66 
nilKAMIC STUDIO 
No. 3. Recent industrial 
We 
--- ,- - Wedgwood „__ 
wliite Jasper ware, about 1790. Decorations probably by Plaxman. 
and Pedestal in green and 
. - probably by Plaxman. Relief 
decoration by mould work. The flgiu-es and designs are made in 
moulds and applied to the body of the vase. The fine imdercutting and 
finishing work of the period of Josiah Wedgwood and Flaxman distinguishes 
the early pieces from the reproductions made in later periods. In the Met- 
ropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 
depositing on the piece drops of slip, so as to form a definite 
design. A few years ago a ceramist obtained very interesting 
effects by substituting drops of glaze for drops of slip. 
9th. Applied decoration — which is the application on the 
vase of ornaments in special materials. This process was used 
a few years ago, the ornaments being made of a kind of metallic 
mesh work. Although I have seen some very beautiful pieces 
thus made, I do not believe that the process is to be recom- 
mended, because such a decoration is always hard and dry. 
10th. Painted decoration — for which primitive people used 
colored clays, sometimes vitrifiable. I will again refer to this 
later on. 
11th. Slip envelope (in French "engobage") — a method 
which consists in covering the entire piece with a clayey ma- 
terial of some kind to hide the natural color of the body. All 
ceramists know this process. 
B — Recent Processes 
I call recent processes of decoration those which are not more 
than 3500 years old. This looks far distant, but it is not, if we 
consider that the first principles of ceramic decoration date from 
an extremely remote period. However, these processes which 
I call recent and which I date from the time of the discovery of 
alcaline glazes, were employed together with the primitive 
processes for a very long period. 
The processes are so well known that a simple enumer 
ation will be all that is necessary : 
12th. Enamel which is always opaque. — 
13th. Glaze — which is translucent.* 
14th. Salt glaze — this is a thin coat of silicate of soda 
which forms on the surface of the ware, when sea salt is va- 
porized in the kiln at a temperature of about 800° C. 
Colors over raw enamels. 
Vitrifiable colors. 
Under glaze colors. 
Colored slips. 
Metallic iridescent colors — obtained in a reducing 
15th. 
16th. 
17th. 
18th. 
19th. 
atmosphere. 
20th. Metallic lustres — obtained in an oxidising atmo- 
sphere. 
As to frits and fluxes, they are not properly decorative 
materials but only enter into the composition of the latter. 
Applications to Modern Art 
Several of the processes used in this comparatively recent 
decoration of ceramics, are to-day completely forgotten, 
especially some of those which were employed in the early 
times, when the alcaline glaze was first invented. They would 
however furnish good suggestions for decoration and I will 
treat this subject later on. 
I want in this article to speak specially of some of the 
primitive processes which could be very advantageously ap- 
lied to modern art. f 
We may leave out the processes of polishing, glossing, 
*Mr. Franchet gives three French names for these different coverings of 
the ware, email, which is opaque; glacure which is translucent and adheres to 
the surface of porous wares, and couverte which is the translucent glaze ii.sed 
on porcelain and gres and incorporated with a vitrified body. In practice 
these rather subtle distinctions are not strictly observed, and in this country 
there is a tendency to use the word glaze for the different glassy compositions 
with which a ware is covered, whether opaque or translucent, and to reserve 
the word enamel only for the thick, opaque vitrifiable colors used at low tem- 
perature in ceramics or in metal work. (Ed.) 
tAs we have not a great number of illustrations of primitive pottery, we 
will also give illustrations of some potterie.? or porcelams in which old pro- 
cesses have been used for or adapted to the decoration of modern or com- 
paratively recent ceramics. (Ed.) 
Primitive process. Greek Vase — Second half of VI Century B. C. Painted 
black decoration on red. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 
