Nature and Art, Ootober 1, 1866.] 
MARKS AND MONOGRAMS, POTTERY, &c. 
139 
Occasionally, however, the name is outside the 
vessel. 
The Aretine ware, as we have said, is generally 
marked on a sort of foot, as below : — 
The real value of all specimens of ancient pottery, 
or of glass or metal ware, is of various kinds, 
arising, first, from their intrinsic beauty , i.e., as 
works of art ; for in the oft-quoted line of Keats, 
“ A thing of beauty is a joy for over ; ” 
or, secondly, from their historic interest, affording 
illustrations of the manners and customs of those 
who used them, and from their form and com- 
position, attesting (in combination with previously 
ascertained data) to the period of historic facts ; 
or, thirdly, from what may be called by way of 
distinction, their antiquarian value, namely, that 
value which alone they often acquire in the eyes 
of collectors as pieces of curiosity, for their rarity, 
age, and perhaps, too, for their hideousness. The 
first two kinds of value are rational and elevating ; 
as to the last, it must be confessed that, save where 
connected with one or other of the former, it is 
useless and contemptible, serviceable only to the 
pockets of curiosity-dealers, and exhibitors of the 
type of Barnura and Artemus Ward. Now, the 
Vasa Jictilia of the first part of Mr. Chaffers’s essay 
— which might be perhaps more fitly called an il- 
lustrated catalogue raisonnee of articles of antiquity 
of this kind which have fallen under the writer’s 
own observation — do not, interesting as they are, 
afford more than a slight insight into Roman life in 
Britain, and prove rather the absence or poverty of 
native fictile ware at the period, than exhibit the 
abundant luxury of the articles of domestic life 
among the Roman colonists. Without indulging in 
the excesses of the vicious capital of the Empire, it 
cannot be doubted that the tables of some of the 
richer settlers, or even natives, and of the Roman 
prefects and generals, were furnished with vases, 
goblets, and cups of Greek and Etruscan fabric, as 
well as of silver and gold, of far greater beauty than 
any here mentioned, ornamented probably, with 
bacchanalian and amorous subjects, social and 
mythological. A picture of such a composition is 
imagined and described in the exquisitely classic 
and elegant drinking-song by the Earl of Rochester. 
“Vulcan, contrive me such a cup 
As Nestor used of old ; 
Show all thy skill to trim it up, 
Damask it round with gold. 
“ Make it so large, that filled with sack 
Up to the swelling brim, 
Vast toasts, in the delicious lake, 
Like ships at sea may swim. 
“ Engrave not battle on his cheek, 
With war I’ve nought to do ; 
I’m none of those that took Maestrich, 
Nor Yarmouth Leaguer knew. 
“ Let it no name of planets tell — 
Fix’d stars or constellations ; 
For I am no Sir Sydrophel, 
Nor none of his relations. 
“ But carve thereon a spreading vine, 
Then add two lovely boys ; 
Their limbs in am’rous folds entwine, 
The type of future joys. 
“ Cupid and Bacchus my saints are — 
May drink and love still reign ! 
With wine I wash away my care, 
And then to love again.” 
The second part of the essay, containing an 
account — with various apposite and interesting 
literary illustrations, quotations, and allusions — of 
mediaeval pottery in England, appears to us more 
complete than the former part, though still par- 
taking of the fragmentary character, unavoidable, 
perhaps, in an attempt to compress so extensive a 
subject into so small a compass. The specimens 
which have been found of earthenware dating from 
the seventh to the fifteenth century, owe their value 
almost exclusively to their historical and antiquarian 
interest ; for, as Mr. Chaffers- notices, “ for elegance 
of form, or fineness of material, they present a 
lamentable decline from the Greek and Roman 
periods.” 
From this remark, an 
exception should be made 
in favour of tiles, of 
which there exist examples 
superior to any of Roman 
fabrication. In this country 
a special perfection had 
been attained in the thir- 
teenth century, and Mr. 
Marryat observes — 
“ The tiles discovered in England are generally of better 
make and more elaborate execution than those of the 
Continent, and were no doubt of native workmanship.” 
In Greek and Roman art, the grotesque was com- 
paratively rare, and when introduced, was geuerally 
combined with a certain grace ; whereas, in the pro- 
ductions of the Middle Ages it is predominant. This 
grotesqueness is particularly noticeable in mediteval 
earthenware jugs, and it forms one of their chief 
points of interest. Some of the vessels — especially 
drinking-vessels — of the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries, were made vehicles of satire, and with 
their design are connected curious and amusing 
allusions to the political and religious feelings, and 
illustrations of expressions and passages in the 
literature of the period. An example of this is 
found in the “ Bellarmine ” — so-called as a mark of 
Protestant disrespect to the great controversial 
cardinal, the champion of Romish politico-religious 
doctrine. This jug was “ introduced from Holland,” 
and “ was in general use in the sixteenth century 
at public-houses and inns.” It is one of the family 
of grey beards; and, according to Marryat, “received 
its name in the reign of James I., in derision of 
Bellarmine, and in compliment to the king, who 
had recently issued a rejoinder to Bellar mine’s 
celebrated letter De Potestate Summi Pontijicis in 
rebus temporalibus, in which he sought to detach 
