HOLMES] METHODS OF MANUFACTURE 49 



Our Iviiowledge of the tcchiiic of the art is fortunately not limited 

 to that furnished by literature or l)y o])servation of modern practices. 

 An examination of the many relics preserved to our time throws much 

 light on the methods of fictile manipulation. The potter's fingers have 

 left an indelible and easily- read record upon every sherd. Slips, enam- 

 els, and glazes which tend to obscure evidences of manipulation had 

 not come into use or were sparingly emplo3'ed, and the firing was so 

 slight as to leave all the ingredients, save in color and hardness, practi- 

 cally luichanged. 



First I^se op Clay 



Cla}' was probably first employed in the unbaked state as an auxil- 

 iary in various arts, but in such a simple manner that traces of the 

 work are not preserved to us. The beginnings of the use of utensils 

 of baked clay by our northern tribes nuist have been of comparatively 

 recent date, but these incipient stages are necessaril}- obscure. If the 

 art was of local origin a long series of almost imperceptible steps must 

 have led up to successful methods of shaping and baking. Suitable 

 clays would have to be discovered and brought into use, and it wovild 

 be long before the intelligent use of tempering materials and advanced 

 methods of manipulation were known. 



Shai'inc; Processes and Appliances 



The shaping processes employed in vessel making were chiefly 

 modeling and molding. These operations are equally elementarj' and 

 probably of nearly equal antiquit}', or, what amounts to the same 

 thing, they came into use at corresponding stages of culture. If, as 

 has been suggested, the clay vessel originated with the employment of 

 clay as a lining for cooking pits, or in protecting baskets, fruit shells, 

 or other articles from destruction by fire in culinary operations, the 

 claA' would be applied to, and would take the form of, the pit or 

 vessel, and the art of molding would be suggested. Modeling began 

 with the first touch of the fingers to a plastic material, l)ut modeling 

 directed to a definite end — the art of modeling — did not ))egin until 

 some desired form was designedly reproduced. The assumption that 

 the \essel was the first art form in baked clay may or may not be 

 well founded, but that it soon became and alwaj's remained the most 

 important product of the potter's art must pass unchallenged. 



Although the molding process was much used in archaic times, it 

 alone was never competent to complete a utensil; the plastic clay had 

 to be squeezed into the mold and was therefore shaped, on one side at 

 least, by modeling with the fingers or an implement. On the other 

 hand, modeling alone was cajmble of accomplishing every necessary 

 part of the shaping and finishing of vessels. 

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