PHILIPPINE POTTERY. 



By George I. Adams and Wallace E. Pratt. 

 {From the Division of Mines, Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I.) 



The purpose of this report is to give a brief resume of the pottery 

 industry in the Philippines and record what has been learned through 

 practical experience concerning the clays of the Islands by those who 

 have attempted to produce better grades of ware than the primitive pot- 

 tery made by household industry. Information has been gathered con- 

 cerning the methods used and the results obtained at the first kilns- 

 built for making stoneware and porcelain from white clays. In the 

 future these data may not be so easily collected and they are, therefore, 

 recorded here for reference. The investigation of the industry at this 

 time was made in order to cooperate with the Bureau of Education in 

 the establishment of pottery schools as a part of manual training instruc- 

 tion. It has afforded an opportunity for making the first collection 

 representative of Philippine pottery. 



Primitive pottery. — The natives of the Philippines make crude red 

 pottery at many places throughout the Islands. It is estimated that the 

 value of the total output in 1909 was 400,000 pesos. The products are, 

 for the most part, pots for carrying water and cooking food. Some of 

 these utensils are provided with lids. The designs seldom show any 

 special merit and the ornamentation is usually confined to lines scratched 

 with a stick in the unburnt ware. Frequently, the air-dried pots are 

 washed with a ferruginous earth or ocher ground in water in order to 

 give them a uniform red color when burned. 



The clay used is generally alluvial. It is mixed with water, stirred 

 or worked over to take out all sticks and pebbles, and then is tramped 

 with the bare feet to make it plastic. Most of the clays show consider- 

 able air shrinkage and to overcome this as much as one-third part of fine 

 river sand is sometimes mixed with the prepared clay. 



The pots are turned by hand on a small wooden wheel which has a 



•foot resting on a second piece of wood. The wheel is revolved by hand. 



It is not centered on a bearing or axle, but the foot of the wheel is 



lubricated with a little watery clay. In shaping the mouth of the pots a 



piece of cloth wet in clay water is held between the thumb and finger. 



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