Ornaments and colouring

—Common stoneware is coloured by means of two kinds of apparatus; the one called the blowing-pot, the other the worming-pot. The ornaments made in relief in France, are made hollow (intaglio) in England, by means of a mould engraved in relief, which is pa ed over the article. The impre ion which it produces is filled with a thick clay paste, which the workman throws on with the blowing-pot. This is a ve el like tea-pot, having a spout, but it is hermetically sealed at top with a clay plug, after being filled with the pasty liquor. The workman, by blowing in at the spout, causes the liquor to fly out through a quill pipe which goes down through the clay plug into the liquor. The jet is made to play upon the piece while it is being turned upon the lathe; so that the hollows previously made in it by the mould or stamp are filled with a paste of a colour different from that of the body. When the piece has acquired sufficient firmne to bear working, the exce of the paste is removed by an instrument in which case merely the colour appears at the bottom of the impre ion. By pa ing in this manner several layers of clay liquor of different colours over each other with the blowing-pot, net-work and decorations of different colours and shades are very rapidly produced. The serpentine or snake pots, established on the same principle, are made of tin plate in three compartments, each containing a different colour. These open at the top of the ve el in a common orifice, terminated by small quill tubes. On inclining the ve el, the three colours flow out at once in the same proportion at the one orifice, and are let fall upon the piece while it is being slowly turned upon the lathe; whereby curious serpent-like ornaments may be readily obtained. The clay liquor ought to be in keeping with the stoneware paste. The blues succeed best when the ornaments are made with the finer pottery mixtures given above.