CERAMICS. 201 



complicated than that of the white porcelain. In the pottery trade, as has already 

 been the case in many other branches of technical production in Russia, the house- 

 hold industry served as a basis upon wiiich separate mauufacturins centres of 

 crockery, earthenware and porcelain were comparatively recently established. The 

 hands employed at such factories were generally the local household workmen. 

 It should be mentioned also that the founders and owners of such establishments, 

 centralizing the trade, came mainly from the midst of the workmen engaged in 

 the household work; therefore, it can be said that the merit of the organization 

 of the eartheinvare and porcelain manufacture must be wholly attributed to the 

 household industry. Thus, the ordinary pottery trade in Russia claims attention 

 not only as a branch of popular occupation, but also with regard to its connection 

 with the ceramic works established in Russia. Special statistical investigations and 

 works have always been consecrated, and especially in recent years, to the popular 

 manufacturing industry. The photographs exhibited by Mr. Ergemsky at the World's 

 Columbian Exposition at Chicago show in very great variety the samples of the na- 

 tional Russian pottery, they being gathered from different large collections, such for 

 instance as the Museum of Wares of Household Industry in St. Petersburg. 



The so-called Gzliel, a locality situated in the Moscow government and 

 comprising a group of villages of the Bronnitsk and Bogorodsk districts, as 

 well as some villages of the district of Pokrovsk, government of Vladimir, 

 was renowned of old for the favourable conditions it presented to the development 

 of household pottery. The village Gzhel with the adjoining villages is situated 50 

 versts distant from Moscow in the centre of the locality having a vast area of clay 

 repositories, known by the general name of the gzhelsk. Here the making of pottery 

 served as a means to enrich clever peasant enterprisers; this locality is rich not only 

 in excellent potter's clay but also in some kinds of light fire clay, good for the 

 manufacture of the average sorts of earthenware and porcelain, for fireproof bricks- 

 and moulds. 



The white clay (china clayj of the best quality, for the needs of the manufact- 

 urer, was brought here from the Chernigov government, namely, from the district 

 of Gloukhov, vastly renowned iu Russia for its different sorts of kaolin. However, 

 Gzhel itself is rich in fireproof china clay found in the villages Minin, Zhirov, 

 Rechitsy and others. The development of the pottery trade in this region, in the hands 

 of separate enterprisers, ran the follow'ing course: having put aside about a hundred 

 roubles, a peasant of Gzhel engaged 2 or 3 workmen and began the making of 

 bricks, the local clays being practically fireproof, and occasionally that of plates, the 

 latter being chiefly manufactured at the household establishments grown to be regular 

 factories. As the trade went on well the making of moulds for baking earthen- 

 •ware and porcelain was established in a separate building, the products being sold 

 to the manufacturers. Thereupon, under favourable conditions, his establishment was 

 soon turned into a regular factory for the making of plates. 



This abundance in ceramic materials, united to the good position of the locality 

 with regard to the ways of trade communication with Moscow, with the east through 

 Kazan, and with the southern markets of Kharkhov and Poltava, called forth a strong 

 development of the household industry in Gzhel. The object of the trade in later 

 years, especially in the beginning of this century, was the production of earthen 



