CERAMIC WARE. 231 



and Home ; then why not specimens of porcelain ? On this 

 latter point, however, no certain testimony can be adduced. 

 Various classical authors treat of a material called ' murrha ' 

 or f myrrha,' out of which murrhine or myrrhine vases were 

 made ; but what was this material, and what were the myrrh- 

 ine vases 1 The question is much disputed. 



Some authors would have us believe them to be nothing 

 else than Oriental porcelain ; but Dr. Thomson, in his history 

 of chemistry, holds strenuously to the position that myrrhine 

 or murrhine vases were made of fluor or Derbyshire spar. 

 Some little time ago the opinion partially gained acceptance, 

 that the secret of porcelain manufacture was known to the 

 ancient Egyptians, the evidence adduced being certain small 

 porcelain vases, inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphics, and 

 discovered amidst the ruins of Thebes. At the present time, 

 however, these same vases are believed I may even say 

 known to be spurious ; known to have been deposited amidst 

 Theban ruins, on purpose to be dug up and sold as genuine 

 to travellers. I am informed that a thriving business is, or 

 at any rate was, driven in little Etruscan gods here at home 

 by certain of our Staffordshire potters. A gentleman (thus 

 was the anecdote related to deponent) once upon a time came 

 home from Italy with some queer little deities of fictile ware 

 in his pocket. Displaying the small images to a Staffordshire 

 artist on liis return, the traveller expatiated on the ceramic 

 knowledge of the ancients. His reasoning had a flaw in it. 

 ' Bless you,' the English potter is reported to have "said; 

 6 why, I made the gods myself made them to order and for 

 export I' 



Arrived thus far in our chronicle of Ceramic Ware, it will 

 be well to review the chemical technology of the case, previous 

 to explaining what next happened in the progress of fictile 

 manufacture. The proposition, be it remembered, is to obtain 

 a white material. The simplest, the most obvious, and, it may 

 be said, most legitimate way of solving the problem is by the 



