The Potter's Wheel 163 



fingers. The procedure is exactly identical with the practice of the 

 ancients, as described by H. BlOmner. 1 I never saw a Chinese potter 

 spinning the wheel with his left hand and simultaneously forming a 

 pot only with his right. He will always swing his wheel first, and then 

 use both hands for fashioning the vessel. This point is particularly 

 mentioned, because several authors tell us that the potter at the same 

 time works the wheel with his left hand and fashions the clay with his 

 right. Thus A. Erman 2 says, with reference to ancient Egypt, that 

 the wheel was turned by the left hand, whilst the right hand shaped 

 the vessel. The same is asserted with regard to the potter on Sumatra. 8 

 If these observations should be correct, which may justly be doubted, 

 the potters who behave in this manner can hardly be credited with 

 common sense. If the wheel is once set spinning, a constant revolution 

 of sufficient velocity may very well be maintained for from five to seven 

 minutes, which would afford ample time for a skilful workman to turn 

 out one or even several vessels by the use of both hands. There 

 is no necessity whatever for his left hand to operate the wheel, and 

 how the right hand alone could satisfactorily model a pot is difficult to 

 see. In China, Japan, and India, at all events, the potter will always 

 use both hands in this process; or he has a helpmate to attend to the 

 wheel. 



In his description of the porcelain-manufacture at King-te-chen, 

 Pere d'Entrecolles has alluded to the employment of the wheel, 

 without, however, going deeper into the subject. 4 In the King te chen 

 Vao lu* the wheel is described as a round wooden board, with a mech- 

 anism below, that effects a speedy revolution. The potter is seated 

 over the wheel (literally, "he sits on the chariot" $£ :# jfrS" $ Jh), 

 pushing it with a small bamboo stick, and moulding the clay with both 

 of his hands. The illustrations reproduced by Julien after the first 

 edition of 181 5 (Plates V and VI 6 ) show the potter squatting at the end 

 of two low benches, steadying his feet on the latter; but the mode of 

 turning the wheel is represented in a different manner from the descrip- 

 tion in the text. In one illustration the potter avails himself of an 

 assistant, who bends over a bench, and sets the wheel in motion with 

 his left hand. In the other, the helpmate turns the wheel with his 



1 Technologie, Vol. II, p. 39. 



* Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 457. 



* Encyclopaedic van Nederlandsch-IndiS, Vol. Ill, p. 321. 



4 DuHalde, Description of the Empire of China, Vol. I, p. 342; or S. W. 

 Bushell, Description of Chinese Pottery, pp. 190-191. 



* Ch. 1, p. 18 b (new edition of 1891); compare Julien, Histoire, p. 146. 

 8 Those of the new edition are different, and much coarser in execution. 



