11 



SEVENTH WINTER MEETING.— FEBRUARY loth, 1903. 



'■ OLD EARTHENWARE AND PORCELAIN."— By Mk. F. BENNETT- 

 GO LDNEY. 



^ -11 V R,>.,notf fjnidnpv u-ave a verv and the circumstances attending its invention 



Councilor F. Bennett-Goldney gave a very j^^^^ ^^^^(^j ^^^^^ been absolutely identical in 



interesting lecture on the above subject on Tues- ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ .^ ^^^ ^^^ ^j p^^^^^y ^„y 



diy, February 10, in tbe Beaney Institute, when ^jj^^lute test of the civilization of those using it. 



there was a good attendance presided over by Mr. ^g Professor Tyler long ago pointed out, the 



Sidney Harvey The lecture was illustrated by a Maoris of New Zealand were barbarians of a 



very valuable collection of pottery and ea.then- distinctly higher type, yet neither they nor the 



ware some dating back to 6,000 B.C. In the Tahitians made earthenware while the Papuans 



"ourl ot his reLfks the lecturer said :- of New California and Fi]. islanders of a consider 



The connection between pottery and natural ably lower type were potters. Still the potter s 



history, it may be admitted, is not of a kind which art indicates a distinct and considerable advance 



obtrudes itself on the notice of the superficial on the lowest ™°.d'tion of mankind and ths 



observer but I am i.ot disposed to allow that the remains true in spite of the fact that the posses- 



suSect lies together beyond the purview of our sion of the art may not always imply a higher 



toe ety. The link, indeed, which unites the tea- relative civilization on the part of tne Possessors^ 



pot and the dinner-plate with the vegetable and In every case probably the art originated in the 



Limal worlds can hardly be regarded as of a observation o\^Y'''='^'±2''^'\^Z^^i^^^l 



strictly scientific order, but if natural history be might suggest it were abundant although intel- 



held to mclude the domain of inanimate no less ligent observers were few, the art might be 



•than a imae nature, then we may justly claim a invented earlier than where such accidents were 



rtht to discuss earthenware and ' porcelain as fewer although intelligent observers might be 



falling well within the limits of our jurisdiolion. more plentiful. But m spite ot its many origins 



Ceramics, in fact, are from one point of view in many lands neither history, tradition, nor 



simply a branch of geology. These materials are mythology have anything to tell us worth telling 



the sands and clays of the valleys and the granite about the int^ancy of pottery-the art is cot only 



of the everlast n^ hills. These materials again prehistoric, but premythic^ The earliest verbal 



are treated by processes which precisely reproduce traditions only carry us back to the potters 



those which Natuie herself employs on a larger wheel, an ancient engine, doubtless, but a com- 



scale They are rendered pure and plastic by paratively late innovation in the manufacture of 



water, u,ade kar 1 and durable by fire. The potter pottery. It is a,lmost certain indeed that another 



in his tiny workshop calls to his aid the primary art practically identical with the art of pottery 



forces that mould the world itself, the same forces in every respect, except the final stage of the 



that silt ard sort the ruins of the rocks on the manufacture, preceded by many ages the art of 



beds of the rivers and the shores of the sea. the kindling a fire at will. Tbebasket-inaker was an 



same forces thht melt the hills and overwhelm the ancient of the world long before the matter of 



plains with streams of lava. Obviously, in the fire taught him how to burn the clay he 



•time at our disposal to-night, it is impossible to plastered on certain of his baskets. The more 



give more than a mere outline of the origins and obvious qualities of clay, its hardness when dry 



general history of pottery. I hope, however, that and plasticity when wet, must have been familiar 



by a little compression, that a part otour evening 



at least may be devoted to a short description of 



some of the later manufactures of the 17th, 18th, 



and 19th centuries, some characteristic specimens 



of which, in addition to a few of more ancient as 



well as prehistoric days, are now arranged upon 



the table before you. 'Whatever may have been 



from the first ages when man habited or hunted 

 the hills and valleys of a clay country, but it was 

 not probably untilthe stage of human development 

 when the supreme law of self-preservation first 

 taught man to dwell is more or less organised 

 communities in fi.xed habitations constructed by 

 himself, that clay first came into common use as a 



speculation, however, as to when and where to be called a hut, probably consisted ot a number 



pottery was first invented is baffled by other difli- of sticks stuck upright m the ground in a circle 



culties besides the distance of time at which the and interlaced with twigs or reeds the roofs, if a 



event took place. Pottery may have been and roof was necessary, being formed of branches L^id 



probably has been independently invented a cross-wise on the tops of the wattled walls, in 



hundred different times in a hundred different any alluvial country vvhere stones were scarce, the 



localities. Certainly it was not invented once roof would be weighted with clods of the soil 



f^r all in any special age or country. The art nearest at hand in order to prevent it being blown 



has not diffused itself over the world from one away. If large leaves of any kind were laid 



single centie of dispersion only, but from many, between the branches, used as rafters, and tbe 



