Pottery

(pot'tur-e.) [From pot.] (Arts.) A term applied to all ware which is distinguished from porcelain by being opaque, and not trans lucid; but the history of both arts is so intimately blended and naturally result from each other, that we shall here condense their general history together, so as to avoid confusion or repetition. Of all the industrial arts, there is perhaps not one which can rival the fic tile art in the harmonious combination of utility and beauty. Porcelain and gla exhibit the most marked triumph of scientific industry over the original worthle ne of the materials on which that industry is exercised. The change wrought in clay, sand, and flint, by the Ceramic and vitrifying proce es, is hardly le wondrous than that which the alchemists hoped to effect by the transmutation of metals; and yet these arts are of such remote antiquity, that their origin is lost in the night of time. The exercise of plastic art in soft clay must belong to the very infancy of mankind; it would be naturally suggested by the impre ions made by the feet or hands in the soil, when moistened by a shower of rain. This conjecture is corroborated by our finding that the earliest fic tile establishments were placed in the neigl.borhood of rivers more or le subject to periodical inundations: the Babylonians, the Egyptians, and the Etruscans became potters from their vicinity to the Euphrates, the Nile, and the rivers of Northern Italy. The discovery that the forms given to the moist clay might be rendered permanent by heat and pre ure, was indicated by Nature herself, whenever an inundation occurred, and the soil became hardest where footprints had fallen. From the observation of this natural fact to its artificial imitation was a simple step; it was only nece ary to pre the clay more regularly, and to exp oso it to the direct action of the solar heat. The earliest known piece of machinery is the potter's wheel, which varies little in the present day from what it was in the age of Moses and the Pharaohs. Its oldest and most simple form was a piece of wood grasped in the hand by the middle, and turned round inside a wall of clay built by the other hand or by an a istant workman. The proce is so simple, that it may have been discovered in a you sand different places; such inventions afford no evidence whatever of derivative character. The early works of the ancient Egyptians are remarkable for boldne of design and a positive character of decoration; which, however, are the prevailing characteristics of the earliest ornamental works of most nations. The Etruscans, improving on the Egyptians, as the Greeks afterwards improved on them, produced forms of the most elegant kind. Dull red (the color of the clay) and black were the only colors at the designer's disposal; and it is sometimes surprising how admirably he has obtained a strong yet subdued effect by such simple materials. An opaque white and yellow was afterwards added, and with these he was enabled to delineate, in the most spirited manner, scenes from sacred and profane history. In early Etruscan vases the outlines of the figures are scratched on the surface, the figures of men painted red in flesh color, women cream-colored, with outlines in strong black. It will be impo ible here to detail the various improvements in Ceramic Art made by the Greeks, under whose auspices it achieved its highest eminence. Itmay be sufficient to note that their productions are not only beautiful in form, but equally so in painting; and to them we owe some of the most exquisite delineations of mythologic and historic scenes, while for costume and design they are a mine of study. The Roman ve els were generally le slender and graceful than those of the Greeks; they partook more of the utilitarian spirit of the Masters of the World; still they were not without great merit, the surface of their ve els being often decorated with much elaborate display. The earthen ve els found in the graves of the Fraukish and Saxon nations immediately subsequent to the Roman domination retain to a certain extent a Roman character; but in the following centuries the works of the potter disappear almost entirely, or, when discovered, are no longer to be identified as the production of any certain period or country. It is to China, with its wonderful conservatism, that we must look for the resuscitation of the potter's art among the European nations, in imitation of that which they had practised so long. The high antiquity of the art of making porcelain, and the high perfection to which it had arrived in China, many years before any specimens of it found their way into Europe, are well authenticated, although the period of its first manufacture is involved in great obscurity. From the researches of M. Stan is las Julien, it appears that porcelain was common in China in the time of the Emperor Han, B. c. 163. The characteristics of Chinese china are the clearne of its body and the gaudine of its decoration, introducing dragons and grotesques of the most fanciful absurdity. The porcelain of Japan is of a better quality in clay, and the decorations more natural and simple. The increased impetus given to commerce in the 15th and 16th centuries opened anew the trade with the East, particularly to China and Japan, and the Portuguese merchantmen were the first to introduce it to Europe. [s. 726] The beautiful ware called majolica was i The beautiful ware called majolica was invented by Luca dell a Robbia at Florence, and greatly extended by Orazio Fontano, of Pezzaro, at the close of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries. In 1555, the celebrated Pali y discovered at Saintes the art of glazing or enamelling a gray paste, and introduced dishes and other objects with fruit, fish, and animals moulded from life, distributed over the surface, as a kind of ornamented ware. The German and Flemish pottery, ranging from 1540 to 1620, is remarkable for the quaint variety of its designs; it is,however, exceedingly original and artistic. None of this ware, however, was of the nature of the Chinese porcelain, and various unsucce ful attempts to discover the secret of its manufacture had been made in several countries, when Bættger, an alchemist (who had been seized by Frederick August us II.), discovered white kaolin at Aue, and produced from ita white hard porcelain at Mei en, near Dresden,where the first porcelain establishment was founded under royal auspices in the begiuning of the 18th cent. In 1720 and 1751 respectively were founded in Vienna and Berlin the works in which the famous wares Fig. 539. DRESDEN VASE. of those places have (In the po e ion of Mr. E.A.Ward.) since been produced. In France, porcelain was first manufactured in 1735 at Chantilly, whence, in 1754, the works were removed to Sèvres, where they have continued in operation to the present time. Porcelain was made in England in the middle of the last century, first at Chelsea, and afterwards at Str at ford le Bow, Derby, Plymouth, Worcester, . Staff ords hire is also an important seat of the porcelain manufacture. In the U. States, the materials for many sorts of ware are good; but, owing to the cheapne and perfection of the porcelain imported from Europe, the manufacture has made little progre until recently. Trenton, N. J., claims to rank as the chief manufacturing centre of this industry. [s. 727] IMG:p0772_0.jpg:Gravür