VoL III, No. 3 
NEW YORK AND SYRACUSE 
July J901 
' o those who are desirous of coming to New 
York to study during the summer, we would 
suggest making inquiries first of the teachers, 
as each year a fewer number of studios re- 
main open. The season practically closes the 
€^§iPil||l first of June and reopens the first or middle 
of September. We have seen so many disappointed students 
coming from a great distance that we offer this timely sug- 
gestion, " to find out who will be there." The KERAMIC 
Studio has the names of the leading artists in the Teachers' 
Directory. 
But if those who come would avail themselves of our 
fine libraries and the keramics at the Metropolitan Mu- 
seum, their visits would be fruitful in acquiring a foundation 
for good designing. To those who have not studied in 
this way we would say that there is much profit as well as 
pleasure in dipping into this wealth of reproductions in color 
of the best designs of many centuries and peoples. In the 
Publisher's Notes we give a long list of useful books which 
may be found at our libraries. Take tracing paper and water 
colors, and copy some of the designs. Keep them for future 
use in your classes or for your own work. Looking at them 
later on will give you many suggestions and will facilitate 
building your own designs. 
Then there are the Parks and Botanical Gardens where 
one can make sketches from nature, which will be an immense 
help in floral designs. Study the growth of the plants, the 
formation of leaf, stem, bud and flower. Use your water 
colors to obtain any color scheme that may please you, either 
in leaf or flower. This suggestion may lead you into another 
museum— that of Natural History. The color there in the 
wings of butterflies will be a study in itself. We had the 
pleasure of seeing some designs recently made for silk, the 
color scheme was obtained in this way. Students do not 
begin to appreciate the vast opportunities in the large cities, 
it seems so much easier to go to a studio and have some one 
else do the work. Happily, however, a few are beginning to 
study in the right way, and as the pleasure of it is so great, 
contagion is sure to follow. 
© 
We just received an interesting letter from Miss M. 
Louise McLaughlin of Cincinnati, one of the pioneer amateur 
clay workers in this country. We expect to give later on an 
illustrated account of her work. Meanwhile our readers will 
be interested in the following extracts from her letter: 
" In the KERAMIC STUDIO sent me, in the article on the 
Copenhagen Ware, the statement is made that no attempt 
has been made in America to produce anything in the way of 
porcelain except table ware. This is no longer true, because 
I have been producing porcelain of a purely decorative charac- 
ter for some time. It is now three years since I began a 
series of experiments in porcelain. The work is carried on at 
my home in a small kiln erected in my garden. The experi- 
ments have been carried on entirely by myself and, naturally, 
with many drawbacks resulting from inexperience, lack of 
proper facilities, etc. At last, however, I have settled upon 
bodies and glazes which will suit my purpose. The ware is a 
true porcelain, hard and very translucent. It has been com- 
pared to soft porcelain, and probably does resemble the old 
Chinese soft paste more than anything else, although both the 
ware and glaze are hard, being fired at a temperature of about 
2,300 F. I have now an exhibit of twenty-seven pieces at 
Buffalo." Yours very truly, 
M. Louise McLaughlin. 
e 
PRIMITIVE POTTERY 
[Address before the National League of Mineral Painters, at the Pan-Ameri- 
can, by W. J. Holland, Ph. D., LL.B., Director of the Carnegie Museum, Pitts- 
burgh, Pa.] 
WHO was the first potter? This is a question which will 
be forever veiled by the clouds of oblivion. Wander- 
ing along the banks of a stream, picking up a rounded 
mass of water-worn clay, crushing and molding it in his 
fingers, the first potter may have pleased himself by see- 
ing how the plastic mass yielded to his touch. Then, noting 
how the clay, when it had been touched by the passing 
hoof of some quadruped, held in its cavity the water, he 
may have fashioned out of the mass which he had flat- 
tened in his. hand a rude primeval cup and with it lifted 
from the brook the waters of the stream by which he sat. 
The first experiment was repeated. The mass of clay fash- 
ioned by his fingers was left to dry in the sun. It was found 
to be a receptacle having in it something of durability and 
something of use. Again the experiment was repeated 
Each repetition led to a further development of the thought. 
With increase of variety in form came increase in adaptability 
to use. The act of the first potter, a savage man of the 
wilderness, was repeated by other savages about him. Then 
later, perhaps by accident, the fact that sun-dried clay becomes 
hardened in fire may have been discovered. The rude hut in 
which the savage had stored his vessels of sun-baked clay, in 
which he kept his stock of seeds and edible grain, caught fire. 
The first potter's kiln may have been started as Charles Lamb 
has humorously informed us that the first oven for roasting 
pork was started, by a conflagration in a dwelling. From 
among the ashes and still glowing embers of the fire the 
earthen vessel was brought forth harder and more useful than 
ever. Henceforth the savage resolved to fire his vessels of 
clay, and for this purpose constructed a kiln in which he 
baked the pots and shallow dishes which he had fashioned 
with his fingers. Ages no doubt elapsed, and the arts of 
savage life had progressed far, before the potter's wheel was 
invented. 
In attempting to trace the beginning of keramic art we 
naturally refer to the old world of Egypt and Assyria, in 
which are preserved to-day the memorials of the most ancient 
civilizations of which we have knowledge. Here everywhere 
the work of the potter is in evidence. As you are aware, the 
making of sun-dried bricks, followed by bricks covered with 
