36

THE FRIEND OF ALL.

MANUFACTURE OF POTTERY.

[By the kindness of Charles K. Ovington, Esq., of the Firm of Ovington Brothers, Brooklyn and
Chicago, we are enabled to furnish the following matter, taken from a very interesting pamphlet prepared
by him for his Firm.]

Ancient Pottery......................    37

Early History.......................    36

Modern Pottery:

Austria............................    41

China.............................    41

Denmark..........................    41

England..........................    38

Modern Pottery:

England...........................   38

France...........................    40

Germany..........................    40

Holland...........................    40

Hungary...........................    41

Italy..............................    41

Modern Pottery:

Japan..............................    41

Oriental...........................   41

Russia..............................    41

Sweden............................    41

United States.....................    42

Porcelain...........................    37

MANUFACTURE OF POTTERY.

Early History.—The rudest and simplest pot­
tery is formed by hand from common clay,
and dried and hardened by heat. This much
knowledge must have been gained at an early
stage in the world's history, for it is certain
that pottery must have been somewhat per­
fected before any metals could be produced.
The commonest example of this earliest and
rudest pottery, is the ordinary building brick,
which, with the ware known as terra­cotta, be­
longs to the division of unglazed pottery. The
manufacture of this ware is very simple. The
earliest method was doubtless to form the vessel
by hand from a moist clay, and to dry it in the
sun. The use of fire was the first improvement;
the next was the potter's wheel. Both of these
are of great antiquity, as is attested by represen­
tations of them upon old Egyptian tombs. The
potter‘s wheel is a very simple contrivance for
aiding the potter in producing perfectly round
pieces, of a better finish than the rudely fashioned
hand­made ware. The wheel is a flat disk or
table revolving upon a central support, and kept
in motion by the potter or his assistant. The
potter throws a lump of clay upon the wheel, and
while it is motion fashions it with his hands into
whatever shape he may wish. His only tool is
a wood or metal gauge, with which he forms or
tests the outline of the piece.

Pieces of an irregular shape are made by hand
in a much slower and more laborious way.
Handles, knobs and raised ornaments are formed
separately, and applied to the piece with a mix­
ture of water and clay. After the piece has dried
in the open air, it is put in a large oven or kiln,
and fired at a high temperature. This is the
process employed in almost every pottery. Terra­
cotta made in this way may be painted in oil or
varnish colors, or if mineral colors are used it
may be baked again and the decoration made
permanent.

Pottery was made in this way for a long time
before any further improvements were inaugu­

rated. The need of something to overcome the
porosity of the ware was long felt, and the
Greeks made use of a coating of bees’-wax for this
purpose. Some Egyptian potter conceived the
idea of covering the ware with a coating of glass.
To make this adhere it was necessary to mix
sand with the clay. This art was probably intro­
duced by the Egyptians to the Eastern nations.
The addition of a considerable quantity of oxide
of lead to the glaze, makes it more brilliant and
much easier to melt; powdered borax is also
used for the same purpose. Earthenware glazed
in this manner was for a long time the only sort
made in England, and is still very largely used.

Before the glaze is applied the ware may be
painted in mineral colors; but as potters’ clay is
always of a red or buff color, the designs do not
show distinctly. To obviate this the Italian pot­
ters covered the piece with a thin coating of fine
white clay, which could then be painted and
glazed as before described. Another very simple
way of decorating this ware consists of cutting
away the white coating so as to show the darker
ground clay, this ware being known as sgraffito,
or etched. It was found that a richer and purer
body color could be obtained by mixing oxide of
tin with the glaze, which changes by heat into a
white enamel, upon which the most artistic de­
signs can be painted and the richest and most deli­
cate colors and lusters used. This is the nature
of the Italian majolica, the manufacture of which
still lingers in Italy in the towns where it gained
its early triumphs, and is reflected in the French
faienceries of Gien and Limoges, and in Minton‘s
English pottery. The wonderful luster colors
used on this ware were kept a profound secret in
two Italian workshops, to which ware was sent
from all parts of the country to receive the en­
richment of the iridescent lusters. This method
of glazing was abandoned on account of the high
price of tin, of which much is used.

The kind of pottery known as stone­ware has
been made in England from very early times; it
differs from ordinary earthenware in being much
heavier, and capable of resisting the greatest

MANUFACTURE OF POTTERV.                                                37

amount of heat. At first it was glazed with
lead, but some one discovered that common salt
answered this purpose much better, forming a
perfectly pure, strong and beautiful glaze, capable
of resisting the greatest amount of heat or chemi­
cal action. The Flemish gray and Doulton
wares are examples of the artistic perfection to
which this pottery may be brought.

The great aim of English potters has been to
make and perfect a pure white earthenware.
Wedgwood introduced the cream-colored ware
called queen‘s-ware, which is still largely used.
A fine white clay was brought from Cornwall to
the potteries, and ironstone and calcined flints
and bones were largely used to improve the color
and quality of the ware. The English earthen­
ware is now acknowledged to be the best made.

True Parian marble has a peculiar delicate play
of light and shade upon the surface, caused by
the mixture becoming partially vitrified, and
allowing the light to penetrate a short distance
below the surface.

Bisque, which is made in France and Ger­
many, is porcelain baked and left without a glaze.

Earthenware may be decorated in mineral col­
ors either before the pieces are glazed or after.
The first method is the most durable. The pot­
tery having been baked once, is presented to the
artist in a porous state, and may be either painted
or printed. In the first instance the artist paints
the pattern in mineral colors, leaving each clear
and distinct; the porous ware soaks up the color
rapidly, rendering it impossible for errors to be
corrected. This is the method of majolica and
faience decoration. In printing, the pattern is
transferred from paper to the porous ware. Then
the piece is glazed and fired. In the other
method of decorating, the ware is glazed and
baked before the colors are applied. The paint­
ing can be done with more delicacy and finish,
and the work can be re­touched if not satisfac­
tory. The crazing or cracking of the glaze of
pottery is generally caused by an unequal expan­
sion of the glaze and body by heat. This crackle
is sometimes intentionally produced, as in the
celebrated Chinese rose crackle, the Japanese
kioto ware, and the Longwy faience.

Pottery may be divided into glazed and un-
glazed.

Unglazed pottery is classed as hard or soft
according as it is more or less easily scratched
with a knife.

Glazed pottery is classed according to the
nature of the glaze, as :

Lead-glazed; such as common earthenware:

Glass-glazed; as the antique pottery:

Enameled, or opaque glazed; as the Italian
majolica:

Salt-glazed; or stone­ware.

PORCELAIN.

Porcelain is classified by the best authorities
as Hard paste, Soft paste, and English. The
hard paste cannot be scratched by steel, and is
made of a clay formed by the decomposition of
feldspathic rock ; hence it is called a natural por­
celain. The Oriental, German and French por­
celains all belong to this class.

The other porcelains, though formed of nearly
the same materials, are glazed with a compound
of pounded glass, the English containing in addi­
tion both lead and calcined bones, which impart
a peculiar softness and luster. These are called
artificial porcelains. Old Sèvres and Vincennes,
and the modern Pate-tendre, are the best ex­
amples of the soft-paste porcelain. Copeland
and Minton are the leading manufacturers of Eng-
lish porcelain.

Porcelain may be modeled by hand or formed
on the potter's wheel, in the same manner as
earthenware, but there are two other processes
of making it; viz., pressing and casting. In the
first method a thin roll of the clay is laid in a
mold and pressed into the desired form. In
casting, the molds are formed of plaster of Paris,
with an opening at the top. The clay is dis­
solved in water to the consistency of cream,
and the mold is filled. The plaster absorbs the
water, and a thin coating of clay adheres to the
mold. This operation is repeated until the re­
quired thickness is obtained. The process of
casting is specially adapted to pieces bearing
a fine or intricate pattern in relief.

ANCIENT POTTERY.

Antique pottery is found in almost all parts of
the world; that discovered by Dr. Schliemann in
his excavations on the site of ancient Troy bears
marks of great antiquity. Fragments of pottery
have been found in Egypt at such a depth below
the present ground-level as would indicate that
they must have remained there at least 5000
years. There is every reason to believe that
Egypt was the first country to produce porcelain
as well as a perfected earthenware. From Egypt,
the art may have traveled through Phenicia to
Greece and Rome, and east through Assyria and
India to China and Japan. The Chinese porce­
lain manufacture was well established about the
commencement of the Christian era, and reached
its greatest perfection about the twelfth century;
while the Japanese were but a little behind
them. The Eastern potters greatly improved the
quality of the colors and glazes of the enameled
pottery, while the Greeks perfected the forms of
their vases and ornamented them with silhouette
designs. After the fall of the Greek empire,
Grecian artists continued the work in Rome and

38

THE FRIEND OF ALL.

Etruria; hence the name of Etruscan applied
to these vases. The Romans themselves pro­
duced a red glazed pottery called Samian, which
manufacture they carried to nearly all their pro­
vinces.

From this time until the fourteenth century
there was very little artistic pottery made in Eu­
rope. The next great artistic inspiration came
from Arabia and Persia. The Saracens, overrun­
ning Africa and Spain, brought with them their
various arts and sciences,and potteries were estab­
lished at Majorca, Valencia, Malaga and Grana­
da, whence richly glazed and decorated pottery
was sent to Italy. These pieces were imitated
by the Italian potters, at that time producing
only common work, and carried to a high point
of perfection by such artists as Luca della Rob-
bia, Georgio Andreoli, and Orazio Fontana.
With the extinction of the ducal houses that had
been the munificent patrons of the art in Italy,
the manufacture speedily declined ; and the ex­
pulsion of the Moors from Sicily, Spain and Ma­
jorca, put an end to these potteries. Offshoots
of the Italian potteries had been established in
France and Holland, where a sort of majolica
continued to be made at Delft, Moustiers, Ne-
vers, and Rouen.

Oriental porcelain was introduced into Europe
by the Portuguese and the Dutch, and imitated
extensively at Delft and in England. Many
attempts were made to make a true porcelain
in Europe ; the first that was successful was in­
augurated at Florence by the Duke Francis de
Medicis, and produced a few pieces of a curious
blue porcelain. Porcelain was afterwards made
in France at St. Cloud, Vincennes and Sevres, in
England at Chelsea, Bow and Derby, and in Ger­
many at Meissen, Vienna, Berlin and elsewhere.
Many of these original potteries are still in ope­
ration.

Almost all the porcelain imported into the
United States comes from France, either plain or
more or less ornamented. We are also import­
ing small amounts of French earthenware, both
painted and printed, and majolica reproductions
of Palissy ware. From England comes most of
the earthenware, parian and majolica, and some
finely decorated china and stone­ware. From
Germany we import a little of the finest porce­
lain and of the common pottery, and a good deal
of cheap china and bisque ornaments. Denmark
has sent us a few pieces of the exquisite Copen­
hagen terra­cotta. Russia, Sweden, Spain and
Italy produce characteristic porcelains, faiences
and majolicas, only a very few pieces of which
are exported.

In treating of the different potteries and of
their distinguishing characteristics, each country
will be taken in order, and the leading potteries

described, giving an account of their history,
present condition and the nature of their pro­
ductions.

MODERN POTTERY.

England.—One of the oldest, and certainly the
most celebrated pottery in Staffordshire, is that
founded by Josiah Wedgwood at Etruria and
now conducted by his descendants. Wedgwood
was unquestionably the greatest of English pot­
ters ; indeed, it is not too much to say that no
other potter ever did so much for the advance­
ment of his art and of his country, or made so
great improvements in the art of potting, as
Wedgwood. During his lifetime, and in a great
measure as the result of his labors, potting ad­
vanced from a neglected trade to one of the
greatest industries of England, giving regular
employment to thousands of operatives and pro­
ducing pieces that have since been unrivaled.
Wedgwood invented eight or nine different
kinds of ware, the most noted being the cream-
colored or queen's ware, the jasper, commonly
called “ Wedgwood " ware, and the black basalt,
which he himself liked best of all. His cream-
colored ware was unquestionably the best thing
then made, and it has a warmth of color which is
very pleasing. It is the jasper-ware, however,
by which Wedgwood is best known, and in which
he executed his reproductions of the Portland or
Barberini vase. This vase was found in a Ro­
man tomb, and passed from the collection of the
Barberini to that of the Duchess of Portland.
Then it was sold at auction for over a thousand
pounds, Wedgwood obtaining from the pur­
chaser, the Duke of Portland, the right of mak­
ing copies of it. The vase is made of dark blue
glass, upon which, in low relief, are engraved
figures of an opaque white glass. Wedgwood
formed the body of his vase of a hard clay, col­
ored blue, and forming the figures in molds of a
pure white clay, he applied them to the vase
which was then fired. A great deal of this ware
is still made, some of it fully equal to the old,
and also a superior quality of earthenware, often
finely decorated.

After Wedgwood, the name most celebrated in
the annals of English pottery, is that of Min-
ton. Thomas Minton used to engrave on copper
the patterns for printing earthenware. The
most celebrated of these is that known as the
“ Willow” pattern, which he copied in 1780 from
a Nankin plate, and which has enjoyed a great
popularity to this day. He founded the pottery
still conducted under his name, but does not
seem to have done much toward improving the
quality of the ware. His son, Herbert Minton,
made great progress in the manufacture of pot-
tery; introduced the manufacture of porcelain,

MANUFACTURE OF POTTERY.                                               39

and originated the manufacture of encaustic tiles.
It is with this last work that his name is most
strongly linked, and “Minton tiles” are now
world-famous.

Minton‘s potteries are situated at Stoke-on-
Trent in Staffordshire, and comprise four sepa­
rate and almost distinct establishments, devoted
respectively to the manufacture of common
earthenware, fine earthenware, porcelain and tiles.
The cheaper earthenware made by Minton dif­
fers little from that made by other and less
known makers; the colors are strong, the pat­
terns always good, and the ware of fine quality.
A good deal of handsomely printed ware is made
in this department.

The method of manufacturing fine earthen-
ware is the same as that of the commoner ware.
In this department the most noted improve-
ments have been in the coloring ; a rich turquois
blue, and gorgeous shades of red, yellow, green
and purple, having been introduced by Persian
ware, which is copied from the Persian ware of
the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Majolica, in the commonly accepted meaning
of the word, is a pottery generally coarse in tex­
ture, entirely covered with opaque colors or
enamels, and with a very lustrous glaze. In
speaking of Italian pottery, majolica applies only
to those glazed with a metallic luster.

The Minton china is as fine as any made in
England. The glaze melts at a much lower tem­
perature than that of the French or German
porcelain, allowing the use of richer and more
tender colors. Minton‘s studio of china decora­
tions contains some of the most skillful artists
in England, and the quality of their work is very
superior. A specialty of theirs is the pate-sur-
pate, or paste-over­ paste decoration, which is
the work of M. Solon, a Frenchman, whom they
tempted away from the Sevres factory. In this
ware the vase or article to be ornamented is
formed of the porcelain clay and colored some de­
cided hue. The china clay is dissolved in water
until it is about as thick as cream, and then ap­
plied to the article, which absorbs the water and
leaves a fine white coating of clay. When the
vase is fired the clay is vitrified, and the design
stands out clear and free, the relief being pro­
duced by a greater thickness of clay. Minton
also makes the finest quality of Parian marble
statuary, many pieces being finely modeled, and
all of them carefully finished.

The next factory in importance is that of Cope-
land: this too is an old house, the firm having
included Josiah Spode, a contemporary of Wedg­
wood, and second only to him in his labors for
the improvement of English pottery. A rich
straw-colored ware of his invention, superior in
gome particulars to Wedgwood's queen's-ware,

was recently revived by the firm under the name
of Spode or Ivory ware. In porcelain they rival
Minton and Worcester, while their Parian is
unequaled either for the quality of the ware or
the variety and beauty of their productions, which
are modeled by the most celebrated English
sculptors, such as Gibson, Raphael Monti, Flax-
man, Malempre, Durham, Westmacott and others.
Their printed earthenwares are good in design
and very reasonable in price.

In the district of Staffordshire known as the
“ Potteries,” there are 190 firms engaged in the
manufacture of earthenware, and 40 in that of
china. Many of the china works are in Long-
ton, a town noted for the cheapness of its pro­
ducts.

Besides these large establishments and others
like them, uniting such varied manufactures,
there are many smaller ones making a specialty
of some particular manufacture, as Parian, earth­
enware or majolica.

Outside of Staffordshire there is little pottery
made in Great Britain, the most noted factory
being that at Worcester, where, in 1761, John
Wall, a chemist, commenced the manufacture of
a porcelain somewhat like the Vincennes ware.
This became quite popular, and the works were
called by the king the Royal Factory. The manu­
facture of glazed Parian has recently been intro­
duced, many of the pieces being richly colored,
some of them in imitation of the Japanese lac­
quered ivories. The ware is exquisitely trans­
parent, and very delicate in design; some of it can
only be told from the early work by the absence
of the early mark. The colors used are very
rich, brilliant and various; the delicate turquois
blue, the Chinese blue, and some shades of red
and pink are especially noticeable. The Wor­
cester artists have always had a decided leaning
toward Oriental design; a yellow pottery in imi­
tation of the Awata, enameled in Japanese de­
signs and covered with clouds of reddish gold, is
a marvel of beauty. Their white earthenware
covered with Japanese emblems printed in a dark
blue, is one of their characteristic styles.

An older, but less known pottery, is that of
Coalbrookdale, which dates back to 1756. This
factory has a reputation for making excellent
copies of the Chelsea, Bow and Derby wares;
their soft-paste porcelain is highly esteemed by
English connoisseurs.

The clays used in the manufacture of English
pottery come from the south­western counties of
Cornwall, Dorset and Devon. There is now only
one pottery of note in these counties. This is at
Torquay, and produces very fine terra­cotta of a
deep red color, smooth in texture and graceful in
shape. A rich blue enamel has been introduced
that contrasts admirably with the red clay, and

40

THE FRIEND OF ALL.

the pieces are sometimes tastefully etched and
engraved. Statuettes and figures, as well as
vases and all sorts of fancy articles, are made here.

Lambeth, a suburb of London, has been the
seat of potteries for several centuries. Nearly a
century ago, John Doulton here established a
pottery for the manufacture of stone­ware. Noth­
ing of an artistic nature was produced until 1861,
when vessels of stone­ware were etched with
various patterns, and attracted considerable at­
tention at the London Exhibition. Thus en­
couraged, the manufacture was continued and
confidence gradually gained. The ware made
differs only in quality from the stone­ware in
common use. There is quite a variety of color ;
dark blue, blue-gray, stone-gray, brown and black.
The pieces may be decorated in four different
ways: 1st. By etched or engraved patterns cut
in the clay, and rubbed in with color; 2d. By
designs cut in bas-relief, or geometrical or other
patterns impressed in the clay; 3d, By dotted
or beaded patterns; 4th. By painting or enamel­
ing. This stone­ware is very hard and strong,
and pitchers, vases and tankards made of it are
much used for mantel and sideboard ornaments.
Terra­cotta ware is also manufactured here, as
well as what is called the Lambeth faience, a
rude ware handsomely painted, and covered with
a rich glaze.

France.—The French porcelain manufacture is
centered in the city of Limoges; but the oldest
and most important manufacture is that of
Sèvres, and of this we will first treat, as being
the artistic center of the French ceramic manu­
facture. In 1698 soft porcelain was made at St.
Cloud, and in 1753 the manufacture was removed
to Vincennes and taken under the royal pro­
tection. After a time the works were removed
to Sèvres, where they now remain, having passed
under the control of the various republics, king­
doms and empires to the present time.

Old Sèvres ware commands very high prices;
and doubtless, when rendered scarce by age, the
ware now made will be very valuable. At first,
only soft-paste porcelain was made, and the
colors were very rich, the celebrated Rose du
Barry and Bleu du Roi being the most celebrated.
Hard paste was first made in 1768, and the manu­
facture of the soft paste was discontinued from
1804 until 1854.

The Sèvres porcelain is very pure, white and
translucent, some of the pieces equaling in thin­
ness the celebrated Japanese egg-shell china.
The decoration of the Sèvres ware has always
been in the hands of the most competent and
skillful artists, and the reputation of the factory
is sustained to­day by some of the first flower-
painters of France. Flower-painting, in detached
flowers, sprays and garlands, was always the

forte of the Sèvres artists, though portrait and
historical painting was not neglected, and at one
time the works of Watteau were largely copied.
Efforts are now being made to introduce new
colors and processes, especially towards repro­
ducing the rich coloring of the Chinese. A cloudy
blue sometimes mottled with gold, and giving the
effect of lapis lazuli, is a specialty with this fac­
tory. All modern pieces of the Sèvres ware bear
the mark of the factory, the letter S and the last
two figures of the date.

While Sèvres is the artistic, Limoges is the
commercial center of ceramics in France. A fine
bed of kaolin was discovered near here in 1746,
and soon after that the manufacture was started
here, and has since steadily increased. Much of
the porcelain is sold without being decorated,
but now the taste for ornamental ware is increas­
ing, and handsomely painted and tastefully
printed sets are in demand. The French porce­
lain differs principally from the English in its
greater hardness and purity. Of the pate-tendre.
or soft-paste porcelain very little is made, as the
manufacture is exceedingly difficult; but the
wonderful softness and translucency of the col­
oring repay the extra trouble and expense.

Limoges faience is the name popularly applied
to the variety of earthen ware which is ornamented
with flowers modeled in relief and highly colored
and glazed, although it is made in many parts of
France, as well as in Brooklyn and Cincinnati,
U. S. A.

In Alsace and Lorraine, along the valleys of
the Saar and the Rhine, is a group of manufac­
tories that produce a strong, cheap and practical
earthenware, used very extensively in France,
Germany and Italy. These potteries are situated
at Nancy, Lunéville, Sarrequemines and Sarre-
Louis in France, Longwy in Germany, and Maes-
trich in Holland.

Holland.—At Maestrich a quaint sort of pottery
is made, and at Delft the traditions of the town
are kept up in the manufacture of tiles and
earthenware, decorated in blue, in the old Delft
fashion.

Germany.— The pottery of Longwy produces
many quaint and unique pieces. The crackle-
work is much used here, and the masses of rich
enamel separated by fine black lines, when used
in connection with the fine network of crackle,
has a very elegant effect.

On the Rhine, near Coblenz, are manufactories
whose specialty is the reproduction of the old
Flanders gray or Rhenish stone­ware, that flour­
ished here three hundred years ago. Many of these
pieces are made in the molds that were then in use,
and are exactly the same as the originals. This
ware is very strong, and is moderate in price.
The clay is generally gray in color, and the. shad­

MANUFACTURE OF POTTERY.                                                41

ing and ornamenting is done in a deep cobalt
blue.

At Munich there are a number of skillful
painters of porcelain, who execute principally
copies of celebrated pictures upon flat plaques or
tiles. Some of this work is exquisitely done.

One of the specialties of the Dresden artists is
the painting of china with Oriental designs in a
cobalt blue, and in that they are still unrivaled.
Miniature figures or statuettes in porcelain,
richly colored, and ornamented with raised flow­
ers or lace-work, is another branch of art in
which Dresden has conquered all opposition,
and has what glory there is in it to herself.
Really the best work of the Dresden artists are
the fine paintings of flowers and fruit, which are
almost always strong in color, and exquisite in
design and finish. Often the painted flowers are
combined with those modeled in relief, with good
effect. Figures and landscapes are also adapted
from the paintings of Watteau, and at one time
were almost a specialty here.

Hungary.—The factory of Mauritz von Fischer,
at Herend, produces finely decorated porcelain
and pottery, mainly imitations of the more cele­
brated manufactories. Old Chinese and Japan­
ese ware, old Sèvres porcelain, the raised flower-
work of Dresden, the basket-work of Vienna and
the Italian Capo di Monte, are frequently copied.

At Buda Pesth, the capital of Hungary, is es­
tablished a pottery where a very ornamental fai­
ence is made which is richly ornamented in ela­
borate patterns of an original character. The
colors are rich and dark, and gold is applied in
rough masses,

Austria.—At Vienna there was for a long time
an Imperial Porcelain Factory, but in 1864 this
was abandoned. The manufacture was taken up
by a private company and is still going on, on a
small scale.

On the Elbe are several potteries that make
terra­cotta or lava ware in vases or fancy articles.

Denmark.—Copenhagen produces some fine
pottery, very light and graceful in form, the
shapes and decorations being reproductions of
antique Greek and Egyptian vases. The best of
this pottery comes from the establishment of P.
Ipsen's widow.

Sweden.—Sweden is rich in porcelain clay and
in fuel; with these natural advantages large pot­
teries have been established that almost entirely
supply the home demand. The Rorstrand Works
at Stockholm make a great variety of porcelain
in table and ornamental pieces, as well as iron-
stone china, parian, faience and majolica. The
Gustafsberg Works also make a variety of por­
celain, majolica and faience.

Russia.—The Russian Imperial Factory at St.
Petersburg was founded in 1744, and produces a

small amount of very fine porcelain, equaling
the Sèvres and Dresden in finish.

Italy.—In Italy, the home of the majolica manu­
facture, there are now scattered through the
kingdom, manufactories that keep alive the old
traditions, and execute reproductions of the me­
diaeval majolica. The most noted of these es­
tablishments is that of the Marquis Ginori, at
Doccia, near Florence, founded in 1735, and pro­
ducing artistic porcelain, majolica and faience.
Reproductions of the majolica of Urbino, Castel
Durante and Gubbio, are made here, as well as
of the celebrated porcelain of Capo di Monte.
After having attained a high point of excellence,
the factory of Capo di Monte, near Naples, was
abandoned, and the molds in which the ware was
made were sold, some of them to Dresden, others
to Doccia. The pieces made in these molds, and
skillfully colored, are equal if not superior to the
antique. At Monaco is an artistic pottery that
makes a very pretty faience, sometimes in the
style of the old Dresden ware. Torquato Cas-
tellani, of Rome, has devoted himself to the re­
production of Italian majolica of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, and is very successful in his
efforts. There are also potteries producing ar­
tistic faience and majolica, at Naples, Perugia,
Pesaro, Faenza, Pisa and Florence.

Oriental.—In Persia and Syria pottery is still
made which has the flavor of the old work. In
India the ceramic art seems to be rapidly dying
out. Porcelain is made at Lhassa and Lahore,
but in small quantities; tiles and cheap earthen­
ware are made quite generally.

China.—Regarding the porcelain manufacture
of China it is impossible to obtain accurate in­
formation. The authorities still keep the pro­
cesses a secret; the factories are situated in the
interior of the country, and the ware sold to
foreigners in the seaport towns. Then, again,
Chinese porcelain, although always carefully
marked with the date of the manufacture, never
bears the maker's or factory mark. This renders
it almost impossible to classify the ware accord­
ing to manufacture, especially as it is a common
practice to decorate the ware at a different fac­
tory from the one where it was made. For
these reasons Chinese porcelain is classified ac­
cording to age into thirty different periods,
covering about five centuries.

The blue ware, best known as Nankin, is made
at the factory of King-to-Ching, one of the larg­
est in the empire. The rich decorations in
green and gold come mostly from Hong Kong.

Japan.—The Japanese have adopted a very
liberal policy, precisely the opposite of the Chi­
nese. Their wares are almost always marked
with the maker‘s name, in addition to the town
and province where they are made. The date

42

THE FRIEND OF ALL.

is sometimes added, Chinese fashion. Every fa­
cility has recently been extended to American
chemists and manufacturers to inspect the facto­
ries and analyze the clays and glazes used in the
manufacture.

Most of the potteries are small; in some towns
the ware is burned in public ovens, the potters
making and ornamenting their work at their
homes. This accounts for the wonderful diver­
sity of pattern, color and form that may be no­
ticed in the various Japanese wares. Recently
they have taken to copying European shapes
and decorations, generally with results not to be
commended in an artistic point of view, though
they have furnished us with more convenient
and practical shapes.

The principal varieties of Japanese porcelain
are the Hezen and Kaga. The Hezen factories
are the larger and more important, and produce
a ware of a hard white body and clear and even
glaze. The decoration is varied, though on most
of the pieces red predominates. The Arita ware
is very delicate, and at Owari is decorated under
the glaze with a rich blue. The celadon ware,
with a peculiar mottled green glaze, is made
here, and the egg-shell porcelain of Hirado is
very celebrated.

The Kaga ware is yellowish porcelain usually
decorated in a rich dark red and gold. It is
sometimes called Kutani, “ the nine valleys,”
from the location of the factories of the Prince
of Kaga.

The Banke ware is a coarse stone­ware, usually
modeled by hand and unglazed, and decorated
with flowers in enamel colors.

Kioto, Awata and Satsuma pottery is of a
delicate cream color, finely crackled. The Sat-
suma is the paler, being of a lemon color, and is
generally decorated with gold and a little color.
This ware is one of the most expensive varieties
made, and is in great demand.

The Awata earthenware is very hard and
close-grained, and sometimes ornamented with
characteristic designs of birds, flowers, etc., in
low relief, richly colored and gilt.

Kioto ware is the commonest sort of Japanese
pottery. Birds, flowers and insects are the usual
patterns, and the ornament is often in raised
enamel.

The Japanese apply cloisonne enamel upon
Awata earthenware and also upon porcelain, in
the following manner. The pattern is outlined
on the vase with brass wires; these are fastened,
and in the cloisons, or compartments, thus
formed is placed the enamel, the different colors
ranged as may be desired to produce the right
effect. The piece is then fired, to do which with­
out injury to the vase is a very delicate opera­

tion. If any cracks are left they are filled with
enamel and re-fired, until the surface is free, when
it is polished down until a perfectly even surface
is attained. This ware is the most difficult to
manufacture of any modern variety.

United States.—In the United States the manu­
facture of the commoner kinds of earthenware
and pottery is already firmly established, and a
heavy sort of porcelain is made, but very little
progress has been made toward the manufacture
of an artistic pottery.

There are sixteen great pottery establishments
in Trenton. It is only about twenty-five years
ago that the first pottery was established, and it
is there yet. It made only yellow or rockingham
ware. Other potteries started out to make only
yellow ware, but the grades of goods made in
Trenton improve every year, and there is now
only one yellow-ware pottery there. East Liver­
pool, Ohio, is the great center of yellow-ware
manufacture. It is nearly as great a pottery
center as Trenton. Among the workmen are
many Englishmen and Irishmen, but Americans
are learning to do good work. There are de­
signers and decoraters from Minton's great En­
glish tile-works and from Tiffany's in New York,
employed to decorate the better grades of toilet
and table ware.

A little while ago nothing better than cream-
colored stone-china, and blue-stone and stone-
porcelain ware was made in Trenton. Now
there are establishments that make real china,
and others that manufacture a grade of stone-
china that they claim looks as well and wears
better than French china, and is the same in
everything except that it is not translucent.
This translucent quality is obtained by intense
“firing,” and those who do not make “real”
china say that this “ firing” spoils a large pro­
portion of the goods. Those who do deal in the
fine work claim that by “ firing” the china just
as earthenware is fired—that is, by putting many
pieces together, where the French put only one
piece—there is a tremendous profit at lower
prices than the French obtain. The trouble is,
however, that the French goods, in standing alone
in the firing-boxes, receive no blemish, while the
American ware, which is stacked up on pegs, in
the boxes, bears the marks of the pegs.

Although we do not manufacture artistic pot­
tery ourselves, this country is fast becoming one
of the best markets in the world for the sale of
this class of goods. The increased taste for
these art­ products, is traceable in a large mea­
sure to the Centennial Exposition, but as much
credit is due to those importers and dealers who
keep in their stores and art-warerooms a con­
stant exhibition of ceramic art.

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