House and Carden 
( O U Mil O N O 
THE TRIUMPH OF NEPTUNE 
AN URN MADE BY WM. GALLOWAY 
be durable and its surface non-absorbent, but 
that color should be subordinated to both 
form and decoration. Permissible colors are 
virtually limited to the reds and browns of 
the soil, to the greens of foliage, and to the 
whites and grays that harmonize with nearly 
everything. Glazes may be of the highly 
polished sort or of the less assuming variety 
known as matte, with its dull, unglossed fin¬ 
ish, produced in the kiln or by directing a 
sand blast over the surface. Applied or incised decor¬ 
ations afford a touchstone of the designer’s skill and 
taste. Every style has its own character, but moder¬ 
ation is a word fitly spoken in them all. Above all, 
the decoration should bear some discernible relation to 
the form of the vessel itself. To key these two factors 
together is to have won one’s spurs as an artist-potter. 
To come down to actual practice, let the reader note 
the several illustrations of the Perth Amboy Terra 
Cotta Company’s work. For true reproductions of old 
Italian specimens, we have those marked A, B, C and 1). 
The first piece was sent to the pottery by Mr. Stanford 
White, and the second by Mr. Charles A. Platt. A, C 
and I) were once oil jars, as their two bung-holes show, 
while B is as distinctively intended for holding a tree. 
In all four, the contour pleases the eye and there is 
purposeful and not too involved decoration. The belts 
and their connecting diagonals in A have an agreeable 
freedom, almost a casual quality ; you like to think of 
the original potter pausing to look at his work and 
surveying it lovingly, near by and at a distance. Surely 
he might have kept that dominating girdle around its 
middle more nearly of one size and direction, but for 
the good of art and to satisfy his own instinct, he re¬ 
frained from a too free use of compasses and 
calipers. For the potter, though he must be 
an architect in little, should also be a sculp¬ 
tor in posse and while his work must not 
only be strong, but look so, it may well en¬ 
joy a little license, else he might better turn 
his attention to bridge beams and locomotive 
boilers. 
This old terra-cotta tree tub, too, has its 
whims of curvature and decoration. The 
architect’s order was to carry out a dozen 
FLOWER BOXES MADE OF TILES AT THE MORAVIAN LOTTERY 
35 
