164 Beginnings of Porcelain 



right unshod foot, while supporting himself by means of a rope sus- 

 pended from the branch of a tree. The wheel itself is a cog-wheel, the 

 projecting teeth being of a rectangular shape. 1 The foot of the turner 

 fits exactly into the space left by two teeth. This arrangement is 

 identical with that of the small lead cylinders fixed around a Roman 

 wheel of baked clay found near Arezzo in 1840, and the pegs attached 

 to the circumference of other wheels discovered in the vicinity of 

 Nancy. 2 



The devices depicted in this Chinese book are obviously those of 

 central and southern China. This is confirmed by an observation of 

 E. S. Morse, who had occasion to see and to sketch a potter at work 

 near Canton, and who points out the same rope contrivance. "The 

 wheel rests on the ground, and the potter squats beside the wheel. A 

 helper stands near by, steadying himself with a rope that hangs down 

 from a frame above; holding on to this and resting on one foot, he kicks 

 the wheel around with the other foot. The potter first puts sand on 

 the wheel, so that the clay adheres slightly. He does not separate the 

 pot from the wheel by means of a string, as is usual with most potters 

 the world over, but lifts it from the wheel, the separation being easy 

 on account of the sand previously applied. The pot is somewhat de- 

 formed by this act, but is straightened afterwards with a spatula 

 and the hand, as was the practice of a Hindu potter whom I saw at 

 Singapore." 3 



Besides the plain wheel, as considered heretofore, another type oc- 

 curs in China, — a wheel with double disks. In this case, there are two 

 horizontal, parallel disks or wheels connected by a vertical spindle. 

 The lower one, being of considerably smaller diameter, is operated by 

 the feet of the workman, and accordingly turns the upper one, which 

 is reserved as the potter's table. A similar device is described by 

 Jesus Sirach in the third century b.c. 4 The same principle is brought 

 out in a potter's wheel found by Fabroni in 1779 at Cincelli or Centum 

 Cellas, in the neighborhood of Arezzo, in Italy. It is composed of two 

 disks or tables, both placed horizontally, of unequal diameter, having 

 a certain distance between them, and their centre traversed by a 

 vertical pin, which revolves. The wheel discovered was part of one 



1 It is doubtless on this illustration that E. Zimmermann's (Chinesisches Porzel- 

 lan, Vol. I, p. 179) description of the potter's wheel is based; but I do not believe 

 that this type is common, at least I never saw it in any of the kilns which I had 

 occasion to visit. 



* H. BlUmner, Technologie, Vol. II, p. 39. 



* E. S. Morse, Glimpses of China and Chinese Homes, p. 199. 



* BLtiMNER, /. c, p. 38, note 3. 



