Prof. Royle’s Lecture on the Great Exhibition of 1851. 169 
So little is known of Indian pottery, that it is usually de- 
scribed as being hemispherical in shape. Some of it is no doubt 
so, for the convenience of being carried on the head; but it is a 
fact, that in the recent exhibition of Indian pottery, numbers of 
the best judges have greatly admired its elegant, even classical 
gracefulness of form. It is also stated to be black, and red, or 
yellowish. The clays which are generally employed in the 
more populous parts of the country, Dr. O’Shaughnessy has ob- 
served, “contain so much oxyd of iron and carbonate of lime 
that the vessels melt into a slag at a temperature little above that 
of redness.” ‘Deposits of a black stiff clay, containing much 
vegetable matter, occur in some districts; vessels made with it 
sustain a higher temperature.” Clays capable of bearing great 
degrees of heat have, however, been discovered in different parts 
of India. As one great object is to have porous vessels for cool- 
ing water, the ordinary clays answer sufficiently well for this pur- 
pose; and some of the forms, as that of the tortoise-shaped, ex- 
pose a large surface to the air. The Hindoos, moreover, neve 
equally conspicuous in the pottery of Sewan near Patna, as in 
pet Azimgurh or of Ahmedabad, of Mirzapore, or of Mora- 
; Some of it is remarkable, also, for its extreme thinness and 
lightness, Showing the great skill of the artist, and making it dif- 
ficult to understand how it kept its shape when in a plastic state, 
as I cannot learn that the turning lathe is used to give a finish to 
any of the articles. The painted pottery of Kotah, and the gilt 
Szconp Sznizs, Vol. XIV, No. 41.—Sept., 1852. 22 
