68 
KERAMIC STUDIO 
No. G. Recent application of primitive process. Chinese porcelain vase witli blue 
glaze, K'ang Hsi period, 1662-1722. Incised decoration. In the Metro- 
politan Museum of Art, New York. 
varnishing, which are not susceptible of being used to a great 
extent at present. As to relief decoration, applied decoration 
and slip covering, they are still in use and do not need any 
special mention. We will then study specially only the incised, 
inlaid, excised and painted decorations oithe very remote times. 
Incised Decoration 
Incised decoration has been practiced during all primitive 
periods. We find everywhere numberless examples of it, and 
the most remarkable are found on Etruscan and on South 
American potteries. 
This decoration is particularly interesting on wares 
colored in black by strong smoking because the incised design 
appears in mat tones on a lustrous background. 
We will see what improvements can be brought to this 
method, meanwhile here is how one should proceed for in- 
cisions on a black body: 
Incisions on raw ware— After the shape has been made, 
the design is traced on it, then it is gone over for the final in- 
cision with a steel point, the best shape for which is the tetra- 
gonal shape with a very sharp point. The leg of a compass is 
a very good tool, as with it one can regulate at will the depth 
of the incision. 
One may use naturally or artificially colored bodies, but 
the old potters used often black bodies colored by smoking 
at low temperature (Etruscan potteries). In order to have 
well fired pieces, the American Indians burned the pieces in a 
normal oxidising fire up to 800° or 900° C. then they let the 
temperature drop to about 500° C, when they strongly smoked 
the ware for several hours. 
The black tone thus obtained by saturating the body 
with carbon has this great advantage over artificial coloration, 
that a simple rubbing, after the smoke firing, will give the piece 
a beautiful, characteristic lustre, while the hollow incised 
decoration remains mat. 
(TO BE CONTINUED 
No. 4. Modern process. Porcelain plaque byjTaxile Doat (Sevres). Relief decoration in pate 
sur pate. The. figures are entirely raised by handiwork, by successive applications of slip with 
the brush. This kind of reUef decoration may be of course reproduced by mould work (Wedg- 
wood process), and it is. difficult to distinguish the two, except from the fact that in pate sur 
pate work the decoration js not repeated. 
