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RERAMIC STUDIO 
EVERYBODY has, in the last two or three years, become 
familiar with the interesting mat glazes of Rookwood. 
A good mat glaze seems to be the goal for which all makers 
of artistic potter}' are striving at present, and the more taste 
and refinement in matters of interior decoration grow and 
spread, the more it will be found desirable to avoid the flow- 
ing, mirror-like glazes which are used on all cheap potteries. 
The fine, silky glove finish of the old Chinese porcelains re- 
mains, in this problem of glazes, a model of artistic taste 
which cannot be surpassed, but here we are in presence of 
porcelains and gres fired at a high temperature, in w'hich the 
glaze makes a whole with the body, is practically a part of it, 
and receives from the hard fire, qualities which cannot be ex- 
pected in softer potteries, the glaze of which is only a glass, 
covering or hiding the body. 
From the first productions of Rookwood, the flowing glazes 
and brown decorations which made its success, to the present 
developments, the Iris and Sea Green wares, and the mat 
glazes, we follow the remarkable evolution of a potterj^ which 
always strives for improvement and artistic perfection, and 
if all the experiments in mat glazes have not been equallj- 
successful, if the different results obtained are not all satis- 
factory, they are always another step forward, and it may 
safely he predicted that the last word has not been said. 
The making of architectural faience, mantelpieces, tiles, 
friezes, etc., has been the natural consequence of the develop- 
ment of mat glazes at Rookwood. We are evidently entering 
a period of complete revolution in the interior decoration of 
habitations, a revolution which has alreadj' progressed in 
other countries, in France for instance, nnich more rapidly, 
than in ours. In France gres is almost entirely used for 
architectural purposes, and it has over faience the great advan- 
tage of being fired at a higher temperature, thoroughly vitrified, 
and consequently more durable. So far the manufacture of 
artistic porcelains and gres in this country is in its infancy. 
In fact outside of a few individual experiments, it has not yet 
begun. That it should and will become one of the important 
