THE POTTERS ART. 



a fact which, has some interest for geographers and antiquaries. 

 It is that yases of the same form and similar decoration have been 

 found among the remains of ancient pottery in Peru and Chili 

 in South America, which must have existed ages before the time 

 of Columbus. One of these jars, found in Peru, is represented in 

 fig. 27. It will be observed as a coincidence deserving of notice, 

 that while in the Chinese vases lizards are represented creeping 

 from one part of the vase to the other, a species of small ape is 

 represented in a like position and action on the Peruvian vase, 

 and that in both cases the tails are bifurcated. 



9. The figures so often seen on Chinese porcelain, with a large 

 paunch, which amateurs call POTJ-SA, and which are often in 

 coloured glaze, represent the Chinese god of porcelain, whom a 

 legend records as being a martyr to the art. Being engaged in 

 the process of baking, he found that the action of the furnace was 

 irregular, and such as must destroy the articles in the oven. To 

 prevent this, according to the Chinese traditions, he sacrificed 

 himself by throwing himself bodily into the furnace, and attained 

 his object. 



10. It was not until the beginning of the last century that the 

 art of fabricating the true porcelain made its way to Europe. The 

 circumstances attending its discovery are highly interesting and 

 curious. 



During the seventeenth century, the oriental porcelain which 

 had been brought to Europe by the Portuguese, and which was 

 distinguished from the wares fabricated there by the name of 

 porcelain, excited the unbounded admiration of all classes. No 

 efforts were left untried to discover its materials and the means of 

 producing it. European agents in the East, and more particularly 

 Father Entrecolles already mentioned, contrived, in spite of the 

 jealous vigilance of the Chinese, to obtain specimens of the 

 materials of which the precious ware was fabricated. But these 

 materials were in the state in which they were prepared for the 

 potter, and not in the raw form in which they were first taken from 

 the quarries. Nevertheless, they were assiduously examined and 

 analysed by the most eminent chemists and physicists of the day. 



These researches, however, led to no practical result ; and, as so 

 often happens in the progress of discovery, as well in the arts as 

 in the sciences, chance accomplished what sagacity and industry 

 failed to attain. Even chance, however, can accomplish nothing, 

 unless it presents its results where talent and genius are present 

 to recognise them and turn them to account. Happily, in the 

 present case, the talent and genius were not wanting. Saxony 

 was destined to have the honour of the first accomplishment of this 

 great advance in the ornamental arts. 

 150 



