672 



POTSDAM POTTERY. 



taining flowers or plants, and more generally any 

 sort of medley. See (^uodlibet. 



POTSDAM ; a residence of the king of Prussia, 

 seventeen miles west from Berlin, on the river 

 Havel, with 25,000 inhabitants, of whom 5,700 are 

 soldiers. Several troops of the guards are always 

 stationed here. It has five churches, one synagogue, 

 and 1600 houses. It contains palaces and gardens, 

 chiefly built and laid out by Frederic the Great 

 (whose favourite residence was Potsdam), at an 

 immense expense, a military orphan house for 600 

 children, in exemplary order (besides 2000 other 

 children of military persons who are provided for 

 by this establishment), with various other public 

 buildings ; but the general appearance of the place 

 is cheerless, because it has no manufacturing indus- 

 try, nor commerce. A very fine road leads from 

 Berlin to Potsdam, through a most uninteresting 

 plain. Potsdam itself, however, is rather pleasantly 

 situated; Ion. E. 13 5'; lat. N. 52 24' 19". 



POTTER, JOHN, primate of all England, born 

 in 1674, was the son of a linen draper of Wakefield, 

 in Yorkshire, in the grammar school of which town 

 he received the rudiments of a classical education. 

 He then became a member of University college, 

 Oxford, where, in his twentieth year, he published 

 Variantes Lectiones et Notce ad Plutarchi Librum 

 de audiendis Poetis; et ad Basilii magni Orationem 

 ad Juvenes quomodo cum Fructu legere possint 

 Greecorum Libras. The next year he became fel- 

 low of Lincoln college, and, in 1697, printed an 

 edition of Lycophron. Soon after appeared his 

 Archaeologia Greeca, or the Antiquities of Greece, 

 in 2 vols., 8vo, which has gone through many 

 editions, and is almost indispensable to the classical 

 student. In 1706, he became chaplain to queen 

 Anne, on which occasion he graduated as doctor in 

 divinity. In 1715, being then regius professor of 

 divinity, he was raised to the see of Oxford, and, 

 in 1737, was appointed archbishop of Canterbury. 

 He died in 1747- His works, besides those enume- 

 rated, are, a Discourse on Church Government 

 (1707); an edition of Clemens Alexandrinus (1714); 

 and theological works, printed together, in 3 vols., 

 8vo. (Oxford, 1753). 



POTTER, ROBERT, born in 1721, graduated at 

 Cambridge, 1741 , died in 1804, was an admirable 

 classical scholar, distinguished by his excellent 

 translations of the works of vEschylus (1777), Euri- 

 pides, Sophocles (1788), equally remarkable for the 

 spirit and fidelity with which they are rendered. 



POTTER, PAUL ; a painter of animals, born at 

 Enkhuisen, in 1625, was the son of Peter Potter, a 

 painter, from whom he received his first instruction, 

 but to whom he himself was greatly superior. As 

 early as his fifteenth year he had executed a work 

 which was universally admired; and, after he settled 

 fit the Hague, he was unable to satisfy the demand 

 for his works. His department was the painting of 

 animals and landscapes, but he was more particu- 

 larly successful in the former ; the latter were de- 

 signed merely to aflbrd an opportunity for exhibiting 

 animals in different attitudes and circumstances. 

 His colouring is uncommonly brilliant, and the 

 separate parts are most delicately executed, yet 

 without any appearance of stiffness or mannerism. 

 His pieces were generally of a small size; but there 

 is one in the Louvre, which originally belonged to 

 the prince of Orange, representing a man and cattle 

 as large as life. His walks were always occupied 

 in study; whatever struck his fancy, he immediately 

 sketched. He died in 1654, at the age of twenty- 

 nine years, at Amsterdam, where he had been resid- 

 ing two years. His engravings are not less esteemed 

 than his paintings. His cabinet pieces command a 



very high price. His celebrated Cow, which was 

 taken from the Cassel gallery to Paris, was bought 

 by Alexander, emperor of Russia, for about 4000 

 dollars. 



POTTER'S CLAY. See Clay. 

 POTTERY. The art of forming vessels or uten- 

 sils of any sort of clay, kneaded with water, aiiJ 

 hardened in the fire, is of high antiquity; and we 

 find mention of earthenware in the Mosaic writings. 

 The Greeks, at an early period, had potteries at 

 Samos, Athens, and Corinth. Demaratus, father of 

 Tarquinius Priscus, is said to have instructed the 

 Etruscans and Romans in this art, of which the 

 Etruscan vases show the great perfection. In th 

 different kinds of earthen ware, the different degrees 

 of beauty and costliness depend upon the quality of 

 the raw material used, and upon the labour and 

 skill expended in the operation. (See Clay.') The 

 cheapest products of the art are those made of com- 

 mon clay, similar to that of which bricks are formed, 

 and which, from the iron it contains, usually turns 

 red in burning. (See Bricks.) Next to this is the 

 common crockery ware, formed of the purer and 

 whiter clays, in which iron exists only in minute 

 quantities. Porcelain, which is the most beautiful 

 and expensive of all, is formed only from argil- 

 laceous minerals of extreme delicacy, united with 

 siliceous earths, capable of communicating to them 

 a semi-transparency, by means of its vitrification. 

 (See Fayence, and Porcelain.) 



Though the various kinds of pottery and porce- 

 lain differ from each other in the details of their 

 manufacture, yet there are certain general princi- 

 ples and processes, which are common to them all. 

 The first belongs to the preparation of the clay, 

 and consists in dividing and washing it, till it ac- 

 quires the requisite fineness. The quality of the 

 clay requires the intermixture of a certain propor- 

 tion of siliceous earth, the effect of which is to in- 

 srease its firmness, and render it less liable to shrink 

 and crack, on exposure to heat. In common clay, 

 a sufficient quantity of sand exists in a state of 

 natural mixture, to answer this purpose. But in 

 the finer kinds, an artificial admixture of silica is 

 necessary. The paste which is thus formed is 

 thoroughly beaten and kneaded to render it ductile 

 and to drive out the air. It is then ready to receive 

 its form. The form of the vessel intended to be 

 made is given to the clay either by turning it on a 

 wheel, or by casting it in a mould. When dry, it 

 is transferred to the oven or furnace, and there 

 burnt till it acquires a sufficient degree of hardness 

 for use. Since, however, the clay is still porous, 

 and of course penetrable to water, it is necessary 

 to glaze it. This is done by covering the surface 

 with some verifiable substance, and exposing it a 

 second time to heat, until this substance is converted 

 into a coating of glass. (See Glazing.) In the 

 coarse earthen ware, which is made of common clay, 

 the clay, after being mixed and kneaded, until it has 

 acquired the proper ductility, is transferred to a 

 revolving table, called the wheel. A piece of clay 

 being placed in the centre of this table, a rotary 

 motion is communicated to it by the feet; the potter 

 then begins to shape it with his hands ; the rotarv 

 motion gives it a circular form, and it is gradually 

 wrought up to the intended shape, a tool being 

 occasionally used to assist the finishing. The ves- 

 | sels are now set aside to dry, after which they are 

 baked in 'the oven or kiln. 



Stone ware may be formed of the clays which are 

 used for other vessels, by applying to them a great- 

 er degree of heat, which increases their strength 

 and solidity. These vessels afford the material of 

 their own glazing by the vitrification of their sur 



