KERAMIC STUDIO 
ANITA GRAY CHANDLER - - - Page Editor 
7 Edison Avenue. Tufts College, Mass. 
AT THE SIGN 
OF THE 
BRUSH AND PALETTE 
This is Ye Old Art Inn 
where the worker of Arts and 
Crafts may rest a bit and par- 
take of refreshment. 
THE modern ceramist and china decorator are really car- 
rying out the ideas and aspirations of a line of craftsmen 
who lived and wrought for many centuries before the dawn of 
Christianity. We wonder if the dignity and beauty of their 
own craft often occurs to them; if they realize the importance 
of the legacy that has been left them by the artistic efforts of 
the past ages? How often does our modern decorator visit the 
museum nearest her so she may see the examples of pottery and 
porcelain that have come down to us through the ages, and 
compare the styles of decoration that have been used? Or, in 
the absence of an art museum in her city, how often does she 
consult the numerous books that may be found in the public 
libraries dealing with ceramics, and so well illustrated with 
pictures of pottery and porcelain that it is almost as easy to 
study shape and designs as from the originals? 
To be sure, the modern decorator, or "china-painter," as 
she is inclined to call herself, is an unusually busy person. She 
is always working at top speed to keep the pot boiling, and if 
she includes firing among her accomplishments the time she 
calls her own might be packed into a thimble. But, of what 
avail is her work if quantity is the main consideration and her 
own ideas the chief inspiration? And how is the quality to be 
improved and her inspiration quickened if she fails to make 
some effort to learn what has preceded her own little phase of 
a very ancient art? She must connect with the past to be con" 
vincing in the present. Not that she must abjectly copy, but 
that she must gain a foundation upon which to build her own 
work. 
At first most of the pottery and porcelain will seem un- 
lovely to her. It may even seem crude and ugly to eyes that 
have become accustomed to what the writer chooses to call 
sentimentalism in decoration. Then after a while it will begin 
to fascinate; the very crudity will tell some story; the unfa- 
miliar decoration will pique the curiosity; a hundred questions 
will arise as to the maker, his country, the customs of his age, 
the purposes for which this particular jar or bowl was designed, 
its subsequent history, its influence upon later work. 
Suppose, for instance, one is looking at a case of Chinese 
pottery. Here are several little battered pieces of reddish clay 
lightly covered with green glaze. There is a slight incised de- 
sign upon some of them. They are the earliest specimens of 
glazed pottery ever made in China and date back to the second 
century B. C. Look a bit farther on. Here are some pieces 
made during the Han dynasty about the opening of the Christ- 
ian era. They also are green-glazed, but are more dextrously 
modeled, imitating the shapes of bronze vessels of that time. 
Iz'n-chow ware — Earliest overglaze Chinese decoration, an ancestor of our 
"4 modern porcelain — Sung dynasty. (Courtesy of the Boston Museum of 
£T Fine Arts.; 
Kang-hsi Vase — Yellow hawthorne. The reign of Kang-hsi brought about a 
brilliant artistic Renaissance, contemporaneous with the revival of art 
under Louis XIV in France. (Courtesy of the Boston Museum of Fine 
Arts.) 
It was not until the Sung dynasty that overglaze decora- 
tion came into use. Before this design had been either applied 
clay or incised. This Sung dynasty, which occupies a period 
of some 300 years near the close of the 10th century, marks the 
beginning of a real ceramic art. The designers broke away 
from the rules of the bronze makers and developed their own 
ideas in the clay. Mr. Bernard Rackham says in his book on 
porcelain: "It is strange to reflect how late in history their 
skill (the Chinese) has been learned, and to remember the Per- 
sians, Egyptians, Greeks and other western races were masters 
of the potters' craft many centuries before the Chinese achieved 
their earliest artistic wares. Coming late into the field, they 
evolved in a comparatively short space of time a material 
which placed them ahead of every rival." 
