a phrase used by the potters and china-men to express that common accident both of our own stone and earthen ware, and of the porcelain of China, which consists in the flying off of small pieces, or breaking at the edges. Our earthen wares are particularly subject to this, and are always spoiled by it before any other flaw appears in them. Our stone wares escape it better; but not so well as the porcelain of China, which is less subject to this species of injury than any other manufacture of the kind in the world. The method by which the Chinese defend their ware from this accident is this: They carefully burn some small bamboo canes to a sort of charcoal, which is very light and very black; this they reduce to a fine powder, and then mix it into a thin paste, with some of the varnish which they use for their ware; they then take the vessels, when dried, and not yet baked, to the wheel, and turning them softly round, cover the whole circumference with a thin coating, by means of a pencil dipt in this paste; after which the vessel is again dried, and the border made with this paste appears of a pale grayish colour when it is thoroughly dry. They work on it afterwards in the common way, covering both this edge and the rest of the vessel with