The Potter's Wheel 155 



on Pottery. 1 He justly observes also that the articles made by the 

 wheel-potters were all intended for cooking, with the exception of the 

 vessel yii M, which was designed for measuring; while the output of 

 the moulders, who made the ceremonial vessels kuei fjH and tou 5L 

 by availing themselves of the plumb-line, was intended for sacrificial 

 use. Also here, in like manner as in ancient Rome, India, and Japan, 

 the idea may have prevailed that a wheel-made jar is of a less sacred 

 character than one made by hand. 



Wherever the potter's wheel is in use, it is manipulated by man, 

 never by woman. 2 It is man's invention, it is man's sphere of work. 

 As implied by its very name, it is directly derived from a chariot- wheel, 

 which is likewise due to man's efforts. Such a real cart-wheel with 

 four spokes is still operated by the Tamil potters. It is well illustrated 

 by E. Thurston, 3 and thus described after E. Holder (Fig. 1): "The 

 potter's implements are few, and his mode of working is very simple. 

 The wheel, a clumsily constructed and defective apparatus, is com- 

 posed of several thin pliable pieces of wood or bamboo, bent and tied 

 together in the form of a wheel about three feet and a half in diameter. 

 This is covered over thickly with clay mixed with goat's hair or any 

 fibrous substance. The four spokes and the centre on which the vessel 

 rests are of wood. The pivot is of hard wood or steel. The support 

 for the wheel consists of a rounded mass of clay and goat's hair in 

 which is embedded a piece of hard wood or stone, with one or two slight 

 depressions for the axle or pivot to move in. The wheel is set into 

 motion first by the hand, and then spun rapidly by the aid of a long 

 piece of bamboo, one end of which fits into a slight depression in the 

 wheel. The defects in the apparatus are, firstly, its size, which re- 

 quires the potter to stoop over it in an uneasy attitude; secondly, the 

 irregularity of its speed, with a tendency to come to a standstill, and 

 to wave or wobble in its motion; and, thirdly, the time and labor ex- 

 pended in spinning the wheel afresh every time its speed begins to 



1 T*ao shuo p^J |£, Ch. 2, p. 2 (new edition, 1912). Compare S. W. Bushell, 

 Description of Chinese Pottery, p. 33. 



1 Woman working on the potter's wheel is a strictly modern artificial reform 

 of our "civilization," which tends to check the "man-made world," with the result 

 that it insures woman's industrial enslavement to perfection. Mary White (How 

 to make Pottery, p. 28) observes, "Until lately, few women potters have worked on 

 the wheel, because the ordinary form of potter's wheel, which was turned with 

 one foot, the potter standing on the other, made the work too difficult and laborious 

 for a woman to attempt. Now, however, a wheel copied from an old French model 

 is in use, which enables the potter to sit while at work." 



3 Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Vol. IV, p. 190. Holder's article is 

 in Journal of Indian Art, No. 58, being accompanied by excellent illustrations of 

 potter's wheels and of potters working at the wheel. 



