The word pottery is said to be derived from the low Latin term *potus*, a pot, which is from the classical Latin *potus*, drink; but the etymology of porcelain is more uncertain. Some writers derive it from *porcellana*, the Portuguese for a drinking-cup; others from a similar word in Italian, which is applied to a univalve shell of the genus *Cypraeidae*, or cowries, having a high arched back resembling that of a hog (*porco*, Ital.), and a white, smooth, vitreous glossiness of surface similar to that of fine porcelain. The essential ingredients of every article in pottery and porcelain are silica and alumina. The pure chemical compound, silicate of alumina, must, however, be regarded as an ideal type, unattainable even in the finest porcelain; while in the coarser varieties, and in pottery, impurities, such as iron, lime, potash, &c., give character to the resulting wares. Even if it were possible to obtain pure silica and alumina in sufficient quantities for manufacturing purposes, it would still be necessary to add certain substances to increase somewhat the fusibility of those refractory materials. Pottery is also distinguished by being opaque, while porcelain is translucent. Wares of either kind are further distinguished by the terms soft and hard, or, as the French term them, tendre and dur,—distinctions which relate as well to the composition of the ware as to the temperature at which it is made solid. Common bricks and earthenware vessels, pipkins, pans, &c., are soft; while fire-brick and crockery, such as queen's-ware, stone-ware, &c., are hard. Soft pottery, consisting of silica, alumina, and lime, admits of being scratched with a knife or file, and is usually fusible at the heat required merely for baking porcelain. Stone-ware is composed of silica, alumina, and barium, and may be regarded as a coarse kind of porcelain. Hard porcelain contains more of alumina and less of silica than the soft; it is baked at a stronger heat, and is more dense. Soft porcelain contains more silica than the hard, and is also combined with alkaline fluxes, so that its softness is manifested in being easily scratched and less able to resist a strong heat.

SECTION I.—HISTORICAL SKETCH.

Articles of fictile ware are at once the most fragile and the most enduring of human monuments. A piece of common pottery, liable to be shivered to pieces by a slight blow, is more enduring than epitaphs in brass and effigies in bronze. These yield to the varying action of the weather: stone crumbles away, ink fades, and paper decays; but the earthen vase, deposited in some quiet but forgotten receptacle, survives the changes of time, and even when broken at the moment of its discovery by the pick of the labourer, affords instruction in its fragments. In their power of traversing accumulated ages, and affording glimpses of ancient times and people, fictile articles have been compared to the fossils of animals and plants, which reveal to the educated eye the former conditions of our globe.

Clay is so generally diffused, and its plastic nature is so obvious, that the art of working it cannot be considered as above the intelligence of a savage; hence the production of articles in clay may be said to belong to every people and to all time. The first drinking-vessels would be sun-baked, and consequently very destructible; so that few articles would survive a single winter. A considerable period must have elapsed before the method of giving permanence to these articles by the action of fire was discovered; but it is chiefly to this discovery that we owe the preservation of so many ancient relics of the fictile art. The sun-dried bricks of History. Egypt, Assyria, and Babylonia, have, however, been preserved to this day, and "not only afford testimony to the truth of Scripture by their composition of straw and clay, but also by the hieroglyphs impressed upon them, transmit the names of a series of kings, and testify the existence of edifices, all knowledge of which, except for these relics, would have utterly perished. Those of Assyria and Babylon, in addition to the same information, have, by their concordant inscriptions, which mention the locality of the edifices for which they were made, afforded the means of tracing the sites of ancient Mesopotamia and Assyria with an accuracy unattainable by any other means. When the brick was ornamented, as in Assyria, with glazed representations, this apparently insignificant but imperishable object has confirmed the descriptions of the walls of Babylon, which critical scepticism had denounced as fabulous. The Roman bricks have also borne their testimony to history. A large number of them present a series of the names of consuls of imperial Rome; while others show that the proud nobility of the Eternal City partly derived their revenues from the kilns of their Campanian and Sabine farms.

The excellent authority just quoted refers to the next step in the progress of manufacture, namely, that of modeling in clay the forms of the physical world, the origin of the plastic art, "to which the symbolical pantheism of the old world gave an extension almost universal." When stone and metal came to be used as materials for sculpture, clay was still employed for the elaboration of the model, and also for the multiplication of copies for popular use of celebrated pieces of sculpture. The invention of the mold caused the terra cottas of antiquity to be as widely diffused as the plaster casts of modern times. Among the Assyrians and Babylonians clay was used as a material for writing on. The traveller Layard discovered in the palace of Sennacherib a whole library of clay books, consisting of histories, deeds, almanacs, spelling-books, vocabularies, inventories, horoscopes, receipts, letters, &c. About 2000 of these clay books of the Assyrians have been discovered: they are in the form of tablets, cylinders, and hexagonal prisms of terra cotta.

Before the invention of the potter's wheel, clay vessels could have had but little symmetry of shape. The necessity for some such contrivance must have been early felt, and it was probably invented by several nations. It is represented on the Egyptian sculptures; it is mentioned in Holy Scripture; and was in use at an early period in Assyria. Mr. Birch states, that "the very oldest vases of Greece, some of which are supposed to have been made in the heroic ages, bear marks of having been turned upon the wheel." The art of firing the ware is also of the highest antiquity. Remains of baked earthenware are common in Egypt in the tombs of the first dynasties, and the oldest bricks and tablets of Assyria and Babylon bear evidence of having passed through the fire. The oldest remains of Hellenic pottery owe their preservation to their having been fired. As the clay by this process is rendered porous and incapable of holding liquids, the necessity for some kind of glaze must have been early felt. Opaque glasses or enamels have been found in Egypt as old as the fourth dynasty, and both the Egyptians and the Assyrians seem to have preferred an opaque enamel to a transparent glaze, somewhat after the fashion of the modern faience. Numerous fragments testify to the use of glazing amongst the ancient Greeks and Romans. With respect to form, the Greek vases, by their beauty and simplicity, have become models for various kinds of earthenware; while the application of painting to vases has transmitted to us much information respecting the mythology, manners, customs, and literature of ancient Greece. Even the Roman lamps and red ware illustrate in their ornaments many customs, manners, and historical events.

As the pottery of different modern nations has its characteristic features, so the ancient pottery has its distinctions of time and place. It is impossible not to distinguish between the rude and simple urns fashioned by the early inhabitants of Great Britain and the more carefully finished specimens of the Roman conquerors of these islands. Then, again, the simple unglazed earthenware of Greece contrasts with the more elaborate Etruscan forms, the finest of which, however, are probably by Greek artists. Then, again, the red and black potteries of India contrast with the black and white potteries of North America, the latter being interspersed with fragments of bivalve shells. On the discovery of the extraordinary ruins in Central America, specimens of pottery were found which showed considerable advance in the art compared with the date assigned to these ruins, namely, 1000 B.C. The specimens had been formed without the assistance of the potter's wheel; but they are well baked, the ornaments are in different colours, and they are coated with a fine vitreous glaze, such as was unknown in Europe until within about ten centuries. The religious employment of earthen vessels in early times, and the custom of placing them in tombs as receptacles for medals, trophies, insignia, money, charms, rings, and votive offerings, has greatly assisted the studies of archaeologists in modern times, and we can do no more in this brief sketch than refer to their useful labours.

Porcelain is of modern introduction into Europe, but it was known in China more than a century before the Christian era. The Chinese appear to have improved their art during four or five centuries, and then, supposing themselves to have attained perfection, they allowed the art to remain stationary. So completely was the manufacture identified with that nation, that on the introduction of porcelain into Europe by the Portuguese in 1518, it received the name of china, which it still partially retains. The Chinese continued to supply us with porcelain during many years. It was supposed that the fine clay or kaolin used in its production was peculiar to China, and that it was consequently hopeless to attempt to manufacture porcelain in Europe. The porcelain of Japan is only a variety of the Chinese.

While the Chinese were improving their manufacture, the art of making decorative pottery became lost in Europe amid the darkness which followed the overthrow of the Western Empire. The first symptoms of revival were due to the Mohammedan invaders of Spain, whose tiles of enameled earthenware are to be seen in the Moorish buildings of Seville, Toledo, Granada, and the Alhambra. They are of a pale clay, "the surface of which is coated over with a white opaque enamel, upon which the elaborate designs are executed in colours." The Spaniards acquired from the Moors the art of manufacturing enamelled tiles, or azulegos as they are called, and they still continue to be made in Valencia. The Moors also adorned their pottery with Arabic inscriptions, and with arabesque patterns resembling a lace veil in richness. The vase known as that of the Alhambra is of earthenware; the ground is white, the ornaments are either blue of two shades, or of gold or copper lustre. The Moors continued to manufacture ornamental pottery until the time of their final expulsion from Spain at the beginning of the seventeenth century. This Hispano-Arabic pottery, as it is called, is the prototype of the Italian majolica, and was long confounded with it. Specimens of it are to be seen in several celebrated

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1 History of Ancient Pottery, by Samuel Birch, F.S.A., London, 1858. 2 A History of Pottery and Porcelain, medieval and modern, by Joseph Marryat, 2d edition, London, 1857. 3 This vase is figured in Owen Jones' work on the Alhambra. collections. The majolica, or enamelled ware of Italy, probably dates from the twelfth century. It is related that a pirate king of Majorca, about the year 1115, was besieged in his stronghold by an armament from Pisa, and being vanquished, the expedition returned to Italy laden with spoil, among which, it is supposed, were a number of plates of painted Moorish pottery, such specimens being found encrusted in the walls of the most ancient churches of Pisa. They appear to have been regarded as religious trophies. No attempt, however, was made to imitate them until the fourteenth century, when specimens of majolica, so called from the island of Majorca, were produced; they resemble the Moorish examples in having arabesque patterns in yellow and green, upon a blue ground. About the year 1451 the manufacture had become celebrated at Pesaro, the birthplace of Luca della Robbia, who is regarded by persons who set aside the foregoing origin of majolica as the inventor of this ware. He appears to have earned distinction as a sculptor when he took to working in terra cotta, and gave permanence to his productions by the invention of a white enamel. His Madonnas, Scripture subjects, figures, and architectural pieces are still prized by collectors. Mr Marryat refers to them as "by far the finest works of art ever executed in pottery." He is also "the founder of a school which produced works not much inferior to his own." Existing specimens are of a dazzling whiteness, and the glaze, after so great a lapse of time, continues to be quite perfect. The manufacture of majolica flourished during two centuries under the patronage of the House of Urbino. The first duke, Frederick of Montefeltro (1444) took a lively interest in the manufacture; his son established a manufacture at Pesaro, and the most eminent artists were employed in furnishing designs, a system of patronage which was maintained by succeeding dukes. There is a tradition that Raphaelle was employed in furnishing designs; whence majolica sometimes passes by the name of Raffaelle ware. But as the finest specimens do not date earlier than 1540, or twenty years after the death of that great artist, he was probably not directly concerned in the manufacture. But it is admitted that his scholars used his drawings in composing designs for the finest specimens. In the middle of the fifteenth and daring part of the sixteenth century, many towns of Italy had become renowned for their majolica ware, of which the coarser specimens were named mezza-majolica, and the finer, however inappropriately, porcellana. The manufacture had attained its greatest celebrity between 1540 and 1560. After the last-named date the art began to decline, and the introduction of porcelain, properly so called, helped to complete its downfall. The caprices of fashion cannot be alone charged with the destruction of this beautiful art, since, so far as utility is concerned, a hard paste covered with a vitreous glaze, as in porcelain, must be very superior to a soft paste coated with a metallic glaze, as in the case of majolica. The best examples of mezza-majolica are distinguished by the beauty of their colour, and the perfection of their enamel glaze; the latter imparting to the yellow and white tints the metallic lustre of gold and silver. There is also a remarkable mother-of-pearl lustre, together with an iridescent ruby, peculiar to Pesaro and Gubbio. The most general colours used in the painting were blue and yellow, with their mixtures. The drawing is not so good as the colouring, until the so-called porcelana raised the art to its zenith. After the year 1560 the designs became more fanciful and grotesque, and the colours inferior. It must not, however, be supposed that the articles manufactured were ornamental only. During the whole reign of majolica ware, all kinds of common articles were produced, such as pilgrim's bottles, with holes in the bottom rim for History.

This term is supposed to be derived from the small town, now a village, of Falence, in the department of Var, which, as early as the sixth century, appears to have been celebrated for glazed pottery. History, studying natural objects. He became master of the chemistry and mineralogy of his day, such as it was. In 1539 he settled at Saintes as an artist, where he married. His attention was first directed to pottery by being shown a beautiful enamelled cup, and on proceeding to inquire into its mode of manufacture, he found that there were secrets connected with it, and especially with the composition of the enamel. He at once undertook a course of experiments on the subject, but without success. The desire to master the subject had, however, taken such possession of him, that during several years he devoted nearly all his time and means to this pursuit, in spite of the claims of his wife and family and the remonstrances of his friends. He borrowed money to enable him to construct a new furnace; and when too poor to buy fuel, he used his furniture instead. When unable to pay his assistant's wages, he gave him the coat from off his back. Thus, becoming every year more wretched than the preceding, the folly of sixteen years (as it would have been called had he failed) ended in a triumph. His figurations or rustic pottery became the fashion of the day, and his beautiful patterns were everywhere admired. The general style of his ware is marked by quaintness and singularity; his figures are usually chaste in form: the ornaments and subjects of a historical, mythological, and allegorical character are in relief, and coloured. His natural objects, with the exception of certain leaves, were all moulded from nature. His shells are those of the tertiary formation of the Paris basin; his fish are those of the Seine; the reptiles and plants are from the neighbourhood of Paris; and he made use of no foreign natural production. The colours are usually bright, and mostly confined to yellows, blues, and grays; sometimes extending to green, violet, and brown. Mr Marryat says that Palissy never succeeded in attaining the purity of the white enamel of Luca della Robbia, or even that of the faience of Nevers. The pieces rustiques of this artist, intended to adorn the large sideboards of the dining-rooms of the period, are loaded with objects in relief. A favourite subject with him was a flat kind of basin or dish, representing the bottom of the sea, covered with fishes, shells, sea-weeds, pebbles, snakes, &c. We have also from the hand of this artist, ewers and vases with grotesque ornaments, boars' heads, curiously-formed salt-cellar, figures of saints, wall and floor tiles, &c. Mr Baring Wall speaks of Palissy as "a great master of the power and effect of neutral tints."

France is also celebrated for a fine ware known as faience fine and gris cérame. Some of the earliest specimens are known under the name of renaissance, or fine faience of Henri II. There are only thirty-seven pieces of this manufacture extant; and as twenty-seven of them have been traced to Touraine and La Vendée, it has been conjectured that the manufactory was at Thouars in Touraine. The material is a fine white pipe-clay, the texture of which is seen through the thin transparent yellow varnish. The patterns are engraved on the paste, and the hollows filled up with coloured pastes, so as to resemble fine inlaying, or chiselled silver works in niello; whence this ware has also been termed faience à niello. There are also beautifully-modelled raised ornaments: the articles are for the most part small and light, consisting of cups, ewers, and a vase with a spout for pouring, called a biberon. A single candlestick of this ware was sold a few years ago for L220.

Germany had its enamelled wares as early as the thirteenth century, the secret of success being of course the discovery of a fine glaze. Ratisbon, Landschut, and Nuremberg thus became formidable rivals of the Arabs and the Italians. The distinctive characters of this ware are the fine green glaze, the complex form, the number and variety of ornaments, lightness, and good workmanship. Nuremberg also became famous for its large enamelled tiles used for covering stoves.

Holland, from its exclusive trade with Japan, was induced to imitate the Japanese porcelain. The chief seat of the manufacture was Delft; and the ware was known and esteemed in the sixteenth century by its fantastic design, good colour, and beautiful enamel—the latter being smooth and even, and slightly tinged with blue. The Japanese origin was seen in the monstrous animals of the chimera class, the three-ringed bottle, the tall shapeless beaker, and the large circular dish, which were long regarded in Europe as favourite ornaments; while the common articles were so generally distributed as to obtain for Delft the title of the "parent of pottery." The fine English wares introduced by Wedgwood and others were the means of injuring the trade of Delft.

In England, the first manufactory of fine earthenware is said to have been erected in the reign of Elizabeth at Stratford-le-Bow. The well-known Shakspeare jug is cited as a good specimen of Elizabethan pottery. It is of cream-coloured earthenware, about 9 inches in height and 16 in circumference in the largest part. Its shape resembles that of a modern coffee-pot. It is divided lengthwise into eight compartments, each containing a mythological subject in high relief and of considerable merit. The silver top is a modern addition. The Elizabethan pottery nearly approaches in hardness that of fine stoneware; it is of a dingy white, and its ornaments in relief consist mostly of quaint figures and foliage. In the reign of Elizabeth the Staffordshire potteries came into notice, of which some of the earliest specimens consist of butter-pots of native brick earth, glazed with powdered lead-ore, which was dusted on while the ware was in a green state; the tig, or drinking-cup, with three handles; and the parting-cup, with two handles. In 1684 a manufactory of earthenware was established at Fulham, some of the products of which, under the name of Fulham-ware, are still valued by collectors. They consist of white gorges or pitchers, marbled porcelain vessels, statues, and figures. The proprietor, Mr John Dwight, attempted to produce the transparent porcelain of China, but his success was not such as to turn him from the more profitable manufacture of earthenware. About the time of the Revolution, ale-jugs of native marl, ornamented with figures in white pipe-clay, were introduced. During the reigns of Anne and George I. an improved ware was made of sand and pipe-clay coloured with oxide of copper and manganese, forming the well-known agate-ware and tortoiseshell-ware, conferring on the pottery the character of a hard paste, which was subsequently so much improved by Wedgwood, and introduced under the name of Queen's ware.

The proceedings of Wedgwood form an epoch in the history of the art. Josiah Wedgwood was the son of a potter at Burslem in Staffordshire. He was born about the year 1730, and can scarcely be said to have received any formal education. At the age of eleven he entered his brother's pottery as a thrower; but he had not been long so engaged before he was attacked by small-pox, which left him with a lame leg, and rendered amputation necessary. His first attempts to settle in life were not fortunate; he became partner for a short time in 1752 with a man named Harrison, at Stoke, where he is said to have first felt a strong desire to manufacture ornamental pottery. His next partner was named Whieldon, and his employment consisted in manufacturing knife-handles in imitation of agate and tortoiseshell, melon table-plates, green pickle-leaves, &c.; but he could not induce his partner to embark largely in the production of ornamental wares, nor was there much encouragement to do so. The upper classes of Great Britain obtained their porcelain from China; the great bulk of the earthenware in domestic use was supplied by France, Germany, and Holland; and even the trade in tobacco-pipes, in which this country had attained some success, was becoming monopolized by the Dutch. To compete with these formidable rivals required the courage and persistence of genius; and Wedgwood was not slow in bringing them to bear upon the native materials which surrounded him. Accordingly, in 1759 he established a small factory on his own account at Burslem. Here he must have been successful, for he soon undertook a second manufactory, where he produced a white stone-ware, and afterwards a third, where he manufactured his celebrated cream-coloured ware. Some specimens of the latter having been shown to Queen Charlotte, her Majesty was so pleased with them that she appointed Wedgwood the royal potter, and gave permission for calling the ware "Queen's ware." Wedgwood had now no longer reason to complain of want of taste or of patronage on the part of the public, and nobly did he use his best exertions to encourage the one and respond worthily to the other. He studied the chemistry of his day, and courted the society of scientific men, with a view to improve the composition, glaze, and colour of his wares. He invited good artists to furnish him with designs, among whom was the celebrated Flaxman. Among Wedgwood's inventions may be mentioned a terra cotta, resembling porphyry; basaltic, or black ware, which would strike sparks like a flint; white porcelain biscuit, with properties similar to basalt; bamboo or cane-coloured biscuit; jasper, a white biscuit, of exquisite delicacy and beauty, well adapted for cameos, portraits, &c.; also blue jasper and green jasper, and a porcelain biscuit little inferior to agate in hardness, and used for pestles and mortars in the laboratories of chemists. He also succeeded in imparting to hard pottery the vivid colours and brilliant glaze of porcelain. About the year 1762 Wedgwood opened a warehouse in London, and entrusted it to the care of Mr Bentley, a gentleman of recognised taste, who succeeded in attracting attention to the rising Staffordshire works, and also in obtaining the loan of vases, cameos, oriental porcelain, &c., which at that time were difficult to procure, especially for the purposes of the manufacturers; but such was the sympathy of persons of taste with Wedgwood's pursuits, that they freely lent their tactile treasures, either to be copied or to suggest new designs. Even the Barbarini vase, which was purchased by the Duchess of Portland for 1800 guineas, was lent to Wedgwood, who, after executing fifty copies, destroyed the mould. Wedgwood's wares now became so deservedly popular that the extension of his works in Staffordshire led to the formation of a new village near Newcastle-under-Lyne, which was named "Etruria," from the resemblance which the clay dug there had to the ancient Etrurian earth, and also probably to mark the success with which Wedgwood had imitated the ancient Etruscan ware. This village long continued to be a centre of attraction for travellers from all parts of Europe, and we may still trace that celebrity in many noted collections of the ceramic art, Wedgwood's finest productions taking rank with the choicest specimens of Dresden and Sévres. Wedgwood died at his mansion in Etruria in 1795.

The stone-ware which Wedgwood so greatly improved had long existed under various forms in different potteries of the world. In some cases it was common, and in others fine—the difference consisting in the composition of the paste. The Chinese were acquainted with this ware, and were accustomed to use it as the basis for a surface of porcelain paste. The stone pottery of the Rhine of the sixteenth century is esteemed by collectors for its quaintness of form, richness of ornament, and the colour of its enamel. Grès Flamand, or Flemish stone-ware, of the period between 1540 and 1620 is remarkable for its beautiful blue colour, quaint forms, and rich ornaments. France also appears to have manufactured stone-ware before the sixteenth century. In England, Dutch and German workmen were engaged in the manufacture at an early period. In 1690 the mode of glazing by means of common salt enabled the stone-ware manufacturers to compete successfully with delft and soft paste fabrics. Towards the end of the seventeenth century a very fine unglazed stone-ware, with raised ornaments, known as red Japan ware, was made in England, after the failure of many previous attempts. It appears that two brothers named Elers, from Nuremberg, discovered at Bradwell, about 2 miles from Burslem, a bed of fine red clay, which they worked at a small factory erected on the bed itself. They endeavoured to conceal their discovery, as well as their mode of working, for which purpose they employed the most ignorant assistants that they could meet with; but no sooner did their ware attract attention than a potter named Astbury, feigning to be an idiot, entered the service of the two brothers, and, having learnt all their secrets, established a factory for himself; the processes soon became known, and others followed the example. In 1720 the two brothers closed their establishment, and entered the porcelain manufactory at Chelsea. Mr Marryat characterizes their ware as being fine in material and sharp in execution, the ornaments being formed in copper moulds.

Regarding stone-ware as a connecting-link between earthen-ware and porcelain, we come now to the history of the latter article. China, Japan, and Persia are the earliest nations which produced this beautiful material. Bottles of Chinese manufacture have been found in the tombs of Thebes; and from an inscription on one of them, the date of the manufacture would appear to be between 1575 B.C. and 1289 B.C. The workmanship, however, is inferior. Porcelain seems to have been common in the Chinese empire in the year 163 B.C., and to have attained its greatest perfection in the year 1000 A.D. The porcelain tower near Nankin was erected in 1277. Marco Polo describes the manufacture in China during the thirteenth century. Specimens of the ware had gradually found their way to Europe, but were not generally known until the Cape of Good Hope had been doubled by the Portuguese. The latter were so struck with the resemblance between the texture of this fine ware and that of cowrie-shells or "porcellana," as they were called, that they imagined that the ware might be made of such shells, or of a composition resembling them, and named it accordingly. They imported numerous and splendid collections of the ware into Europe, where it was also named from the country which produced it; and, from its ringing sound, "China metal." It was also called "China earth." On the expulsion of the Portuguese, the Dutch succeeded in establishing a traffic with India and Japan; and Europe was for a long time supplied with porcelain through Holland. The English shared in the trade somewhat later, through the medium of the East India Company; but the taste for collecting china had become very general, and about the middle of the seventeenth century had amounted to a passion. The writer of the day frequently refer to it, especially in Queen Anne's reign. The French, who had established missions in China, succeeded in obtaining, from time to time, information respecting the manufacture. Fokien was represented as the seat of manufacture of the pure white porcelain of China, some of which consists of small cups and similar articles, with inscriptions, devices, &c., under the glaze, so that they can only be seen by holding the article up to the light. Nankin produced the blue and white porcelain, as also the pale buff on the necks of bottles and backs of plates. King-te-ching was named as the origin of the old sea-green and crackle porcelain. To the former the term celadon has been applied; but the French extend the term to porcelain of any tint in which the colours are mixed with the glaze, and burnt in at the first firing. In some cases two or more colours are blended so as to give the appearance of shot-silk; a variety, known as marbled, belongs to this class, and resembles marble in its colouring and veining. Crackle china, in which an immense number of cracks occur on the surface in small regular figures, is due to the unequal expansion of the glaze on the paste. The crackled "tsou-khi" are produced by combining steatite with the glaze; and this when fired, splits into a net-work over the surface. A similar effect can be produced by plunging the heated porcelain into cold water; the cracks are then filled in with a thick ink or red-ochre. The ancient crackle is so much esteemed in Japan that as much as L300 has been paid for a single specimen. The Chinese call this ware snake-porcelain; and the French apply to it the term porcelaine truite. But the perfection of the ceramic art among the Chinese is exhibited in their egg-shell porcelain, which is thin and transparent, and resembles an egg-shell in appearance. This ware is coloured citron-yellow for the exclusive use of the emperor, and ruby for the use of the imperial family. The porcelain in common use in China is brown, the inside being white, and white medallions outside. There is also an inferior and more modern porcelain, manufactured at Canton, and known as Indian china. But in all the specimens of Chinese porcelain, however beautiful may be the material and delicate the texture, however brilliant the colour and pure the glaze, the form and the design are hideous. It has been remarked that the vase of the humblest Greek potter of the best period has an aesthetic value far surpassing the most costly productions of the Celestial Empire. The porcelain of Japan is in better taste than that of China, the dragons being less monstrous and the flowers more natural.

After the introduction of Chinese porcelain into Europe, many attempts were made during two centuries to imitate it. The first successful experiment was the result of one of those accidents which are doubtless of frequent occurrence, although the quality of mind required to take advantage of them is rare. John Frederick Böttcher was an apothecary's assistant at Berlin; he was fond of chemistry, and conducted his experiments with so much ardour that the authorities could not resist the conclusion that he was practising the black art. He found it convenient to make his escape from Berlin and to visit Dresden, where the Elector of Saxony, Augustus II, patronized chemistry, not from the love of science, but from that of gold. Böttcher claimed the protection of the elector, who eagerly inquired of him respecting the transmutation of the baser metals. With the natural frankness of his character, Böttcher confessed his ignorance, but was disbelieved. Why should a man study chemistry except to enrich himself? it was argued; and as the elector was already patronizing the alchemist Tschirnhaus in his endeavours to discover the art of transmuting old age into youth, by means of the elixir vitae, he associated Böttcher with him, with strict orders not to let him out of his sight. Böttcher was employed to seek after the philosopher's stone; and in the course of his experiments he made some crucibles, which, on being fired, possessed many of the characters of oriental porcelain. The vessels were made from a brown clay found near Meissen, and they were of a reddish tint. When the result was brought before the elector he appreciated its importance; and in order that Böttcher might pursue the inquiry in secret, he sent him to the castle of Albrechtsburg, near Meissen, where he was magnificently entertained, but restrained in his personal liberty. So much importance was attached to the secret, that during the troubles consequent on the invasion of Saxony by Charles XII. of Sweden, Böttcher, Tschirnhaus, and three workmen, were sent to the fortress of Königstein on the Elbe, where a laboratory was prepared for them. Böttcher's fellow-prisoners formed a plan of escape, which he communicated to the commandant, whereby he gained favour and a little more personal liberty. In 1707 he returned to Meissen, where he continued to prosecute his experiments, delighting every one around him with his active cheerfulness, and keeping up the spirits of the workmen during the furnace operations, which sometimes lasted sixty hours consecutively. Tschirnhaus died in the following year, and Böttcher enlarged the scale of his operations; he caused a new furnace to be erected, and extended the time of firing to five days and five nights. The elector was present at the opening of the furnace, and expressed his satisfaction at the progress which was being made. Up to this time, however, the only result was a kind of red and white stone-ware; and when, in 1709, Böttcher succeeded in producing a white porcelain, it became bent, and cracked in the fire. The progress, however, was deemed to be sufficient to determine Augustine to establish a manufactory at Meissen, and to appoint Böttcher the director. In 1715 the new factory produced a beautiful description of porcelain by means of the kaolin of Aue in the Erzgebirge, the discovery of which was made by an ironmaster of the district named Schnorr. This man had observed, while riding near the place, that his horse's feet stuck in a soft white tenacious earth, and it occurred to him that if this earth were dried and reduced to powder, it would make a good substitute for hair-powder, which the fashion of the day required, all except the poor, to use. Accordingly he manufactured the powder in large quantities, and found a ready sale for it in Dresden and elsewhere. Böttcher's valet used it, and so increased the weight of his master's wig as to lead to inquiry; and finding that the new hair-powder was of mineral origin, the idea flashed across his mind that this white powder might be useful in his experiments. He made the attempt, and was delighted to find that he had at length discovered the long wished-for material for making white porcelain. The secret so curiously obtained was for a long time as carefully guarded. The powder was made to retain its commercial name of "Schnorr's white earth" (Sovratische weisse Erde), its export was forbidden, and it was introduced into the factory in sealed barrels by persons sworn to secrecy. All persons connected with the factory were obliged to take a similar oath: no visitor was admitted; and the factory was regulated after the manner of a fortress. The motto in large letters, "Be secret unto death!" (Geheim bis ins Grab), was set up in each room; the oath to the workmen was renewed every month; and when the king or any distinguished visitor was allowed to enter the factory, a similar obligation was imposed on him.

But all this parade of secrecy would make it clear to the most ill-informed workmen that the secret had a high marketable value, and we cannot wonder that it should have been sold to one or other of the monarchs of Europe, most of whom were ambitious to manufacture oriental porcelain. Böttcher died in 1719, at the age of thirty-seven, but before his premature death, a foreman had escaped from the factory, and proceeding to Vienna, submitted to be bribed, and it was not long before rival factories sprang up in different parts of Germany. A few years ago the writer visited the Meissen factory, which is pleasantly situated on the banks of the Elbe: it still retains something of its fortress character, although the workshops are light and cheerful. The principal room is adorned with the bust of Böttcher. The factory, however, has lost its former vigour: an air of lassitude seems to pervade the place, and neither here nor at Sévres are we impressed with the idea that the work is being done in earnest, as it is at such an establishment as Minton's at Stoke-upon-Trent. There can be no doubt that private enterprise, unshackled by state restrictions, is the only healthy condition of the useful arts. A royal factory, which can neither become bankrupt nor meet with the wholesome stimulus of competition, is not likely to be worked at a profit, nor to inspire activity in its attendants.

The temporary success of the Meissen factory depended on the singularity of its position. There was a great demand in Europe for fine porcelain, and Meissen was in a condition to supply it. The first productions of the factory were mostly imitations of oriental patterns, but they were deficient in grace and lightness. There was a marked improvement when Kändler, a professional sculptor, was appointed in 1731 to superintend the modelling. He introduced wreaths and bouquets, animals and groups of figures, with the feeling of an artist. The works were arrested by the Seven Years' War; but after this calamity Meissen became celebrated for its exquisite miniature copies of the best works of the Flemish school, together with birds and insects, painted by Lindenmayer, and flowers and animals by the best artists. In 1745, when Frederick of Prussia took possession of Dresden, he obtained among the spoils of war enormous quantities of porcelain. He also removed to Berlin some of the workmen, together with the models and moulds of the finest pieces. Again, in 1759, the factory was plundered and its archives destroyed; it revived somewhat under Dietrich the painter, Löhch the modeller, Breicheisen, and the sculptor François Acier. Gradually, however, the factory ceased to be profitable, and was for many years maintained at a loss; when some years ago the king gave it up to the finance department of the state. The finest works of art are no longer produced; and it is also stated that the beds of fine clay in the neighbourhood are nearly exhausted, and that an inferior material from Zittau is used instead. Various marks were placed on the wares at different periods: the first mark consisted of the letters A.R., (Augustus Rex), and was placed on all pieces not intended for sale. The well-known mark of the electoral swords, crossed, also distinguishes Dresden china. Fac-similes of these marks, and of the marks and monograms of other celebrated European potteries, are given in Mr Marryat's work.

Among the best of the Dresden works are groups from antique models; lace figures, so called from the fineness of the lace-work in the dress; flowers, evidently studied from nature; and vases richly adorned and encrusted, forming what is called honey-comb china. But even during the palmy time of this manufacture, namely, from 1731 to 1756, the productions were sometimes disfigured by the highly artificial taste of the age. Thus, in the Ceramic Court of the Crystal Palace, we have lately examined some curious specimens of basket-ware, resembling large wicker baskets, with numerous handles and small wicker doors opening at the side and moving on hinges. We may perhaps be allowed to repeat in this place some observations which we have made on one of these productions elsewhere:—“A certain ideal finish is given to the work by resting it, as it were, upon a bed of flags, whose lanceolated foliage rises up gracefully, and constitutes indeed the only pleasing part of the production, affording as it does a refreshing glimpse of nature amidst the embarrassments of art. Those only who are acquainted with the practical details of this manufacture can be at all aware of the enormous difficulties of forming one of these baskets, and passing it successfully through the furnace; and when the results have been successful, as in the cases before us, we have an infringement of one of the soundest canons of art,—namely, not to imitate an inferior material in a superior.”

The first rival of Meissen was the porcelain factory of Vienna, which originated in 1720, in consequence of the perjury of a Meissen workman, as already noticed. The factory does not, however, appear to have flourished until warmed into life by the patronizing smiles of Maria Theresa in 1744, and of the Emperor Joseph. The porcelain of Vienna holds a lower rank than that of Dresden or of Berlin. It is not so light as that of Dresden, and the glazing has a grayish tint. Its chief feature is its raised and gilded work, which are in good taste, and of late years the application in relief of solid platinum and gold. The works are now in private hands, and the chief markets for the sale of the ware are in Turkey, Russia, and Italy.

As the Vienna works were based on treachery, so was the next important establishment based on the defection of a Viennese workman. A celebrated pottery was already in existence at the village of Höchst on the Nidda, when in 1740 a man named Ringler undertook to superintend the manufacture of porcelain if the proprietors would introduce it. This man appears to have been simply a knave without skill or invention: he had committed to writing the various processes of the Vienna establishment, and concealing his manuscript about his person, consulted it every time he had to give out materials to the workmen. As knavery propagates itself, the workmen, taking advantage of Ringler's fondness for wine, invited him to a feast, where they made him helplessly drunk,—when they robbed him of his papers, carefully copied his recipes, and then decamped to other parts of Germany, where they sold the secrets to those who were anxious for their possession. Hence originated from one source the porcelain factories of Switzerland, of the Lower Rhine, of Cassel, and even of Berlin. The Fürstenburg works, in the duchy of Brunswick, originated in a bribe offered by one of the dukes to a Höchst workman. The works at Frankenthal in Bavaria originated in a pottery which was visited by Ringler after he had been plundered of his papers. The factory of Nymphenburg in Bavaria had a similar origin. The porcelain of this factory is much esteemed, many of the designs having been furnished by the celebrated picture gallery of Munich. A factory at Baden was conducted by some of the Höchst workmen until 1778. The factory of Ludwigsburg, begun in 1758 under the patronage of the Duke of Württemberg, has executed some beautiful works, which are known as Kronenburg porcelain, from the town of that name, and the mark CC on its wares. The distance from which the clay and the fuel had to be procured prevented the success of this establishment. The porcelain factory of Berlin was first undertaken in consequence of the information supplied by the men who robbed Ringler; but it was not very successful until a more magnificent fraud had been perpetrated, namely, the transference of the best of the work-people, and the material of the Meissen factory, as already referred to. The Berlin porcelain was, of course, only an imitation of the Dresden, but the factory was carried on with such vigour as to yield to the king an annual revenue of 200,000 crowns. In 1790 a second royal porcelain factory was established about 2 miles from Berlin. To one of Ringler's fraudulent comrades is also due the factory established at Fulda, about 1763. The prince-bishop of Fulda established another factory in a house adjoining the episcopal palace; but it is said to have failed in consequence of the taste for porcelain extending to the dignitaries of the church, who claimed the privilege of carrying off specimens without paying for them. The porcelain factories of Thuringia

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1 This statement is made on the authority of Mr Marryat; but at the time we are writing an account is given in the German papers of an order from Paris having been executed at Meissen, consisting of portraits of the Emperor and Empress of the French, of a medalion shape, and inclosed in a rich porcelain frame. According to the German critics, “these are the finest works of art which porcelain painting has yet produced.” If this criticism be true, or even partially true, the Meissen works must have experienced an extraordinary revival. History originated about 1758, when an old woman having sold some sand at the house of the chemist Macheleidt, his son, struck by its appearance, experimented on it, and obtained by its means a porcelain-looking substance, whereupon the Prince of Schwartzburg sanctioned the erection of a factory at Sitzerode, which was afterwards removed to Volkstadt. The abundance of fuel supplied by the Thuringian forest led to the erection of other factories, such as that of Walendorf in Saxe-Coburg, Limbach in Saxe-Meiningen, the director of which succeeded so well as to be able to purchase the factory at Grosbreitenbach in Rudelstadt, and also that of Kloster Veilsdorf. Factories were also founded at Gotha in 1780, at Hildburghausen, at Ansbach, at Ilmenau, at Breitenbach, and at Gera. All these factories had their periods of prosperity, and produced porcelain which is still esteemed by collectors. Some of them have degenerated into potteries, and some produce pipe-bowls as their only article in porcelain. Nor will our list approach completeness without mentioning a factory established by the Empress Elizabeth in 1756, near St Petersburg, which still continues to produce good porcelain from native materials. Denmark has a factory at Copenhagen; it is supported by the government, but is said to be, commercially, a failure. The factory at Zurich in Switzerland was established on the information supplied by one of Ringler's workmen. A factory at Nyons, in the Canton de Vaud, has also produced some good porcelain.

During all this active rivalry on the Continent it will not be supposed that England had escaped the porcelain-making mania. Bow and Chelsea produced the first porcelain works. They made a soft ware from a mixture of white clay, white sand from Alum Bay, and pounded glass. The Chelsea works do not appear to have been in a very flourishing condition until George II. imported workmen, models, and materials from Brunswick and Saxony. Chelsea porcelain then became the rage, and such was the eagerness to obtain it, that it was sold by auction to the highest bidders, the dealers rushing in crowds to compete for it. Some of the best works were produced between 1750 and 1755; they are in the style of the best German; the colours are fine and vivid, and the claret colour is peculiar. Bow china, made at Stratford-le-Bow, has some resemblance to that of Chelsea, but the material is not so good. Its principal productions were tea-services and dessert-sets. In 1750 was established the factory at Derby, which became important in consequence of the introduction of the Chelsea artists, workmen, and models, the junction of the two factories being notified by the anchor and the letter D, the monograms of each manufacture. Flaxman furnished designs for the establishment; but the union did not continue long; the partners quarrelled, and one of them destroyed the models. Mr Marryat describes the Derby porcelain as being very transparent, of fine quality, and distinguished by a beautiful bright blue, often introduced on the border or edge of the tea-services, the ground being generally plain; the white-biscuit figures are said to equal those of Sévres. The Worcester works were established in 1751 by Dr Wall and some others, under the name of the Worcester Porcelain Company. The company first imitated the blue and white Nankin china; they afterwards adopted the Sévres style, with the Dresden method of painting. These works are remarkable as being the first to make use of the Cornish stone or kaolin, discovered by Cookworthy in 1768. They are still carried on with distinguished success by Messrs Kerr and Binns. In 1772 a factory was established at Caughley, near Broseley, Colebrook Dale, the productions of which are known as Salopian ware. Early in the present century some good porcelain was made at Nantgarrow and Swansea; it is also stated that the Bristol china, a white ware formerly common in the west of England, was made in Wales, and sold in Bristol. We cannot conclude this bare mention of English porcelain without naming such firms as Minton & Co., Copeland & Co., at Stoke-upon-Trent. We have referred elsewhere to their works (in reviewing the collections in the Ceramic Court of the Crystal Palace), in the following terms:—"The tea-services of Messrs Minton are beautiful and delicate in form, exquisite in device, and rich in colour, and contrasting with their porcelain vases, flower vases, and enormous majolica vases, would seem to illustrate the beautiful and the sublime in the fictile art. We have also some exquisite busts manufactured by Copeland from porcelain earth, such as the bust of Clytie, reduced from the original in the British Museum, a form of art which cannot be too highly commended, since there is nothing more touching to the thoughtful mind than to be brought face to face with the worthies and celebrities of the past."

France regarded with impatience during sixty years the progress of porcelain in Europe, and although eminently qualified in point of taste, skill, and science to contribute to the ceramic treasures of the world, she was unable to compete with other nations for want of a suitable raw material. It is true that as early as 1695 a soft porcelain had been manufactured at St Cloud, and that some of the scientific men of France had endeavoured, under royal patronage, to discover the secrets of the art, but no great success was attained. The company had been established at Vincennes, but in 1756 they removed to a large building which they had erected at Sévres. In 1760 Louis XV. bought up the establishment, probably at the instigation of Madame de Pompadour, who seems to have shared with her sex the passion for china. The factory became celebrated for its soft porcelain or pâte tendre, but the great point aimed at was to produce the hard porcelain which had rendered Saxony the envy of Europe. But kaolin was not known in France, nor was its presence even suspected, until about 1768, when the wife of a surgeon named Dartet of St Yrieix, near Limoges, having noticed in a ravine near the town a white unctuous earth, thought that she might relieve her husband's poverty somewhat by using it in her house instead of soap. The surgeon showed a portion of the substance to an apothecary of Bordeaux, who being aware of the search that was being made for porcelain earth, forwarded a specimen to the chemist Macquer, who recognised it as the much-desired kaolin. Assuring himself that an abundant supply could be had, he established the manufacture of hard porcelain at Sévres in 1769. At first some difficulty was experienced in managing the colours upon the more compact and less absorbent material, so that the soft porcelain continued to be made until the year 1804. Such, in few words, is the origin of the hard porcelain of Sévres. The pâte tendre was not considered as real porcelain, but the taste and skill of the French are remarkable in carrying it to the highest pitch of perfection under many difficulties, arising from its complicated and expensive composition, and from its liability to collapse during the firing. Mr Marryat speaks of it as being "remarkable for its creamy and pearly softness of colour, the beauty of its painting, and its depth of glaze." The ware for common or domestic use had generally a plain ground, painted with flowers in patterns or medallions; articles de luxe, and pieces intended for royal use, had commonly grounds of various colours, such as bleu de roi, bleu turquoise, jonquille, or yellow, vert-près, or green, and a lively pink or rose colour, named after Madame Dubarry. Skilful artists were employed upon the finest porcelain, which is adorned with landscapes, flowers, birds, boys, and Cupids gracefully arranged in medallions. Some of the specimens are painted with subjects after Watteau, and other known masters. The jewelled cups, with the bleu de roi ground are celebrated. The best period of the soft porcelain was from 1740 to 1769, and the tests which Mr Marryat gives to distinguish it form its highest praise, namely, "the beauty of the painting, the richness of the gilding, and the depth of colour." In point of form the Sévres china is not equal to that of Dresden. A law was passed in 1766, and renewed in 1784, limiting the use of gold in the decoration of porcelain to the royal manufactory of Sévres, which accounts for the rarity of old French gilded porcelain.

At the time of the Revolution many fine specimens of Sévres porcelain in the royal palaces and mansions of the nobility were destroyed. The establishment of Sévres, however, was supported by the revolutionary government, who appointed three commissioners to manage it. In the year 1800 the first consul appointed M. Brongniart as director. He held the appointment during forty-seven years, and originated the celebrated Musée Céramique, consisting of a historical series of specimens illustrative of the ceramic art in all times and among all people, together with a collection of raw materials, tools, implements, trial-pieces, models of furnaces, &c. On our visit to this museum, we were particularly struck with a collection of failures, or specimens showing what had been done to overcome faulty results, and what it was hopeless to attempt. M. Brongniart is also the author of a classical work on the art to which he devoted his life with such distinguished success. M. Ebelman succeeded Brongniart as director, and held the appointment for a year or two. The present director, M. Regnault, was appointed by the Emperor Napoleon III.

The following is a list of the more celebrated porcelain manufactures of France:—Chantilly, which owed its origin in 1735 to a workman from St Cloud; Menezy, founded in 1735 under the patronage of the Duc de Villeroi; Sceaux-penthievre, established in 1751; Clignancourt, 1750, under the patronage of the Duke of Orleans; Etolles, near Corbeil, 1766; Bourg la Reine, Paris, 1773. Lille, established, it is supposed, in 1708, when the Dutch were masters of the town; Arras, 1782; Tournay, 1750. At St Amand les Eaux, near Valenciennes, and at Tournay in Belgium, are two factories, the only two in Europe where the old pâte tendre of Sévres is still produced.

As respects Italy, a factory was established at Doccia, near Florence, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Venice also manufactured porcelain until 1812. There was also a factory at Vincenzo, near Turin; but the most famous factory in Italy is the Capo di Monti at Naples, founded by Charles III, in 1736. This sovereign appears to have excelled the other royal amateurs of Europe in the ardour with which he cultivated the ceramic art, and he even surpassed Augustus III, who was nicknamed by Frederick of Prussia "the Porcelain King," and who exchanged a whole regiment of dragoons for some huge useless china vases. Charles III even worked in the factory with his own hands, and held an annual fair in front of the royal palace at Naples, where there was a shop for the sale of the royal productions; and there was no more certain road to the king's favour than to become a purchaser. When Charles became king of Spain he founded a factory at Madrid, and that at Naples declined. His successor Ferdinand sanctioned the erection of other porcelain works, and allowed the royal workmen to assist in their formation; and they appear not only to have assisted but to have robbed the parent factory of its gold and silver models and other valuables. The royal factory was closed in 1821. The porcelain of Capo di Monti is not, as is commonly the case, an imitation of that of some rival factory. Its beauty and excellence are due to the design from shells, corals, embossed figures, &c., artistically moulded in high relief. Mr Marryat regards the tea and coffee services of this ware as perhaps the most beautiful porcelain articles ever produced in Europe, for transparency, thinness of the paste, elegance of form, and gracefully-twisted serpent handles, as also for the delicate modelling of the ornamental groups in high relief, painted and gilt, contrasting well with the plain ground. The factory at Madrid was conducted with the utmost secrecy during several reigns, but was destroyed by the French in 1812. Portugal has a factory of hard porcelain near Oporto.

The prices paid for porcelain are high. As much as £1,150 has been paid for a single specimen of majolica; while a service of Chelsea ware has cost £1,200. One of Sévres, of a good period, 30,000 livres; while the Dresden ware was equally costly. Although our modern manufacturers have produced porcelain rivalling that of the best periods of celebrated works, the price still continues to be necessarily high, where the materials require to be treated with the precision of a chemical process, and the design and ornamentation require high artistic skill. Mr Minton received £1,000 for his service of turquoise and Parian; Lord Hertford gave £1,000 for two vases; Mr Mills the same; one of the Queen's vases has been valued at £1,000, and Lord Ward gave £1,500 for a dessert service of Sévres. Such works as these, however, belong rather to the fine arts than the useful arts, to be preserved in cabinets and museums. Formerly it was customary on great occasions to serve the guests on porcelain, which gave to wealth a real distinction. In those days the transition from porcelain to earthenware was abrupt; but through the exertions of Wedgwood and others, porcelain now descends through numerous varieties of material, style, taste, and decoration; so that every class of consumer may suit his own taste and means. Our trade in earthenware has of late years gone on increasing. In the year 1835 the declared value of earthenware exported from the United Kingdom was £5,40,421; in the year 1857 it amounted to £1,488,668. Our exports extend to most parts of the world, including Russia, Austria, Turkey, and even France. The United States of America take nearly the half of our exports in earthenware, so little has the potter's art been encouraged in the New World. Our exports to foreign countries would doubtless be larger if the restrictions were fewer and less clumsy. In Germany and Italy the duty is levied on the weight; so that Wedgwood, on account of the lightness of his ware, was long able to command the market in those states. In France the duty on common English china of one colour, without gilding or ornament, is 164 francs per 1000 kilogrammes (200 lb.); for fine china, 327 francs for the same quantity. The most whimsical of all tariffs is that of Portugal, where the charge is according to the number of colours; so that, as Mr Wall remarks, "no man's pocket could stand the choice of a rainbow pattern."

SECT. II.—THE MATERIALS.

Clay, which forms the basis of pottery and earthenware, is not only abundant and widely diffused, but presents so many varieties that much experience and judgment are required in adapting the kind of clay to the article to be manufactured. Brongniart enumerates 167 varieties of clay, and states their physical and chemical characters, composition, locality, and application. Some of the commonest varieties of clay consist of—1. Pipe-clay. It has a greyish-white colour, a smooth greasy feel, an earthy fracture; it adheres to the tongue, and is plastic, tenacious, and infusible. It becomes of a cream colour when fired; and is used for tobacco-pipes and white pottery. It is found near Poole in Dorsetshire.—2. Potter's-clay. This is of

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1 Traité des Arts Céramiques ou des Porcelaines considérées dans leur histoire, leur pratique, et leur théorie, par Alexandre Brongniart, &c., &c., 2 vols. 8vo, with an Atlas of plates, Paris, 1844. 3 Under the article Brick will be found a notice of the various coarse clays employed. Materials various colours; those used in the Staffordshire potteries are the brown and blue clays from Dorsetshire, and black and cracking clays from Devonshire. The colour of the black clay is due to bitumen or coaly matter, which disappears in passing through the kiln; so that the wares formed of it are almost white. Cracking clay is esteemed on account of its whiteness, but as it is liable to crack during the firing, it must be mixed with other clays which are free from this defect. Brown clay when passed through the glass oven sometimes causes the glaze to crack, or craze, as it is called.

For ordinary purposes blue clay is preferred; it can be mixed with a larger proportion of flint than the other varieties, and thus produces a white ware. Potter's clay, mixed with sand, is formed into bricks and tiles.—3. Stourbridge clay. This is of a dark colour, from the presence of carbonaceous matter, and from its being more refractory than potter's clay, it is largely employed for glass pots, crucibles, &c.—4. Brick clay or loam is abundantly met with on the London clay, and is often found on an interposed bed of sand. Its appearance, texture, and composition vary greatly; and the colour depends on the proportion of oxide of iron contained in it.—5. London clay. This is an extensive deposit of bluish clay; although near the surface, it frequently has the usual clay colour. It extends over the greater part of Middlesex, a portion of Norfolk, and the whole of Essex and Suffolk. It is often found near the surface; but the lower beds are sometimes yellowish, white, or variegated. Organic remains are found in it.—6. Plastic clay. This skirts the London clay within the London chalk basin, and is also found in the Isle of Wight. This formation comprises a number of sand, clay, and pebble beds, alternating irregularly, and lying immediately on the chalk.

The above varieties of clay are mixed with such substances as carbonate of lime, magnesia, protoxide of iron, manganese, finely-divided quartz, felspar, mica, organic matter, &c., which greatly modify its properties and applications. Pure clay is soft, more or less unctuous to the touch, white and opaque, and has a characteristic odour when breathed upon. It is a compound, or perhaps only a mixture, of the two earths, alumina and silica, with water. Silicate of alumina enters largely into the composition of many crystallized minerals, among which is felspar, so abundant an ingredient in granite, porphyry, and other ancient unstratified rocks. Under certain circumstances the felspar undergoes decomposition, and is converted into a soft friable mass. In certain districts of Devonshire and Cornwall the felspar of the white granite is often disintegrated to a great depth, and the rock becomes converted into a substance resembling soft mortar. This being collected, is thrown into a stream of running water, which washes off the argillaceous portions, and holds them suspended while the heavier quartz and mica subside. At the extremity of these streams the water is dammed up, forming catch-pools, where the pure clay sinks and forms a solid mass, which, when the water has been drawn off, is dug out in blocks, and placed on shelves called linneus to dry. It is next stove-dried, crushed, packed in casks, and sent to the potteries, under the name of china clay, or kaolin. It consists of 80 parts alumina and 20 silica; a proportion of undecomposed felspar, under the name of china-stone, is sometimes added to the ingredients for porcelain. In the year 1855 as much as 60,188 tons of china clay was shipped from Cornwall, and 19,961 of china-stone; while Devonshire shipped 20,000 tons of pipe-clay, and 1100 of china-clay. Of late years improved methods have been adopted for getting out the china clay in Cornwall. At the Lee Moor clay-works, for example, Mr Phillips, the managing director, has introduced the following arrangements:—The decomposed felspar is transferred directly from the quarry to the works, where it is thrown into hoppers, and passes into a trough under the action of a full stream of water, encountering on its way a series of knives and iron arms furnished with teeth, which thoroughly beat up the clay in its passage along the trough. Pure spring water is used in the operation, and great care is taken to exclude the surface drainage from the peat soil of Dartmoor. As the water leaves the trough it flows through sieves, which separate the coarser fragments of quartz, and the fluid, charged with clay and mica, passes on; the mica breaking up into thin scales, has a tendency to float, but being heavier than the suspended alumina, it gradually subsides under the regulation of the current, which is now not sufficiently rapid to carry on the mica, nor sufficiently sluggish to allow of the deposition of the clay. When at length the stream holds nothing but pure clay, it is allowed to flow into deep V-shaped channels, which terminate in large covered reservoirs, in which the clay is deposited. Warm-air pipes circulate beneath the reservoirs, so as to produce a temperature of about 90°. The fine clay soon subsides, so as to allow of the clear water above it being drawn off. The mineral pegmatite is also valuable, as containing all the ingredients for hard porcelain. It consists of felspar, kaolin, and a small proportion of prismatic quartz. The mineral must, however, be in the state of decomposition already referred to. The quartz gives whiteness and transparency to hard ware; but for soft porcelain bones are substituted. These melt into a kind of semi-transparent enamel, which imparts transparency to the ware. Steatite, or soap-stone, is also an ingredient in porcelain. The statutory porcelain known as Parian or Carrara, from its similarity to those beautiful marbles, owes its effect chiefly to the use of a soft felspar instead of Cornish stone; while its agreeable yellowish-white tint is due to the presence of a small portion of oxide of iron contained in the clays and the felspar.

The property possessed by clay of forming a perfectly plastic mass with water, and of being permanently fixed by heat, has led to its employment in the manufacture of bricks and vessels of various kinds, but it undergoes a large amount of contraction in drying and burning, to diminish which the clay is usually mixed with a considerable proportion of quartz-sand, or with the powder of previously-burnt clay. The quartz in pottery ware is in the form of flints; these are obtained from the chalk districts of Gravesend and Newhaven; they are white outside, but dark and clear within. Such flints should be selected the fracture of which is free from yellow or iron stains.

The preparation of the clay for such coarse articles as tiles consists first in weathering, or spreading it out to the action of the air, so that by absorbing water the particles may separate, and the clay work freely. It should be exposed to at least one night's frost, or to one day's sun, before a second layer is added to the first. The weather-clay is cast into pits, and left for some time covered with water to mellow or ripen. Before being used it is tempered by grinding in a pug-mill. This differs somewhat from that described under Brick, it being tapered at both ends, and the hole is at the bottom instead of in front. If the clay be foul, or contain many stones, it is slung, or cut into lengths of about 2 feet with a sling or wire-knife, and then further divided into slices of three-quarters of an inch in thickness, during which operation the stones fall out, or are picked out. The clay goes once more through the pug-mill, and is then ready for the moulder. For chimney-pots and such articles the clay is slung once or twice, and pugged or ground two or three times.

In the year 1855 there were exported from Poole in Dorsetshire 53,702 tons of Poole clay, and 582 tons were sent to London by railway. The clay for fine pottery undergoes a number of preparatory processes. Two or more kinds of clay being put together in proportions according to the judgment of the manufacturer, they are thrown into a trough with water and left for some hours. They are then well worked with a long blade of ash furnished with a cross-handle, named a blunger, until a smooth pulp is formed, a pint of which weighs 24 ounces, or, in the case of china clay, 26 ounces. The operation of blunging, as it is called, may be assisted by pugging the clay in an iron cylinder furnished with knives on the inside, and a moving vertical axis also containing knives, which by their joint action divide the clay, and by their position force it downwards, and out through an opening at the bottom. It is then removed to a vat, mixed with water, and blunged by means of cross-arms attached to a perpendicular shaft. In this operation stony particles sink to the bottom.

The flints having been heated in a kiln, and plunged in cold water to increase their brittleness, are crushed into fragments by means of stampers, and are next reduced to powder in a flint-pan. This is a circular vat 10 or 12 feet in diameter, the bottom of which consists of masonry of quartz or felspar. In the centre is a vertical axis, from which radiate four arms for moving the runners; these are masses of chert, a hard siliceous stone found near Bakewell in Derbyshire. The broken flints are thus ground with water, and in the course of some hours are reduced to powder, which forms with the water a creamy mixture. Felspar, broken porcelain, &c., is sometimes ground up in the same manner in smaller vats. The creamy mixture is transferred to another vat furnished with a vertical shaft and arms, and being diluted with water, the arms are set rotating, the effect of which is to keep the finer siliceous particles suspended, while the coarser ones sink to the bottom. The former are drawn off with the water, and the latter are sent back to the flint-pan. The water thus drawn off is received into a reservoir, in which the finer particles subside. The creamy mixture of flint and water is fit to mix with the clay when a wine pint of it weighs 32 ounces. The proportions, however, in which the clay and the flint are mingled vary greatly with the kind of ware intended to be made, and the experience of the manufacturer.

These proportions being determined, the ingredients are first mingled by being agitated together, after which the mixture is passed through sieves of fine hard-spun silk, arranged on different levels, so as to run through comparatively coarse into finer sieves, and produce a smooth, uniform mixture of slip, as it is called. To assist the easy passage of the mixture a jigging motion is given to the sieves. The water which has thus far served as a vehicle for the ingredients, is next got rid of by evaporation in the slip-kiln. This is a long brick trough, heated by flues underneath, and capable of raising the water to the boiling point. During the heating the slip is diligently stirred to prevent the heavier flint from subsiding, and also to prevent the flint and clay from forming a kind of mortar with the water. When bubbles of steam cease to form, the operation is at an end. In countries where fuel is not so abundant as in England, the water is got rid of by filtration, assisted by mechanical pressure, or by rarefying the air beneath the filter by atmospheric pressure.

When the stuff is of uniform texture and sufficiently hard, it is cut up into wedges which are dashed down upon each other, in order to get rid of vesicles and air-bubbles, which might afterwards form blisters in the ware. To obtain a fine grain the clay should be wedged at intervals during several months. It is stated that in China the stuff is prepared many years in advance. The French missionaries were informed that it was customary to prepare the stuff for a hundred years (pour cent années), whence arose a fanciful derivation of the word porcelain. However this may be, there is no doubt that newly-made stuff produces manufacture, and that ageing greatly improves it. During the last-named process a kind of fermentation sets in, carbonic acid and sulphide of hydrogen are liberated, and the mass improves in texture and colour. These gases are doubtless formed at the expense of the carbonaceous and organic impurities of the clay or of the water, whence the improvement in colour; while the disengagement of the gas accounts for the improvement in texture. The next process is slapping, in which the workman takes up a mass of the paste and dashes it down with violence, then dividing the mass with a wire, he dashes the top portion on the lower; this is done many times, care being taken to preserve the grain—that is, to slap the layers parallel to each other, and not obliquely, otherwise the paste would be liable to fall apart during the firing.

**SECT. III.—THE MANUFACTURE.**

There are three processes by which fictile articles are shaped,—namely, throwing, pressing, and casting. Of these, throwing is the most common, and by far the most ancient. It is performed by means of the potter's wheel or lathe, which is a disc of wood fastened to the top of a vertical spindle, and made to rotate by being connected by means of a strap with a multiplying wheel driven by an attendant. The paste, as it is received from the slapper, is of the consistence of dough. The thrower's attendant cuts it up into portions, weighs each, according to the quantity required for the intended article, and rolls each portion up into a ball. The thrower, seated before his lathe, dashes one of the balls down upon the rotating board, and with the fingers, which are frequently dipped in water, raises the lump into a conical form presses down the mass to get rid of air-bubbles, and with one hand, or finger and thumb, in the mass, gives shape to the intended article; he is also furnished with a piece of horn or porcelain called a rib, the edge of which accurately represents the curve of the vessel. With this he smooths the inner surface, and gives it shape. During this operation the assistant turns the wheel with varying rates of speed, so that the centrifugal force may act differently in different conditions of the growing vessel. The thrower is furnished with a rude kind of fixed gauge, consisting of an upright stick, from which projects a horizontal rod at such a height above the whirling table as to enable the thrower to make all the articles of one kind very nearly of the same size. When one article is finished, it is removed by passing a wire beneath it, and is set aside in an airy or a warm room until sufficiently consolidated for the next operation, which is turning. As it would not be possible for the thrower to produce articles sufficiently thin, they are reduced in size by being put on the chuck of a lathe, and turned to shape by means of cutting tools, the material flying off in long, broad shavings just as if it were wood. When it has thus been properly thinned and brought to shape, the vessel is smoothed and solidified by the pressure of a broad tool upon its surface. Handles, spouts, &c., are formed separately, and are attached to the articles by means of slips. Flowers, leaves, &c., are formed partly in moulds and partly by hand, and are stuck on separately. The article is lastly trimmed with a knife, and cleaned with a damp sponge, and is ready for the kiln.

By the process of pressing, such articles as plates, dishes, saucers, &c., are formed. The exact pattern, say of a plate, having been determined by means of a model, a number of plaster casts are taken, one of which the plate-maker places on a whirling table, bats out a sufficient quantity of paste by means of a plaster mallet, and when sufficiently extended, places it on the mould, much in the same way as a housewife would cover a pie with paste. The table is then set whirling, and a profile or shape in earthenware being brought down upon the paste, gives the required form to the bottom of the intended plate. When the plate-maker is satisfied with his work, the mould, with the plate in its green state, as it is called, upon it, is conveyed by a boy to a warm room, and he brings back an empty mould, which has been drying, for another plate. In about two hours the plate is sufficiently dry to be removed from the mould, but the mould itself is left to dry before it is used again. One man and two boys can produce from sixty to seventy dozen of common plates in a day of ten hours, the same mould being used some five or six times during the day.

The above operation is called flat-ware pressing. Deep vessels are formed by what is called hollow-ware pressing or squeezing, for which purpose the mould consists of several parts, which fit accurately together by means of projecting pins and cavities. The clay having been batted out, the several parts of the mould carefully lined with it, and the points of junction well worked and wetted with slip, are brought together and secured by a cord, when the joints are further well worked and pressed, thin rolls of clay being sometimes inserted, and the whole worked and smoothed with moist leather and a cow's lip. The interior is then washed with a sponge, set aside for a time, and, when somewhat solidified, is worked or polished with a flexible plate of horn; it is next put into a warm room, and when the plaster has absorbed sufficient moisture, the article is removed from the mould and fetted trimmed with proper tools to get rid of seam marks. The outside is also cleaned with a moist sponge, and the handles, &c., having been added, and the horn again used, it is set aside for baking. For elaborate works, models are first formed by experienced artists in clay, and the moulds for the separate parts may be numerous. Works of a comparatively simple character are formed by the united agency of throwing and moulding.

By the third process, called casting, such delicate articles as egg-shell china are formed. The paste having been reduced to a creamy state, is poured into a plaster-mould, which, absorbing water from that portion of the paste which comes in contact with it, fixes it, so as to allow the remaining fluid portion to be poured off. A very thin coating of paste is thus left attached to the mould; when this is sufficiently dry, the mould is again filled for a short time with the creamy mixture, when a second thin deposit is formed upon the first. The mould having been dried in a warm room, the cast is taken out, examined, and touched upon by the modeller. Busts and statuettes are also formed in this way; but as they shrink as much as one-fourth during the firing, considerable dexterity is required to preserve their shape. The lace which is sometimes seen on these figures is real lace, dipped into slip, when the heat of the kiln destroys the thread, and solidifies the paste, which takes its place.

Encaustic tiles are made by what may be called a fourth process, namely, veneering. They consist, as we saw them made at the works of Mr Minton (to whom this branch, as well as other branches of the ceramic art is so deeply indebted), of a body of red clay, faced with a finer clay for the pattern, and strengthened at the bottom with another clay, the junction of these layers apparently preventing warping. After the usual preparatory processes, the red clay is slapped into the form of a quadrangular block, from which the tile-maker cuts off a slab with a wire, and upon this the facing of finer clay, coloured to the required tint, is batted out and slapped down. The bottom facing is added in a similar manner. The tile is then put into a box-press, when a plaster of Paris slab, with the pattern in relief, is brought down on the face of the tile, and impresses in the soft tinted clay the design, the hollow being afterwards filled up with clay of another colour. At the same time, the maker's name is stamped at the back, together with a few holes to make the mortar adhere. The coloured clay, in a creamy state, is next poured over the face of the tile, so as completely to conceal it, and when, in the course of twenty-four hours, this coloured slip has become hard, the superfluous clay is scraped away, the coloured clay being left only in the hollows formed by the pattern-mould. The tile having been finished off with a knife, and defects corrected, is kept during a week in a warm room, called the green-house, and the drying is finished in a warmer room, called the hot-house, preparatory to firing.

The various articles of pottery, stone-ware, or porcelain having, by one or other of the processes named, been perfected as to form, and handles and other appendages, and solid ornaments added, are now in what is called the green state. The next process is to fix them, and deprive them of their plastic nature by the action of heat. The potter's kiln consists of a massive domed cylinder of brick-work, bound with iron, and protected from the weather by an outer conical hood or casing. The dome contains openings for the exit of the smoke, which escapes into the air through a chimney in the hood. Heat is supplied by means of six or eight fire-places fixed round the cylinder, with proper circulating flues and dampers for regulating the draught. During the firing, the ware (unless of the commonest kind) is not exposed to the direct action of the fire, but is carefully packed in strong vessels, shaped very much like bandboxes; they are made of Staffordshire marl, and are called seggars. The pieces must be packed in the seggars in such a way as to economize space, and yet give them the full benefit of the heat; at the same time, they must be arranged according to their size and solidity, so that small and delicate articles may not vitrify under too strong a heat, and large ones have heat enough. Some articles admit of being placed in contact, so as to support each other and prevent distortion. When the pieces are large or complicated in shape, they may require special supports to prevent warping; these supports are of fire-clay, and nicely fit the parts supported. Articles in porcelain are sometimes separated during the firing by means of sand or powdered flint; but the contrivances of this kind are numerous. When the seggars are filled, they are conveyed to the furnace, and piled up so that the flat bottoms of one seggar may form a cover to the open mouth of the seggar immediately beneath it, the surfaces being separated by a ring of soft clay, which forms a tight joint. As many as 30,000 pieces of ware may be included in one baking. When the seggars are properly arranged in piles, or lounges, as they are called, and steadied by means of short struts, the door of the kiln is closed with brick-work, the fires are lighted, usually in the evening, and are urged during the whole of the night, so that flame may be seen issuing from the chimney. Early in the morning the man draws his first watch. Watches or trial-pieces are small rings of fire-clay, which vary in colour with the temperature; a number of these are placed within the kiln in such positions that the man can withdraw them at pleasure by inserting a long iron rod through holes in the side of the kiln. The heat is regulated according to the aspect of these watches, and when, after thirty or forty hours, the firing appears to have been satisfactory, no more fuel is added, the fires are left to go out, and the kiln gradually cools during the next twenty or thirty hours. As much as fourteen tons of coal may be consumed in one firing. There can be no doubt that a very large proportion of this fuel is wastefully expended; our present abundant native store of coal leads to much extravagance in our various factories; and it has been suggested by M. Arnaux, a competent authority, to fire the ware by means of gas, which, he thinks, can be done with an ease and precision unattainable by the present system.

When the ware is removed from the kiln, its characters are found to have undergone a remarkable change. Instead of a soft, dull, friable or plastic material, we have a hard, brittle, resonant, light-coloured, porous body. In this state it is called biscuit, from its resemblance to well-baked ship bread. Wine-coolers and similar porous articles, when brought to this state, are finished; but most articles, especially of earthenware, must be covered with some kind of vitreous glaze, to remove their porosity and liability to tarnish, and to render them fit for use. If coloured ornaments have to be added, these are first put upon the biscuit, and the glaze, in the form of a white powder, is then made to cover the whole article, which, being passed a second time through the fire, the powder melts into a glass, which forms the ordinary surface of common wares. The firing is a costly process, from the great expenditure of time and fuel, and this second firing still further increases the cost of the ware. It thus became a great improvement when Wedgwood was able so to compound the ingredients of his ware that partial vitrification took place at the first firing, thereby depriving the ware of its porous character, and rendering a second firing unnecessary. So also, in the commonest kind of stone-ware, such as is made at the Lambeth potteries, the glazing is, by an ingenious device, effected simultaneously with the baking. When the ware has attained a very high temperature in the kiln, a quantity of moist salt (chloride of sodium) is thrown in; the salt is volatilized and decomposed in the presence of moisture, and by contact with the heated surfaces of the clay, hydrochloric acid is disengaged, and the ware becomes covered with silicate of soda, which, combining with the silicate of alumina of the ware, forms a fusible double alkaline silicate or glaze on the surface.

The object of the glaze being to render the article impermeable by water, attempts have been made to accomplish that end in various ways. Certain rude nations render their wares impermeable by rubbing them while hot with tallow, which, becoming partially decomposed, fills up the pores, and imparts a black colour. Even the vases of the artistic Etruscans and Greeks have not a vitreous but a carbonaceous glaze, which wears off in the handling. The wine and oil jars of Spain and Italy are made watertight by the ancient method of rubbing them over with wax. The most common description of glaze is, as its name glaze or glass implies, vitreous. It is of two kinds, transparent and opaque. When the ware is of good colour, and the ornaments are impressed upon it, the glaze may be transparent; but where the clay, otherwise good in quality, is bad in colour, an opaque glaze, or enamel, as it is then called, is used. In some cases, articles made of a good clay, of a bad colour, may, before firing, be dipped into a slip of white clay, and being thus veneered, admit of taking a transparent glaze. Glazes coloured by means of a metallic oxide are also sometimes used. The glaze should not have too strong an affinity for the paste, or during the second firing it may be absorbed into the ware instead of remaining at the surface, to which it should adhere firmly, and expand and contract equally with the ware, so as not to be liable to craze or crack. Numerous substances are employed in the composition of glaze. For very hard ware, in which the point of fusion is high, the felspars and certain volcanic scoriae are used; in other cases, common salt, potash, boracic acid, phosphate of lime, and sulphate of baryta, are the ingredients. Another class of glazes contains earthy and metallic substances, mixed or fritted into a glass; such are silica and lead, or enamels of silica, tin, and lead. Some glazes contain metallic oxides, such as those of manganese, lead, and copper. Metallic and earthy substances, if not previously fritted, form a glaze with the silica of the paste in the glass oven. Such glazes, however, are commonly soft, and liable to be acted on by acid and fatty substances; so that lead glazes should be avoided for articles intended to receive food. In such cases, borax may be advantageously substituted for lead. A pure white paste is improved by a transparent glaze, but if of bad colour, it may be dipped into opaque glazes even before Ornaments the first firing. Glazes are made opaque by means of oxide of tin; colour is given by the oxides of manganese, copper, and iron; while, by introducing these, together with the oxides of cobalt and of chromium, into opaque and transparent glazes, an agreeable variety is produced. Pegmatite forms a good glaze for hard porcelain; but for soft porcelain a glass is fritted and mixed with oxide of lead, or with earthy substances.

In applying the glaze to the biscuit, it is reduced to a fine powder, and mixed with water. When the biscuit is plunged into this mixture, the porous material immediately absorbs a quantity of the water, and leaves the powder equally distributed over its surface. When articles are glazed and fired at one operation, the ware in its green state is not absorbent, so that the glazing has to be put on with a brush. For articles which are glazed on the inside only, such as pipkins, the glaze is made creamy with water, and poured into the vessel and then out again, a sufficient quantity adhering to the surface by this means. Custom requires that jars shall have a portion of their surface of a deeper brown than the natural colour of the material; they are therefore dipped to a certain height in a mixture of red ochre and clay slip. The glazing is completed during the firing by means of common salt, as already noticed.

The pieces having been covered with white powder, are arranged in seggars to protect them from the direct action of the fire in the glass oven. They are separated from each other by means of supports, which present the smallest possible surface of contact. These supports, known as coehangers, triangles, stilts, &c., have points projecting from them above and below, which serve to separate, while they support, the articles as they are piled up in the seggars. The seggars are piled up in the glaze-kiln in the same manner as in the biscuit-kiln, and the temperature is raised to a point sufficient to fuse the glaze into a transparent glass, and to unite it perfectly with the surfaces of the ware. To enable the workmen to determine when the proper temperature has been reached, watches, or rings of clay, covered with glaze, are placed in the oven, and drawn out from time to time.

SECTION IV.—THE ORNAMENTATION.

The love of ornament, which forms part of that higher sense of beauty common to our nature, requires the addition of some kind of adornment to articles in common use. The rude pottery of savage nations is relieved in this way, and often with considerable taste. It may admit of question whether our own taste is equally correct in the elaborate decorations which we bestow upon articles intended for everyday use. Plates of Sévres porcelain, richly decorated with landscapes, or portraits of distinguished individuals, may have a high artistic value, but are certainly not adapted to be placed before the company at a dinner table. A dessert or dinner plate is not in itself remarkable for beauty of form; but its effect is absolutely hideous when it is made to take a prominent part in decoration. In the palace at Fontainebleau we were introduced to a room, the walls of which were decorated with plates of Sévres china, arranged in horizontal lines. In such an example, the costliness of the material and the skill of the artists were rendered simply ridiculous. So also the rich blue and gold of a tea-service have too heavy an effect, when the feeling of grace and lightness ought to be inspired. The leading idea in ceramic ware should be that of purity. The white colour would sufficiently suggest this if it were not concealed by ornament, just as that pure material glass, when not spoilt by the glass-cutter, reveals the unsullied transparency of the water or of the wine contained in it. The artist may exercise his taste in producing beauty of form, but the ornamentation of that form should be of the

Ornaments simplest character, only just calculated to relieve the beauty of the material. Our limited space will not allow us to enlarge on this subject, so that we at once proceed to a brief notice of the mechanical and chemical means by which ornaments are applied to pottery and porcelain.

When common ware is to be ornamented with a pattern, it is put on before the glazing. The blue pattern of an ordinary plate is printed on the biscuit with an ink composed of boiled linseed oil, resin, tar, and oil of amber, coloured by means of a mixture of oxide of cobalt, ground flint, and sulphate of baryta (fritted and ground), and blended with a flux of ground flint and thick glass powder, which serves to fix the colour. The ink is made fluid by spreading it on a hot iron plate. It is taken up by means of a leatheren dubber, and transferred to engraved copper-plates, also heated, and the superfluous colour is scraped off with a palette-knife, and the surface of the plate is cleaned with a dossil. A sheet of yellow unsized paper is next dipped into soapy water, and placed on the copper-plate, which is thus passed through a cylinder press. The pattern is thus transferred to the paper, which is taken by a girl called the cutter, who cuts away the unprinted portions, and leaves the pattern in separate parts. These are taken by a woman called the transferrier, who places each portion with its printed side next the biscuit, and rubs it with a flannel rubber, until the ink is properly absorbed. The pattern-papers are subsequently removed by placing the biscuit in water, and gently washing it with a brush. The biscuit is next dried in an oven, and is then ready for glazing; the heat of the glass oven vitrifies the glaze, and allows the pattern to be seen through it. Instead of paper, a flexible sheet of glue, called a paper or bat, is in some cases used for transferring the design. The impression is taken in oil from the engraved plate, and after it has been transferred to the biscuit, the required colour is dusted over it in a dry state. The sheet of glue can be cleaned with a sponge, and can be used over and over again.

When the pattern is required to produce high artistic effects of form and colour, the work is performed by hand with a camel-hair pencil. The colours consist of metallic oxides ground up with such vitrifiable substances as glass, nitre, and borax, oil of turpentine or of lavender being the usual vehicle. The greatest difficulty which the artist has to contend with arises from the fact, that the colours are for the most part dingy and unpleasing, and give no idea to an inexperienced eye of the intended effect. It is not until the heat of the furnace has driven off the oil, and chemically combined the ingredients of the colours, that the effect can be judged of. The artist has thus to work, as it were, in the dark: he is not cheered with the idea of progress, as in ordinary oil-painting, where the work seems to grow into life, and to develop new details of beauty at every touch. Even after the first firing, it by no means follows that success has been attained. The work may have to be re-touched, and again passed through the fire, or it may be injured by one or other of the numerous accidents to which a work is liable which has to pass through the fire.

The colours used are formed by the combination of certain metallic oxides and salts with certain fluxes, by means of heat, which enables them to fuse into coloured glasses. The oxides are usually those of chromium, of iron, of uranium, of manganese, of zinc, of cobalt, of antimony, of copper, of tin, and of iridium. The salts and other bodies used for imparting colour are the chromates of iron, of baryta, and of lead, the chloride of silver, the purple precipitate of cassius, burnt umber and burnt sienna, red and yellow ochres, &c. Some of these develop their colours under the influence of the highest temperature of the porcelain furnace, and are hence called by the French chemists couleurs de grand feu; others, and by far the larger number, are termed muffle-colours, inasmuch as they become developed under the more moderate heat of the muffle, which is a kind of seggar, in which the painted ware is inclosed, to protect it from the fuel. The first class of colours is limited to the blue produced by oxide of cobalt, the green of oxide of chromium, the brown produced by iron, manganese, and chromate of iron, the yellows from oxide of titanium, and the uranium blacks. Those colours form the grounds of hard porcelain, and as the heat employed in firing it is capable of fusing felspar, that substance is used as the flux. For an indigo blue, four parts oxide of cobalt and seven parts felspar, or for a pale blue, one part oxide of cobalt and thirty parts felspar, are well pounded, mixed by repeated siftings, and vitrified in a crucible in the porcelain furnace. The resulting glass is reduced to powder, ground up with a volatile oil, and applied to the surface of the biscuit, which, being again raised to the high temperature of the porcelain furnace, the colour fuses, and becomes incorporated with the substance of the ware. The high temperature required for cobalt has, however, this inconvenience, that a portion of it becomes volatile, so as to affect objects placed near it. In this way a white vase in the same furnace may derive a blue tint from the vapour of the cobalt. This colour is also uncertain in its results: it sometimes leaves white uncoloured patches, or forms a dull granular surface. Oxide of chromium may be employed without a flux to give a green colour to hard porcelain; but as it does not, under such circumstances, penetrate the ware, it is liable to scale off. A bluish-green is produced from three parts oxide of cobalt, one part oxide of chromium, and one-tenth of felspar, without fritting. Mixtures of the oxides of iron, manganese, and cobalt, produce a fine black, and by omitting the cobalt, various shades of brown.

The muffle colours are too numerous to be stated here; they are fired at a temperature equal to about the fusing point of silver. Many of them would become more brilliant and solid under a greater heat, but this would be injurious to those colours which are obtained from the purple precipitate of cassius, on which the artist relies for some of his finest effects, such as fine purple, violet, and carmine tints.

In preparing metallic oxides and their fluxes sound chemical knowledge is required, otherwise the results cannot be depended on. The chemist relies on the stability of nature, as revealed to him by his science; he reduces his materials to a state of chemical purity, and compounds them according to the law of definite proportions. In order, for example, that the yellow colour imparted by chromate of lead shall be identical at all times, the compound must obviously consist of nothing but equal equivalents of oxide of lead and chromic acid. In such case, if the pigment be applied at different times under the same circumstances, it will produce precisely similar results; but if either of the proximate elements of the salt be impure, no reliance can be placed on the compound. Different specimens will produce different results, although the same mode of applying them be always observed. In some cases, however, not even the chemical purity of the ingredients will insure harmonious

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1 Attempts have been made to construct a palette of enamel colours which do not change colour in the firing, but only change from a dullness to a creaminess of texture. A case of this kind is mentioned by Brongniart, but the success attained by the inventor, M. Dihl, was only partial; since the rose tints, purple, and violet, produced by the precipitate of cassius, which cannot be prevented from changing under the action of heat, were omitted. Besides this, the action of the surface, and the different kind of glaze upon the colours were not taken into account.

2 This pigment is formed by adding a solution of gold in aqua regia to one of chloride of tin. The physical condition of one of the ingredients may be of importance, as in the case of oxide of zinc; an ingredient in some of the enamel greens, yellows, yellow-browns, and blues. If the oxide be humpy, granular, dense, and friable, it will produce a dull pigment, although chemically pure, while a light flocculent impalpable oxide, chemically identical with the former, will give satisfactory results. It is further necessary that solutions of a metal be made at the same temperature, that the acids which dissolve it be of the same strength, that the precipitate be neither more nor less rapid on one occasion than on another. Such conditions as these require to be carefully studied and noted, as, indeed, has been done in the laboratory at Sévres, where minute records are kept of the processes required for compounding the colours.

But even when such conditions as the above are known and observed, there are others so slight as scarcely to be appreciable, but which, nevertheless, have an influence on the colour. With certain delicate pigments, the porphyration or grinding with water or oil a little more or less, the difference of touch of different artists in laying on the same pigment, will produce differences in tone, although all the other conditions be strictly observed.

Dumas defines the process of painting on hard porcelain to be the art of soldering by heat to a layer of the glaze a layer of fusible colour, the dilatation of which shall be the same as that of the glaze and the body of the ware. The function of the flux is to envelop the colour and attach it to the glaze. In most cases it has no action on the colour, but is simply mechanically mixed with it; the flux, however, must mix with the glaze. That muffle colours do not penetrate the porcelain, may be proved by boiling in nitric acid a piece of painted ware after it has been fired, when the colours will disappear. As the flux is only a mechanical vehicle for the colour, it must vary with the colour; but the necessity for mixing or blending colours greatly limits the range of fluxes. A common flux is the silicate of lead, or a mixture of this with borax. Now the borax cannot be replaced by the fixed alkalies, on account of the readiness with which soda or potash becomes displaced in order to form other compounds. They have also a tendency to make the colours scale off. The mode of using the fluxes varies with the colour; in some cases it may be ground up in proper proportions with the colour; in others it must be previously fitted with the colour. The first mode is adopted when the colouring oxide is readily altered by heat; but when the oxide requires a high temperature to bring out its characteristic colour, the second method is adopted.

Not the least among the difficulties of enamel-painting is the high temperature required for the vitrification of the colours. The lowest heat of the muffle is about 1100° Fahrenheit; while some oxides do not develop their colour below 1850°. In the regulation of the furnace, the most successful method is to begin with a low heat, and urge it rapidly up to its maximum, and as rapidly to lower the heat. A moderate heat, long continued, may produce devitrification,—that is, the elements of the flux may separate, and combine again in a different manner, so as to produce an opaque substance known as Réaumur's porcelain. There is danger in the opposite extreme; for if the temperature be carried too high, some of the more delicate tints, such as the roses and the grays, become faint or vanish altogether, while the harder greens, blues, and blacks remain. On the other hand, if the maximum temperature be not quite reached, the colours do not present that peculiar creaminess and glossiness which is characteristic of the art. The temperature is regulated by means of

1 The writer has some observations on vitrifiable colours in three articles entitled "On Enamel-Painting," contained in the Art-Journal for 1827.