Nature aud Art, October 1, 1806-3 
SPROUTING PLATES AND JARS. 
141 
“It was made of coarse earthenware, with chocolate- 
coloured glaze, sometimes decorated with buff- 
coloured ornaments,” and having two or three 
handles, was used as a parting or loving cup, being 
passed on from guest to guest. 
With what success materials have, since the time 
of Messrs. Itous and Cullyn, been sought for in 
England, and the variety of skill employed in their 
application, will best appear by a final quotation 
from the closing passages of the essay, with which 
we will also conclude this notice. They are well 
calculated to excite an interest and curiosity in the 
subject, and thus form a good introduction to the 
rest and main part of Mr. Chaffers’s work, namely, 
his “ Catalogue of Marks and Monograms.” 
“At the present day, to produce the commonest painted 
bowl used by the poorest peasant wife to contain the break- 
fast of her rustic husband, the clays of Dorset and Devon- 
shire, the flints of Kent, the granite of Cornwall, the lead 
of Montgomery, the manganese of Warwickshire, and the 
soda of Cheshire, must be conveyed from these respective 
districts, and by ingenious processes, the result of un- 
numbered experiments, be made to combine with other 
substances, apparently as heterogeneous, obtained from 
other nations.” — Shaw. 
“ A single piece of ware, such as a common enamelled 
teapot, mug, jug, &c., passes through at least fourteen 
different hands before it is finished, viz. : — the slipmaker, 
who. makes the clay ; the temperer or beater of the clay ; 
the thrower, who forms the ware ; the ball maker and 
carrier ; the attendant upon the drying of it ; the turner, 
who does away its roughness ; the spout maker ; the handler, 
who puts on the handle and spout ; the first, or biscuit 
fireman ; the person who immerses or dips it into the lead 
fluid ; the second, or gloss fireman ; the dresser, or sorter 
in tho warehouse ; the enameller, or painter ; the muffle, or 
enamel fireman. Several more are required to the completion 
of each piece of ware, but are in inferior capacities, such as 
the turner of the wheel, turner of the lathe, &c.” 
On parting here from the author — not without 
an idea of some day returning to the subject — we 
may take the opportunity of remarking that his 
present edition contains a mass of new and im- 
portant matter ; is elegantly, nay, luxuriantly, 
produced ; and has the great advantage over its 
predecessor of a careful index. 
SPROUTING PLATES AND JARS. 
By George Chapman, F.S.A. 
T HE drawings accompanying this article re- 
present an exceedingly rare phenomenon 
occurring in Porcelain, a phenomenon so rare, 
indeed, that the present writer after careful in- 
quiry and researches has heard of but two other 
instances. If, however, any of the numerous 
readers of Nature and Art have met with any 
other examples, the information will be gladly re- 
ceived through the Editor. 
Let them only be so fortunate as to escape 
fractures, and one is inclined to suppose that the 
cherished bits of “ Old China ” that ornament our 
drawing-rooms are among the most unchangeable 
of one’s possessions. Of the two improbabilities 
one would, perhaps, rather expect to hear that 
one’s mahogany chairs were shooting into leaf, 
than that one’s china tea-pot was growing, and yet 
Ave have three instances of the latter occurrence, 
and none of the former. 
The jar under consideration which, though it 
resembles a tea-pot was probably not intended for 
such a purpose, is of oriental manufacture, though it 
has been thought that possibly some additional 
colouring and gilding has been added and burnt in 
in this country — a not uncommon circumstance. — 
It is of rather coarse substance covered Avith a hard 
glaze ; its age may be from a hundred to a hundred 
and fifty years. It has been for many years in the 
possession of a relative of the writer, resident in Lon- 
don. About a year ago it Avas observed that the 
enamel Avas rising in lumps on the outside, and on ex- 
amination it appeared also in the inside of the vessel. 
This process Avent steadily on till patches of the 
enamel, in size from a fourpenny-piece to a shilling 
piece, have risen in several places from the substance 
of the china on Avhite crystalline, bases to the height 
of nearly a quarter of an inch, and in other parts 
a lesser disturbance has taken place : but as the 
movement is still continuing, the shoots may 
possibly all attain the same altitude. Such is the 
strange behaviour on the part of a tea-pot which 
had borne for so long, a quiet and respectable 
character. 
We Avill shortly refer to the other instances on 
record of this strange freak that porcelain nature 
is liable to, and then state Avhat is probably the 
scientific explanation. 
In the “ Recreative Science ” magazine for 
January, 1860, the Editor tells us that, attracted by 
a handbill announcing the “ startling fact ” of an 
old china plate coA r ered Avith “ a natural groAvth of 
trees, shrubs, and flowers ” to be seen at No. 2, 
William-street, Shoreditch, he attended the ex- 
hibition, and, for the outlay of 6d., saw the wonder 
which he thus describes : “ It is simply a case of 
efflorescence, and the crystals formed by some sIoav 
decomposition taking place in the clay, force them- 
selves through the enamel, and in some instances 
rise to a height of half an inch, in tufts and 
bundles. In several places portions of the enamel 
are lifted up by the crystalline growth and appear 
like lozenges laid on the flat surface.” 
The other example was announced by the follow- 
ing amusing advertisement : — 
“ THE GROWING PLATE.” 
“ Go and see Mr. H. Healey’s growing plate. The most 
wonderful natural phenomenon of the age. The surface of 
an old china dinner plate, which has been in the possession 
