POTTERY. 



rettery. c d at the very remotest periods of human society. 



-*~^ ' 1'orcelain had attained to great distinction in China 

 v soon after tin- ( hristian era ; but pottery, a thing 

 ui' mdispeiiMble daily use, must have been invented 

 long ere refinement could have dreamt of a manufacture 

 elegant and so complicated as porcelain. In the in- 

 fancy of society, the very first want that men would 

 1, would be vessels capable of holding his meat and 

 his drink : such vessels were probably at first made of 

 the skins of beasts caught in the chase, or were exca- 

 vated out of wood ; but the art of making such articles 

 of earth, though perhaps not immediately invented, 

 must have been well known at a period extremely early, 

 and of which no traces could come down to us. As 

 the Chinese were unquestionably the inventors of por- 

 celain, we may suppose, with sufficient probability, 

 that pottery was early brought by them to great perfec- 

 tion; and that indeed the knowledge of the latter paved 

 the way for the knowledge of the former^ Pottery also 

 at a remote period attained to great distinction among 

 the Egyptians, from whom it naturally descended to 

 the Greeks and Romans. The latter people indeed 

 carried the art to a degree of perfection which in some 

 respects it has not yet surpassed, and which induced the 

 late celebrated Mr. Wedgewood to name the village that 

 grew out of his industry and genius Etruria, after the 

 district in ancient Italy that had cultivated the pottery 

 manufacture with the greatest ardour and success. At 

 what period the art was introduced into Britain cannot 

 be exactly ascertained. The first place where it is 

 known to have been practised was Burslem, in Stafford- 

 shire, mentioned (1686) by Dr. Plot, as the principal 

 pottery institution in this country. The art at that 

 time seems to have been in its rudest state, the ware 

 being all extremely clumsy, the colours both coarse and 

 very unskilfully applied, the glazing consisting entire- 

 ly of lead ore, or calcined lead, a substance uncommon- 

 ly pernicious and dangerous. The year 1690 forms a 

 kind of era in the history of this manufacture in Bri- 

 tain ; for at that period two brothers from Holland, of 

 the name of Eders or Ellers, settled in Burslem, extend- 

 ed the former establishment to a great degree, and ac- 

 complished several improvements and discoveries. 

 These two individuals, however, from a misunder- 

 ^tanding with the neighbouring inhabitants on account 

 of the fumes which their furnaces emitted, soon retired 

 to their native country ; but the effects of their inge- 

 nuity and enterprise remained behind them ; and they 

 were succeeded by men who, availing themselves of 

 their example, were equally persevering and successful. 

 But it was not till 1763 that the most important and 

 memorable improvements were made in the art. The 

 person by whom these were effected was Josias Wedge- 

 wood, a gentleman of great science and great industry, 

 whose name is known throughout Europe, not merely 

 for his inventions and discoveries in the manufacture of 



pottery, but for the benefit! he conferred on natural Tottery, 

 science in general. Of the inventions and improve. <~~~ 

 rnents of this celebrated person, an account may be 

 found under the article WKU<;KH'OJI>; and it need 

 merely at present be mentioned, that, prior to his time, 

 the pottery of this country was, comparatively speak- 

 ing, destitute of taste, beauty, and utility ; that manu- 

 factories of this article are now established in various 

 parts of England ; and that what is denominated the 

 Potteries in Staffordshire, a place eight miles long and 

 six broad, containing fifteen large manufactories, of 

 which one is Etruria, founded by Mr. Wedgewood, 

 and now the property of his sons, are the most exten- 

 sive, opulent, and celebrated in the kingdom. * 



The ingredients in the manufacture of pottery are Jngre- 

 clay and flint, with other subordinate substances, in- diem*. 

 separable from the two ingredients just specified. These 

 clays or natural compounds, to which vessels owe their 

 ductility or capability of being moulded to any form, 

 are found to consist of pure clay or alumine, silex, lime, 

 sometimes magnesia, and not unfrequently of oxyd of 

 iron ; in which ingredients the alumine predominates 

 to an incomparable degree. The flint, used in this 

 manufacture, is the common kind for striking fire, and 

 consists almost entirely of pure silex, with minute and 

 almost indiscernible traces of alumine, lime, and oxyd 

 of iron and water. The finest stoneware, therefore, 

 made of the purest pipe-clay, and the purest flint. 

 When in the clay, the oxyd of iron occurs, the pottery 

 made of it burns to different shades of red, in propor- 

 tion to the quantity of iron. Magnesia, when combined 

 with the clay, gives to it a soapy character ; from which 

 it has been denominated soap-rock, a particular kind 

 being called steatite. The clays of which the Stafford- 

 shire ware are manufactured, are brought from Dorset- 

 shire and Devonshire, the former affording clay of a 

 superior quality to the latter. The clays of both places, 

 however, are distinguished by almost every property 

 necessary to the purpose to which they are applied, 

 particularly for extreme whiteness when burnt ; a cir- 

 cumstance which results from their being free from 

 iron, a metal which, as just stated, imparts a reddish 

 or yellowish colour. The worst and cheapest species 

 of stoneware made in this country, is formed of the 

 common clay of which bricks are made. It can be 

 glazed, as the superior kinds, and converted to many 

 different purposes ; but, in an unglazed state, it is used 

 for garden-pots, tiles, and tubes for draining land. 



The clay undergoes such a preparation at the place Prepara- 

 where it is procured as to free it from stones, and the tion of 

 grosser impurities. When brought to the manufactory, these in- 

 it must be rendered still more pure ; an object which g red nt. 

 is accomplished by means of machinery. The clay 

 having by machinery been reduced to small pieces, ap- 

 proaching to a coarse powder, is transferred to a vat, 

 for the purpose of being mixed with water. By con- 



The Pottery, or the Potteries, which, as mentioned in the text, comprehend an area of about eight miles by six, is so named from the 

 numerous and extensive manufactories of earthen-ware it contains, and for which, especially at an early period, its situation and soil were 

 jc.culiarly favourable. The soil in every direction presents a great variety of clays of the finest sort, of which, at one time, though not 

 recently, pottery was formed; while the coarser kinds are still appropriated to umke -saggars for burning the ware in, and to construct the 

 kilns. This place also abounds with rich and inexhaustible strata ot coal. These advantages in favour of one particular manufacture, 

 and the unfitness of the soil for the purposes of husbandry, arc evidently the reasons why this district was selected for the object to which 

 it has so long been converted. It was appropriated to earthen-ware manufactories at a remote period, as mentioned in the text : since the 

 days of Wedgewood, however, it has attained to its greatest eminence; and, in proportion to its extent, it is now the most populous and 

 most prosperous spot in the empire. The inhabitants, amounting to about 30,000, are industrious and sober, and, as is the case in most 

 manufacturing places, remarkable for great diversity of religious denominations, of which methodism is the most prevalent- The princi- 

 pal towns, in each ot which are extensive manufactories, are Etruria (Mr. Wedgewood's seat) Burslem, Stoke, Hauley, Mielron, Golden- 

 Hill, New-Field, Smith- Field, Tunstall, Ix>ng-Port, Cobridge, l^tne-End, Lower-Lane, Lane-Delf. (Shaw's Hlttory of Staffordshire, 

 foL vol. I.) 



