Vol.*IV, No. 7 
NEW YORK AND SYRACUSE 
November 1902 
HE Keramic world was rather staggered by 
the announcement that Mrs. Roosevelt 
had ordered a table service, the price be- 
ing thirty thousand dollars (according to 
the daily papers). For two or three years 
the National League of Mineral Painters 
urged and encouraged its members to 
send in designs for a government table 
service; the KERAMIC STUDIO printed from time to time full 
particulars, but no one seemed to take much interest'in the 
subject and the matter was finally dropped. 
Suddenly decorators are astonished to see that the order 
has been given elsewhere, passing into commercial hands. 
There is no reason in the world why some of our decora- 
tors could not have had the order, and we feel perfectly sure 
that if it had been applied for and good designs submitted our 
decorators could have received it, as our President and wife 
are too thoroughly American to employ foreign designers if 
our own could do as well. Now this leads to further thought 
upon the subject. 
How many of our decorators could have carried out an 
order like that when there are a hundred dozen pieces to do? 
Of course no one person would want to do it, but how many 
of our studios are equipped for even reasonably large orders, 
where the work can be carried on systematically and practic- 
ally, dividing it up among a corps of assistants? 
It is all very well to receive an order for a few cups and 
saucers or a dozen plates, but how many of the average dec- 
orators could get through with an order for a complete dinner 
service, of a hundred dozen pieces, in a reasonable amount of 
time, turning out each piece as perfect as the other, properly 
decorated and fired, and at the same time giving complete 
satisfaction to the party ordering as well as to themselves in 
the matter of remuneration? 
The question arises, are the decorators who compose our 
clubs and societies practical enough to obtain and fill large 
orders? We doubt it very much. Therefore we urge thought 
upon this phase of the question and an endeavor to turn out 
work complete and satisfactory, not trusting to kind friends 
to overlook this or that, but to work each day as for a hard 
and severe critic, making every stroke tell and telling what 
you have to say well. 
Instead of trying to gain orders for little pin trays and 
shirtwaist buttons, why not strike out for something worth 
while? something that will establish one's individuality and 
lead to still better orders. 
The average decorator is still hugging the belief that any- 
thing and everything is all right on porcelain. So it is, but 
there is a decided right and wrong way of applying it, and it 
is the right way that is always the simplest way, but to reach 
it the path is through study ; we are happy to say the best 
decorators are finding it. 
We are not advocating factory-like work, far from it, but 
we would like to see more work from our decorators adorn 
the tables of those who constantly entertain and who are 
able and quite willing to pay for beautiful table porcelain, if 
they knew of its existence elsewhere than in factories. 
In the October number a design for tile was by mistake 
described as by Miss Jeannette Kimball. The design was by 
Miss French of Boston. The tile by Miss Kimball, also an 
Egyptian motive, will be published in one of the coming 
numbers. 
After successive and unexpected delays, W. P. Jervis' 
Encyclopedia of Ceramics has lately been issued. It will be 
found by collectors and all people interested in ceramics to be 
a valuable addition to their library on the subject. Its Ency- 
clopedia form, each subject, whether name of potter or pottery, 
material used in pottery work, countries or towns famous for 
their kilns, being treated in alphabetic order, makes it differ- 
ent from all other ceramic publications, and information on 
any subject relating to ceramics can be quickly and easily 
found. Illustrations and reproductions of works are profuse, 
and notices about the diferent wares, modern and ancient, of 
all countries in the world are most interesting, both from an 
historical and an artistic standpoint. 
*■ -f 
FOR BEGINNERS 
Many students have told us they would like to follow out 
the suggestions and conventional designs of the Ker- 
AMIC Studio if they only knew how to begin. To apply a 
design there must be a foundation upon which to build. The 
piece to be decorated is first rubbed with turpentine and when 
dry it will receive pencil marks. By using our plate divider 
you will save much time when dividing the object into sec- 
tions or spaces. (See directions for using in plate treatment 
by Anna B. Leonard in this number.) 
If the object to be decorated is larger or smaller than the 
design in the magazine, make one section a little larger or 
smaller keeping the same proportion as the section in the 
"illustration; then instead of tracing from the printed design, 
make a tracing from your own drawing, and repeat it in the 
next section, etc. (providing the design given is a "repeat"). 
Students are always surprised when they see how easily a 
design is dissected and placed upon the china. One step leads 
to another and there is a reason and a principle back of every 
move that is made. Always be careful about your division of 
space. If you have bands, see that they make a pleasing pro- 
portion and that they are really decorative in themselves. 
Simply because a cup and saucer has a pleasing design one 
or two inches wide, is not sufficient reason for transferring that 
design to a tall vase without studying the proportions or the 
relative values of the vase and the two inch design. If the 
design is to run around the vase, then divide that vase into 
pleasing proportions, using bands as accessories, and to satisfy 
the eye, making the balance complete. If you practice divid- 
