POTTERIES OF KIXG-TE-TSCHIN. 

 Fig. 17 



existing in China. Father Entrecolles, already quoted, who 

 resided there in 1712, stated that, at that time, there were in 

 operation there not less than 3000 ovens, which gave to the town 

 at night the appearance of one vast furnace with numerous 

 chimneys. He describes the earths of which the china was made 

 as of two kinds, called Kaolin and Petung-tse. These were brought 

 ^ King-Te-Tschin in the form of bricks from the quarries where 

 the raw material is found. 



The process by which these raw materials of the Chinese potter 

 were at that early period prepared in the quarries differed very 

 little from those by which the like materials are prepared for our 

 potters at the present day, and some of the contrivances which 

 have been claimed as modern inventions are merely reproductions 

 of what have been for ages in use in the East. 



17. Some details of these processes, as they were practised in 

 China nearly two centuries ago, will be not less instructive than 

 amusing. 



The process of quarrying the petung-tse is represented in 

 fig. 16. The mineral is detached in lumps with the mallet and 

 pick-axe. Two of the miners are employed at the sides of the 

 quarry, while a third is getting the mineral from its roof, which 

 is supported by a number of upright posts. A fourth workman is 



127 



