Vol. XIX, No. 1. 
SYRACUSE, NEW YORK 
May 1917 
SYRACUSE manufacturer of porce- 
lain tableware told us recently that 
his firm had more orders than they 
could fill at prices 30% higher than 
Jlast year. All Potteries, as a rule, 
^have so many contracts ahead that a 
jdealer in colors was able lately to 
|make with one firm a $12,000 con- 
tract of gold for decorating, and 
^with another a contract of $4,000. 
At the same time we have received the following letter 
from one of our contributors: 
"I am tired and completely disgusted with the commercial 
work. Just to give you an idea of the prices paid the worker: 
10c. a working for bread and butter plates, next size plates 
12|c, next size 15c. and so on. I know of this instance: a 
large French salad bowl, decorated in conventional basket 
motives, all done in hard enamels with much gold, representing 
a good deal of work carefully done, sold for $4.50. Think of it, 
how can any one make a living at such prices?" 
Quite a contrast between this manufacturer who cannot 
produce enough to fill orders and raises the prices of his wares 
to adjust them to new conditions, and the amateur decorator 
who has a hard time to sell her work at any old price dictated 
to her by somebody else. And the first lesson to draw from 
this is what we have so often repeated, that individual workers 
should shun commercial work. They cannot compete with 
factories in price and it would be a mistake to think that now- 
adays factories always do poor decorating work. Their stand- 
ard of design is improving rapidly. We have seen some 
extremely beautiful sets in conventional designs turned out by 
the Syracuse porcelain makers whom we mentioned before. 
If such work has not the individual touch of really artistic work, 
it is mechanically perfect and that is better than poor or 
mediocre individual painting. The only salvation for amateur 
decorators is to do better work than factory work, to do some- 
thing different. 
Another lesson is that factories have a good sales organi- 
zation; amateur decorators, still struggling with the old 
system of cut throat competition, are not organized. In the 
big cities, there are Clubs, it is true, which do a lot of good with 
their exhibitions, their classes of design, etc. They help won- 
derfully to improve the standard of decoration, but they are 
not really organizations to help decorators to sell, to fix the 
value of their work, not in competition with others but in ' 
co-operation with them. Such organizations seem to us very 
badly needed. 
Individual decorators have now to contend with the trying 
situation caused by the scarcity of white china. Some French 
china comes in all the time, but irregularly and in small quan- 
tities. There is of course no German china. Meanwhile the 
Japanese are sending good shipments of their wares, especially 
of Satsuma and Sedji, and we have reasons to believe that next 
fall there will be on the market some American earthenware 
specially made for the amateur trade and very satisfactoiy, 
but there will be no American hard china of the European type, 
as American potters will not change their process of lead glaze 
porcelain for the felspathic European porcelain. They get 
satisfactory results themselves with the overglaze decoration 
of lead glaze porcelain. If the trials made by decorators of this 
American china have failed, if the ware has come out of the kiln 
with black spots, it is simply because it was fired too fast. With 
the right kind of firing it will come out all right. 
But, whichever way the problem of scarce china is solved, 
either by using American china or by waiting until the trade 
conditions with Europe become normal again, it seems that 
there will be no scarcity of American, Italian or Japanese or- 
mental wares and of table earthenware. And in that line more 
than in any other there is a good opportunity to produce some- 
thing absolutely different from the regular factory porcelain 
tableware. 
However it is on the quality of work and design, and also 
on the processes of decoration that decorators should depend 
mostly for the production of really artistic work, different from 
the commercial work. With the ordinary painting and es- 
pecially with the strictly commercial trick of decalcomania, it 
requires exceptional executive ability to produce something 
better than factory ware. But with such processes as dusting, 
and especially with enamels, which are not practical for factory 
work, the possibilities for artistic, original work, are unlimited. 
And decorators should not depreciate their work by ac- 
cepting any low price which is offered to them. We do not 
mean that they should ask big prices for poor work, they must 
learn to do good work first. Then they will find that they can 
sell more easily at high prices than at low prices. People will 
not hesitate to pay good prices for really good craftswork. In 
fact they will often pass by something which is truly meritorious 
simply because it is priced low. They will figure that at such 
a low price it cannot be good. 
The Four Winds Club House, 210 Robineau Road, Syra- 
cuse, New York, will open a sales room for crafts work, May 1st 
in connection with a tea room. Those in charge wish to make 
a specialty of table furnishings, such as Porch, Breakfast and 
Lunch sets with linens to match, hand wrought silver, etc., etc. 
The Editor of Keramic Studio invites consignments of decorated 
porcelains from any one who wishes to take advantage of the 
opportunity of summer sales and will be personally responsible 
for payments of sales or return of unsold articles. It is re- 
quested that photographs of articles be submitted in order to 
avoid unnecessary expense, as only such as are accepted by the 
jury will be put on sale. 
The Club House is most attractively located and furnished 
and will be well advertised among the well to do. It appeals 
especially to auto parties and hunters after the unusual. It 
should be of some assistance to our Keramic workers in dis- 
posing of their work during the summer months when there is 
little doing in the cities. The Editor of Keramic Studio is 
personally much interested in the club's activities, especially 
the crafts shop and will do everything possible to encourage sales. 
The annual exhibition of the Newark Society of Keramic 
Arts will be held in the gallery of the Newark Free Public 
Library, April 24 to 28. The Library is easily accessible to 
out of town visitors and no cards of admission are required. 
It is hoped that many will take this opportunity to become 
acquainted with the work of the Society who have not done so 
previously. 
