HXRAMIC STUDIO 
P 
described it. The composition of these vessels is of a coarse 
clay mixed with particles of sand and finely powdered shells. 
They have been carefully smoothed externally and internally 
and all traces of the use of mechanical appliances, if such 
appliances were employed, have been obliterated, except that 
here and there upon their surface are slight depressions or 
markings which might have been made by the smooth surface 
of a pebble employed for polishing. 
Passing from these huge earthen-ware vessels, each one 
of which has required a large box for its shipment, we find 
vessels of various shapes and sizes, made for the most part of 
the same material, light red in color, and displaying a very 
high regard for symmetry of form. In addition to the hol- 
low ware of which I have spoken we find other implements 
made of clay, — ladles, bird-calls, flutes, figurines, small heads 
of animals and of men, probably made for purposes of orna- 
ment. Similar figures, as you are perhaps aware through ob- 
servation and reading, are not uncommon in Mexico, Peru, 
and parts of Brazil. 
Thus far what I have said has related principally to the 
technique of the methods by which the fictile products of the 
aboriginal tribes of America were fashioned in outline. I 
have said little in reference to the art of finishing and of 
ornamenting the objects which were formed by their skilful 
fingers. The ornamentation of fictile ware may consist either 
in the modification of the form or in the application of pic- 
torial design to the surface. While the vessel was still soft 
the fabricator sometimes pleased his fancy by adorning the 
surface with lines and markings traced upon it, or by attach- 
ing to it in the form of legs or handles devices of a more or 
less artistic character. Sometimes the result of ornament 
was achieved by giving the vessel a grotesque form, such as 
that of a quadruped, or of a bird. Such early efforts at the 
production of something more than forms of simple use are 
not uncommon in the vessels found in the mounds of the 
Mississippi valley, and droll objects suggesting the imagin- 
ation of childhood, or of a people in which art is in its infancy, 
are frequently discovered. Those of you who have studied 
the collections in the great museums will recall the gro- 
tesqueries of the potter's art which have come down to us 
from the burial places of Tennessee, Missouri, and Ar- 
kansas. 
When we pass to the southwest and examine the products 
of the ancient burial places of the southwestern tribes among 
whom the art flourished, we find the same tendencies, but 
touched and animated by a much higher regard for accuracy 
in form, symmetry in outline, and fidelity to nature so far as 
animal forms are represented. While conventionality pre- 
vails, it is in evidence that the ancient potter of the Pueblos 
had an eye for the things of the material world about him, 
and his efforts at the representation of these forms are far 
more successful than those which were produced by the tribes 
of the North and Northeast. This artistic sense reaches its 
highest development in Arizona, Mexico, Central America and 
Peru. 
[TO BE CONTINUED] 
NOTE 
In the treatment of plate design by Miss Caroline Bon- 
sall in the May KERAMIC Studio, the mistake was made of 
" Two parts Yellow Green to one part Marshings Gouache 
Minton Green." It should read " Two parts Yellow Gold" 
etc., etc. 
c 
MENTION, HISTORIC ORNAMENT— ICE BOWL— EMILY F. PEACOCK 
ARRY out the design in Copenhagen Blue, leaving the lustre in the dotted background, yellow lustre padded in the 
small figures in the bands white. Or put light green lower part of bowl and carry out the design in flat gold. 
