234 CEEAMIC WARE. 



alumina will not make porcelain, as I have already stated. 

 Not only must there be some flinty matter, or silica, present, 

 but present in a certain due proportion. There should be also 

 a minute amount of alkali (potash), a little of which is actu- 

 ally found in first-class raw porcelain material. 



Pending the discovery of the secret of true porcelain in 

 Europe, a device was adopted which, though it did not even- 

 tuate in producing China ware (hard or true porcelain, as 

 chemists term it), originated a material nearly as beautiful in 

 every respect, and even more beautiful in some. This mate- 

 rial is soft, or false porcelain. Old Sevres ware was of this 

 kind; so was our Chelsea and Bow ware, not to mention 

 others. 



The material employed in the manufacture of soft porce- 

 lain has varied at different times and iu different factories. 

 Speaking generally, it may be described as white clay tem- 

 pered with powdered glass ; but occasionally numerous extra- 

 neous materials were added ; for example, white arsenic and 

 soap. The chemist will be at no loss to perceive that the 

 result of such admixture is a somewhat fusible compound a 

 sort of incipient glass, so to speak. Soft porcelain, moreover, 

 was not glazed with the same materials as real porcelain. All 

 the old fictile productions of Sevres were made of this mate- 

 rial ; and exquisitely beautiful some of the fictile productions 

 of old Sevres are. In some respects, soft porcelain is more 

 susceptible of colour ornamentation than hard. As an illus- 

 tration, the fact may be mentioned that, until quite recently, 

 turquoise colour could not be given to hard porcelain. I am 

 informed, however, by Messrs. B-ose and Daniell, whose Eng- 

 lish productions constituted such a magnificent display in the 

 Exhibition of 1862, that the difficulty of tinting real porcelain 

 with turquoise has been surmounted. 



At length, as time advanced, the secret of true porcelain 

 manufacture was discovered in Germany ; discovered, too, as 

 the result of a curious accident. It so happened that Au- 



