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[Illustration:
REDUCED FAC-SIMILE OF A BORDER.
From an edition of “Herodotus”
_Printed at Venice in the year 1470._
]
HISTORIC ORNAMENT
=Treatise on=
DECORATIVE ART
AND
ARCHITECTURAL ORNAMENT
_POTTERY; ENAMELS; IVORIES; METAL-WORK;
FURNITURE; TEXTILE FABRICS; MOSAICS;
GLASS; AND BOOK DECORATION_
BY
JAMES WARD
AUTHOR OF “THE PRINCIPLES OF ORNAMENT”
* *
=With Three Hundred and Seventeen Illustrations=
LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED
1897
PREFACE.
[Illustration]
This work is a continuation of the former volume on the subject of
Historic Ornament, and treats of the historical development of ornament
and decoration as illustrated in furniture, pottery, enamels, ivories,
metal work, including goldsmiths’, silversmiths’, and jewellers’ work,
textile fabrics, mosaic, glass, and book decoration.
Though each volume may be considered complete in itself as far as it has
been possible to consider the subjects therein treated in the dimensions
of this work, at the same time the student is respectfully advised to
read both volumes, as a few subjects which are necessarily only slightly
noticed in the former treatise, particularly those belonging to the
Minor Arts, are more fully treated in the present work.
J. WARD.
CONTENTS.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
POTTERY—MAIOLICA—DELLA ROBBIA WARE—ITALIAN MAIOLICA—PERSIAN, 1
DAMASCUS, AND RHODIAN WARES—FRENCH POTTERY—OIRON WARE—PALISSY
WARE—NEVERS, ROUEN, AND MOUSTIERS WARES—FRENCH
PORCELAIN—GERMAN POTTERY—GERMAN PORCELAIN—ENGLISH
POTTERY—ENGLISH PORCELAIN—CHINESE PORCELAIN—INDIAN POTTERY
CHAPTER II.
ENAMELS—ENAMELS OF THE COUNTRIES OF THE EAST 108
CHAPTER III.
IVORY CARVINGS 139
CHAPTER IV.
METAL WORK—GOLD, SILVER, BRONZE, PEWTER, AND IRON—SPANISH METAL 161
WORK—METAL WORK IN ITALY, GERMANY, FRANCE, AND
ENGLAND—NIELLO-WORK AND DAMASCENING—INDIAN JEWELLERY—IRON WORK
IN FRANCE, GERMANY, BELGIUM, ITALY, AND ENGLAND
CHAPTER V.
FURNITURE—ANTIQUE: EGYPT, ASSYRIA, GREECE, AND ROME—BYZANTINE, 241
ROMANESQUE, SARACENIC, AND THE FURNITURE OF THE MIDDLE
AGES—ITALIAN AND OTHER FURNITURE OF THE RENAISSANCE
CHAPTER VI.
TEXTILE FABRICS—TEXTILES OF INDIA—EMBROIDERY—TAPESTRY—LACE 295
CHAPTER VII.
MOSAICS 344
CHAPTER VIII.
GLASS 365
CHAPTER IX.
THE DECORATION OF BOOKS 389
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
[Illustration]
FIG. PAGE
Border from an edition of Herodotus _Frontispiece_
295. Alabastron, Phœnician 366
98. Altar, Portable, German 116
151. Altar Front, Golden, Basle 188
271. Archer, Norman, from the Bayeux Tapestry 321
227. Bedroom Interior, Fourteenth Century 254
136. Bell Shrine of St. Patrick’s 172
73. Bellarmine, Fulham Stoneware 83
234. Bellows, Italian 262
117. Bone Carving, Pastoral Staff, English 147
315. Book, Cover of; Henri-Deux Style 404
316. “Book of the Hours,” Cover for, designed by 406
Geoffry Tory
31. Bottle, Pilgrim’s, Urbino Ware 35
51. Bottle, Pilgrim’s, Nevers Ware 57
53. ” ” ” 59
297. Bottle, Glass, Ancient Roman 369
299. Bottle, Glass, and Mosque Lamp, Enamelled 372
Oriental
184. Bowl, Eighteenth Century 215
5. Bowl, Samian 5
41. Bowl, Blue Persian 45
79. Bowl of Chelsea-Derby Porcelain 92
84. Bowl of Tobacco-pipe, Worcester Ware 98
157. Bowl, Mazer, Ironmongers’ Hall 193
309. Bowl, Glass, Chinese 387
245. Bracket, English Carved 278
193. Bracelet, Silver, Bengal 223
213. Bronze Tripod, Greco-Roman 245
137. Brooch, Tara 173
138. Brooch, Tara, reverse 174
270. Brocade, Velvet, Italian 315
243. Cabinet, Boulle 275
244. Cabinet or Armoire, Boulle 276
238. Cabinet, French 266
250. Cabinet Marquetry, with Sèvres Plaques 285
256. Cabinet, Japanese, and Porcelain Dish 291
215. Candelabra, Roman Bronze 246
217. Candelabrum Roman, Marble 247
66. Candelabrum, Dresden 75
183. Candelabrum, Silver 215
47. Candlestick, Henri-Deux Ware 52
133. Candlestick, Base of, Milan Cathedral 169
152. Candlestick, Gloucester 189
153. Candlestick, Seven-branched, Cathedral of 190
Milan
154. Candlestick, Lower Boss of the Milan 191
173. Candlestick, Bronze, Italian 207
189. Candlestick, Silver-gilt, Louis Seize 217
190. Candlestick, Silver-gilt, Italian 218
273. Carpet, Embroidered Persian 323
230. Carriage, Travelling, English 256
231. ” ” ” 256
176. Casket, Silver 210
29. Castel-Durante Ware 32
156. Censer 193
134. Chair of Dagobert 170
209. Chair, Greek 243
211. ” ” ” 244
219. Chair, Marble, Roman 248
229. Chair, Coronation, Westminster Abbey 255
235. Chair, Italian, Sixteenth Century 263
237. Chair decorated with Gauffered Leather 265
253. Chairs, Parlour, by Chippendale 288
254. Chairs in Chinese style, by Chippendale 289
102. Chalice of Ardagh 120
145. Chalice, Spanish 181
159. Chalices, Gothic 195
160. Chalice 196
161. ” 196
162. Chalice, German 196
163. Chalice, Spanish 196
164. Chalice, English, Oxford 197
131. Chimera, Bronze, at Florence 164
186. Chocolate Pot 216
121. Coffer in Bone, Carved and Engraved 150
233. Coffer, Marriage, of Carved Wood, Italian Work 260
248. Commode with Lac Panels and Mounts, by 282
Caffieri
111. Coronation of Virgin, Ivory Caning, French 141
218. Couch in Bronze, Roman 248
212. Couches and Sofa, Greek 244
96. Crown of Charlemagne 114
82. Crown-Derby covered Cup and Saucer 95
141. Crozier of Clonmacnois 177
142. Crozier of Bronze, Irish, in Edinburgh 178
140. Cumdach, or Case of Molaise’s Gospels 176
103. Cup, with Translucent Enamels set 123
transparently
165. Cup, Standing, Cambridge 198
166. Cup, Enamelled, King’s Lynn 198
175. Cup, with Cover, Silver-gilt, French 209
178. Cup of Gold, Oxford 210
306. Cup, Drinking, Anglo-Saxon 383
195. Cuttack, Native Silver Jewellery of 225
196. Cuttack, Filigrain Jewellery of 225
262. Damask, Silk, Early Saracenic 307
266. Damask, Silk, Sicilian 311
267. ” ” 312
268. Damask, Silk, Florentine 313
314. Dante’s “Inferno,” from Woodcut of 402
269. Diaper in Velvet Brocade, Italian 314
225. Dining Room 253
226. Dining Table on Trestles 253
7. Dish, Valencia 9
15. Dish, Early Pesaro 19
24. Dish, Lustred, Gubbio Ware 27
28. Dish, Embossed Fruit, Gubbio 31
32. Dish, Urbino 36
35. Dish, Venetian 39
43. Dish, Rhodian 47
50. Dish, Rustic Palissy Ware 56
57. Dish, Rouen Ware 63
71. Dish, of Slip Ware, by Thomas Toft 81
72. Dish, of Lambeth Delft 82
148. Dish, Spanish, silver 184
200. Door, Press, in Church of St. Jacques 231
205. Door, Iron-bound, Monastery of Krems 238
21. Drug-pot, Siena 26
30. Drug-pot, Castel-Durante Ware 33
94. Enamel, Cloisonné, Altar Tray and Chalice 111
97. Enamel, Champlevé, of Geoffry Plantagenet 115
99. Enamel, Châsse in Champlevé 117
100. Enamel, Champlevé, French 118
106. Enamel, Battersea 131
108. Enamelled Haka Stand, Mongol period 135
109. Enamelled Pen-and-ink Stand, Jaipur 136
110. Enamelled Sarai, Punjaub 137
93. Enamelled Tile, from Sindh 107
311. Epistle of Jerome, from the, in “Book of 393
Durrow”
251. Escritoire of Marie-Antoinette 286
3. Ewer, Greek or Etruscan 4
48. Ewer and Tazza, Oiron Ware 53
263. Fabric, Silk, of Iconium, Arabian (Lyons 308
Museum)
33. Faenza Plate 37
34. Faenza Maiolica 38
180. Fire-dog, Silver, at Knole Park 212
294. Glass Vase or Bottle 365
298. Glass Tablet in Relief, Roman 370
300. Glass, Venetian Enamelled 375
301. Glass, Venetian 376
303. Glass, Spanish 380
304. Glasses, German 381
307. Glass, Stained 385
308. Glass, Window, English 386
90. Glazed Pierced Water-Bottle, from Madura 104
274. Gloves, State, formerly belonging to Louis 324
XIII
198. Gold Jewellery of Bombay, Native 227
128. Gold Brooch and Earrings, Etruscan 162
202. Grille or Herse on Queen Eleanor’s Tomb, 233
Westminster
203. Grille, Tabernacle, from Ottoberg, Tyrol 236
280. Guipure, Flemish 338
281. Guipure Lace, Italian 339
167. Hanap, German 199
199. Hinges, &c., Haddiscoe Church 229
201. Hinge to Porte Ste. Anne of Notre-Dame 232
284. Honiton Lace, Modern 342
158. Hour-glass Salt, Oxford 194
112. Image Painter 142
88. Incense Burner, Satsuma Ware 102
89. Incense Burner, Arita Ware 103
191. Italian Damascene Work 220
118. Ivory Carving, Fourteenth-century Pierced Work 148
119. Ivory Diptych, English 149
120. Ivory Casket, Lid of, Spanish 150
122. Ivory Comb 151
123. Ivory Mirror Case 152
124. Ivory Tankard, Flemish 154
125. Ivory Panels of Pulpit Door, Saracenic 156
126. Ivory Ink Horn 157
127. Ivory Box, Indian 159
114. Ivory Carving with Archangel 145
115. Ivory Vase 145
74. Jar, Staffordshire Stone 84
147. Jewel, Spanish 183
197. Jewellery, Native, of Trichinopoly, Madras 226
261. Kincob of Ahmedabad 303
285. Lace Point, Irish Modern 343
276. Lace, Point, Genoese 334
277. Lace, Grounds 335
282. Lace, Point, Venetian, Finest Raised 340
283. Lace, Mechlin, Border of 341
257. Lacquered Boxes, Sindh 292
258. Lacquered Leg of Bedpost, Sindh 293
76. Lamp, Black Egyptian Ware, Wedgwood 88
149. Lamp, Moorish 185
278. Lappet, Brussels 336
279. Lappet, “Point d’Alençon” 337
113. Leaf of Roman Diptych 143
204. Lock in Klagenfurt Museum, German 237
312. “Lyme Missal,” page from the Caxton 397
313. “Lyme Missal,” page from the Caxton, the 399
Crucifixion
17. Maiolica, Sgraffitto 22
18. Maiolica Plate 23
13. Medallion in Enamelled Earthenware, Della 17
Robbia
246. Mirror Frame, Seventeenth Century 279
206. Mirror, Wrought-Iron, French 239
242. Mirror Frame, Venetian 270
310. Monogram, Illuminated, portion of “Book of 392
Kells”
144. Monstrance, Spanish 180
168. Monstrance, Italian 200
287. Mosaic, Roman, found at Avignon 347
288. Mosaic, Roman, Ancient 348
286. Mosaic, Roman, from Woodchester 346
289. Mosaic, Head in, from “Battle of Issus” 350
290. Mosaic, Geometric, Church of Ara Cœli, Rome 357
291. Mosaic from the Alhambra 363
292. Mosaic, Saracenic, from Monreale 363
293. Mosaic, Indian, from the Taj Mehal 364
129. Necklace, part of, Head of Bacchus, Etruscan 162
194. Neck Ornament, Silver 224
296. Necklace of Glass and Gold, Phœnician 367
107. Necklace, Punjaub 134
45. Ornament on Cupola of Mosque of Soliman the 49
Great
222. Panel, Flemish 252
223. Panel, German 252
224. Panel, English 252
139. Pattern, Irish Trumpet 175
146. Pax, Spanish 182
169. Pax, Italian 201
77. Pedestal, Jasper, Wedgwood Ware 89
170. Pendant, Cellini, Paris 202
20. Pesaro Portrait Dish 25
16. Pitcher, Caffaggiolo Maiolica 21
8. Plaque, Earthenware, Alcora Ware 11
19. Plateau or Tazza, Caffaggiolo Ware 24
22. Plate, Siena 26
23. Plate, Siena 26
54. Plateau, Rouen Ware 60
56. ” ” 62
58. Plate, Lille Ware 65
59. Plate, Moustiers Ware 66
60. Plate, Strasburg Ware 67
86. Porcelain, Oriental, Chinese with French 100
Ormoulu Mounting
91. Pottery, Glazed, of Sindh 105
92. ” ” ” 106
150. Rapiers, Spanish 186
95. Reliquary, Byzantine, Cloisonné Enamel 113
104. Salt-cellar, portions of, by Pierre Raymond 128
49. Salt-cellar, Oiron Ware 54
174. Salver, Flemish 208
208. Seat, Assyrian 242
221. Seat, Scandinavian 251
228. Seats, Fourteenth Century 255
220. Sella, Roman 248
61. Sèvres Vase 69
62. Sèvres Porcelain Clock 70
63. Sèvres Vase 71
192. Shield, Damascened in Gold, Indian 221
155. Shrine or Reliquary 192
172. Silver-gilt German Cup 206
171. Spoons, Apostle, Cambridge 205
116. Staff, Pastoral, German 146
81. Statuette, Derby 94
210. Stools and Chairs, Folding, Greek 243
236. Stool of Carved Wood, Italian 264
255. Stool and Armchair, Empire style 290
143. Sword of Boabdil, Madrid 179
272. Syon Cope, Portion of 322
181. Table at Windsor Castle, Silver 213
216. Tables, Roman 246
232. Table (Kursy), Saracenic 257
240. Table, Elizabethan 268
249. Table, Writing, Louis Seize 284
252. Table of Marie-Antoinette, inlaid with Sèvres 287
Plaques
177. Tankard, Nuremberg 210
179. Tankard, English 211
275. Tapestry, Italian, Dismissal of Hagar and 331
Ishmael
26. Tazza, by Giorgio, “The Stream of Life” 29
27. Tazza, by Giorgio 30
46. Tazza, Henri II. Ware 51
207. Throne, Assyrian 242
39. Tile, Persian 43
12. Tile, Alhambra 15
69. Tile, Encaustic, Monmouth Priory 79
55. Tray, Rouen Ware 61
259. Tree, Homa or Sacred, Assyrian 300
260. Tree of Life, Assyrian 300
265. Tree of Life, Apostolic, with the Cross Emblem 310
214. Tripod, Folding, Roman 245
185. Tureen at Windsor Castle 216
70. Tyg of Wrotham Ware 80
68. Urn, Romano-British 78
1. Vase, Greek, Oinochœ 4
2. Vase, Greek, or Crater 4
4. Vase, Greek, Signed by Necosthenes 4
6. Vase, Græco-Roman 6
9. Vase, Buen-Retiro 12
10. Vase, Alhambra 13
11. Vase, Hispano-Moresque 14
25. Vase in Copper-ruby Lustre 28
37. Vase, Persian Flower, with Chinese Decoration 41
44. Vase, Siculo-Arabian Ware 48
52. Vase, Nevers Ware 58
64. Vase, Delft 73
67. Vase, Dresden 76
78. Vase, Chelsea 91
80. Vase, Bow Porcelain 93
83. Vase, Worcester 96
85. Vase, Chinese 99
87. Vase, Ancient Japanese 101
101. Vase, Enamelled, found in Essex 119
105. Vase, Painted Enamel by Pierre Raymond 129
187. Vase, Silver 216
188. Vase, by Adam 216
305. Vases, Decorated German 382
130. Vessel, Etruscan Bronze 163
247. Vessel for Holy-Water 280
14. Virgin and Child, Della Robbia Ware 18
302. “Vitro di Trina,” Venetian 377
135. Votive Crown of King Suinthila 171
40. Wall Decoration, Persian 44
264. Wall Hanging, Silk, Arabian 309
36. Ware, Persian Lustred 40
42. Ware, Rhodian 46
65. Ware, German Stone 75
75. Ware, White Salt-Glazed, Staffordshire 85
241. Ware, Great Bed of, Elizabethan 269
38. Water-bottle, Persian imitated Chinese 42
Porcelain
132. Wine Crater in Silver, Antique Roman 165
182. Wine Fountain 214
239. Wood Panel, Carved, French 267
HISTORIC ORNAMENT.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER I.
POTTERY.
In a former volume of this work, under the respective headings, the
Pottery of the Prehistoric ages, and of the oldest nations, as Egypt,
Assyria, and Phœnicia, has been noticed. The pottery of primitive Greece
has also been mentioned, and some illustrations have been given. It is
here intended to give a brief outline of the history of Ceramics dating
from about the end of the thirteenth century; but to connect this sketch
with the notice of Cyprian pottery already given it will be necessary to
say something of the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman pottery. Greek vases had
been found in great quantities in Etruria before they were found in the
islands and colonies of Greece, or to any extent in Athens, and from
this circumstance they were wrongly supposed to have been of Etruscan
workmanship. The Etruscans imported these vases from Greece during the
fifth and sixth centuries B.C., many of which had been placed in their
tombs, from where they have been exhumed during the last hundred and
fifty years.
The vases found at Athens and other parts of Greece were also, as a
rule, found in tombs and burial-places; one class in particular—the
Athenian _lekythi_—were made specially to contain the sacred oil or wine
and to be afterwards placed in the tomb. These vases are of a long,
narrow, and elegant shape, and were decorated with appropriate funeral
subjects outlined on a white ground. This white ground is known as
_matt_, and is of a dull surface; it is not a glaze, but simply an
engobe of clay fired at a very low temperature. The draperies of the
figures are occasionally coloured red, brown, pale green, or a bluish
tint, and some of them are remarkable for their beauty of drawing and
expression of sentiment in the design. They date from B.C. 450 to 350.
Greek vases are characterized by their beauty of shape as well as by
their refined decoration. Some of the richly decorated ones were given
as prizes to the victors in the Olympian games, and it has also been
conjectured that some of the terra-cotta vases found in the tombs were
designed to represent the costlier metal vases that were offered for
prizes at the games held in honour of princes at their death, the
coarser terra-cotta vases being used at the death of the common people.
The shapes of the Greek vases vary in the different periods, getting
more elegant as they approached the middle period—the fifth and the
first half of the fourth century B.C.—and larger in size with the
handles more elaborate in the later periods. The principal varieties are
known under the following names:—the Amphora, a full-bodied vase with
two handles, used for carrying wine; the Hydria, a wider bodied vase,
used for carrying water: it has generally one large and two smaller
handles; the Crater, a large wide-mouthed vessel, used for mixing wine
and water; the Lebes, a round basin usually placed on the top of a stand
or tripod; the Oinochoè, a ewer-shaped vase, used for pouring out wine;
the Lekythos, a long bottle-shaped vase, used for holding oil; the
Aryballos, for perfumes or oil; the Cantharos, a two-handled cup on a
foot, used for drinking purposes; the Kylix, a shallow cup on a foot,
used for drinking wine; and the Rhyton, or drinking horn, made in the
shape of an animal’s head or a sphinx.
Greek Ceramic ware, like the Etruscan and Roman, was coated with a
scarcely perceptible thin glaze, supposed to be composed of a vitreous
alkaline that merely hardened the clay body and left a very faint polish
on the surface.
The colouring on the majority of the Greek vases of the sixth century is
a brown or red glaze on which are painted the designs in black; the
markings on the figures and drapery are incised, showing the groundwork,
or being sometimes filled in with white, and the faces and limbs usually
painted a white colour and fired at a low heat. Sometimes a purple tint
was painted over the accessories. Vases of this period have also a white
biscuit ground with similar coloured decorations as those of the red
ground.
In the fifth century B.C. a change took place in the style of
decoration: the figures and accessories are left in the red ground
colour of the vase, and the surrounding groundwork is black; the
interior markings are in faint yellow or black, and incised slightly
with a tool. This is the period of the best designs and of delicate and
correct drawing. Some of the kylixes of this period are exceedingly
beautiful, and are usually signed with the name of the artist. Some
artists’ names are Meidias, Polygnotos, Epictelos, Pamphaios, Brygos,
Euphronius, &c. It is said that the greatest artists of Greece—Phidias,
Polycletus, Apelles, and Myron—furnished designs for the potters.
The Greeks in their vase paintings observed strictly the æsthetic laws
of proportion and space division (Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4) as they did in their
architecture. The precision of touch which they displayed is remarkable,
and the skill in the freehand rendering of their geometric and floral
borders, not to speak of their figure-work, is astonishing when we think
that if they made a mistake on the absorbent biscuit ware on which they
painted, it could not be altered without showing the defect.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.—Greek Vase. Oinochoè.]
[Illustration]
Fig. 3.—Greek or Etruscan Ewer.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.—Greek Vase. Crater.]
[Illustration: Fig. 4.—Greek Vase. Signed by Nicosthenes.]
The Levantine island of Samos has been celebrated from the earliest
times for its pottery. It has been mentioned by Homer and Herodotus as
unparalleled, for its size, in the wealth and artistic qualities of its
people. It was renowned for its temples and metal work as well as for
pottery. The Temple of Juno—the Heræum—was built in marble, and was of
great magnitude—a treasure house of art in itself. The Samians were
great traders, and their beautiful red pottery was carried by their
ships to all parts of the known world. The clay of which the Samian ware
was made was of a fine red compact earth; the pottery was usually
thicker than that of the other Greek ceramics, and the decoration was
partly modelled and partly incised (Fig. 5). This ware has been found in
nearly all parts of Europe, the design of which inclines to the
Græco-Roman style, and is doubtless of the variety made during the Roman
occupation of the island.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.—Samian Bowl.]
[Illustration: Fig. 6.—Græco-Roman Vase.]
A Græco-Roman vase in terra-cotta is shown at Fig. 6.
Roman pottery and fragments of it have been found in every country that
was formerly under the Roman rule, and consists of examples both of a
very simple kind and artistic. Great quantities have been found in
England, and every year almost brings new examples to light, consisting
of vases, lamps, and panels in terra-cotta.
Although the Greeks never quite lost the art of making pottery during
the Middle Ages, they did not produce much artistic work after A.D. 200,
and between this time and the end of the fourteenth century. Artistic
pottery as glazed ware was imported into Europe from Damascus through
the Arabs or Saracens about this time. Cups from Damascus in glazed
pottery were reckoned among the treasures of kings, and it was from
Damascus that the Arabs undoubtedly brought the secrets of glazed
earthenware to Spain, where they established the potteries that
fabricated the famous Hispano-Moresque ware. Before dealing with this
ware, it is necessary to note briefly the various kinds of glazed wares
anterior to its invention. The process of glazing terra-cotta tiles,
bricks, and vessels is of great antiquity. In Egypt, as early as the
fourth dynasty (B.C. 3766-3600), examples of glazed terra-cotta tiles
were in use. Copper has been employed at these early dates to produce a
turquoise blue enamel in Assyria and Babylon, and tin has been used in
the glaze mixture on the enamelled bricks from the same countries. These
ancient tiles and bricks, therefore, belong to the category of
_fayences_. The word _fayence_, now of so wide application, is derived
from Faenza, a town in Italy, where enamelled earthenware, or maiolica,
was manufactured in the fifteenth century, which was distinguished by
its fine polished white enamel. Fayence is a ware that is distinct from
porcelain; it is a potter’s clay mixed with a marl of an argillaceous
and calcareous nature and sand. According to the composition, and the
degree of heat required in firing, it is called “Soft” (_Fayence à pâte
tendre_) and “Hard” (_Fayence à pâte dure_).
English earthenware made from _pipeclay_ is “soft”; stone ware, Queen’s
ware, and some other special wares are hard. Soft wares are unglazed,
glazed, and enamelled. The glazed or _varnished_ wares, as we have seen,
were made by the ancient civilized nations, as well as the coarser
terra-cotta or unglazed wares. In medieval and in modern times enamelled
ware, as distinct from merely glazed or varnished wares, have been made,
as well as porcelain or China ware; the latter is called also Kaolin,
and is a fine white earth in which silex is the chief constituent, which
is derived from a decomposition of feldspathic granite.
Vitreous glaze (or glass) is composed of sand or other siliceous matter
fused with potash or soda; this is ground and mixed with water, forming
a liquid in which the clay biscuit ware is dipped, and afterwards fired,
in order to make it impermeable to liquids. Oxide of lead in
considerable quantities is added to the vitreous glaze, which increases
its fusibility, but still keeping it transparent; this is what is known
as a _plumbeous_ glaze. This glaze may be coloured yellow by the
addition of iron oxide; green by copper oxide; blue by cobalt; and black
by manganese. All these coloured glazes were known to the ancients.
A further addition of the oxide of tin to the vitreous or plumbeous
transparent glaze, in comparatively small quantities, produces the
opaque enamel known as a “stanniferous” or tin glaze. This is the
enamelled glaze of the Della Robbia ware, of the Hispano-Moresque, and
of the Italian maiolica.
From recent analysis of the enamel on Assyrian tiles and bricks it has
been ascertained that the oxide of tin was used by the enamellers of
that early time, but not to the same extent as the vitreous glaze.
Persia was the natural inheritor of the art of the ancient land of
Mesopotamia, and the beautiful siliceous and probably the stanniferous
glaze, and also metallic lustres, have been used in that country from
very early times. The Arabs, or Saracens, evidently brought the workmen
from the East, and imported many pieces of Damascus ware during the
independent Caliphate of the Damascus Caliphs in Cordova in Spain, which
lasted from the eighth century to the year 1235, when the Moors drove
the Arabs out of Spain. The Arabs (says Riaño) had, as early as the
beginning of the twelfth century, if not before, established the
industry of metallic-lustred pottery in Spain. Edrisi, the Arab
geographer, wrote in 1154, in describing Calatayud in Spain: “Here the
gold-coloured pottery is made, which is exported to all countries.” This
gold-coloured pottery is likely to have been similar to the siliceous
glazed ware of the East. The next reference to lustred pottery is made
by Ben Batutah, a celebrated Arab traveller, when travelling from
Tangiers to Granada, and when passing Malaga (1349-57) he says: “At
Malaga the fine golden pottery is made, which is exported to the
furthermost countries.” The golden pottery here referred to is the
tin-glazed Hispano-Moresque. At Manises, in the kingdom of Valencia, the
famous lustred pottery _fabriques_ or workshops were in a flourishing
state in the fifteenth century, when Eximenus, in his “Regiment de la
cosa publica,” quoted by Riaño, speaking of the excellent things made in
his time at Manises in Valencia, says: “Above all, the beauty of the
gold pottery, so splendidly painted at Manises, which enamours every one
so much that the Pope, and the cardinals, and the princes of the world
obtain it by special favour, and are astonished that such excellent and
noble works can be made out of the earth.”
The same author translates a document he found in the British Museum,
which gives a description of the whole of the making and preparing of
the golden lustre as used at Manises in 1785: speaking of its
composition, the document runs thus: “Five ingredients enter into the
composition of the gold colour: copper, which is the better the older it
is; silver as old as possible; sulphur, red ochre, and strong vinegar,
which are mixed in the following proportions: of copper three ounces, of
red ochre twelve ounces, of silver one _peseta_ (about a shilling),
sulphur three ounces, vinegar a quart.” All these ingredients are fused
together, and afterwards ground and diluted with water and the vinegar
to make the gold-coloured glaze or varnish for use in the decorating of
the ware. A woodcut gives a very imperfect idea of Hispano-Moresque
pottery, as the lustre and colour is everything in the ware; the designs
generally are very simple leaf-work shields and small geometric
repetitions. The beautiful dish (Fig. 7) is one of the finest examples
of the ware made at Murcia in the province of Valencia. The statement of
Eximenus regarding the Pope, the cardinals, and princes sending for this
ware seems to have been correct, for most of the pieces known have been
found or brought from Italy, to which country the majority of them had
evidently been exported.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.—Valencia Dish; Hispano-Moresque. (S.K.M.)]
Besides the lustred ware manufactured in the peninsula in the Middle
Ages, the _Azulejos_, or tiles of bright colours, were made in small
pieces, and were embedded in the walls to form geometric patterns. This
manner of using these tiles was derived from the coloured and geometric
Byzantine mosaics, tiles being used in Spain where mosaics would be used
in the Eastern Empire; and perhaps the earliest use of them in Spain was
in the Alhambra decoration of the fourteenth century. Afterwards the
tiles became larger and more complete in their patterns. Terra-cotta
figures and ornament, green and white-glazed pottery were also made by
the Moors in Spain.
In the sixteenth century Spanish pottery design was of the Italian
Renaissance character. Unlike the Moresque work, the designs were shaded
and the colours more subdued, but the Moresque design still continued in
favour, and to keep its flat treatment and bright effect of colour. The
Italian kind of pottery was made at Talavera, at Andujar, and at La
Rambla, as well as unglazed porous and coloured ware at the former
place, and white unglazed pottery at the latter places. Coarse green and
white pottery was made at Toledo in the sixteenth century; a large
well-head or brim, with an interlaced Moresque band in relief, from this
place is now in the Museum at Kensington.
A bowl of Talavera ware of the eighteenth century, painted in imitation
of the Italian maiolica ware, is also in the Museum. The colours used
are green, blue, orange, and manganese tint, which are usually found on
the Spanish pottery of this period.
The well-known and extensive potteries at Alcora were established by
Count Aranda in 1726, where porcelain and pipeclay wares were made with
all kinds of designs, mostly imitations of France, Holland, England, and
China. Most of the principal painters and modellers at these works were
Frenchmen or Germans. The names of the chief artists were Haly, Knipper,
Martin, Garces, Ferrer, and Prato. The Duke of Hijar, son of Count
Aranda, succeeded his father (1800-1858) in the management of the Alcora
potteries. A specimen of this ware is shown in the Rococo plaque (Fig.
8) with the subject of Galatea.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.—Earthenware Plaque; Alcora Ware. (S.K.M.)]
Another celebrated pottery, connected with royalty, was founded by King
Charles III. in 1760 in the gardens of the royal palace of Buen Retiro
at Madrid. This King, coming from Naples to inherit the Spanish Crown at
the death of his brother Ferdinand, was anxious to establish a similar
pottery in Madrid to that which he had previously founded at Capo di
Monte, at Naples, so he brought his staff of artists, workmen, and
director of the works, Bonicelli, over from Italy to Madrid, and
established the Buen Retiro works at a great cost. The yearly expenses
of these works were £20,000, and all the pottery made was for the
exclusive use of the King and Royal Family, and was sent as presents to
foreign princes. This was the case for the first thirty years until the
death of Charles III. (1798), after which the pottery was allowed to be
sold, but at a very high price. The workmanship of this pottery is good,
but there is nothing particularly artistic about it. The designs are in
the false taste of the late Italian mixed with Louis Seize incrusted
motives. A vase in the Buen Retiro ware is shown at Fig. 9. A room in
the royal palace, Madrid, is covered with plaques of this ware.
[Illustration: Fig. 9.—Buen Retiro Ware. (S.K.M.)]
MAIOLICA.
Before the advent of Maiolica ware in Italy a similar kind of pottery
was made in Spain, which had the stanniferous or opaque tin glaze and
the golden lustre that belonged to the best examples of Italian
maiolica. We refer to the Hispano-Moresque ware. This opaque
stanniferous glaze was known to the Arabs of Spain from the end of the
thirteenth century, or more than one hundred years before Luca della
Robbia (who died in 1430) produced his enamelled earthenware.
The first specimens of Hispano-Moresque pottery were probably made at
Malaga, and another important factory was at Valencia. The shape and
decoration of the famous Alhambra vase (Fig. 10), one of the earliest
specimens of Hispano-Moresque ware (about 1320), clearly points to its
Persian origin of design, and was probably made and decorated by a
Persian Saracenic artist. It is coloured brown and blue on a yellowish
ground, and is decorated with animals and ornament in the Persian
manner. It was found about the middle of the sixteenth century, under
the pavement of the Alhambra Palace, filled with gold coins.
[Illustration: Fig. 10.—The Alhambra Vase Hispano-Moresque.]
Hispano-Moresque ware is of a general yellowish-white colour, with an
iridescent metallic lustre similar to the Italian maiolica of the end of
the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries. The
ornamentation is lustrous rather than the ground, and is of a golden
copper red to a pale yellow golden tint. It has been divided into three
classes: the first has the ornamentation of a copper red colour; the
ground is nearly covered by ornament, consisting invariably of birds in
the midst of flowers and foliage, resembling Persian pottery. The ware
of this class is less perfect in manufacture than that of the golden
yellow designs, and is the oldest. The second class has the colour of a
monochrome golden yellow tint, with the ornament of a small geometric
character, and Spanish or Moresque escutcheons. This variety is of
Spanish origin of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
The third class has the ornament partly rendered in coloured enamels,
and has golden yellow armorial bearings, interlacings, and foliage.
Animals, such as antelopes, sometimes occur. This ware is the carefully
executed work of the fifteenth century. During the first years of the
sixteenth century the third class of ware was probably imitated by the
Italians.
The process of the manufacture of lustred earthenware was introduced
into Italy by Arabian or Spanish workmen from the Balearic Isles.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.—Hispano-Moresque Vase. (S.K.M.)]
A beautiful vase of elegant shape with large perforated handles in
Hispano-Moresque, decorated with ivy or briony leaves and tendrils, is
in the Kensington Museum (Fig. 11).
A curious shaped tile from the Alhambra is shown at Fig. 12, the
decoration of which is purely Saracenic.
[Illustration: Fig. 12.—Alhambra Tile. (S.K.M.)]
Scaliger (1484-1558) tells us that a costly fayence, as beautiful as the
pottery of India, was made in his time in the island of Majorca and
exported to Italy; he also adds that the name “Maiolica” or Majolica was
derived from Majorca.
The island of Majorca was an Arab possession until the year 1230, and no
doubt the Arabs had there founded potteries for the production of glazed
earthenware.
Towards 1300, as related by Passeri, the Italian potters began to cover
a raw clay with a coating of white opaque Sienese earth produced from
that territory. This coating of a white opaque substance, called an
“engobe,” was the ground to which the colours were applied, and which,
differing from the older methods hitherto employed in Italy, was a
distinct advance in pottery manufacture, and has been considered as the
first beginning of Maiolica pottery. Improvements were effected in the
use of this engobe or opaque varnish until the time of Luca della Robbia
(1355-1430).
DELLA ROBBIA WARE.
It is not known whether the above celebrated artist invented the opaque
white stanniferous glaze with which he covered his works, but he was the
first to use it successfully in the architectural decoration known as
“Della Robbia” ware. He succeeded, however, in colouring his white
glaze, thereby greatly enlarging its usefulness for exterior and
interior decoration. The colours he obtained were blue, yellow, green,
violet, and a copper tint. His sculptured terra-cottas glazed with these
colours became objects of great request. He obtained more orders than he
could execute himself, and so he employed his two brothers, who were
sculptors, to assist him. His nephew Andrea, after himself was the most
famous in this kind of work, and produced, like his uncle Luca, groups
of figures in panels, single figures, tabernacles, friezes, &c.
Three sons of Andrea, Giovanni, Luca, and Girolamo, worked in the same
material, and Girolamo was invited by François I^{er} to decorate the
Château de Madrid with “Della Robbia” ware, representing the
“Metamorphoses” of Ovid, which was done at a cost equal to £15,530.
[Illustration: =Fig. 13.—Medallion in Enamelled Earthenware, by Luca
della Robbia. (S.K.M.)]
In the Kensington Museum there are many specimens of Della Robbia ware,
among which are a series of twelve circular medallions in enamelled
terra-cotta, representing the twelve months of the year, one of which is
illustrated at Fig. 13. The bas-relief of the Virgin and Child (Fig. 14)
is likely to be a work of one of the Della Robbia family.
[Illustration: Fig. 14.—Virgin and Child. School of Della Robbia.
(S.K.M.)]
ITALIAN MAIOLICA.
About the year 1450 the Sforzi, the Lords of Pesaro, established at the
latter place Maiolica factories, and a decree, dated 1st of April, 1486,
was published, granting certain privileges to the ceramists of Pesaro.
The potteries of Urbino, Gubbio, and Castel-Durante were then equally
famous with those of Pesaro. It is generally thought that the use of
metallic lustre was first known at Pesaro; the pearly, the ruby, and the
golden lustres appeared at Pesaro and Gubbio before they were known at
any other Italian pottery. The early pieces are decorative dishes, or,
as they are called, “bacili,” having a broad border and a deep sunk
centre; at the back is a projecting circular “giretto,” pierced with two
holes, which shows that they were intended to be hung up as decorative
objects. Coats of arms, or other devices, occupied the centre; the
border usually is simple but well designed, showing a mixture of
Oriental with Gothic or Italian forms (Fig. 15). The potteries of
Faenza, Forli, and Caffaggiolo are thought by some to be as early, if
not earlier, in date than those of Pesaro.
[Illustration: Fig. 15.—Early Pesaro Dish. (S.K.M.)]
In 1444 Federigo, the second Duke of Urbino, built a castellated palace
at Urbino, and gathered around him men of learning and many artists, and
especially encouraged the manufacture of maiolica. His son, Guidobaldi
I., succeeded him in 1482, and he also was a great patron of the ceramic
arts. The ware made in Italy during this time—the latter half of the
fifteenth century—was known under the name of “mezza-maiolica,” this
ware differing from tin-glazed or true maiolica in its glaze in its
having a lead or plumbeous glaze; but in common with the true maiolica,
the mezza-maiolica is also a lustred ware, having a peculiar iridescent
lustre, derived from the lead used as a glaze. This lustred ware was
therefore made anterior to the tin-glazed dishes and other objects, and
chiefly at Pesaro and Gubbio. The lustre was obtained on a glaze of
oxide of lead and glass by the use of certain metallic oxides, and the
art of making it was probably learnt from the potters of the island of
Majorca, where the making of the Hispano-Moresque ware was well known.
The Italian writer Passeri states that the tin-glazed ware or true
maiolica was made at Pesaro in 1500, and that the process was introduced
from Tuscany. A better ground for the reception of the colours used in
the decoration was afforded by the new enamel, but it did not entirely
supersede the manufacture of the mezza-maiolica, as a great deal of the
latter ware still continued to be made of a brilliant metallic lustre at
the fabriques of Pesaro and Gubbio. At Castel-Durante, Urbino, and
Diruta were other famous botegas or fabriques where the lustred ware was
made, but none were so celebrated as that of Maestro Giorgio at Gubbio.
It was at this famous botega that the best of all the golden and ruby
metallic lustres were produced. The ruby lustre particularly seemed to
be a monopoly of the Gubbio workshops, for it is known that many of the
Italian factories sent their pieces to Maestro Giorgio at Gubbio to have
the ruby and the gold lustre added as a finish to parts of the designs.
Maiolica was made at Venice in the sixteenth century, also at Forli,
Diruta, Siena, Caffaggiolo, and Faenza, where much early work of great
beauty in design was produced.
We shall only have space to describe a few of the most important
products of Italian maiolica.
[Illustration: Fig. 16.—Pitcher; Caffaggiolo Maiolica. (S.K.M.)]
An early method of decorating maiolica pottery is known as
“sgraffitto-work,” in which the patterns are scratched or incised into
the ground: this was a favourite method of executing outdoor plaster
decoration in Italy. It consists in laying on a ground of coloured clay
or plaster on another coating of a different colour, and while this
second coating is moderately soft, the pattern or design is incised or
“scratched” down to the first coating or ground, which, being of a
different colour, reveals itself, and thus forms the pattern. In both,
pottery and plaster decoration sgraffitto work is usually accompanied by
modelling in relief, such as representations of leaves, flowers, and
fruit in bas-relief bands, or medallions of figures and animals, in high
relief. After the ware is incised it is glazed with a translucent lead
glaze, variegated with green and yellow colouring over the white engobe
(Fig. 17). The sgraffitto pottery of Italy is either of Lombardic or
Venetian origin, as appears from the usual Gothic character of the
designs.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.—Sgraffitto Maiolica. (S.K.M.)]
The wares of Caffaggiolo are distinguished by a purely white glaze, with
masses of a rich cobalt blue used as portions of the groundwork for the
ornament; sometimes green and purple are used with the blue, and at
other times a bright orange yellow and a copper green or an Indian red.
Caffaggiolo, Faenza, and Forli wares have much resemblance to each
other. The pitcher (Fig. 16), with the arms of the Medici family,
belongs probably to the Caffaggiolo school, and is a work of the early
years of the sixteenth century.
[Illustration: Fig. 18.—Maiolica Plate; Caffaggiolo Ware. (S.K.M.)]
The tazza (Fig. 19) is another example of this ware. The fine plate
(Fig. 18) is thought to be a work from the same botega, and the subject
is supposed to represent Raphael and the Fornarina.
The plate (Fig. 15) is an example of the mezzo-maiolica ware, and is
anterior to the date 1500. The more beautiful one (Fig. 20) is a work
dating from the first years of the sixteenth century, at the time when
the stanniferous glaze was coming into use. Both these plates are
supposed to be from the Pesaro fabriques. They may have been made as
wedding presents from the bridegroom to the bride, and are portrait
dishes, with an inscription on the ribbon, with the name of the bride,
or some endearing motto.
These plates are known as “amatorri” pieces. The colours used in the
Pesaro maiolica are yellow, green, manganese, black, and cobalt blue,
and have what is known as the “madreperla” lustre, which has a beautiful
changing effect in colour. The outlines are manganese, and the flesh
left white in the best pieces. The finest work executed in Pesaro came
from the fabrique of Lanfranco in the years 1540-45.
[Illustration: Fig. 19.—Plateau or Tazza; Caffaggiolo Ware.]
The products of the Sienese potteries are worthy of being ranked with
the best works of Pesaro and Caffaggiolo, to which they are closely
allied.
There is a fine pavement of tiles in the Kensington Museum from the
Petrucci Palace at Siena, dated 1509. Benedetto is the name of an artist
of the Sienese school, who painted in maiolica, from whose hand most of
the best Siena maiolica has come; the drug pot (Fig. 21) and the two
plates (Figs. 22 and 23) are works of his. On the drug pot, tiles, and
some large dishes, grotesques were very much used as ornament, and in
colour, yellow, orange, and particularly black grounds, were used in the
Siena production.
[Illustration: Fig. 20.—Pesaro Portrait Dish (about 1500). (S.K.M.)]
The maiolica wares of Gubbio are the most celebrated in all Italy, as
regards their richness and beauty of colouring; this, of course, was due
mostly to the beautiful effects gained by the unique ruby and gold
lustres used at this fabrique. The name of one man, Maestro Giorgio
Andreoli, as the chief artist, is connected with the Gubbio ware. He was
a native of Pavia, and came of a noble family. He finally established
himself at Gubbio, where he was made a “Castellano” of that city in
1498, and enjoyed the patronage of the Dukes of Urbino. He was a
modeller as well as a painter of maiolica, and is said to have executed
some altar-pieces in relief before coming to Gubbio. In the Kensington
Museum there is a bas-relief of St. Sebastian which is supposed on good
authority to be a work of his hand; it is coloured with the gold and
ruby lustres.
[Illustration: Fig. 21.—Drug Pot; Siena. (S.K.M.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 22.—Siena Plate. (S.K.M.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 23.—Siena Plate. (S.K.M.)]
A circular dish or “bacile” of lustred ware (Fig. 24), with the subject
of two mailed horsemen in the centre, and a border of foliated ornament,
is a work of the Gubbio fabrique, but is an earlier work than the time
of M^{o.} Giorgio.
[Illustration: Fig. 24.—Lustred Dish; Gubbio Ware. (S.K.M.)]
The embossed vase in copper lustre (Fig. 25) is a very beautiful example
of the stanniferous glaze and ruby copper lustre. The design is well
adapted to show the “reflets” of the lustre by the variety of form on
its embossed surfaces. This work is ascribed to the same artist who
executed the previous example.
[Illustration: Fig. 25.—Vase in Copper-ruby Lustre; Gubbio. (S.K.M.)]
The tazza (Fig. 26), with the subject, “The Stream of Life,” after
Robetta, is one of Giorgio’s best figure pieces. Though not very good in
figure draughtsmanship, it is excellent in colour, and is cleverly
heightened with ruby lustre. This and another plaque in Kensington
Museum, representing the “Three Graces” after Raphael, are amongst if
not the best of Giorgio’s work: for colour and richness of lustre, and
for clearness and perfection of the enamel glaze, they are the best
works in Italian maiolica that we possess. The date of both is probably
1525.
[Illustration: Fig. 26.—The Stream of Life; Tazza by M^o. Giorgio.]
A work by Giorgio is shown at Fig. 27. This is a highly decorative tazza
in the best manner of Giorgio, who was very clever at this kind of
design. The groundwork of this piece is blue, parts of the decoration
are green, and other parts ruby, while all of the decoration is lustred.
The back of this piece is covered with a yellow lead glaze, which seems
to be the case with many examples of maiolica. Probably it was done for
economical reasons. We close the list of illustrations of Gubbio ware
with that of a dish, “Fruttiera” (Fig. 28). The design is simple and
very good for showing the beauties of the ruby and gold lustres. It is
embossed, and has been made from a mould, and is an unsurpassed example
of the famous Gubbio lustre. Mr. Fortnum thinks that Giorgio obtained
the secret of the ruby lustre from an artist that formerly worked at the
Gubbio fabrique, and that he did not invent it, and also that all the
similar lustred ware was produced at Gubbio, the wares of Urbino,
Castel-Durante, and of other fabriques having been sent to Gubbio to get
the final lustre added to them.
[Illustration: Fig. 27.—Tazza by Giorgio. (S.K.M.)]
Another artist who executed many important works at the Gubbio botega
signs his productions with the letter N. Some think that this is meant
for a signature of M^{o.} Cencio, a son of Giorgio who succeeded his
father at the fabrique. Another name that appears on some of this ware
is M. Prestino. It is known that Giorgio signed his name on many pieces
that were painted by other artists or by his pupils.
[Illustration: Fig. 28.—Embossed Fruit Dish; Gubbio. (S.K.M.)]
A beautiful specimen of Castel-Durante ware is the plate (Fig. 29) with
a deep centre—"tondino"—which has a border of cupids, foliage, and
medallions on a dark blue ground. The centre has cupids, and the sides
of the centre painted with solid white ornaments on a low white ground.
It is probably the work of the artist Giovanni Maria (1508).
[Illustration: Fig. 29.—Castel-Durante Maiolica. (S.K.M.)]
The vase (Fig. 30) is a richly decorated specimen of the same ware; the
grotesque masks and arabesques are vigorously drawn, and the ornament
generally is a good example of that used on the Castel-Durante ware.
This vase has been used as a drug pot, and was made at the botega of
Sebastiano di Marforio. Giuseppe Raffaelli in his “Memorie” (1846) says
that the manufacture of glazed pottery as an art began when Monsignor
Durante built a “castello” on the Metauro at Correto in the year 1284,
and the names of potteries are recorded that were in existence in 1364
to 1440. The year 1490 began a period of great activity in the
Castel-Durante fabriques, and we hear of many artists who were Durantine
maiolica painters going to various parts of Europe and establishing
works in pottery. Tesio and Gatti went to Corfu in 1530, and taught the
art in the Ionian Islands; Francesco de Vasaro went to Venice, where he
was eminently successful in developing the Venetian phase of maiolica;
others went to Nevers and Lyons, in France, and one to Antwerp. The
artist who styled himself “Francesco” of Urbino, and who also worked at
Perugia, sometimes signed his works “Durantino.” Vasari, in his “Lives
of the Painters,” speaks of Battista Franco of Venice, a clever painter
and designer, as having been employed by the Duke of Urbino, Guidobaldo
II., in 1540, to design subjects for the excellent ceramic painters of
Castel-Durante. The death of Duke Francisco Maria II. (1631) put an end
practically to the maiolica industry of the place; the trade generally
then declined, and the artists were forced to emigrate.
Urbino is a city celebrated in the art and literature of Italy in the
Renaissance period, and her dukes rivalled the Medici family of Florence
in the patronage and encouragement of art, science, and literature. The
names of the Urbino maiolica artists have been fortunately well
preserved. Those of Nicola da Urbino, Guido Fontana, and his more famous
son Orazio, also another son, Camillo, the versatile artists in
“Majoliche istoriate”, and Francesco Xanto, may be mentioned as the most
important.
[Illustration: Fig. 30.—Drug Pot; Castel-Durante Ware. (S.K.M.)]
To the first-named artist, Nicola, is ascribed the earliest authentic
works from the potteries of Urbino, the celebrated service of maiolica,
painted probably between the years 1490 and 1519, for Isabella d’Este,
wife of the Marquis of Mantua, and known as the Gonzaga-Este service.
Two fine plates of this service are in the British Museum. They have the
arms of Gonzaga impaling those of Este on a shield, and one of them has
the painted subjects of Apollo and Daphne, and Apollo and the Python,
while the other has a representation of a troop of horse soldiers
entering a city. The figures are delicately and carefully outlined and
the colouring is brilliant.
Orazio Fontana was the most celebrated of the family of that name. His
best work was done from 1540 to 1560, and he was the artist proprietor
of a botega at Urbino, from whence came many of the finest works ever
made in that city, not only as regards their artistic qualities but in
the beauty and finish of the maiolica ware. The “istoriati” panels, or
figure subjects (usually mythological) which were copies or adaptations
of engraved designs by Italian painters, were the work of Orazio
himself, and the grotesques probably from the hand of his brother or
some other artist.
The pilgrim bottle (Fig. 31) is from the botega of Orazio Fontana, but
the grotesques on it are supposed to have been painted by his brother
Camillo. One artist named Gironimo was very clever at this grotesque, or
“Raphaelesque” work as it is sometimes called—not from the great Raphael
Sanzio, but from the artist Raphael dal Colle, who introduced this
grotesque design among other work of his for the decoration of the
Pesaro ware, in the duchy of Urbino. These grotesques were afterwards
called “Urbino arabesques” and were of a different character to the
grotesques of the Gubbio ware, which may be seen by comparing the dish
of Urbino ware signed by Gironimo (Fig. 32) with Fig. 27.
There is a circular dish of Urbino ware in the Museum at Kensington on
which is painted the subject of the marriage of Alexander with Roxana,
from an engraving by Marc Antonio Raimondi, after Raphael’s design. This
work is signed by Francesco Xanto (1533), a prolific and somewhat
careless artist who took great liberties with the designs he adapted,
like most of the maiolica painters. The colouring of this dish is very
rich: the colours generally of the Urbino school were green, yellow, and
blue, and a predominance of orange on a light or white ground.
[Illustration: Fig. 31.—Pilgrim Bottle; Urbino Ware. (S.K.M.)]
Faenza pottery is among the oldest in Italy, but little is known of the
early artists or potteries. Many pieces of doubtful origin have been
classed as Faentine, but without any positive proof.
In the Cluny Museum in Paris there are a pair of pharmacy jars or vases,
one of which bears the inscription “Faenza,” and the other is dated
1500, their excellence proving that good work was done at Faenza at this
date, or perhaps much earlier. The pottery works called the Casa Pirota
was the principal establishment for the production of maiolica at
Faenza.
[Illustration: Fig. 32.—Urbino Dish, with “Urbino Arabesques.” (S.K.M.)]
Many works from this pottery are in the Kensington Museum, and they seem
generally to be the work of one hand, but there is no record of the
artist. He painted a certain kind of grotesque, and figures of boys on
plates of a wide border. The colours are a light blue on a dark blue
ground, the light blue heightened with touches of white, and shaded with
a brownish yellow. This style is known as “sopra azzuro” and is very
characteristic of the unknown painter’s work (Fig. 33).
[Illustration: Fig. 33.—Faenza Plate. (S.K.M.)]
A fine tazza in the same museum by the Faentine artist who signs himself
as F. R. has the painted subject “the Gathering of the Manna,” after
Raphael.
[Illustration: Fig. 34.—Faenza Maiolica. (S.K.M.)]
The colours used are strong and rich yellows, blues, greens, orange, and
purple tints. This work is much superior to that of another Faentine
artist who used the same initials. An oblong panel or plaque in the
Kensington Collection, 9-3/4 inches in height by 8 inches in width, has
a painting of the Resurrection after a design by Melozzo de Forli,
signed with a monogram consisting of T and B. It is a maiolica work of
the highest rank, carefully executed yet with perfect freedom of
touch—for carefulness of execution in pottery painting very often
implies hardness—and pleasing combinations of blues, yellows, greens,
and golden browns, with little touches of red. Mr. Fortnum thinks it was
painted by the same artist that executed the famous service of maiolica
of which seventeen pieces are in the Museo Correr at Venice. The tazza
at Fig. 34 is ascribed to the Faenza fabriques. It is as much Gothic as
Italian in design, which is the case sometimes in Northern Italian art,
and it has been found also that the “istoriati” maiolica of Faenza has
more of its subjects from the engravings of German artists’ works, such
as Dürer, Martin Schon, and others, than the pottery of any other
Italian fabrique. Maiolica has been fabricated at many other places in
Italy, such as Diruta, Forli, Rimini, Padua, Ferrara, Genoa, and Venice,
but space prevents us here from giving any descriptive notice of them,
further than the mention of the Venetian botegas where many important
examples came from during the sixteenth century. The Venetian dishes of
this time were covered with ingenious and elaborate designs of
interlacing ornament, foliage, birds, masks, with tyings of ribbons or
drapery (Fig. 35). The colour of the enamelled surface is white slightly
tinted with zaffre blue. A low-toned blue colour was employed for the
ornament, which was outlined and shaded with a darker blue and
heightened with white.
[Illustration: Fig. 35.—Venetian Dish. (S.K.M.)]
PERSIAN, DAMASCUS, AND RHODIAN WARES.
The artistic pottery and tiles of Persia, though forming a large
variety, may nearly all be brought under the designation of siliceous or
glass-glazed wares, the tin glaze being only met with occasionally in
some Persian and Damascus examples, where an unusually white surface was
required. All the glazed wares of Persia are highly baked, and are
mostly of a semi-translucent character.
[Illustration: Fig. 36.—Persian Lustred Ware.]
There is the fine copper, ruby, and brown lustred ware, which has
sometimes a white and at others a blue ground. The plate (Fig. 36) is an
example of this ware. The design on this ware is in the pure Persian
character.
Another kind, and by far the most numerous, are the wares of a coarse
porcelain variety, not only made in imitation of Chinese porcelain, but
decorated to imitate the Chinese ware, the ornament being sometimes
mixed with Arabian forms; the colour a bright blue on a white ground,
and the Chinese marks or signatures being copied as well (Figs. 37 and
38).
[Illustration: Fig. 37.—Flower Vase, Persian, with Chinese decoration.]
In the reign of the Persian Shah Abbas the Great (A.D. 1586-1628) the
route for travellers and merchants from China to Europe lay across
Persia, and many objects of merchandise were imported from China to
Persia, including great quantities of Chinese porcelain, many examples
of which were purchased in Persia that are now in our museums, as well
as specimens in abundance of the imitated Chinese variety.
[Illustration: Fig. 38.—Persian Water-bottle; imitated Chinese
decoration.]
The beautiful enamelled earthenware tiles were made with and without the
metallic lustre in the days of, and anterior to the reign of, Shah
Abbas, but since his time the art has declined, and nothing but a coarse
and inartistic pottery has been made in recent times. As a rule the
excellence of Persian pottery, like wine, is augmented in proportion to
its age.
[Illustration: Fig. 39.—Persian Tile; Seventeenth Century.]
The picturesque wall tile (Fig. 39) was found in the ruins of the palace
of Shah Abbas II. (1642-1666), near Ispahan. It has a blue ground with
white embossed decorations and black pencillings, and is lustred.
Wall tiles have been in use in Persia from a very early date. Some of
them are beautiful in colour, having usually a deep lapis-lazuli blue
ground or white. Sometimes the design is complete on one tile, but
generally a whole tile has only a portion of the pattern, many tiles
being required to make up the complete pattern (Fig. 40). The tiles are
made to fit into all kinds of spaces, according to the shape of the
wall, and these arrangements have usually a border design.
[Illustration: Fig. 40.—Persian Wall Decoration.]
The lustred tiles are of an older date than the Persian _fayence fine_
ware, or imitated Chinese porcelain. The body composition of the tiles
resembles that of the old bricks that are found in great quantities in
the ruinous mounds of Rhages (Rhé), where also many fragments of tiles
have been found, and some remains of potters’ kilns, proving that Rhages
must have been the centre of extensive pottery works. Another class of
Persian ware has a thin, hard, and nearly translucent paste, which is
decorated by having pierced holes filled in with transparent glaze. It
is creamy white in colour, and has foliated ornament in blue or brown.
This has been called Gombion Ware.
One variety of decoration on a late seventeenth-century Persian bowl is
shown at Fig. 41. This is a good example of the late floral ornament.
[Illustration: Fig. 41.—Blue Persian Bowl; Seventeenth Century.
(S.K.M.)]
Damascus ware has generally been classified as Persian, but in many
points it is different from the latter. It is better in colour and
design. Some examples have a smooth even glaze, and are coloured with a
fine quality of cobalt blue, turquoise green, and a dull lilac or purple
intermixed with white portions of the design evenly distributed. The
ornament is less florid and the fayence is of an older date than the
majority of Persian examples. The “Damas” cups or vases have always been
highly prized for their beauty, and the wall tiles from Damascus are the
most beautiful of all Oriental tiles.
[Illustration: Fig. 42.—Rhodian Ware.]
Rhodian or Lindus tiles and pottery have been also classified as
Persian, but again this ware is quite distinct from Persian or Damascus
wares. Rhodian pottery is coarser than the two former varieties, and the
decoration is brighter and more strongly marked. The ornament is of a
very conventional character, and in colour it is characterised by having
a red opaque pigment used in spots and patches, and sometimes in bands,
but always raised or embossed.
The plates shown in Figs. 42 and 43 are examples of Rhodian ware.
[Illustration: Fig. 43.—Rhodian Dish.]
The island of Sicily was conquered by the Saracens in A.D. 827, and
about the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries potteries of glazed wares
had been established by the latter.
Some examples of their work of these periods have decorations of
animals, figures, birds, and also mock Saracenic inscriptions like the
Siculo-Arabian textiles of the same and later periods (Fig. 44).
Anatolian ware is a later variety that is akin to the Persian wares, but
somewhat coarser and of a duller surface. This ware is small in size,
and the colouring is usually gay on light grounds. The tiles from
Anatolia are less inventive in their ornament and rougher in execution
than the Damascus or Rhodian.
[Illustration: Fig. 44.—Vase, Siculo-Arabian Ware; Fourteenth Century.]
The decoration of Turkish tiles and Turkish ornament generally is of the
Saracenic kind, but has neither the beauty nor the invention of the
other varieties of Persian. There are no plant nor animal forms in the
Turkish variety of Saracenic ornament; it is more allied to the Egyptian
Saracenic, but lacks the ingenuity of the latter. The colour is harsh
and crude. It is seen at its best in the tomb mosque of Soliman the
Great at Constantinople (Fig. 45), built in 1544.
The decoration of the palace of the Seraglio and of the “Sultanin
Valide” consists of beautiful tiles that were brought from Persia to
Constantinople.
[Illustration: Fig. 45.—Ornament from the Cupola of the Mosque of
Soliman the Great, Constantinople.]
FRENCH POTTERY.
The art of the potter flourished in Gaul before the time of the Romans,
but this early pottery was of a coarse kind, used mostly for domestic
purposes, and of an unglazed variety (_poteries mates_). The use of a
vitreous glaze was common in France as early as the thirteenth century,
and in a grave that had the date of 1120, in the Abbey of Jumièges, two
small broken vases were found covered with a yellowish lead glaze. We
are informed by an old French chronicler that “On fait des godets à
Beauvais.” A _godet_ was a goblet or cup of glazed fayence, with a wide
mouth, and often had a cover, and was usually silver-mounted. Beauvais
was noted in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries for its glazed
pottery.
It has been mentioned before that the Italian artist, Girolamo della
Robbia, introduced the famous enamelled earthenware invented by his
grand-uncle, Luca della Robbia, into France, when he came by invitation
of Francis I. to decorate the exterior of the Château de Madrid, in the
Bois de Boulogne, and the Pesaro maiolica painter, Francesco, also
settled and worked in France; but apparently little came of these
attempts to naturalise Italian pottery on French soil, except that the
art must have been spread in some degree by the workmen, and by French
artists who would naturally have assisted the Italians, and the
traditions left by the latter must have helped considerably to influence
the subsequent fabrication of enamelled earthenware.
OIRON WARE.
To take our subject in a chronological order, the wares of Oiron, or
“Henri-Deux ware,” as the name they are better known by, must be noticed
first.
Until a recent date the origin of this was only guessed at, but the late
M. Benjamin Fillon by his researches has cleared up the mystery. It
appears now that the invention of this scarce and unique ware was due to
Hélène de Hangest, Dame de Boissy, the widow lady of Gouffier, who was
formerly governor to Francis I. This lady established the pottery in
1564 in the Château of Oiron, near Thouars; and, being gifted with
strong artistic tastes, conducted the work with great success, assisted
by two skilful collaborateurs, François Charpentier and Jehan Bernart.
The former was the modeller, and the latter—Bernart—was her librarian,
and the artist who designed and adapted the stamped ornament which is so
characteristic of this ware. This ornament is copied from the
bookbindings of the period, and seems to have been stamped in colour on
the Oiron ware with tools similar to those used in the bookbinding
craft. The vase or tazza (Fig. 46) is a fine example of this ware of the
earlier period, showing the stamped decoration. The ornament is
identical with the peculiar Italo-Saracenic style of the Grolier and
contemporary bookbindings.
[Illustration: Fig. 46.—Tazza, Henri-Deux Ware. (S.K.M.)]
The decoration is of a dark brown colour, sometimes heightened with
pink, on an ivory-coloured ground.
Another and later class of this ware has modelled decorations in high
relief. The colouring and technical skill generally was also improved,
as may be seen in the profusion of small figures, masks, and festoons
that were added to the candlesticks and vases after the earlier period,
but these additions were not always improvements in the general design.
The colouring is also of a greater variety: ochre, green and blue, and
sometimes gold, was added in small quantities.
[Illustration: Fig. 47.—Candlestick, Henri-Deux Ware. (S.K.M.)]
The celebrated candlestick (Fig. 47) is one of the best examples in
which modelled ornament is a feature. It is now in the Kensington
Museum, where there are various fine specimens of Oiron ware.
This candlestick shows the Italian Renaissance influence very strongly,
and probably owes much to the art of Cellini, as seen in his metal-work
designs. The ewer and tazza betray also his influence (Fig. 48).
[Illustration: Fig. 48.—Oiron Ewer and Tazza. (S.K.M.)]
The saltcellar (Fig. 49) is a restrained piece of architectural design
and is altogether a very fine piece of work.
[Illustration: Fig. 49.—Oiron or Henri-Deux Saltcellar. (S.K.M.)]
It is said by some that there are eighty pieces of this ware in
existence, and others that there are only fifty-three genuine pieces.
The early examples bear the emblems of Francis I., and the later ones
those of Henry II. and Diana of Poitiers. The paste used in this ware is
a white pipeclay, and is covered with a thin glaze.
PALISSY WARE.
Bernard Palissy was one of the most remarkable men who practised the art
of the potter in France or in any other country. He was born about the
year 1510, but his birthplace is not exactly known. He worked in his
younger days and up to the period of his middle age at surveying,
glass-making, portrait painting, and was also well skilled in natural
sciences, but was not brought up to the trade of a potter.
It was in the year 1542, at Saintes, that in order to increase his
slender means he took to the making of earthenware. In writing his life
he says: “It is now more than five-and-twenty years that a cup was shown
to me of fashioned and enamelled clay, and of such beauty, that from
that day I began to struggle with my own thoughts, and hence, heedless
of my having no knowledge of the different kinds of argillaceous earth,
I tried to discover the art of making enamel, like a man groping in the
dark.”
So he struggled on for fifteen years, with starvation and death often at
his door, until at last he mastered his art, and produced ultimately, as
he says, “those vessels of intermixed colours, after the manner of
jasper.”
The particular jasper enamel invented by Palissy is a deep rich glaze of
a green and brownish variegated character. He made many “rustic pieces”
as dishes, plates, and plaques, on which he admirably arranged reptiles,
fishes, frogs, shells, insects of various kinds, fruits, leaves, acorns,
&c., modelled in relief and covered with the jasper glaze.
Most of these dishes were elliptical in shape and had broad rims (Fig.
50).
[Illustration: Fig. 50.—Rustic Dish, with Reptiles and Fishes; Palissy
Ware. (S.K.M.)]
He decorated a “grotto” with his famous pottery at the Château of Ecouen
for his patron the Constable de Montmorency, and similar grottoes at the
Tuileries, and at Reux, in Normandy, for Catherine de’ Medici. Palissy
made other forms of pottery besides his rustic pieces, such as ewers,
bottles, hunting flasks, and dishes, ornamented with figures and other
work. It is likely that the figure work was executed by his sons or
relatives, Nicholas and Mathurin Palissy, who worked for Catherine de’
Medici on the Tuileries grotto. Many of the Palissy wares are similar in
design to the _étains_ and pewter works of Briot and of other artists,
as Prieur, Rosso, Gauthier, and Primaticcio. Openwork baskets and dishes
and other modelled works were covered with the jasper glaze. Of the
invention of the latter Palissy does not seem to have communicated the
secret to his successors, for after his death the jasper glaze was
imitated, but without much success, as appears evident from some
specimens that are now in existence which were made from his moulds.
Palissy was nearly all his life engaged in lecturing on scientific and
other subjects, and in the work of proselytism for the Reformed Church
of which he was a member, being in prison more than once on account of
his religious ideas, and eventually died in the Bastille Prison in
poverty in 1590 at the age of eighty.
As efforts of decorative design the encrusted wares of Palissy cannot be
placed in a high rank of decorative art, but the art of France would be
considerably poorer without the genius of Palissy, an artist of whom any
nation might be justly proud.
NEVERS, ROUEN, AND MOUSTIERS WARES.
We have mentioned before that some maiolica artists and workmen came
from Italy in the sixteenth century to Nevers and Lyons and there set up
potteries. One of these artists, named Scipio Gambin, worked at Nevers,
under the patronage of the Duc de Nivernais.
[Illustration: Fig. 51.—Pilgrim’s Bottle, Nevers Ware. (S.K.M.)]
The maiolica productions at Nevers were in imitation of the Urbino,
Castel-Durante, and Faenza wares, but the colours were inferior,
probably owing to the poorer glaze used by the French potters. The
subjects of the decoration were at first similar to the “istoriati”
decoration of the Urbino ware, and were compositions from Ovid’s
“Metamorphoses” (Fig. 51) or from the Bible. Later on the potters of
Nevers imitated the shapes of Oriental pottery with French decorations
(Fig. 52).
[Illustration: Fig. 52.—Vase, Nevers Ware.]
In 1608 two Italians—the brothers Conrade—came from Genoa to Nevers, and
were probably the successors of Gambin: the ware made by them was
decorated with a mixture of Chinese and Italian ornament, and the
colouring was blue, manganese, brown, and white.
In 1632 a Frenchman named Pierre Custode and his sons established a
pottery at the sign of “The Ostrich” at Nevers. To them is ascribed the
beautiful Persian blue-coloured pottery decorated with naturalistic
flowers and birds in solid white with yellow heightenings, the shape and
decoration being Chinese in character. The blue glaze peculiar to Nevers
pottery of this period is very fine, and has been imitated by French and
foreign potters, but without success.
[Illustration: Fig. 53.—Pilgrim’s Bottle, Nevers Ware. (S.K.M.)]
The great importation of Chinese porcelain into Europe in the
seventeenth century and at the beginning of the eighteenth had a strong
influence on the art of the Nevers pottery, and many pieces exist on
which Chinese designs almost pure were copied in a blue _Camaïen_
(monochrome), or in a harmonious mixture of blue and purple-black
manganese, the latter colour being a mixture of the blue with manganese.
In the eighteenth century the style of design was debased and very much
degraded, and the pottery became coarse and heavy.
[Illustration: Fig. 54.—Plateau, Rouen Ware. (S.K.M.)]
ROUEN WARE.—A much better class of pottery both in manufacture and
design is the famous Rouen ware, made in the town of that name in
Normandy. In the year 1644 Edme Poterat obtained a licence to make and
sell fayence in the province of Normandy.
[Illustration: Fig. 55.—Tray, Rouen Ware. (S.K.M.)]
This monopoly did not last long, for we find that in 1673 his son, Louis
Poterat, obtained another licence, and from that time a new development
takes place in the ornament that is so characteristic of Rouen ware. The
greater part of this ornament is composed of a scallop form of setting
out, with alternating compositions of ornamental flowers, called
_lambrequins_, and baskets of ornamental flowers that repeat at
intervals around the border of plates or trays; light pendentives and
wreaths of artificial flowers are painted in a lighter tone, and occur
between the richer lambrequins (Fig. 54). Richly ornamented
coats-of-arms, or baskets of flowers and cornucopias, occupy the centres
(Fig. 55). The beautiful plate in the Kensington Museum (Fig. 56) is
unique in Rouen ware in having _amorini_, or cupids, in the centre. All
of the foregoing examples are painted in blue of different shades on the
white enamel, or sometimes on yellow ochre grounds. Indian red colour
and a warm reddish yellow is sometimes also used. The ornament is
pseudo-Chinese, and is a Norman development of Oriental forms with some
Italian influences which are reminiscences of the decoration brought by
the Conrade brothers from Genoa to Nevers.
[Illustration: Fig. 56.—Plateau, Rouen Ware. (S.K.M.)]
Some of the Rouen ware is decorated with a ray formation on which the
ornament is painted on a light or dark ground. This is known as the
_style rayonnant_. The drawing of these patterns is always very careful
and correct, the latter often being copies of the printed decoration of
the books of that period. Later on the decoration became of a freer
type, with bouquets of artificial flowers, and in the eighteenth century
the _Rocaille_ or Rococo element began to creep in, and the Rouen ware
developed from the camaïen blue style of decoration to a polychrome
style.
[Illustration: Fig. 57.—Dish, Rouen Ware. (S.K.M.)]
The Chinese element in design became everywhere in the ascendant, not
only in late Rouen ware, but in the pottery of every country in Europe,
and remains more or less in the work of to-day. Some of the late Rouen
ware is not so bizarre in its decoration as many other French and
European styles of the same period. Fig. 57 shows the Chinese influence,
but is in better taste than the majority of contemporary designs.
As a style decays the colour as a rule becomes more gaudy, which applies
to Rouen ware as to other varieties of fayence. The “Cornucopia pattern”
belongs to the decadence period: this is full of unrestrained liberty
both in form and colour. It ought to be mentioned that Louis Poterat, of
Rouen, first discovered the secret of making the Chinese soft porcelain
(_pâte tendre_) in France. Several pieces of this Rouen porcelain are
preserved in the Museums at Sèvres and at Limoges.
The Rouen School of Decoration has influenced modern pottery designers
in France, Germany, Holland, and England, more than any other school;
but unfortunately they all copied its later defects with greater zeal
than in taking lessons from its earlier excellencies.
Rouen ware was imitated in the Sinceny pottery, but this pottery was
made by some workmen who had formerly belonged to Rouen, and established
themselves at Sinceny in 1713, and copied the Rouen ware so closely that
the copies have often been mistaken for the latter ware.
At Paris, St. Cloud, Quimper, and Lille, imitations of Rouen ware have
been attempted with success. The St. Cloud pottery is of a slatey blue
colour. The pottery of Lille is a close imitation of Rouen ware, as the
plate (Fig. 58) clearly shows.
MOUSTIERS, in the south of France, was an important centre for enamelled
pottery works, where a style of decoration was used that was a mixture
of the Italian Urbino and the School of Rouen, the borders of the plates
having the Rouen lambrequins, and the centres having figure subjects and
landscapes, or, as in the later work, grotesques and ornament after the
French artists, Callot and Berain.
The colour was in shades of a deep blue (Fig. 59).
Pierre Clérissy (1728) was the name of the first artist and also of his
nephew, who continued the works after him in Moustiers.
Polychrome decoration became common at a later date, when some Moustiers
workmen, who had been to the Alcora potteries in Spain, introduced the
Spanish style of colouring, then in great fashion, which consisted of
bright orange yellow, light green, and blue outlines. The later
Moustiers ware is decorated with festoons and ovals with figures or
busts painted in them.
MARSEILLES fayence is of a delicate and pure enamel, and is painted with
flowers, shell fish, and insects, &c., which as a rule are thrown on or
disposed in an irregular sort of way. Much of the decoration was Chinese
or Rouen imitations, and little landscapes painted in red camaïen; gold
was sometimes used in the stalks of the flowers.
[Illustration: Fig. 58.—Plate, Lille Ware.]
STRASBURG pottery, though classed as French, owed a good deal of its
process of manufacture and general character to German methods of
manipulation and decorative processes, as German potters were mostly
employed in the works.
The great difference was in the mode of decoration, the latter being
applied on the fired surface of the enamel in the Strasburg wares;
whereas in the wares of the other French potteries that have just been
considered the decoration was applied to the unbaked and consequently
absorbent ground. The latter was the more artistic method, and the
former, or German method, allowed a wider range of the artist’s palette,
and admitted of greater delicacy of execution, but was more harsh in
effect, and did not incorporate the colours with the enamel in a way
that an absorbent ground or unbaked enamel would do.
[Illustration: Fig. 59.—Plate, with Stag Hunt; Moustiers Ware.]
The name of Charles Hannong is connected with an early pottery of
Strasburg, which was mostly a manufactory of earthenware stoves. This
pottery was founded in 1709. In 1721 Hannong and a German porcelain
worker, who was taken into partnership by the former, began to make
porcelain, but after a short existence under the sons of Hannong this
pottery was closed.
Statuettes, clocks, dinner and dessert services were made in Strasburg
glazed earthenware, with modelled and painted decoration. The colouring
and decoration was of the prevalent Rococo, bright and clear; flowers of
all kinds, and Chinese pictures, were imitated mostly on white grounds
(Fig. 60).
[Illustration: Fig. 60.—Plate, Strasburg Ware.]
FRENCH PORCELAIN.
The desire to imitate the porcelain ware of China led to the discovery
of the soft paste (_pâte tendre_). The names “_porcelaine de France_”
and “_Sèvres porcelain_” have also been given to it. As previously
mentioned, it was made at Rouen in 1690, at St. Cloud in 1698, and at
Lille in 1711, but in all these cases in a small and tentative way.
The composition of the paste in the French soft porcelain is described
by MM. Gasnault and Garnier in their handbook of “French Pottery” as
follows: “The paste was composed of the sand of Fontainebleau,
saltpetre, sea salt, soda (_soude d’Alicante_), alum, gypsum, or parings
of alabaster; all these elements were mixed together and placed in an
oven in a layer of considerable thickness, where, after being baked for
at least fifty hours, they formed a perfectly white frit, or vitrefied
paste. The frit was mixed with Argenteuil marl in the proportion of nine
pounds of frit to three pounds of marl, &c.”
The glaze is described as consisting of “the sand of Fontainebleau,
litharge, salts of soda, Bougival silex or gun-flint, and potash.” All
these were ground and melted together, and afterwards the vitreous mass
was re-ground in water and thus formed the glaze.
The soft paste is much superior for artistic works owing to the glaze
incorporating with the colours in a perfect manner, rendering them
equally brilliant with the enamel, but this is not the case with the
hard or natural kaolin, as the glaze on this does not blend completely
with the colours of the decoration. The soft paste porcelain is,
however, too porous for articles of domestic use, and can be tested by
its being easily scratched by a knife.
[Illustration: Fig. 61.—Sèvres Vase; Jones Collection. (S.K.M.)]
The Marquis Orry de Fulvey made an attempt to establish the soft paste
porcelain works at Vincennes in 1741, but this was not a success. It was
established again under new conditions in 1745, and after many
experiments some important vases were made decorated with flowers in
relief. The manufactory was reorganized again and removed to Sèvres,
near Paris, in the year 1756. The products of the Sèvres works at this
time were the fine vases with the _bleu de roi_, or _bleu de Sèvres_,
and the lovely _rose Pompadour_ colours, and numerous fancy articles, as
heads of canes, buttons, snuff-boxes, needle-cases, also table services,
&c. Many artists were employed to paint the flower and figure
decorations; the latter were painted after the designs of Boucher,
Vanloo, and others.
The soft paste porcelain was made from about 1700 to 1770. Some of the
finest soft paste Sèvres porcelain may be seen in the Jones Collection
at South Kensington, of which there are nearly sixty examples. The vase
(Fig. 61) has a dark blue ground. The clock of Sèvres porcelain (Fig.
62) is a beautiful and unique example that was made especially for Marie
Antoinette. The clock is mounted in ormoulu by Gouthière, and is in his
best style of work.
The egg-shaped vase (Fig. 63) has a blue ground and is decorated with
subject of Cupid and Psyche.
The artists Falconet, Clodion, La Rue, and Bachelier modelled and
designed many of the statuettes, plaques, and vases for the Sèvres
manufactory.
Cabinets and tables of the Louis Seize period were often inlaid with
painted plaques of Sèvres ware, and have ormoulu mountings. This kind of
furniture is exceedingly refined in design and workmanship, and reflects
in a high degree the Pompadour and Du Barry period of French taste.
[Illustration: Fig. 62.—Sèvres Porcelain Clock; Jones Collection.
(S.K.M.)]
In 1768 beds of kaolin clay were found in France at St. Yrieix, near
Limoges. Maquer, a chemist attached to the Sèvres factory, in 1769
submitted for the king’s (Louis XVI.) inspection at the Château of
Versailles sixty pieces of the new _hard porcelain_ made from this
native clay.
[Illustration: Fig. 63.—Sèvres Vase, dark blue; Jones Collection.
(S.K.M.)]
During the time of the French Revolution the manufactory was in a
critical state of existence, but was still kept in a working state. In
the year 1800 Alexandre Brongniart was appointed director, a post he
held for forty-seven years—and after his appointment the manufacture of
soft porcelain ceased.
In his time the manufactory was in a state of great prosperity, and the
science he brought to bear on the manufacturing processes was of immense
importance. Vases over seven feet in height were produced, and the
pieces which were made were ornamented with trophies and battle scenes
that glorified the events in the reign of Napoleon I.
In the reign of Louis Philippe the artists Fragonard, Chenavard,
Clerget, and Julienne introduced a new style of Renaissance decoration
and design, but this was of a heavy and overloaded order that was not
exactly suited to the character of porcelain.
About the middle of the present century Louis Robert, the chief painter
at Sèvres, introduced the novelty of _coloured pastes_, which was to
develop later into the _pâte-sur-pâte_ process, so successfully
practised by the talented M. Solon, who has executed so much of this
beautiful work for Minton’s in England. The process of Louis Robert
consisted in the use of porcelain paste coloured with oxides. A
_barbotine_ or _slip_ was made of this composition and paintings were
executed with it in slight relief, the white paste being used chiefly on
a coloured ground, the modelling or light and shade being regulated
according to the thickness of the semi-transparent material employed.
When finished this kind of work has a cameo-like effect.
GERMAN POTTERY.
German stoneware was manufactured at an early date, and in the countries
bordering upon the Rhine the industry must have been in an active state
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, judging from the plentiful
examples of the different varieties of the ware formerly known as “Grès
Flamands” or “Grès de Flandres,” but now classified under their proper
German origins. In the sixteenth century this ware was carried in great
quantities from Raeren, from Frechen and Sieburg, near Cologne, and from
Greuzhausen, near Coblentz, down the Rhine to Leyden and the Low
Countries.
[Illustration: Fig. 64.—Delft Vase.]
The brown stoneware of Raeren—which formerly belonged to the ancient
Duchy of Limbourg—was especially in great request in Flanders. This
brown ware was of a spherical or cylindrical shape, divided by a central
broad band, with decorations of figure subjects, shields, masks, arms,
&c.; the neck is also decorated with shields and bosses, and the foot
with rings and guilloche ornament. Some good specimens of blue
stoneware—called the “blue of Leipzig”—were also made at Raeren.
At Frechen, near Cologne, the celebrated “Greybeards” or “Bellarmines”
were first made, that were imported and imitated so much in England
during the reign of James I. (see Fig. 73). They were decorated with the
head of an old man with a long beard, and sometimes also with armorial
bearings or figure subjects.
The Sieburg stoneware was a cream-coloured ware, richly decorated in
relief, and chiefly consisted of long narrow drinking tankards with
metal covers, called “Pokals.”
At Greuzhausen and at Höhr were manufactured small jugs called
“_cruches_,” also saltcellars, inkstands, and braziers were made in grey
stoneware decorated in parts with the rich “blue of Leipzig” and with
various relief ornaments.
In the end of the seventeenth century and beginning of the eighteenth at
Creussen, in Bavaria, tankards or drinking mugs were made of a round
shape with covers, and decorated with figures of the Apostles in relief,
and coloured in bright crude colours that look like oil painting: they
are known as “Apostel Kruges,” or Apostle mugs.
At Nuremberg, tiles, pipes, and stoves were manufactured in glazed brown
or green stoneware, and at the same place a celebrated potter named
Augustin Hirschvogel made different kinds of ware in tin-glazed enamel,
who with his family preserved for a long time the secret in Germany of
this particular glaze.
Delft, a town in Holland, was renowned in the seventeenth century for
its extensive manufacture of the fayence known as “Delft.” The potteries
of Delft were established in the early years of the century, and towards
the end upwards of thirty potteries were in full working order. The
genuine delft ware is of a fine hard paste, has a beautiful and clear
smooth enamel, and is decorated with almost every kind of subject,
chiefly in a blue camaïen.
Attempts at polychrome decoration are very rare, but a red colour has
been often used. The style of design and shapes were generally
imitations of Chinese, Japanese, and Dresden wares (Fig. 64). Almost
every class and shape of the usual pottery objects were manufactured,
and some plates and vases were of very great dimensions.
GERMAN PORCELAIN.
The Portuguese introduced China porcelain into Europe, and for a long
time the potters sought to imitate it, but without much success, until
the true kaolin was discovered by Böttger, about 1709. At Aue,
Schneeberg, and in the year 1715, a pottery for the manufacture of hard
porcelain was established at Meissen, by Augustus II., Elector of Saxony
and King of Poland, with Böttger as director.
[Illustration: Fig. 65.—German Stoneware.]
[Illustration: Fig. 66.—Dresden Candelabrum.]
This porcelain, after it had been brought to a considerable degree of
perfection, turned out a great success in its similarity to the Chinese
composition of body, but in spite of all precautions to keep the making
and the nature of the clay secret, the knowledge leaked out, and in a
short time after we find that hard porcelain was made in many parts of
Germany and Austria.
[Illustration: Fig. 67.—Dresden Vase; Jones Collection. (S.K.M.)]
Like most of the wares made at other potteries at this period, the
Dresden porcelain was at first an imitation of Chinese in shape and
decoration. Almost every kind of articles were made at Dresden, such as
candelabra, statuettes, modelled flowers, vases, services, &c., on which
were painted with great delicacy, flowers, landscapes, and figures on
grounds of different rich colours (Figs. 66 and 67).
ENGLISH POTTERY.
Ancient British pottery has been found in the barrows and burial mounds
in the form of incense cups, drinking and food vessels, and cinerary
urns. These have all been made of clays that were found usually on the
spot, and are either sun-dried or imperfectly burnt.
The drinking vessels were tall and cylindrical in form, and the incense
cups were wider in the centre than at either end. The urns and food
vessels have a similarity of shape, being globular, with or without a
neck. The decoration is of the simplest description, such as chevrons,
or zigzags, and straight-lined patterns produced by scratching with a
stick, or the impressions of a rope tied around the vessel while the
clay was soft.
The Romans made pottery in Britain from native clay, and also imported
much of the Samian ware. The Roman wares of British manufacture are
known as Castor, Upchurch, and New Forest wares; they are generally of
very good shapes, and are decorated with slips, dots, bosses, and
indentations, and are unglazed or slightly glazed (Fig. 68).
[Illustration: Fig. 68.—Romano-British Urn, with Slip Decoration.
(B.M.)]
The Romano-British urn in the illustration has a slight yellow glaze.
The pottery made by the Anglo-Saxons is of the same type and pattern as
that made by the Saxons on the Continent. It is rough and inartistic in
shape, except in some specimens that were made in the south of England,
where an imitation of Roman and probably Norman pottery was attempted.
We do not meet much Saxon pottery in England of any importance until we
come to the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, when some of the best
efforts in tile making and decoration are seen in the beautiful
floor-tiles of the early Gothic period. Many examples of these tiles
have been preserved in the British and other Museums, and some are still
_in sitû_ in Westminster Abbey, Malvern, Ely, and Gloucester Cathedrals,
and Chertsey Abbey. The designs are often heraldic in character (Fig.
69), and consist of geometrical, floral, animal, and architectural
forms. Badges, shields, and texts are also found as decorations, and
sometimes the human figure is also represented. The earliest are of one
colour, or two, as a yellow or a dull red, and the later ones have
several colours. They are generally called “encaustic” tiles.
[Illustration: Fig. 69.—Encaustic Tile, from Monmouth Priory. (B.M.)]
Slip wares were made extensively at Wrotham in Kent as early as 1650,
and at Staffordshire, Derby, and other places in England even earlier
than this date. Many of them are of quaint and uncouth forms, and are
generally covered with a rich green, brown, or yellow glaze, made from
copper, manganese, or iron oxides. Curious two-handled, three or
four-handled mugs or _tygs_ used for handing round drinks, posset cups
or pots, plates, dishes, candlesticks, jugs, and piggins were made in
these wares, and decorated with “slip,” which is a mixture of clay and
water used in the thickness of cream, and which is dropped or trailed
from a tube or spouted vessel, on the surface of the ware, forming the
decoration according to the fancy of the designer. The colour of the
slip varied from light to dark (Fig. 70).
[Illustration: Fig. 70.—Tyg of Wrotham Ware.]
The dish of Toft’s ware (Fig. 71) is a specimen of the slip decoration,
date about 1660. Toft was a potter who had his kiln at Tinker’s Clough,
near Newcastle in Staffordshire. His work is decorated with coloured
slip on a common red clay, with a wash of white or pipe clay, upon which
the decoration was laid in red slip; darker tints were used for the
outlines, and sometimes white dots. The lead glaze used gave a yellow
tint to the white clay coating.
[Illustration: Fig. 71.—Dish of Slip Ware; by Thomas Toft. (S.K.M.)]
Marbled and combed wares, &c., were made in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, in which different coloured bodies were mixed in
the paste to form a mottled, marbled, or variegated appearance.
Lambeth has been noted for its potteries from about 1660. Lambeth delft
comprised such objects as wine jars, candlesticks, posset pots. The ware
is of a pale buff tint; the paste is covered with a white tin-glaze or
enamel, and a lead glaze over the decoration. Some plates have figure
subjects and floriated borders, which seem to be imitations of Italian
majolica (Fig. 72). The names of Griffith and Morgan appear as Lambeth
potters in the eighteenth century; and the present “Stiff’s” pottery was
founded in 1751. The most noted pottery now in London is the manufactory
of Messrs. Doulton—"The Lambeth Pottery"—founded in 1811, whose original
and beautiful work is so well known to everybody in the present day.
[Illustration: Fig. 72.—Dish of Lambeth Delft. (B.M.)]
In Staffordshire pictorial delft ware was made in William III. and Queen
Anne’s time, but was of a coarser kind and less pure in the enamel than
Lambeth delft.
Stoneware of an extremely hard and translucent kind was made by John
Dwight at Fulham, about 1670. He made grey stoneware jugs, flasks,
statuettes, and busts. The busts and statuettes were of great
excellence. The jugs and tankards were made in imitation of the German
“Grès”—the so-called “Grès de Flandres.” These were called in England
“Bellarmines,” “longbeards,” or “greybeards,” by way of mockery of the
Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, who was unpopular with the Protestant party
in the reign of James I. (Fig. 73).
Salt-glazed stoneware is still made at the present time at the Fulham
works, which are now in possession of Mr. C. J. C. Bailey.
[Illustration: Fig. 73.—Bellarmine, Fulham Stone Ware.]
The salt-glazed white stoneware of Staffordshire was made from 1690 till
after 1800. The introduction of the salt glaze ware in Staffordshire is
ascribed to the celebrated potter John Philip Elers and his brother
David. They are likely to have been Dutchmen who had also worked in the
potteries of Nuremberg, and had brought with them the knowledge of the
salt-glaze process to Staffordshire, together with the style and
ornamentation of the Holland stonewares. Dwight of Fulham made
salt-glazed wares before the time that the Elers settled at Bradwell in
Staffordshire (1690-1710). John Elers made a revolution in the style of
working the English pottery by turning his ware in the lathe instead of
the exclusive use of the potter’s wheel. The Elers made a red unglazed
stoneware chiefly for teapots, cups, saucers, milk jugs, chocolate pots,
besides other salt-glazed wares.
The salt-glazed ware is one of the hardest wares known, and is almost a
porcelain in composition. The glaze gives a slightly uneven surface to
the ware, which comes from the manner in which the wares receive the
glaze. The pieces are not dipped in a glaze mixture, but when the kiln
has reached a very high temperature common salt is thrown into the kiln;
the soda is liberated from the salt by the action of the heat, and
coming in contact with the silica of the stoneware clay, forms with it a
silicate of soda, which is really a glass glaze. The composition of the
ware is, generally speaking, clay and fine sand. Astbury, the potter, in
1720 used what is considered the best composition—grey clay and ground
flint instead of sand. The colour is drab, or sometimes has a dull
cream-coloured covering.
The colour of the old Staffordshire ware is drab, with small white
applied ornaments that were previously cast from moulds of brass or
stoneware. Coloured enamels have also been very much used for decorating
later work. The ornaments are single roses, may blossoms,
_fleur-de-lis_, spirals, small interlacings, birds, figures, straight or
wavy lines, &c., all generally very sharp and clear cut (Figs. 74, 75).
[Illustration: Fig. 74.—Jar, White Stoneware of Staffordshire. (S.K.M.)]
The potter John Astbury worked for the Elers, and after finding out as
many secrets as he could from them, he left them and started a pottery
of his own in Staffordshire. He used a wider range of clays and colours
than those used by the Elers, and had more variety also in the
decoration of his ware, which consisted of such ornaments as harps,
crowns, stags, lions, and heraldic designs.
[Illustration: Fig. 75.—White Salt-glazed Ware of Staffordshire.
(S.K.M.)]
Brown stoneware was made at Nottingham during the whole of the
eighteenth century, and was of a bright rich colour; the material was
thin and well fabricated. Besides the ordinary shaped jugs, puzzle-jugs
and mugs in the shape of bears with movable heads were made, that were
used in the beerhouses of the last century.
Bristol and Liverpool were famous for their delft-ware during the last
century. Richard, Frank, and Joseph Flower are names of potters who had
delft works in Bristol.
In Liverpool bowls with pictures of ships, arms, and landscape
decoration were made of delft. Tiles on which were printed transfer
decorations were also made of Liverpool delft by Sadler and Green, the
inventors. These tiles were about five inches square, were printed in
black or red, and were used for lining stoves and fireplaces. Theatrical
characters and portraits of celebrities were the usual subjects.
Wedgwood and other Staffordshire potteries sent their wares to Liverpool
to get transfers printed on them.
Wedgwood ware is one of the most technically perfect productions that
has been invented. The colouring is quiet and refined, and the
decorations—following the classic ideals of the period—are severe and
rather cold, but the workmanship is of such a perfection and delicacy
that is seldom found in the ceramic products of any other manufactory.
Josiah Wedgwood came of a family of potters. He was born in 1730, and
died in 1795. He was the youngest son of Thomas Wedgwood, a potter of
Burslem, who died in 1739, and after his death Josiah left school and
was bound apprentice to his brother Thomas, who succeeded his father in
the pottery. Josiah concentrated his energies to the designing and
modelling of pottery ornaments and to the invention of new paste
compositions and glazes. Later on he sought to imitate in appearance and
composition the precious stones of agate, onyx, jasper, &c.
After his apprenticeship was over he joined partnership with Harrison,
of Stoke, and afterwards with Wheildon, of Fenton, but these
associations did not last long, and in 1759 he started business in a
small way at Burslem, where he executed many works, and by degrees
perfected the cream-coloured ware which is known by the name of “Queen’s
ware.” In the year 1776 he took into partnership Mr. Thomas Bentley, a
Liverpool merchant of artistic tastes, who attended chiefly to the
production of the decorative wares of the firm. This partnership lasted
until the death of Bentley in 1780. It was in 1769 that Wedgwood removed
his works and went also to live at his new house at Etruria, where he
founded and named this village. He took his sons John, Josiah, and
Thomas into partnership, and also his nephew Thomas Byerley in 1790.
Five years after this date he died.
The products of the Wedgwood manufacture—which may be found more fully
described in Professor Church’s excellent book on “English Earthenware,”
to which we are indebted for many particulars on English pottery and for
some of the illustrations—are thus classified:—
"1. _Cream-coloured ware_, or ‘Queen’s ware,’ comprises dinner and
dessert services, tea and coffee sets. Cream-coloured, saffron, and
straw-coloured, with well-painted designs of conventional foliage and
flowers, and later work with transfer engraving in red or black, printed
by Sadler and Green, of Liverpool.
"2. _Egyptian black_, or basalt ware, owing its colour chiefly to iron.
Seals, plaques, life-size busts, medallion portraits, and vases. Black
tea and coffee sets decorated with coloured enamels and gilding (Fig.
76).
"3. _Red ware_, or _Rosso Antico_, used for cameo reliefs.
"4. White semi-porcelain or fine stoneware. This ware was composed of
one of Wedgwood’s improved bodies.
"5. _Variegated ware_ is of two kinds, one a cream-coloured body,
marbled, mottled, or spangled with divers colours upon the surface and
under the glaze; the other an improved kind of agate ware, in which the
bands, twists, and strips constituted the entire substance of the
vessel.
“6. _Jasper ware._ The body of this ware was the material in which the
chief triumphs of Wedgwood were wrought. Outwardly it resembled the
finest of his white terra-cotta and semi-porcelain bodies, but in
chemical and physical properties it differed notably from them. There
are seven colours in the Jasper body besides the white Jasper, but the
solid Jasper is of a blue tint. The seven colours are:— blue of various
tints, lilac, pink, sage-green, olive-green, yellow, and black.”
[Illustration: Fig. 76.—Lamp, Black Egyptian Ware.]
Plaques, tablets, large portraits, and other medallions, cameos,
intaglios, vases, statuettes, pedestals, flower-pots, &c., are objects
and vessels that were made in Jasper ware.
[Illustration: Fig. 77.—Pedestal in Green and White Jasper, Wedgwood
Ware. (S.K.M.)]
Flaxman collaborated with Wedgwood in making many designs for his work.
The beautiful pedestal shown at Fig. 77 is from a design by Flaxman, and
is made in green and white Jasper.
Other names of artists who designed or modelled for Wedgwood are
Hackwood, Stubbs, Bacon, Webber, Devere, Angelini, Dalmazzoni, &c. An
influence on some of his work was due to his studying and copying the
celebrated Portland Vase, which was lent to him for this purpose for
more than three years by the Duke of Portland.
ENGLISH PORCELAIN.
Porcelain was first made in England about the year 1745. The best period
of the manufacture dates from 1750 to 1780, though some of the oldest
factories have survived to the present day. English porcelain, or as it
is better known as “China” ware, was made at Chelsea, Bow, Derby,
Worcester, Plymouth, Bristol, and in Staffordshire. Some of the best
porcelain from these places does not yield in beauty to the finest of
Sèvres ware.
The Chelsea porcelain works were first under a Mr. Charles Gouyn, and it
appears that Nicolas Sprimont was his successor, who was originally a
goldsmith in Soho, and who was probably of Flemish origin.
Chelsea ware is remarkable for its deep rich claret-coloured grounds.
This colour was first used on the Chelsea porcelain in 1759.
Turquoise-blue, pea-green, and Mazarine-blue were also, though in a
lesser degree, peculiar to Chelsea ware. The early pieces are without
gilding, which is more of a distinguishing mark of the later
productions. The paste, the enamel, the colour, and technique are all
perfect in their way, but the art and design of the objects do not by
any means equal the workmanship; this was of course due to the false
taste of the period, when the rococo element in design was fashionable
everywhere (Fig. 78). Vases, statuettes, scent bottles, compotiers,
bowls, cups, saucers, animals, birds, fruit, and flowers were made by
Sprimont in an extravagant style of design.
In 1769 William Duesbury, of the Derby porcelain works, purchased the
Chelsea manufactory, and six years later he acquired the Bow porcelain
works. A less extravagant style of design and decoration characterized
the Chelsea-Derby productions, a specimen of which is seen in the
cooper’s bowl, Fig. 79.
[Illustration: Fig. 78.—Chelsea Vase; Jones Collection. (S.K.M.)]
The Bow China factory was owned by two partners, Weatherby and Crowther,
in 1750; the former died in 1762, and the latter failed in the business
in 1763. Duesbury, of Derby, bought up the Bow works in 1776, when he
removed the moulds and models. Chelsea and Bow ware are very similar in
design and appearance, and consequently a difficulty exists in
classifying doubtful pieces. There are a great many examples of Bow
porcelain in the Schreiber gift in the South Kensington Museum, and
Professor Church is of the opinion that they are mostly authentic
specimens. The Chinese-shaped vase with the rococo and Louis-Seize
decorations is a typical example of the Bow porcelain (Fig. 80).
[Illustration: Fig. 79.—Bowl of Chelsea-Derby Porcelain.]
[Illustration: Fig. 80.—Bow Porcelain Vase. (S.K.M.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 81.—Derby Statuette.]
The date of founding of the Derby porcelain works is not exactly known,
except that certain pieces of Derby ware have been advertised for
auction “after the finest Dresden models” in 1756 and up to 1770,
proving that the works must have been going on during these periods.
According to Professor Church, William Duesbury, the first of that name,
was connected with the Derby works in 1756, and died in 1786. He was
succeeded by his son of the same name, who took into partnership Michael
Kean in 1795. This W. Duesbury died in 1796. The works were carried on
by another William Duesbury until the year 1815, when they passed into
the hands of Robert Bloor, who carried the manufactory on until 1848,
when it ceased. Locher, a manager of Bloor’s, started another factory
after this which still exists to-day. The Derby coloured porcelain
statuettes are imitated more or less from Dresden ware, even to the
Dresden marks of the crossed swords (Fig. 81), which marks are copied by
a great many porcelain manufacturers. The cup and saucer (Fig. 82) is a
specimen of early Crown Derby. The borders are deep blue and the
festoons pink. Some of the names of the painters who were engaged at the
Crown Derby works are:—F. Duvivier (1769), P. Stephan (1770), R. Askew
(1772), J. J. Spengler (1790), and W. J. Coffee (1791). Askew was a
clever figure painter. Deep blues, reds, and greens, with lavish
gilding, and ornament of a very conventional character, are found on
some of the late Derby cups, saucers, and plates.
WORCESTER porcelain was first made by a company consisting of fifteen
shareholders, formed in the year 1751 by Dr. Wall and Mr. W. Davis, the
inventors. The name given to the early ware was the “Tonquin porcelain
of Worcester.” These works have been going almost without interruption
under different names of proprietors until the present day.
[Illustration: Fig. 82.—Crown Derby Covered Cup and Saucer.]
Vases and other objects in Worcester porcelain of the early period were
decided imitations of Chinese and Japanese wares, but at the same time
they were dignified examples both as to form and decoration compared
with the meaningless rococo designs of Chelsea and Bow.
The vase (Fig. 83), in the Schreiber Collection, is Oriental in form and
decoration, but has a restrained character of its own that is not
usually met with in the contemporary wares of the period.
[Illustration: Fig. 83.—Worcester Vase. (S.K.M.)]
The vases are the chief glory of Worcester ware; in colour they are
exceedingly rich, having grounds of “gros bleu,” turquoise, pea-green,
maroon, and a fine shade of yellow; gold is also used in modified
proportions.
We have mentioned before the mode of decoration by transfer printing
adopted by Janssen on the Battersea enamels and by Sadler and Green on
the Liverpool delft; this style of decoration was extensively employed
by the Worcester decorators for the fillings of the panels with
landscapes and rustic figures, after engravings by Watteau,
Gainsborough, and others.
Dresden and Sèvres wares were imitated at Worcester, and it is generally
thought that when this was done—during the period 1768-1783—the
Worcester ware was at its best. This was the middle period, and towards
the time that ended about the beginning of this century the designs
became laboured, and lavish use of gold rendered the work vulgar and
showy.
Josiah and Richard Holdship and R. Handcock are names of some of the
principal artists of the early and middle period. Donaldson, Neale, and
Foggo were names of enamellers who worked at the Worcester pottery. A
curious design in this ware of a tobacco-pipe bowl (Fig. 84) is in the
Schreiber Collection.
PLYMOUTH porcelain manufactory was established by William Cookworthy
(1705-80), who was the first to discover in England the real China clay
or kaolin, about the year 1755. Cookworthy had a good knowledge of
chemistry, and was a wholesale chemist and druggist. He found both the
China clay and China stone at Tregonning Hill and at two other places in
Cornwall. A patent was granted to him in 1768 for the manufacture of
porcelain, and the firm of “Cookworthy and Co.” established itself at
Coxside, Plymouth. A French ceramic artist named Sequoi was engaged to
superintend the works. The Plymouth works were not of long duration, for
shortly afterwards they were removed to Bristol, and Richard Champion,
of Bristol, obtained a licence from Cookworthy to make the Plymouth
porcelain, and bought the entire rights from the latter in 1773. From
this date until 1781 Champion owned the Castle Green works at Bristol
which formerly belonged to Cookworthy. Statuettes, vases, rustic pieces,
teapots, cups and saucers, &c., were made in both Plymouth and Bristol
china, many of them being imitations of Sèvres and Oriental wares.
[Illustration: Fig. 84.—Bowl of Tobacco-pipe, Worcester Ware.]
In Staffordshire many porcelain works are still in existence that began
in the last century or early in this, such as Longton Hall, New Hall,
Spode, Wedgwood, and Minton, but space prevents us from giving any
details of their work. Liverpool, Lowestoft, Coalport, Swansea,
Nantgarw, and Rockingham may be mentioned as other places where English
porcelain was made.
CHINESE PORCELAIN.
[Illustration: Fig. 85.—Chinese Vase.]
The manufacture of porcelain in China, according to their own accounts,
dates for more than two hundred years before the Christian era. The
composition of Chinese porcelain is of two elements: one, the infusible
argillaceous earth or clay called kaolin; and the other the
“pe-tun-tse,” which is feldspar slightly altered, a micaceous mineral
and quartz or silica, which is fusible. The latter is used with or
without other mixtures to form a glaze for hard porcelain. Other
materials are sometimes used in the glaze, but, unlike the enamel of
earthenware, tin or lead is not used.
The Chinese made their porcelain in different degrees of translucency.
The kind made especially for the Emperor’s use, such as cups, saucers,
and rice plates of a ruby-red tint, are very thin and almost
transparent.
The porcelain coloured in turquoise blue, violet, sea-green, and celadon
are of the oldest varieties made. Yellow, the colour of Ming dynasty, is
a common colour in Chinese porcelain.
The Chinese decorated their vases sometimes without much regard to the
spacing or divisions of body, neck, or foot (Fig. 85). Landscapes,
dragons, fanciful kylins, dogs, and lions, as well as nearly all kinds
of natural objects were used by them as decoration. Conventional
renderings of flowers and foliage and geometric ornament are often used
in a judicious sense.
[Illustration:
Fig. 86.—Oriental Porcelain; Chinese, with French Ormolu Mounting.
(S.K.M.)
]
Peculiar shapes of vases, such as the square, hexagonal, and octagonal
forms, are found very frequent in Oriental ware. The vase (Fig. 86),
from the Jones Collection, is a less extravagant example of Chinese
porcelain than usual; the egg-shaped body is, however, the only Oriental
part of the vase.
[Illustration: Fig. 87.—Japanese Ancient Vase; _circa_ B.C. 640.]
JAPANESE ware is more interesting and more varied in design, though not
so gaudy in appearance as the Chinese, owing to the higher sense of
artistic feeling and individuality of the Japanese artists. The art, as
seen in the ceramic productions as well as in most other things of
Japanese art and design, was originally borrowed from the older nation
of China and from the Coreans. From their keen sense of beauty, and also
greater artistic power, the art products of the Japanese are superior to
those of China.
The first glazed pottery made in Japan is supposed to date from the year
1230—this was made at Seto by Tôshiro, who had learnt the art in China,
and the first porcelain just before the year 1513, for the maker of this
early Japanese porcelain—Shonsui, a Chinese potter—had returned to China
in that year.
[Illustration: Fig. 88.—Incense-Burner, Satsuma Ware; _circa_ 1720.]
Pottery of an inferior kind was made anterior to the Christian era, but
probably the oldest known was made by the people who occupied the
country before the present Japanese. The ancient vase (Fig. 87) is an
example of this early ware. It is of a coarse kind of earthenware, baked
or fired in a hole in the ground, over which and around the vessel was
built a wood fire.
[Illustration: Fig. 89.—Incense-Burner, Arita Ware; _circa_ 1710.]
Japanese wares are of three kinds: the common stoneware ornamented with
scratched lines and glazed; a crackled glazed ware with painted
decorations; and the porcelain. The porcelain of Japan is first baked to
the biscuit state, then the colours of the decoration are applied, and
the piece is afterwards glazed, and is again fired at a greater heat.
The gilding or enamel colours that may be required are put on
afterwards, when a third firing at a lower temperature is necessary. The
Japanese porcelain paste does not stand the firing so well as the
Chinese, and consequently the pieces are often twisted and altered in
shape.
[Illustration: Fig. 90.—Pierced Glazed Water-bottle, from Madura. (B.)]
The factories of Hizen are among the very oldest and are still in
working order in Japan. Old Hizen ware is decorated with blue paintings.
The pottery and porcelain of Seto manufacture is highly esteemed, and
the name of _Setomono_ has been given by the Japanese to their porcelain
ware.
The Kutani ware is a coarse porcelain, known also under the name of Kaga
ware; the pieces with a red ground and gold ornamentation are highly
valued. It is also glazed with deep green, light purple, and yellow
colours.
One of the most famous and costliest Japanese wares is the old Satsuma,
which was first made by the Corean potters who settled in the village of
Nawashirogawa, in the province of Satsuma, about 1600. This ware is of a
dark cream colour, with a crackled glaze, and is decorated with red,
green, and gold outlined ornament (Fig. 88)
A specimen of the Hizen potteries porcelain, Arita ware, is illustrated
at Fig. 89, of an incense-burner. It is painted in bright colours of
red, green, pale blue, and has some gilding. It is decorated with hares
or rabbits and waves in the panels and dragons on the cover.
INDIAN POTTERY.
The making of pottery is universal throughout India. The unglazed wares
are made everywhere, and of various colours. Red glazed pottery is made
at Dinapur, gilt pottery at Amroha and in Rajputana; black and silver
pottery at Azimghar in the north-west, and at Surujgarrah in Bengal;
painted pottery at Kota, the unglazed pierced variety at Madura, and the
celebrated glazed pottery made at Sindh and in the Punjaub.
[Illustration: Fig. 91.—Glazed Pottery of Sindh. (B.)]
It may be said that in general the pottery of India is good in shape,
colour, and decoration, the latter never violating its purpose, nor
distracting the eye from the shape of the vessel. The designs are very
simple, and repeating, perhaps to monotony in many cases; but the
painted pottery decoration, by reason of its broad and direct
application, although the ornament is very simple in character, is
better, and less monotonous, for instance, than the Indian wood-carving
decoration. The designs take the form of panels of flower and leaf
ornament placed side by side, bands of guilloches, chevrons, running
ornament, and lines, the knop-and-flower pattern, and a panel filling or
an all-over decoration consisting of diapered flowers, leaves, or stars.
The elegant shaped water bottle from Madura (Fig. 90) is pierced so that
the air may circulate round the inner porous bowl. This ware is coloured
a dark green or a golden brown glaze.
[Illustration: Fig. 92.—Glazed Pottery of Sindh. (B.)]
The Sindh glazed pottery is beautiful, though very simple in colour and
decoration. The colours are mostly blue of two or three shades,
turquoise greens, and creamy whites, and sometimes the glaze is purple,
golden brown, or yellow. Many of the vases are bulbous or oviform in
shape, with wide necks and bottoms, and are decorated with the _Sventi_,
or daisy-like flower (Fig. 91), or the lotus (Fig. 92).
[Illustration: Fig. 93—Enamelled Tile, from Sindh. (B.)]
The enamelled tile from Sindh (Fig. 93) has a knop-and-flower
decoration, the larger flower having the character of an iris, and, at
the same time, something of the lotus flower in its composition.