POTTERY 



367 



ware or ' Delft. ' To imitate the fine lustrous white 

 of the ordinary porcelain body tin-enamel glaze was 

 employed by the Dutch potters, and their coloured 

 decorations were in blue, and at first entirely 

 oriental in character. Stoneware Bellarmines or 

 Greybeards ( q.v. ), and the tall beer-jugs of the Ger- 

 mans, usually decorated with moulded ornaments, 

 medallions and inscriptions, &&, although generally 

 spoken of as Gres de Flandres, are really almost 

 exclusively of German origin, and may be traced, 

 according to their colour and quality, to the neigh- 

 bourhood of Cologne, Coblenz, and to Kreussen in 

 Bavaria, &c. Stoneware vessels of the same 

 nature were also made in England early in the 

 18th century. 



England. Till the close of the 17th century 

 the ware made in England was of a coarse, com- 

 mon description, and those who could afford the 

 luxury obtained their pottery from the Dutch and 

 other superior makers. The first step towards 



improvement was 

 effected by John 

 Dwight, M.A., who 

 in 1671 obtained a 

 patent for ' making 

 stoneware, vulgarly 

 called Cologne 

 ware," and by him 

 the Fulham manu- 

 facture of stone- 

 ware was origin- 

 ated. A still more 

 marked influence 

 was produced on 

 English pottery 

 alnmt the same 

 time by the two 

 brothers Elers, from 

 Nuremberg, who 

 settled at Burslem, 

 and there produced 

 a ware which they called reel Japanese. To these 

 potters we also owe the origin of the process of 

 salt-glazing of stoneware. Finding their secrets 

 were discovered by Astbury, they removed to 

 Lambeth, where they established themselves in 

 1710. From this time onwards improvements were 

 introduced in the Staffordshire potteries ; but the 

 great strides which for a time put English pottery 

 in the foremost rank of the productions of the 

 world were due to the great potter Josiah Wedg- 

 wood (1730-95, q.v.). In every department, in 

 body or paste, in methods of decoration, and 

 in the employment of artists of the highest 

 ability, Wedgwood, with untiring application and 

 with unstinted expenditure, aimed after perfection ; 

 and his efforts alone raised the manufacture of 

 pottery in England to the position of an industry 

 of national importance. Away from Staffordshire 

 potteries of some importance existed at Lamlietli, 

 Bristol, Liverpool, Leeds, Lowestoft, and Swansea ; 

 but by degrees the manufacture drew more and 

 more towards Staffordshire, where, in the towns 

 collectively known as ' The Potteries,' embracing 

 Stoke-on-Trent, Etruria, Hanley, Burslem, and 

 some others, it now principally centres. Josiah 

 S|KH|I- ( 1754-1827) maae a famous kind of opaque 

 porcelain or 'ironstone china.' English stoneware 

 ami pottery owe much to Sir Henry Doulton (q.v.) 

 and his works at Lambeth, in the Potteries, and 

 near Glasgow. 



Peruvian. In the New World the art of the 

 potter showed an interesting development among 

 the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians before the 

 American continent became known to Europeans. 

 No knowledge of glazes existed among these 

 peoples, but, in the case of the Peruvians especially, 

 a high degree of skill in working clay was 



Fig. 22. -Early Staffordshire Tyg 

 or four-bandied drinking cup. 



developed ; and they modelled and modified animal 

 forms with great knowledge and spirit. Their 

 most characteristic pottery was black, but they 

 also made vessels of a fine, warm, yellowish body, 

 formed on the potter's wheel, and having painted 

 decorations analogous in style to those on archaic 

 Greek vases. 



PORCELAIN. The substances with which we 

 have dealt in this brief historical summary up to 

 this point comprise only pottery, as contradistin- 

 guished from porcelain. The term porcelain is of 

 Italian origin, derived from porcellana, the cowrie 

 shell, owing to the similarity of the white glazed 

 surface of the ware to the substance of that shell. 

 Of porcelain there are two varieties, one being soft 

 or artificial porcelain, the pdte tendre of the French, 

 which may be looked on as a chemical compound, 

 and which is wholly fusible at high temperature. 

 The second variety, hard or kaolinic porcelain ( the 

 French p&te dure), is the true oriental porcelain, 

 composed of two natural mineral substances alone, 

 Kaolin (q.v.), an infusible white clay, and pe-tun- 

 tse, a mixture of felspar and quartz, fusible in its 

 nature, the presence of which gives its semi-fused 

 translucent appearance to the ware. 



China. It is to the Chinese that the world owes 

 the manufacture of porcelain ; and in strict chrono- 

 logical sequence, in antiquity of the industry, in 

 skill and resource in working raw materials, and in 

 richness and variety of the finished products the 

 Chinese ought to have the first place. When the 

 Greeks were making their terra-cotta vases the 

 Chinese were manufacturing porcelain ; they had 

 mastered the secrets of that most difficult of all 

 ceramic tasks 2000 years before it was accomplished 

 by Europeans. According to their own records, 

 pottery was made in the Chinese empire in the 

 reign of their mythical Emperor Hwang-ti alx>ut 

 2690 B. C. Without assuming.the historical accuracy 

 of such a precise date, there is no doubt that true 

 porcelain was made in China under the Han dynasty 

 between 206 and 87 B.C. From that time onward 

 the art developed and improved, and, subject to 

 fluctuations caused by revolutionary troubles, the 

 porcelain manufacture continued to flourish in 

 China till recent times. The most famous centre 

 of the industry was formerly 

 King-te-chin in the province 

 of Kiang-si, where it is known 

 porcelain was made about 580 

 A. D. In this town alone there 

 were early in the 18th century 

 no fewer than 3000 porcelain 

 furnaces ; but the place was 

 mined by the Tai-ping in- 

 surrection. Chinese porcelain 

 exhibits endless variety in form 

 and painted decoration. The 

 mythical dragon, the kylin or 

 mythical lion, the spotted deer, 

 domestic fowls and other birds 

 are favourite subjects on 

 Chinese ware. Of all Chinese 

 porcelain that now most sought 

 after is the old blue ware such 

 as was at first copied and imi- 

 tated by the Delft manufac- 

 turers. Crackle ware, in 

 which the glaze shows signs of 

 separation from the body, is a 

 peculiarity of oriental manu- 

 facture. The Chinese appear 

 to possess the secret of caus- 

 ing the cracks in the glaze to be large or minute 

 at will. Ruby glazed ware ( the Sang de basitf of 

 the French) and rich chromatic splashed glazes are 

 also highly treasured in Chinese porcelain. The 

 soft sea-green glazed ware known as Celadon glaze 



Fig. 23. Chinese 

 Porcelain Vase. 



