ORIGIN OF CERAMIC FORMS. 



447 



Another class of vessels, those made from the skins, bladders, aud 

 stomachs of animals, should also be mentioned in this connection, as it 

 is certain that their influence has frequently been felt in the conforma- 

 tion of earthen utensils. 



In searching nature, therefore, for originals of primitive ceramic forms 

 we have little need of going outside of objects that in their natural or 

 slightly altered state are available for vessels. 



a, Shell. 



b, Clay. 



Fig. 465 — Form derived from a conch shell. 



True, other objects have beeu copied. We find a multitude of the 

 higher natural forms, both animal and vegetable, embodied in vessels 

 of clay, but their presence is indicative of a somewhat advanced stage 

 of art, when the copying of vessels that were functionally proper ante- 

 cedents had given rise to a familiarity with the use of clay and a 

 capacity in handling it that, with advancing culture, brought all nature 

 within the reach of the potter and made it assist in the processes of 

 variation and development. 



Artificial originals. — There is no doubt that among most peoples art 

 had produced vessels in other materials antecedent to the utilization of 

 clay. These would be legitimate models for the potter aud we may 

 therefore expect to find them repeated in earthenware. In this way 

 the art has acquired a multitude of new forms, some of which may 

 be natural forms at second hand, that is to say, with modifications 

 imposed upon them by the material in which they were first shaped. 

 But all materials other than clay are exceedingly intractable, and im- 

 press their own characters so decidedly upon forms produced in them 

 that ultimate originals, where there are such, cannot often be traced 

 through them. 



It will be most interesting to note the influence of these peculiarities 

 of originals upon the ceramic art. 



A nation having stone vessels, like those of California, on acquiring 

 the art of pottery would use the stone vessels as models, and such 

 forms as that given in Fig. 466 would arise, a being in stone and b in 

 clay, the former from California aud the latter from Arizona. 



Similar forms would just as readily come from gourds, baskets, or 

 other globular utensils. 



Nations having wooden vessels would copy them in clay on acquir- 

 ing the art of pottery. This would give rise to a distinct group of 

 forms, the result primarily of the peculiarities of the woody structure. 



