Vol. VII. No. t2 
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK 
April, 1906 
VIANUFACTURKR of studio pot- 
tery kilns told us recently that the 
demand for these kilns from in- 
dividual workers was remarkably 
large, and as we receive many let- 
ters from china decorators who 
intend to begin pottery work, or 
have alread}^ begun, and ask us for 
advice, it is evident that the inter- 
est in this fascinating craft is 
rapidly spreading. We foresaw this Avhen we published in 
Keramic Studio the excellent articles of "Clay in the Studio" 
by Prof. Chas. F. Binns and the thorough treatise of Taxile 
Doat on "Grand Feu Ceramics." 
. It is noteworthy that women are leading in this move- 
ment, as they are in overglaze china decoration. In Eu- 
rope the opposite is the rule, women potters are very few 
and most individual potters who have made a name for 
themselves are men. In this country men who do artis- 
tic work, outside of factories, number only two or three, 
while women who have already acquired quite a reputa- 
tion in this craft are many. We will mention among them 
Mrs. Frackelton, Miss McLaughlin, Miss Perry, Mrs. Alsop- 
Robineau, Mrs. Worth Osgood, Mrs. Irelan, Mrs. and Miss 
Perkins, Miss Jane Hoagland. And with the present fac- 
ilities for firing pottery in the studio there is no reason 
why the work should not appeal to women as well as men, 
nor why they should not make a success'of it, as'they have 
done with overglaze china decoration. 
It is very difficult to answer correspondents who ask 
us what kind of pottery work we would advise them to do. 
The field is so broad that no positive answer can be made 
to such a question. One should follow his or her own in- 
dividual taste. But in a general way we would say to 
students: Keep away from factory work or from imita- 
tion of factory work. You cannot compete with factories 
in regard to price. If you must do all the work yourself, 
or practically all the work, in your little pottery, you will 
find that this work costs you considerably more than the 
same work would cost in a factory with its many cheapening 
processes. You must do better than factories can do. 
You must carry your body and glazes to a point of perfec- 
tion which industrial methods seldom reach, decorate your 
ware with real artistic taste and skill, give the closest at- 
tention to your shapes, in a word work alwa3''s for technical 
as well as artistic perfection. You will not reach the goal 
at first, but you will, after a while, if you go at it in the 
right way, and if you have the persistency and enthusiasm 
of the true artist. Then, and then only, can you expect to 
get renumerative prices for your work. The object of 
factories is to produce much and as cheaply as possible. 
Your object must be to produce little, but to make a dur- 
able, beautiful and original ware, and to force the public to 
pay your price for it. Artistic work is not often done in 
factories, but it can be done, artistic work, not works of 
art. Real works of art 'can only be the expression of in- 
dividual skill and taste, and works of art will always bring 
the price. 
The question remains: What are in pottery the best 
fields for individual work? Some time ago a letter came 
asking us if we advised the correspondent to try'porcelain 
at high temperatures. This is certainly to be encouraged, 
not only because fine porcelains have always been and will 
always be the most beautiful ware which the potter can 
make, but because the development of colored glazes at 
high temperatures cannot, in our opinion, be successfully 
undertaken on the factory plan. It is essentially a field 
for the artist. The work requires his touch from begin- 
ning to end, and it is fascinating work. But it is the most 
difficult work and the most costly in the potter's field. It 
requires not only a stout heart and unshakable persever- 
ance, but a little capital to start with. The experimental 
period is long and costly. The best kilns go to pieces in 
a short time and have to be constantly repaired, the loss 
in firing is heavy, failures many, and financial results 
doubtful. If you have the courage to face the many dis- 
appointments of the porcelain maker and the determina- 
tion to succeed, try porcelain by all means. If you have 
not, try something else. 
Faience, either decorated with mat glazes or slip paint- 
ing under the glaze, has great artistic possibilities, and the 
work is comparatively easy, but for this reason perhaps 
the field has already been well covered in this country. 
The charming Grueby faiences have started a craze for mat 
glazed faiences, and they have to-day altogether too many 
imitators. The market has been flooded with mat green 
wares, the work of factories as well as of individuals. The 
Rookwood slip paintings have also found many imitators. 
Do not enter this field unless you are satisfied that you can 
develop something new and truly original. A poor imita- 
tion of something which has already been well done would 
be the greatest mistake you could make. 
Stoneware has also great possibilities. The decorat- 
tion with fine carving of stoneware fired at a moderately 
high temperature and salt glazed, is one of the old crafts 
which attained its perfection in the 15th and i6th Cen- 
turies, and it can undoubtedly be successfully revived to- 
day. Or vitrified stoneware (the gres of the French), 
fired at a high temperature, can be decorated with the 
varied palette of grand feu colors, but here again, the 
artist will meet with the difficulties of grand feu work, 
although not to the same extent as with porcelain. 
There is a field which has not been touched by in- 
dividual potters of the present day, at least not in this 
country, and which we think should tempt students and 
artists. It is the field of maiolica or tin glazed ware. Next 
to Chinese porcelains, the highest prices paid to day by 
collectors for fine old wares, are for the tin glazed wares of 
Italy, France and Holland of the i6th and 17th Centuries. 
And these high prices are not only due to the old age of 
the ware but to its technical and artistic excellence. It is 
not for the bulk of the tin glazed production that these 
high prices are paid, not for the commercial work Avhich 
was in the 19th Century dethroned by the cheaper English 
white ware, but in most cases for the beautiful work of in- 
dividual craftsmen. And, if it is hopeless to try to make 
cheap tin glazed maiolica in competition with other com- 
mercial wares at low prices, there is no reason why beau- 
