues called bags . The materials of the 
 glaze in melting combine with the body, and produce 
 an opaque glaze of great hardness and evenness. 
 
 A variation in either of these stoneware fires is the 
 kind of semi-glaze known as a “ smear.” Trusting to 
 the volatilisation that takes place in the kiln, a piece 
 of ware — otherwise unglazed — if placed in the vicinity 
 of a glazed object, or with the materials for glaze placed 
 in a dish or sagger alongside it or enclosing it, will be 
 found after the firing to have caught a faint polish or 
 “ smear ” of glaze. 
 
 The stoneware kilns are generally of large size, and 
 may take from seven to fourteen days for each burning, 
 from the “ setting ” of the contents, through the periods 
 of firing, cooling, and “ drawing ” again. One of the 
 kilns at Messrs. Doulton’s Lambeth Works is known to 
 the men as “ St. Paul’s,” on account of its size ; it has 
 a capacity of 29,000 cubic feet, and each burning con- 
 sumes about thirty tons of coal. Another kiln of square 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 41 
 
 shape at the same works was built specially for burning 
 bottles, and will accommodate at one time nearly 40,000 
 ginger beer bottles. 
 
 The upper parts of the large stoneware kilns are 
 often utilised for burning terra-cotta, or unglazed, wares. 
 Statues, architectural enrichments such as cornices, 
 medallions, capitals, panels, and even the common 
 chimney-pot innocent of all ornament, are carefully 
 placed in position, and propped up, where of complicated 
 form, by slabs and props of fireclay. Needless to say, 
 accidents will happen, however carefully guarded 
 against, and the slight displacement of a brick or bit 
 of slab during the burning, may chance to give a list 
 over to one side or other that may convert the heroic 
 pose of some statue into a ridiculous stoop. The 
 behaviour of the clay when it shall have reached its 
 half-melted condition has to be calculated for; the 
 characteristic of all clays to “ shrink 55 in the fire, intro- 
 duces complications of considerable extent. An object 
 of any size will shrink more in height than in width, 
 owing to the influence of gravitation ; the average 
 amount of shrinkage over all is a matter of experiment 
 and experience, and every clay has its own rate of 
 shrinkage. Thick and thin portions will shrink differ- 
 ently. Pieces that have been “ thrown ” on the wheel, 
 and in which the clay has, therefore, more or less of a 
 spiral direction, will untwist themselves in the burning, 
 and cause all attached portions, such as handles and 
 
42 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 spouts, to lean sideways in a disreputable manner, 
 unless this painful tendency has been neutralised by 
 sticking them on crookedly in the opposite direction. 
 Still further, the potter has to see that the thickness of 
 any piece is fairly uniform in itself ; there may be no 
 sudden lumps of clay in one part, and then a thin space 
 next to it — the result of this would be that the thin 
 part would split. No thickness of much more than an 
 inch is ever left in anything, however large it may be ; 
 the largest statue will be all carefully hollowed out 
 within, and strutted across and up and down with walls 
 of clay to keep it from sinking out of shape, and where 
 there may not be quite room enough for such a hollow- 
 ing out, as in a finger or hand or small head, there will 
 be drilled into it a long narrow hole to let the steam 
 and air escape. The amateur modeller who wishes to 
 have his attempts fired, that they may remain “ a joy 
 for ever,” often forgets to build up his models in a 
 business-like manner, and is sometimes disappointed to 
 find that in the firing they have blown out of shape or 
 gone to pieces. 
 
 With the great majority of wares, however, as has 
 already been stated, the first firing is not all that is 
 requisite ; there is still a great deal to do. The biscuit 
 ware admits of decoration by painting or printing ; for 
 the moment, we will leave the consideration of the 
 various methods of such decoration, in order to complete 
 our account of the kilns. The pigments with which 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 43 
 
 the decorations have been executed are all mixed in 
 vehicles of an oily nature, and a most necessary step is 
 to fire this oil out lest it should throw the glaze off in 
 the subsequent glaze-firing. This is done in what is 
 called the “ hardening-on kiln,” a muffle-kiln being 
 used and fired up to a red heat only — just sufficient to 
 burn away all the oil and fat without disturbing the 
 .colours. This firing is a matter of only a few hours. 
 
 The articles to be glazed are then dipped in the 
 liquid glaze, the materials constituting it having been 
 previously ground up to the finest possible condition in 
 water and gauged to the proper consistency by means 
 of a “ twaddell,” or hydrometer (on the same principle 
 that milk is tested by a lactometer). The workman 
 keeps the contents of his dipping tub continually 
 stirred, that none may settle, and carefully grasping 
 the piece, dips it in in such a way as to ensure a 
 uniform thickness without any streaks or drops. Places 
 where the fingers have been are completed by pencil- 
 ling them. Plates of a larger size than can be con- 
 veniently gripped are held by hooked thimbles fastened 
 on the fingers. 
 
 The glaze soon dries on the porous ware, and the 
 pieces are then placed in saggers again, and carried to 
 the glaze-kiln or “ glost-oven.” Coated as they are 
 in a glaze which presently is to melt into a glassy 
 surface, the articles now have to be supported in such 
 a way as not to stand any risk of adhering to each 
 
44 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 other, or to the saggers. For this purpose, specially- 
 made props are used, known, according to their shapes, 
 as stilts, spurs, cockspurs, triangles, and so on. On 
 many a common plate may be discerned the three little 
 points marking the places where it rested on a triangle 
 in the kiln. 
 
 The consideration of pottery glazes raises many inter- 
 esting technical points. The usual method of applying 
 the materials of the glaze is, as has been seen, by 
 dipping, the mineral constituents of the glaze being 
 held in suspension in water. The glaze-forming 
 materials can, however, be applied in other ways, 
 one very old method being that of dusting them on 
 in powder. 
 
 The object of all glazes is, of course, to form a glass 
 upon the surface of the ware. In salt-glazing, this 
 glass is formed with the aid of the body itself ; with 
 applied glazes, no such close union with the body is 
 possible. But it is none the less necessary that the 
 glaze, although not formed from the body, should have 
 the closest possible affinity with it. A glaze that has 
 a tendency to contract in the burning to a greater 
 extent than the body on which it is placed, commits 
 the unpardonable sin of “ crazing.” Ugly cracks, ex- 
 tending in all directions, will be seen upon the surface, 
 and flakes of glaze may come away altogether. Any 
 wares for domestic use that are crazed are simply 
 unsaleable ; their use proves objectionable, inasmuch 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 45 
 
 as acids or decomposing juices find their way through 
 the crevices, and are absorbed by the porous body, 
 which it was the special duty of the glaze to protect. 
 It is, therefore, of the greatest importance for the potter 
 to use such a mixture of glaze-forming materials as 
 shall behave satisfactorily in this respect ; and, as the 
 number of different bodies in use is large, the number 
 of variations in the glazes is also considerable. One or 
 two glazes may be mentioned in detail. The following 
 is given as the recipe for a common faience glaze for 
 earthenware : — 
 
 White lead, . . . . .53 parts. 
 
 Cornish stone, . . . . 16 „ 
 
 Flint, . 36 „ 
 
 Powdered glass, . . . 4 „ 
 
 Here the lead forms a large proportion, and the 
 glaze generally will be soft and easily fused. (It is, 
 by the way, being gradually recognised, by the men as 
 well as by the employers, that to work with lead glazes 
 is not altogether favourable to health. Where they 
 must still be used, the greatest precautions should be 
 taken in the direction of cleanly habits, use of respira- 
 tors while at work, no partaking of food in the work- 
 rooms, and so on. Part of the danger to health can be 
 got over by ‘'fritting” the materials first ; while in some 
 potteries the lead glaze is being given up altogether in 
 favour of more difficult mixtures containing no 
 lead.) 
 
46 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 We have just mentioned “ fritting. 5 ’ A glaze, all the 
 materials of which are ground together in water just as 
 they come to hand, is called a “ raw glaze ; 55 all the 
 substances will be about equally fusible together. But 
 a glaze may have to be composed of materials, some of 
 which are harder than others, and which there would 
 not be sufficient time during the firing to thoroughly 
 melt. The fusing, in such a case, is therefore assisted 
 by melting together beforehand the more intractable 
 materials. This is done, if in small quantities, in cru- 
 cibles or saggers, or, if in larger quantities, in a small 
 reverberatory furnace called a “ frit-kiln, 55 from which 
 the molten contents are run out into a pan of cold 
 water. The sudden cooling splits the glassy mass up 
 into fragments ; these are then ground to powder in 
 the mill, and mixed with the remaining ingredients. 
 A glaze prepared in this way is the following, used for 
 fine earthenware : — 
 
 Borax, ...... 30 parts. 
 
 Kaolin, . 
 
 Calcic carbonate, 
 Cornish stone, 
 Flint, . 
 
 o 
 
 20 
 
 30 
 
 15 
 
 These are fritted, and then in the proportions of 50 
 of the frit to 25 Cornish stone and 25 carbonate lead, 
 ground together finally. 
 
 A harder glaze than this — one used for china — 
 
 is 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 47 
 
 Borax, .... 
 
 . 24 parts. 
 
 Calcic carbonate, . 
 
 • 20 „ 
 
 Cornish stone, 
 
 • 48 „ 
 
 Potassic nitrate, 
 
 . 4 „ 
 
 Sand, .... 
 
 • • 4 „ 
 
 These are fritted, and 60 parts of it added to 24 
 Cornish stone and 16 carbonate of lead. 
 
 An easily-fusing earthenware glaze, containing no 
 lead, and described as a safe old Shropshire non- 
 poisonous glaze, is given thus : — ^ 
 
 Felspar, . . .27 
 
 Sand, ... 4 
 
 China clay, 
 Borax, . 
 Soda, 
 Nitre, 
 
 3 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 parts by weight. 
 
 These have to be fritted ; then to the frit is added 
 3 parts of borax already calcined. 
 
 The nature of the glaze for the old Sevres soft paste 
 porcelain has already been indicated. The glaze for 
 hard porcelain is china-stone, used in almost its natural 
 state, being, in fact, a kind of natural glass ; it has to 
 undergo prolonged grinding and very careful sifting, 
 and does not fuse properly except at a very great heat 
 — the highest used in pottery. Being of the same 
 chemical nature as the body to which it is applied, 
 there are no difficulties to be feared in the way of 
 “ crazing ” ; the shrinkage is identical (at Sevres the 
 
48 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 hard porcelain shrinks 17 per cent, in all). The diffi- 
 culties are more to be found in the intense heat which 
 is necessary to fuse the glaze; a heat more than enough 
 to fuse the body alone, and, therefore, tending to melt 
 it out of shape. 
 
 In view of the fact that “ crazing,” or disparity 
 between glaze and body, is so dreaded by most potters, 
 it is amusing to find that, for some classes of decoration, 
 it is eagerly sought by the Chinese and Japanese. 
 Their “ crackle-ware ” owes its effect to a purposely- 
 planned disagreement between the ware and its outer 
 covering ; and they can reckon on obtaining a crackle 
 of larger or smaller figure, sometimes obtaining different 
 varieties on the same piece. In the case of porcelain, 
 where the glaze will not, of itself, craze, they will make 
 it do so, by adding some baser material. 
 
 Mention has been made of the saggers in which the 
 ware for glazing is usually placed. Where smaller 
 quantities have to be fired, a “ muffle ” kiln is used. 
 This may be described as answering the purpose of 
 a very large sagger. A room is built up with fire- 
 clay slabs within the kiln, so that the flames may play 
 all around it without coming into contact with the 
 ware, access being obtained to this inner chamber by 
 a doorway, which is closely bricked up during the 
 firing. 
 
 And how can the fireman possibly know what is 
 going on within this closely-shut kiln ? A skilled 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 49 
 
 “ burner ” is a very valuable personage in a pottery ; 
 however zealously others may have laboured in the 
 making and decorating processes, all may be wasted 
 if anything goes wrong in the firing. The hecessary 
 experience is, of course, only gradually acquired, and 
 acquired in no easy way. A long-continued firing may 
 mean nights and days of continuous watchfulness ; an 
 involuntary slumber may mean the letting-down of the 
 heat, and the spoiling of the contents of the kiln ; care- 
 less stoking will mean waste of fuel and time. It is 
 usual to gauge the rise of the temperature by using 
 “ test-pieces/’ placed conveniently for withdrawal 
 through a small orifice, which can be opened and 
 closed quickly. These test-pieces are of different 
 forms, according to the kiln : for the glaze-kiln they 
 are generally small fragments painted with the glaze ; 
 for the enamel-kiln, little slips or cylinders painted with 
 a very sensitive colour, usually carmine, which, under 
 very slight increases of temperature, passes through 
 various tinges, from dull-red to bright rose-pink, and, 
 if overfired, changes to purple. Three or four of these 
 tests drawn at intervals will indicate the gradual rise 
 of the heat in the oven. 
 
 The only kiln now remaining for mention is that in 
 which enamel colours are fired. This is also a muffle 
 kiln similar to the last-named, but generally of smaller 
 size, in order that the firing, which does not go up to 
 
 any great heat, may not be too prolonged. At the 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 same time, the firing cannot be hurried or the cooling 
 rashly shortened; the sad result of any injudicious 
 haste in either would probably lead to “ stunting ” or 
 cracking the ware. This defect is a particularly dread- 
 ful one to contemplate; the piece may appear to be 
 perfect on drawing the kiln, but on sounding or ringing 
 it, a jarring, dulled note will make it evident that 
 appearances are deceptive. The too rapid cooling, or 
 some defect in the body, has brought about a state 
 of tension, from which the piece frees itself by the 
 summary process of cracking. 
 
 Methods of pottery decoration are exceedingly varied 
 and numerous. It would be quite impossible to deal 
 with them in detail, but they can be grouped in some 
 rough way. 
 
 The plastic nature of the body will suggest the first 
 group. 
 
 Dealing with the shape only, a piece may be squeezed, 
 crimped, bent, twisted, fluted, or dealt with in other 
 ways while it is still soft on the throwers wheel; or it 
 may be thrown in mixed coloured clays instead of a 
 plain colour. 
 
 On the lathe, it can be manipulated in all kinds 
 of patterns dear to a turner. Bands and ornamental 
 “ runners ” may be applied, to be either left plain or 
 filled in with coloured clays. Fancy lathing is often 
 indulged in, parts being turned up separately, and then 
 stuck together with liquid clay. 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 51 
 
 While plastic, effects may be got by stamping the 
 surface, incising on either the plain surface, or through 
 
 TURNING. 
 
 a coating of slip so that the body colour shows, painting 
 in slip or colour on the plain or coloured surface, 
 modelling above the surface, or carving back from the 
 
52 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 surface, carving completely through the substance, or 
 any of these in combination. 
 
 Then, according to the clay used, the piece having 
 arrived so far is fired with or without a glaze, being 
 either complete at this stage or waiting for further 
 treatment. 
 
 The biscuit ware to be decorated involves the use of 
 what are called u under glaze colours' ’ specially pre- 
 pared pigments that will withstand the amount of heat 
 necessary to fuse the particular glaze in use. The 
 harder the glaze-fire is, the fewer the colours available. 
 The oxide of cobalt appears to be the only one that can 
 be used under the glaze of hard porcelain. For the less 
 hard glazes, other oxides of metals are brought into 
 use — copper, iron, nickel, manganese, and chromium. 
 They give different shades according to the kind of 
 glaze used; thus, the turquoise blue of copper will only 
 be developed under an alkaline glaze, and manganese, 
 which gives a purple with the same alkaline glaze, 
 gives a brown with a plumbiferous glaze. Painting in 
 underglaze colours is considered more difficult than the 
 other varieties of ceramic painting ; the colours, when 
 put on the ware, do not have the same appearance 
 they present when fired ; the changes and reactions of 
 one colour upon another, and their behaviour under the 
 different conditions of body and glaze, have to be 
 learnt by long practice. To use Opie’s famous answer, 
 the colours have to be “ mixed with brains.’’ 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 53 
 
 As already stated, these pigments are used with a 
 vehicle of oily nature, such, for instance, as the fat oil of 
 turpentine. The biscuit ware is washed over with size 
 before commencing the painting, in order to stop the 
 suction of the porous ware. 
 
 In the case of table ware and toilet services, the 
 patterns are applied (when underglaze colours are used) 
 by transfer-printing. The colour is mixed up with 
 oil, resin, tar, etc., into a stiff ink. A copper-plate 
 bearing the engraved pattern — due allowance having 
 been made for the wrapping over of the design on the 
 curved surface of the ware — has the lines filled with 
 the colour. A special make of tissue paper, cut to the 
 size, is soaped and damped, placed on the copper-plate, 
 and passed through a roller press, which prints the 
 design on the paper. This is in turn laid on the ware, 
 any chance misfits in the pattern being as skilfully 
 disguised as possible by cutting and piecing, the 
 decoration being transferred by dabbing, and the 
 paper stripped away. The oil having been burned out 
 in the “ hardening-on kiln/’ the piece is dipped in glaze 
 and fired. A peculiar effect known as “ flowing ” is 
 sometimes resorted to, to take away the somewhat 
 mechanical look of a printed pattern ; this is obtained 
 in the glaze firing by placing in the saggers, cups 
 containing a mixture that will volatilise, such as lime 
 or chloride of ammonia, and in the vapourous air of the 
 kiln the lines of colour will swim and blur, soaking 
 
54 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 partially into the glaze, and softening the hard effect of 
 the print. 
 
 Here it may be convenient to mention a method of 
 decoration that stands somewhat apart — namely, the 
 faience or majolica, the painting of which is done upon 
 the raw enamel. In ordinary underglaze painting, the 
 colours are laid direct upon the biscuit ware, and the 
 colour of the ware (if it is coloured) shows through the 
 glaze, thus making it desirable that the body used 
 should be of fine texture and appearance. In majolica, 
 the body is hidden under a coating of what is called 
 tin enamel; it is really a lead glaze, thickened and 
 rendered opaque white by the admixture of oxide of 
 tin. The biscuit ware is dipped in this and left to dry ; 
 ujoon its absorbent surface the artist with rapid and 
 certain touches paints his decorations. No retouchings 
 are possible upon this unfired powdery coating; the 
 w r ork has to be direct and unhesitating. Fired in the 
 glaze-kiln, the colours are fixed in the melted enamel. 
 
 A striking development of majolica is lustre-painting, 
 in which a beautiful iridescence is produced by the 
 sheen of certain metals. The effect may have had its 
 origin in accident ; a careless smoky fire may have 
 brought about the particular condition of things result- 
 ing in a lustre, and the suggestion once seized may 
 easily have led to its complete adoption. The idea in 
 its production is to bring about, during the firing, what 
 is called a “ reducing atmosphere.” When the ware is 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 55 
 
 at a dull red heat, a thick smoke is made in the kiln. 
 The colours on the ware — which are, as we have seen, 
 oxides of metals — part with some of their oxygen, and 
 are reduced more or less to a metallic condition, which 
 gleams out through the remaining colour. Copper 
 treated in this way gives a splendidly rich ruby-red 
 lustre; silver, a yellow lustre. On opening the kiln, 
 the pieces are found covered with a black mess, which, 
 cleaned off, may often show that the smoking has been 
 over-done, and the pieces spoiled. The process is very 
 uncertain in its results, and owing to the number of 
 failures a good piece is apt to be costly. Though much 
 used in the middle ages in Spain and Italy, the method 
 now has but few followers. The common lustred 
 pottery now produced in Mexico, and sometimes to be 
 seen in our shops, is said to have its peculiar sheen 
 caused by the ware being placed as soon as fired under 
 heaps of stable manure, where it is left for a lengthened 
 period. The ammoniacal fumes attack the common 
 lead glaze with which the pieces are covered, and 
 partly decompose it, causing an iridescence not unlike 
 that of the ancient glass, which, long buried in the 
 earth, is found to have acquired in its partial decay the 
 most delicate prismatic tints and flushes. 
 
 Another class of decorations is obtained by using 
 coloured glazes. Very brilliant effects are given by 
 mixing the colouring matter in the glaze instead of 
 painting it on the body and then glazing over. No 
 
56 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 great delicacy of manipulation is possible in this 
 method, and no mixtures of tints can be attempted ; 
 but glazes may be run into one another in daring 
 contrasts. They are sometimes rendered opaque by the 
 addition of oxide of tin, and in this condition approxi- 
 mate more to the class of enamel colours which now 
 remain for mention. 
 
 This is a very large group of glass pastes or colouring 
 matters formed from oxides of different metals and 
 mixed with a flux. As a rule, they do not require a 
 high temperature to melt them ; they are therefore 
 reserved till the latest stages of pottery production, and 
 applied upon a surface that is already glazed. The 
 name of ' over glaze or onglaze is borne by the whole 
 group. The range of colours available is very great ; 
 practically any colour is obtainable, and in fact, such 
 elaborate and finished effects are attempted as to lead 
 one sometimes to entertain the feeling that pottery so 
 decorated has overstepped the line of good taste and 
 appropriateness. Enamel painting over glaze is so 
 much easier than other kinds of decoration that its 
 very facility is liable to become its ruin, and meretricious 
 effects be sought at the expense of permanence. 
 Underglaze decoration may be, and is, much more 
 difficult and limited to a narrower range of colour, but 
 its results are at all events imprisoned under the glaze 
 and permanently enshrined ; but colours painted on the 
 glaze are very rarely thoroughly fixed by the lower 
 
POTTERY PROCESSES, CLAYS AND KILNS. 
 
 57 
 
 heat, and may often be scratched off and worn away 
 by use. 
 
 It will be interesting to name the metals from which 
 some of these bright colours are obtained. 
 
 Iron in different preparations will give red, brown, 
 yellow, and green ; manganese gives violet, grey, and 
 black ; chromium gives yellow and green ; chromium 
 and tin gives pink ; cobalt gives blue, grey, and black ; 
 copper gives green, red, and with sodium turquoise: 
 gold and tin gives the purple of Cassius (so called from 
 its discovery at Leyden by Andrew Cassius about 
 1683); uranium gives yellow to orange titanium, lead, 
 and antimony give different yellows ; iridium gives 
 black. Zinc oxide added will brighten niost of these 
 colours ; tin oxide will render them opaque. 
 
 Gold is used as an overglaze pigment, the precipitated 
 metal being mixed with bismuth and turpentine, and 
 applied with a brush. After firing in the enamel kiln, 
 it requires to be burnished, remaining otherwise in only 
 a dull yellow condition. Silver effects are got by using 
 platinum chloride. Imitation golds, liquid gold, etc., 
 are used on common wares ; they do not require 
 burnishing. Needless to say, they are not so permanent, 
 and do not look so well as the real metal. But — they 
 are much cheaper. 
 
 It will be seen that many of the pottery colours are 
 chemist's colours, and have only been rendered available 
 by modern chemical research. Their preparation lies 
 
58 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 mostly in the hands of colour-makers for the trade, and 
 it is not uncommon to hear this regretted by practical 
 potters. The very purity and perfection of the colours 
 used often leads to a dead and mechanical level of 
 attainment ; a great part of the charm of old pottery 
 comes from the imperfection of the materials that were 
 then at command. The broken, throbbing colours, the 
 accidental blurs and stains, the free and unhesitating, 
 if careless, technique, have often resulted in a more x 
 artistic effect than will ever be given by the most 
 perfect of materials used timidly and without taste. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 W HO was the first potter ? Back in the dawn of 
 the world’s history, where mythical figures 
 loom large, was there some great primeval 
 inventor whom we can hail as the father of potters ? 
 
 We are afraid that this very practical and human of 
 handicrafts had its origin in no very heroic fashion. 
 As the early tribes spread over the face of the earth 
 from their starting point in the heart of Asia (or as the 
 very latest theory tells us, from Central America), the 
 clay along the river valleys must soon have suggested 
 many uses by its capacity of receiving and retaining the 
 chance impression of footsteps. And although the 
 daubing of mud over the plaited walls of a hut does not 
 seem to bear much relation to the finished pottery-art 
 of to-day, it is very possible that such a primitive use of 
 
 a plastic material that was found to harden in the 
 
 59 
 
60 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 fierce rays of the sun, may have been the first step in 
 the long history of the ceramic art. 
 
 Whatever the source of early pottery may be, the 
 forms and decorations of such examples as remain are 
 all strikingly similar. The inventive capabilities of 
 man as regards pattern- designing do not seem to vary 
 very greatly whether he lived in ancient Mesopotamia, 
 ancient Britain, or * ancient America, or sojourned in a 
 lake-dwelling in old Switzerland ; or whether, under 
 similar conditions of civilisation, he still lives remote 
 from the march of knowledge in the Fiji Islands or 
 heart of tropical Africa. The patterns are all more or 
 less geometrical in plan, with incised lines, waved and 
 zigzagged marks and impressions. The pottery found 
 on the sites of the strange lake-dwellings in Switzerland, 
 to refer to only one class, ranges over two or three 
 periods; the oldest dates from the “ stone age” — a 
 prehistoric era when the use of metals and the know- 
 ledge of how to melt them was unknown. The vessels 
 of this remote time — evidently intended for cooking 
 or storing purposes — were baked by fire, but their 
 irregular shapes show that they were built up by hand, 
 and not thrown upon a wheel. Even in the “ bronze 
 age” (which began approximately in Europe 1500 to 
 1000 B.C.) the pottery of the lake-dwellings, though finer 
 in form and with rudimentary decorations in red or black, 
 is still hand-formed. With the “iron” period, Roman 
 pottery is found, and “ thrown ” work of all kinds. 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 61 
 
 The ancient British pottery found in the burial 
 mounds called “ barrows ” is entirely of this early 
 barbaric nature, hand-formed and decorated by the 
 simplest of methods. Most of the pieces are of the 
 nature of sepulchral or cinerary urns, wide-mouthed 
 vases, suggesting a flower-pot in shape ; a similar shape 
 but smaller, averaging four to five inches high, seems to 
 have been used to contain food, and a slightly taller 
 shape for liquids. The ornamentation has been given 
 by indentations from a twisted cord, by incised lines, 
 by small perforations, or by pressure from finger tips 
 and nails. By examination of the sites where these 
 relics have been found, it would appear that the clay 
 vases, probably made by the women of the tribe, were 
 burnt in the same pyre that consumed the bodies of the 
 dead chieftains, and that the ashes were then gathered 
 together and placed in the urns over which the stones 
 and earth were subsequently piled, forming the “barrow.” 
 It is conjectured that the smaller vessels, found either 
 in or alongside the larger ones, contained food and 
 drink for the supposed use of the dead man. In the 
 Prehistoric Room at the British Museum, there are 
 numerous examples of these British sepulchral an- 
 tiquities, as well as of the pottery of the lake-dwellers, 
 together with similar primitive work from Germany, 
 France, Spain, Holland, and elsewhere. 
 
 Even for such rude pottery as that just mentioned, 
 the baking by fire had been used. For pottery of the 
 
62 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 age that must have preceded this, in which the heat of 
 the sun was the only hardening agent, we can best look 
 to the dry regions of Egypt and Syria for examples, and 
 there only in the form of bricks which had remained 
 buried for ages under the huge desert mounds until the 
 enterprising explorer came in these latter days, and 
 drove his trenches deeply through the accumulations of 
 rubbish. Recent excavations in Egypt and the valley 
 of the Euphrates have produced results which elucidate 
 many dark chapters in the history of antiquity, but 
 among the important secrets that still remain hidden, 
 is that of the relative priority of Egyptian or Babylonian 
 art. In both countries, sun-dried bricks were used in 
 enormous quantities, but reference to them does not 
 decide any question of antiquity. Among the examples 
 of these bricks in the British Museum are some bearing 
 the names of Thothmes I. (1633 B.C.); Amenophis III. 
 (1500 B.c.) ; and Ramesis II. (1333 B.C.), the latter 
 monarch being identified as the Pharaoh who oppressed 
 the Children of Israel. But objects of baked clay bear 
 the names of Egyptian kings going back to more remote 
 periods, and there are some small green-glazed tiles for 
 wall decorations that date back to about 3300 B.C. 
 
 The walls of the palaces of Babylonia were con- 
 structed in many cases of sun-dried bricks. Not so 
 well made as those of Egypt, or of such good clay, 
 they carry back our knowledge to an equally distant 
 period. At Telloh, one of the shapeless mounds 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 G3 
 
 between the Euphrates and Tigris, the explorations 
 by M. de Sarzec have made it evident that a great 
 palace once existed there. On a platform, nearly forty 
 feet high, of unbaked bricks, there are walls averaging 
 eight feet thick of large square bricks, each stamped 
 with the inscription of Gudea , an early king of Chaldea 
 of about 2700 B.c. ; and, with the inscription, a conse- 
 cration to the god of the city, Nin-Giron, the Fire-God. 
 These bricks are found to have been set in bitumen. 
 Among the ruins were found the bases of two huge 
 columns five feet six inches across and quatrefoil in 
 plan, and built up of alternate courses of curved and 
 segmental bricks. To find such a feature, so strongly 
 suggestive of the Egyptian papyrus columns, in Chaldea, 
 a country where the absence of stone would have made 
 it difficult to build columns, except of wood, points to a 
 cjose connection with Egypt at the time of the erection 
 of this palace ; a connection made still more evident 
 from the fact that several statues of Gudea, found in 
 the debris, are carved in green diorite from the 
 Egyptian quarries at Mount Sinai. The figures are 
 represented seated, in quite a characteristic Egyptian 
 pose, and on the lap of one of them is a tablet engraved 
 with the plan of a building and the indication along its 
 edge of a scale, which Prof. Petrie has identified as an 
 Egyptian cubit (2063 inches), and not the Babylonian 
 cubit (of 21 *6 inches). 
 
 Buried deeply beneath this ancient palace of Gudea, 
 
64 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 still older fragments were found — bricks and inscribed 
 stones. From the style of the writing, which is differ- 
 ent from the usual cuneiform shape, it is judged that 
 the date of these must be put further back than the 
 time of Sargon I. (3800 B.c.) Still more ancient than 
 even these are a few objects in stone to be seen in the 
 British Museum — gate-sockets and boundary marks — 
 inscribed with the names of kings going back to the 
 time of Eannadu, about 4500 B.c. 
 
 The deeper one delves into the records of these early 
 civilisations, the more remote seem their origin. And 
 yet it is of great interest, especially in connection with 
 our subject of pottery, to endeavour to ascertain whence 
 came the degree of artistic power that is already 
 evident in the oldest Egyptian remains extant. In 
 the tombs at Medum, dating from the time of Senefru, 
 the founder of the fourth dynasty, about 3750 B.C., are 
 walls painted with scene after scene depicting incidents 
 of the life of that time, and it is clear from these 
 representations that painting, sculpture, weaving, and 
 pottery-making were all in an advanced condition. 
 Senefru is known as the conqueror of the peninsula 
 of Sinai, valuable for its mines of copper and turquoise. 
 His son Khufu (or Cheops) was the builder of the 
 Great Pyramid at Gizeh. 
 
 No specimens of this early pottery seem to be 
 extant. It was probably earthenware, and used mostly 
 for domestic purposes. Vases of alabaster, marbles, 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 65 
 
 and stones would naturally be more likely to survive ; 
 and numerous examples of such vessels have been 
 found. An alabaster fragment in the British Museum 
 bears the name of Kha-f-Ra, the builder of the second 
 Pyramid (about 3660 B.C.). Others, more perfect, are 
 inscribed with the names of various monarchs of the 
 fifth and sixth dynasties (3560-3100 B.C.). 
 
 It is not till we reach the more recent eras of 1700 
 to 1500 B.c. — somewhere about the time that Joseph 
 was sold into Egypt — that we are on more certain 
 ground, and may actually handle existing specimens of 
 the Egyptian pottery. These are pieces of glazed ware 
 of a dull, deep red colour ; there are vases, long, narrow 
 vases (amphorae), pedestals, and bowls — the latter wide- 
 mouthed shapes, being all more or less warped. Other 
 specimens are jars painted and glazed to imitate 
 variegated glass and marble ; other painted vases have 
 conventional patterns in dull colours under a very 
 slight glaze. One very strange group of grotesque 
 decorations in which rudely modelled faces and sugges- 
 tions of figures are found, does not bear much apparent 
 relation to the usual Egyptian types of ornament, but 
 rather recalls the grotesques of Mexico or Peru. How- 
 ever, in all ages, this idea of a rude human head 
 formed out of a pot seems to have occurred to the 
 workers in clay, even up to the times of the Gres de 
 Flandres, and it is not surprising if the patterns are 
 rather similar. 
 
66 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 The beneficent Nile still provides, as it did of old, 
 the raw material for the potter’s use. The silt brought 
 down from the hills of the far interior seems to have 
 been especially well adapted for all kinds of ceramic 
 manufactures. The domestic wares of all sizes, from 
 an inch to several feet high, are in the red terra-cotta, 
 and made on the wheel. Well baked, the colour runs 
 to purple ; not so well-fired, more towards yellow. 
 Many sepulchral jars are found of coarse red clay; those 
 for the mummies of the sacred ibis are of sugar-loaf 
 form, and provided with a lid cemented to the body. 
 Some jars of very large size were used for preserving 
 foods; a set of them, with their pointed ends thrust 
 into the sandy floor, no doubt formed the usual 
 Egyptian pantry. 
 
 The well-known wall painting at Beni Hasan repre- 
 senting potters at work, shows also the kilns in which 
 the work was fired. It is not very clear how the kiln 
 was constructed ; it seems to have been a kind of shaft, 
 perhaps six or seven feet high, on the top of which the 
 vases were placed. One workman squats down to 
 stoke the fire, shielding his face the while with one 
 hand. Another is apparently engaged in handing 
 down the fired pieces, standing on a platform the 
 better to reach the ledge. The finished wares are 
 being carried away in baskets slung from a yoke across 
 a man’s shoulder. 
 
 At a later period, when Egypt was no longer its own 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 G7 
 
 master, the terra-cotta wares are strongly influenced by 
 Greek and Roman ideas. The earthenware jars and 
 vessels found at Naucratis, Bubastis, and other cities in 
 the Delta, are no longer typical of Egypt, and form 
 the transition to the potter j of Phoenicia and ancient 
 Greece. 
 
 The most characteristic Egyptian pottery is that 
 
 EGYPTIAN POTTERS AT WORK. 
 
 {From a Wall-painting at Beni Hasan.) 
 
 which is comprised under the name of Egyptian porce- 
 lain. It is not really a porcelain ; the materials for 
 making true porcelain were to be found in Egypt, but 
 no combination of them approaching the Chinese ware 
 was ever accomplished. The body is composed almost 
 entirely of sand, having little or no cohesion in itself, 
 and infusible at the low heat that was used. There 
 could have been no plasticity ; and it seems to have 
 
68 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 been only suitable for stamping from moulds. It, how- 
 ever, was capable of receiving a strong glaze, composed 
 of finely ground silica and soda, coloured with various 
 metallic oxides. The turquoise blue obtained from 
 copper is a most beautiful colour, hardly to be rivalled 
 at the present day ; the green and red (also from 
 copper), the purple, yellow and white (from manganese, 
 silver, and tin), combine to form most delightful 
 harmonies. The reputation of this ware was carried 
 far and wide, and it was largely exported to other 
 countries. 
 
 The green-glazed tiles already mentioned as dating 
 back to 3300 B.C., are in this ware. Those to be seen 
 in the British Museum are not large — only about two 
 inches long by one broad, and not an eighth-of-an-inch 
 thick. They have a perforated ridge at the back, or 
 are bevelled on the edge for fixing into the plaster of 
 the doorway of the pyramid at Sakkarah, where they 
 are found. A larger use of such tiles was made in the 
 palaces, built by Rameses II. and Rameses III., at 
 Tell-el-Yahuddiyyeh (the ancient Yicus Judseorum). 
 The walls were covered with tiles ; some representing 
 the conquests of the kings have spirited figures in 
 low relief of different prisoners of Asiatic and Negro 
 appearance. Their garments, the backgrounds and 
 the incised hieroglyphs are filled in with coloured 
 enamels. Some of the decorative designs of fruits 
 and flowers are delightful in colour. One very inter- 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 69 
 
 esting object in the British Museum is a tile of blue 
 porcelain six inches by four, on which is drawn in 
 outline of a darker blue colour the figure of a scribe 
 named Amen-em-apt adoring Osiris. Of similar char- 
 acter to these are the glazed fragments for inlaying the 
 decorations of mummy cases, or building up composite 
 figures ; beards and wigs in deep blue, fingers, toes, 
 eyebrows, eyelids, eyeballs, are among the forms most 
 frequently found. Little statuettes of divinities and 
 sacred animals occur in great numbers, as do also 
 sepulchral figures inscribed or painted with hiero- 
 glyphs. Some of these figures, evidently used by 
 poorer people, are either without any inscriptions at 
 all, or have only names carelessly written. Blue seems 
 to have been the usual colour ; it is found in all shades 
 from dull greenish blue up to a vivid deep colour; a 
 few of these figures are glazed in a pale bluish-white, 
 with painted purple hieroglyphs. Connected also with 
 the elaborate funeral ceremonies of the Egyptians were 
 the charms or amulets attached to the mummy- wrap- 
 pings at various fixed places ; they consist of representa- 
 tions of the sacred beetle or scarab , the utchat or 
 symbolic eyes of the sun, the boat of the dead, the uraei 
 or serpents, etc. Some of the perforated breastplates 
 of porcelain, in which these and other symbols are 
 combined, positively glow with fine .colour, and are 
 well worth careful study. 
 
 To the custom in vogue among the Egyptians of 
 
70 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 placing in the tombs of their dead ones, vessels con- 
 taining foods, wines, or unguents, and in many cases 
 some favourite instrument or object once prized by the 
 deceased, we owe the knowledge of so many interesting 
 details of their habits. Pathetically significant are the 
 little toys sometimes found, such as a wooden doll with 
 a mop of hair formed of clay beads, or a child’s ball of 
 blue porcelain, a set of draughts- 
 men, or a set of little pipe-like 
 tubes containing black powder 
 of stibium, used for colouring the 
 eyes of some fair Egyptian. A 
 few nicely-shaped goblets and 
 bowls have survived to our own 
 day ; they are decorated with 
 the lotus-flower, or coloured in- 
 side and out with the prevailing 
 turquoise blue. 
 
 The Egyptians successfully 
 applied this method of glazing 
 to objects not of pottery at 
 all. Steatite, or soap-stone, was carved into many of 
 the forms we have already mentioned, and then 
 glazed and fired in the same way as the pottery. 
 One vase of steatite, glazed in olive-green, is inscribed 
 with the name of Thothmes I. (1633 B.C.). 
 
 Interesting, as affording evidence of another period 
 of connection between Egypt and Assyria, are the 
 
 OVIFORM BOTTLE. 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 71 
 
 clay tablets found at Tell-el-Amarna, which record in 
 cuneiform characters the correspondence between 
 various subordinate kings, and Amenophis III. (1500 
 B.C.), the great king who erected at Thebes the two 
 colossal statues of himself, which were known to the 
 Greeks as the statues of Memnon. These little tablets 
 are of the form quite common in Assyria, but otherwise 
 not found in Egypt. One of them is actually a letter 
 from Amenophis himself to a chieftain of the name of 
 Kellimma Sin, and relates to the hand of a Princess 
 Sukharti whom the king wished to wed. 
 
 Turning now to the pottery of Chaldea, Babylonia, 
 and Assyria, we shall not find any very large proportion 
 of it of any definite artistic character. As already 
 stated, the fertile plains of Babylonia were great brick - 
 making centres, the platforms and walls of the palaces 
 being generally constructed of the unbaked bricks, but 
 faced with better materials, stone or marble, on internal 
 walls, and glazed or enamelled bricks on external walls. 
 Sir Henry Rawlinson found on excavating the mound 
 of Birs Nimroud, the traditional site of the Tower of 
 Babel, that remains still existed there of the Tower of 
 the Seven Planets, built about 600 B.c. by Nebuchad- 
 nezzar II. Each storey of the Tower was faced with 
 bricks glazed in different colours, symbolical of the 
 planets. One stage was built of greenish-grey vitri- 
 fied bricks ; the next of blue vitrified clay, conjectured 
 to have been burnt in situ ; another stage of yellow 
 
72 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 bricks gilded ; the next of pink ; the next of red, and 
 another of black. The platform for the whole was of 
 unbaked bricks. The oldest named bricks still in 
 existence are those of the time of Dungi and Gudea, 
 kings of Babylonia about 2500 B.c. The inscriptions 
 were stamped on, or impressed by an engraved cylindri- 
 cal seal, and there are examples of these seals, engraved 
 in different hard and precious stones, which date back 
 to Sargon I., who reigned about 3800 B.c. 
 
 Both Babylonians and Assyrians made great use of 
 clay for documentary purposes. What the papyrus 
 was to the Egyptians, the fine close red clay was to 
 the others. Little tablets of rounded forms (like a 
 modern flat cigar-case) have been found in enormous 
 numbers, stamped with microscopically small cuneiform 
 characters in close and orderly lines. They record all 
 kinds of information ; some are chronicles of kings, 
 early legends, astronomical observations, descriptions 
 of buildings, and so on ; a large number are contracts 
 
 ENAMELLED BABYLONIAN BRICKS. 
 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 73 
 
 of sales, of slaves, and other property, records of loans, 
 and leases of land. Some of the tablets of this latter 
 kind have the impressed signatures of quite a crowd of 
 witnesses ; as many as sixteen are found, in addition 
 to the name of the scribe and place, day of the month 
 and year of the king s reign, and all frequently in a 
 space not much exceeding a square inch or two. A 
 great number have the information and signatures 
 repeated on a close-fitting case of similar form. After 
 baking, these official statements seem to have been 
 preserved together in the royal archives, to be 
 brought to light only after the lapse of thousands 
 of years. 
 
 A few examples of clay modelling have been found 
 among the Babylonian ruins, mostly of small size. 
 There seems' every probability that larger works, 
 such as statues of gods, were made in terra-cotta ; 
 apparently of such a nature was the figure seen in 
 Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The examples known are 
 in a light red clay. One in the British Museum was 
 presented by Prince Albert, and represents in bas- 
 relief a man holding by the collar a huge dog of the 
 Thibet breed. 
 
 The few vases of Babylonian work that have been 
 found were thrown on the wheel, and are mostly of 
 terra-cotta. A small number are glazed in the same 
 manner as the bricks already mentioned; the colours 
 are blue, yellow, and white, the latter from the use of 
 
74 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 tin ; the glaze is similar to the Egyptian — a silicate of 
 soda — but not so good. 
 
 Assyrian Pottery was very similar to Babylonian. 
 As the old Babylonian empire weakened, the Assyrian 
 grew strong. More northerly, it was nearer the 
 Armenian quarries, and hence, although the walls of 
 the Assyrian buildings were still of brick, the facings 
 to them were now of carved stone. A large number 
 of these wall-slabs are to be seen at the British 
 Museum, and indicate that the Assyrian sculptors 
 were artists of no mean order. The subjects of the 
 carvings relate mostly to the conquests or prowess 
 of the kings, and but few indications are given of 
 domestic incidents. Underneath one of the hunting 
 scenes thus represented at Nineveh, there were found 
 some little terra-cotta models of dogs with their names 
 stamped on their bodies. It is very possible that these 
 were memorials of some of the king’s favourite hounds. 
 The custom of using baked clay tablets was continued, 
 and some most remarkable historical information has 
 been obtained from these and from the large cylinders 
 and prisms on which the achievements of the kings 
 were stamped. Some eight-sided prisms (the largest 
 two feet long, and covered on all its faces with close 
 writing) record the campaigns and building operations 
 of Tiglath-Pileser I., who reigned about 1100 B.c. 
 Similar cylinders relate to other enterprising monarchs ; 
 one of the most interesting is that which tells of 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 75 
 
 Sennacherib’s first successful expedition against Heze- 
 kiah, King of Jerusalem (701 B.C.). “ Hezekiah him- 
 
 self, like unto a bird in a cage, did I shut up within 
 his house in Jerusalem.” But the mysterious disaster 
 that came upon Sennacherib’s host in the campaign 
 two years later, is not recorded upon any cylinder. 
 
 Under Esarhaddon (681 to 668 B.C.), the whole 
 known world was conquered, and the Assyrian king 
 reigned in Egypt, Phoenicia, Cilicia, and Media. His 
 son, Assur-bani-pctl, who reigned for forty-two years, 
 was a generous patron of art and literature. His vast 
 kingdom was, however, maintained only by prolonged 
 wars and dreadful cruelties, and within a few years of 
 his death, the empire fell to pieces. On its ruins was 
 founded the new Babylonian empire, but this was of 
 short duration, and with the fall of Babylon in 539 B.c. 
 to Cyrus the Persian, Babylonia lost its independence. 
 The British Museum possesses a cylinder of Cyrus, 
 giving an account of the capture of Babylon. 
 
 In the ruins at Nineveh of the palaces of Sennacherib 
 and Assur-bani-pal, there was found a vast collection 
 (about 20,000) of clay tablets, which evidently formed 
 a library. A sinister guardian of the buried store was 
 discovered during the excavations which brought these 
 to light, in the shape of the skull of a man, most 
 probably the warder slain at the taking and burning of 
 Nineveh in 609 B.c. The collection of these tablets 
 seems to have been begun by Esarhaddon, and con- 
 
76 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 tinued by Assur-bani-pal, whose name is stamped on 
 most. Some are evidently copied from older originals, 
 and bear the words “ like the ancient tablets of Sumir 
 and Akkad.” Many of them are of educational charac- 
 ter, and those with parallel translations of the ancient 
 language of the country, Akkadian, into Assyrian have 
 been of great assistance to modern students. Lists of 
 plants, animals, countries and their products, metals 
 and their uses, figure in this extraordinary collection ; 
 but the most interesting are those relating to poetry 
 and mythology. Among the latter are the series con- 
 taining the Chaldean story of the creation of the world, 
 and another giving a version of the Deluge, very closely 
 resembling the account in the Bible. 
 
 Among the small tablets recording commercial trans- 
 actions are some rather quaint items of information ; 
 one is a summons for non-payment of the price of a 
 slave ; another is a contract referring to a loan of twelve 
 manehs of silver for six months at one shekel of silver 
 interest; another — the smallest tablet known — is one 
 worn by a female slave and stamped with the name of 
 her owner. 
 
 The violent destruction that seems to have overtaken 
 the vast Assyrian palaces may account for the com- 
 parative rarity of decorative details in pottery. Portions 
 of slabs and corbels, however, have been found, from 
 which it is possible to get some idea of the technical 
 attainments of the artists. Some have conventional 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 77 
 
 ornament in white, black, and yellow under a dull glaze. 
 Brown, blue, and green are also used. The melted 
 enamel in some cases has run down the sides of the 
 bricks or slabs, which were evidently fired on their 
 backs, having first been biscuited. There are continu- 
 ous patterns over some of the bricks, the ornament 
 outlined in white and filled in with pale blue, green, 
 and yellow. Some of the tiles were evidently fastened 
 to the ceilings, having central bosses and holes for 
 lamp-cords. The guilloche, rosettes, sacred trees and 
 winged animals so characteristic in Assyrian art were 
 destined to have, as we shall see, great influence on 
 the ceramic art of Phoenicia and Greece. 
 
 On the fall of Babylon, Cyrus, the Persian, became 
 monarch of all Asia from the Mediterranean to India. 
 Although a Polytheist, he was hailed by the captive 
 Hebrews as their deliverer and the “Anointed of 
 Jehovah,” and with his goodwill they were allowed to 
 return to their own country. His chief court was at 
 Ecbatana, the capital of Media ; but for certain periods 
 of the year it was held at Susa or Shushan, in Elam. 
 Later monarchs of his line, Darius, Hystaspes, Xerxes, 
 and Artaxerxes, were great builders, and very wonder- 
 ful remains of their vast palaces are still to be seen at 
 Persepolis (the capital under Darius and Xerxes), and 
 at Susa. At Persepolis there was abundance of stone, 
 and the architectural features such as columns, brackets, 
 doorways, etc., which, being in wood, have disappeared 
 
78 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 
 at Nineveh, are found at Persepolis in great number 
 and in fine preservation. The remains at Susa, how- 
 ever, are much more interesting from the potter’s point 
 of view, for here there have recently been unearthed by 
 M. Dieulafoy large portions of the decorations of what 
 must have been the most remarkable edifice of clay 
 ever seen. Situated as the place was, at a distance 
 from suitable quarries, it seems to have been determined 
 to utilise the resources of the potter’s art to the utmost. 
 The great king Darius attracted artists from far and 
 near; the workers in enamels spread their most 
 gorgeous colours upon the modelled surfaces of the 
 brick walls which lined the wide staircases or towered 
 above the hill-side. From the specimens now to be 
 seen in the Louvre it is evident that the potters of that 
 day possessed no mean skill. The designs are of quite 
 the Assyrian type ; one very important fragment, thirty 
 feet long and fifteen feet high, represents a procession 
 of giant archers, with black visages, and accoutrements 
 and garments in white, golden yellow, blue, black, gold 
 and silver. The modelling of these enormous figures 
 has been done upon the narrow edges of large tile-like 
 bricks, the joints- of which occur at regular intervals 
 without reference to the modelling. It is possible that 
 the figures were moulded in large sections, laid down 
 upon the requisite number of bricks, and the jointing 
 of the latter continued up through the modelling. The 
 body of the bricks is composed of a hard white clay ; 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 79 
 
 the enamels covering the surface are of great brilliance. 
 The name of “Darius, King” in Persian, Median, and 
 Assyrian appears on the enamel. 
 
 From the palace of Artaxerxes, which occupied 
 another portion of the site, M. Dieulafoy brought home 
 another most valuable example of this ancient decora- 
 tive art, in the form of a frieze of lions, modelled and 
 enamelled in a similar way to that of the archers. The 
 animals are represented steadily advancing, each with 
 gaping jaw and tail extended. The body is white, the 
 mane is green, touches of blue and yellow about the 
 mouth, and the background of the whole a turquoise- 
 blue. Above and below are borders of ornament in 
 blue, green, white, and yellow. The effect of this 
 brightly-coloured row of beasts, each six feet high and 
 eleven feet long, must have been startling. The sides 
 of a wide staircase were also found to be decorated with 
 a bold conventional pattern of lotus and palmettos in 
 colours. 
 
 We have devoted some space to the description of 
 these valuable monuments of the ancient Persian art, 
 on account of the important position they occupy in 
 the history of ceramic knowledge. It is very singular 
 that the Persian potters were the only ones to retain 
 the secrets of these ancient enamels. The art of using 
 them died out in Egypt ; it was never adopted by the 
 Phoenicians or Greeks; and when, in after centuries, 
 enamelled faience was brought westward to Europe by 
 
80 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 the Arabs, they were still Persian workmen who pro- 
 duced it. The Persian empire underwent many vicissi- 
 tudes, and saw many changes in its kings. When the 
 whole world was overrun by Alexander the Great, 
 Babylon was for a short time his capital. He is said 
 to have had 10,000 men at work at the restoration of 
 the famous temple of Baal, but without making any 
 definite impression on the huge mound of brick. On 
 the partition of Alexander’s empire, Persia and Syria 
 fell to the share of Seleucus Nicator, but the dynasty 
 (the Seleucidse) founded by him was not of long dura- 
 tion, and eventually the Parthians (under the Arsacidse) 
 governed the countries around the Persian Gulf for 450 
 years. Of the Parthian period considerable ceramic 
 remains abound. The most extraordinary, perhaps, are 
 the glazed terra-cotta coffins, of which many thousands 
 have been found at Warka (Erech of old). Examples 
 may be seen at the British Museum. They present 
 somewhat the appearance of a mummy-case ; a long 
 box in one piece, with a large orifice at the wider end 
 covered by a separate oval lid. The lid and top are 
 covered with stamped raised patterns, and the whole is 
 glazed thinly in green. To the same period belong 
 some vases, bowls, hand-lamps, etc., glazed with a pale 
 pearly glaze, and numerous red or yellow terra-cotta 
 urns, in which the burnt ashes of their dead were 
 deposited. 
 
 Of the pottery of the Hebrews few examples remain. 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 81 
 
 There are several references in the Bible to the subject, 
 and the use of the throwing- wheel was evidently quite 
 familiar. There was a guild of potters at Jerusalem, 
 and one of the gates of the city was named after them. 
 For all but domestic wares, it is probable that the 
 Jews turned to the Egyptians or Phoenicians for their 
 decorated pottery. In the later times of the Roman 
 dominion, the characteristic red Roman ware must 
 have been used very largely, for there are numerous 
 fragments found in the debris outside the city walls. 
 
 The Phoenicians, or ancient inhabitants of Canaan, 
 driven to the sea-coast by the incoming Israelites 
 under Joshua, became the great traders of antiquity, 
 and their ships traversed all the known seas in search 
 of, or bearing, all kinds of commodities. Our own 
 shores were visited by them at a very early period for 
 tin. Most enterprising colonies were successively 
 planted among the islands and along the shores of the 
 Mediterranean Sea, and it is among the ruins of these 
 colonies that examples of their best ceramic produc- 
 tions may be found, although of their most powerful 
 offshoot, Carthage, this cannot be said. To the practi- 
 cal business-like nature of the Phoenicians is due the 
 simplification of the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, 
 into the more compact alphabet which has formed the 
 basis of all later European alphabets. To them is also 
 due the discovery of glass, and of the famous dye, the 
 Tyrian purple. It was with Hiram, king of Tyre, that 
 
82 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 Solomon was in friendly commerce. It was also from 
 Phoenicia that the degrading Baal-worship was intro- 
 duced into Israel on the marriage of Ahab to the 
 Sidonian princess, Jezebel, a worship that gradually 
 undermined the theocracy of the J ews, and led to their 
 final loss of independence. 
 
 The influences that moulded Phoenician art are seen 
 very clearly in the pottery that has been excavated in 
 Cyprus, one of the earliest of the colonies. At first, 
 the ornamental details were evidently suggested by 
 Egypt and Assyria; and then, on the gradual rise of 
 Greece to power, the Greek feeling is very apparent. 
 In fact, along the shores of Cyprus that lay nearest to 
 Greece, there were actual settlements of Greeks. In 
 course of time, the races amalgamated, adopting the 
 Greek language and the Phoenician religion. At 
 Idalium , under the remains of a Greek town, there 
 were found numerous traces of an earlier Phoenician 
 settlement; the pottery was in a light coloured clay, 
 with geometric patterns and concentric circles roughly 
 painted in brown. A characteristic note of the early 
 patterns is the generally vertical direction of the lines. 
 About the seventh century, a method of decoration, 
 evidently suggested by Assyrian art, gradually spread 
 westwards ; it is principally seen in the arrangement of 
 the animals or figures composing the design, into con- 
 tinuous friezes round the vase. Another suggestion 
 came from Assyria in the form of raised patterns, 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 83 
 
 either singly stamped on, or produced by an engraved 
 cylinder being rolled across the surface. At Curium 
 there was found a large vase, four feet nine inches high, 
 and now in the New York Museum, covered with 
 decoration which has this Assyrian feeling. Strong 
 bands of colour alternate with rows of spirals, 
 draught-board patterns, rudimentary Greek fret or 
 key patterns, friezes, and panels of animals convention- 
 ally disposed. 
 
 It was by a series of very gradual changes that the 
 Greek ceramic art arrived at its perfection. As in 
 other countries, the oldest specimens are formed by 
 the hand, and not upon the wheel. Some are gro- 
 tesquely made to resemble an owl ; a few incised 
 patterns are found, but no colouring ; the clay is fired 
 to a dull black tint. Other objects found indicate 
 that they belonged to the “ stone age.” Of this kind 
 of pottery are the remains excavated by Dr. Schliemann 
 at Hissarlik , the supposed site of Troy; they were 
 found buried (with twenty-one inches accumulation of 
 earth between) beneath the remains of a city which had 
 evidently been burnt, and which the explorer identified 
 as the veritable city of Troy, besieged for nine years by 
 Agamemnon, king of Mycense. The relics of this 
 second city were mainly treasures of gold ; there were 
 indications that the “ bronze age ” was commencing, 
 and the date would, therefore, be about 1200 B.c. 
 
 Found at many places on the islands of the iEgean 
 
84 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 Sea and on the mainland of Greece, is the next class 
 of Greek pottery, generally known as Mycence ware , 
 since Dr. Schliemann's excavations at MycenaB attracted 
 special attention to it. The general feeling of the 
 designs seems to be derived from Egyptian and Asiatic 
 sources ; there is a new note, however, in the extensive 
 use of marine forms, as well as vegetable and geo- 
 metric suggestions. The cuttle-fish, sea-weed, and 
 shell-fish are very common in the designs, but the 
 human figure, when introduced at all, is drawn with 
 much simplicity and archaism. It seems very probable 
 that for some few centuries before 1000 B.C., there was 
 a very similar and general condition of culture among 
 all the nations bordering the eastern shores of the 
 Mediterranean. Egyptian relics have been found at 
 Mycenae in Greece (among them some of the porcelain 
 scarabs, with names of Egyptian kings back to 
 1500 B.C.), while in Egypt, many vases from Mycenae 
 have been found in tombs dated 1400 to 1100 B.c. 
 
 The ware is generally yellow in colour, with paintings 
 
 * 
 
 in yellow, brown, and black, in colours that acquired 
 a lustrous gloss in the firing. 
 
 A later style of the Mycenaean ware was somewhat 
 more geometrical in its decorations. From the fact 
 that many examples of it were found near the Dipylon 
 gate at Athens, the name of the Dipylon style has 
 been given to the whole class. Various arrangements 
 of lozenges and chequers, meander and key patterns, 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 85 
 
 Vandykes and waved or sloped lines made up the 
 resources of the designers. 
 
 About the seventh century B.C., the Greek colonies 
 round the shores of the Mediterranean, especially at 
 first in Cyprus and Rhodes, brought about a more 
 intimate artistic connection with Assyria, and, as 
 already mentioned in connection with Phoenician 
 pottery, the Assyrian decorative ideas gradually spread 
 to the west. The shapes of the vases altered, becom- 
 ing generally shorter and rounder, and the decorations 
 of animals and figures were arranged in friezes or 
 bands round the shapes. In Greece itself, the potters 
 of Corinth were the first to feel the new influence ; the 
 Athenian potters, more conservative, were a little later 
 in combining the Oriental ideas with their Dipylon 
 style. This class of Greek pottery is known as the 
 Plialeron style, having first been found in sites along 
 the road from Athens to Phaleron. 
 
 Principally found at Camiros, in the island of 
 Rhodes, and made about 600 B.C., is a variety of ware 
 in which the friezes of figures suggest very strongly 
 the designs of Assyrian embroideries. The animals 
 constituting the patterns stand closely together, show- 
 ing but little of the ground, and there is a constant 
 repetition of the rosette familiar in Assyrian ornament. 
 The painting is done in black on the red clay, partly 
 in solid black, partly in outline ; inner markings are 
 incised through the colour, or added in purple. Great 
 
86 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 use, too, is made of a white or cream-coloured slip (or 
 engobe ) for indicating flesh-colour. 
 
 In the time of the twenty-sixth Egyptian Dynasty 
 (660-530 B.C.), Egypt* opened her ports to foreign ships, 
 and her armies to foreign mercenaries; at the same 
 time, Greek settlements were founded actually in 
 Egypt itself, at Naucratis, Daphnse, Bubastis, and 
 other places in the Delta. Numerous ceramic remains 
 have been found on these sites ; the shapes of the jars 
 and vessels are comparatively rude, the colour of the 
 body being generally from buff to a dull red. The 
 designs, although mainly Greek, show curious traces of 
 a more cosmopolitan feeling. Occasionally an Egypt- 
 ian inscription occurs more or less inaccurately rendered 
 by the Greek painter. Some of the pieces are in a 
 black ware with a high polish ; to one of them (in the 
 British Museum) a large vase (broken), some amount 
 of personal interest is attached. It bears a dedication, 
 inscribed by a Greek officer, named Phanes, of whom it 
 is related that he deserted the Egyptian army in order 
 to join the Persians, then advancing under Cambyses 
 to invade Egypt. The two armies met ; the former 
 associates of Phanes, still faithful to their Egyptian 
 command, took his children, whom he had left behind 
 in Egypt, slew them in a large vase, and, full in view 
 of their father, adding wine and water, drank of the 
 contents. 
 
 With the sixth century B.C., a growing preference for 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 87 
 
 figures of men and deities is evident in Greek pottery. 
 Retaining the white biscuit, or a glazed red or brown 
 for the ground colour, the designs are painted in solid 
 black, touched up with purple or white (for flesh), both 
 of these being painted on above the black, and fired 
 again at a lower heat. Some from Naucratis have 
 a cream-coloured ground ; and some new colours are 
 used in the paintings that may have been suggested 
 by Egyptian wall paintings, as, for instance, a light 
 sienna and an amber red. 
 
 In the following century (fifth century B.c.), the period 
 during which Phidias produced the wonderful sculptures 
 of the Parthenon at Athens, a very different style of 
 decoration was in vogue. The figures were outlined, 
 and left the natural red colour, but all the background 
 was filled in with the black lustrous colour. The inner 
 lines of features, draperies, etc., are finely drawn on the 
 red. The best examples of vase painting are found in 
 this class ; the figure drawing pure and refined ; the 
 composition simple and expressive. Colours are occa- 
 sionally introduced ; the flesh is sometimes painted 
 white, and the draperies, in later examples, blue, green, 
 and purple. Another sign of later work is the use of 
 pink and gilding. 
 
 Contemporary with this finest period are the funeral 
 vases or lekythi from Athens, of a very graceful shape, 
 and with a white ground, on which the figures in out- 
 line have been drawn with a quick and certain hand. 
 
88 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 The draperies are occasionally filled in with red, brown, 
 green, or blue. 
 
 Greek ceramic art had its decadence. The perfection 
 once reached, the only thing left to do apparently was 
 to make the designs more florid, the figure drawing 
 exaggerated, the shapes eccentric. The subjects of the 
 compositions are no longer taken from the religious 
 myths and histories of heroes, but from burlesques or 
 every-day incidents of ordinary life. From this loss of 
 the ideal to the absence of all representations of figures 
 was no great step, and it was soon taken. A style of 
 vase decorations, consisting of tendrils and conventional 
 forms, painted in white or purple on the black ground, 
 was followed by one utilising moulded reliefs, and glazed 
 in black, red, or green. Greek art was already dead, 
 when the destruction of Corinth by Mummius in 146 B.c. 
 led to the death of Greece as a nation, and its absorp- 
 tion into the Roman empire. 
 
 Within its own limits, Greek ceramic art, in its best 
 periods, has a grace and perfection that have never 
 since been equalled. The material was of the com- 
 monest, and no effects of gorgeous colour were ever 
 attempted ; but the keen sense of beauty in form that 
 led to the supremacy of the Greeks in architecture and 
 sculpture was equally evident in the chaste proportions 
 of the shapes, and the eloquent balance of the decora- 
 tions, of their pottery. This reticent art occupies a 
 position of “ splendid isolation ; ” it rose from rude 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 89 
 
 archaism, and within a few hundred years had grown, 
 flourished, decayed, and ended again, leading to no 
 definite advance in the technique of the potter’s art. 
 A singular fate awaited most of its products ; they were 
 destined to remain unknown to the world until within 
 the last 200 years or so ; the openings of ancient tombs 
 in Italy, principally in the region that in Latin times 
 was Etruria, led to the discovery of hidden hoards of 
 this painted pottery, which thus came to be at first 
 styled Etruscan. Its Greek origin was, however, soon 
 apparent, and later discoveries, some of quite recent 
 date, have made the links in its story fairly complete. 
 There are now, it has been computed, something like 
 50,000 Greek vases known belonging to private persons 
 and public museums ; at the British Museum several 
 large rooms are filled with large and valuable specimens 
 arranged chronologically in the groups we have men- 
 tioned. 
 
 It may be convenient to name a few of the most 
 usual shapes found in Greek pottery. The largest was 
 the pithos , a huge unglazed jar, generally too large to 
 be thrown, and, therefore, built up in sections by hand. 
 It was in one of these tubs that Diogenes, the cynic, 
 took up his abode ; but it would seem that this kind of 
 dwelling was not altogether unknown among the poorer 
 classes. A constantly recurring form was the amphora 
 (literally, carried on both sides), a tall shape, sometimes 
 with a pointed base, and with two handles. In large 
 
90 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND GRAFTS. 
 
 sizes — three to six feet high — this was used for stores 
 of all kinds : wine, water, oil, etc. 
 
 The stamnos had two handles and a wide mouth ; 
 the askos had an arched handle over the top joining a 
 spout and an open neck ; the hydria was a water- 
 
 pitcher, with two 
 small side handles, 
 and one larger one ; 
 the rhyton was a 
 drinking - cup (gener- 
 ally moulded), which 
 could not be set down 
 unless empty : it took 
 the form of a head 
 of some animal ; the 
 lekythos was an oil- 
 jar of tall shape, with 
 one handle, and a 
 cup-like mouth set on 
 a narrow neck ; the 
 hrater was a large 
 wide - mouthed vase 
 
 GREEK AMPHORA WITH BLACK FIGURES. . . 
 
 for cooling and mixing 
 wines ; the oinochoe was for serving wine, and had a 
 characteristic lip pinched in at the sides; the kantharos 
 was a drinking-cup or goblet, with looped handles, and 
 the kylix also, but of a flat dish-like shape, in early 
 examples standing on a foot ; the aryballos , a round or 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 91 
 
 bladder-like jug, held perfumes or oils, while the 
 kyathos served as a ladle. 
 
 The generally soft state of these vases not unnatur- 
 ally led to some amount of loss by breakage. Whether 
 the natural tendency of pottery to get broken, and 
 the abundance of fragments, led to the adoption of 
 the political method of ostracising an obnoxious citizen, 
 or the latter prompted an undue recklessness in the 
 treatment of pottery, is uncertain ; but it is a fact that, 
 at one period in Greek history, pot-sherds ( ostraca ) 
 were used in large numbers for recording votes, as well 
 as for current business transactions, giving receipts, and 
 so on. (One might refer, in this connection, to the 
 pot-sherd that figures so prominently in Mr. Rider 
 Haggard’s “ She.”) The inventiveness of youth is 
 responsible for yet another use of broken Greek 
 crockery, in a game called ostrakinon, in which the 
 players tossed up a piece to see if the black or red 
 side came uppermost. 
 
 Many vases with dedications to the gods have been 
 found in the neighbourhoods of temples on the 
 Acropolis at Athens, or at Delphi ; at Naucratis, in 
 the Egyptian Delta, numerous fragments, with inscrip- 
 tions to Apollo and Aphrodite, were found near the 
 ruins of temples to those deities. Among the vases 
 found in tombs, few are more interesting than the 
 prize vases won at the Panathenaic games at Athens, 
 presumably interred in the graves of the athletes them- 
 
92 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 selves. There are some exceptionally handsome ex- 
 amples of these at the British Museum. On one side 
 is a conventionalised figure of Athene, and on the 
 reverse, different representations of boxing, foot-racing, 
 leaping, disc-and-spear throwing, horse-and-chariot 
 racing. Some bear the names of the archons or 
 governors of Athens for the particular year in which 
 the games took place, and it has been, therefore, pos- 
 sible to ascertain the dates of these pieces as ranging 
 from 367 to 328 B.c. 
 
 The clay used by the Greeks contained a large pro- 
 portion of carbonate of lime ; it is never very hard, and 
 is easily scratched. It is porous. One of the most 
 celebrated clay-pits was at Mount Colias ; but the 
 natural colour not firing sufficiently warm in tint, there 
 seems to have been a practice of staining it darker with 
 red ochre. The graceful outlines and lightness of make 
 of the vases show a high degree of skill in throwing ; the 
 invention of the potter’s wheel was in fact claimed by 
 the Greeks, who attributed it to, among others, Coroebus 
 at Athens, Hyperbius at Corinth, or the mythical 
 Daedalus. Moulds were used for forming the handles, 
 mouths, and other projecting portions, and these were 
 affixed with remarkable cleanness and exactitude. 
 Occasionally, in later times, the whole shape was 
 moulded, as in some of the rliyta or drinking-cups, 
 or the peculiar jugs in the form of human heads, or 
 double masks. A beautifully finished vase in the 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 93 
 
 British Museum, with very refined decorations, is in 
 the strange form of a large knuckle-bone. The first 
 application of colour (generally the black ground — 
 either complete, or painted to the outlines only) was 
 on the absorbent dry surface before any firing had 
 been given. After this had been fired, the details 
 were scratched in, and the remaining colouring given, 
 to be fixed by a second fire. 
 
 The nature of the glaze on Greek pottery has called 
 forth many diverse opinions. It seems to have been 
 formed from soda ; it is exceedingly thin, and is prac- 
 tically little more than a varnish. It combined best 
 with the black colour, but very imperfectly with the 
 unpainted surface. 
 
 A painted kylix found at Yulci has a representation 
 of potters at work, and is thought to refer to the visit 
 of Homer to the potters in the island of Samos. The 
 wheel, a large wheel-like disc with spokes, is being 
 turned by a boy ; the thrower stands leaning over the 
 wheel and is forming a tall amphora, one arm being 
 inside the shape. Near him a youth is seated, holding 
 a vase on his knees and affixing a handle to it ; another 
 carries away a vase towards the kiln. A man, undraped, 
 bears on his back a heavy burden, possibly the fuel of 
 charcoal or anthracite, and another stoops before the 
 kiln, which has a cylindrical chimney ornamented with 
 the head of Pan. 
 
 The two potters’ quarters in Athens were called the 
 
94 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 Kerameikoi , and their term for pottery was keramos 
 (possibly from keras , a horn). Keramos, the son of 
 Bacchus and Ariadne, was considered the patron of the 
 art. 
 
 Most varied inscriptions are to be read upon the 
 decorated vases, relating to all kinds of matters. The 
 prize vases already mentioned are lettered, “I am a 
 prize from Athens ; ” a cup will read, “ Hail, and drink 
 well ; ” on a vase with a scene of olive-gathering, the 
 master says, “ O father Jove, may I be rich!” and is 
 answered with a picture of an abundant harvest, and 
 the words, “ See, it is already more than enough ! ” On 
 other pieces are such inscriptions as, “The boy is 
 handsome ; ” “ What a boy ! ” “ Hippokritos is the most 
 handsome ; ” “ Oinanthe is lovely.” More particularly 
 interesting, however, are the names of the craftsmen 
 themselves, which are found on large numbers of pieces 
 of the best period. One has, “ Exekias it was who 
 made and painted me ; ” a very usual formula is the 
 name of the potter followed by “ made ” or “ made me.” 
 Scratched in the feet of some, and evidently never 
 intended to be seen, are private marks which have 
 been deciphered as memoranda made by the workman 
 as to the number of pieces in the batch or the prices 
 he was to have for making them. 
 
 Some names of the artists of the best pieces should 
 be mentioned ; examples of their works are fairly 
 numerous, and those to whom the splendid collections 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 95 
 
 at the British Museum are available may study some 
 very beautiful specimens there. Euphronios seems to 
 have been the most celebrated, and his kylikes (dishes) 
 are of the very finest style. Hieron is chiefly known 
 from his kylikes, on which his inscriptions are generally 
 scratched (sometimes incorrectly spelt) under the handle 
 or foot. Meidias executed some remarkable works in 
 the florid style. Amasis was the painter of vases of an 
 early type, as were also Ergotimos , Eucheros, his son, 
 and Nikosthenes * Of these, Amasis, Euphronios and 
 Exekias were painters as well as makers. The others 
 named seem to have employed different artists to work 
 for them, among the names known being Epiktetos, 
 Euthymides (on one of whose vases is written, 
 “ Euphronios never did so well ”), Klitias , Onesimos , 
 Philtias , and Polygnotos. 
 
 Apart from vases, the Greeks used pottery very 
 largely for architectural purposes and for modelling 
 figures. Sun-dried bricks seem to have been employed 
 in building walls and fortifications, resisting the batter- 
 ing-ram better than baked bricks ; they have, however, 
 all disappeared, not having been protected by a facing 
 of harder material as in Assyria. 
 
 Prometheus was regarded as the first worker in clay, 
 being supposed to have formed Pandora out of earth 
 and water. (Compare with this the Egyptian god Num , 
 who moulded man from the dark clay of the Nile, and 
 
 * The Amphora represented on p. 90 is by this artist. 
 
96 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 breathed life into him, and the Hebrew conception of 
 the creation of Adam.) 
 
 Burnt bricks, roof-tiles, drain-tiles, flue-tiles, pave- 
 ments, cistern-linings, columns, and other architectural 
 features of terra-cotta were very extensively used, 
 although the abundance of stone and marble available 
 for the more important edifices rendered it unnecessary 
 to use the baser material for works of the highest class. 
 Roof-tiles were said to have been first made by Cinyras 
 in Cyprus. The front edge was frequently painted 
 with the Greek honeysuckle or other patterns. A 
 potter named Dibutades was the first who placed heads 
 or masks on the cornice tiles to mark the places where 
 the rain-water ran through. Projecting spouts or 
 gurgoyles were made in the form of a lion, or the mask 
 of a Satyr with open mouth. Until 574 B.c., when 
 Byzes of Naxos introduced a method of roofing with 
 slabs of marble, the roofs of all the temples were formed 
 of terra-cotta tiles. The old Erechtheum at Athens 
 had its mouldings of painted terra-cotta. Even when 
 marble came to be more used for the constructional 
 parts of buildings, the pediments and other enriched 
 fittings were frequently of terra-cotta. 
 
 A very extraordinary class of terra-cotta modelled 
 vases seems to have been intended for decorative 
 purposes in the temples. In a buff clay, a large and 
 wide vase forms the foundation for numerous figures of 
 all kinds and sizes, perched on the shoulders and 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY, 
 
 97 
 
 handles; projecting from the sides are the foreparts of 
 
 VASE OF APULIA. GREEK COLOURED TERRA-COTTA. 
 
 tritons or centaurs ; on the body will be placed a large 
 
 G 
 
98 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 mask and miscellaneous enrichments ; the whole piled- 
 up effect being somewhat grotesque. 
 
 Of a more graceful manner are the small statuettes 
 of which numbers have recently been found in the 
 tombs of Tanagra, Myrina, and other places. They are 
 comparatively late in date, and seem to have taken the 
 place of the painted vases formerly placed in similar 
 positions. They are principally little figures of draped 
 women and girls, modelled in a simple graceful style 
 and represented as engaged in scenes of every-day 
 life. Most of them are coloured, but the tints seem to 
 have been obtained from natural coloured earths not 
 fired in, and they have therefore not withstood the 
 touch of time very well. It is stated that there 
 are many forgeries of these Tanagra statuettes in 
 existence. 
 
 With a brief mention of the terra-cotta dolls (jointed 
 like our modern Derby-day wooden doll) occasionally 
 found in the tombs, and the hand-lamps, of which large 
 numbers were used, our sketch of Greek pottery must 
 close. 
 
 The ware was exported in great quantities to all 
 parts of the then known world, notably to Italy ; some 
 of the finest and largest pieces having been found there 
 interred in the tombs. An extraordinary number of 
 specimens has been found at Vulci in that part of Italy 
 that formerly was known as Etruria. When first found, 
 as has already been stated, Greek pottery received the 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 99 
 
 general name of Etruscan, but it is now clear that the 
 native Etruscan art was of a more simple type. The 
 Etruscans were known from an early age as successful 
 workers iu metal and in terra-cotta. Until the expul- 
 sion of the Tarquins in 510 B.C., Rome was practically 
 an Etruscan city, and many Etruscan artists were 
 employed in the decoration of its buildings. Among 
 them it is recorded that Yolcanius made the colossal 
 statue of Jupiter in the Capitol for Tarquinius Priscus 
 (about 600 B.C.). Most of the state ceremonial of Rome 
 appears to have been copied from what was in vogue in 
 the time of its Etruscan kings. It was not till 280 B.C. 
 that the Roman Republic, having gradually grown in 
 strength, finally conquered the whole of Etruria, and 
 was able to use in its own numerous campaigns by land 
 and sea the wealth and energy that formerly had 
 rendered the Etruscans a great naval power allied with 
 Carthage against the Greeks. 
 
 The origin of the Etruscans themselves is involved 
 in mystery. In legend they were supposed to have 
 migrated from Lydia in Asia Minor; but the evidence 
 to be gleaned from their language, which is only now 
 being deciphered from their monumental inscriptions, 
 seems to point to the conclusion that they were quite 
 an independent people, neither Aryan nor Semitic. In 
 the full-length recumbent figures to be found on their 
 terra-cotta sarcophagi they have preserved their own 
 portraits for our later gaze. In the British Museum is 
 
100 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 a remarkable example that was found at Cervetri ; the 
 chest or sarcophagus itself is modelled in low relief 
 with numerous subjects, such as a battle scene, a 
 banquet and a funeral, and on the lid half recline a 
 male and a female figure, the size of life, and with most 
 engaging expressions. Not all the sarcophagi are of 
 these large proportions, however; the majority may 
 rather be called chests. 
 
 The Etruscans were great tomb-builders, and the 
 interiors of the sepulchral chambers were painted in 
 fresco, with scenes from daily life or incidents connected 
 with death. Surrounding the sarcophagus were placed 
 articles of furniture, useful and ornamental objects, 
 polished hand-mirrors, jewellery, and so on, as if ready 
 for use in the spirit- world. 
 
 Of the Etruscan pottery, apart from the vases 
 imported from Greece, or in later times, perhaps 
 executed in Italy under the direction of Greek artists, 
 a few varieties may be distinguished. Of a very 
 ancient date are some coarsely made vases, in black 
 or grey, of the primitive stone age ; the rude decora- 
 tions of incised lines and bosses resemble those of 
 other countries. Of a peculiar type are funeral urns 
 found under the volcanic tufa near Home, and made 
 in the form of a hut, with a little doorway through 
 which the ashes were introduced, the orifice being 
 closed by a lid tied on. Also of very early date 
 are vases of reddish-brown clay speckled with mica, 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 101 
 
 and painted in clay (not fired on) with conventional 
 patterns. 
 
 More characteristic of Etruscan art is the entirely 
 black pottery fired at a low heat, and sometimes with a 
 lustrous jet-like polish which is thought to have been 
 produced on the lathe. The ornament of conventional 
 patterns is incised or stamped in, or has reliefs either 
 modelled on or produced by rolling an engraved 
 cylinder over the surface as in Assyrian art. The 
 shapes of the vases and jugs have some resemblance 
 to Greek shapes, but are not as refined. Pliny 
 mentions the black ware as having been made by the 
 corporation of potters in the time of Numa, 700 B.c. 
 Martial states that Porsena had a dinner set of the 
 ware. 
 
 Of red ware there have been found large vases 
 resembling the pithos of the Greeks ; some have been 
 roughly ornamented by the rolling of a cylinder. In a 
 fine red paste are some sepulchral urns modelled in the 
 shape of a man, the head forming the lid, and little 
 smears of clay on the front signifying the arms and 
 hands ; they were found in the tombs, resting on terra- 
 cotta chairs as if to convey the idea of the dead man 
 still sitting there. 
 
 Imitations of Greek pottery by the Etruscans are 
 fairly numerous, and subjects from Greek mythology 
 abound, but the delicacies of design and finish in the 
 Greek ware are entirely absent in the copies. Examples 
 
102 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 of Egyptian enamelled porcelain are found in the 
 Etruscan tombs, as well as Phoenician glass, and 
 ostrich eggs with incised and painted designs of 
 Egyptian character, but accompanied by Greek letter- 
 ing. 
 
 Of great interest, architecturally, are some portions 
 
 of a terra-cotta cornice and pediment of a temple that 
 
 were found on the site of the ancient Lanuvium, and 
 
 date back to the sixth century b.c. At Cervetri were 
 
 found some antefixae with a modelled head of the 
 
 Gorgon, and painted with coloured clays. Examples of 
 
 both of these are at the British Museum. 
 
 % 
 
 To turn to Rome itself. Although the only important 
 development of pottery was that known as the Samian 
 ware, yet the masterful, all-conquering Roman Empire 
 could not fail to exercise a great influence in many 
 other directions in the potter’s art. The numerous 
 and vast building operations carried on in Italy, and 
 wherever the Roman soldiers penetrated, necessitated 
 the use of bricks and tiles of all kinds. The Roman 
 brick is recognisable anywhere. Made, in the first 
 place, of well-selected clays and well-fired, the bricks 
 used in many a Roman wall have outlasted their 
 original purpose, and have been utilised by later 
 builders for other edifices, frequently outlasting the 
 stone used in even those. The central tower of 
 St. Alban’s Abbey, built, in Norman times, of Roman 
 bricks taken from the dismantled walls of Verulam 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 103 
 
 close by, and still standing, while Gothic work of much 
 later periods has crumbled away and been renewed, is 
 an instance that will occur to every one. It is true 
 
 ROMAN BAS-RELIEF OF TERRA-COTTA. 
 
 that there is no particular artistic power displayed in 
 brickwork, unless it be in contriving to get a useful 
 thing made in the best way possible. The Romans as 
 
104 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 a people were rather warriors than artists, rather 
 directors than inventors, and, as a rule, such art as 
 they used was provided for them by the nations they 
 conquered. On the fall of Greece, its artists flocked to 
 Italy, but the traditional refinements of Greek art were 
 soon lost amid the opulence and display of Rome. In 
 such a little matter as the sections of the mouldings 
 used in architecture, it is very significant that the 
 Greek curves form parts of ellipses, hyperbolas and 
 other subtle outlines, but the Roman are very obvious 
 downright parts of circles. 
 
 Of pottery, other than bricks, used in Roman archi- 
 tecture, there are numerous examples of terra-cotta, 
 coloured and uncoloured, extant. As with the Greeks, 
 columns, capitals and bases, mouldings and cornices in 
 this material were largely introduced. Gutter-spouts 
 formed as lion’s heads, comic or tragic masks are 
 frequently found, as well as friezes, panels, and wall- 
 slabs modelled in bas-relief and affixed to the walls 
 with leaden nails. Colours were often added, both for 
 internal and external work; red, blue, black, white, 
 green, and yellow are those most frequently seen ; they 
 were not fired on, but were sometimes used with wax 
 (encaustic painting). Until their widening conquests 
 placed the Romans in possession of quarries of stone 
 and marble, their statuary was entirely of terra-cotta, 
 nor did the material ever quite go out of fashion. 
 Mention has been made of the Etruscan statue of 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 105 
 
 Jupiter in the Capitol, but for 150 years before that, no 
 figures of any size had been seen, Numa Pompilius 
 having prohibited the representation of the deity in 
 human form. In 491 B.c. the temple of Ceres at 
 Rome was ornamented with figures in terra-cotta, by 
 Gorgasus and Demophilus, two natives of Sicily. A 
 modeller, named Possis, is recorded to have made a 
 statue of Venus at the expense of Julius Caesar, and 
 life-size figures have been found at Pompeii and other 
 places. It was the practice to build up these figures 
 in pieces, and Phaedrus, in one of his fables, makes 
 Prometheus return inebriated from a supper given by 
 Bacchus, and proceed to apply the wrong limbs to the 
 bodies of the human race which he was then engaged 
 in forming from clay. Smaller statues modelled for 
 casting in bronze or copying in marble were sometimes 
 eagerly acquired by the Roman patrons, and those of 
 Arkesilaos are said to have been valuable. Smaller 
 figures still, called sigilla , are often found on Roman 
 sites, and were probably used for toys and votive 
 purposes. The last day of the Saturnalia was called 
 the Sigillaria y because of the practice of giving 
 presents of little images in honour of Saturn, and in 
 allusion to the stones that he gulped down thinking 
 they were his own children. Furnaces for baking ancl 
 moulds for pressing the sigilla have been found at 
 different places, some of the moulds having the names 
 of the potters written on them. The figures were 
 
106 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 moulded upon a stick, afterwards withdrawn, the mould 
 being in two pieces to form the torso ; the arms were 
 separately made and stuck on. 
 
 Other interesting uses of terra-cotta were for cages 
 in which to fatten dormice for th£ table, beehives, 
 heated cones to place in front of the beehives to keep 
 insects away, small altars for indoor shrines, money- 
 boxes in which popular athletes received the donations 
 of spectators, tickets for admission to the circus, and, 
 
 lastly, lamps of all 
 descriptions, and 
 with very varied 
 styles of ornament. 
 One in the British 
 Museum has a 
 quaint representa- 
 tion of a circus race, 
 
 SPECIMEN OF SAMIAN WARE. ^ of ^ 
 
 course, the competing quadrigae and charioteers, and 
 the spectators being all crowded into the circle formed 
 by the top of the lamp. Many lamps occur with 
 Christian symbols, crosses, the XP monogram, the Good 
 Shepherd, and one has a model of the seven-branched 
 candlestick. 
 
 Roman vases compare unfavourably with the Greek ; 
 neither shapes, fabrication, nor decoration are as good. 
 The characteristic Samian ware, of a bright red colour, 
 is found throughout the empire, and must have been 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 107 
 
 an important article of export. With this exception, 
 the Romans would appear to have used the clays they 
 found locally, and there are consequently very diverse 
 effects of colour. Some pieces, called false Samian , 
 are of a coarse clay dipped in a coating of finer red ; 
 the Aretine ware, made at Arezzo, is of a red similar 
 to Samian, but not so dark ; red ware was also made at 
 Saguntum, in Spain ; some in a grey clay are fired so 
 hard that they ring like stoneware. Pieces of a black 
 ware have been found at Upchurch, in Kent ; a yellow 
 make, with a red lustrous glaze has been found at 
 Caistor, in Northamptonshire, together with the black 
 or brown pottery decorated with white slip, which is 
 usually known as Caistor ware. Similar ware, with 
 white decorations, has been found at Crockhill in the 
 New Forest, together with brown ware with a purplish 
 glaze; a white and a light-red ware was made in large 
 quantities at Broseley in the Severn valley. A later 
 class of ware has a yellow body, with a lead glaze 
 coloured either green, red, yellow, or blue. Belonging 
 to the last group is a vase that was found at Ewell ; 
 it has a yellow glaze through which there are apparent 
 curved lines laid on in a white clay slip. The peculiar 
 blackish hue of the Caistor and Upchurch ware was 
 brought about by the smoke caused in smothering the 
 fire at a certain stage in the firing. The pieces were 
 loosely packed in grass in the kiln, and the air being 
 shut out from the fire, the dense smoke caused the 
 
108 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 iron stain in the clay to be darkened to black or blue 
 by the imperfect oxidation, the effect thus being 
 obtained on the same principle as the lustred-ware of 
 later times. The remains of kilns found at Caistor 
 were sufficiently complete to show the arrangements 
 adopted to burn this Roman ware. The kiln was not 
 of large capacity ; a circular pit, four feet in diameter, 
 and the same in depth, was walled round with brick, 
 a small fire-hole leading into it on one side. In the 
 centre of the pit was a support about two feet high, on 
 which rested the inner ends of perforated triangular 
 bricks, forming the floor of the kiln ; the sides of the 
 oven and the dome were built up of curved bricks after 
 the ware had been placed in position, a small aperture 
 being left at the crown. The fuel used was wood ; in 
 the furnace of one kiln that was discovered there was 
 a layer of wood ashes four to five inches thick. 
 
 The decorations of the Caistor ware are interesting 
 on account of their subjects and the amount of spirit 
 that the artists infused into their work, notwithstand- 
 ing the simple rough-and-ready slip method they used. 
 The deer and hare hunts, the gladiators fighting, the 
 chariot race, represented on many of them, throw some 
 light on the tastes of our Romano-British predecessors. 
 
 As a general rule, Roman pottery may be said to 
 have been produced for purposes of use, and not for 
 ornament. Large amphora! or dolia were made for 
 keeping stores of wine, corn, and oil, and a set of 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 109 
 
 these, as with the Egyptians, formed the cellar of any 
 large establishment. They were of the nature of huge 
 casks, sunk in the earth, pitched or cemented on the 
 insides, and bound with hoops on the outside; some 
 were nearly eight feet high. Large bottles, called 
 lagena, were used for transporting wine, figs, honey, 
 etc. The ordinary amphora was of somewhat clumsy 
 shape; its parallel sides, straighter than the Greek 
 form, may have been adopted by the practical-minded 
 Romans as economising space, and permitting a closer 
 arrangement in the cellars. The insides were coated 
 with pitch. In the early days of the Republic, pottery 
 was used at table and for sacrificial purposes, but with 
 increasing wealth, bronze, silver, and gold came more 
 into favour. Various shapes are mentioned; the patina, 
 a dish ; patella and patera , plates ; catinus and lanx , 
 large dishes; trulla, a bowl; acetabulla , vinegar-cup; 
 salina, a salt-cup; cadus and diota , wine- vessels ; 
 sinus or sinum , large vessel for milk or water ; 
 cenophorum, a large wine pitcher ; urceus and urce- 
 olus , smaller pitchers ; ampulla , a jug. The olla and 
 urna , were jars for sepulchral use. For kitchen use, 
 there were the mortaria — wide flat dishes, sometimes 
 with grit embedded in the surface, for pounding food ; 
 the guttus , or oil vase ; the colus, or colander. 
 
 The Romans were familiar with the throwing-wheel, 
 and many of the vases show signs of being turned and 
 polished on a lathe. The enrichments are, in many 
 
110 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 cases, such as are produced on the lathe; others by 
 means of a revolving tool or “ runner.” The ordinary 
 glaze on the Samian and Aretine wares is very thin 
 and transparent, apparently siliceous ; but of the exact 
 nature of its production there is no information. 
 
 The baked bricks so largely used were called cocti , 
 or coctiles. The clay used — generally white or red — 
 was well ground, and mixed with straw. After knead- 
 ing, a mould or frame of wood gave the desired size. 
 There were several shapes : — the Lydion , a foot and 
 a-half long, and a foot broad ; the Pentadoron , measur- 
 ing five palms each way — this was used in public 
 edifices, and the Tetradoron , four palms each way, for 
 private buildings ; the bipedales, or two-foot bricks ; 
 the sesquipedales , the one and a-half foot bricks ; an 
 average thickness for all sizes was two inches. After 
 making, they were laid out in the sun to dry ; some 
 have been found with the marks of the feet of animals 
 and birds which passed over them while soft ; at York, 
 one was found marked with the nails of a boy’s shoe 1 
 A favourable season was selected for the making, the 
 spring being considered the best time. 
 
 The roof-tiles, or tegulce, were generally made with 
 flanges, these being covered by semi-cylindrical tiles 
 called imbrices. Inverted, similar flanged tiles were 
 used for floors, especially in the hot rooms of the baths, 
 the hollow section permitting the hot air to circulate 
 underneath. Tiles were also frequently used for form- 
 
ANCIENT POTTERY. 
 
 Ill 
 
 ing tombs of soldiers, and in many cases are stamped 
 with the initials of the legion to which the dead man 
 belonged. Flue-tiles and pipes ornamented on one 
 side are often found in the ruins of Roman houses, 
 some of the rooms appearing to have been lined with 
 them, forming hollow walls. Tubuli , or pipes, were 
 used for land-drains, many a marsh having been 
 rendered salubrious by their use. The marshy valley 
 of Le Seille, in Lorraine, was made habitable by 
 immense quantities of burnt lumps or rolls of clay 
 being thrown in ; the place is known as the Briquet- 
 age de Marsal. 
 
 For a considerable period the brick and tile makers 
 were by law obliged to place their mark upon their 
 productions, and these marks have thrown very valu- 
 able light upon obscure points in Roman history and 
 manners. A typical example on a tile in the British 
 Museum reads, “Pot work ( opus doliare ) from the 
 Publinian potteries, from the estate of ^Emilia Severa.” 
 The most complete stamps have the date, the names 
 of the estate and pottery, the owner of the pottery, and 
 the slave who made the tile. Names of emperors 
 and empresses often occur as owners of estates. When 
 at Rome, the legionaries obtained their pottery from 
 officially-appointed makers, but when stationed abroad 
 in one or other of the provinces of the vast empire, the 
 soldiers themselves seem to have been the potters. 
 By means of their stamped tiles, the routes of the 
 
112 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 thirty legions have been traced in a very remarkable 
 manner ; the tenth, for instance, is shown to have stayed 
 in such diverse directions as Caer, Rhyn, Yoorburg, 
 Nimeguen, Vienna, and Jerusalem. 
 
 The inscriptions found on the lamps are hardly less 
 interesting than those on the tiles. The trade marks 
 were mostly of a simple kind, such as circles, half- 
 moons, a foot, wheels, palm-leaf or vine. A large 
 proportion of the lamps, bearing only single names, 
 were made by slaves. Some of the potters were freed- 
 men ; one, whose name occurs on both lamps and tiles, 
 being Tindarus, the freedman of Plotina Augusta, the 
 wife of Trajan. Occasionally a group of three names 
 in the stamp denotes that the potter was a Roman 
 citizen; but that potting was considered somewhat 
 infra dig ., seems certain. It is recorded as an instance 
 of the low tastes of Commodus that in his youth he 
 had amused himself with making pottery. To be a 
 potter was evidently to be one of no social standing ; 
 a potter was only a potter, and not an artist. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 W ITH the fall of the Roman Empire, pottery in 
 Europe seemed to be dead. The northern 
 tribes knew little more than how to make 
 their sepulchral urns by hand, and decorate them 
 by the same primitive means as those used long 
 before in Etruria and prehistoric Greece, Gaul, and 
 Britain. The idea of the queer little hut-shaped boxes 
 or urns found among the Etruscan relics, is repeated in 
 the f< fairy-huts ” of the early Germans, which, occasion- 
 ally found in excavations, were often regarded by the 
 German peasants as being the work of elves, or to have 
 grown up spontaneously and magically. 
 
 On the departure of the Romans from Britain, such 
 arts as had been in use were soon forgotten. The villas 
 and temples, rich in mosaic pavements, painted walls, 
 
 and pottery of all kinds, were destroyed, and their ruins 
 113 H 
 
114 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 soon became overgrown and lost to memory. Only in 
 these later days are the sites being excavated, some 
 accidental turning-up by the ploughshare of a vase, or 
 coin, or fragment of mosaic being often the only clue to 
 the interesting remains lying there undisturbed under 
 the corn-fields or pasture-lands. The knowledge of the 
 potter’s wheel disappeared ; the important industry of 
 
 brick and tile- 
 making appar- 
 ently almost died 
 out in England. 
 The Saxons 
 brought with 
 them no more 
 knowledge of the 
 potter’s art than 
 might be imag- 
 ined from their 
 North German 
 origin. Their 
 sepulchral urns are coarsely made by hand, like all the 
 Teutonic wares of that period. 
 
 It is not until the time of the Crusades that a sudden 
 development can be noticed. In North Germany in 
 the buildings erected by the Teutonic Knights, a great 
 use was made of terra-cotta blocks and enrichments, and 
 all over England and France there was a great demand 
 — continuing through three or four hundred years — for 
 
 INCRUSTED- TILE, FROM THE PAVEMENT OF A 
 CHURCH OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
MEDIEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 pavement tiles for the churches and abbeys. Many of 
 these have very elaborate patterns, either heraldic or 
 based on natural designs ; the body of the tile or thin 
 brick is of red clay, faced with a thin layer of white 
 clay, or impressed with a pattern into which the white 
 clay has been inlaid. The glaze over the whole is 
 generally yellow, but green and brown glazes were also 
 used. The pavements in Chertsey Abbey, dating from 
 the thirteenth century, and those of fourteenth and 
 fifteenth centuries at Malvern and Malmesbury are 
 very well known examples, but there are many others, 
 more or less perfect, scattered among the old churches. 
 The patterns are best seen where the tiles have 
 been placed in corners or against the walls ; where they 
 have been. exposed to traffic, the soft glaze has been 
 worn through and the designs obliterated. A rather 
 regrettable feature of the earlier years of the Gothic 
 revival of this century, was the rabid way in which 
 these characteristic features of the mediaeval churches 
 were imitated with cold mechanical accuracy, and every 
 new or restored church must needs have its encaustic 
 tile paving, harsh to the tread, harsh in colouring, and 
 warranted never to wear out. 
 
 There can be but little doubt that these tile-pave- 
 ments were suggested directly by the intercourse with 
 the East brought about by the successive Crusades. 
 Although these pious and enthusiastic expeditions 
 failed in their object of wresting the Holy Land from 
 
6 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 the Saracens, they were fruitful in many other ways, 
 and the arts of Europe, during the middle ages, owed 
 not a little to the influences of Moslem architecture 
 and decoration. 
 
 It was in Persia that the ancient traditions of 
 pottery had been preserved. The effects of colour and 
 glaze that appealed to neither Greek nor Roman, were 
 known and used with masterly power by the Persian 
 potters. Although their country was repeatedly overrun 
 by conquering armies — by Greeks, Parthians, Arabs, 
 Moguls and Turks successively — the Persians retained 
 their national individuality, and seem always to have 
 impressed their artistic ideas upon their new rulers. 
 When the followers of Mohammed swarmed over Persia 
 in the seventh century, they found a high degree 
 of luxury prevalent. Ignorant of art themselves they 
 seem to have been captivated by the beauties of Persian 
 art, and it was not long before the mosques which they 
 hastened to erect in every conquered land were being 
 designed for decorating with enamelled tiles — a form of 
 pottery manufacture which it will be remembered had 
 been carried to great perfection in the early Persian 
 cities of Susa and Persepolis. Wherever the Moham- 
 medan religion spread, there went with it the demand 
 for tile decorations for the mosques, and Persian work- 
 men, or Arabs trained by Persians, followed the con- 
 quering crescent. The Arabs were masters in eighty 
 years of as great an empire as that which had occupied 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 117 
 
 Rome four hundred in the gaining. They spread 
 through Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco, eventually cross- 
 ing the Mediterranean to Spain, Sicily, and Italy. 
 
 The old Assyrian love of the chase was still strong in 
 Persia, and subjects suggested by it formed the princi- 
 pal motives of decoration, when the Mussulman con- 
 quest took place. For a time, owing to Mohammedan 
 scruples, not to say absolute prohibition, representations 
 of the human figure and of living things had to dis- 
 appear from the Persian decorations, and the most 
 dreadful chimeras and mixtures of animal forms had to 
 satisfy the craving of the artist for something more 
 than the conventionalised leaf-forms — beautifully 
 decorative though these are — could give him. A 
 creature which was said to exist in Paradise, and is 
 one day destined to carry Mohammed on its back, is 
 typical ; it was called “ hedgehog s feet,” and had stag’s 
 legs, a tiger's tail, and a woman’s head. As time went 
 on, however, it occurred to the Persian artists that a 
 way of evading the dreadful responsibility incurred by 
 the depicting of anything living, could be found by 
 representing them as imperfect or mutilated; a head 
 without an eye, for instance, or a line round the throat 
 (as if cut) were sufficient to indicate that a spirited 
 hunting-scene, full of life and movement, was, after all, 
 harmless, and only a piece of innocent decoration. 
 
 Great skill was eventually attained by the Persian 
 potters in the production of still larger tiles or plaques ; 
 
118 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 some as large as eight by six feet are known. The 
 range of colours is not extensive ; blue, green, purple, 
 and a little red, with the white ground of the ware, 
 form the basis of the innumerable combinations with 
 which such beautiful effects were produced both on the 
 tiles and on the numerous forms of bottles, vases, plates 
 and bowls due to the ingenuity of the potter. The 
 Persians were from an early date acquainted with the 
 secret of lustre painting, where the colours assume 
 different metallic tints when looked at in different 
 
 PERSIAN BOWL, METALLIC DECORATION, BLUE ENAMELLED OUTSIDE. 
 
 lights. Most of the genuine specimens have been 
 obtained from the ruins at Phages, a city not far from 
 the Caspian Sea, destroyed in the year 1250. 
 
 A centre from which large quantities of pottery 
 emanated was Damascus. Except that figures do not 
 form part of the designs, the general character of the 
 work is Persian in style. There is in the British 
 Museum a lamp from the Mosque of Omar at Jerusalem; 
 it is signed by “the poor and humble Mustapha,” and 
 dated in the year 956 of the Hegira (a.d. 1549). Another 
 important group of pottery showing Persian influence 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 119 
 
 is that known as Rhodian. A legend has it that a 
 vessel bound for Venice was captured by the Knights 
 of St. John of Jerusalem somewhere about the year 
 1300, and a party of Persian potters being found on 
 board, they were conveyed to the Island of Rhodes — 
 then belonging to the Order of St. John — and bidden 
 to work. For about 100 years — whether this was the 
 origin of the manufacture or not — there prevailed in 
 Rhodes and the Levant generally a type of brilliant 
 enamelled faience, in which the principal colours are 
 white, blue, green, purple, and a vivid heavy red that 
 sometimes seems hardly in keeping with the other 
 colours. The body is of buff coarse texture coated with 
 a siliceous slip, and glazed with an alkaline glaze, 
 under which the beautiful turquoise produced from 
 copper, the copper green, and the manganese purple, 
 are developed with a peculiar brilliancy. The shapes 
 of these Rhodian wares are generally somewhat heavy, 
 and do not compare favourably with the thinner and 
 more graceful Persian forms. So highly esteemed was 
 the ancient Persian pottery that it was largely exported 
 to the countries of Europe, and plaques of it have even 
 been found embedded in the walls of Italian churches 
 of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 
 
 Throughout the northern parts of Africa the charac- 
 teristic faience tiles are found covering the walls of the 
 mosques. The city of Tlemcen is well known to artists 
 for the beautiful effects of the masses of blue-and-white 
 
120 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 tiling glistening in the sun. The earlier examples of 
 Saracen architecture, designed most probably by artists 
 from Byzantium, partake of late Roman and Byzantine 
 character ; but it was not long before the distinctive 
 style we know as Arabian, Moorish, or Saracenic was 
 evolved. In the mosque of Cordova, in Spain, begun 
 by Abd-el-Rahman in 786 (the Arabs had conquered 
 Spain in 711), the characteristic horse-shoe arch is 
 already in use in a lavish and daring fashion, inter- 
 lacing and crossing the numerous aisles of that famous 
 edifice. The walls are decorated with ornamental tiles 
 of the same date. Another very special feature of 
 Saracenic art, the so-called stalactite work, or corbelling 
 out by means of shaped bricks or worked plaster, is seen 
 in its rudimentary form in Persia ; but was most ingen- 
 iously developed by the Arabs. The best known ex- 
 amples of this are, of course, in the palace of the Moorish 
 kings of Granada at the Alhambra, which, although 
 much injured by neglect and mutilation at the hands 
 of later builders, still is a fairy palace, gleaming with 
 jewel-like brilliancy. Contrasting with the white 
 marble carved into lacework are the elaborate plaster 
 decorations coloured in red, blue, and gold. Forbidden 
 to introduce animals or figures into the designs, the 
 inventiveness of the Arab designers ran riot in a 
 bewildering maze of interlacing ornamental forms of 
 great beauty. Even the texts in Arabic, modelled 
 across the patterns, or confined within bands or panels, 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 121 
 
 partake of the ornamental. So pleasant to the eye are 
 the flinging careless lines of these inscriptions — not 
 only on the Alhambra walls, but on the Arab pottery — 
 that inattentive workmen in copying sometimes did 
 not trouble themselves to see if their lettering meant 
 anything, but merely joined one rambling character to 
 another because it looked pretty. 
 
 The wall tiles in the Alhambra courts are pieced 
 together in complicated geometrical patterns in a style 
 more suggestive of ancient Egyptian work than of the 
 painted Persian tiling. The colours are quiet and har- 
 monious — green, yellow, purple, white, and blue — each 
 shaped tile having only the one colour in opaque 
 enamel on its surface. The shapes interlock into 
 each other in a very ingenious manner. 
 
 During the continuance of the Moorish dominion, 
 and for some years after — Ferdinand and Isabella over- 
 came the Moors in 1492 — there was great activity in 
 pottery making. It especially manifested itself in a 
 style of lustred pottery that is now known as Hispano - 
 moresque. There were but few tints used — a golden 
 yellow, a coppery red, a changeful blue, and the white 
 ground — but the effects are most brilliant and exciting. 
 From Malaga there proceeded large quantities of ware 
 decorated almost entirely in yellow lustre. This beau- 
 tiful “ golden pottery ” was exported to the most dis- 
 tant countries, and there are splendid and valuable 
 specimens to be seen in our museums. Of the same 
 
122 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 class of ware were the three famous Alhambra vases, 
 found under the floor of the palace some 300 years ago, 
 and of which only one is now said to remain. It is four 
 feet three inches high, and profusely ornamented with 
 the favourite Saracenic interlacements, painted with 
 golden-yellow lustre and blue. These lustres were 
 painted “ over glaze ” on the tin enamel masking the 
 earthenware body ; and to produce such large and 
 gorgeous pieces, in what, as we have already seen, is a 
 most difficult and uncertain process, shows the Moorish 
 potters to have possessed a very high degree of skill. 
 
 Malaga gradually lost its pre-eminence as a seat of 
 this manufacture, and Valencia became famous. It 
 had, indeed, been celebrated for its red Samian ware 
 in Roman times, and as early as 1239, on its conquest 
 by James I. of Aragon, its ceramic industry was suffi- 
 ciently well known to call for a special charter from the 
 king, in which is set forth “ that every master potter 
 making vases, table ware, tiles, wall tiles, shall pay 
 annually one besant for each kiln, in consideration of 
 which he may freely exercise without any servitude.” 
 In 1517 it was written that “ although in a great many 
 places of Spain they make excellent faiences, the most 
 esteemed are those of Valencia, which are so well 
 worked and so well gilded.” The oldest pieces of 
 Valencian work are similar to those of Malaga ; the 
 yellow lustre is blended with blue, with a more sober 
 effect than is found in the fiery copper-reds and browns 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 123 
 
 of the later work. A conspicuous feature of the 
 Valencian designs of the Christian period is the repre- 
 sentation of an eagle, the emblem of St. John the 
 Evangelist, and the introduction of the first words of 
 his gospel, “ In principio erat verbum, et verbum erat 
 apud Deum.” 
 
 Similar lustred vases to those of Valencia were made 
 at Barcelona, Manises, and elsewhere in Spain; in Sicily; 
 and very largely in the Balearic Islands, the largest of 
 which group, Majorca, has given its name (Majolica) to 
 the Italian enamelled wares that were made in emula- 
 tion of the Moorish productions. Majorca had been 
 conquered by the Christians in 1230; Minorca remained 
 in the hands of the Moors till 1285. Under Christian 
 influence, the Moorish potters began to imitate the 
 Valencian inscribed wares, but frequently misspelt the 
 Latin, and in some cases wrote it backwards. For 
 many years the traders of Italy resorted to these 
 islands for their brilliant potteries ; but the industry 
 came to an end on the final expulsion of the Moors 
 from the Spanish dominions. Finding it impossible 
 to convert the followers of Mohammed speedily enough, 
 the Catholic zealots drove them out, and in doing so 
 dealt a fatal blow to the art industries of Spain. 
 
 We may turn now to Italy, in which country the 
 potter’s art received its next great development — viz., 
 that known as Majolica. There may have been linger- 
 ing traditions of pottery- making through the centuries 
 
124 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 that had elapsed since the break-up of the Roman 
 power, but there seems to have been no definite 
 manufacture until the prevalence of the Moorish 
 wares excited emulation. Some of the earliest Italian 
 mediaeval pottery is almost Persian in feeling, and it 
 is quite possible that Persian aid was called upon in 
 its production. About the year 1350, if not earlier, 
 there was a manufacture of pottery at Pesaro, in the 
 Duchy of Urbino ; the body of red clay was covered 
 with a slip or thin coating of white clay to serve as 
 a ground for the paintings. These were applied after 
 the piece was biscuited ; the colours employed were 
 yellow, blue, and black, and the glaze was based on 
 lead, which sometimes acquires a kind of iridescence, 
 different in quality, however, from the actual metallic 
 lustres of the Moorish work. Such lead-glazed pottery 
 came to be called Mezza-majolica ; and, although 
 overshadowed by more perfect methods, it is still made. 
 
 The class of ware that was specially known as 
 Majolica soon lost whatever similarity it may have 
 had to the Moorish wares that suggested its name. 
 Its great peculiarity of an opaque tin-enamel, which 
 completely hides the buff earthenware body, is respon- 
 sible for its somewhat cold and dead scheme of colour. 
 For long it was thought that the invention of the tin- 
 enamel was due to Italy ; but, as we have seen, its use 
 can be traced to much more remote periods. It may 
 have been re-discovered by Italian workmen ; it was 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 125 
 
 more probably revealed to them by some wandering 
 potter from the East. Its use is very closely associated 
 with the names of a family of modellers called Della 
 Robbia, Luca, the head of the family, having been the 
 first to perfect the process. Like so many of the 
 Renaissance artists, Luca della Robbia followed many 
 callings. Born in Florence about 1400, he was at first 
 a goldsmith. In 1438 his celebrated marble bas-relief 
 of singing boys was executed for the organ tribune of 
 the Duomo at Florence ; and it brought him so many 
 commissions for sculptures that he looked about for 
 some more expeditious method of reproducing his 
 models than by carving them in marble. It has been 
 thought that he found what he sought at the little 
 town of Caffaggiolo, where some potters using tin- 
 enamel suggested the coating by its means of Della 
 Robbia's clay figures. He must have experimented 
 with clays and enamels, and succeeding in producing 
 an enamel of singular whiteness and purity, he utilised 
 his new method for the first time in 1440 on a bas- 
 relief of the “ Resurrection,” still to be seen in the 
 cathedral of his native city. It has pure white figures 
 on a blue ground. He afterwards added in later works 
 a green (rather crude), a violet, and a yellow. Most of 
 his works are to be found in the neighbourhood of 
 Florence. Apart from their interest as specimens of 
 ceramic work, the style of the modelling, and the simple 
 reverent feeling displayed are very noteworthy. At 
 
126 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 South Kensington Museum is a set of twelve large 
 medallions representing the “ Months.” They are in 
 low relief, with figures in each, engaged in some labour 
 appropriate to the month represented ; the colouring 
 is very quiet, consisting of only three shades of blue, a 
 yellow sun, and a white (now showing cream-colour) on 
 the modelled border. They have unfortunately warped 
 in the burning to an extent that would be thought 
 fatal by a modern potter. There is also at South 
 Kensington Museum a. large circular medallion, eleven 
 or twelve feet in diameter, built up in sections, with 
 the deep border of fruits and vegetables (coloured an 
 naturel) that so often figures in the Della Robbia 
 works, sometimes, it must be confessed, rather obtru- 
 sively and inappropriately. 
 
 Luca della Robbia died in 1481, and his work was 
 carried on by his nephew, Andrea. A well-known 
 example of his work is the very beautiful series of 
 medallions of swathed infants which decorates the 
 courtyard of a hospital at Florence. His bas-reliefs 
 and altar pieces are very numerous, but his modelling 
 has certain .mannerisms, and his borders of fruits and 
 cherubs 5 heads are sometimes too heavy. On the 
 death of Andrea, in 1528, his four sons, Ambrosio, 
 Giovanni, Girolamo, and Luca, continued to work in 
 the same style. The third-named went to France, and 
 under his direction the Chateau de Madrid at Paris 
 was decorated profusely with enamelled pottery. This 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 127 
 
 Similar work to that of the Della Robbias was pro- 
 duced by various pupils, among them Agostino da 
 Duccio and Francesco of Pisa, the latter finding his 
 way to Spain, where he decorated the Church of Santa 
 Paula at Seville. Early in the sixteenth century, 
 however, the production of this kind of ware ceased, 
 
 “ Chateau de faience,” as it was called, was completely 
 destroyed during the French Revolution. By Giovanni, 
 the second son, was the coloured frieze of figures at the 
 Ceppo Hospital at Pistoia, erected about 1525. A copy 
 of this interesting work is fixed in the Architectural 
 Court at South Kensington Museum. 
 
 CUP WITH GROTESQUES FROM CAFFAGGIOLO. 
 
128 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 although the use of tin enamel became general as a 
 ground on which to paint the characteristic Renaissance 
 designs that are esteemed as the glory of Italian 
 pottery. The term Faience is as often applied to 
 Italian painted ware as Majolica ; whether the town of 
 Faenza in Italy, or that of Fayence in French Provence, 
 really gave the origin of the designation seems uncer- 
 tain. As the term Faience can be, and is frequently 
 used to describe wares dipped in a glaze that permits 
 the body of the ware to be seen, whereas the word 
 Majolica is never extended to include such wares, it 
 seems best to retain the latter term to designate the 
 series of Italian works now to be mentioned. In all 
 of them the red or yellow body of the ware, when 
 biscuited, is hidden by a coating of tin enamel (or, 
 strictly speaking, a lead glaze in which oxide of tin had 
 been introduced) on the dry, absorbent, and “ touchy ” 
 surface of which the paintings were executed as rapidly 
 and skilfully as possible ; the outlines had to be drawn 
 with a single stroke, and no retouching or erasing was 
 possible ; even a momentary hesitation with the brush- 
 point would lead to an unintended thickening of the 
 line. Placed in the furnace again (sometimes dipped 
 in a fresh bath of thin glaze) the powdery covering 
 fuses, and the painting, sinking into it, assumes a 
 degree of brilliancy and richness peculiar to this 
 method. This second firing was in some wares com- 
 plicated by the special precautions necessary to produce 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 129 
 
 the metallic lustres which have made some groups of 
 Italian majolica so famous. 
 
 Foremost among these groups is that formed by the 
 wares produced at Gubbio, a small town in the duchy 
 of Urbino. Here a certain Maestro Giorgio Andreoli, 
 a man of good family in Pavia, settled about the year 
 1500, and began to produce pottery in the style of the 
 Della Robbias, with this difference, however, that he 
 preferred to leave the flesh surfaces of his groups 
 uncovered by the enamel. He had, while still at Pavia, 
 been working with lustre, and doubtless many undated 
 pieces in his style occupied the years that followed ; 
 but it is not till 1519 that the first pieces signed in 
 lustre colours with his usual mark occur. Many very 
 fine works bear the date 1525 ; one grand piece with 
 a representation of Diana and her nymphs bears on the 
 back in gold lustre — 
 
 “Mastr 0 Giorgio da Ugubio adj 6 d’Aprile 1525.’* 
 
 The “ master ” was most certainly a master of the 
 art of lustre ; his ruby reds, copper, and mother-of- 
 pearl, are considered to be unrivalled. He was even 
 asked to contribute his lustreing to pieces painted by 
 others. After his death (about 1550), the method, 
 carried on for a time by his son and assistants, gradually 
 deteriorated, and finally ceased about the end of the 
 century. 
 
 A very common shape, occurring again and again in 
 
 I 
 
130 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 of the piece he was decorating, and let it control the 
 spacing of the design. 
 
 From the cities of Castel Durante and V rhino 
 distinctive styles of ware proceeded. As early as 1361 
 mention is made at Durante of a Giovanni dei JBistugi, 
 John of the biscuits (i.e., of terra-cotta), but not till 
 
 OF URBINO BY ORAZIO FONTANA. 
 
 Italian majolica, is a round plate with a deeply sunk 
 centre ; so strangely wedded to this shape were the 
 potters that they often disregarded the deep hollow 
 and painted their figure compositions across it without 
 any qualms, producing in most cases awkwardly broken 
 lines and distorted figures. A designer now-a-days 
 would probably have a little more regard for the shape 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 131 
 
 about 1500 do the characteristic decorations appear; 
 at their best about 1530, they came to an end some 
 fifty years later. The body is of pale buff colour ; the 
 glaze is rich and pure. Great use is made in the 
 designs of grotesques, trophies of arms and instruments, 
 painted in a grey tint on a blue ground. Not many 
 “ subject pieces” came from Castel Durante; some 
 plaques with large portraits are, however, believed to 
 have originated there, among them one, now at South 
 Kensington Museum, with a portrait of Perugino. One 
 of the studios at Castel Durante was under the direction 
 of the Cavaliere Cipriano Piccolpasso, who wrote an 
 account of the methods of making majolica in Italy in 
 use at his time. To this treatise, written in 1548, is 
 due almost all the information we have relating to the 
 actual processes employed, the shapes in vogue, and the 
 names by which they were known, the kinds of clay in 
 use, where to find them, how to prepare them, how to 
 form the vases, jugs, drug-jars (large numbers of which 
 were made at that time), basins, and so on. One shape 
 he describes, is a variety of our old and universal 
 acquaintance, the puzzle-jug ; in this case it is a 
 spouted jug with a lid that cannot be lifted off. And 
 how to fill the jug is not apparent until you turn it 
 upside down and see an opening in the foot. Then 
 Piccolpasso gives the recipes for preparing the colours 
 and glazes, and names the special ovens required ; the 
 brushes, made of goats’ and asses’ hair, or (the finest) of 
 
132 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 he says : “ True the art is beautiful and ingenious, and 
 when the pieces are good they pay in gold ; ” but the 
 process is very uncertain, frequently only six pieces 
 being good out of one hundred. 
 
 The names of several artists who worked at TJ rhino 
 
 the whiskers of rats and mice ; finally, he describes the 
 construction of the kilns both for his own style of work, 
 which was not lustred, and for the lustred wares made 
 by his contemporaries. He waxes eloquent over the 
 lustred ware (as have, since his day, many other artists) ; 
 
 PLATE OF C AFFAG GIOLO WARE. 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 133 
 
 are known to fame, among them Nicola da Urbino, 
 Francesco Xanto, the Fontana family (the first repre- 
 sentative of which, Guido Pollipario, came from Castel 
 Durante originally, and the second, Orazio, his son, 
 became the greater artist), and, coming later in the 
 sixteenth century, the family of the Patanazzi. Of 
 these, Xanto signed his works, but the Fontani seldom. 
 Most of the decorations proceeding from Urbino are in 
 the style of Raffaelle, their celebrated townsman; in 
 fact, a large number of the figure compositions are 
 copied or re-arranged from pictures by that master 
 or others of the same school. The modelled shapes, 
 whether ewers, pilgrim-bottles, vases, or salt-cellars, are 
 generally very beautiful, and their so-called “ Urbino 
 arabesques/’ on the clear white ground, represent the 
 culmination of painted Italian pottery. 
 
 Of other Italian schools we must speak at less length. 
 From Caffaggiolo — already mentioned in connection 
 with Della Robbia — and its offshoot, Siena , there came 
 a class of decorated wares in which a pure white ground, 
 a thick dark cobalt blue, an opaque orange, and a bright 
 clear green are conspicuous. In South Kensington 
 Museum there is a well-known plate (bought for £120) 
 with a representation of a ceramic- artist at work upon 
 a similar piece painting the ornamental border, while a 
 nobleman and his lady, seated in front, are looking on. 
 
 At Pesaro lustred ware was made, and a speciality 
 of the manufacture seems to have been the painting of 
 
134 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 plates with portraits and love mottoes. The studios 
 here were under the very autocratic patronage of the 
 Sforzas, who passed edicts forbidding imports of other 
 earthenwares. There is a letter extant from Lorenzo 
 the Magnificent to Roberto Malatesta, thanking him 
 for a present of his earthenware, in which he says, 
 “ They please me entirely by their perfection and 
 rarity, being quite novelties in these parts, and are 
 valued more than if of silver, the donor’s arms serving 
 daily to recall their origin.” 
 
 Faenza was the birthplace of a distinctive class of 
 decorations of great beauty, consisting of fine arabesques 
 in shaded white on a blue or grey ground. Somewhat 
 similar work came from Forli and Ferrara . From 
 Deruta came some designs with blue grounds and 
 yellow lustres. From Venice , among other pottery, 
 there came a ware in which the buff body was covered 
 by a grey glaze, known as “Smaltino,” upon which the 
 design was painted in blue, with high lights in white. 
 
 And finally, to close our notice of Italian mediaeval 
 work, we may mention the Graffito or Sgraffiato wares 
 that were produced specially at Gastello , near Gubbio, 
 in which the designs were scratched through a slip of 
 white clay into the red body, and the piece dipped in 
 a lead glaze, coloured in a clouded way by yellow, green, 
 blue, or black. No tin entered into the composition of 
 this ware, and we may not, therefore, class it with the 
 majolica. 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 135 
 
 It may be interesting to notice that at the Fountaine 
 sale in 1884, some of the Italian examples fetched very 
 high prices. A Faenza plate, dated 1 508, was bought 
 for* £920 ; another at 620 guineas ; an Urbino oval 
 dish, 1270 guineas; and two lustred dishes by Maestro 
 Giorgio, 730 and 780 guineas respectively. 
 
 By the year 1600, the production of Italian majolica 
 had practically ceased. Here and there a few works 
 were kept up, but in the general waning of art from 
 that time onward, pottery shared, and not till the 
 imitation of porcelain in the eighteenth century was 
 attempted all over Europe, is there any important 
 Italian advance that can be mentioned. The Italian 
 terra-cottas of the Renaissance are extremely fine. 
 Some of the churches of Lombardy, where stone was 
 scarce, are grandly built of brick with terra-cotta 
 enrichments. The Certosa (or Carthusian Monastery) at 
 Pavia is an extraordinary ornate example. In the later 
 Renaissance brick was used only for hidden work ; it 
 was thought too vulgar a material to employ artistically. 
 
 In France , the Italian Renaissance very largely 
 influenced all branches of art, and among them, the 
 production of pottery. The green-glazed common 
 wares that appeared as the best that the potters of 
 Beauvais, Saintes, Rennes, or Bordeaux, could produce, 
 had to be superseded in the houses of the rich by 
 pieces decorated in the new Italian style, and several 
 Italian potters hastened to take advantage of the 
 
136 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 opportunity by starting workshops in France. At 
 Lyons, Nantes, Amboise, Machecoul, and Le Croisic, 
 among other places, artists with the secrets of Faenza, 
 Pesaro, Caffaggiolo, and Forli, began to experiment 
 with local materials. On the other hand, a few French 
 craftsmen gained a reputation in independent work, 
 such as Abaquesne, Palissy, and the makers — until 
 recently, unidentified — of the Oiron or Henri Deux 
 ware. 
 
 At the Chateau of Ecouen, near Paris, there are 
 some enamelled tiles that were for a long time attri- 
 buted to Palissy, but documents have been discovered 
 which prove that at Rouen in the early part of the 
 sixteenth century there was a manufactory of “ tiles 
 of enamelled earth,” under the direction of Masseot 
 Abaquesne. One of these tiles bears the inscription — 
 “A Rouen, 1542.” The Chateau belonged to the 
 Constable Montmorency, one of Palissy’s patrons. 
 Abaquesne had, in 1535, decorated a “salle faiencee” 
 in the Havre Town Hall, and is known to have made 
 pavement tiles for other buildings as well as large 
 numbers of drug-pots for apothecaries. His widow 
 and son Lorenzo seem to have carried on the works, 
 for a document in the archives at Rouen records their 
 undertaking to make and furnish to the Abbot of 
 Coullomby “ the number and quantity of four thousand 
 tiles enamelled in the colours blue, white, yellow, and 
 green ; good, loyal, and saleable goods, all containing in 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 137 
 
 each way three inches exactly, and according to the 
 picture the said Durand (the widow) has given into the 
 hands of the said Sieur Barat (the Abbot’s attorney), 
 among which pictures is figured a tile with four pea- 
 cocks in square,” etc., etc. The widow was to be paid 
 thirty-six livres for each thousand of the tiles. (The 
 whole document is to 
 be read in Jacque- 
 mart’s History.) 
 
 Of a technique very 
 different from all 
 other ceramic work of 
 its time is the decor- 
 ated earthenware al- 
 ready alluded to as 
 'Oiron or Henri Deux 
 ware. The true story 
 of this highly-sought 
 and valuable manufac- 
 ture has only been 
 discovered within the 
 last thirty years; there 
 are not a hundred pieces of it known to be in existence, 
 and those that are identified are worth their weight in 
 gold. There are a few small pieces in a special case at 
 South Kensington Museum ; they do not look very 
 important, but the labels disclose the fact that one, an 
 oval dish, cost £450 ; another, a candlestick, £750 ; and 
 
 E1NE EAIENCE OE OIRON. 
 
138 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 a third, a little salt-cellar, £300. At the Hamilton 
 Palace Sale in 1882, a small cup fetched £1218, but 
 this was altogether put in the shade in 1884 at the 
 Fountaine Sale when a candlestick, 12f inches high, 
 sold for £3675. From the frequent recurrence of the 
 monogram of Henry II. (of France) in the decorations of 
 the earliest pieces of this ware that came under notice, 
 it was first known by the name of that monarch. 
 Researches have brought to light that beyond this 
 monogram the ware had no special connection with 
 the king; it seems to have been made at the country 
 house of, and specially for, the Lady Helene de Hangest, 
 widow of Artur Gouffier, at one time Grand Master 
 of France. The Lady Helene, a learned and artistic 
 dame, on retiring from the Court of Francis I., and its 
 atmosphere of Renaissance magnificence, passed her 
 summers at the Chateau of Oiron, which her husband 
 had intended to rebuild in the new style then coming 
 in (which we know as Francis I.). Here, under the 
 care of Francois Cherpentier, a potter, and Jehan 
 Bernart, her librarian, the good lady amused herself 
 by the production of some very highly finished faience, 
 bearing, among the decorations, the coats-of-arms or 
 monograms of her relations and friends, doubtless 
 presenting the pieces when finished to those individuals. 
 Truly, a most admirable hobby ! The material of these 
 pieces is a fine white pipe-clay ; the interlaced arabes- 
 ques and diapers — very similar in design to those found 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 139 
 
 on book-bindings, of the time, and herein seeming to 
 show the influence of the librarian — were produced by 
 means of metal stamps. Into the sunk lines so 
 obtained, coloured clays were inlaid, and very care- 
 fully cleaned off level with the surface. Enrichments 
 were added, either modelled on the surface, or stamped 
 from moulds and stuck on ; then the whole was dipped 
 in a thin lead glaze, giving the white ground a yellow 
 tinge. On the death of Lady Helene in 1537, her 
 son, Claude Gouffier, continued the manufacture, but 
 the forms of the pieces made became more architectural 
 and pretentious, and by the time of the accession of 
 Henry II. in 1547, the details of the work are some- 
 what clumsily executed, and the colours are less pure. 
 Some of the latest pieces suggest in their ornaments 
 the influence of Palissy, who by that time was becoming 
 famous. In the Chapel of the Chateau at Oiron there 
 still remains a pavement of enamelled tiles, formed of 
 the same body as was used for the faience we have been 
 describing, but painted with tin enamels, the pale blue 
 arabesques surrounding brightly -coloured monograms 
 and escutcheons of Claude Gouffier, his family con- 
 nections, and of Henry II. ’ 
 
 To find the use of tin enamels here is the only link 
 that connects the Oiron ware with its contemporary 
 productions in ceramics ; otherwise, it stands quite 
 apart as a fine faience, perfect in itself, but leading to 
 no development. 
 
140 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 Notwithstanding all that has been discovered and 
 written of Bernard Palissy, there is still a great deal 
 to learn concerning this extraordinary man, perhaps 
 the best known of all French potters. 
 
 Of his birth and birthplace, nothing certain is known. 
 It is believed that he was born about 1510 at La 
 Chapelle-Biron in Western France, and as the son of an 
 artisan, received but the merest smattering of an educa- 
 tion. At an early age he began working as a glazier 
 and glass painter, continuing his education and studying 
 art as best he could, until, finding local means exhausted, 
 he determined to travel. He wandered through the 
 south of France, Germany, the Low Countries, and the 
 Ardennes, working and “ keeping his eyes open.” By 
 the time he came back to his native province once 
 more, he had found out many things in natural history, 
 chemistry, geology, and was something of a philosopher. 
 Then in 1539 he married and settled at Saintes, to 
 gain a living as glass-maker and land-surveyor. Here 
 perhaps he would have worked out a calm and unheard- 
 of existence, had it not been for the chance that brought 
 to his hands a piece of pottery of such excellence that 
 it excited him to a remarkable degree. What the 
 piece was is not known, but it is conjectured to have 
 been a piece of the new Italian majolica made at 
 Ferrara. Palissy says in his autobiography “ an earthen 
 cup was shown to me, turned and enamelled, of such 
 beauty, that henceforth I entered into dispute with my 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 141 
 
 own thoughts, bringing to my memory several jesting 
 proposals that some had made me, when I was painting 
 images (i.e., on glass). Now, seeing that they were 
 beginning to give them up in the country where I lived, 
 and also that glazing was not in great request, I thought 
 that if I could discover the invention of making enamels, 
 I should be able to make vessels of earth and other 
 things of beautiful arrangement, because Heaven had 
 given me to understand something of painting; and 
 thenceforth without considering that I had no know- 
 ledge of argillaceous earth, I set about seeking enamels 
 like a man who gropes in the dark.” 
 
 He made endless experiments, preparing all sorts of 
 combinations of materials, building furnaces for himself, 
 or getting trials fired for him in the furnaces of some 
 friendly glassmakers. Nothing succeeded, and after 
 years of struggle all his available resources were gone, 
 notwithstanding the assistance an occasional employ- 
 ment in surveying would bring him. Now and then 
 a trial would be drawn, which, although imperfect, 
 would fill him with fresh hope, and serve to pacify his 
 clamouring creditors. Having by superhuman exertions 
 built a new furnace, carrying the bricks, mixing the 
 mortar, and doing everything else himself, he fired his 
 pieces for six days and nights without getting the 
 enamel to melt as it should. Afraid to waste the heat 
 by letting his furnace cool, he started again to grind up 
 fresh mixtures, but before these were ready his supply 
 
142 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 of wood failed. What to do now ? “ I was obliged,” 
 
 he says, “ to burn the props which supported the trees 
 in my garden, which, being burned, I was obliged to 
 burn the tables and floors of my house to make the 
 second composition melt ; I was in an agony that I 
 cannot describe, for I was all dried up and parched from 
 the work, and the heat of the furnace. My shirt had 
 not been dry for more than a month, and also to con- 
 sole me they laughed at me, and even those who ought 
 to have helped me, went crying about the town that I 
 was burning my floor ; and by these means made me 
 lose my credit, and they thought me mad.” 
 
 Another furnace had eventually to be built, and in 
 the great heat nefcessary to fuse the enamels, the 
 pebbles in the mortar began to burst and send their 
 splinters all over the pieces, which otherwise were 
 properly fired. His creditors hastened to him, even 
 offering to take the least damaged pieces in part pay- 
 ment of their long out-standing accounts. Perhaps 
 Palissy was mad by this time. He broke to pieces the 
 whole of the batch, because to let them go would, as he 
 says, “ have been a discredit and lowering of my honour. 
 I laid myself down for melancholy, not without cause, 
 for I had no longer the means of supporting my family. 
 I met with nothing in my house but reproaches, and 
 instead of consolations I only received maledictions.” 
 However, he was not without grounds for hope ; the 
 enamels had melted as he wished. Accidents must be 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 143 
 
 guarded against by better care in building the furnace. 
 Again was a batch ruined by ashes. Even when this 
 was prevented by firing the work in saggers, his furnace 
 heated unequally, and the enamels were rarely obliging 
 enough to fuse at the same temperature. It was, in 
 the end, only after some fifteen or sixteen years that he 
 succeeded in producing the coloured enamels that 
 distinguish his ware. The white enamel that he was 
 always seeking for, he apparently never succeeded in 
 attaining. 
 
 Palissy’s most characteristic style is shown in his 
 rustic pottery — “ rustiques figulines ; ” his dishes, cups, 
 or vases were decorated with fishes, reptiles, shells, and 
 leaves moulded from the actual objects and arranged in 
 natural positions. This method of decoration does not 
 strike one as being very artistic, however ingenious it 
 might have been. That Palissy could do better work 
 was soon evident. Becoming involved in the religious 
 troubles of the time, for he had ardently embraced the 
 Protestant religion, he was only saved from condemna- 
 tion as a heretic by being appointed (through the 
 influence of the Constable Montmorency) “ Inventor of 
 rustic potteries to the king and queen mother,” and was 
 thus free for a time. He removed to La Rochelle, and 
 eventually found his way to Paris, where he was allowed 
 to put up a workshop in the garden of the Tuileries, 
 near the palace "‘which was then being erected for 
 Queen Catherine de Medicis. (It may be noted in 
 
144 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 passing, that the tile kilns [tuileries\ originally occupy- 
 ing the site, gave their name to the palace.) Here, in 
 the midst of all the activities of the court, Palissy could 
 not help being influenced by Jean Goujon, Germain 
 Pilon, and other sculptors of that busy time in French 
 Renaissance, and his works became more refined in 
 detail and architectural in design. In many, the 
 human figure was introduced, the modelling being so 
 excellent as to lead many writers to attribute it to 
 other hands than Palissy’s. 
 
 Although narrowly escaping death in the Massacre of 
 St. Bartholemew (1572), Palissy was too notorious a 
 Huguenot to remain long in freedom, and he ended his 
 days at an advanced age in the Bastille. The young 
 King Henry III. would have gladly set him at liberty 
 if he would but turn Catholic. He should have to leave 
 him, however, to his fate, if he would not conform. 
 “ Sire,” the sturdy old potter replied, “ I was already 
 willing to give up my life, and could any regret have 
 accompanied my action, it would certainly have vanished 
 upon hearing the great king of France say, ‘I am com- 
 pelled/ That, sire, is a condition to which those who 
 force you to act contrary to your own good disposition 
 can never reduce me ; because I am prepared for death, 
 and because your whole people have not the power to 
 compel a simple potter to bend his knee before images 
 which he has himself made.” 
 
 Palissy’s productions do not bear his name. A few 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 bright in hue, and rarely occur in flat tints, being 
 generally mottled and blended with each other ; the 
 whole effect is often somewhat sour. The large orna- 
 mental cistern in the South Kensington Museum 
 (bought from the Fountain e Collection for £1143) 
 
 seems somewhat imperfect (although it is stated that 
 
 K 
 
 pieces, produced probably to royal order, are stamped 
 with the fleur-de-lis. The body of his pieces is a hard 
 earthenware of pinkish-white pipe-clay ; the enamels 
 are very thinly painted, the colours being mixed with 
 the lead and tin glaze. None of the colours are very 
 
 JUG WITH ORNAMENTS AND FIGURES. BERNARD PALISSY. 
 
6 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 Palissy permitted none but perfect pieces to leave his 
 hands) ; both the ware and the enamel have cracked in 
 the burning, the blues have run, the purple is a very 
 poor colour, and the greens are unpleasantly raw. And, 
 to make an end of such criticism, one sometimes thinks 
 that Palissy’s productions have been overrated as 
 pottery, and that his indomitable perseverance and self- 
 reliance were, after all, somewhat wasted, for he found 
 out nothing new, and occupied the best part of his 
 lifetime in painfully acquiring by experiment the know- 
 ledge that an Italian potter could have helped him with 
 in a few hours. 
 
 And, notwithstanding this, Palissy remains the most 
 picturesque figure in the annals of pottery ; a man 
 whom adverse fortune only strengthened, and who, 
 after all, is the best possible exemplification of the 
 fact that it is practice, and not theory, that makes the 
 potter. 
 
 He had imitators, perhaps pupils. In 1570 Nicholas 
 and Mathurin Palissis are mentioned in connection 
 with “ grotto work ” at the Tuileries. About 1600, the 
 names of three “ enamellers upon earth ” are given in 
 the lists of the king’s officers. There was at Avon, near 
 Fontainebleau, in 1608, a manufactory of enamelled 
 pottery ; reference is made to it in the Diary of H^rouard, 
 physician to the Dauphin (afterwards Louis XIII.), 
 who describes how the little prince (then seven years 
 old) made up a sham collation for Madame de Guise, 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 147 
 
 with the coloured pieces he had bought at the pottery. 
 There were dogs, foxes, badgers, oxen, squirrels, angels 
 playing instruments, hurdy-gurdy players, sheep, a 
 dolphin, and a capuchin friar. Pieces agreeing with 
 this description used to be attributed to Palissy, but 
 were clearly made, some years after his death, by some 
 one working in the same style. A similar origin used 
 to be assigned to certain architectural enrichments to 
 be found in Normandy, such as terminations to gables 
 and pediments, spikes, roof edgings, cupids, and so on, 
 in enamelled faience of different colours ; investigation, 
 however, shows that the enamels are colder in colour 
 and less glossy than Palissy’s. 
 
 There is every reason to suppose that by 1589, the 
 year of Palissy’s death, the use of tin in the glazing 
 had become well-known in France. At Nevers , 
 especially, the w&re produced was at first quite in 
 the style of Urbino. On the accession of Louis of 
 Gonzaga to the Duchy of Nevers in 1565, Italian 
 potters seem to have followed him to his new court, 
 and taken with them their favourite styles of decora- 
 tion and mythological subjects. 
 
 The pure Italian style of design never, however, 
 obtained any permanent footing in France, and the 
 suggestions for the characteristic wares to be produced 
 at Rouen, Moustiers, and elsewhere, came from the 
 Oriental pottery that, during the sixteenth and seven- 
 teenth centuries, found its way to Europe in large 
 
148 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 quantities. Before sketching the further history of 
 French pottery, it will be well to speak of the mediaeval 
 wares produced in Germany and England, and, in so 
 doing, complete our survey of all the European wares 
 that can be described as being of national growth, as 
 yet uninfluenced by the efforts universally made during 
 the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to emulate 
 the porcelains of the East. 
 
 Contemporary with Luca della Robbia, there was 
 working at Nuremberg a celebrated artist, Veit 
 Hirschvogel. In the church of St. Sebald are some 
 windows by him, and in several museums are large 
 pieces of pottery ascribed to him, richly modelled and 
 enamelled in colours. The enamel has some resem- 
 blance to Italian majolica, but the colours are brighter. 
 At South Kensington Museum, for instance, is a fine 
 piece, with figures of Adam and Eve, in blue, yellow, 
 green, white, and brown. Another of Hirschvogel’s 
 productions is a vase made to be given as a prize by a 
 company of archers. It is in the form of an owl, the 
 head forming the lid; the plumage is in white and 
 blue, and on the breast is a panel containing the 
 portrait figures of the archer’s corporation. His son 
 Augustine continued to make similar work, and by 
 some writers is thought to hatfe shown something of 
 the process to Palissy during the latter’s wanderings. 
 
 Large quantities of glazed w r are stoves and tiles were 
 made in Germany during the sixteenth century. There 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 149 
 
 is at South Kensington Museum a large closed stove 
 by Hans Kraut, 1578; it is profusely modelled; for the 
 most part glazed a dark, rich green, the tiles and 
 mouldings seem to have had additional colour painted 
 over glaze. At one side of the stove three steps lead 
 up to a seat ; evidently this was a warm corner. 
 Standing near this, in the same Museum, is another 
 large erection all in dark brown glaze ; it was from 
 Nuremberg, and dates from about 1630. 
 
 We come now to a class of pottery standing quite by 
 itself, the stoneware known as “ Gres de Flandres.’’ 
 Until the appearance of this ware in the sixteenth 
 century, no real stoneware had been seen. Here and 
 there, in Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese, and Koman 
 wares, an occasional piece may be found fired so hard 
 as almost to be a stoneware, but there is no trace of 
 the characteristic, and only suitable, glazing with salt 
 that distinguishes the Gres de Flandres. Even the 
 wares of Beauvais, made early in the sixteenth century 
 and sometimes placed by French writers among the 
 stonewares, are lacking in this most definite respect. 
 The body, it is true, has received a very hard fire, but 
 is covered by an opaque enamel of dull blue. 
 
 As already mentioned (at page 38) salt-glazing is the 
 simplest in the whole range of pottery-production, and 
 it is somewhat surprising that its discovery did not 
 take place at a much earlier date than was apparently 
 the case. It requires a clay that will stand a great 
 
150 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 heat, and as most of the processes we have hitherto 
 been describing could be completed at comparatively 
 lower temperature, there may have been no occasion or 
 opportunities to experiment in higher heats. Mr. Solon 
 hazards a guess that the mythical potter of Schlestadt 
 who died in 1283, and was described as “ primus in 
 Alsatia vitro vasa fictilia vestiebat,” may have dis- 
 covered salt-glazing, for all other methods of glazing 
 were already known by that time. There are no 
 traditions of its origin extant in Germany. The 
 earliest dated piece glazed with salt is a fragment of 
 Kseren ware with 1539. Rseren is the centre of the 
 Flemish stoneware district ; the wares are of brown 
 colour, probably from being fired with coal, the Liege 
 coal-fields being in the vicinity. At Siegburg, near 
 Cologne, the Rhenish stoneware was produced ; and 
 from a group of small towns near Coblentz — Hohr and 
 Grenzhausen being the best known — came the wares 
 grouped as Nassau stoneware. The colour of the two 
 last named wares was greyish white, possibly from 
 being fired with wood. The necessary salt was, no 
 doubt, acquired through the Low Countries, and it is 
 said that the red salt, in which Newfoundland fish had 
 been preserved, was thought the best. 
 
 At Siegburg, pottery had been manufactured from 
 an early date, but it was apparently of a coarse nature, 
 and unglazed. The often-mentioned “Frau Jacoba’s 
 Cannettes ” were of quite the same nature ; goblets 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 151 
 
 mostly of rude finish, brown-grey in colour, without 
 ornament or glaze. These used to be considered the 
 forerunners of the salt-glazed ware, but have really no 
 connection. The story, somewhat discredited now, runs 
 that these cannettes were made to solace the enforced 
 leisure hours of Jacqueline, Countess of Hainault in 
 Holland, who was imprisoned in 1424 in the fortress of 
 Teylingen. She is said to have conceived the idea of 
 making these stoneware pots, and throwing them into 
 the moat of the castle that they might be found in 
 after years as a record of her troubles. It is true that 
 on the spot there have been found large numbers of 
 these things, but they bear no inscriptions, and seem 
 to differ in no respect from other rough wares made 
 about the same time at other places. Similar goblets 
 have been found in London, and were among the 
 earliest made at Siegburg. By the beginning of the 
 sixteenth century, however, the local potters had 
 evidently come upon a bed of fine white clay, which is 
 still found in the neighbourhood. This clay is easy 
 to “throw,” and the Siegburg makers began to make 
 highly-finished pieces, richly ornamented with stamped 
 enrichments, coats-of-arms, architectural details, masks, 
 wreaths, figures of saints, etc. Researches on the sites 
 of the old potteries, and in the town archives, have 
 brought to light much curious information respecting 
 the old manufacture. The potters had a kind of trades 
 union ; their rules allowed them to work only certain 
 
152 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 months in the year, and to do only a certain number of 
 pieces in a certain time; very jealous too of outsiders, 
 they allowed strangers to work only on the coarsest 
 wares. Tithes were levied by the abbots of the 
 district upon all the pots made, but the town records 
 disclose some amount of underhand dealing and evasion. 
 A favourite shape made is the Schneller, a long tankard 
 for beer. The name (“fast-goer”) evidently refers to 
 the proper way to drink the contents. 
 
 It is a curious fact that the improvement in stone- 
 ware brought about by salt-glazing coincides with the 
 demand for beer-drinking vessels. The coarse malt 
 liquor drunk by the lower classes was giving way before 
 the new kind of ale flavoured with hops. “ The 
 Reformation and hops in beer came in together.” 
 A similar coincidence will be noticed when we come 
 to speak of English pottery. 
 
 As the Reformation spread throughout Germany, the 
 Siegburg potters, though remaining Catholics, had no 
 objection to making pots for Protestants. Now and then, 
 the ecclesiastical rulers would come down heavily on too 
 flagrant a case, and fine the offending potters 600 gulden 
 or so. The trade came to an end soon after the com- 
 mencement of the seventeenth century, on the break- 
 ing out of the disastrous Thirty Years' War between 
 Catholics and Protestants, when the whole of Germany 
 was repeatedly overrun by the contending forces. 
 
 From Rseren came a somewhat different style of 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 153 
 
 ware. The general colour is a warm brown, brightened 
 only by the glistening lights on the sharply stamped 
 or cut enrichments. There are some very handsome 
 specimens at South Kensington Museum. One, a large 
 jug, dated 1577, bears the arms of England, Branden- 
 burg, Denmark, Orange, and Sweden, and the initials 
 of the maker, B. M. Another of same date has quite 
 a gallery of representations of the seven virtues and 
 seven arts, and among its inscriptions are some which 
 read, “ Master Baldem Mennicken, potter, dwelling at 
 Rorren. I submit to God’s will. Patience under suf- 
 fering.” The last sentence seems to recur more than 
 once, reading in Flemish, “In Leiden Gedolt,” and 
 unwary writers, translating Leiden into Leyden, began 
 to attribute the manufacture to the university town of 
 that name in Holland. The story of Susannah and the 
 Elders is frequently found on the Rscren wares, and 
 possibly had some local allusion to the strained rela- 
 tions between Catholic dignitaries and the struggling 
 Protestant faith. Another type is found in the Grey- 
 beards or Bellarmine jugs— so called in doubtful honour 
 of the famous Cardinal of that name, who died in 1621. 
 A favourite form of decoration is a dance of peasants, 
 frequently represented with great vigour and humour. 
 One has this legend underneath — 
 
 “ Let dogs bark, 
 
 Let bauers dance, 
 
 Or you get a cracked skull.” 
 
154 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 Another piece points a useful moral. In one panel we 
 see a peasant who has been too long at his wine. His 
 wife beats him with a broom; and underneath are his 
 exclamations of distress. In the next panel he is shown 
 being handed over to the neighbours, who buffet him, 
 and underneath is the naive inquiry, “ Must it 
 be so ? ” We next see him taken home, and he is 
 shown blowing a horn while the good dame cooks the 
 dinner. Underneath are the words, “ It must come to 
 this.” 
 
 The manufacture at Raeren lingered on till 1806, 
 when it ceased on the French taking away the old right 
 of getting salt free from Westphalia. 
 
 Nearer Cologne, there was a seat of the stoneware 
 industry at Frechen, to which place the potters of 
 Cologne had been asked to retire in consequence of the 
 numerous conflagrations caused by their kilns. From 
 Frechen there came an abundance of the Bellarmine 
 jugs, and other jugs of a similarly rotund shape, with 
 moral sentiments moulded thereupon. Occasionally 
 blue is used to heighten the designs. 
 
 From the Nassau potteries there came somewhat 
 homely specimens, with incised designs coloured in 
 blue or violet. A little barrel made here has the 
 initials G. R., and portraits of the English William III. 
 and Mary his Queen, with the legend (in Dutch), “ In 
 our Dutch garden thus flourish the orange, apple, and 
 ” Ware is still made here in the old style in a 
 
 rose. 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 155 
 
 quiet kind of way ; but local enterprise extends to no 
 further than copying the old patterns. 
 
 A different variety of stoneware emanated from 
 Kreussen, in Bavaria, in which the dark-brown or 
 chocolate colour of the ware is hidden by bright 
 enamel colours and gold fired on afterwards. One 
 kind of frequent occurrence, in which the moulded 
 enrichments haye been coloured in black and white, 
 are called Trauerkriige, or mourning-jugs ; another 
 very prevalent style is a mug with figures of the 
 Apostles very brilliantly coloured. 
 
 The stoneware that we have been describing, and 
 more especially the Bellarmine jug in its various (but 
 not greatly varying) forms, was very largely exported 
 to other countries. England seems to have been a 
 large consumer; to France is due the name by which 
 the ware is (not altogether accurately) now generally 
 known — Gres de Flandres. 
 
 We broke the thread in our description of English 
 mediaeval pottery when mentioning the patterned tiles 
 in various coloured glazes. These were for a long 
 period the best development of pottery that England 
 could show. The times were perhaps too disturbed for 
 much encouragement of potters. Domestic utensils 
 were mostly of wood or leather. In common with 
 France, there was some use made of pitchers and 
 heavy pots glazed in green or yellow lead glaze ; many 
 of these have a rude mask under the lip in the fashion 
 
156 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 afterwards adopted for Bellarmines. Pilgrim bottles 
 or costrels were also made in glazed wares ; some are 
 mottled in red and white, and suggest the “ agate ” 
 wares produced long afterwards in Staffordshire. Con- 
 sidering that these wares were of rather fragile make, 
 it is not surprising that examples are rare. One very 
 grotesque jug, glazed in green, found in an excavation 
 at Lewes, must date back to the reign of Edward I. 
 It is in the form of a mounted knight ; his beard and 
 spurs indicate the period very definitely. A handle 
 joins the knight's back to the back of the horse, and 
 the contents were poured from the horse's mouth. 
 
 It seems to be true that we English were always a 
 little behind as regards comfort in living, and we were 
 still content with common green-glazed pottery when 
 more highly finished wares were prevalent abroad. 
 Even as late as 1663 Pepys records in his Diary that, 
 being present at the Lord Mayor's dinner, he “ sat at 
 the merchant strangers' table, where ten good dishes to 
 a mess, with plenty of wine of all sorts ; but it was very 
 unpleasing that we had no napkins nor change of 
 trenchers, and drunk out of earthen pitchers and 
 wooden dishes.” The “ trencher ” was, of course, a 
 wooden plate, and so called from the trunche , or slice 
 of bread, on which the meat was placed by the master- 
 carver. The cruse , cruske , or cruskyn, was a drinking- 
 cup of earthenware, sometimes mounted in silver ; the 
 crocke (or crouke in Chaucer) was a larger jug ; the 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 157 
 
 godet or goddard , a small bowl or cup ; the costrel or 
 costeret was, as already mentioned, a flask for travellers 
 use ; the jubbe was a large jug ; the longbeard was 
 another name for the Bellarmine ; the tyg was a drink- 
 ing-cup, with two or more handles. Our word tile is 
 derived from the Saxon tygel, and Tilewright or Tell- 
 wright is not an uncommon name in Staffordshire, thus 
 recalling the antiquity of the pottery industry in that 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 Of Elizabethan times are the stove tiles, moulded in 
 German fashion, and glazed green, of which an example 
 may be seen in the British Museum. It bears the 
 initials E.R., and the large Tudor rose and arms of 
 England and France, seem fairly conclusive of its royal 
 use. As the Renaissance began to make its influence 
 felt in English architecture, some instances occur of 
 modelled and moulded terra-cotta enrichments for 
 buildings ; and the brick work of Tudor times, with or 
 without such terra-cotta enrichments, often forms a 
 very happy feature both for design and colour in our 
 old town and country views. At Hampton Court 
 Palace, the older part begun by Wolsey rejoices in 
 some very rich chimney-pots, which group exceedingly 
 well as they rise above the old red walls of the Privy 
 Garden, and the effect of the great courtyards and 
 gateways in brickwork of warm toned hues is very fine. 
 Set in the walls of the gateway turrets are some red 
 terra-cotta medallions with heads of Roman emper- 
 
158 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 ors. There were ten of these ordered by Wolsey at 
 £2, 6s. each of Joannes Maiano, an Italian sculptor, a 
 letter from whom, dated the 18th of June, 1521, is 
 preserved in the Record office, in which he asks for 
 payment, and mentions that they were for the palace at 
 Anton Cort. Under the clock tower is another terra- 
 cotta ornament in the shape of Wolsey’s coat of arms 
 with date 1525 — one of the few instances where the 
 cognizance of the fallen cardinal was suffered to remain 
 by Henry VIII. 
 
 It is worth noting in connection with Hampton 
 Court, that it was the scene, some three years before 
 Cardinal Wolsey’s downfall, of some extremely magnifi- 
 cent festivities given in honour of the Constable 
 Montmorency whom we have had occasion to mention 
 in connection with Abaquesne and Palissy. At Sutton 
 Place near Guildford, erected by Sir Richard Weston, 
 Treasurer to Henry VIII., terra-cotta is freely used in 
 details of windows, stringcourses, and copings, and at 
 Layer Marney in Essex, a mansion was commenced 
 about the same period by Lord Marney, in which it was 
 intended that all the ornamental features should be in 
 terra-cotta. The clay of which these are made is not 
 to be found in the neighbourhood. Italian workmen 
 are said to have been brought over for the work, but 
 the details of the ornament are certainly not in very 
 pure Italian — they betray rather a French feeling. In 
 1523 Lord Marney died, and his only son the year 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 159 
 
 after. The building operations came to an end, with 
 only the great gateway and a portion of the house 
 finished, and an elaborate terra-cotta tomb in the 
 church close by. 
 
 Except for these instances, terra-cotta was not very 
 largely used for architectural purposes in England, and 
 it was reserved for this last generation or two to see a 
 wonderful revival in this respect. Bricks and tiles, of 
 course, continued to be largely made, especially when 
 the growth of our towns, and the advent of Dutch 
 William led to the erection of miles and miles of brick 
 houses more or less in that style of the Dutch Renais- 
 sance we know as “ Queen Anne ” or “ Georgian.” 
 While speaking of William III., it is interesting to note 
 that one of his most strenuous apologists, Daniel Defoe, 
 was in early life secretary or manager of a tilery at 
 Tilbury employing some “ hundred poor persons.” The 
 tiles were very possibly the flat red quarries for paving, 
 such as were used at Tunbridge Wells, where the 
 parade is still called the “ Pantiles.” Defoe afterwards 
 drew upon his experiences at Tilbury in narrating how 
 Robinson Crusoe attempted to make earthenware and 
 subsequently to fire and glaze it. 
 
 Although most bookshelves contain a copy of Defoe’s 
 immortal romance, we shall make no apology for recall- 
 ing the story of Crusoe’s endeavours. 
 
 “ It would make the reader pity me, or rather laugh 
 at me, to tell how many awkward ways I took to raise 
 
1G0 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRABTS. 
 
 this paste ; what odd, misshapen, ugly things I made ; 
 how many of them fell in, and how many fell out — the 
 clay not being stiff enough to bear its own weight ; 
 how many cracked by the over-violent heat of the sun, 
 being set out too hastily ; and how many fell to pieces 
 with only removing, as well before as after they were 
 dried ; and, in a word, how, after having laboured hard 
 to find the clay — to dig it, to temper it, to bring it 
 home, and work it — I could not make above two large 
 earthen ugly things (I cannot call them jars) in about 
 two months’ labour. . . . Though I miscarried so much 
 in my design for large pots, yet I made several smaller 
 things with better success, such as little round pots, 
 flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, and anything my 
 hand turned to, and the heat of the sun baked them 
 strangely hard. But all this would not answer my end, 
 which was to get an earthen pot to hold what was 
 liquid and bear the fire, which none of these could do. 
 It happened after some time, making a pretty large 
 fire for cooking my meat, when I went to put it out 
 after I had done with it, I found a broken piece of one 
 of my earthenware vessels in the fire, burnt as hard as 
 a stone, and red as a tile. I was agreeably surprised to 
 see it, and said to myself that certainly they might be 
 made to burn whole if they would burn broken. 
 
 “ This set me to study how to order my fire so as to 
 make it burn me some pots. I had no notion of a kiln 
 such as the potters burn in, or of glazing them with 
 
MEDIEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 161 
 
 lead, though I had some lead to do it with; but 
 I placed three large pipkins and two or three pots in a 
 pile, one upon another, and placed my firewood all 
 round it, with a great heap of embers under them. 
 I plied the fire with fresh fuel round the outside and 
 upon the top till I saw the pots in the inside red-hot 
 quite through, and observed that they did not crack at 
 all. When I saw them clear red, I let them stand in 
 that heat about five or six hours, till I found one of 
 them, though it did not crack, did melt or run ; for the 
 sand which was mixed with the clay melted by the 
 violence of the heat, and would have run into glass if 
 I had gone on ; so I slacked my fire gradually till the 
 pots began to abate of the red colour, and watching 
 them all night, that I might not let the fire abate too 
 fast, in the morning I had three very good (I will not 
 say handsome) pipkins and two other earthen pots as 
 hard burnt as could be desired, with one of them per- 
 fectly glazed with the running of the sand. 
 
 “ After this experiment, I need not say that I wanted 
 no sort of earthenware for my use ; but I must needs 
 say, as to the shapes of them, they were very indifferent, 
 as any one may suppose, when I had no way of making 
 them but as the children make dirt pies, or as a 
 woman would make pies that never learned to raise 
 paste.” 
 
 Of scarcely more advanced technique than Crusoe's 
 
 fictitious pipkins, was the quaint “ slip ware ” actually 
 
 L 
 
162 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 being produced about the time that Defoe was 
 writing. 
 
 This homely-looking ware seems almost out of place 
 in a museum ; Thomas Toft’s mermaid dish at South 
 Kensington Museum looks almost ashamed at being 
 seen in the company of Wedgwood and other masters ; 
 its yellow ground, red mermaid with white face and 
 hands, the outlines drawn in a sticky-looking dark 
 brown broken up with white spots, display almost too 
 naive a style of workmanship. The class of ware is, 
 however, most distinctive and peculiarly English, and 
 deserves attention. It was produced mainly in Stafford- 
 shire, Kent, Cheshire, and Derbyshire. In Kent, it 
 seems to have originated only at Wrotham near Maid- 
 stone, the earliest known piece being dated 1612 and the 
 latest 1710 ; it is very possible that the ware was made 
 much earlier than the first date, and even now pieces 
 made in the same way may be seen for sale in country 
 markets. 
 
 The body is generally of red clay, and the ornaments 
 are in white or coloured clays trickled on in a liquid 
 state, or slip. Sometimes the whole piece is dipped in 
 the white clay and the red slip trickled thereon ; some- 
 times the two colours are marbled together. They are 
 all glazed with lead which gives a warm colour, the 
 white becoming yellow. Occasionally a piece is seen 
 > in which the coating of white clay is scratched through 
 to form the pattern. A plate decorated in this way 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 163 
 
 with some spots of brown slip and the inscription “ IE : 
 WE 1699 : WROT : HAM/’ is in the British Museum. 
 It has been conjectured that the I.E may stand for a 
 John Evelyn who owned the site ; he was cousin to the 
 celebrated diarist. In Staffordshire, some large dishes 
 — evidently meant only for ornament — were made by 
 Thomas and Ralph Toft, and their names are writ very 
 large thereupon, not underneath, but boldly across the 
 face. The mermaid dish at South Kensington Museum 
 is by Thomas Toft. The fashion of including the 
 maker’s name among the ornaments was followed by 
 other Staffordshire men ; some of the names are 
 William Talor, William Sans, George Taylor, John 
 Wright, and Ralph Simpson. On a large three- 
 handled posset pot in the British Museum is this 
 inscription : it is typical of the loyalty and bad spell- 
 ing of most of the pieces : — 
 
 “ God bless the Queen and Prence Gorg e . Drink and be mery 
 and mary : B.B. John Meir made this cup 1708.” 
 
 The figures on these pieces are grotesque to the 
 last degree, especially as many are intended for por- 
 traits of monarchs and great personages. 
 
 Some romance may be connected with a three- 
 handled jug to be seen in the British Museum, which 
 has these words round it : — 
 
 “ Ann Draper this cup I made for you and so no more 
 J. W. 1707.” 
 
164 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 Near it may also be seen a sort of triangular stand 
 perhaps made for a flat-iron (Professor Church, how- 
 ever, thinks it may have formed part of a tombstone). 
 It has on it : — 
 
 1695 
 
 E.E. 
 
 When this V C 
 Remember Mee. 
 
 Wall tablets and tombstones were often made in this 
 glazed slip ware, and may still be seen in the Burslem 
 and Wolstanton churchyards. The oldest bears the 
 date 1718. 
 
 The wisdom of these simple potters is often displayed 
 in such miscellaneous inscriptions as : — 
 
 “ Be mery and wis(e).” 
 
 “ Help Lord for Good and godly men do fail.” 
 
 “ Obeay the King.” 
 
 “ Drinke faire — Dont Sware.” 
 
 “ Brisk be to the Med you desier as her love you ma require.” 
 
 One posset-cup has this fragmentary observation : — 
 
 “ The best is not too.” 
 
 It is evident that the worthy potter, beginning with his 
 lettering a little too large, found on getting round the 
 cup that there was not sufficient room to include the 
 word “ good,” and therefore left it out. 
 
 A variation in the methods of decorating the slip- 
 wares was obtained by “ marbling” the slip-covering, 
 or “ combing ” it by dragging over the wet surface a 
 leather, wood, or metal comb. Pieces are found with 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 165 
 
 this forming the only decoration, or, combined with 
 scrolls or lettering, put on in the usual trickled way. 
 This combing was a rough way of getting an effect, 
 afterwards carried to great perfection by Wheildon and 
 Wedgwood, and called “ agate ” or “ onyx’’ ware. In 
 this the varied colouring was made to go right through 
 the substance of the piece by beating together slices of 
 different coloured clays, and pressing the mixed mass 
 thus obtained into suitable moulds. From this it is an 
 easy step to the “ tortoise-shell ” ware for which 
 Wheildon was especially famous, in which the surface 
 was flooded with a mottled blending of rich manganese- 
 brown, copper-green, and cobalt-blue, floating in a rich 
 lead glaze. Wheildon died in 1798, and his work 
 extended, therefore, well into the modern period. 
 
 Returning a little in our history, w T e have to speak 
 of English salt-glaze stoneware, which, as with the 
 slip- ware, may be considered as an especially English 
 development. 
 
 It is impossible to say when salt-glazing first made 
 its appearance in England, and whether we can claim 
 its origin, or if we have to give the honour to Germany. 
 It used to be thought that the brothers Eler, who set 
 up work at Burslem in 1688, having come over with 
 William of Orange, were the first to use salt-glazing in 
 England, but this idea must be given up, for before 
 that time, about 1670, John Dwight was using the 
 process at Fulham, and it seems extremely likely that 
 
166 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 the Elizabethan jugs (similar in shape to the Bellar- 
 mines), of which large numbers are found in excavations 
 in London, were made in London also. Their colour, 
 the shapes, the character of the mottled glazed surface, 
 are all unlike the Gres de Flandres ; and, although it is 
 known that the English were good customers' for the 
 German wares, it by no means follows that we did not 
 make similar pots. At South Kensington Museum 
 there are six mounted jugs of this kind, and the silver- 
 plate marks are of the years 1560, 1565, 1576, 1580, 
 1590, 1600 respectively. 
 
 There used to be a tradition in Staffordshire, that 
 salt-glazing was discovered about 1680 by accident, a 
 servant, boiling brine, having permitted it to boil 
 over, and the pot, becoming red-hot, thus was glazed 
 with salt ; the master — so ran the tale — expresses 
 his surprise, the neighbours rush in, and at once 
 are filled with the idea of glazing their wares with 
 salt. Chemists have pointed out that the story is 
 altogether unlikely, as the heat possible at an open 
 fire would not be enough to volatilise the salt or 
 vitrify the ware, both being essential conditions in true 
 salt-glazing. The process was apparently not known 
 in Staffordshire when the Elers first used it, for it is 
 recorded that on the first occasion of “ salting off,” 
 such volumes of smoke and flame came from their 
 kiln as to excite the dismay of all the master-potters 
 (then eight in number) in Burslem. 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 167 
 
 The first mention of stoneware in England occurs in 
 1581, in the petition of a certain William Simpson, 
 merchant, for “ full power and onelie license to provyde, 
 transport, and bring into this realm the pottes made at 
 Culloin (i.e., Cologne), called Drinking stone pottes 
 the business being alleged to be hitherto entirely in 
 the hands of “one Garnet Tynes, a straunger living 
 in Aeon, in the parte beyond the seas, being none of 
 her ma ties subjecte.” Simpson promised that should 
 his petition be granted, he would, “as in him lieth, 
 drawe the making of such like potte into some decayed 
 town within this realm, wherebie manie a hundred 
 poore men may be sett a work.” 
 
 It is not known if this suit were granted, but in 1626, 
 letters patent were taken out for Thomas Rous and 
 Abraham Cullyn for “the sole making of the stone 
 pottes, stone juggs, and stone bottells for the terme of 
 fourteene yeares.” They were to pay a yearly rent of 
 five pounds, nor did they desire to hinder the importa- 
 tion of these commodities by others from foreign parts. 
 Dwight’s first patent is dated the 23rd of April, 1671, 
 and his second, the 12th of June, 1684. Both have a 
 similar preamble, the second commencing thus : — 
 “John Dwight, gentl/, hath represented unto us, 
 that by his owne industry, and at his owne proper 
 costs and charges, hee hath invented and sett up at 
 Fulham, severall new manufactures of earthenwares, 
 called by the names of white gorges, marbled porcellane 
 
168 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 vessells, statues, and figures, and fine stone gorges and 
 vessells, never before made in England or elsewhere ; 
 and alsoe discovered the mistery of transparent por- 
 cellane, and opacous, redd, and darke-coloured porcel- 
 lane, or china and persian wares, and the mistery of 
 the Cologne or stone wares, and is endeavouring to 
 settle manufactures of all the said wares within this 
 our kingdome of England ; and hee having humbly 
 besought us to grant unto him our Letters Patents for 
 the sole use and exercise of the same for the terme of 
 fourteene years, wee are gratiously pleased to conde- 
 scend to that his request,” etc., etc. 
 
 Of the allusion here to “ porcellane,” we must speak 
 later when dealing more particularly with that subject. 
 Of his stoneware several fine examples are known 
 which make it quite clear that both artistically and 
 technically, Dwight had very little to learn. His busts 
 especially are wonderful examples of stoneware; the 
 portrait of Prince Rupert in the British Museum is 
 most excellently modelled, and the ware of a dark 
 brown colour appears to be perfect. A little statuette 
 at South Kensington Museum of a girl with a skull at 
 her feet, and another half-length of a dead child clasping 
 some flowers to her breast, are pathetic memorials to 
 Dwight’s daughter Lydia, who died at the age of fifteen. 
 In a cellar belonging to the old Fulham works there 
 were found, not many years ago, a large number of 
 Bellarmine jugs, differing in hardly any respect from the 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 169 
 
 German ware. How far, however, Dwight made them 
 as a commercial success is not known; from a rough 
 memorandum book of his (now in the possession of 
 Mr. Bailey, who still carries on a stoneware pottery on 
 the old site), Dwight was apparently very well off, for it 
 contains numerous entries of the various places where 
 he had hidden his guineas, evidently preferring to be 
 his own banker. 
 
 John Dwight had graduated as M.A. at Oxford, and 
 appears to have been a man of considerable learning. 
 That his attainments in pottery were fairly well known 
 at the time is evident from several references to him 
 and his use of clays and other materials. Dr. Plot, in 
 his “ History of Oxfordshire” (1677), mentions that 
 Dwight was making the Cologne wares such as d’Alva 
 bottles, jugs, and noggins to such perfection that the 
 company of glass-sellers of London had contracted with 
 him to buy only his, and refuse the foreign make for 
 which heretofore they had been agents. 
 
 The Elers introduced an ideal of pottery manufacture 
 into Staffordshire that had before their time hardly 
 been dreamed of. They washed their clay and prepared 
 it with extreme care, and used the turning-lathe in 
 order to obtain finer and thinner shapes than could be 
 got by throwing. Although it is probable that other 
 wares were made by them, only a bright red ware can 
 be definitely attributed to them ; it is very like a 
 Chinese red ware that used to be greatly admired, 
 
170 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 known as “ boccaro ” ware, and has sharply stamped 
 enrichments (said to be from metal moulds) in the 
 Chinese style. The Elers did not sign their pieces. 
 Their works were situated at Bradwell in a lonely spot, 
 where they had found a supply of fine ferruginous clay. 
 Every operation was conducted with the greatest secrecy, 
 and only rough labourers or half-witted persons were 
 employed. The finished pieces were conveyed stealthily 
 to a distant cottage for sale, and there was a warehouse 
 in the Poultry, London, kept by David Elers, at which 
 the teapots could be had at from twelve to twenty-five 
 shillings each. No pieces of very large size seem to 
 have been made. 
 
 Their secret was soon found out. A man named 
 Astbury, feigning idiocy, succeeded in obtaining employ- 
 ment at Bradwell, and after learning all he could, set 
 up in business for himself at Shelton. He, however, 
 did not content himself with what he had learnt, but 
 began to use other mixtures of clays, obtaining in 
 addition to the red, a fawn, orange, and chocolate 
 colour. His ornamental work was stamped in Devon 
 or pipe-clay, and he often used a lining of white clay 
 for the insides of his wares. About 1720 he began to 
 use ground flint mixed with the clay to lessen the 
 shrinkage. A bowl of red clay decorated with ships in 
 white clay may be seen in the BritisK Museum. It is 
 dated 1739 and commemorates the “Porto Bello.” 
 
 Astbury 1 s son, Thomas, commenced business in 1725, 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 171 
 
 and was specially known for his “ cream colour ” body, a 
 colour afterwards much used by Wedgwood. To this 
 Astbury is sometimes attributed the first use of flint in 
 pottery. Wedgwood’s statement in a letter to Bentley 
 does not quite agree with this. He says : — 
 
 “The white stoneware was produced by using the 
 white pipe-clay instead of the common clay of this 
 neighbourhood, and mixing it with flint stones calcined 
 and reduced by pounding into a fine powder. The use 
 of flint in our pottery is said to have proceeded from an 
 accident happening to one of our potters, a Mr. Heath 
 of Shelton, on his way to London. His horse’s eyes 
 becoming bad, he applied to an hostler on the road, 
 who told him he would cure the horse and show him 
 what means he used. Accordingly he took a piece of 
 black flint stone and put it into the fire, which to our 
 potter’s great astonishment, came out of the fire a most 
 beautiful white, and at the same time struck him with 
 an idea that this fine material might improve the stone- 
 ware lately introduced among them. He brought some 
 of the stones home with him, mixed them with pipe- 
 clay, and made the first white flint stoneware .” 
 
 It is quite clear, however, that Dwight had used flint 
 long before either Astbury or Heath, for in his memoran- 
 dum books of recipes, written at intervals from 1692 to 
 1698, among many interesting items is one : “ Calcined, 
 beaten, and sifted flints will doe instead of the white sand 
 and rather whiter, but the charge and trouble is more.” 
 
172 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 The Elers gave up business about 1710, having made 
 by no means a fortune. But the improved methods 
 introduced by them were of the greatest importance to 
 the welfare of the Staffordshire industry. The salt- 
 glazed wares — at first called Crouch wares — up to 
 about 1720 are of somewhat rough production, but with 
 the use of flint, some wonderfully sharp and light work 
 was made. Metal or baked clay moulds were used for 
 casting the shapes, the model having, of course, been 
 first carved in alabaster or other suitable material. 
 Sometimes the whole form was moulded ; a teapot in 
 the shape of a house is one favourite form ; another is 
 a heart-shape teapot; tea-caddies, sweetmeat-trays, 
 sauce-boats are other forms. When used in circular 
 shapes, the throwing and lathing have been done most 
 expertly ; the objects are as thin and light as possible, 
 sometimes almost as translucent as porcelain. The 
 ware was fired in saggers through which a few holes 
 allowed the salt vapours to pass. About 1750, plaster 
 of Paris (Ralph Daniel having seen it in use in the 
 Paris potteries) began to be used for the moulds, and a 
 consequent lack of sharpness is discernible in the wares 
 produced. Finally, about 1780, the production ceased, 
 having been killed by more showy productions and 
 the more perfect surface secured by the lead-glazed 
 “ Queen’s ware.” 
 
 Very few white salt-glazed pieces are marked. The 
 younger Astbury, Twyford, Billing, Shaw, Thomas 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 173 
 
 Wedgwood, and Turner are a few names of makers. In 
 the South Kensington Museum are preserved some 
 moulds ; among them is one for a small milk -jug, and 
 on the bare spaces where the feet would afterwards be 
 placed are the initials R. W. These were probably 
 carved there by Ralph Wood, a mould cutter of 
 Burslem, and father of Aaron Wood, who, later on, 
 made salt-glazed ware for himself, and cut moulds for 
 Thomas Wedgwood, Wheildon, and others. 
 
 Where the surfaces were plain, a very usual method 
 of decoration was by incising lines by hand, and blue 
 was then painted into the lines and cleaned off along 
 the edges. One large mug inscribed in this style may 
 be seen at South Kensington Museum. It reads : — 
 
 “ This is Thomas Cox’es cup : Come my Freind and 
 Drink it up. 
 
 Good news is come’n, the Bells do Ring : & here 5 s a 
 Health to Prusia’s King. 
 
 February 16th 1758. 5; 
 
 Some pieces covered all over with a deep blue glaze 
 and black and white enamelled ornaments, were made 
 about 1750 by William Littler of Longton. Other 
 pieces in blue are decorated in gold lines fired on ; other 
 gold patterns are found on white ware in the incised 
 lines that might otherwise have been painted with blue. 
 
 A class of salt-glaze stoneware that has by no means 
 as much interest as the others, is that in which 
 coloured enamels were used to imitate Chinese or 
 
174 
 
 POTTERS .* THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 Delft patterns. But the colouring is sour and unpleas- 
 ant, and the quaint old-fashioned spirit of the earlier 
 wares has departed. Effects of colour could be obtained 
 better in china ware, and we do not see much of the 
 enamelled salt-glaze. 
 
 Staffordshire was not the only centre, outside London, 
 of stoneware-making. At Nottingham there was a 
 considerable manufacture carried on throughout the 
 eighteenth century. The wares have a bright brown 
 colour, and a very smooth glaze. Some of the pieces 
 have a kind of maidenhair pattern cut through the 
 glaze. A curious fancy obtained at Nottingham for 
 the making of “ bear mugs in the form of a sitting 
 bear, the head lifting off to form a cup for drinking 
 from ; the body of the bear is generally powdered over 
 thickly with small fragments of clay stuck on while the 
 body was wet. 
 
 The bear mug seems also to have been made at 
 Fulham, where, after ^Dwight’s death, the business was 
 still carried on. Dwight had buried all his moulds 
 and recipe books in order that his descendants might 
 not waste their time and money in following out his 
 experiments, and nothing but common brown jugs and 
 mugs then were made. A characteristic design in relief 
 of huntsmen and dogs dates from about this time, and 
 has been repeated again and again ever since, being 
 still made in large numbers by the London stoneware 
 potters. Figures adapted from Hogarth’s “ Midnight 
 
MEDIAEVAL POTTERY. 
 
 175 
 
 Conversation,” the head of Queen Anne, and St. George 
 and Dragon frequently occur. “ The pious Memmory 
 of good Queen Anne” seems a favourite inscription. 
 In one case it is “ Memomery,” in another “ pyouse.” 
 On some of the mugs the potter seems to have gathered 
 together all his moulds, and Queen Anne, a church, 
 trees (one with the head of King Charles in the oak), 
 halberdiers, and dogs are all mixed together. One 
 particular hunting incident seems to have been thought 
 very remarkable ; its description occurs several times 
 with but slight variations (except those due to 
 spelling) : — 
 
 a On Banse (i.e. Banstead) downs a hair (hare) wee found 
 Whatt led uss all a Smoaking Round .’ 5 
 
 We have already mentioned Defoe's “ Robinson 
 Crusoe ; ” here we may mention a piece with a strange 
 connection with the real Robinson Crusoe. The 
 descendants of Alexander Selkirk for a long time pre- 
 served a flip-can that had been made at Fulham in 
 1703, and incised with these words: — 
 
 “ Alexander Selkirke. This is my one 
 When you take me on bord of ship 
 Pray fill me full with punch or flipp 
 Fulham . 55 
 
 Brown stoneware similar to that of Fulham was also 
 made at Lambeth, and it is thought that workmen 
 from Fulham may have started the manufacture. 
 The earliest dated piece of Lambeth stoneware is of the 
 
176 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 year 1761. Only jugs and mugs in this ware seem to 
 have been made. 
 
 Lambeth is much better known as the seat of several 
 manufactories of Delft ware, which seem to have been 
 in operation even before the date of a patent granted 
 in 1676 to John Ariens van Hamme, a Dutch potter, 
 who settled at Lambeth, and started works for “ the 
 makeinge tiles and porcelane and other earthenwares, 
 after the way practised in Holland.” 
 
 We must not speak of English Delft, however, before 
 dealing with the original Dutch ware, nor of the Dutch 
 productions until we have traced back to its source the 
 Oriental porcelain that served as model, not only to 
 the Dutch potters, but to the Italian, French, German, 
 Spanish, and English — for indeed, in all countries, ever 
 since porcelain came to Europe, there were continual 
 efforts to imitate it, and solve the mysteries of its 
 production. 
 
CHAPTER IY. 
 
 ORIENTAL PORCELAIN AND POTTERY, AND THEIR 
 EUROPEAN IMITATIONS. 
 
 “ rT^HE mistery of transparent porcellane ” ! These 
 words of John Dwight’s are significant of the 
 way in which the wonderful wares from 
 China were regarded during many centuries. Col- 
 lected by the wealthy, gazed at with envy by the 
 mediaeval potter, continually being imitated in rough 
 wares that would never acquire the needful trans- 
 lucence and glossy surface, porcelain remained a 
 mystery, and the secret of its production was sought 
 for as eagerly as the philosopher s stone in earlier times. 
 
 As far back as 1170 it is recorded that Saladin sent 
 forty pieces of Chinese porcelain as presents to Nur-ed- 
 din. In the next century, Marco Polo, the great 
 traveller, visited China and saw a porcelain factory. 
 
 In 1487 the Sultan of Egypt sent a present of porcelain 
 
 177 M 
 
178 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 to Lorenzo the Magnificent. The earliest pieces known 
 to have been brought to England were some blue and 
 white bowls given by Philip of Austria to Sir Thomas 
 Trenchard in 1506, and there is at New College, 
 Oxford, a bowl of Archbishop Warham’s (1530) which 
 is a piece of Chinese celadon ware. As to the designa- 
 tion porcelain , historians cannot quite agree ; the word 
 seems to have become attached to the ware in a very 
 roundabout way; pourcelaine occurs in French inven- 
 tories as early as 1360, and is thought to refer to 
 mother-of-pearl ; porcella , or little pig, was the name of 
 the cowrie shell, and porcellana was the name given 
 by the Portuguese to the new ware, because of its 
 shell-like glossiness. Great were the speculations as to 
 its nature. Lord Bacon had an idea that “ porcelain is 
 a kind of plaster buried in the earth, and, by length of 
 time, congealed and glazed into that fine substance.” 
 A similar idea prevailed abroad ; a learned Italian, 
 Guido Pancirolli, wrote in 1617 that porcelain was a 
 mass composed of plaster, eggs, and scales of marine 
 locusts, worked together and hidden underground for 
 eighty years. Whoever buried it could never use it 
 himself, but his heirs would find it as a rich treasure, 
 and vessels made from it would break immediately 
 should poison be placed in them. Dr. Johnson derived 
 porcelain from pour cent anne'es, because the materials 
 had to be buried for one hundred years. 
 
 Although our lexicographer was wrong here, he was 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 179 
 
 nearer the truth than he imagined. For we know now 
 that porcelain can only be made with the products 
 that were slowly formed, centuries long ago, from the 
 decomposition of felspathic rocks. It is more a matter 
 of geology than science, and until the European potters 
 were put into possession of the only possible materials 
 for making porcelain, they were sure not to succeed in 
 their endeavours. In the attempt, however, many 
 most valuable discoveries were made, and, as we shall 
 see, even where porcelain did not result, many a 
 beautiful faience came into being. 
 
 In China itself the ware is called Tse-ki, and the 
 materials for its production are generally spoken of by 
 their Chinese names, Kaolin (or our china clay), and 
 Petuntze (our Cornish granite or china stone). The 
 Chinese records state that the ware was made in the 
 reign of the mythical Emperor Hwang-ti (about 2690 
 B.C.) If this is too early to be credible, it is generally 
 conceded that a green porcelain was made under the 
 Han dynasty (202 B.C.-A.D. 220), and that wares were 
 being made at King-te-chin, near Canton, in A.D. 580. 
 This town had always remained the chief seat of the 
 porcelain manufacture until its almost entire destruc- 
 tion in the Taeping rebellion, in the suppression of 
 which “ Chinese Gordon ” was engaged. Last century 
 the English Ambassador, visiting the place, said there 
 were 3000 furnaces, and at night the town presented 
 the appearance of being on fire. 
 
180 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 Porcelain has apparently always been held in honour 
 in China, and certain classes of wares are reserved for 
 the Emperor and great dignitaries. The colours proper 
 to the different dynasties are found to be especially 
 prominent on the wares made during those dynasties ; 
 thus, the Sui dynasty reigning from A.D. 581 to 618, 
 
 took green for the Im- 
 perial colour ; Thang 
 dynasty (618-907), 
 white ; Tcheou (about 
 950), blue ; Ming (1368- 
 1643), green; Tai-Tsing 
 (commencing 1644), 
 yellow. Of these, the 
 Ming period is the one 
 that had the most ob- 
 vious influence upon 
 porcelain, and ^pieces 
 decorated with what 
 is called the “ green 
 family ” are most abund- 
 ant. In these, the designs are drawn and partly 
 coloured in under glaze blue, but the larger part of 
 the remaining colouring is in a copper-green enamel, 
 with slight touches of red and other colours. In some 
 belonging to the same period, a black enamel is used to 
 cover the whole ground of the vase, throwing into strong 
 relief the characteristic design of white plum-blossom. 
 
 CHINESE VASE. GREEN FAMILY. 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 181 
 
 Notwithstanding the altered imperial colour, Kang-he, 
 the second emperor of the Tai-Tsing dynasty, still 
 carried on the “green” traditions, and gave out many 
 choice pieces of “ Ming ” work for emulation and copy- 
 ing ; sometimes so faithfully were they copied that the 
 old dates were reproduced, to the bewilderment after- 
 wards of collectors. 
 
 The peculiar tint of blue adopted by the Tcheou 
 dynasty is a soft clouded tint, and resembles the “ blue 
 of the sky after rain,” having been thus named by the 
 Emperor Chi-tsong in 954. So highly was this colour 
 esteemed, that even fragments of the ware decorated 
 with it were esteemed as valuable as precious stones, 
 when in 1369 a factory was started at King-te-chin in 
 order to produce wares decorated in blue. Blue at all 
 times seems to have been most highly esteemed by the 
 Chinese ; and they dignify the ancient blue and white 
 wares by the name of Icouan-ki (or magistrates pieces 
 — i.e ., vases which no one under the rank of an official 
 ought to possess). 
 
 The blue and white “ Nankin ” ware of which so 
 much came to Europe, is a comparatively modern 
 style, not being older than the 16th century, a date 
 when the Chinese began to import cobalt. Their 
 native cobalt gave blues of somewhat softer tone. 
 Copper gave other tints of blue, turquoise, lapis-lazuli, 
 and the deep mazarine. 
 
 In most classifications of Chinese porcelain, one meets 
 
182 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 with mention of the “ Rose family/ 5 in addition to the 
 “Green. 5 ’ This had no especial dynastic significance. 
 The pale rose colour obtained from a certain preparation 
 of gold (according to Jacquernart, the “purple of 
 Cassius ”) was gradually introduced into the decorations 
 of late “Green” pieces, and then used as the pre- 
 dominant colour, particularly in the reigns of Yung- 
 ching (1723-36) and Kien-lung (1736-95). It is found 
 in great perfection on pieces made so thinly as to be 
 called “ egg-shell ” ware ; some plates have the rose 
 colour painted on the back, so that it shows through as 
 a delicate shell-pink. 
 
 When using plain or “ flowed 55 colours without any 
 other decoration, the Chinese potters were invariably 
 successful. Some of the colours they obtained have 
 never been equalled by other makers, although attempted 
 again and again, such as : — sang de boeuff a mottled 
 purple ; fleur de p^che, mottled red and grey ; apple- 
 green, myrtle - green, cam ellia - green, lavender - blue, 
 plum colour, and many other simple or blended colours 
 of great beauty. Some of the clouded colours called 
 souffle were obtained by blowing through a tube 
 covered with gauze ; the spots of pigment falling upon 
 the ground of another colour sometimes spread into 
 little circles, or melted into the ground. The Chinese 
 have produced with great mastery the flarnbe or flashed 
 glazes ; the method of firing is similar to the lustred 
 majolicas of Europe, the reducing atmosphere caused in 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 183 
 
 the kiln by smoke suddenly introduced bringing about 
 very startling changes of colour. Some of the pieces 
 
 VASE OF FLASHED PORCELAIN, REPRESENTING A GROUP OF LING-TCHY. 
 
 painted with copper red or “ haricot ” have flashed 
 under the influence of more or less oxygen from fawn 
 
184 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 to a beautiful green, pale blue, or violet, the colour in 
 places burning away to nothing at all, exposing the 
 white of the body. 
 
 Although so entirely successful with effects of colour, 
 the Chinese have excelled in pure white ware. In 
 this, everything depends on beauty of workmanship 
 and form, and on different fanciful ways of perforating, 
 carving, and building up the pieces. One very delicate 
 effect is known as “ grains of rice ” work, the designs 
 being cut through the thin substance in numerous 
 small holes which have been subsequently filled up 
 again by the pure transparent glaze over the whole. 
 
 Earthenware and stoneware also occur in Chinese 
 art, but are not of such relative importance. The early 
 celadon porcelain is almost a stoneware ; the body is 
 very hard and opaque, occurring principally in a soft 
 sea-green colour (that is the tint we usually mean by 
 the word celadon), but there were celadons of other 
 colours. Earthenware seems to have been reserved for 
 domestic wares. The stonewares have a dense, hard 
 texture ; the colour, generally reddish-brown, is found 
 in the wares known since the Portuguese brought 
 them to Europe, as boccaro. This is the “opacous, 
 redd, and darke-coloured porcellane ” of John Dwight's 
 patent, and that which was successfully imitated by the 
 Elers. It was sometimes decorated in enamels. Some 
 very old pieces of a greyish-yellow colour were fabulously 
 valuable and reserved for special ceremonies. A decor- 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 185 
 
 ated earthenware, sometimes of almost a stoneware 
 nature, is covered with a felspathic glaze and decorated 
 with enamel colours. A good deal of it finds its way to 
 Europe in vases, garden seats, flower-pots, etc. Of this 
 ware the famous porcelain tower of Nankin (destroyed 
 by the Taeping rebels) was built ; its bricks were 
 enamelled in red, white, blue, brown, and green. 
 Representations of it are fairly well known ; with its 
 numerous stories hung with bells and porcelain lamps 
 it rose to a height of 263 feet. Some of the bricks 
 may be seen in the British Museum. 
 
 We have left to the last any mention of the strange 
 fancy of the Chinese for “ crackle ” decoration, in which 
 the surface is covered all over with a minute irregular 
 veining of cracks. They have, since remote times, 
 made a most artistic use of what any other potters 
 would have considered a defect, a defect that too often 
 comes without any seeking on faience, where the body 
 and glaze are more liable to indulge in different degrees 
 of contraction. But in porcelain, where the body and 
 glaze are of the same chemical nature, this crazing or 
 “ crackle ” does not occur of itself, and the ingenious 
 Chinese with a kind of perverted taste have invented 
 various ways of bringing about the defect. By one 
 method, they mix powdered steatite with the glaze in 
 order to interfere with its regular contraction; or by 
 another, they expose the glazed piece to the sun, and 
 then plunge it into cold water for a moment. However 
 
186 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 obtained, the crackle is obtained with wonderful 
 certainty. It may be of either a large, medium, or 
 tiny figure (experts call the latter crackle truite or 
 trout-scale). The cracks are filled in with colours, 
 varied or plain ; on some pieces there are different 
 kinds of crackle found together, or certain parts of the 
 design are stopped out so that the crackle stops short 
 of them, or there are alternating bands of plain coloured 
 glaze and of crackled white glaze. Sometimes the 
 crackle is left uncoloured and is then only just discern- 
 ible under a strong light ; at other times the black, 
 red, purple, or coffee-colour rubbed in makes the 
 pattern very conspicuous. One very delicate crackle 
 effect is the dead leaf (feuille morte ) with its minute 
 lines of golden yellow brown. Another old ware of 
 pale blue with a rice-coloured crackle was named after 
 the Tchang family of potters who produced it. 
 
 It would be impossible to speak here of the ideas 
 conveyed by Chinese ornamentation. For one thing, 
 the subject is one that is still open to much speculation, 
 and even experts will place different interpretations 
 upon the symbolic forms that recur. Almost every- 
 thing in China is symbolic of something else ; the 
 shapes even, the colours used, the geometrical forms 
 of circles, squares, oblongs, all mean something. Thus, 
 the “ honourable male principle,” the sun, fire, and all 
 phenomena of high moral import, are symbolised by the 
 circle,, ovals, and unequal divisions; but the inferior 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 187 
 
 female principle, the moon, and the earth, have to be 
 contentedly represented by squares, rectangles, and 
 equal divisions. Certain mythical dragons are appro- 
 priated to decorate pieces intended for the high and 
 mighty, and dreadful penalties await those who are 
 presumptuous enough to possess them, not being fully 
 entitled to. The five-clawed dragon is for the emperor 
 alone ; a dragon of four claws may be used by princes. 
 It is therefore evident that to read the complete story 
 of a piece of Chinese porcelain, one ought to be familiar 
 with the Chinese ways of thought. Needless to say, 
 however, we all have not the necessary leisure to study 
 very deeply the 5020 volumes of the great Chinese 
 Encyclopedia in the British Museum, and must, in the 
 absence of such knowledge, be satisfied with appreci- 
 ating the technical excellence and perfect art which 
 the potters of Cathay display in their incomparable 
 porcelain. 
 
 Very few names of artists detach themselves from 
 the vast mass of undistinguished Chinese work ; and 
 as Chinese names do not, we fear, convey much 
 meaning to the ordinary reader, we need not mention 
 them. It is scarcely possible to discern any individu- 
 ality in the decorations ; they group themselves into 
 periods, and personal touches are altogether lacking. 
 The pieces were made in such and such a cycle, under 
 such and such an emperor — and that is all. 
 
 Japanese art has always, on the contrary, shown 
 
188 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 much individuality ; and in their best works in pottery, 
 the impress of the individual artist is often very evi- 
 dent. The decorator's names frequently occur, far 
 different in this respect from Chinese work, where each 
 piece passed through so many hands that no one artist 
 could claim it specially as his own. Less bound by 
 tradition, more honoured as artists, and always closer 
 students of nature, the Japanese artists cover a wider 
 range of subject, and display far greater varieties of 
 treatment than the Chinese workers ever allowed 
 themselves (or were allowed) to indulge in. Acquiring 
 the most remarkable technical skill, the Japanese have 
 outstripped the Chinese in ingenious productions in 
 faience and stonewares ; only in the old porcelain are 
 they said to admit the superiority of the older nation. 
 
 The Japanese historians do not claim for their 
 pottery an antiquity as great as the Chinese, nor do 
 they disguise the fact that the art was learnt in 
 China, and in the peninsula of Corea, an intermediate 
 kingdom, in which the making of pottery has long ago 
 ceased. There is a legendary story, that at a date 
 corresponding to our 27 B.C., there lived in the province 
 of Idsoumi, an athlete named Nomino-Soukoune, who 
 made models of human figures, and prevailed upon the 
 emperor of that time to allow these images to be 
 buried with the dead instead of living slaves, as had 
 been the custom, and that this shrewd image-maker was 
 authorised to take the surname of Fazi, or artist. A 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 189 
 
 more important event than this, however, came about 
 in the seventh century, when a Buddhist priest, named 
 Guyoki, of Corean descent, invented, or more probably 
 introduced, the potters wheel. Two centuries later, 
 pottery was being made in two provinces, Idsoumi and 
 Kavatsi, and tiles and bricks were being spoken of. 
 
 It is not till 1225 that we read of any definite 
 improvement. Then it was that Kato-shirozayemon 
 (known also as Kadoshiro or Toshiro), a potter who had 
 been making little tea jars that did not entirely satisfy 
 him, went to China to see what more he could learn. 
 Returning, he settled at Seto, in the province of Owari, 
 and from local clays made a kind of stoneware, called 
 shaki y while, from materials he brought over from 
 China, he made some sort of porcelain. Some of his 
 pieces are still preserved, and are very valuable. His 
 descendants, after the lapse of six centuries, even now 
 are potters, and produce many fine works. Since 1800 
 they have made porcelain ; one of the family, Kato- 
 Tamikichi, having spent five years at Arita in order to 
 learn the Hizen processes. He was unable to get any 
 precise information upon these until he hit upon the 
 notion of marrying the widow of one of the Arita 
 potters. In England we can point in many families 
 to several generations of potters ; but we cannot, 
 probably, bring forward anything to compare with this 
 six (nearly seven) centuries of potting in one family ! 
 
 From Seto having so early been the seat of pottery 
 
190 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 manufacture, the name of seto-mono is applied to 
 crockery generally. The blue and white porcelain 
 generally, is called sometsuke ; that made at Seto is, 
 by many critics, thought to be superior to any other of 
 Japanese production. Some of the finest pieces are 
 never seen in Europe, as the Japanese are now alive to 
 the value of their works of art. There were shown at 
 Philadelphia Exhibition some specimens of Seto por- 
 celain of extraordinary dimensions, vases six feet high, 
 and a table-top six feet in diameter, triumphs of 
 skill. 
 
 The original seat of porcelain making with native 
 materials in Japan, was in the province of Hizen, and 
 its foundation was due to Gorodayu Shonsui, a native 
 of Ise, who went to China about 1530 to learn its 
 methods, and on returning, finding suitable kaolin and 
 petuntze in the hill of Idsoumi-yama, settled at Arita, 
 and began to make all kinds of ware — blue underglaze, 
 crackle, celadon, and red. Some sixty years after this, 
 a Corean potter also came to the same hill, and began 
 to make porcelain. From this province of Hizen, and 
 principally from the town of Arita, the wares being 
 commonly known as Imari (from the port of ship- 
 ment) there have come in large quantities the ordinary 
 blue and white that every one knows. From here, 
 through the port of Nagasaki, came the old Japan 
 porcelain, brought to Europe in ship-loads by Dutch 
 traders; much of it was in imitation of Chinese work, 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 191 
 
 and. as such, served as patterns for the Delft potters, 
 of whom we shall have something to say. The 
 Portuguese were the earliest to trade with Japan, 
 having, it is said, been able to obtain a footing in the 
 year 1534 ; but their too anxious efforts to convert 
 the natives, and some unfortunate intrigues against the 
 Shogun, led to their dreadful and summary expulsion 
 in 1641, after several massacres of thousands of Christ- 
 ian converts had taken place. Intercourse with 
 foreigners was then forbidden under pain of death, 
 and a high reward was offered for every Christian 
 priest discovered. However, notwithstanding this 
 extremely strict law, the Dutch managed, a very few 
 years after, to obtain permission to place a trading 
 station on the island of Desima, near Nagasaki, and, 
 nob interfering at all in religious matters, were surrep- 
 titiously able to acquire the coveted Hizen porcelain, 
 although, once and again, the authorities would wake 
 up, and some offending potter or merchant be com- 
 pelled to expiate his unpatriotic conduct by committing 
 hari-kari. The Dutch trade assumed vast proportions. 
 In 1664 as many as 44,943 pieces of Japanese porcelain 
 arrived in Holland, with half as much again in other 
 wares, collected from Batavia. 
 
 Japanese porcelain is less hard than Chinese, and of 
 a purer white ; the blues are rather less transparent, 
 owing to the difference in the native ores of cobalt. 
 Blue and white wares are made at Kioto, in addition 
 
192 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 to the places already mentioned, but the district is 
 better known for its faience. 
 
 A distinctive class of porcelain is that made in the 
 province of Kanga or Kaga, and is conspicuous in its 
 lavish use of red and gold. Some of the older work 
 employs the most minute execution; crowds of figures 
 are seen, with faces and garments finished to a painful 
 degree. This particular manufacture was started about 
 1650, at Kutani, by some Corean potters who had been 
 brought over by Godo Saijoro. 
 
 With the mention of one other style of porcelain — 
 the extremely thin (“ egg-shell ”) wares of Osaka, in 
 the province of Setsou — wares so thin as to need the 
 protection of fine wicker-work coverings, we may turn 
 to Japanese faience and stoneware. 
 
 The introduction into Japan, at an early period, of 
 tea drinking, led to the institution of several peculiar 
 ceremonial functions connected with the Cha-no-yu, or 
 tea parties ; and a prominent place in these is taken 
 by the little tea-caddies, or jars, of old undecorated 
 stoneware. These, apparently, are prized most extrava- 
 gantly by the Japanese ; preserved in silk bags, as 
 they are, and laid away most carefully in cabinets, one 
 expects to see something more choice. Perhaps to 
 admire these simple little pots comes naturally to a 
 people in whom the sense of the incongruous is highly 
 developed, and the play-instinct allowed full scope. 
 Some collectors of these tea-jars make too much of 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 193 
 
 the itoguiri mark on the base ; this is a set of con- 
 
 MANDARIN JAR, WITH GOLD FILIGREE GROUND. JAPANESE. 
 
 centric lines, and is simply caused by the wire with 
 
 N 
 
194 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 which the jar was severed from the throwers wheel. 
 Some of the tea-jars are in a black earthenware, 
 lead glazed, called raku ware ; it was first made in the 
 sixteenth century by a Corean named Ameya, who had 
 settled in Kioto. He was honoured by the Shogun, 
 who gave him a gold seal, with which the wares 
 were stamped for many years. The word “ raku ” 
 (enjoyment) was engraved upon the seal — hence the 
 name of the ware. The descendants of this potter, 
 now known as Yeiraku, still carry on the profession of 
 potters ; the present representative is of the thirteenth 
 or fourteenth generation. 
 
 At Bizen, pottery has been made from very remote 
 times. It is chiefly of red stoneware, very hard and glazed. 
 
 The old wares of Satsuma were of a kind of grey, 
 stoneware, but the province is now known chiefly for 
 its faience, in which a fine pipe-clay is covered with a 
 thick yellow glaze having an infinity of minute cracks. 
 The ware is soft and. fragile; its manufacture dates 
 from about 1592, when, as with so many of the Japan- 
 ese fabriques, some Corean potters came over and 
 settled at Nawashirogawa. Large quantities of similar 
 wares but, if anything, softer still, are made at Awata, 
 in the province of Kioto, and this is often sold as Sat- 
 suma. The names of Ninsei, who lived about 1650, 
 and of Kenzan, about 1750, are associated with Kioto 
 faiences, several valuable pieces bearing their names. 
 
 The thin unglazed ware known as Banko is of quite 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 195 
 
 recent date, having been started about 1840 by a potter 
 who assumed that name. The clay (either brown or 
 white) is of remarkable toughness, and the objects 
 can be made of extreme thinness. Some of the pieces 
 are decorated with opaque enamels. With these and 
 other tinted clays, shapes are now moulded with the 
 mixed clays, producing mottled or marbled effects 
 throughout their substance (similar to our English 
 “Agate” ware); the method in Japan is known as 
 Mokume. 
 
 The ingenious Japanese sometimes apply lacquer to 
 porcelain, but this can hardly be considered as true 
 porcelain decoration. If the body of the vase is to be 
 disguised, it might just as well be of some other 
 substance than clay. Nor can the cloisonne enamels 
 on faience be accepted as in better taste ; the method 
 is essentially one adapted for metals, and successful 
 results can be obtained more easily on metal than on 
 soft baked biscuit, to say nothing of the permanence of 
 the work. 
 
 Of the elements constituting Japanese art, it is 
 hardly necessary to speak here. Less conventional 
 than Chinese, less bound by tradition, the Japanese 
 artists display a delightful freshness of idea that has 
 appealed very strongly to, and greatly influenced our 
 Western designers. Although the ignorant plagiarisms 
 and hideous eccentricities that passed muster ten or 
 twenty years ago as Anglo- Japanese design (!) might 
 
196 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 almost have imperilled our reputation as a people of 
 taste, and the now nearly extinct plague of cheap 
 Japanese wares might have definitely killed any re- 
 maining art perception, yet sanity on these points is 
 gradually being restored ; we are awaking to the fact 
 that not everything Japanese is good in point of design, 
 and that mere strangeness and eccentricity are not the 
 essence of Japanese art. If we are able to discern the 
 intimate knowledge of nature, the analytic eye, and the 
 admirable sense of reticence and balance that distin- 
 guish the best Japanese work, it will have fulfilled its 
 mission. The absurd phrase of “ living up to one’s 
 teapot ” — one of the literary missiles that were aimed 
 some few years ago at the ^Esthetic movement, was not 
 so absurd after all. It would be a good thing for our 
 native arts if our designers could live up to the stand- 
 ard of good Japanese work, and look at Nature for 
 themselves. 
 
 Of the numerous faiences that are now made in 
 India we do not propose to write in detail. Many of 
 them are of modern origin, and have not been alto- 
 gether uninfluenced — sometimes harmfully — by contact 
 with European ideas. It is now the endeavour of the 
 directors of some of the Indian schools of art to revive 
 the purer native taste, and to let the traditional handi- 
 crafts pursue their unhampered way. 
 
 Persian ideas rule strongly in most Indian ceramic 
 ornament. Sometimes overwhelmed by a riotous flood 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 197 
 
 of exuberant details, Indian work has not any great 
 pretensions to technical perfection. A good deal of it 
 is pure village work, carried out with primitive imple- 
 ments and materials, and yet with very admirable 
 decorative effect. Wood of different kinds is used 
 for fuel, and the potters of the old school are particular 
 in the choice of a correctly auspicious day for the burn- 
 ing. The wares from Sind are made of a body of red 
 earthenware, sometimes coated entirely with white 
 slip or almost covered with slip-patterns which show 
 through the rich-coloured glazes (often iridescent) of 
 green, yellow, brown, or turquoise blue. Mooltan 
 pottery is a red or yellow earthenware with thick 
 slip work, painted, as a rule, in turquoise and deep blue. 
 The siliceous body of the Delhi pottery with its thin 
 soda glaze introduces a style of decoration quite Persian 
 in effect. A purely Indian ware is of black earthenware 
 highly polished and gilded. Another black ware made 
 at Azimghar has decorations with the effect of silver, 
 obtained by rubbing tin into the etched lines. From 
 Madura comes a characteristic ware glazed in green 
 or brown, generally in form of water-bottles, with a 
 double body, the outer one being perforated in patterns. 
 
 Of all the early history of Indian pottery there is no 
 certain information. Contiguous to Persia, its ancient 
 buildings were faced with glazed bricks and tiles in 
 styles, no doubt, suggested by Persian work, if not 
 carried out by Persian workmen. On the conquest of 
 
198 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 Persia by the Mohammedans about 650, large numbers 
 of its inhabitants migrated to India as Parsees, and it 
 is not at all unlikely that with them went many a 
 pottery secret. 
 
 No porcelain is now made in India. A few rare 
 porcelains with decorations in Indian styles seem to 
 point to their production in India, but on this point 
 there is no unanimity of opinion among experts, and 
 some are prepared to say that the pieces must have 
 been made in China to Indian designs. 
 
 The porcelains brought to Europe by the Portuguese 
 and Dutch traders extorted, as we have said, great 
 admiration, and many were the attempts to imitate the 
 ware. It was not until many years had elapsed that 
 it seems to have become evident how futile would be 
 all endeavours until similar materials to those used by 
 the Oriental workmen could be found. At last it 
 became possible to obtain some of the actual materials 
 from China, but, of course, only by favour, and at 
 great expense. Finally, during the eighteenth century, 
 deposits of the true kaolin and petuntze were found at 
 different places in Germany, France, and England 
 (though this latter discovery had not taken place until 
 its possibility had been suggested by the arrival of a 
 consignment of the materials from Virginia). With 
 these abundant supplies, the true hard porcelain was 
 at last attempted with technical success. All other 
 artificial compositions designed in imitation were 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 199 
 
 known as soft porcelain, and it will be important to 
 bear this distinction in mind. Earthenwares with a 
 tin enamel and decorated in styles copied from or 
 
 A VIEW IN DELFT. 
 
 suggested by the Chinese work made a third group, 
 one that precedes in point of time the others, and 
 which we shall therefore deal with first. 
 
 Among these, the earthenwares produced at Delft 
 
200 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 have given their name to the whole class, whether 
 coming from Holland or England, the manufacture in 
 this country having been started by Dutch potters. 
 There had been as early as the fourteenth century 
 a pottery at Delft, but on the opening of trade with 
 the East, a complete change of method took place. 
 The tin enamel in use in Italy gave a means of dis- 
 tantly imitating the white body of the china, and 
 nothing was easier than to copy the Chinese figures 
 and ornament. In 1614, Claes Janssen Wytmans was 
 authorised by the States-General of Holland to make 
 “ all kinds of porcelains, decorated and not decorated, 
 very nearly conformable to the porcelains which came 
 from distant countries.” Of course, the ware was not 
 porcelain, but only a fine faience. The clay came 
 mostly from Tournay, and the tin from England. The 
 enamel is bluish in tone, and of even surface. The 
 shapes and decorations when departing from Eastern 
 models had a tendency to become grotesque, arriving 
 at last at the enormity of a pottery fiddle. Most of 
 the potters belonged to a Guild of St. Luke ; the 
 “Masterbook” (with entries from 1611 to 1715) of 
 this Guild — one of the treasures in the library at the 
 Hague — records their elections and particulars of the 
 tests to be undergone by a painter ( plateelschilder ) or 
 thrower ( plateeldrayer ). The latter, in a locked room 
 and watched by two deacons, had to throw a ewer, 
 syrup-pot, salad-bowl, and a salt-cellar with a hollow 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 201 
 
 foot out of a single piece of clay, and if he failed, had 
 to go back to his apprenticeship — already lasting six 
 years — and serve for another year and six weeks before 
 again coining forward for examination. The first 
 potter, whose name is recorded in this register, is 
 Gerrit Hermans, 1614, a son of one of the original 
 founders of the 
 Guild. Each 
 master- potter 
 had to register 
 his mark, and 
 there was a fine 
 of 600 florins for 
 any one counter- 
 feiting another 
 man’s mark. 
 
 Some of the 
 decorators were 
 famous for Re- 
 naissance sub- 
 jects, Gerrit 0IL cruet-delft ware. 
 
 Hermans usually depicting battles and historical 
 scenes crowded with figures. Abraham de Kooze 
 (elected 1632) painted landscapes ; Albrecht de Keizer 
 (1642), garden scenes and cupids; Arij Jan de Milde 
 (1658) was famous for red ware teapots, anticipating 
 in this respect the Elers of forty years later. At one 
 period there were thirty different manufactories at 
 
202 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 Delft, and the list of their signs reads quaintly — such 
 as the “ Peacock/’ the “ Metal Pot,” the “ Three Barrels,” 
 the “ Porcelain Hatchet,” the “ Gilded Boat.” The 
 manufacture ceased early this century, but has been 
 revived quite recently. Similar wares were made last 
 century at Amsterdam, Arnheim, Rotterdam, Utrecht, 
 and Brussels. 
 
 The English delft ware was sometimes nearer in 
 colour to porcelain than its Dutch original ; our English 
 clay burnt harder, and the tin enamel not being 
 absorbed so much, was more opaque and whiter, almost 
 tending to pink. The blue on Lambeth delft is paler 
 and greyer than on that made at Bristol and Liverpool; 
 the Staffordshire ware seems to have been poorer in 
 quality, with enamel of yellowish tone. Although 
 some ornamental pieces were made (the ornament and 
 figures very poorly done), most of the delft was for use 
 as dishes, cups, drug pots, pill-slabs, and, very specially, 
 wine jars, of which large numbers are known; they 
 generally bear, in characteristic lettering in blue or 
 yellow, the name of the wine, as “ Whit,” “ Sack,” or 
 “ Claret.” The earliest date known, 1631, is on a mug 
 in the Museum of Geology, Jermyn Street. From 
 1650 onwards, Scriptural and classical subjects occur 
 on dishes and plaques, evidently copied from French 
 and Italian originals. When the English decorator 
 indulged in an original subject (as in the case of the 
 “ Aquila and Priscilla ” plaque, illustrated in Mr. J. E. 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 203 
 
 Hodgkins u Examples of Early English Pottery ”), the 
 result is rather comic. Among the specimens at the 
 British Museum is a standing puzzle-cup, dated 1674, 
 of rather better taste than was usual. It is of good 
 shape, with an open- worked edge, and bears the arms 
 of the Mercers’ Company. Near it is a set of six 
 plates, each with a line of writing, which together 
 make up this poem (?) : — 
 
 1. “What is a merry man 
 
 2. Let him do what he can 
 
 3. To entertain his Guests 
 
 4. With wine and merry jests 
 
 5. But if his Wife do frown 
 
 6. All merriment goes down.” 
 
 Professor Church possessed a large dish of Lambeth 
 delft with this inscription : — 
 
 “ Earth I am et is most trwe 
 
 desdan me no.t for soo ar yov 
 
 Jan. 16th 1660 Gorg. and Ellizabeth Stere.” 
 
 No names are recorded of the earlier Lambeth 
 potters. It was not till 1676 that Van Hamme’s 
 patent was taken out. 
 
 At Bristol the enamel was thinner and harder than 
 on the Lambeth delft, and more numerous colours 
 were used in the decorations. Richard Frank and 
 Joseph Flower were the best known potters. At 
 Jermyn Street Museum there is a Bristol punch-bowl 
 with the following painted inside : — 
 
204 
 
 POTTEIIS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 “ John Udy of Luxillion 
 his tin was so fine 
 it gliderd this punch bowl 
 and made it to shine 
 pray fill it with punch 
 lett the tinners fill round 
 they never will budge 
 
 till the bottom they found 
 1731.” 
 
 In France the adoption of Oriental styles of decora- 
 tion took place at about the same time as at Delft in 
 Holland. At Nevers, where Italian polychrome decora- 
 tions had been in vogue, Chinese models were 
 suddenly accepted, even to the extent of mingling 
 bits of Chinese and Italian ornament together on the 
 same piece, the colour being generally restricted to 
 blue and purple. Presently, however, a characteristic 
 and very handsome scheme of decoration was evolved 
 (apparently about 1630, by a potter named Pierre 
 Custode), in which a deep blue ground of exceptional 
 brilliance is covered with ornaments in the Persian 
 style in opaque white and yellow. 
 
 At Pouen, Edme Poterat, armed with a licence that 
 had been obtained in 1646 by Nicolas Poirel, an usher 
 at the French Court, began to make faience, decorated 
 with a peculiar type of scalloped ornament, termed 
 lambrequin and lace patterns, the designs being copied 
 from fabrics and book ornaments of the period. 
 Louis Poterat, a son of this Edme, applied for a 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 205 
 
 further patent in 1673, for “ making porcelain similar 
 to that of China, and violet faience painted with white 
 and blue and other colours in the manner of that of 
 
 HELMET-SHAPED JUG, KOUEN. 
 
 Holland.” On the expiration of this second patent in 
 1717, several other factories were established, and the 
 Rouen style of ornament became so popular that it was 
 imitated at other French potteries, at Brussels and 
 
206 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 Antwerp, and even at Delft itself. Among the names 
 recorded of the potters at Rouen, it is strange to see 
 those of several Englishmen ; an order in council, of 
 the year 1781, authorises the Sieurs Macnemara, 
 Wm. Sturgeon, Simon de Suzay. and Letellier to use 
 coal instead of wood ; but the other potters protested 
 against this. One reason given for the great develop- 
 ment of Rouen and other faience at the beginning of 
 the eighteenth century, is the financial condition of 
 the country brought about by the long-continued 
 foreign wars. Louis XIY. “ deliberated upon putting 
 himself into faience,” and, in order to obtain money, 
 sent all his gold plate to the mint, and substituted 
 faience. The nobility followed his example, and 
 largely consoled themselves with elaborate services of 
 pottery richly decorated with coats-of-arms. At Paris, 
 where a potter named Digne was at work about 1750 ; 
 at St. Cloud, where a factory was commenced in 1695 
 by the Chicanneau family ; at Sinceny (Pierre Pelleve, 
 about 1713); at Quimper (Pierre Caussy) ; and at 
 Lille (Jacques Febvrier, 1696-1726), the Rouen faience 
 was imitated with more or less success, and with little 
 characteristic differences that identify the wares. At 
 Moustiers, in the lower Alps, a manufactory was started 
 in 1686 by Pierre Clerissy, and became famous for its 
 paintings in blue on a pure white enamel, landscapes 
 and classical figures forming the principal material. 
 The borders suggest Rouen patterns. An artist named 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 207 
 
 Olery, about 1730, who had spent a few years in Spain, 
 introduced a more extended palette on his return. 
 The Marseilles faience was not unlike that of Moustiers, 
 the name of Clerissy being found in both places. A 
 peculiar iridescent green is found in the decorations 
 proceeding from the works of Honore Savy, who, in 
 1777, was appointed potter to Monsieur, the kings 
 brother. Sea-pieces, fish, shells, and sea-plants are a 
 feature of the Marseilles decorations. 
 
 Some of the Marseilles workmen were taken to 
 Rennes, in Brittany, and there produced some fine 
 faience with a pure, milky enamel. A Marseilles man 
 also started a pottery, in 1750, at Montpelier. At St. 
 Amand the faience chiefly copied Rouen, but intro- 
 duced a new feature of pure white decorations on a 
 toned white ground, after the style of the Italian 
 majolica, bianco sopra bianco. At St. Omer, near 
 Dunkirk, a feature was made of dishes and tureens 
 in the forms of vegetables, and coloured in natural 
 colours. 
 
 The faience made at Sceaux, near Paris, by Jacques 
 Chapelle (1748-1772) was of more original character, 
 the shapes having some architectural feeling. Chapelle 
 would have proceeded with the manufacture of porce- 
 lain, but was stopped by the Royal works. 
 
 The manufactory at Strasburg, started in 1709 by 
 Charles Hannong for the production of glazed stoves, 
 began to make enamelled faience and porcelain about 
 
208 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 1721, when a German, named Wackenfeld, who had 
 been at Meissen, brought some knowledge of its methods 
 to Strasburg. On the intervention of the Royal works 
 in 1750, the Strasburg porcelain manufacture was 
 summarily stopped, and Hannong’s grandson allowed 
 only to continue the making of faience. This was so 
 perfect, however, and decorated so similarly to the 
 forbidden porcelain, that it too was so heavily taxed as 
 to cause its discontinuance. There is a modelled clock- 
 case in the South Kensington Museum, which shows 
 the perfection to which the Strasburg faience had 
 attained ; all its painted decoration was executed over 
 the glaze. Basket-work borders were first made at 
 Strasburg, and extensively copied elsewhere. 
 
 At Nieder wilier, Baron de Beyerle, the director of 
 the Strasburg mint, having enticed away some of 
 Hannong’s men, started making faience about 1742, 
 subsequently disposing of the works to Count de Custine. 
 Every endeavour was made to copy the china then 
 being made at Dresden, and the only special novelty 
 was a style of decoration of which the Nieder wilier 
 artists had no reason to be proud. It consisted in 
 painting the ware to imitate the grain of wood, with 
 a sheet of paper bearing a pink landscape on it 
 represented as pinned down by one corner. This 
 somewhat childish idea was proudly styled trompe 
 Voeil decoration. 
 
 The porcelain made by Louis Poterat at Rouen, 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 209 
 
 under his patent of the year 1673, was apparently the 
 first really made in France. Not many pieces of his 
 manufacture are traceable now, and it is probable that, 
 busy with the more remunerative faience, he did not 
 make much porcelain. At St. Cloud, near Paris, it was 
 first made commercially by the Chicanneaus, who, as 
 already mentioned, commenced to make faience in 
 1695. The St. Cloud soft porcelain is of a fine milky 
 colour, very transparent ; its decorations at first were 
 in the Rouen style. At Lille, Chantilly, Mennecy, 
 Sceaux, and Arras, porcelain began also to be made, but 
 displayed little originality in design. 
 
 The factory that eventually became the royal French 
 works commenced in a strange way. In 1740, two 
 brothers named Dubois, who had been dismissed from 
 Chantilly for bad conduct — they had before that been 
 at St. Cloud — offered to sell their knowledge to the 
 Marquis Orry de Fulvy. Like many other great people 
 of the time, the Marquis thought it would be a fine 
 thing to be master of a porcelain factory, and obtaining 
 permission from the king to use the empty riding- 
 school at the Chateau of Vincennes, installed the 
 brothers there. After three years of failures, the 
 Dubois were turned out as swindlers, leaving the 
 Marquis considerably out of pocket, and in debt to 
 the king. A workman, Gravant, was allowed to 
 succeed the Dubois, and, fortunately, was successful 
 in his results ; and a company was soon promoted 
 
210 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 under the personal patronage of the king, who, at 
 his own expense, saw that celebrated chemists and 
 artists were engaged. The court was especially grati- 
 fied when, in 1748, it was possible to send a vase and 
 bouquet of flowers, all in porcelain, to Saxony, to prove 
 that France was now independent of the celebrated 
 Meissen works. 
 
 Duplessis, the goldsmith to the king, was appointed 
 general art director ; and Bachelier, the superintendent 
 of the decorations. Gravant was responsible for the 
 composition of the body, which was of so delicate a 
 nature that more than half the pieces failed in the 
 firing. The glaze (a lead-glaze), was of beautiful soft- 
 ness, and the enamel colours sank into it in a way quite 
 unapproached by any other porcelain. In 1751, the 
 Marquis de Fulvy dying, the company was reconsti- 
 tuted ; and, in 1753, the king taking one-third of the 
 shares, the enterprise became the “ Manufacture royale 
 des Porcelaines de France.” The works were shifted 
 to Sevres, into buildings specially erected — buildings 
 which remained in use until 1877, when new works 
 were erected. At Sevres the manufacture increased by 
 leaps and bounds ; Falconet, the celebrated sculptor, 
 had charge of the modelling department ; Boucher, 
 Vanloo, and other artists supplied designs; chemists 
 of renown invented the colours that have never since 
 been rivalled — the deep bleu de roi, the rose Pompa- 
 dour (or rose Dubarry ), the violet pensee , the vert 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 211 
 
 pomme , and other brilliant ground colours. In 1759, 
 the king bought out the other shareholders, and be- 
 came sole proprietor, Boileau remaining the manager. 
 
 VASE OF SEVRES SOFT PORCELAIN. 
 
 The soft porcelain, beautiful as it was, could only 
 be used for artistic pieces. It was useless for domestic 
 purposes, and could not compare with the wares from 
 
212 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 China, and already successfully made in Germany. 
 Many were the attempts made at Sevres to get over 
 the difficulty ; all sorts of experiments were tried ; the 
 porcelain invented by Reaumur proved to be only a 
 sort of glass ; German workmen were engaged at great 
 expense, only to be discharged again, because they per- 
 sisted in using German materials. In 1760, an impure 
 kaolin was found at Alenin, with which a few pieces 
 of grey porcelain were made by the Count de Brancas- 
 Lauraguais, who brought a little of it over to Chelsea, 
 and took out an English patent for its use in 1766. 
 At last, in 1768, the head chemist, Macquer, was 
 informed that true kaolin had been found at St. Yrieix, 
 near Limoges, by Madame Darnet, the wife of a sur- 
 geon, who — frugal soul — thought that the soft earth 
 of pure white would do excellently well as soap, and 
 was surprised when she was told, by the local chemist, 
 that the substance was the mysterious earth that so 
 long had been looked for. [It is said that Madame 
 Darnet lived to receive a pension from Louis XVIII. in 
 1825.] By the end of 1769, some sixty pieces of porce- 
 lain had been made with the new material, and thence- 
 forward the hard porcelain gradually ousted the older 
 ware, which, however, remained the more highly treas- 
 ured. Pieces of old Sevres now fetch enormous prices; at 
 the Bernal Sale, a pair of rose Pompadour vases fetched 
 £1850, and at the Coventry Sale in 1870, a set of three 
 jardinieres brought the enormous sum of £10,000. 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 213 
 
 The porcelains of Italy supply no such connected 
 story as in France. It is said that a Venetian potter 
 had made porcelain about 1500 ; but there is no trace 
 of his productions. About thirty pieces are known of 
 a translucent ware made at Florence, about 1580, at 
 the private factory of Duke Francesco I. (one of the 
 Medici family). Bernardo Buontalenti is said to have 
 discovered this combination of a clay from Vicenza, 
 sand, and glass, prompted thereto by the sight of some 
 Oriental work. A Japanese embassy visited the Grand 
 Duke in 1585 ; but the discovery of this "mixed porce- 
 lain ” appears to have ante-dated their visit. A dish 
 and ewer of this very rare make are in the British 
 Museum. 
 
 Soft porcelain was being made at Venice about 1730 
 by Francesco Vezzi, and about 1760 by Gimminiano 
 Cozzi. Some of the whiteness of the Venetian por- 
 celain was due to the use of tin-oxide (which otherwise, 
 in soft porcelain, is found only in the Chantilly ware). 
 At Doccia, near Florence, the Marquis Carlo Ginori 
 established a factory in 1735, which became very 
 famous. He sent to China for materials, and ob- 
 tained the services of an eminent chemist, Carl 
 Wandelheim. Their first pieces were Eastern in 
 design ; with advancing skill, elaborate efforts were 
 made in modelling, and they imitated Sevres and 
 Capo di Monte. The latter factory, started near 
 Naples in 1736, by Charles IV., King of the Two 
 
214 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 Sicilies, became noted for its effective modellings 
 suggested by marine objects. Some of the pieces are 
 of large size, and yet thin and light. In 1759, Charles 
 succeeded to the Spanish throne as Charles III., and 
 took with him twenty-five of the Neapolitan workmen. 
 These were located in the palace of El Buon Retiro at 
 Madrid, and the pieces they produced — quite like those 
 of Capo di Monte — are known by the name of their 
 palatial works. The factory was destroyed during the 
 Peninsular War. Charles’s son, Ferdinand, carried on 
 the works at Capo di Monte ; but the productions 
 become less and less important, until the closing of the 
 manufactory in 1821. 
 
 The English were already great collectors of curios 
 when the accession of William of Orange brought about 
 much closer dealings with the Dutch ; and it became 
 a fashionable craze to accumulate the blue-and-white 
 N ankin ware, of which the Dutch had the chief agency. 
 At Hampton Court, there still remain quantities of it 
 on the mantelpieces in the Wren portion of the palace. 
 The Delft wares were also in the Chinese style ; and it 
 is not surprising, therefore, that when at last an English 
 manufactory of porcelain was brought into working 
 order, it should be styled “ Real Nanquin ” ware, pro- 
 duced at “ New Canton ” — otherwise Stratford-le-Bow. 
 Of Dwight’s attempts to make porcelain nothing is 
 known beyond the claim in his patent, and the receipts 
 in his notebooks. No specimens have been identified. 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 215 
 
 The work at Bow seems to have commenced about 
 1730 ; but of its actual founder history is silent. In 
 1744, Thomas Frye and Edward Heylyn took out a 
 patent for making a ware “ equal to, if not exceeding 
 in goodness and beauty, china or porcelain ware im- 
 ported from abroad. The material is an earth, the 
 produce of the Cherokee nation in America, called by 
 the natives unaker” With this material — really kaolin 
 — a few pieces of hard porcelain were made ; but the 
 bulk of the Bow porcelain made after that date is a 
 soft porcelain, containing a large percentage of phos- 
 phate of lime (calcined bones). The composition of 
 this body was protected by a patent taken out in 1749 
 by Frye alone. It was so soft as to readily absorb 
 grease ; and had it not been for its thick ivory-coloured 
 lead-glaze but little of it would now be in existence. 
 A characteristic decoration was a sprig of hawthorn in 
 high relief. Groups and figures were made, and, when 
 left uncoloured, are more satisfying in effect than when 
 painted in enamels ; most of this early English coloured 
 porcelain is apt to be tawdry, especially in the imitation 
 of natural objects. 
 
 The Chelsea china was apparently contemporaneous 
 with that of Bow ; the greater number of pieces known 
 have a similar composition to that of Bow in respect to 
 the inclusion of bone-ash. The names of Charles Gouyn 
 and Nicolas Sprimont (both apparently Flemish) are 
 connected with the management of the Chelsea works. 
 
216 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 George II. was a great patron, and under him work- 
 men were procured from abroad to carry out pieces in 
 the styles of Sevres and Dresden. In 1769, the works 
 were bought by William Duesbury, of Derby, who, since 
 1756, had been making porcelain at that place; and 
 six years later, in 1775, he similarly acquired the factory 
 at Bow. He carried on both for a time ; but in 1784 
 moved the moulds and staff down to Derby, and the 
 London work ceased. One has to confess that, as far 
 as art goes, there is little to admire in Chelsea porcelain. 
 The modelling is frequently poor, the shapes tasteless 
 to the last degree, the original work (what there is of 
 it) childish and uninventive. It was a bad period for 
 English art just then. Derby produced some good 
 statuettes in white biscuit porcelain ; and its flower 
 paintings by Withers and Billingsley, and cupids by 
 Askew are famous. About 1773 royal patronage was 
 extended to the Derby factory, and the mark became 
 the well-known “ Crown Derby/’ Before commencing 
 at Derby, Duesbury seems to have been connected with 
 William Littler’s experiments in porcelain at Longton 
 Hall, in Staffordshire, where between 1745-58 some 
 soft porcelain resembling Chelsea was produced. 
 
 The Worcester porcelain works were founded in 
 1751, chiefly owing to the exertions of Dr. John Wall, 
 chemist, of that city, and Mr. William Davis, apothe- 
 cary ; the latter acting as manager for a company in 
 which they were two out of fifteen partners. At first 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 217 
 
 the porcelain made reproduced Oriental designs ; but, 
 in 1768, the engagement of some Chelsea artists led to 
 the adoption of Dresden and Sevres ideas. In .1783, 
 the manufactory was acquired by Mr. Flight, who had 
 been acting as the London agent ; George III. visiting 
 the works in 1788, the venture became the Royal 
 Worcester Porcelain Company. Several changes of 
 ownership then occurred, without any corresponding 
 benefit to the style of the work produced ; in fact, the 
 heavy forms and lavish gilding of the work at the 
 beginning of this century contrast very unfavourably 
 with the earlier work. An early use of transfer-print- 
 ing, both under and over the glaze, was made at Wor- 
 cester. To introduce printing from engraved plates 
 was to incur a grave responsibility ; for the method is 
 capable of many sins against good taste. It had been 
 invented at Liverpool in 1752 by Sadler and Green, 
 who remained for many years facile princeps in the 
 trade ; so much so, that Wedgwood used to send a 
 waggon-load once a-fortnight to them to be printed. 
 At Worcester, a great “hit” was made, about 1757, 
 with ware printed with a portrait of Frederick the 
 Great. Carlyle has something to say about this 
 “ pottery apotheosis 55 of his hero. Richard Hancock 
 was the chief engraver at Worcester. The Worcester 
 ground colours are well known : a deep blue, a tur- 
 quoise, a lapis-lazuli, a pea-green, a maroon, and a canary 
 yellow ; the gilding was good, and the painting of 
 
218 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 tropical birds and flowers richly done during the 
 earlier and best periods. 
 
 One of the constituents of the porcelain body first 
 made at Worcester was steatite or soap-stone. This 
 was obtained from Mullion, in Cornwall. It was in that 
 county that kaolin and petuntze were both found 
 somewhere about 1750 by William Cookworthy, a 
 chemist and druggist, whose business took him fre- 
 quently into the china-clay districts of Cornwall. He 
 had first made acquaintance with the materials in 1745 
 when the American supplies of unaker came over, and 
 at last recognised the same substances in Tregonning 
 Hill and other places. It was not till 1768 that he 
 took out a patent for porcelain composed of “ moorstone, 
 or growan and growan clay,” and began to make his 
 wares at Plymouth, engaging the services of a French 
 decorator, Sequoi. Three years after he moved to 
 Bristol, and in 1773 disposed of his patent to Richard 
 Champion, who also had been experimenting with 
 porcelain materials. Henry Bone, A.R.A., a famous 
 miniature painter, served his apprenticeship with 
 Cookworthy and Champion. Although Champion made 
 some beautiful work, notably in biscuit-porcelain, he 
 found himself unable to continue the works beyond 1781. 
 His application for an extension of the patent was 
 opposed by the Staffordshire potters (chief among them 
 Josiah Wedgwood), and, though granted, produced no 
 lasting result. The teapot belonging to a set presented 
 
/ 
 
 PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 219 
 
 by Champion to Edmund Burke, was sold, in 1871, for 
 £210. He made some “ cottage china ” very simply 
 decorated and completed in the one fire. The body of 
 his porcelain is extremely hard, harder than the average 
 Chinese porcelain ; some of his statuettes lean over more 
 than was intended, no doubt owing to the hard fire. 
 
 Champions recipes and patent were disposed of in 
 1781 to a Staffordshire company working at New Hall, 
 and hard paste porcelain was thus introduced into 
 Staffordshire. But the few pieces of their work that 
 are known are quite devoid of taste, and it is evident 
 that none of Champion’s skilled men could have fol- 
 lowed their master’s patent. And thus ingloriously 
 ended the first chapter in the history of hard porcelain 
 made in England. 
 
 We must return now in point of time to the German 
 manufactures, to which we have already had occasion 
 to allude. It is to Saxony that the honour belongs of 
 first making real porcelain in Europe, and it was 
 Johann Friedrich Bottger who was the fortunate first 
 maker — fortunate, in that it was chance that placed 
 him in possession of the requisite materials. 
 
 Bottger — born about 1682 — had found his way to 
 the Court of Saxony, with some reputation as an alche- 
 mist. The Elector, Frederick Augustus II., who was 
 very keenly set on discovering the philosopher’s stone, 
 allowed Bottger to work in his laboratory. Various 
 experiments had been made without success, when 
 
220 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 Bottger complained that he had not crucibles sufficiently 
 refractory. A red clay was given him, and it proved to 
 be fine enough to serve for a red stoneware, so hard that 
 it required to be polished on the lapidary’s lathe. This 
 ware was made first in 1708, and came to be called red 
 porcelain, as it was not unlike the Chinese boccaro ware. 
 Pleased with this success, the Elector desired Bottger 
 to produce the white porcelain. Bottger would be 
 delighted to do so, but, like other searchers, he could 
 not put his hand on the proper clays. At last it came 
 about that one day Bottger’s wig felt heavier than 
 usual. Upon investigation, he found that instead of 
 flour, it had been dusted with a new hair powder called 
 “Schnorr’s White Earth.” A suspicion seized him; he 
 got some of this white earth from his valet, moistened 
 it, made a paste with it, fired it, and found that it was 
 kaolin , the long sought-for china clay. Where did 
 Schnorr obtain it was the next question. Schnorr was 
 an ironmaster in the Erzegebirge ; riding one day near 
 Aue, he noticed that his horse lifted his feet with 
 difficulty owing to a white and sticky clay. Others, no 
 doubt, had seen this white clay before, but it occurred 
 to Schnorr that, dried, it might serve as a hair-powder, 
 of which large quantities were then required. It was 
 not very long before the supply of “ Schnorr’s White 
 Earth ” suddenly ceased, for the Elector took possession 
 of the bed of kaolin, and the valuable clay was carried 
 secretly to Bottger’s laboratory in the Castle of 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 221 
 
 Albrechtsburg at Meissen near Dresden. This became 
 a veritable fortress ; the workmen were engaged under 
 oath never to divulge the secrets of the manufacture, 
 and threats of death were placarded about the walls. 
 By 1715 some pure white porcelain was made; the 
 earliest decorated pieces are in blue painted underglaze 
 in imitation of Oriental ware. Bottger died in 1719, 
 
 PORCELAIN MANUFACTORY, MEISSEN, CASTLE AND CATHEDRAL. 
 
 and was succeeded by Horoldt, who brought a little 
 more originality into the designs. In 1731, Kandler, a 
 sculptor, was engaged, and to his direction are due the 
 groups, figures, animals, birds — whole menageries in 
 fact — for which Dresden is famous. In 1756, Frederick 
 the Great of Prussia took Dresden, and with it, the 
 porcelain factory at Meissen, finding in the house of 
 Count Yon Bruhl, who then administered the factory, 
 
222 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 no less than 1500 wigs with suits of clothes and snuff- 
 boxes to match. During the Seven Years’ War that 
 followed, Frederick caused many of the Dresden work- 
 men to go to Berlin, where he was desirous of helping 
 a porcelain manufactory that had been started in 1751 
 by Wegeley. This seriously crippled the Dresden 
 works; at Berlin they were soon able to employ 500 
 persons, owing to the energetic fostering care of 
 Frederick, one of whose eccentric orders was that no 
 Jew resident in Prussia should be allowed to marry 
 until he had purchased porcelain to a given amount. 
 Moses Mendelssohn, grandfather of the celebrated musi- 
 cian, had to accept on his marriage — he was not allowed 
 to choose them — twenty massive porcelain apes as large 
 as life, for which he was graciously permitted to pay. 
 
 In 1765, as soon as the troubles of the war were over, 
 Francis Acier, a Frenchman, introduced the Sevres style 
 at Dresden. Towards the end of the century, Marcolini 
 brought into vogue the severely classical “ Directory ” 
 and “ Empire ” taste, and then ensued a period of decay. 
 
 Notwithstanding the stringent conditions of employ- 
 ment at Dresden, the secret of manufacture was sure to 
 leak out, and it did so very soon. In 1718, a man 
 named Stenzel, under the inducement of large bribes, 
 went to Vienna to help a Dutchman, Claude Du 
 Pasquier, who had obtained a license from the Emperor 
 of Austria for the exclusive sale of porcelain throughout 
 the empire. In two years’ time, Stenzel, dissatisfied 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 ' 223 
 
 with his remuneration, left Vienna and returned to 
 Meissen. It is not stated if he was re-engaged there or 
 shot. Du Pasquier was left to struggle on, and con- 
 tinue his experiments. Attaining at last some success, 
 he sold the manufactory in 1744 to the Government, 
 the Empress Maria Theresa taking the greatest interest 
 in the undertaking. Niedermayer was engaged in 1747 
 as master- 
 modeller, and 
 until 1790, the 
 factory was 
 known mostly 
 for its groups 
 and figures. 
 
 Under the 
 Baron von Sor- 
 genthal at the 
 close of the 
 century, a re- 
 putation was 
 gained for 
 painted work, the chemist Leithner inventing several 
 new colours, and using gold lavishly. 
 
 In 1740 a man named Ringler ran away from the 
 Vienna works and was engaged by Gelz, a potter at 
 Hochst near Mayence, and some good porcelain was 
 produced. A modeller named Melchior produced the 
 statuettes for which Hochst porcelain is best known ; 
 
 PORTION OF A DRESDEN SERVICE. 
 
224 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 under his successor, Ries (1785), the modelling deterior- 
 ated, and the figures all had disproportionately large 
 heads. The manufacture ceased in 1794. 
 
 Soon after Ringler came to Hochst, some fellow- 
 workmen managed during a drunken fit to abstract 
 his book of recipes, and copies of these now began to 
 circulate, each of these dishonest workmen being ready 
 to part with his knowledge for a consideration. One 
 copy went to Berlin ; another to Furstenburg in 
 Brunswick, where works were started in 1750 ; another 
 was in the possession of a man named Paul Becker, 
 who, after having tried in vain to sell his knowledge in 
 France and Holland, started work on his own account 
 at Hoxter, but was soon bought out by Ringler, who 
 meanwhile had quitted Hochst in disgust, and become 
 director of the works which Paul Hannong, driven 
 away from Strasburg in 1754, had commenced at 
 Frankenthal in Bavaria. Ringler was also instrumental 
 in starting works at Nymphenburg and Ludwigsberg. 
 
 . In this way knowledge of porcelain-making gradually 
 became common property, and there were numerous 
 little manufactories engaged in producing the ware. 
 Such energy and enterprise would have been much 
 more pleasant to record if the works produced in hard 
 porcelain during last century had been more artistic. 
 It is lamentable that the discovery of its processes 
 should have happened to take place in a period when 
 art was at a very low ebb. When the porcelain of last 
 
PORCELAIN AND ITS IMITATIONS. 
 
 225 
 
 century is not inspired by Oriental work — and although 
 there were countless examples (at Dresden especially) 
 of the finest Chinese work to be seen, such inspiration 
 seems to be lacking — it was throughout the whole of 
 Germany but a feeble and clumsy echo of the styles 
 that were in vogue at Sevres. At Sevres, the style was 
 Rococo first and last — pompous under Louis XIV., less 
 pompous under Louis XY. ; graceful under Louis XYI. ; 
 and dead under the Empire — but always characteristic 
 enough in the clever hands of French artists. Imitated 
 by the artists of the numerous states then composing 
 Germany, the results were not remarkable as a rule for 
 beauty or taste. One has only to look at our Museum 
 cases of European porcelain to become at once aware of 
 how very much was lost when the knowledge of its 
 processes was gained. The rows and rows of extravag- 
 antly modelled figures, the absurd animals, the garish 
 colouring, the almost entire absence of design, or 
 thought, or taste, almost force one to the conclusion 
 that if this was all that the real porcelain could do, it 
 was not worth the doing, was not worth the long tale 
 of struggles, endeavours, anxieties, and disappointments 
 that had been endured to such an end. 
 
 But better work was possible, and was to come. 
 
 p 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 MODERN. 
 
 W ITH Wedgwood’s achievements the modern era 
 of pottery may be said to commence. The 
 improvements that he introduced into all 
 departments of pottery manufacture were of the 
 greatest value, and have influenced the whole 
 industry. Perfection of workmanship distinguishes 
 his least important piece ; and, although the designs 
 of his more artistic wares are wanting in originality — 
 the classic art of his time had that characteristic — the 
 forms were well chosen, and the decorations in good 
 taste. His contemporaries certainly recognised him as 
 a leader; his innovations in manufacture, and his 
 patterns and designs were at once adopted, and copied 
 far and wide. Discouraging as he did any evidences 
 of the individual touch of his artists, the ideal intro- 
 duced by him was that of a vast machine, producing 
 226 
 
MODERN. 
 
 227 
 
 mechanically perfect but uniform results. In such an 
 atmosphere art breathes with difficulty, and the produc- 
 tion of a cheap, perfect, and soulless article does not 
 always compensate for the absence of the old artistic 
 spirit that struggled for expression through inadequate 
 materials. It is easy, however — in England especially 
 — for people to become reconciled to the absence of art 
 when fashion dictates ; and no tears seem to have been 
 wasted when Wedgwood’s success — well-earned though it 
 was — drove into obscurity some of the older English wares. 
 
 The Wedgwoods were known as potters in the 
 neighbourhood of Burslem for many years before Josiah 
 Wedgwood’s birth, on the 7th of July, 1730. His father 
 dying when Josiah was nine, the boy (the youngest 
 of thirteen children) left school and worked for his 
 eldest brother, who had succeeded to his father’s glazed- 
 ware business. The family were only moderately well- 
 off, and all the children had to do something ; Josiah 
 began to learn throwing. He was a sickly lad, and an 
 attack of small-pox left him with a weakness in one 
 knee. Although apprenticed at fourteen to his brother 
 for five years, he remained with him for three years 
 longer, and then left to enter into partnership with 
 Harrison and Alders at Stoke-on-Trent. Some dis- 
 satisfaction with their methods of business led him 
 to withdraw from this association, and he was quickly 
 asked by Thomas Wheildon to join him at his works at 
 Fenton. Of Wheildon’s glazed wares we have already 
 
228 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 spoken ; the young Wedgwood brought into the 
 partnership several new ideas, and a great skill in the 
 preparation of models and moulds, his first six months 
 being devoted to such work. In the course of his 
 experiments he now first began to think of making a 
 body that should not require a coating of glaze, such 
 a body as the “ jasper ” ware he perfected many years 
 after. He had always been studious, and now, during 
 a long illness, he gave special attention to mineralogy, 
 experimental chemistry, and such other scientific sub- 
 jects as he conceived should have a bearing on the 
 manufacture of pottery. It may be that he was too 
 enterprising for Wheildon ; for, after successfully intro- 
 ducing a new green glaze, Wedgwood ended the part- 
 nership, and, returning to Burslem, set up for himself 
 at the Ivy House, in part of some premises already 
 in use by two cousins, and too large for them. This 
 was in 1759. Wedgwood’s resources were not large, but 
 his confidence was great. Beginning by making small 
 articles of ready sale, he was meanwhile perfecting the 
 body and glaze of the cream-coloured faience, which, 
 after it had been patronised by royalty, was entitled 
 Queen’s ware. At first entirely without decoration, 
 for Wedgwood had no enamellers or painters, he used 
 to send it, when glazed, to Liverpool to be printed, and 
 such work as required paintings, was sent out to be 
 done. But things soon altered ; fresh premises had 
 to be taken to keep pace with his orders. In 1765 he 
 
MODERN. 
 
 220 
 
 took into partnership his cousin, Thomas Wedgwood, 
 who had just ended a six years’ apprenticeship to him, 
 and to Thomas was intrusted the special superintend- 
 ence of the “ Queen’s ware ” and other useful branches. 
 Having made the acquaintance, in 1762, of Thomas 
 Bentley, a merchant of Liverpool, he persuaded him, 
 in 1768, to become a partner for the ornamental 
 branches of the manufacture. Bentley was of the 
 greatest assistance, being well known to the Court 
 and aristocracy. With him in charge of the warehouse 
 in London, it became a fashionable resort, and there was 
 a “boom” in Wedgwood wares. In 1768, Wedgwood 
 had to suffer the amputation of his lame leg, and 
 thenceforward walked with a cork limb. The next 
 year saw the opening of some new works, planned 
 on the most extensive scale, on an estate that 
 Wedgwood had acquired near Burslem for £3000. 
 It was on the banks of the new Bridgewater Canal, then 
 in course of construction under Wedgwood’s not alto- 
 gether disinterested efforts as treasurer to the Com- 
 mittee. The proprietor had chosen the name of 
 Etruria for the new town, and still further marked 
 his classic proclivities and his hopes by inscribing on 
 the first six vases made — he throwing them, and 
 Bentley turning the wheel — the legend : — 
 
 “ Artes Etruria renascentur.” 
 
 The only patent that Wedgwood took out (in 1769) 
 
230 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 was for encaustic painting in imitation of the Etruscan 
 (really Greek) vases, which at that time were being 
 illustrated in many sumptuous volumes. Both shapes 
 and decorations were suggested by these examples of 
 antique art, but Wedgwood’s dull enamel colours did 
 not by any means equal their effect. An “ Etruscan 
 bronze/’ also introduced about this time, was not much 
 used. More successful was the “jasper body,” which 
 Wedgwood had evolved from his experiments with 
 English spar or cawk; with this as the principal 
 constituent, he was able to obtain a quite new range 
 of effects; the ware was intensely hard and vitreous, 
 and required no glaze, metallic oxides, used as stains, 
 giving him blue, lilac, pink, sage-green, olive-green, 
 yellow, and black. These, with white, provided the 
 palette with which all the finest examples of his 
 cameos, bas-reliefs, statues, seals, medallions, and orna- 
 mental pieces of all kinds were produced. Although 
 the spar, mined in Derbyshire, was conveyed by a 
 roundabout route through London, and carried at 
 night to cellars under Wedgwood’s private rooms at 
 Etruria, a workman soon spread the secret, and barytes 
 was at once used by unscrupulous imitators (of whom 
 Wedgwood had many). 
 
 Occupying more than a year in production, Wedg- 
 wood was engaged, in 1773-74, on a remarkable service 
 of ware for the Empress Catherine of Russia. It 
 comprised 952 pieces in cream-colour, each having one 
 
MODERN. 
 
 231 
 
 or more views of scenes in England painted upon it 
 in purple, and a green frog underneath. The price 
 paid was £3000, and the precious cargo was conveyed 
 to the Grenouillere Palace at St. Petersburg. Not a 
 piece of it is now known to exist, which is perhaps 
 fortunate for Wedgwood’s reputation. 
 
 In 1775, Flaxman first worked for Wedgwood, and 
 continued to do so for many years. To him were due 
 some of the finest portraits and classical subjects; 
 Flaxman’s chaste style was eminently suited to the 
 fashion of the Wedgwood productions. On the death 
 of Bentley, in 1780, Wedgwood obtained the assistance 
 of Alexander Chisholm in the laboratory, and an 
 excellent modeller named Webber was placed in charge 
 of the ornamental department. Relieved of some of 
 his cares, Wedgwood was now able to devote some time 
 to other matters. He invented a pyrometer or instru- 
 ment for measuring high temperatures, and was elected 
 F.R.S. in 1783, at the same time as Dr. Priestley, with 
 whom in chemical experiments he had long had some 
 amount of intimacy. 
 
 One of the last — and, as it was considered at the 
 time, one of the greatest — of Wedgwood’s achievements 
 was the copy he made in jasper ware of the celebrated 
 Portland or Barberini vase. Webber was paid as much 
 as 500 guineas for making the model, as it was impos- 
 sible to obtain permission to make a mould from that 
 priceless example of antique glass. Wedgwood hoped 
 
232 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 (now broken) and one of Wedgwood’s copies may be 
 seen in the British Museum. Despite the beautiful 
 work to be seen in the modern reproduction, and the 
 evidence it affords of Wedgwood’s enthusiasm, one 
 
 to recoup himself by selling fifty copies at fifty guineas 
 each, but by the time they were issued, much more 
 than that had been expended. The original antique 
 
 wedgwood’s copy of the barberini vase. British museum. 
 
MODERN. 
 
 233 
 
 cannot help feeling that, in a sense, it was time and 
 money wasted— typical of a good deal of Wedgwood’s 
 mistaken art. For copying is not art, and one may 
 have too much of “ classic feeling.” 
 
 Thomas Wedgwood had died in 1788. In 1790, 
 Josiah took his three sons and a nephew into partner- 
 ship; and a treaty between England and France brought 
 an enormous increase of trade to the firm. On the 3rd 
 of January, 1795, Josiah Wedgwood died at Etruria. 
 
 It is curious that he never attempted the manu- 
 facture of porcelain. His nephew, Thomas Byerley, 
 introduced it at Etruria about 1808, but it was dis- 
 continued after a few years. 
 
 Of Wedgwood’s contemporaries in Staffordshire, 
 several must be mentioned. John Turner is specially 
 famous for cream-coloured stoneware or semi-porcelain ; 
 his cane-coloured or bamboo ware, black basalt, and 
 blue-and- white jasper, almost rival Wedgwood’s. He 
 was working at Lane End from 1762 to 1786, having 
 been at Stoke six years earlier engaged in the manu- 
 facture of white stoneware. Turner was associated 
 with Wedgwood in the opposition to the extension of 
 Champion’s patent ; between them they managed to 
 secure that Champion could claim the exclusive right 
 to use the Cornish clay in only transparent ware, while 
 they, and any other manufacturers, might use it for 
 other wares and glazes. 
 
 Henry Palmer, of Hanley, had a reputation of an 
 
234 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 unenviable kind as an imitator of Wedgwood's wares, 
 being not at all particular as to how he acquired his 
 patterns or his recipes. Wedgwood was very much 
 exercised as to the unlawful proceedings of Palmer and 
 his associates, and had to bring legal pressure to bear. 
 Palmer got into difficulties eventually. A clever 
 modeller, who had worked for Wedgwood, but left 
 him, was J. Yoyez ; he drifted into Palmer's employ, 
 forging the Wedgwood marks on some of his medallions. 
 Some pieces bear his own name honestly enough, and 
 are considered excellent. 
 
 Elijah Mayer worked at Hanley, 1770 to 1813, and 
 produced some beautifully finished black basalt, buff, 
 and cane-coloured wares. 
 
 One of Wheildon's apprentices, Josiah Spode, set up 
 for himself at Stoke in 1770, and laid the foundations 
 of a very important business. He made wares of the 
 same character as Wedgwood's, and, in addition, large 
 quantities of blue-printed, cream, and white. His son, 
 also Josiah, who succeeded his father in 1797, was the 
 most successful potter of his time, and realised a great 
 fortune. He first began to use pure felspar in the 
 composition of china, and, as it was supposed for a long 
 time, also bone-ash. But analyses have proved that 
 bone-ash had been used at Bow, Chelsea, and Wor- 
 cester many years before. An ironstone china was 
 also made by the second Spode. The works are now 
 carried on by Messrs. Copeland & Sons. 
 
MODERN. 
 
 235 
 
 Miles Mason, of Lane Delph, brought the ironstone 
 china to perfection, a patent being acquired in 1813 ; 
 the special ingredient was ironstone slag, ground and 
 mixed with the flint, cornish stone, and clay. 
 
 To Thomas Turner, of Caughley, was due the famous 
 “ willow-pattern.” He had been an engraver at the 
 Worcester porcelain works ; acquiring an earthenware 
 pottery in 1772, he erected some new works specially 
 for china, and in 1780 produced the willow-pattern. 
 He is said to have made the first blue printed table 
 service ever made • the pattern was called the 
 Nankin; among those connected with its prepara- 
 tion was Thomas Minton, an engraver, the subsequent 
 founder of the great establishment at Stoke known by 
 his name. He began independently in 1790, and for 
 a few years made only earthenware. In 1798 he com- 
 menced to make porcelain, and the work produced 
 during the following ten years is much sought after by 
 collectors. In succeeding years, earthenware of finer 
 sorts was added, and Parian ware, tiles, mosaics, majol- 
 ica, and Della Eobbia ware introduced. Both Mintons 
 and Copelands claimed the honour of inventing Parian. 
 
 Mintons have at different times employed many 
 famous French artists : Carrier Belleuse, the sculptor, 
 and M. L. Solon, the unrivalled worker in pdte-sur- 
 pdte, among executive artists, and Leon Arnoux, as 
 technical director. As carrying on a famous name, it 
 is interesting to see that Leon Solon, after leaving the 
 
236 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 South Kensington Training School, has just followed his 
 father to Mintons as a designer. Formerly connected 
 with the firm of Mintons, Mr. M. D. Hollins has now for 
 some years been independently producing all kinds of 
 plain and decorated tiles ; an industry of great import- 
 ance from an architectural and sanitary point of view. 
 
 Ralph and Aaron Wood — two potters already men- 
 tioned in connection with the white salt-glazed ware — 
 were noted in other directions. Ralph Wood made a 
 “ granite ” or “ porphyry ” ware by piecing different 
 coloured clays together over the surface of a piece, and 
 then smoothing them down. His group, “ The Vicar 
 and Moses/’ was reproduced again and again in coloured 
 earthenware, until with continued remodellings all its 
 vigour was lost. There was a great demand through- 
 out last century for these Staffordshire figures and 
 groups of quaint modellings and gay colourings ; they 
 were not very much worse than the more fashionable 
 porcelain figures, and sometimes much better. Enoch 
 Wood, a grandson of Ralph, modelled a bust of John 
 Wesley in 1781 ; he was a maker of jasper and basalt 
 wares at Burslem, 1783 to 1840, and an enthusiastic 
 collector and historian of the old English wares. 
 
 The cream-coloured or “ Queen’s ” ware, as improved 
 by Wedgwood, was naturally imitated by others. Among 
 these, Hartley, Greens & Company, of Leeds, produced, 
 about 1780 and onwards, some really interesting moulded 
 and perforated ornamental pieces. Some of the patterns 
 
MODERN. 
 
 237 
 
 are identical with those of Staffordshire salt-glaze pieces, 
 and it may be owing to this that examples of the latter 
 are sometimes described as “ Leeds ” ware. 
 
 Salt-glazed stoneware, displaced for table use by the 
 smoother Queen’s ware and china, and for ornamental 
 use by the more fashionable soft and hard porcelains, 
 remained unused, except for the commonest purposes, 
 until its revival by the firm of Doultons at Lambeth. 
 Founded about 1815 as “ Doulton and Watts” — John 
 Doulton having originally been an apprentice at 
 Fulham, where Dwight’s descendants still carried on 
 a common stoneware trade — the new Lambeth firm 
 gradually acquired a reputation for useful brown and 
 enamelled stonewares. Mr. Henry Doulton was the 
 first to plan a factory (about 1846), for the special 
 manufacture of stoneware drain-pipes for sanitary pur- 
 poses. These are now made in enormous quantities, 
 but the original makers still retain their pre-eminence. 
 However, these and other utilitarian wares would per- 
 haps have remained unnoticed by the world had it not 
 been for the introduction, in 1867-1870, of the 
 “ Doulton- ware Sgraffito ” pottery. These were vases 
 and jugs made in the common pipe-clay, with simple 
 incised or stamped patterns, coloured equally simply, 
 and fired in the open kilns along with the common 
 bottles and jars. The exhibition at South Kensington 
 of the first few of these met with such appreciation 
 that Mr. Doulton was encouraged to proceed, and he 
 
238 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 soon was able to gather round him — at first in 
 
 A STUDIO AT MESSRS. DOULTONs’. 
 
 improvised workrooms, and later in specially-erected 
 blocks of studios — a clever band of workers, of whom 
 
MODERN. 
 
 239 
 
 several have since become well known. The majority 
 of these artists came from the Lambeth School of Art, 
 and furnish an excellent example of what might oftener 
 prove a fortunate connection between an art-school and 
 a local industry. Some other wares perfected at Lam- 
 beth were the “ Lambeth Faience/’ on an earthenware 
 body, with decorations painted on the biscuit, and then 
 glazed ; “ Impasto ” ware decorated while soft with 
 coloured slips, then biscuited, and glazed ; “ Crown 
 Lambeth,” a fine faience; and “Marqueterie,” a develop- 
 ment in faience of the marbled agate wares of last 
 century. No porcelain is made at Lambeth ; at the 
 Burslem works belonging to the Messrs. Doulton, fine 
 earthenware and china are produced. In 1887, Mr. 
 Henry Doulton was knighted, having already received 
 the Albert Medal in 1885, “ for the impulse given by 
 him to the production of art pottery in England.” 
 
 Of his artists, we may mention Miss Hannah Barlow, 
 Miss Florence Lewis, Mr. John Eyre, Mr. Mark Marshall, 
 Mr. Arthur Pearce, Mr. John Broad, and Mr. George 
 . Tinworth ; the latter known especially for his modelled 
 terra-cotta panels and statues, some of the most spirited 
 work in clay seen in modern times. Mr. Tinworth’s 
 romantic story should be read at length in the Biography 
 by Mr. Edmund Gosse. 
 
 Of another Lambeth industry — well-known in its 
 time — we must say a few words. “ Coade’s Litho- 
 dipyra or Artificial Stone Manufactory ” was estab- 
 
240 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 lished about 1760 in the Pedlar’s Acre, and several 
 famous sculptors of the time worked for it, notably 
 John Bacon, R.A., Rossi, and Bubb. Large figures 
 were made for buildings, and many of these are in 
 existence, although unrecognised as terra-cotta. The 
 “ artificial stone” was terra-cotta under another name ; 
 the term, however, is significant of the mistaken view 
 that was taken, until quite recent years, of the archi- 
 tectural possibilities of terra-cotta. This clay material, 
 worked while plastic, and undergoing the ordeal of 
 burning, was treated as if it were a substitute for stone, 
 and was expected to provide blocks as large as could be 
 obtained in that natural material. Needless to say, the 
 irregular lines occurring under such conditions would 
 prejudice many against the use of terra-cotta. But 
 with smaller blocks — for it is now more generally recog- 
 nised that terra-cotta is nothing but glorified brick — a 
 great future is opening for such an easily- worked 
 material. It seems to be especially suited for large 
 towns, where stone is soon acted upon and discoloured 
 by the impure atmosphere, and its warm and varied tones 
 now light up many a city vista. Several large build- 
 ings have been lately erected in terra-cotta, as, for in- 
 stance, the Natural History Museum at South Kensington 
 (designed by Alfred Waterhouse, RA.,) where the numer- 
 ous modelled enrichments of animals, represented as 
 perched on all the pinnacles, or clambering up the roof 
 inside, are — -equally with the walls — all in terra-cotta. 
 
MODERN. 
 
 241 
 
 Modellers have, of course, always been, as it were, 
 next-door neighbours to potters, working as they gener- 
 ally do with plastic clay for their sketches. Recognis- 
 ing that the clay sketch has frequently more vivid 
 character than its copy in marble or bronze, it is no 
 uncommon thing now to see the fired clay model 
 accepted as a finished work, and exhibited for itself 
 
 A GROUP OP MODERN ROYAL WORCESTER PORCELAIN. 
 
 alone. Busts, panels, and small groups in terra-cotta „ 
 are frequently seen at the Royal Academy. 
 
 Ceramic materials for architectural purposes may 
 be seen in other forms than terra-cotta. Glazed 
 tiles, plain or modelled ; fire-clay bricks, glazed or 
 enamelled ; terra-cotta blocks coated with coloured 
 glazes or enamels — these are all being gradually 
 brought into use, and give very valuable opportunities 
 
 Q 
 
242 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 for effects of bright colour. Where harder materials 
 than these are required, the architect can now use 
 stoneware blocks, either with salt-glaze colours or 
 opaque vitreous enamels, such as are both being made 
 by Sir Henry Doulton. Of decorative tile makers 
 there are, to name only a few, Messrs. Boote, of 
 Burslem (founded 1843) ; Messrs. Malkin, Edge & Co. 
 (1867) ; Messrs. Craven, Dunnill & Co., of Jackfield, and 
 Messrs. Maw & Co T , of Benthal. The latter firm is obtain- 
 
 ing some reputation for its lustre painting, this difficult 
 method having been reintroduced in England by Mr. de 
 Morgan, whose faience generally, on tiles and vases, on 
 the old Persian lines, is of the most artistic kind. 
 
 Only brief mention can be made of some of the 
 remaining English manufacturers. Turner, of Caugh- 
 ley, has already been named. Kobert Chamberlain, who 
 had been the first apprentice at the Worcester Porcelain 
 Works, set up in business for himself in 1786, obtain- 
 
MODERN. 
 
 243 
 
 ing his ware in biscuit from Turner and decorating it, 
 decorating also ware for Turner. The new venture was 
 so successful, as to prove a dangerous rival, and event- 
 ually, in 1840, the two establishments at Worcester 
 were combined, the staff from the original works being 
 transferred to the new. The works are now carried on 
 by a company, Mr. R. W. JBinns being the art director. 
 
 About 1794, Job Ridgway, who had been one 
 of Wedgwood’s apprentices, started some works at 
 
 PRESSING ROOM, WORCESTER WORKS. 
 
 Cauldron Place, Hanley. On his death, in 1814, they 
 were continued by his sons. Mr. Moore, who had for 
 many years been engaged in the works, joined the 
 firm in 1855, and the name is now Brown, Westhead, 
 Moore & Co. They are famous for earthenware and 
 china, and have made several elaborate services for 
 royalty. 
 
 At Liverpool, Richard Chaffers commenced making 
 earthenware about 1752; and, after successfully mining 
 
244 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 for soapstone in Cornwall, began making china with 
 it in 1755. In 1765, incautiously visiting his favourite 
 foreman, Podmore, who was dying of fever, Chaffers 
 himself took it, and died. Other Liverpool potters who 
 produced fine earthenware and china were Seth 
 Pennington and Philip Christian. In 1796, a migra- 
 tion of potters and their families took place from the 
 neighbourhood of Burslem to Toxteth Park, at Liver- 
 pool, where some works had been acquired by Messrs. 
 Worthington, Humble & Holland. In imitation of 
 Wedgwood’s “ Etruria,” the firm called their little colony 
 “ Herculaneum.” They began to make blue-printed ware 
 and Queen’s ware of excellent quality. Enlarging their 
 works, they produced terra-cotta and china. 
 
 One of Thomas Turner’s apprentices at Caughley, 
 named John Rose, started business for himself about 
 1780, at Jackfield, soon after moving to Coalport. In 
 1799, on the death of Turner, Rose bought the Caughley 
 works, and kept them going till 1814. About 1820, he 
 bought up works at Swansea and Nantgarw, taking to 
 Coalport the famous William Billingsley, who died in 
 1828. In 1820, Rose obtained a medal offered by the 
 Society of Arts for a glaze containing neither lead nor 
 arsenic. He died in 1841. The Coalport works have 
 sometimes been known as “ Coalbrookdale,” 
 
 Billingsley was a very clever painter on china, and 
 a practical maker also, but apparently something of a 
 “ rolling stone.” Apprenticed to Duesbury, at Derby, 
 
MODERN. 
 
 245 
 
 and famous there for his “ flowers,” he remained 
 twenty-two years, and then in 1796 started a little 
 factory at Pinxton. He made here a china with a 
 peculiar granular body like loaf-sugar. Four years 
 after, he started a similar concern at Mansfield ; again, 
 a few years, and he was at Torksey, in Lincolnshire ; 
 then at Wirksworth, in Derbyshire. A little tired of 
 roaming, he was engaged at Worcester in 1811, but 
 hurriedly left two years later, going to Nantgarw, an 
 out-of-the-way place near Pontypridd. At this place, 
 with his son-in-law, Walker, who was a clever man at 
 building kilns, he again started a china works. Here they 
 were visited, at the request of the Board of Trade, by 
 Mr. Dillwyn, of Swansea, an earthenware manufacturer 
 and writer on natural history. He found that nine- 
 tenths of their pieces were spoilt in the firing, and 
 offered to build them two kilns adjoining his own works 
 at Swansea. Receiving a letter from 'Messrs. Flight 
 & Barr, of Worcester, to the effect that Billingsley 
 and Walker' “ had clandestinely left their service/' 
 Mr. Dillwyn dismissed them, and they returned to 
 Nantgarw. Then came Mr. Rose from Coalport, who 
 was afraid that their work would prejudice the sale of 
 his, and managed to buy them up, stock, moulds, and 
 recipes, and carried everything off to his own works. 
 Mr. Dillwyn was glad enough to dispose of such things 
 as they had left with him, and so closed a curious and 
 interesting episode in the history of English china. 
 
246 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 In Ireland, the annals of ceramic manufactures are 
 very brief. Delft- ware was made at Dublin early last 
 century by Captain Delamain, but the manufacture 
 ceased on the death of his widow in 1760. At Belfast a 
 pottery was working in 1688, and some delft- ware, dated 
 1724, is in existence. The modern china, produced at 
 Belleek, county Fermanagh, is extremely pretty, and noted 
 for its peculiar iridescent glaze. The works were estab- 
 lished in 1863 by Messrs. M'Birney & Armstrong, the local 
 felspar having been found to be of exceptional purity. 
 
 In Scotland there are numerous potteries, although 
 none, perhaps, have as eventful a history as the 
 English. At Glasgow, a delft-ware factory was started 
 in 1749, in a lane which was called the “ Delft-Field 
 Lane,” a name afterwards altered to “ James Watt 
 Street,” in honour of the inventor of the steam-engine, 
 who, it is said, carried out some of his experiments in the 
 pottery. About 1770, Queen’s ware was also made, and, 
 later on, china. The earthenware and china works of 
 Messrs. Bell & Co. were established in 1842. The Bo’ness 
 Pottery dates from 1766; the Alloa Pottery from 1790. 
 
 A good deal of stoneware is made in Scotland, the 
 Port-Dundas Works having been started about 1819, the 
 Caledonian Pottery at Rutherglen about 1780, but not 
 turning their attention to stoneware till 1850 ; and the 
 Portobello Pottery, about 1770, which began to make 
 stoneware about 1840. 
 
 Turning now to resume the story of French porcelain, 
 
MODERN. 
 
 247 
 
 it is interesting to see what a difference the discovery 
 of kaolin had made. Larger pieces could now be 
 produced, and at Sevres, under royal patronage, the 
 most elaborate pieces were attempted. In imitation 
 of the royal works at Sevres, the nobility felt impelled 
 to have their own works and little staff of artists, and 
 thus we hear of the establishments in Paris, either really 
 belonging to, or closely patronised by, the Queen (Rue 
 Thiroux); the Count of Provence (at Clignancourt) ; the 
 Count of Artois (Faubourg St. Lazare) ; the Duke of 
 Orleans (Pont-aux-Choux) ; the Duke of Angouleme (in 
 the Rue de Bondy); at Lille, the Dauphin ; at Orleans, the 
 Duke of Penthievre; at Vincennes, the Duke of Chartres. 
 
 Boileau, the director at Sevres, died in 1773, leaving 
 the establishment in a prosperous condition. Six years 
 later, it had been made insolvent through the mis- 
 management of his successor, Parent, who was ulti- 
 mately sent to prison. Regnier was then appointed, 
 and remained in office until the collapse caused by 
 the Revolution. The National Assembly had decided 
 in 1791 that the works at Sevres and the Gobelins 
 were not to be national property, and they were left 
 severely alone to get on as best they could without 
 funds. The arrears of wages were not finally cleared 
 off till 1808. During the darkest days the few artists 
 and workmen who lingered on had to solicit rations 
 from the Government stores. In 1800, the directorship 
 was placed in the hands of Alexandre Brogniart, under 
 
248 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 whose long rule of forty-seven years, carried on through 
 all the strange changes of French government, the 
 greatest improvements were made, and many valuable 
 discoveries first introduced, and made public for all to 
 use. Brogniart was almost the first to scientifically 
 study pottery, and his researches and conclusions were 
 of great value. In one respect, however, he is thought 
 to have been unwise. Soon after his appointment he 
 decided to produce only hard porcelain ; its naturally 
 simple composition appealed to his scientific predilec- 
 tions, and the soft paste, with its elaborate mixtures 
 and difficult firings, had to go. He was still further 
 confirmed in his resolution by the almost simultaneous 
 deaths of the foreman who had been responsible for the 
 mixing of the bodies, and of the head fireman. He 
 rashly decided to sell off all the stores of biscuit 
 remaining undecorated. The pieces were, however, 
 acquired by some sharp dealers, who proceeded to get 
 them decorated in the old Sevres style, and these half- 
 genuine pieces were then palmed off at good prices as 
 real Sevres. In many cases the fraud was never dis- 
 covered, and only some very slight error in the forged 
 marks led to the detection of others. 
 
 Ebelman, who in 1847 succeeded Brogniart, had 
 regretted the cessation of the soft porcelain, and wish- 
 ing to reintroduce it, was hunting up the recipes for 
 the mixtures, when an old member of the staff called 
 his attention to some covered tanks of clay that had 
 
MODERN. 
 
 249 
 
 not been disturbed for years. On inquiry being made 
 it was found that these contained a large supply of the 
 paste; it had been hidden away there in 1804 by an 
 intelligent cellarman who did not like to destroy it. 
 This was very fortunate for the new director ; he not 
 only had sufficient clay to at once recommence the manu- 
 facture, but a reliable standard for his new mixings. 
 
 Victor Regnault (father of the celebrated painter 
 Henri Regnault), Louis Robert, Lauth, and Deck have 
 been successively heads of the Sevres works. The latter 
 had already acquired a great reputation as a maker and 
 decorator of faience when he was asked to superintend at 
 Sevres. His handbook to “ Faience 5 ’ is a standard work 
 on the subject. The distinguished chemist Salvetat, who 
 died in 1882, was for many years connected with Sevres. 
 
 Of provincial porcelain works, other than those 
 mentioned, the most important were those at Nieder- 
 willer — already famous for its faience ; Marseilles under 
 Joseph Robert, La Seinie, Valenciennes, and Limoges. 
 At the latter town, near as it is to the beds of kaolin 
 at St. Yrieix, but little porcelain was made during last 
 century, and what was made was sent to Paris to be 
 decorated. With the advent in 1840 of Mr. David 
 Haviland, a china dealer in New York, and his enter- 
 prising efforts to introduce some fresh ideas among the 
 Limoges makers, a busier era opened, and the town is 
 now the centre of the French porcelain manufacture, with 
 thirty or forty firms at work, the house of Haviland 
 
250 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 & Co. occupying no inconsiderable position. Their 
 latest achievement is the production of flambe porce- 
 lain, and in this they may be said to rival the hitherto 
 unrivalled Chinese work. 
 
 During this century many original kinds of faience 
 have been produced in France. Brogniart did a great 
 deal to revive interest in the matter, and allowed experi- 
 ments to be conducted at Sevres. In 1854 a special 
 studio was opened there for tin-enamelled faience and 
 glazed terra-cotta, but it was closed in 1871, as mean- 
 while several independent manufactories had sprung 
 up, chief among them that presided over by Theodore 
 Deck, who, not content with originating a very rich 
 style of decoration in coloured glazes, has imitated 
 successfully such widely different styles as the Rhodian 
 faience, Chinese celadon, the inlaid work of Oiron, 
 Italian majolica, and Hispano-Moresque lustre. 
 
 Very little stoneware is made in France. At 
 Yoisinlieu near Beauvais, a sculptor named Ziegler 
 was producing, between 1840 and 1850, some modelled 
 pieces in brown salt-glazed ware, but with his retire- 
 ment the production ceased. 
 
 Decorative pottery for architectural purposes has been 
 latterly making great advances in France, the architects 
 Charles Garnier and Paul Sedille, having been very pro- 
 minent advocates of the new effects to be obtained. The 
 buildings of the last great Paris Exhibition of 1889 were 
 many of them erected in faience, and the brilliant colour- 
 
MODERN. 
 
 251 
 
 ings of tile-covered domes and modelled wall-panels 
 excited great attention among architects and artists. 
 
 But little need be added to what we have said of 
 the porcelains of Germany and Austria. The royal 
 works at Vienna after many vicissitudes were closed in 
 1864; their rivals at Berlin and Dresden still continue. 
 At St. Petersburg the establishment fourided by the 
 Empress Elizabeth has continued its existence mainly 
 by the help of artists from Sevres. 
 
 Among the wares produced in such profusion from 
 the potteries of Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, 
 and elsewhere, much of it very brilliant and suggestive, 
 it is possible that we in England do not see the best 
 and most artistic. Our importers do not always credit 
 us with the possession of sufficient taste, and too fre- 
 quently provide us with the more garish of foreign work. 
 It is in fact said that most of the German potters work 
 with a special eye to the English and American markets. 
 If this be true, it is very sad. There is, however, an 
 undoubtedly growing movement of improvement in the 
 public appreciation of artistic pottery, and it is very 
 significant that there is even now a tendency abroad to 
 imitate the latest efforts of our English designers. To 
 at last have it recognised that there is an English school 
 of design is extremely encouraging, and with English 
 technical methods at a perfection admittedly unap- 
 proached by other nations, there is every reason to 
 expect continued prosperity for that most important 
 
252 
 
 POTTERS : THEIR ARTS AND CRAFTS. 
 
 of our national industries the “art and handicraft of 
 potting.” 
 
 In a sketch so brief as this of so large a subject, 
 much has of necessity been omitted. As with the 
 general history of a country a list of the monarchs and 
 their deeds gives but a very partial, if not false, idea of 
 the real progress of the nation, so here with a history 
 of pottery, it would be unfair to assume that the master 
 potters alone made the history. A little has been said 
 of the mischief and loss caused here and there by some 
 dishonest workmen, but nothing has been said, or very 
 well can be, of the vast and faithful army of servants in 
 whose hands rest, to a large extent, the fortunes of 
 their masters. The guardianship of valuable secrets, 
 the patient routine of daily work, the physical exer- 
 tion expended in manual labours, the prolonged and 
 exhausting anxieties of firing, the ungrudging service 
 of designers, artists, colour-grinders, even of cellarmen 
 and warehousemen — all these go unrecorded, but are 
 none the less a part of history. The wonderful variety 
 of the ceramic work of the present day, and the wide- 
 spread importance of the industry, would have been 
 impossible but for the honourable efforts of many and 
 many an unknown, undistinguished worker labouring 
 to do his best in his appointed task. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 S OMETHING ought to be said concerning American 
 pottery, although the subject deserves to be 
 treated at greater length than in these notes. 
 Vanished early races have left ceramic remains in 
 most of the American countries. In Ecuador, pottery 
 is found below a marine deposit of several feet in thick- 
 ness. Among the strange and vast temple ruins in 
 Central America, urns have been found, and grotesque 
 figures, some of these being of very hard terra-cotta. 
 Along the Mississippi valley are numerous relics of the 
 unknown people called, for want of a more precise term, 
 the Mound Builders. They used sun-dried bricks for 
 walls and embankments, and had some primitive ideas 
 in decorated vases. The ancient Peruvians had a very 
 distinctive pottery, and some of the water-bottles in the 
 
 form of heads are of a really fine type, the modelling 
 
 253 
 
254 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 vigorous as that of the best Egyptian work. In fact, 
 some of the ornamental patterns, the meanders, lozenges, 
 and suggestions of animal forms are strikingly like 
 Egyptian and archaic Greek work. In colours, they 
 used white, yellow, red, chocolate, and black — all 
 earthy colours, of course. Many of the quaint forms 
 of joined vessels with twisted tubes were no doubt 
 designed with a view to keeping insects out of the 
 water contained in them. The Spanish conquest was 
 the death-blow to most of the ancient manufactures. 
 Only in Mexico were the traditional methods retained 
 in a small way. The modern Pueblos make some wares 
 which have a certain sale as curiosities. 
 
 In the Northern States, it was the Dutch who intro- 
 duced bricks from Holland. Governor Van T wilier 
 erected, in 1633, a brick house on Manhattan Island, 
 the first of its kind. When the English acquired a 
 footing, bricks from England were imported, and with 
 them English builders. The old Colonial style of 
 architecture, a refined phase of Georgian, is now looked 
 back upon wdth admiration by modern Americans. It 
 was in 1744 that Frye's patent for making china at 
 Bow mentioned the use of unaker from America. This 
 had been found in Virginia. Some of it was shown to 
 Cookworthy, who soon after found similar materials in 
 Cornwall. A little later, Wedgwood used some clays 
 from America, and wished to have more. But no very 
 great use was made of the deposits of kaolinic materials, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 255 
 
 and a little porcelain factory started at Philadelphia 
 in 1771 seems to have produced but very few 
 pieces. 
 
 About 1800, clay was dug at South Amboy for stone- 
 ware, and by 1812, New Jersey clay was in use for 
 firebricks. In 1829, Henderson & Company, at Jersey 
 City, commenced a pottery, and made cream-colour and 
 printed ware, competing in a small way with England. 
 Their throwing and burning — the first on the English 
 principle in America — were done by William and 
 James Taylor. In 1838, the first pottery in New York 
 was founded. Between 1816 and 1830, W. E. Tucker 
 was making china and hard porcelain at Philadelphia. 
 Somewhere about 1830 George Walker, the associate 
 for so many years of Billingsley of Derby, went over 
 from England, and started the “ Temperance Hill 
 Pottery ” at New Troy. 
 
 In 1852, the Trenton works were commenced by 
 Taylor and Speeler. At first common yellow and 
 Rockingham wares were made, then white granite 
 ware, then china. Trenton is now the centre of the 
 American china trade, and is often called the “ Staf- 
 fordshire of America.” 
 
 At Greenpoint, T. C. Smith, after two years’ experi- 
 ments, began, in 1866, to make true kaolinic porcelain 
 with nai : ve materials. In 1877, Mr. John Bennett, 
 one of Doulton’s artists, settled in New York, and 
 introduced' the Lambeth style of faience painting. 
 
256 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Nothing so rich in colour had till then been seen in 
 American pottery. 
 
 The European exhibits at the Centennial Exhibition 
 of Philadelphia in 1876 were great incentives to the 
 American potters, and it may now be said that in 
 beauty of workmanship and originality of ideas the 
 leading firms have little to learn. As regards the 
 more practical side of ceramics, brick and terra-cotta 
 making, the Americans have gone to the front in 
 a remarkable way ; new machines and new methods 
 of burning attest their inventiveness ; numerous im- 
 provements in terra-cotta have revolutionised American 
 city architecture, and buildings are erected now in steel 
 and burnt clay which a few years ago would have been 
 thought impossible. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abaquesne, 136. 
 
 Agate wares, 156, 165, 195. 
 
 Alhambra, 120, 121. 
 
 America, 14, 55, 59, 65, 198, 215, 
 
 253. 
 
 Architectural pottery, 16, 41, 63, 68, 
 
 71, 76, 78, 95, 96, 102, 104, 110, 
 
 114, 135, 157, 241, 242, 251, 256. 
 
 Assyria, 70, 71, 74, 82, 83, 84, 85, 
 
 101 . 
 
 Astbury, 170. 
 
 Athens, 85, 88, 91, 94. 
 
 Babylonian pottery, 14, 63, 71, 73, 
 
 80. 
 
 Beauvais, 149, 251. 
 
 Bellarmines, 153, 154, 166, 168. 
 
 Belleck, 246. 
 
 Beni-Hasan, 22, 66, 67. 
 
 Berlin, 222, 224, 251. 
 
 Billingsley, 216, 244. 
 
 Biscuit -ware, 16, 36. 
 
 Boote, 242. 
 
 Bottger, 219. 
 
 Bow, 18, 214. 
 
 Bricks, 13, 62, 71, 77, 79, 96, 102, 
 110, 135, 157, 189, 197, 241, 254. 
 
 Bristol, 202, 203, 218. 
 
 Bristol glaze, 17, 39. 
 
 British Museum, 61, 62, 64, 65, 68, 
 
 69, 73, 74, 75, 80, 86, 89, 92, 93, 
 
 95, 99, 102, 106, 111, 118, 157, 
 163, 168, 170, 185, 203, 213, 232. 
 
 257 
 
 British (ancient) pottery, 61. 
 Brogniart, 247, 250. 
 
 Bronze age, 60, 84. 
 
 Brown, Westhead, Moore & Co., 243. 
 
 Caffaggiolo, 125, 127, 133. 
 
 C amir os, 85. 
 
 Celadon, 178, 184, 250. 
 
 Chaldean pottery, 63, 71, 76. 
 Champion, 218, 233. 
 
 Chelsea, 18, 212, 215. 
 
 China ware, 14, 18, 234, 235, 239, 
 243, 244, 255. 
 
 Chinese stoneware, 17, 184. 
 
 Chinese porcelain, 18, 19, 48, 177. 
 Clay, 12, 19, 59, 66, 92, 102, 107, 
 170, 178. 
 
 Coade’s Lithodipyra, 239. 
 
 Cologne, 150, 154, 167. 
 
 Colours, 13, 35, 52, 57, 68, 73, 77, 78, 
 79, 86, 87, 93, 98, 104, 118, 119, 
 121, 125, 145, 210, 217, 219, 230. 
 Cookworthy, 218. 
 
 Copeland & Sons, 234, 235. 
 
 Corea, 188, 190, 192, 194. 
 
 Corinth, 85, 88. 
 
 Crackle ware, 48, 185. 
 
 Crazing, 44, 48, 185. 
 
 Crouch wares, 172. 
 
 Crucibles, 27. 
 
 Cyprus, 82, 85. 
 
 Damascus, 118. 
 
 Deck, 249, 250. 
 
 R 
 
258 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Defoe, 159. 
 
 Delft, 17, 174, 176, 199, 206, 214. 
 Della Robbia, 17, 125, 235. 
 
 De Morgan, 242. 
 
 Derby, 18, 216, 244. 
 
 Dipping, 43. 
 
 Dipylon style, 85. 
 
 Doulton, Sir Henry, 30, 237, 239, 
 242. 
 
 Doulton ware, 17, 237. 
 
 Doulton’s works, 40, 239, 255. 
 Drain pipes, 29, 30, 111, 237. 
 Dresden, 18, 221, 251. 
 
 Drying, 35, 110. 
 
 Duesbury, 216, 244. 
 
 Dutch traders, 190, 191. 
 
 Dwight, 165, 167, 171, 174, 184, 214. 
 
 Earthenware, 15, 160, 167, 184, 
 199, 236. 
 
 Egyptian pottery, 14, 62, 65, 67, 81, 
 84, 86, 102. 
 
 Eler, 165, 166, 169, 171, 184, 201. 
 Enamels, 49, 56, 80, 140, 155, 173, 
 242. 
 
 Encaustic painting, 104. 
 
 English porcelain, 18, 214, 235. 
 
 ,, pottery, 61, 155, 165. 
 
 ,, delft, 202. 
 
 Etruria, 89, 99, 229, 230. 
 
 Etruscan pottery, 99. 
 
 Faience, 17, 45, 80, 127, 139, 251. 
 Firing, 37, 49, 107, 160, 183. 
 Flambe ware, 182, 250. 
 
 Florence, 125, 126, 213. 
 
 Frau Jacoba’s Cannettes, 150. 
 French porcelain, 208, 246. 
 
 ,, pottery, 61, 135, 204, 250. 
 Fulham, 165, 167, 174, 175, 237. 
 
 German porcelain, 219, 251. 
 
 ,, pottery, 61, 113, 114, 148. 
 
 Glazes, 16, 40, 44, 47,-52, 55, 68, 
 71, 73, 74, 93, 107, 110. 
 
 Glost Kiln, 43. 
 
 Greek pottery, 67, 82, 83, 87. 
 
 Green family, 180. 
 
 Grfes de Flandres, 65, 149. 
 
 Gubbio, 129. 
 
 Hampton Court, 157, 214. 
 
 Handling, 29, 92, 93. 
 
 Hardening on kiln, 43, 53. 
 
 Hard porcelain, 17, 47, 198, 212, 
 215, 221, 248,-255. 
 
 Hebrews, 62, 65,- 75, 81. 
 
 Henri Deux ware, 137. 
 
 Hirschoogel, 148. 
 
 Hispano- Moresque, 121, 250. 
 
 Hochst, 223. 
 
 Holland, 61, 176, 200. 
 
 Hunting jugs, 174. 
 
 India, 196. 
 
 Inscriptions, 63, 64, 69, 71, 72, 74, 
 75, 79, 86, 91, 92, 94, 99, 105, 111, 
 112, 118, 121, 129, 136, 153, 154, 
 163, 164, 175, 202, 203, 229, 
 
 Ireland, 246. 
 
 Iron age, 60. 
 
 Italian porcelain, 213. 
 
 ,, pottery, 123. 
 
 Japanese faience, 192, 194. 
 
 ,, porcelain, 18, 48, 189. 
 
 ,, stoneware, 17, 189, 192, 
 
 194. 
 
 Jasper ware, 228, 230, 234. 
 
 Jerusalem, 75, 81, 112, 118. 
 
 Kaolin, 12, 179, 190, 198, 212, 
 215, 218, 220, 254. 
 
 Kilns, 34, 40, 43, 49, 66, 93, 105, 
 108. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 259 
 
 Lake dwellers, 60. 
 
 Lambeth, 175, 202, 237. 
 
 Lamps, 98, 106, 112. 
 
 Lathing, 26, 50, 109, 169, 172. 
 Lead glaze, 16, 18, 45, 107, 115, 
 124, 134, 139, 162, 194, 210, 215. 
 Leeds, 236. 
 
 Limoges, 18, 212, 249. 
 
 Littler, 173, 216. 
 
 Liverpool, 202, 217, 243. 
 
 London, 151, 166. 
 
 Louvre, 78. 
 
 Lustre -painting, 54, 118, 121, 129, 
 132, 242, 250. * 
 
 Majolica, 17, 54, 123, 128, 235, 
 250. 
 
 Marks, 94, 111, 112, 132, 144, 172, 
 188, 201, 234, 248. 
 
 Marseilles, 207. 
 
 Maw & Co., 242. 
 
 Mayer, 234. 
 
 Meissen, 221. 
 
 Mexican pottery, 55, 254. 
 
 Mezza- Majolica, 124. 
 
 Minton, 18, 33, 235. 
 
 Mosaic, 30, 235. 
 
 Moulding, 27, 29, 30, 68, 92, 105, 
 110, 143, 172. 
 
 Moustiers, 206. 
 
 Museum of Geology, 202, 203. 
 Mycenae, 84. 
 
 Nankin ware, 181, 185, 214. 
 Nantgarw, 245. 
 
 Naucratis, 67, 86, 91. 
 
 Nevers, 147, 204. 
 
 Niederwiller, 208. 
 
 Nineveh, 74, 75, 78. 
 
 Nottingham, 174. 
 
 Oiron ware, 16, 137, 250. 
 
 Overglaze colours, 56. 
 
 Palissy, 140, 148. 
 
 Parian, 18, 235. 
 
 Paris, 126, 206, 247. 
 Pavement-tiles, 30, 34, 110, 114, 
 136, 139. 
 
 Pepys, 156. 
 
 Persian pottery, 16, 75, 77, 80, 116, 
 196, 197. 
 
 Pesaro, 133. 
 
 Phaleron style, 85. 
 
 Phoenician pottery, 67, 75, 81. 
 Plymouth, 218. 
 
 Porcelain, 12, 15, 17, 67, 167, 177, 
 189, 200, 205, 208, 219. 
 Portuguese traders, 178, 191. 
 Potter’s associations, 81, 94, 101, 
 151, 200. 
 
 Printing, 53, 217. 
 
 Puzzle jugs, 131, 203. 
 
 RiEREN, 150, 152. 
 
 Rhodes, 85, 119, 250. 
 
 Robinson Crusoe, 159, 175. 
 
 Roman pottery, 60, 81, 104, 106. 
 Rome, 99. 
 
 Rose family, 182. 
 
 Rose, 244. 
 
 Rouen, 136, 204, 208. 
 
 Saggers, 36, 43, 48, 172. 
 Salt-glazing, 17, 37, 149, 152, 165, 
 166, 171, 23 7. • 
 
 Samian ware, 106. 
 
 Saracen art, 116, 120. 
 
 Scotland, 246. 
 
 Sepulchral pottery, 61, 66, 81, 100, 
 101, 114, 164, 253. 
 
 Sbvres, 18, 47, 210, 225, 247, 250. 
 Sgraffiato, 134, 162. 
 
 Sgraffito, 237. 
 
 Siegburg, 150, 152. 
 
 Slip-casting, 28. 
 
260 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Slip- decorations,- 107, 108, 161, 164, 
 197. 
 
 Soft porcelain, 18, 47, 199, 209, 213, 
 
 215, 248. 
 
 Solon, 149, 236. 
 
 South Kensington Museum, 126, 
 127, 131, 133, 137, 145, 148, 149, 
 153, 162, 166, 168, 173, 208. 
 Spanish pottery, 61, 119, 214. 
 Spode, 234. 
 
 Statuettes, 28, 69, 74, 98, 105, 168, 
 
 216, 220, 223, 236. 
 
 Statues, 41, 63, 73, 95, 99, 104, 168, 
 
 240. 
 
 Stone age, 60, 83, 100. 
 
 Stoneware, 15, '17, 37, 39, 149, 165, 
 170, 184, 189, 220, 242, 246, 250. 
 Strasburg, 207, 224. 
 
 Sun-dried bricks, 14, 62, 72, 95, 
 253. 
 
 Swansea, 244. 
 
 Tablets, Assyrian, 71, 72, 74, 75. 
 Tanagra, 98. 
 
 Terra-cotta, 16, 41, 66, 67, 81, 99, 
 102, 104, 114, 135, 157, 158, 240, 
 
 241, 250, 256. 
 
 Throwing, 22, 41, 60, 73, 81, 92, 93, 
 109, 151, 172, 194. 
 
 Tiles, 29, 30, 33, 68, 77, 96, 110, 
 117, 121, 143, 148, 156, 157, 159, 
 189, 197, 236, 241. 
 
 Tin enamel, 17, 54, 73, 121, 124, 
 128, 139, 144, 147, 199, 213, 250. 
 
 Tinworth, 239. 
 
 Toft, 162, 163. 
 
 Tombstones, 164. 
 
 Toys in pottery, 70, 98, 105. 
 
 Trenton, 255. 
 
 Turner, 233, 235. 
 
 Underglaze colours, 52. 
 
 Urbino, 130, 132, 135, 147. 
 
 Vienna, 222, 251. 
 
 Wedging, 22. 
 
 Wedgwood, 16, 171, 218, 226, 234, 
 254. 
 
 Wheel (potter’s), 22, 50, 92, 93, 
 109, 189. 
 
 Wheildon, 165, 173, 228. 
 
 Wood, 173, 236. 
 
 Worcester, 18, 217, 241, 242. 
 
 Wrotham, 162. 
 
 LORIMER AND GILLIES, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.