The Potter's Wheel 165 



of the disks, made of terra cotta, about three inches thick and eleven 

 feet in diameter, with a groove all round the border. 1 



A double wooden wheel is occasionally employed by the potters in the 

 north-west provinces of India and Oudh, but, curiously enough, the upper 

 disk is the smaller one. It is about ten inches in diameter, and on it 

 the clay is worked. The lower disk, two feet apart from the upper one, 

 measures two feet across. The whole apparatus is placed in a pit about 

 three feet deep, the smaller disk being on a level with the surface of the 

 ground. The axle turns on a stone slab at the bottom of the pit, and is 

 kept upright by a crossbeam with a perforation in the middle, through 

 which it runs. The potter is seated on the edge of the pit, and turns 

 the wheel by pressing the lower disk with his right foot. The motion of 

 this wheel is more even and continuous than that of the single wheel, 

 and is employed for the finer kinds of pottery at Rampur and Mirut.* 



The double wheel is used also in Java, where it is called prebot. It 

 is composed of two wooden disks, one placed above the other, the upper 

 one, of somewhat larger size, being revolved on the lower one. The 

 upper one is styled "female board" (uncher wedok), the lower one "male 

 board" (uncher lanang). The upper wheel, on which is placed a flat 

 board for the clay to be moulded, is set in motion by means of the foot. 8 



F. Brinkley 4 describes the contrivance of a double wheel in the 

 hands of the potters at Arita in Hizen. It consists of a driving and 

 a working wheel, fixed about twelve to fifteen inches apart on a hollow 

 wooden prism. On the lower side of the driving-wheel is a porcelain 

 cup that rests on a vertical wooden pivot projecting from a round block 

 of wood over which the system is placed. The pivot is planted in a 

 hole of such depth that the rim of the driving-wheel is slightly raised 

 above the surface of the ground. Beside this hole the modeller sits, 

 and, while turning the system with his foot, moulds a mass of material 

 placed on the working-wheel. His only tools are a piece of wet cloth 

 to smooth and moisten the vessel, a small knife to shape sharp edges, 

 a few pieces of stick to take measurements, and a fine cord to sever the 

 finished vase from its base of superfluous matter. 



Sir Ernest Satow, 6 describing the work of the potters of Tsuboya, 

 observes that these use wheels of three different sizes. The smallest 



1 S. Birch, History of Ancient Pottery, p. 556. 



1 H. R. C. Dobbs, Pottery and Glass Industries of the North- West Provinces 

 and Oudh {Journal of Indian Art, No. 57, p. 4). 



3 Encyclopasdie van Nederlandsch-Indie, Vol. Ill, p. 322. 



4 Japan, Vol. VIII, p. 68. 



5 Korean Potters in Satsuma [Transactions As. Soc. of Japan, Vol. VI, 1878, 

 p. 196). 



