I1ERAMIC STUDIO 
I0£ 
is decidedly Persian and Japanese. One must not forget that 
thirty years ago was the time when every steamer coming 
from the Far East was bringing the artistic treasures of 
Oriental pottery. The beautiful Persian arabesques and the 
fine Japanese treatment of flowers were then a revelation to 
all artists, and it is but natural that in his first attempts at 
faience making, Bouvier was strongly influenced by an art 
which had fascinated him. But it must be said that however 
strongly influenced by Japanese and Persian ornament, 
Bouvier made them his own. His vases are not mere copies 
of Oriental work, they show an original and innate talent, 
which would probably have made the name of Bouvier a great 
name among potters, if disease had not put a sudden end to 
his remarkable but too short career. 
ARTISTIC TABLEWARE 
by Mr. Edward A. Barber 
it the Buffal 
.eague.j 
of the National 
ABOUT the middle of the eighteenth century, one Christo- 
pher Dock, a Pennsylvania German, locally known as 
the Pious Schoolmaster of the Skippack, found it advisable 
to prepare and issue a book on etiquette, under the title of 
"A Hundred Necessary Rules of Conduct for Children." 
Among these precepts we find the following: 
"To look or smell at the dish holding the provisions (at 
table) too closely is not well. 
"It is not well to put back on the dish what you have 
once had on your plate. 
" Do not wipe the plate off either with the finger or the 
tongue, and do not thrust your tongue about out of your 
mouth. 
"The bones, or what remains over, do not throw under 
the table ; do not put them on the tablecloth, but let them 
lie on the edge of the plate." 
This last-quoted piece of well-intended advice furnishes 
us with a clue to the original purpose of the flat projecting 
rim of the dinner plate, as it has descended to us. While this 
table accessory can boast of a far greater antiquity, it was 
used in this country 150 years ago as the receptacle for the 
bones and refuse of the meal. The world has progressed in 
many ways since then ; great improvements have been made 
in almost every household utensil, yet in the present age of 
culture and refinement we still cling to the primitive relic of 
the distant past. 
Two and three-tined forks have given place to those with 
four prongs ; the broad, spatula-shaped iron knife, which once 
served to convey the food to the mouth, has been supplanted 
by a more graceful cutting blade; the tiny cup-plate, which 
was once in general use as a receptacle for the cup, while tea was 
being sipped from the saucer, is no longer tolerated in polite 
society, yet the plate ledge or thumb guard still survives— an 
unsightly reminder of the uncouth customs of by-gone days. 
At the threshold of the 20th century, when the arts are 
supposed to have reached the highest state of perfection in 
the world's history ; when the glassmaker, the worker in 
metals, the weaver and the cabinetmaker are all producing 
works of art which surpass all that have gone before — the 
potter, who has also kept abreast of the march of progress in 
some directions, has sadly neglected the improvement of his 
utilitarian wares. Fully to realize this fact, it is only neces- 
sary to compare the forms of our modern table service with 
some of those of a century ago, which survive in our museums 
or among our treasured heirlooms. 
When we visit a crockery shop and inspect the china 
tableware there displayed, our attention is usually first 
attracted by the vegetable or covered dishes, which seem to 
be the most conspicuous pieces among the various forms of 
vessels, because of their disproportionate size and their total 
lack of beauty. We pass service after service, from the fore- 
most potteries of Trenton and East Liverpool and other 
places, and we are impressed with the tiresome similarity of 
the patterns, their inartistic modeling and incongruous 
decorations. 
If we take up some of the trades journals and examine 
hideous shapes which are illustrated in flaunting advertise- 
ments there, as new designs of special merit, we can obtain a 
better idea of the degradation of American art, as it is applied 
to the useful wares, than can be obtained in any other way. 
We find little, if any, originality in any of them — no evidence 
of artistic feeling, no distinctive design. They are all copies 
or modifications of the nondescript forms which have gone 
before, patterns which have disgusted the cultured public for 
more than 25 years. 
Each newly announced service is only marked by greater 
clumsiness, a higher degree of ugliness, if that were possible, 
than its predecessors, If the potters themselves should take 
exception to this assertion, there is a test to which few of 
them would be willing to submit — the verdict of a jury of com- 
petent sculptors and artists. 
Compare their creations with the simple forms of ancient 
Greece and Rome, the chaste decoration of China and Japan, 
of Sevres and Worcester, and note the contrast. Why is it 
that none of our manufacturers has broken away from the old 
trade and given us something original and meritorious ? This 
is a question not easily answered. Some say that the public 
