146 
House & 
Fourteen 
uses for 
Slate in 
this Garage 
Exterior: 
Roofs, walks, flower- 
boxes, porch floor, 
thresholds and coping 
of slate. 
Interior: 
Slate plinths, bases, 
wainscoting, window 
sills, shelving, work¬ 
bench, filter and sink. 
S LATE is adapted to more uses 
than any other natural stone. 
The permanence of slate is proverbial. 
It is unaffected by exposure,moisture, 
oils, dyes, chemicals, odors. Wheth¬ 
er cut into blocks or slabs or split in¬ 
to veneer-like sheets, slate retains its 
resistant, sanitary, fireproof and en¬ 
during characteristics. 
These properties recommend slate for use 
—and its various colors permit of most ef¬ 
fective contrasts—from roofs to walks; 
from vestibule to kitchen. 
The diversified uses of slate are worthy of 
consideration in every building or rebuild¬ 
ing, roofing or re-roofing project—large 
or small—where effectiveness, economy 
and lasting satisfaction are desirable. 
A booklet devoted to the uses of 
slate will be mailed on request. 
Roofs 
Re-roofing 
Chimney Tops 
Hearths 
Mantels 
Thresholds 
Sills 
Wainscoting 
Bases & Plinths 
Stairs 
Risers 
Landings 
Vestibules 
Porch Floors 
Areaways 
Garden Walks 
Fountains 
Benches 
Coping 
Bathrooms 
Laundry Tubs 
Laundry Slates 
Sinks 
Work Benches 
Dough Boards 
Electric Bases 
Kitchen Slates 
Range Bases 
Shelving 
Filters 
Table Tops 
Ice Box Shelves 
Drain Boards 
NATIONAL SLATE ASSOCIATION 
757 DREXEL BUILDING, PHILADELPHIA 
Garden 
On House & Garden’s Book Shelf 
(■Continued from page 144 ) 
to make boilers which simply don’t 
work at all. The great misfortune is 
that such a piece of first-hand, inside 
mis-information carries infinitely more 
weight with the prospective builder 
than all the advertisements and other 
printed matter, or even the manufac¬ 
turer’s affidavit as to the real perform¬ 
ance which can properly be expected 
from the Whatever Boiler. 
And the damage is greater than this, 
for it breeds a general mistrust of all 
advertising statements, and obscures 
the truth that advertising today is 
built upon a substantial foundation 
of veracity. In “The Construction of 
the Small House” Mr. Walsh performs 
no small service, and one hitherto at¬ 
tempted by no writer, when he de¬ 
votes a chapter to the manner in which 
advertisements should be read by pros¬ 
pective builders. He shows how, by 
detailing two examples, quoted from 
actual advertisements, the actual facts 
of the case and the required basic 
information can be gleaned from the 
conflicting and sometimes contradic¬ 
tory statements of competitive manu¬ 
facturers. 
Even on the question of style Mr. 
Walsh holds no brief, and the esthetic 
element in this aspect of the small 
house betrays him into no flights of 
fancy. His book is unqualifiedly rec¬ 
ommended to everyone who wants to 
take building advice straight, without 
any of the usual flavoring. 
A N introduction to the study of 
TERRA SIGILLATA TREATED FROM A 
CHRONOLOGICAL STANDPOINT. By 
Felix Oswald and T. Davies Pryce. 
Longmans, Green and Co. 
Terra Sigillata, the red-glazed pottery 
fabric of Gaul and other Roman prov¬ 
inces, a ware commonly known as 
“Samian” receives systematic and com¬ 
prehensive attention in a scholarly work 
by two English authorities, Felix Os¬ 
wald and T. Davies Pryce, published by 
Longmans, Green and Company in a 
finely illustrated volume. Both authors 
have pursued archaeological investiga¬ 
tions at the Roman station of Margi- 
dinum in Nottinghamshire and they 
state in their preface that at an early 
stage of their excavations they were 
struck by the difficulties inherent in the 
study of Terra Sigillata since they had 
at hand no work in the English lan¬ 
guage which covered the subject com¬ 
prehensively, and as no such work then 
existed, they were obliged to employ 
the scattered memoirs in many lan¬ 
guages besides their own and to collate 
these references. This led to the prep¬ 
aration of the present work which will 
prove a welcome and valuable addition 
to the art archaeological works of the 
time especially as the authors have 
placed special emphasis on the chrono¬ 
logical importance of the forms of the 
vessels and their style of decoration. 
Few objects of classical antiquity are 
more beautiful or more interesting than 
these ornamented keramic pieces of 
ancient Roman provincial occupation 
and the Italian Terra Sigillata,—the so- 
called Arretine ware—of which practi¬ 
cally all of the Gaulish Sigillata was a 
development. Next to datable inscrip¬ 
tions, the authors point out, there is, 
perhaps, no relic of Roman occupation 
which yields such valuable chronological 
evidence as Terra Sigillata. We now 
know that the manufacture of this 
ware was confined to Italy and the 
western Roman provinces, and for that 
reason we find it preferable to discard 
the old designation, “Samian”, given 
the ware by earlier archaeologists who 
supposed that at least the dominent 
influence of the Hellenistic potters of 
Samos was responsible for the Terra 
Sigillata. Other pottery centers in 
Greece and in Asia Minor producing 
bowls with relief decoration did, quite 
as much, afford the prototypes of this 
later Roman red-glazed ware. 
The term Sigillata is derived from 
sigilla, stamped figures or patterns, i.e. 
designs stamped on the interior of 
moulds or applied to the exterior of 
vessels, although much of the ware 
known as Terra Sigillata is plain and 
devoid of decoration, decorated en bar- 
botine, or by rouletting ; or by notches 
and incisions suggesting those of 
modern cut glass. Even red-glazed 
ware with painted pattern may be 
inc.uded. The essential characteristics 
cf the ware, however, consist in a fine 
red or yellowish red paste and a red 
or yellowish red surface-glaze, the luster 
of which is truly remarkable, often 
finer than that of sealing wax. 
From about the year 60 B. C. to 
A. D. 20 we have the most character¬ 
istic period of the Arretine potteries, 
which makes Italian Sigillata the typi¬ 
cal keramic product of the Augustan 
Age. Earlier examples of Arretine 
vessels were produced at about 150 
B. C., but these resembled the Cam¬ 
panian pieces of a still earlier date, 
glazed in black in imitation of metal, 
the transition to the red glaze taking 
place about 100 B. C. Pieces of Italian 
Sigillata have been found in Britain. 
Undoubtedly the Roman conquerors of 
the Claudian period brought many 
pieces of it over with them, though it 
seems likely that some ot it entered 
Britain in pre-Claudian years. 
There were many centers of manu¬ 
facture for the Roman Provincial Terra 
Sigillata, all confined to the continent. 
Oswald and Pryce point out that there 
is, at present, no evidence of the pro¬ 
duction of this fabric in Britain. These 
manufacturers exported the ware to all 
parts of France, Britain, Spain, Portu¬ 
gal and other parts of the continent 
of Europe, including Italy, and to 
Africa, although other pottery centers, 
such as that of St. Remy, had purely 
local provenance. 
The various chapters of this work 
concern themselves with a general de¬ 
scription, dated sites, stamps of well- 
attested potters, vessels decorated in 
moulded relief, origin and development 
of the decorative designs of provincial 
Terra Sigillata, details of chronological 
significance, plain forms, miscellaneous 
Sigillata fabrics, the origin and evolu¬ 
tion of the ware, while an excellent 
bibliography, a carefully prepared 
chronological table and a useful index 
are added. The map showing the sites 
of manufacture which forms the frontis¬ 
piece and the eighty-four additional 
full page plates are of great interest, 
beautifully drawn and all that could 
be desired, quite as much from a lay¬ 
man’s point of view as from an archae¬ 
ologist’s. With the revival of interest 
in archaeological research, this work by 
Oswald and Pryce will have more than 
a limited appeal. It offers much to 
attract those interested in the arts of 
design as well.—G. T. 
