COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 341 



In the centers of American civilization molds came to be used, and 

 casts for molds, perfectly made, were taken from natural objects. It is 

 scarcely possible to say that the wheel was known. 



The tools of the aboriginal potter are very simple. For grinding 

 the clay a flat stone suffices. A shell, bit of gourd, a smooth beach 

 pebble aids the potter s fingers in building up the vessels and smooth 

 stones or the thumb nail gives the finish when the clay becomes hard. 

 A sharp stick or thorn scratches ornamentation in the clay or a figured 

 paddle gives the desired design. 



The spine of a palm, or a roughly made brush of hair, or vegetable 

 fiber supplies a paint brush. 



When the vessel or other object receives its form from the hand of 

 the potter, his next care is the treatment of the surface. Here begins 

 the most fascinating chapter of the ceramic art, the record on enduring 

 terra cotta of aesthetic ideas, the origin and expression of art forms, 

 and the beginning of modeling and painting. 



One often finds the surface of the most ancient pottery rough, with 

 rude ornamentation, bearing the impress of rough surfaces and unskill 

 ful handling. This is not alone a feature of time, but also of culture 

 and surroundings. 



There seem to be the following stages in the decoration of pottery : 



(1) Natural surface from the hands of the potter; furrows or 

 scratches in the paste ; impress of rough surfaces, as basketry, nets, 

 paddles, the coiling lines, finger ornamentations, etc., giving rise to 

 stamps, forms, and molds. 



(2) Applied fillets, bosses, etc., on the paste running to higher 

 grades of relief modeling and luting. 



(3) Wash or slip-paints leading to polychrome decoration. 



(4) Tooling or burnishing to render the surface less porous, like 

 glaze. The same effect was procured by melted resin. 



The last step of the process rendering the clay anhydrous and dura 

 ble is the firing. Modern aboriginal pottery is burned in the open air 

 by setting up the dried ware, piling around it grass, leaves, or other 

 inflammable material, preferably bark, and firing it to a red heat in 

 clear coals. The ware is allowed to cool slowly in the ashes to prevent 

 cracks. 



To secure black ware the objects are burned to a certain degree as 

 above and the fire dampened or smothered with fresh fuel, sometimes 

 resinous, producing a tarry smoke, which penetrates the pores of 

 the pottery. It was usually the object to produce black ware, but 

 frequently the dark, common ware of the greater part of the United 

 States and Africa seems to have been due to imperfect firing. 



There is evidently as much skill necessary in baking the ware as in 

 any other portion of the pottery art. Kilns or pits in the ground for 

 firing ware may have been used in Peru, Mexico, Colombia, and other 

 American centers of artistic pottery. 



