ACTION OF FIRE ON CLAYS. 275 



pleased to give instructions concerning the size and other necessary 

 particulars. Mrs. Plaxman presents her respects to Mrs. & Miss 

 Wedgwood and yourself. 



" And I have the honour to remain, Sir, 

 " Your obliged Servant, 



The designs for groups for the teapots here spoken of by 

 Flaxman were modelled, and no doubt will be familiar to 

 some collectors. The same groups were also introduced into 

 other pieces, of various sizes. And here let me say a word 

 or two on a matter of great interest to collectors, but on 

 which, unfortunately, not having the practical knowledge of 

 the potter's art, they possess but very scanty information. 



I have often heard it remarked what an enormous cost it 

 must have been to produce models of the same group in so 

 many different sizes, from seven or eight, or even more, 

 inches in height, down to the most minute and exquisite 

 little gem of three quarters or half an inch in height ; and 

 I have heard the remark, from those who had carefully 

 examined them, repeatedly made, of how marvellous it was 

 that in producing so many separate models of the same 

 subject, such strict and unerring fidelity should have been 

 preserved in all their details. This reduction, my readers 

 will be glad to learn, is produced by the action of fire, 

 and this one of the wonderful properties of heat, with all 

 of which in their effect on the form, size, colour, &c., the 

 successful potter must be thoroughly acquainted is one of 

 the nicest and most careful operations which the master eye 

 of the producer has to accomplish. 



The properties of different clays in their shrinking, no 

 less than in their combinations for the production of differ- 

 ent bodies and varieties of colours, have to be understood 

 thoroughly by the manufacturer, who has to proportion the 

 degrees of heat to which his wares must be subjected to 

 produce the desired result. For instance, if a piece no 

 matter what is required to be of a certain size when 

 finished, the model for it has to be made of a larger size, 



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