ANCIENT CHINESE POTTEPJES 



Fig. 21. 



The Chinese ovens used at the present time do not differ much 

 in form or arrangement from those designed and described by 

 Entrecolles in the beginning of the last century. M. Chavagnon, 

 who witnessed their performance at a recent period, says that the 

 construction of the flues is so well managed, that the distribution 

 of the heat is sensibly uniform, the ovens such as A, which are most 

 remote from the furnace, being as effectually heated, and the 

 articles in them as well baked, as those, such as c, which are 

 nearest to it. 



6. The first attempts made in Europe to fabricate a hard earthen- 

 ware covered with a glaze, are ascribed to the Moors of the Spanish 

 Peninsula. After this, a manufacture upon a large scale, was 

 established in the Balearic Isles ; and the wares originally pro- 

 duced there, and subsequently reproduced in Italy, acquired the 

 name Majolica, being a corruption of Majorica or Majorca, the 

 principal island of the Balearic group. 



7. The first of the improvers of this art after its importation into 

 the Italian peninsula, was Lucca della Robbia, a Florentine sculp- 

 tor, whose name has thus become inseparably associated with the 

 history of this ornamental industry. This celebrated artist, born 

 in 1388, died prematurely in his forty-second year. He left, never- 

 theless, an immense number of works, which have come down 

 to the present times, and are highly prized. 



He was succeeded by his brothers and their descendants, all 

 of whom continued, for nearly a century and a half, to practise 

 the art on a large scale, so that it must be always difficult, 



133 



