House £s? Garden 
GROUP OF SGRAFFITO POTTERY 
XVI .—Basin ‘with Fuchsia Design XVIII .—Large Vegetable or Meat Dish with Bird and Tulips , rjqb XX .—Drinking Cup 
XVII. — Covered Jar showing Tulip Motive XIX. — Inscribed Flower Vase, showing Floral Device 
From the Collection in the Pennsylvania Museum 
to be seen among the descendents of the old 
craftsmen. Toy whistles in the forms of 
birds and animals, mugs and drinking cups, 
tobacco jars, shaving basins, jardinieres and 
flower bowls, elaborately ornamented in the 
same characteristic manner, are found in con¬ 
siderable abundance. With the cultivation 
of the gardens in summer, came the desire to 
beautify the interiors of the houses through 
the winter season, and poor indeed was the 
German household which could not boast of 
at least a few flower-pots or vases of graceful 
form and decorative character, which were 
ranged with their brillant contents along the 
sunny window ledge. Here might be ob¬ 
served the rose, the forget-me-not and many 
old-time plants, both native and imported, 
among which were numerous rare varieties 
of the showy tulip, which had been the 
favorite flower in the Fatherland since the 
beginning of that most remarkable horticul¬ 
tural mania, the tulpenwuth (tulip madness), 
which swept through Europe in the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries. When the balmy 
days of spring arrived, the blooming plants 
were carefully transplanted to the well-kept 
beds outside. On the lawn the fertile apple- 
trees were laden with pink and white blos¬ 
soms, beneath which the peacock strutted 
proudly in his gorgeous livery. 
The Pennsylvania potters infused into 
their work a large measure of sentiment and 
the quaint pot works with their low dome¬ 
shaped kilns which usually occupied rooms 
in the dwellings of the proprietors, were the 
scenes of social gatherings and merrymaking. 
Previous to the opening of the apple-butter 
season, when every good housewife was ex¬ 
pected to prepare a supply of this toothsome 
confection for winter consumption, a stock 
of earthenware crocks must be provided, in 
anticipation of the expected demand. T his 
was the busiest period of the year with the 
local potters. The “ burning of the kiln ” 
was always a great event at the pottery, 
especially to the boys employed there. For 
thirty-six hours, while the firing continued, 
they were relieved from the exacting duties 
of their regular employment. While the 
men were attending to the fires, the youth 
of the neighborhood were accustomed to 
assemble in force to enjoy to the fullest 
extent the novelty of being permitted to 
remain up all night. All sorts of games 
were indulged in,—“ Hide and Seek,” “ Silly 
Bunk” and “Tag,” in the moonlight out¬ 
side, and checkers and dominoes, in the 
light of the roaring kiln. 
There are a few yet living whose memories 
go back to those good old times, when they 
“assisted” the old potters in their work; 
when slip decoration was considered the 
highest development of the ceramic art,— 
before the advent of tin utensils and the 
cheapened white china of more recent times 
had closed the picturesque old potteries of 
the Pennsylvania German communities for¬ 
ever. 
239 
