132 
House & Garden 
..muuMmmmimiinum'ii 
AnaJc^ndA 
from mine to consumer 
This trademark iden¬ 
tifies products of the 
world’s largest manu¬ 
facturer of Copper, 
Brass and Bronze. 
The American Brass 
Company manufac¬ 
tures all combinations of 
Copper, Zinc, Lead, Tin 
and Nickel which can be 
wrought into sheets, 
wire, rods and tubes for 
manufacturing and fab¬ 
ricating Mechanical, 
Electrical and Architec¬ 
tural Construction. 
A single organization 
is responsible for the en¬ 
tire process of mining, 
smelting and manufac¬ 
turing, thereby insuring 
the utmost in quality at 
every stage from mine to 
consumer. 
T HEIR healthdepends 
upon it. They need it 
even more than you do. A 
tub filling with crystal dear 
water is inviting. It helps 
form the wholesome habit 
of frequent baths. 
With Anaconda Brass 
Pipe the tub fills rapidly 
with water as pure as it comes 
from its carefully guarded 
water source. No unsightly 
rust to discolor the water or 
internal pipe deposits to re¬ 
duce the flow. 
The added cost for rust¬ 
less Anaconda Brass Pipe 
throughout a $15,000 house 
is only about $75 more than 
for inferior pipe that will 
corrode and clog. 
Know the vital facts about 
plumbing. Our new booklet 
“Ten Years Hence” tells the 
story. A copy awaits your re¬ 
quest. AddressDepartmentG. 
THE AMERICAN BRASS COMPANY 
General Offices : Waterbury, Conn. 
ANACONDA AMERICAN BRASS LIMITED 
New Toronto, Ontario, Canada 
AnacondA 
GUARANTEED 
BRASS PIPE 
Modern Wedgwood preserves its founder’s tradition 
for technical perfection. Milk jugs are made to pour 
and lids to fit. The design is typical of original models 
BLACK WEDGWOOD 
“ T CALL him the Great Wedgwood,” 
wrote Gladstone, years before the 
world of ceramics had acknowledged its 
master-potter. “That is the proper 
epithet for the greatest man who ever, 
in any age or any century, applied 
himself to the important work of 
uniting art and industry.” To-day the 
Oriental craze, which Wedgwood’s 
neo-classicism helped to displace, has 
come back in a flood, and Wedgwood’s 
characteristic “elegance” seems almost 
strange to an age that values Slavonic 
art and negro sculpture. Nevertheless, 
Wedgwood’s greatness stands fast, 
and it is the Catholicism of modern cul¬ 
ture that has brought us to a just 
understanding of his greatness. 
Black pottery had been made in 
Staffordshire since the dawn of the 18th 
Century; Egyptian black, they called 
it. After firing, it became dense and 
hard as stone and black through and 
through—a peculiarity of Staffordshire 
which is rarely found elsewhere. 
Wedgwood saw in this stoneware 
the ideal fabric for realizing his ambi¬ 
tion of a classical revival at Etruria, 
his new factory, opened in 1769 with 
the motto: Artes Etrurice Renascuntur. 
His first experiment there was the 
reproduction of antique gems in the 
material which he had 
perfected and re-named 
Black Basaltes. In the 
transmutation of Egyp¬ 
tian Black to Black Ba¬ 
saltes there was not much 
left for Wedgwood to do 
with actual ingredients. 
Elers, Astbury, Twyford, 
and other great potters had already 
made beautiful black ware. Wedgwood 
set about preparing the materials with 
characteristic thoroughness; the clean¬ 
ing, sifting, grinding, and blending 
were carried out with scientific care 
and attention to detail, and the “fine 
black porcelain bisque” that resulted 
was of a quality' rare hitherto in 
Staffordshire (though “porcelain” it 
was not.) It was fine and close 
enough in grain to be watertight, so 
the glazing was discarded with enor¬ 
mous gain in beauty; the surface war¬ 
ranted the old description “infant’s skin.” 
so smooth it was, and delicate, and the 
improved methods of firing brought it 
closely akin to the geological basalt. Of 
intense hardness, it resisted acids and 
heat; it could be polished like agate on 
the lapidary’s wheel, it struck fire with 
steel, and formed a touchstone for gold. 
In this material, perfect alike in sub¬ 
stance and color for his purpose, Wedg¬ 
wood began on his creations that were 
to rival the masterpieces of classic art. 
At the time (the mid-18th Century) 
the tide of fashion was turning towards 
the antique; the “Chinese taste” was 
ebbing. Wedgwood was speedily on the 
crest of the wave. No doubt his pre¬ 
occupation with the classic idea was 
due to his sound com¬ 
mercial instinct for the 
popular taste. But it 
went immeasurably beyond 
commercialism, though he 
made money and fame 
thereby. He must have 
been a fortunate man thus 
(Continued on page 136) 
A tripod urn with orna¬ 
ment emphasizing the con¬ 
struction, a point not 
always observed 
.1 graceful vase 
of Grecian 
shape in mod¬ 
ern black ba¬ 
saltic pottery 
A reproduction 
from one of 
Flaxman’s de¬ 
signs in the 
Classical style 
Klllllllllllllllllllllllllltllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 
imiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmiiiiiiiiimimi 
imimiiiimmiiiiiiiiniiiimim 
A machine turned and fluted bowl of 
frankly modern design 
