CHAPTER I._The Ceramic Art A Compendium of The History and Manufacture of Pottery and Porcelain

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THE CERAMIC ART

A COMPENDIUM OF

THE HISTORY AND MANUFACTURE

POTTERY AND PORCELAIN

BY JENNIE J. YOUNG

WITH 464 ILLUSTRATIONS

_Argilla quidvis imitaberis uda_

HORACE, EPIST., II., 2, 8

[Illustration]

NEW YORK

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS

FRANKLIN SQUARE

1878

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by

HARPER & BROTHERS,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

PREFACE.

In writing the present volume, the author’s object has been to answer as

tersely and lucidly as possible the more important questions in

connection with the history and manufacture of pottery and porcelain,

and to bring the results of recent research to bear upon some of the

unsolved problems of the “science of ceramics.” The literature of the

subject is formidable in dimensions. Authors have divided the field into

sections, and have in many cases presented learned and exhaustive

special treatises. Notwithstanding the solid learning and critical

acumen reflected in their pages, their form and voluminous character,

however, detracted from their value as books for familiar and speedy

reference, and left the acquirement of a general knowledge of the

ceramic art a matter for wide research and prolonged study on the part

of every reader and collector. The attempt has here been made to

condense the leading points of the subject, to arrange them after a

simple and easily intelligible method, and thus to present in one volume

a comprehensive history. No hesitation has been shown in drawing upon

foreign authors. Many of the later developments of the art have also

been touched upon, and the results of the more recent efforts of artists

and manufacturers have been illustrated and described. In treating of

America, the author has endeavored to convey some idea of its wealth in

materials and of the present condition and tendencies of the industry,

and to do justice to those who have laid the foundation of its claim to

recognition in the world of art.

The author has incurred obligations in many quarters for information and

assistance. Mr. Samuel P. Avery, the Hon. Yoshida Kiyonari, Japanese

Minister at Washington, General Di Cesnola, and the many private

collectors whose cabinets are represented in the following pages, gave

valuable aid both in obtaining illustrations and in other respects. Mr.

Charles Edward Haviland, Mr. Theodore Haviland, and M. Bracquemond

contributed many valuable hints upon technology and the manufacture and

composition of different wares. The dealers of New York, Boston,

Washington, Albany, and other cities took an active interest both in

directing the author to collections and in furnishing specimens for

illustration. Among American manufacturers, Mr. Thomas C. Smith, of

Greenpoint; Mr. James Carr, of New York; Mr. Hugh C. Robertson, of

Chelsea, Massachusetts; and Mr. J. Hart Brewer, of Trenton, are

especially deserving of thanks for helping the author to a true insight

into the past history, present condition, and prospects of the art in

the United States.

In regard to the engravings, while it was, of course, found necessary in

many cases to cull from the rich accumulations of ceramic treasures in

Europe, in order to secure the proper illustration of the work, the

preference has invariably been given to the collections of America. Such

a course recommended itself for obvious reasons. It was thought that it

would, in the first place, gratify those desirous of knowing where, in

this country, the best representatives of the art of certain countries

are to be found; and that, in the second place, it would direct artists

where to study the best styles of decoration. One result of the author’s

investigations in this matter has been the conviction that the American

collector is cosmopolitan in his tastes, and that the American

cabinet--in many instances the American tea-table--represents the amity

of nations. The arts of all countries are found arrayed side by side in

a profusion of which it would have been hard, a few years ago, to find a

trace.

In choosing the pieces to be engraved, a threefold aim has been kept in

view: the elucidation of the text, the representation of the greatest

number of different wares by characteristic examples, and the

introduction of as many beautiful works of art as possible consistently

with the accomplishment of the two previous objects. The requirements of

the student of decorative art have been fully considered, and due weight

has been given to the fact that these requirements can be met better by

the pencil than the pen.

In procuring specimens, the author has acknowledgments to express both

to private collectors and to the curators of public institutions. Among

the latter may be mentioned General Loring, of the Boston Museum of Fine

Arts, and Mr. H. C. Hutchins, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in this

city, both of whom admitted the author to a close inspection of the

collections under their charge, and personally superintended the taking

of sketches and photographs. Similar favors were received from the

trustees and Dr. M‘Leod, of the Corcoran Art Gallery; from Professor

Baird and Mr. Cushing, of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington;

and from the officers of the United States Geological and Geographical

Survey of the Territories. Mr. Edward Bierstadt of New York, and Mr. T.

W. Smillie of Washington, also granted facilities and volunteered

courtesies which proved invaluable.

Casual reference is made in the following pages to the marks of

factories and artists, but after due deliberation it was decided not to

make them the subject of special treatment or illustration. Several good

manuals are already in the hands of the public, and a book of marks

should never take any other form. It is comparatively useless unless

easily portable and handy. Then, again, marks are, and always have been,

imitated to such an extent that they are not the most trustworthy guides

to the parentage of specimens. Collectors who buy pieces for the sake of

the mark they bear may be deceived; those who buy for the sake of beauty

may occasionally be mistaken; but a cultivated taste can never be

deluded into finding beauty in the unbeautiful. The art, and not the

mark, should be studied; and the fact that many of the finest and most

highly valued specimens--Chinese, Japanese, Persian, Saracenic, Greek,

Italian, and many modern wares--have no mark gives additional point to

the observation.

If the present work should be found defective in certain points, it must

be remembered that it could hardly be otherwise, considering its scope

and limits. The author will be satisfied if, besides answering its

primary purpose, it should increase the interest already awakened in the

subject of which it treats, and lead students to appreciate and examine

the collections at their command in this country.

RIGHT

J. J. Y.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

Advantages of the Study.--The Lost Origin of the Art.--Ascribed to

the Gods.--Legends of China, Japan, Egypt, and Greece.--Keramos.--A

Solution suggested.--How Pottery illustrates History.--How it explains

the Customs of the Ancients.--Its Bearings upon Religion.--Examples

from Egypt, Greece, and China.--The Art represented in Pottery.--Its

Permanency.--As a Combination of Form with Drawing and Color.--Greek

Art.--Its Merits and Defects.--The Orientals, and their Attention

to Color.--Eastern Skill.--The Aim of Palissy.--The Highest Aim of

the Ceramic Artist.--Painting on Porcelain.--Rules to be Observed in

Decorating.--Where Color alone is a Worthy Object.--How the Art affords

the Best Illustration of the Useful combined with the Beautiful.--Its

Place in the Household.....Page 19

BOOK I.--NOMENCLATURE AND METHODS.

CHAPTER I.

TECHNOLOGY.

Confusion in Use of Terms.--Porcelain as an Instance.--Derivation of

Ceramic.--Pottery.--Faience.--Majolica.--Mezza-Majolica.--Composition

of Porcelain.--Origin of Word.--Where first made.--When introduced

into Europe.--Hard and Soft Paste.--Soft Porcelain of Venice,

Florence, England, France.--Hard Porcelain invented at Meissen by

Böttcher.--Vienna.--Discovery of Kaolin in France.--Biscuit.....48

CHAPTER II.

CLASSIFICATION.

Tabulated View.--Brongniart’s Division: Its Objections.--Classification

adopted.--Leading Features and Advantages.--Distinctions between

Different Bodies and Different Glazes.....54

CHAPTER III.

COMPOSITION OF WARES AND GLAZES.

Hard and Soft Pottery and Porcelain.--COMPOSITION OF PORCELAIN:

Kaolin--Its Derivation and Ingredients--Petuntse--How prepared in

China.--The European Process.--Differences between Chinese and

European Porcelains.--Chemical Analysis.--English Porcelain and

its Peculiarities: Its Average Composition.--How English Clay is

prepared.--French Artificial Porcelain.--Parian.--COMMON EARTHEN-WARE:

Table of Ingredients of different kinds.--General Table.--GLAZES:

Classes.--Brongniart’s Classification.--Difference between Enamel

and Glaze.--Silicious Glaze.--History.--Use of Oxides.--Egyptian

Processes.--Metallic Lustre.--Stanniferous Enamel: Its History.....59

CHAPTER IV.

MANUFACTURE AND DECORATION.

Divisions of Chapter.--Japanese Method of Preparing Porcelain

Clay.--Old Sèvres Soft Porcelain.--Pug-Mill.--Blunger.--Early Italian

Methods.--Shaping the Clay.--Moulding among the Egyptians, Greeks,

Italians, and at the Present Day.--Moulding Porcelain.--Japanese

Method.--European.--Throwing.--The Potter’s Wheel in all

Countries.--Baking and Firing.--Egyptian, Greek, Italian, and Japanese

Kilns.--Those of Modern Europe and America.--Times of Firing.--Glazing

and Painting.--Metallic-Lustre Majolica.--Japanese Methods.--Glazing

Stone-ware.--Natural and Artificial Porcelain.....66

BOOK II.--THE ORIENT.

CHAPTER I.

EGYPT.

The East the Cradle of Art.--The Antiquity of Egypt: Its

Claim to Notice in every Branch of Inquiry.--The Fountains

of Oriental and Greek Art.--The Nile Clay.--Egypt’s Early

Maturity.--Limitation of Material.--Effect of Religion upon

Art.--Two Periods in Art History.--Ancient Religion.--Various

Symbols.--UNGLAZED POTTERY--_Sun-dried_: Bricks.--Moulds, Stamps,

etc.--Vessels.--_Baked Ware_: Its Early Date.--Color of Vessels and

Bricks.--Coffins.--Cones.--Figures.--Sepulchral Vases.--Amphoræ

and other Vessels.--Decoration.--Græco-Egyptian Pottery.--GLAZED

WARE, miscalled Porcelain: Its Nature, and how Colored.--Wall

Tiles.--Inlaying of Mummy Cases.--Personal Ornaments.--Images.--Beads,

etc.--Vases.--Bowls.--Glazed Schist.--Stanniferous Enamel.....82

CHAPTER II.

ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA.

Possible Priority to Egyptian Pottery.--Similarity

between Assyrian and Egyptian.--The Course followed by

both Arts.--Unbaked Bricks.--Baked Bricks.--Writing

Tablets.--Seals.--Vases.--Terra-cottas.--Porcelain.--Glazing and

Enamelling.--Tin.--Colored Enamels.--Babylonian Bricks.--Glazes.....97

CHAPTER III.

JUDÆA.

Art Derived from Egypt.--Never Reached any Eminence.--Preference for

Metals.--Frequent Allusions in Scripture.--Bought Earthen-ware from

Phœnicia and Egypt.--Home Manufacture.--Decoration.--Necessity for

Distinguishing between Home and Foreign Wares.....103

CHAPTER IV.

INDIA AND CENTRAL ASIA.

Mystery Surrounding People.--History of its Art in great measure

Unknown.--Questions of its Existence and Originality.--How they

Arose.--The Brahmins.--Geographical Position.--Views of Early

Travellers.--Later Investigations.--More Ancient Pottery.--Clay

Used.--Knowledge of Glazing: Its Application to Architecture.--Glazed

Bricks.--Terra-cotta.--Chronological Arrangement.--Porcelain: Its

Decoration.--Use of Gold.--Siam.....105

CHAPTER V.

CHINA.

Art Different from that of Europe or America.--How it must be

Viewed.--Religion.--Legend.--Hoang-ti the Inventor of Pottery.--The

Leading Points of Religious System.--Personified Principles.--Lao-tseu,

Confucius, and Buddha.--Kuan-in.--Pousa or Pou-tai.--Dragons.--Dog

of Fo.--Ky-lin.--Sacred Horse.--Fong-hoang.--Symbols.--Meaning

of Colors and Shapes.--POTTERY: When First

Made.--Céladon.--Crackle.--How Made.--Porcelain Crackle.--Decorations

on Crackle.--Household Vessels.--Stone-ware.--Licouli.--Tower of

Nankin.--Pipe-clay.--Boccaro.--Colors and Decoration of Pottery.--Colors

on Crackle. PORCELAIN: When Invented.--King-teh-chin.--All Classed as

Hard, Exceptions.--Old Porcelains.--Kouan-ki.--Blue-and-white.--Persian

Styles.--Turquoise and other Blues.--Leading Events of

Ming Dynasty.--Egg-shell.--Tai-thsing Dynasty.--Mandarin

Vases.--Families.--Old White.--Jade.--Purple and Violet.--Liver

Red.--Imperial Yellow.--Chinese Ideas of Painting.--Soufflé.--Grains of

Rice.--Articulated and Reticulated Vases.--Cup of Tantalus.....109

CHAPTER VI.

COREA.

Geographical Position.--Successive Conquests.--Its Independent

Art.--Confused Opinions regarding it.--Its Porcelain.--Decoration.....154

CHAPTER VII.

JAPAN.

How to Study Japanese Art: Its Origin.--Its Revived

Independence.--Nomino-Soukoune.--Shirozayemon.--Raku.--When

Porcelain was First Made.--Shonsui.--Form of Government.--The

Gods.--Symbols.--“Land of Great Peace.”--Foreign Relations.--General

Features of Art.--Chinese and Japanese Porcelains.--POTTERY:

Geographical Distribution.--Classification.--Satsuma.--Difficult

Ware.--Saki Cups.--Imitations of Satsuma.--Kioto.--Awata.--Awadji.--Banko.

--Kiusiu.--Karatsu.--Suma.--PORCELAIN: Leading Differences between

Japanese and Chinese.--Sometsuki Blue.--Ware for Export.--Gosai,

or Nishikide.--Arita, or Hizen.--Families.--Decoration.--Modern

Hizen.--Seidji.--Kioto.--Eraku.--Kaga.--Portraiture.--Owari.--Lacquer.

--Cloisonné.--Rose Family.--Early Styles: Indian: Dutch Designs.--General

Characteristics of Japanese Art.....156

CHAPTER VIII.

PERSIA.

Persia, and its Influence.--History.--Conquests.--Religious

Revolutions.--Zoroaster.--Mohammed.--Geographical Position.--General

View of Influences bearing upon Art.--Decoration.--Flowers and

Symbols.--Conventional Styles.--Whence came the Monsters Appearing upon

Wares.--Metallic Lustre.--POTTERY: Composition.--Caution in Looking at

Specimens.--Wall-Tiles and their Decoration.--Vases.--PORCELAIN: Had

Persia a True Porcelain?--Classification, and the Difficulties Attending

It.--Decoration.--Classes Formed by Prevailing Color.....189

BOOK III.--EUROPE.

CHAPTER I.

THE FOUNTAINS OF EUROPEAN ART.

Routes by which Art Travelled.--Their Point of Convergence.--Cyprus:

Its History.--The Successive Nations Governing It.--The Strata of

Ancient Civilization found within its Shores.--The Discoveries

of Cesnola.--Larnaca.--Dali.--Athieno.--Curium.--Progress of

Cypriote Pottery.--Early Greek Art: Its Connection with Assyria

and Egypt.--Phœnician and Assyrian Art.--General Deductions.--Asia

Minor.--Oriental Art turning in various Streams to Greece.--What

Greece Rejected, Persia Seized upon.--Persia’s Contributions

to Ceramic Art.--History in Reference to its Art.--Effect of

Conquest.--What Persia Taught the Arabs.--Spread of Persian Art

by the Saracens.--Rhodes.--Damascus.--Progress of Saracenic

Art.--The North of Africa.--Metallic Lustre and Stanniferous

Enamel.--Hispano-Moresque.--Early Spain.--Persian Influence upon

Europe.....198

CHAPTER II.

GREECE.

General Character of Greek Ceramics.--Form and Color.--Borrowed

from Egypt and Phœnicia.--How Original.--UNBAKED

CLAY: Bricks and Statues.--TERRA-COTTA: Where

Used.--Tiles.--Models.--Vessels.--Pithos.--Amphora.--Pigments

used on Terra-cotta.--Rhyton.--GLAZED WARES: Quality of

Glaze.--Paste.--Enumeration and Description of Vessels.--Uses

of Vases.--Chronological Arrangement.--Methods of Making

Vessels.--Successive Styles of Ornamentation.--Figures.--Earliest

Style.--Archaic Style.--Human Figures.--“Old Style.”--Approach to

Best Art.--“Fine Style.”--“Florid Style.”--Decline.--Classification

according to Subjects Represented on Vases.--Reliefs and Statuettes as

Decoration.....219

CHAPTER III.

THE IBERIAN PENINSULA.

SPAIN: Ancient Pottery.--Valencia the Most Ancient Centre.--The

Roman Period.--Arabs.--Valencia under the Moors.--Its

Decline.--Malaga the Most Ancient Moorish Settlement.--The Alhambra

Vase.--Influence of Christianity.--Majorca.--Azulejos.--Modern

Spain.--Porcelain.--Buen Retiro.--Moncloa.--Alcora.--PORTUGAL: Vista

Allegre.--Rato.--Caldas.....233

CHAPTER IV.

ITALY.

Italian Art.--Whence Derived.--Greece and Persia.--Divisions.--Ancient

Roman and Etruscan.--Etruria and Greece.--Questions Resulting

from Discoveries at Vulci.--Early Connection between Etruria and

Greece.--Etruscan Art an Offshoot of Greek.--Examples.--Best of Black

Paste.--Why Etruscan Art Declined.--Rome.--Nothing Original.--Its Debt

to Etruria and Greece.--Decline of its Art.--Unglazed Pottery and its

Divisions.--Glazed Pottery.--Samian Ware.--Aretine.--Terra-cotta.--After

Rome fell.--The Renaissance.--Saracenic Influences.--Crusades.--Conquest

of Majorca.--Tin Enamel and Metallic Lustre.--Bacini at

Pisa.--Lead Glaze.--Majolica Made at Pesaro.--Sgraffiati.--Luca

della Robbia.--Sketch of his Life.--His Alleged Discovery.--What

he really Accomplished.--Where he Acquired the Secret of

Enamel.--His Works.--Bas-Reliefs.--Paintings on the Flat.--His

Successors.--Recapitulation of Beginnings of Italian

Majolica.--Chaffagiolo.--Siena.--Florence.--Pisa.--Pesaro.--Castel-Durante.

--Urbino.--Gubbio and Maestro Giorgio.--Faenza.--Forli, Rimini, and

Ravenna.--Venice.--Ferrara.--Deruta.--Naples.--Shape and Color.--Modern

Italy.--PORCELAIN: Florence and Earliest Artificial Porcelain.--Theory

of Japanese Teaching.--La Doccia.--Venice, and the Question of its First

Making European Porcelain.--Le Nove.--Capo di Monte.....240

CHAPTER V.

FRANCE.

Prospect on approaching France.--Present and Past.--The

Ancient Celts.--Under the Romans.--Middle Ages.--Poitou,

Beauvais, and Hesdin.--Italian Influence.--A National

Art.--Bernard Palissy, Barbizet, Pull, and Avisseau.--Henri Deux

Ware.--Rouen.--Nevers.--Moustiers.--Marseilles.--Strasburg.--Limoges.

--Haviland’s New Process.--Examples.--Bourg-la-Reine.--Laurin.--Deck.

--Colinot.--Creil. --Montereau.--Longwy.--Parville.--Gien.--Sarreguemines.

--Niederviller.--Luneville.--Nancy.--St. Clement.--St. Amand.--Paris.--Sceaux.

--PORCELAIN: Efforts to Make Porcelain.--First Artificial Porcelain.--St.

Cloud.--Lille.--Paris.--Chantilly.--Mennecy.--Vincennes.--Sèvres.--Natural,

or Hard, Porcelain.--Discovery of Kaolin.--Various Factories.--Limoges.

--Deck.--Regnault.--Solon.--Pate Changeante.--Pate-sur-Pate.....271

CHAPTER VI.

GERMANY AND CENTRAL EUROPE.

Early Pottery.--Lake Dwellers.--Early German.--Peculiar

Shapes.--How Peasants Account for Relics.--Roman

Epoch.--Tin Enamel.--Leipsic.--Breslau.--Nuremberg.--The

Hirschvogels.--Villengen.--Höchst.--Marburg.--Bavaria.--Switzerland.

--Belgium.--Delft.--STONE-WARE: Countess

Jacqueline.--Teylingen.--Graybeards.--Fine

Stone-ware.--Grès de Flandre.--Creussen.--PORCELAIN:

Böttcher.--His First Productions.--Meissen

Porcelain.--Decoration.--Best Days of Meissen.--Its

Decline.--Vienna.--Höchst.--Fürstenburg.--Höxter.--Frankenthal.

--Nymphenburg.--Berlin.--Holland.--Weesp.--Loosdrecht.--The

Hague.--Switzerland.--Zürich.--Nyon.....327

CHAPTER VII.

RUSSIA, DENMARK, AND SCANDINAVIA.

Scandinavian Pottery allied to Teutonic.--Hand-shaped

Vessels.--Primitive Kiln.--The Eighteenth Century.--St. Petersburg:

Its Porcelain.--Moscow.--Rorstrand.--Marieberg.--Modern Swedish

Faience.--Denmark.--Kiel.--Copenhagen.--Imitations of Greek.--Copenhagen

Porcelain.....344

CHAPTER VIII.

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

Continuity of History.--Early British Urns.--Scottish Relics.--Irish

Urns.--Roman Conquest.--Caistor Ware.--Anglo-Roman Ware.--Saxon

Period.--After the Norman Conquest.--Tiles.--Dutch Potteries in

England.--English Delft.--Stone-ware.--Sandwich.--Staffordshire

Potteries.--Early Products.--The Tofts.--Salt Glaze.--Broadwell

and the Elers Family.--Use of Calcined Flint.--Wedgwood.--His

Life.--Jasper Ware.--Queen’s Ware.--The Portland

Vase.--Basaltes.--Wedgwood’s Removal to Etruria.--His

Death.--Minton & Co.--Their Imitations of the Oriental.--Pate

Changeante.--Pate-sur-Pate.--Cloisonné Enamel on Porcelain.--Other

Reproductions.--Their Majolica.--Their Artists.--Minton, Hollins &

Co.--Lambeth.--Doulton Ware.--Terra-cotta and Stone-ware.--George

Tinworth.--Fulham.--Bristol.--Leeds.--Liverpool.--Lowestoft.--Yarmouth.

--Nottingham.--Shropshire.--Yorkshire.--PORCELAIN: Plymouth Hard

Porcelain.--Cookworthy.--Bow.--Chelsea.--Derby.--Worcester.--Minton.

--Pate-sur-Pate.--Spode.--Copeland.--Bristol.--Tunstall.--Caughley.

--Nantgarrow.--Swansea.--Colebrookdale.--Pinxton.--Shelton.--Belleek.--General

Character of Manufacture in Great Britain.....352

BOOK IV.--AMERICA.

CHAPTER I.

SOUTH AMERICA.

Antiquity of American People.--Scope of Inquiry.--PERU: Its Old

Inhabitants.--Course of Ceramic Art.--Doubts regarding Origin of

Peruvian Civilization.--Periods.--The Incas.--Pizarro.--Geological

Evidence of Antiquity.--Unbaked Bricks.--Pachacamac.--Its

Graves.--Opposite Types.--Effect of Religion.--Symbols.--Forms

of Pottery.--Water-Vessels.--Human Forms.--Leading Features of

Decoration.--Colors Employed.--Processes.--Customs Learned from

Pottery.--BRAZIL: Ancient Specimens.--Modern Ware.--Bricks and

Tiles.--Talhas.--Moringues and other Water-Vessels.--Colombia.....391

CHAPTER II.

CENTRAL AMERICA.

Connection with Peru.--Nicaragua.--Ometepec.--Modern

Potters.--Guatemala.--Ancient Cities.--Who Built

Them.--Copan.--Quirigua.--Palenque.--Mitla.....418

CHAPTER III.

THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

Who were they?--Their supposed Central American Origin.--The place they

occupy in the present History.--Recent Discoveries.--Pottery of the

Lower Mississippi.--Deduction from Comparison with Peruvian.....425

CHAPTER IV.

INDIAN POTTERY.

Successors of the Mound-builders.--Opinion of Professor Marsh.--Pueblos

descended from the Mound-builders.--Natchez and Mandan Tribes.--Pueblos

of Colorado, etc.--Pottery found at El Moro.--Zuni.--Further

Discoveries.--Immense Quantities of Fragmentary Pottery.--Corrugated

Pottery of Colorado.--Painted Pottery.--Moquis of Tegua.--Modern

Pueblos.--Trade in Pottery.--Resemblances between Potteries of South,

Central, and North America.--Indian Pottery from Illinois.--Louisiana,

and how Pottery made.--New Jersey Indians.--Tennessee.--Maryland.--Other

Indian Tribes.....429

CHAPTER V.

UNITED STATES.

The Future of America.--Obstacles in the Way of Progress.--Commercial

Conditions Illustrated by Tariff.--Expense of Artistic Work.--Lack

of Public Support.--American Marks.--Misrepresentation of

American Wares.--Materials.--Early Use in England by Wedgwood,

etc.--Cookworthy and a Virginian.--Native Use of Clay.--New

Jersey.--Value of Clay Deposit Illustrated.--American Kaolin.--Vague

Use of Word.--Analysis.--Opinions of American Deposits.--POTTERY:

Dependence upon England.--Wedgwood’s Fears of American

Competition.--Norwich.--Hartford.--Stonington.--Norwalk.--Herbertsville.

--Sayreville.--South Amboy.--Philadelphia.--Baltimore.--Jersey

City. --Bennington.--New York City Pottery.--Trenton.--Present

Extent of Industry. --Trenton Ivory

Porcelain.--Terra-cotta.--Beverly.--Chelsea.--Portland.

--Cambridge.--PORCELAIN: Philadelphia.--William Ellis

Tucker.--Bennington. --Jersey City.--Greenpoint.--Decorating

Establishments.--Metal and Porcelain.....442

INDEX.....489

ILLUSTRATIONS.

+-------+-------------+-------------------------+--------------------+-------+

+-------+-------------+-------------------------+--------------------+-------+

| 3 | China | Bottles | | 26 |

| 4 | Greece | Diogenes in Pithos | | 27 |

| 5 | “ | Prize Vase | | 28 |

| 6 | “ | Rhyton | Trumbull-Prime | 29 |

| 7 | “ | Kylix | | 29 |

| 9 | “ | Painted Ball | | 31 |

| 10 | “ | Glazed Draughtsman | | 31 |

| 13 | Persia | Tile | | 38 |

| 14 | “ | Mosque of Sultaneah | | 39 |

| 18 | “ | Limoges Porcelain | Mrs Charles Crocker| 46 |

| 19 | “ | Limoges Porcelain | Thomas Scott | 47 |

| 20 | Egypt | Blue-glazed Pottery | | 48 |

| 21,22 | .. | Pug-mills | | 67 |

| 23 | Judea | Potter at Work | | 70 |

| 24 | Egypt | A Pottery | | 72 |

| 25 | Italy | Venetian Potter | | 74 |

| 26-29 | .. {| Earthen-ware and |} | 77-79 |

| | {| Porcelain Kilns |} | |

| 30 | | Captives making Bricks | | 84 |

| 31 | | Scarabæus | Way, B.M.F.A. | 86 |

| 32 | | Gods | Way, B.M.F.A. | 87 |

| 33 | | Earthen-ware | | 88 |

| 34 | | Pottery Cone | Trumbull-Prime | 89 |

| 35 | | Terra-cotta Vase | British Museum | 89 |

| 36 | | Polished Terra-cotta | | 91 |

| 37 | | Polished Terra-cotta | British Museum | 91 |

| 38 | | Glazed Pottery Vase | | 92 |

| 39 | | Scarabæi | Way, B.M.F.A. | 92 |

| 40 | | Pectoral Tablets | Way, B.M.F.A. | 93 |

| 41,42 | | Mummy Figures | Way, B.M.F.A. | 94,95 |

| 43 | | Fragment Tin Enamel | Trumbull-Prime | 96 |

| 44 | | Pottery Vases | | 97 |

| 45 | | Terra-cotta Venus | | 98 |

| 46 | | Cylinder | British Museum | 98 |

| 47 | | Inscribed Seal | | 98 |

| 48 | | Seal of Sabaco | | 98 |

| 49 | | Enlarged Impression | | 99 |

| 50 | | Back of Assyrian Seal | | 99 |

| 51 | | Fragment: Porcelain (?) | | 99 |

| 52 | | Box in Porcelain(?) | | 99 |

| 53 | | Enamelled Brick | Louvre | 99 |

| 54 | | Babylonian Brick | | 100 |

| 55 | | Mujellibé | | 100 |

| 56 | | Terra-cotta Tablet | British Museum | 101 |

| 57 | | Baked Clay Ram | | 102 |

| 58 | | Glazed Coffins | | 102 |

| 59 | | Earthen-ware Vessels | | 103 |

| 60 | | Lamps and Oil Vessels | | 104 |

| 61 | | Porcelain Vases | | 108 |

| 62 | | Porcelain Group | S.P. Avery | 109 |

| 63 | | Cheon-lao | | 111 |

| 64 | | Kuan-in S. P. Avery | | 112 |

| 65 | | Dog Fo | | 113 |

| 66 | | Vase with Ky-lin | August Belmont | 113 |

| 67 | | Sacred Horse | | 114 |

| 68 | | Fong-hoang | | 114 |

| 69 | | Vase with Fong-hoang | Robert Hoe, Jr | 115 |

| 70 | | Crackle Vase | S.P. Avery | 118 |

| 71 | | Nankin Tower | | 119 |

| 72 | | Bricks from Nankin Tower| N. Y. Metro. Museum| 119 |

| 73 | | Crackle Vase | J.C. Runkle | 120 |

| 74 | | Porcelain Lantern | S.P. Avery | 121 |

| 75-82 | | Honorific Marks | | 124 |

| 83 | | Blue-and-white Porcelain| J.C. Runkle | 125 |

| 84 | | Blue-and-white Porcelain| W.L. Andrews | 125 |

| 85 | | Lancelle Vase | W.L. Andrews | 126 |

| 86 | | Blue-and-white Vase | J.C. Runkle | 127 |

| 87 | | “Hawthorn” Vase | S.P. Avery | 128 |

| 88 | | “Hawthorn” Vase | J.C. Runkle | 129 |

| 89 | | Black “Hawthorn” | S.P. Avery | 130 |

| 90 | | Aster Plaque | W.L. Andrews | 131 |

| 91 | | Ewer, Persian Style | J.C. Runkle | 132 |

| 92 | | Turquoise Vase | S.P. Avery | 133 |

| 93 | | Kieu-long Green | J.C. Runkle | 135 |

| 94 | | Ming Vase | G.R. Hall, B.M.F.A.| 137 |

| 95 | | Ming Vase | J.C. Runkle | 138 |

| 96 | | Ming Vase, Green | F. Robinson | 139 |

| 97 | | Rose Family | Mrs J.V.L. Pruyn | 140 |

| 98 | | Rose Plate | Robert Hoe, Jr | 141 |

| 99 | | Rose Bowl | Mrs J.V.L. Pruyn | 142 |

| 100 | | Rose Egg-shell | W.L. Andrews | 143 |

| 101 | | White Porcelain Cup | J.C. Runkle | 145 |

| 102 | | Five-fingered Rosadon | G.W. Wales | 149 |

| 103 | | Yellow Porcelain | J.F. Sutton | 150 |

| 104 | | Grains of Rice | S.P. Avery | 151 |

| 105 | | Reticulated Vase | S.P. Avery | 152 |

| 106 | | Cup and Saucer | Mrs J.V.L. Pruyn | 153 |

| 107 | | Earthen-ware Jar | A.A. Vantine & Co | 154 |

| 108 | | Porcelain Cup and Saucer| W.L. Andrews | 155 |

| 109 | | Porcelain Vase | | 155 |

| 110 | | Japanese Gods | | 156 |

| 111 | | Raku Bowl | A.A. Vantine & Co | 160 |

| 112 | | Kiri-mon | | 161 |

| 113 | | Guik-mon | | 161 |

| 114 | | Tycoon’s Arms | | 161 |

| 115 | | Dragon Bowl | Corcoran Art Gall. | 162 |

| 116 | | Satsuma Vase | B.M.F.A. | 166 |

| 117 | | Satsuma Vase | August Belmont | 167 |

| 118 | | Satsuma Vase | R.H. Pruyn | 168 |

| 119 | | Satsuma Vase | J.W. Paige | 169 |

| 120 | | Satsuma Vase | J.F. Sutton | 170 |

| 121 | | Kioto Faience | A.A. Vantine & Co | 171 |

| 122 | | Kioto Faience | B.M.F.A. | 171 |

| 123 | | Kioto Faience | J.F. Sutton | 172 |

| 124 | | Kiusin Vase | A.A. Vantine & Co | 172 |

| 125 | | Karatsu Vase | J.F. Sutton | 173 |

| 126 | | Suma Vase | A.A. Vantine & Co | 173 |

| 127 | | Satsuma Vase | Robert H. Pruyn | 174 |

| 128 | | Porcelain Plaque | W.L. Andrews | 175 |

| 129 | | Old Hizen, or Imari | A.A. Vantine & Co | 177 |

| 130 | | Porcelain Dish | R.H. Pruyn | 177 |

| 131 | | Hizen Porcelain Vase | Mrs J.V.L. Pruyn | 178 |

| 132 | | Japanese Porcelain Vase | H.C. Gibson | 178 |

| 133 | | Kaga Vase | A.A. Vantine & Co | 179 |

| 134 | | Owari Vase | Yoshida Kiyonari | 181 |

| 135 | | Lacquer Vase |Corcoran Art Gallery| 182 |

| 136 | | Tokio Cloisonné Enamel | J.F. Sutton | 182 |

| 137 | | Owari Cloisonné Enamel | J.F. Sutton | 183 |

| 138 | | Rose Family Vase | Robert H. Pruyn | 183 |

| 139 | | Faience Plaque | Robert Hoe, Jr | 189 |

|140,141| | Faience Plaques | B.M.F.A. | 192 |

| 142 | | Shrine of Imam Hussein | | 194 |

| 143 | | Porcelain Bottle | Jacquemart | 196 |

| 144 | | Porcelain Narghili | | 196 |

| 145 | | General Di Cesnola | | 199 |

|146-149| | Phœnician Vases | Di Cesnola |200-202|

| 150 | | Assyro-Phœnician Vase | Di Cesnola | 203 |

| 151 | | Greek Vase | Di Cesnola | 204 |

|152-158| | Phœnician Pottery | Di Cesnola |205-209|

| 159 | | Greek Vases and Cups | Di Cesnola | 210 |

| 160 | | Saracen Tile | Trumbull-Prime | 213 |

| 161 | | Saracen Tiles | B.M.F.A. | 213 |

|162,163| | Rhodian Faience | |214,215|

| 164 | | Maghreb Urn | | 216 |

| 165 | | Early Greek Aryballoi | Trumbull-Prime | 219 |

| 166 | | Early Greek Vases | | 220 |

| 167 | | Greek Vase | Louvre | 221 |

| 168 | | Head of Minerva | Trumbull-Prime | 222 |

| 169 | | Stamnos | | 223 |

| 170 | | Askos | | 223 |

| 171 | | Skyphos | | 223 |

| 172 | | Rhyton | | 224 |

|173,174| | Kraters | |224,225|

| 175 | | Holmos | | 225 |

| 176 | | Kelebe | | 225 |

| 177 | | Oxybaphon | | 225 |

|178,179| | Prochoos | | 226 |

| 180 | | Olpe | | 226 |

| 181 | | Kyathos | | 227 |

| 182 | | Kantharos | | 227 |

| 183 | | Kylix | Trumbull-Prime | 228 |

| 184 | | Early Greek Oinochoe | Trumbull-Prime | 228 |

| 185 | | Early Greek Oinochoe | T.G. Appleton, | 229 |

| 186 | | Bacchic Amphora | T.G. Appleton, | 229 |

| 187 | | Kalpis | T.G. Appleton, | 230 |

| 188 | | Hydria | Trumbull-Prime | 231 |

| 189 | | Amphora | T.G. Appleton, | 231 |

| 190 | | Hispano-Moresque Vase | South Kensington | 233 |

| 191 | | Hispano-Moresque Plaque | J.W. Paige | 234 |

| 192 | | Alhambra Vase | | 235 |

| 193 | | Hispano-Moresque Plaque | G.W. Wales, | 236 |

| 194 | | Early Hispano-Moresque | Boston Household | 236 |

| 195 | | Moorish Tile | | 237 |

| 196 | | Early Hispano-Moresque | Boston Household | 237 |

| 197 | | Etruscan Vase | J.J. Dixwell | 243 |

| 198 | | Roman Lamps | | 245 |

| 199 | | Samian Ware | | 245 |

| 200 | | Siculo-Moresque Vase | | 247 |

| 201 | | Siculo-Moresque Vases | Castellani | 248 |

| 202 | | Sgraffiato | | 249 |

| 203 | | Luca della Robbia | | 250 |

| 204 | | Robbia Medallion | Hôtel Cluny | 251 |

| 205 | | Robbia Plaque | B.M.F.A. | 251 |

| 206 | | Robbia Medallion | South Kensington | 252 |

| 207 | | Andrea della Robbia | B.M.F.A. | 252 |

| 208 | | Imitation Robbia | B.M.F.A. | 253 |

| 209 | | St Sebastian, by Giorgio| South Kensington | 253 |

| 210 | | Chaffagiolo Pitcher | South Kensington | 254 |

| 211 | | Siena Vase | South Kensington | 254 |

| 212 | | The Sforza Dish | | 256 |

| 213 | | Pesaro Vase |John Taylor Johnston| 257 |

| 214 | | Castel-Durante Dish | South Kensington | 258 |

| 215 | | Castel-Durante Dish | Castellani | 258 |

| 216 | | Plate by Xanto | Marryat | 259 |

| 217 | | Urbino Vase | Castellani | 260 |

| 218 | | Urbino Pilgrim’s Bottle | South Kensington | 261 |

| 219 | | Gubbio Lustre | South Kensington | 261 |

| 220 | | Platean by Giorgio | South Kensington | 262 |

| 221 | | Faenza Dish | | 263 |

| 222 | | Deruta Dish | South Kensington | 264 |

| 223 | | Medicean Porcelain | Castellani | 266 |

| 224 | | Design on the Above | | 267 |

| 225 | | Nove Porcelain | | 269 |

| 226 | | Biscuit Group, Sèvres | August Belmont | 271 |

| 227 | | Bernard Palissy | | 274 |

| 228 | | Palissy Dish | Rothschild | 276 |

| 229 | | Palissy Pitcher | Rothschild | 277 |

| 230 | | Barbizet Plaque | Tiffany & Co | 278 |

| 231 | | Palissy Cistern | | 279 |

| 232 | | Henri Deux Ewer | | 280 |

| 233 | | Henri Deux Biberon | Malcolm | 280 |

| 234 | | Rouen Faience | | 281 |

| 235 | | Rouen Faience | Trumbull-Prime | 282 |

|236,237| | Moustiers Dishes | |284,285|

| 238 | | Haviland Faience | Smithsonian Inst. | 290 |

| 239 | | Haviland Faience | Henry Havemeyer | 296 |

| 240 | | Haviland Faience | G.W. Gibson | 297 |

| 241 | | Haviland Faience | Whitelaw Reid | 297 |

| 242 | | Haviland Faience | Mrs Wm. H. Dannat | 298 |

| 243 | | Haviland Faience | Mrs Col T. Scott | 300 |

| 244 | | Haviland Faience | Clara L. Kellogg | 302 |

| 245 | | Bourg-la-Reine Faience | G. Collamore | 303 |

| 246 | | Bourg-la-Reine Faience | Tiffany & Co | 303 |

| 247 | | Deck Faience |Corcoran Art Gallery| 304 |

|248,249| | Deck Bottle and Vase | G. Collamore | 305 |

| 250 | | Colinot Faience | Tiffany & Co | 306 |

| 251 | | Colinot Faience | G. Collamore | 306 |

| 252 | | Colinot Faience | Tiffany & Co | 307 |

| 253 | | Longwy Faience | G. Collamore | 308 |

|254,255| | Longwy Faience | Tiffany & Co |308,309|

| 256 | | Parville Faience | Tiffany & Co | 309 |

| 257 | | Gien Faience | D. Collamore | 310 |

| 258 | | Sarreguemines Faience | G. Collamore | 310 |

| 259 | | St Cloud Porcelain | Jacquemart | 312 |

| 260 | | Vincennes Porcelain | Duke de Martina | 313 |

| 261 | | Sèvres Pate Tendre | August Belmont | 314 |

| 262 | | Jewelled Sèvres | Mrs J.V.L. Pruyn | 315 |

| 263 | | Jewelled Sèvres | H.C. Gibson | 315 |

| 264 | | Sèvres Vase | Mrs C.B. Hosack | 316 |

| 265 | | Sèvres Vase | White House | 317 |

| 266 | | Sèvres Porcelain | Mrs J.V.L. Pruyn | 317 |

| 267 | | Sèvres Vase | White House | 318 |

| 268 | | Sèvres Tea-set | Miss M.F. Curtis | 318 |

|269,270| | Washington’s Sèvres | | 319 |

| 271 | | Limoges Porcelain | S.S. Conant | 320 |

| 272 | | Limoges Porcelain | | 320 |

| 273 | | Limoges Porcelain | Mrs Col T. Scott | 321 |

| 274 | | Limoges Porcelain | General A.J. Myer | 321 |

| 275 | | Limoges Porcelain | Whitelaw Reid | 322 |

| 276 | | Limoges Pate Tendre | H.J. Jewitt | 322 |

|277-279| | Limoges Pate Tendre | |323,324|

|280,281| | Deck Vase and Plaque | G. Collamore | 325 |

| 282 | | Pate-sur-pate, by Solon | G. W. Wales, | 326 |

| 283 | | Hut-shaped Vases | | 328 |

| 284 | | Hirschvogel Vase | | 330 |

|285,286| | Delft Faience | Mrs J.V.L. Pruyn |331,332|

|287,288| | Graybeards | | 334 |

|289,290| | Fine Stone-ware | | 335 |

| 291 | | Böttcher Stone-ware | D. Collamore | 337 |

| 292 | | Meissen Porcelain | F. Robinson | 337 |

| 293 | | Meissen Porcelain | | 338 |

| 294 | | Meissen Porcelain | L. Double | 339 |

| 295 | | Meissen Porcelain | August Belmont | 340 |

| 296 | | Meissen Porcelain | J.C. Runkle | 340 |

| 297 | | Modern Dresden Porcelain| D. Collamore | 341 |

| 298 | | Berlin Porcelain | D. Collamore | 341 |

| 299 | | Berlin Porcelain Vase | August Belmont | 342 |

| 300 | | Russian Faience | D. Collamore | 344 |

|301,302| | Swedish Faience | William Astor |345,346|

| 303 | | Norwegian Faience | W.B. Dickerman | 347 |

|304-306| | Ipsen Terra-cotta | Ovington Brothers |348,349|

| 307 | | Wendrich Terra-cotta | T. Schmidt | 350 |

| 308 | | Copenhagen Porcelain | Mrs J.V.L. Pruyn | 351 |

| 309 | | Ancient British Vases | | 353 |

|310,311| | Celtic Pottery | | 354 |

|312,313| | Romano-British Ware | | 355 |

| 314 | | Saxon Pottery | | 356 |

| 315 | | Anglo-Norman Vases | | 356 |

|316-318| | Old English Tiles | Bost. Household | 357 |

| 319 | | Posset-pot, 15th Century| Bateman | 359 |

| 320 | | Staffordshire Tyg | | 359 |

| 321 | | Elers Ware | | 360 |

| 322 | | Josiah Wedgwood | | 360 |

| 323 | | Wedgwood Cameo | | 361 |

| 324 | | Wedgwood Basaltes | Meyer | 362 |

| 325 | | Wedgwood Jasper | Barlow | 363 |

| 326 | | Wedgwood Earthen-ware | W.S. Ward | 363 |

| 327 | | Wedgwood Portland Vase | | 364 |

| 328 | | Wedgwood Jasper Vase | John W. Britton | 365 |

| 329 | | Wedgwood Earthen-ware | D. Collamore | 365 |

| 330 | | Wedgwood Plate | Tiffany & Co | 366 |

| 331 | | Wedgwood Majolica | Horace Russell | 367 |

| 332 | | Minton Stone-ware | D. Collamore | 368 |

| 333 | | Minton Plaque | Tiffany & Co | 369 |

| 334 | | Minton Majolica |Corcoran Art Gallery| 370 |

|335,336| | Doulton Ware | W.B. Dickerman | 371 |

| 337 | | Lambeth Faience | | 372 |

|338,339| | Lambeth Faience | D. Collamore | 373 |

| 340 | | Doulton Terra-cotta | Smithsonian Inst. | 374 |

| 341 | | Lambeth Faience | Dr H.G. Piffard | 375 |

| 342 | | Lowestoft Pottery | F. Robinson | 375 |

| 343 | | Plymouth Porcelain | | 377 |

| 344 | | Bow Porcelain | | 377 |

| 345 | | Chelsea Porcelain | | 378 |

| 346 | | Derby Porcelain | F. Robinson | 378 |

| 347 | | Bloor-Derby | F. Robinson | 379 |

| 348 | | Old Worcester Porcelain | Robert Hoe, Jr | 379 |

| 349 | | Worcester Porcelain | G. Collamore | 380 |

|350,351| | Worcester Porcelain | D. Collamore |380,381|

| 352 | | Minton Pate-sur-pate, | H.C. Gibson | 382 |

| 353 | | Jewelled Copeland | Tiffany & Co | 383 |

|354,355| | Copeland Parian | | 384 |

| 356 | | Copeland Reticulated | W.B. Dickerman | 385 |

| 357 | | Shelton Porcelain | D. Collamore | 388 |

|358-360| | Belleek Porcelain | Tiffany & Co |388,389|

| 361 | | Tile-piece, by | | 391 |

|362,363| | Peruvian Pottery | |393,397|

| 364 | | Peruvian Water-jar | Smithsonian Inst. | 400 |

| 365 | | Peruvian Pottery | | 400 |

| 366 | | Peruvian Drinking-vessel| | 401 |

| 367 | | Pottery from Cuzco | | 401 |

| 368 | | Coiled Water-vessel | Smithsonian Inst. | 402 |

|369,370| | Peruvian Pottery | | 403 |

| 371 | | Peruvian Water-vessel | Smithsonian Inst. | 404 |

| 372 | | Greek Head-shaped Cup | | 404 |

|373-375| | Peruvian Pottery | |405,406|

|376-378| | Peruvian Pottery | Smithsonian Inst. |407,408|

|379-381| | Peruvian Pottery | |408,409|

| 382 | | Peruvian Black Vessel | Smithsonian Inst. | 410 |

| 383 | | Peruvian Painted Cup | Smithsonian Inst. | 410 |

|384,385| | Peruvian Pottery | | 411 |

|386-388| | Peruvian Pottery | Barboza |412,413|

| 389 | | Brazilian Basin | | 414 |

| 390 | | Burial Urn | | 414 |

|391,392| | Modern Pottery | |415,416|

| 393 | | Colombia Corrugated Ware| Smithsonian Inst. | 417 |

| 394 | | Vase from Ometepec | Smithsonian Inst. | 418 |

| 395 | | Vase from Ometepec | Smithsonian Inst. | 419 |

| 396 | | Tripod from Ometepec | Smithsonian Inst. | 419 |

| 397 | | Urns from Ometepec | | 420 |

|398,399| | Terra-cotta Figures | |420,421|

| 400 | | Terra-cotta Heads | | 421 |

| 401 | | Guatemala Urn | | 422 |

| 402 | | Guatemala Cup | | 422 |

| 403 | | Vases from Missouri | Mrs J.V.L. Pruyn | 425 |

| 404 | | Vase | B.M.F.A. | 426 |

| 405 | | Vase | Smithsonian Inst. | 426 |

| 406 | | Vase | B.M.F.A. | 427 |

| 407 | | Vases | | 427 |

|408-410| | Corrugated Pottery | U. S. Geol. Survey |432,433|

| 411 | | Pottery Handle | U. S. Geol. Survey | 433 |

| 412 | | Pottery Ladle | U. S. Geol. Survey | 434 |

| 413 | | Pottery Pipe | U. S. Geol. Survey | 434 |

|414-423| | Painted Pottery | U. S. Geol. Survey |434-436|

| 424 | | Pottery with Relief | U. S. Geol. Survey | 436 |

|425-428| | Modern Moqui | U. S. Geol. Survey |436,437|

| 429 | | Greenpoint Porcelain | | 443 |

| 430 | | Jersey City Earthen-ware| | 456 |

| | | | | |

| 431 | | N. Y. City Porcelain | | 457 |

| 432 | | N. Y. Iron-stone China | | 458 |

| 433 | | N. Y. City Pottery | | 458 |

|434-438| | Trenton Parian | |464-467|

|439,440| | Chelsea Terra-cotta | | 470 |

|441,442| | Philadelphia Porcelain | Trumbull-Prime |471,472|

| 443 | | Bennington Porcelain | Trumbull-Prime | 472 |

| 444 | | Greenpoint Century Vase | | 474 |

| 445 | | “Kéramos” Vase | | 475 |

| 446 | | Greenpoint Biscuit | | 476 |

| 447 | | “Song of the Shirt” | | 477 |

|448,449| | Greenpoint Porcelain | |478,479|

| 450 | | Greenpoint Porcelain | E. Bierstadt | 479 |

| 451 | | Poets’ Pitcher | | 480 |

|452-454| | Greenpoint Porcelain | |480,481|

| 455 | | Greenpoint Porcelain | | 482 |

| 456 | | English Porcelain | D. Collamore | 482 |

| 457 | | Jersey City Earthen-ware| | 483 |

|458-460| | Bennett Faience | D. Collamore |484,485|

| 461 | | Plate by J.M. Falconer | | 485 |

| 462 | | Porcelain and Silver | Reed & Barton | 486 |

| 463 | | Porcelain and Silver | Reed & Barton | 486 |

| 464 | | Porcelain and Silver | J.W. Britton | 487 |

+-------+-------------+-------------------------+--------------------+-------+

[B.M.F.A. = Bost. Mus. of Fine Arts]

THE CERAMIC ART.

INTRODUCTION.

Advantages of the Study.--The Lost Origin of the Art.--Ascribed to

the Gods.--Legends of China, Japan, Egypt, and Greece.--Keramos.--A

Solution suggested.--How Pottery illustrates History.--How it

explains the Customs of the Ancients.--Its Bearings upon

Religion.--Examples from Egypt, Greece, and China.--The Art

represented in Pottery.--Its Permanency.--As a Combination of Form

with Drawing and Color.--Greek Art.--Its Merits and Defects.--The

Orientals, and their Attention to Color.--Eastern Skill.--The Aim

of Palissy.--The Highest Aim of the Ceramic Artist.--Painting on

Porcelain.--Rules to be Observed in Decorating.--Where Color alone

is a Worthy Object.--How the Art affords the Best Illustration of

the Useful combined with the Beautiful.--Its Place in the

Household.

The history of ceramic art carries us back to ages of which it has

furnished us with the only records. Beginning almost with the appearance

of man upon the globe, it brings us down through the intricate paths of

his migrations to the time in which we live. Historically, therefore,

the study of the art is not only replete with interest, but promises

much benefit to the student. The forms under which it appears are so

varied, the circuitous route it has followed leads to so many lands and

among so many peoples, and the customs it illustrates are so distinctive

of widely separated nationalities, that its history is co-extensive with

that of humanity. In many cases it supplies us with information

regarding nations whose works in pottery are their only monuments.

Were we, therefore, to attempt to find its origin, we might go back as

far as written history could guide us, and then find proofs of its

existence in a prehistoric age. It is curious to observe that, as we

compare the earliest productions of different countries, we discover a

similarity between the crude ideas to which they owe their origin. It

is equally remarkable--and the fact is worthy of notice as pointing to

the great antiquity of the practice of working in clay--that all nations

of whose early religious ideas we have any knowledge ascribe its

inception to the gods. Daily habit demonstrated its utility, and

gratitude found a cover for ignorance, in bestowing upon the heavenly

powers the credit of inspiring man with a knowledge of the capabilities

of the plastic clay.

Reason supplies an easy solution of the problem, but one not likely to

occur to the unreasoning man of the primitive world. “On the day,” says

Jacquemart, “when man, walking upon the clayey soil, softened by

inundations or rain, first observed that the earth retained the prints

of his footsteps, the plastic art was discovered; and when lighting a

fire to warm his limbs or to cook his food, he remarked that the surface

of the hearth changed its nature and its color, that the reddened clay

became sonorous, impervious, and hardened in its new shape, the art was

revealed to him of making vessels fit to contain liquids.” The reason of

the nineteenth century conflicts strangely with old-world opinions of

what was due to beneficent deity. Of this we can easily find abundant

illustration. Let us take, as examples, China, Japan, Egypt, and Greece.

We will find that each reverts to the misty boundary between legend and

history, or to the earlier age when the gods had not deserted the

world--the horizon of mortal vision or fancy, where heaven seems to

touch earth. It is said that nearly two thousand seven hundred years

before the Christian era the potter’s art was discovered in China by

Kouen-ou. This was during the reign of the enlightened Emperor Hoang-ti.

Of him it is recorded that after many labors for the good of his

subjects, the amelioration of their condition, and the extension of

their knowledge, he was translated to the upper sphere on the back of a

huge and whiskered dragon.

The Japanese follow a precisely similar course. Having no real

knowledge, they call imagination to their aid, and solve an historical

problem by the creation of a legend. Turning back to a period long

before history begins, they affect to find the inventor of pottery in

Oosei-tsumi, a legendary being who lived in the age of

Oanamuchi-no-mikoto, and conferred upon him the title of “Kami,”

distinctive of deity.

The Egyptians, more reverently, gave the art directly to the gods.

Having a pantheon, they merely singled out that one of its occupants to

whom the honor should be ascribed. As Osiris is their Bacchus, and Thoth

their Mercury, so to the director Num, the first creature, they ascribe

the art of moulding clay. Like the Hebrew Jehovah, he first made the

heavens and earth, the firmament, the sun, and the moon, and, from the

fact of his having made the rivers and mountains, would appear also to

have evolved order out of the Egyptian chaos. Lastly, he made man.

Turning the clay of the Nile upon his wheel, he fashioned the last and

greatest of created things, and having “breathed into his nostrils the

breath of life,” made man the cornerstone of the fabric of creation.

Inspiration and monotheism apart, it would almost appear that the Jewish

law-giver found in the hated “house of bondage” a foundation for his

cosmogony.

In how many instances did the Greeks lay the honors due to some

forgotten mortal at the feet of a god or a semi-divine hero? To them

Inachus, who about 1800 B.C. founded the kingdom of Argos, was not the

leader of a band of adventurous emigrants from Egypt, but a child of the

sea over which he came, a son of Oceanus and Tethys. It was only when

Gelanor, the last of the race of Inachus, was deposed by Danaus, that we

find a Greek recognition of the early connection of that country with

Egypt. Danaus was the son of Belus, and brother of Ægyptus, jointly with

whom he occupied the throne of Egypt. Quarrelling with his brother,

Danaus set sail, and, arriving at Argos, rose to the throne by the means

above indicated. These statements are only of value to our present

purpose as showing the close connection between Greece and Egypt, and

pointing to the conclusion that Egypt dropped the germs of that art

which Greece cultivated to such perfection that it won the admiration of

the world. If we turn to the origin of pottery accepted by the Greeks

themselves, we are confused by the liveliness of their teeming

imagination. The exercise of fancy takes the place of an undeveloped

historical sense. When Jupiter wished to punish the rash impiety of

Prometheus by giving him a wife, Vulcan made Pandora, the first of

mortal women, out of clay. Prometheus is one of the strangest figures in

Greek mythology. He laughed at the whole Pantheon, cheated the great

Jove himself, and was yet a benefactor of mankind, after he had created

the species; for to him also is ascribed the creation from clay of the

first man and woman. Thus the gods and heroes were potters, and the art

was practised by them before mortal life began. To two Corinthians, one

Athenian, and one Cretan, the invention of the plastic art has been

attributed; but, passing these by, let us turn, for philological

reasons, to the legend of Keramos. The story of the adventures of

Theseus is pretty well known. By the help of Ariadne, he killed the

Minotaur of Crete, and escaped from the Labyrinth, and, having

subsequently abandoned his fair assistant on the island of Naxos, she is

said by some to have hanged herself in despair. Others, however,

assert--and to their tale we must listen--that in the arms of Bacchus

she found solace for her sorrows. Their son Keramos was the patron of

potters, and to his name we owe our word “keramic” or “ceramic.” When

the Argives pointed out the tomb of Ariadne, her ashes were deposited in

an urn in one of their temples, so that by means of the art attributed

to the son, the mother’s remains were preserved.

It is thus made clear that the practice of making vessels of clay had no

origin to which we can now turn back. The art was born in the “twilight

of the gods,” whose productions are now used in illustrating the pages

of history. Even in these wild fancies there is a germ of truth. The

first attempts at moulding in clay had a common origin in the

necessities of man, and the promptings of nature to supply them. The

material was on all hands ready for use; and why should the men of

antiquity be held to differ from the children of after-ages, or those of

our own time? To one the suggestion may have come from one source, to

another it may have come from another; and unless we choose to bind

ourselves to the narrative of the building of the great Tower of Babel,

and the dispersal of races, we may be led to think that its origin may

have been manifold, as its rudest attempts have certainly been

discovered in places wide apart.

On the sea-shore the child builds its house and mill, giving by the help

of water a certain consistency to the inadhesive sand. On the roadside,

or by the pond’s rim, it shapes the oozy mud into the forms suggested to

childhood’s imitative instinct. One of the earliest and most beautiful

of the legends relating to the youth of Christ has reference to this

very matter. He was engaged with his playmates in making earthen birds.

His efforts were clumsy and his art rude, and his companions jeered him,

until the birds he had made became living things, and flew away. Let us

by all means concede this to have been an impossible miracle, based upon

an idle legend. Yet it proves that either in the early days of Galilee,

or in those of the inventor of the tale, the habits of children differed

in no degree from those of to-day. A kind of instinct would almost

appear to lead them to model and imitate in clay; and putting primitive

man upon the level of childhood, there is no reason for believing that

the plastic art had not several independent origins.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Old Sèvres Patetendre. Fontenoy Vase,

commemorative of the Battle of Fontenoy. Painted by Genest. (M. L.

Double Coll.)]

The manner in which pottery illustrates history brings us to one of the

most interesting features of the study (Fig. 1). While the connoisseur

is deep in the history of the art itself, the student prefers to view it

in its relation to that of mankind. It suggests difficulties, confirms

deductions, and offers hints for the solution of the problems of

history. The memory of extinct nations is perpetuated by the clay

records which have survived their submergence in the tide of time. In

these we may read, as in a book, of the gods they worshipped, of their

daily life, of their death and burial. Historians now, in fact, consult

the relics of the potter’s art with as much confidence and readiness as

they would turn to the pages of an old-world chronicle. Migrations,

intercourse, and conquest have all been recorded in clay. One might in

that way define with the utmost exactness the line bounding the vast

empire of Rome. The bricks or tiles, placed over the graves of the

soldiers or found in their camps, show the stations of the legions and

the extent of conquest. Wherever

“the Empress of the world

Of yore her eagle wings unfurled,”

in England, Scotland, France, Germany, Jerusalem, or elsewhere, there

have been found tiles or bricks stamped with the number of the legion or

its distinctive appellation. The tragic end of Quintilius Varus is known

to all readers of Roman history. A Roman proconsul of high birth, and

enriched by the governorship of Syria, he was appointed to the command

of the army confronting the hordes of Germany. Surprised by the German

chief Hermann, or Arminius, his army was almost annihilated, and he, in

despair, after the fashion of his time, sought death by his own hand.

The Emperor Augustus wailed for months, “Varus, give me back my

legions,” the legions which were lying on the field, at the farthest

point to which the armies of Rome had penetrated, and also the farthest

in that direction, at which any specimens of Roman pottery have been

found. From the funereal urns of the Greeks we are enabled to tell how

far they pursued their conquests in any direction. Other nations left,

in the lands to which their arms were carried, similar mementos of their

presence, which, on being exhumed, after lying for centuries covered

thickly over by the dust time is continually spreading over the past,

are transferred to the page of history.

A very forcible example of the historical value of earthen-ware is found

almost at our very door. Irving relates, in his “Life of Washington,”

that, not long after his birth, his father removed to Stafford County,

near Fredericksburg. The house stood on a knoll overlooking the

Rappahannock. This was the home of George’s youth. The meadow between

the house and the river was his play-ground. But this home, like that in

which he was born, has disappeared; the site is only to be traced by

fragments of _bricks_, _china_, and _earthen-ware_. Another example may

be taken from a paragraph which appeared in the daily papers very

recently, in which it was stated that two _amphoræ_--the name given to

the Greek two-handled, oval-bodied vases (Fig. 2) with pointed base,

which have been found wherever Greek commerce extended--containing fifty

thousand coins of the Emperor Gallienus and his immediate successors,

had been discovered at Verona. Nearly all were as fresh as when coming

from the mint. Gallienus assumed the purple A.D. 260, and reigned for

eight years before he was assassinated at Milan. For over fifteen

hundred years, therefore, these vases preserved their numismatic

treasures.

[Illustration: Fig. 2.--Greek and Phœnician (on right) Amphoræ.

(Cesnola Coll., N. Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 3.--Chinese Bottles found in Egyptian Tombs.]

Still another instance may be mentioned in which the close connection

between history and its handmaid, pottery, is illustrated. Some time ago

certain travellers in Egypt purchased a number of small jars (Fig. 3) of

a kaolinic composition, which they were told had been taken from the

tombs. They were evidently, from the style of decoration and the

characters they bore, of Chinese manufacture; and the first conclusion

was, that, as evidence was not wanting to show that one of them had been

taken from a very old tomb on its being first opened, they were

possessed of a highly venerable antiquity. Subsequent investigations,

however, showed that they had been obtained from certain ports on the

Red Sea, and were to be ascribed to a comparatively recent date. The

discovery subtracted about two thousand five hundred years from their

age. But how came these Chinese vases to find their way to the

commercial cities of the Red Sea? Before navigators had learned that

the great highway between Europe and the East was round the South of

Africa, intercourse was maintained either by the overland route or

through the Persian Gulf. This accounts for the abundance of Chinese

porcelain found in Persia. Some of the specimens may have been left on

the western side of the Gulf, and have thence found their way across

Arabia to the shores of the Red Sea, whence they were obtained by the

fraudulent venders of Lower Egypt.

In this way the intercourse of nations may frequently be explained by

the help of pottery. Not only, be it observed, may it be taken as an

indicator of the movements or extension of the nations themselves, but

of the manner and extent of their intercourse with the rest of the

world.

As an exponent of the customs of antiquity, its aid is of the highest

value. We learn, for instance, that among the Greeks the usual custom

was to mix wine in one vessel, cool it in another, draw it from the

latter into jugs, and from them fill and replenish the beakers or cups

of guests. We can see anywhere to-day tiny tea-sets for the amusement of

children. The Greeks had something closely akin to them. Vases were

given to children, as toys are given now. Some of those discovered are

so limited in their dimensions that they could not have been used for

any other purpose, and on others are depicted the games in which

children engaged. Of all the uses to which an earthen jar could be put,

certainly the most singular was that discovered by Diogenes, when he

chose one for his habitation (Fig. 4). That such was the case there is

strong reason for believing. This statement is one which may disconcert

popular belief, and break off the association between the philosopher

and a “tub;” but the authorities in favor of his home being a huge jar

are tolerably decisive. A tub, moreover, scarcely seems to meet the

requirements of the occasion, whereas it is easy to imagine a _pithos_

satisfying the limited demands of Diogenes in the way of house-keeping.

Nor was the whim of the philosopher without parallel. It is said that

during the Peloponnesian war the Athenians lived in similar vessels. The

_pithos_ occupied by Diogenes was cracked and patched; and these

vessels, when unfit for other use, were, long after his day, used as

dwellings by the poor.

[Illustration: Fig. 4.--Diogenes in Pithos.]

Vases were presented as prizes (Fig. 5) to the victors in the athletic

games; and it is from these and other kinds deposited in sepulchres,

that we derive the greater part of our knowledge of Greek ceramic art.

Not only were they used--at least after the earliest days of Greece--to

hold the ashes of the dead, but were evidently employed as tokens of

respect or affection. Thus, the vases the deceased had most admired or

used in life were placed in the tomb, along with others containing the

remains of the funeral feast, and those employed in the last rites. The

_amphora_ was devoted to all kinds of domestic uses. The _rhyton_ was a

drinking-cup (Fig. 6). There were special vessels for oil and unguents;

and the different kinds of wine-jars and drinking-cups present an almost

endless variety of shapes, and, especially the latter, a most wonderful

beauty of form. Of these, the _kylix_ affords a good example (Fig. 7).

In this way we see that, from childhood to the grave, the customs of the

Greeks are illustrated by their pottery. We pass by, in the mean time,

with a mere reference the numberless mythic themes decipherable in the

decoration of their vases.

[Illustration: Fig. 5.--Greek Prize Vase.]

We meet with a precisely similar state of things among the Chinese. We

can only study the pottery of that people after familiarizing ourselves

with their religion. How otherwise can we understand the quaint figures

and designs which meet us at every turn--the God of Longevity, Pou-tai

the God of Contentment, their manifold dragons, the Kylin, the Dog of

Fo, or the Fong-hoang? Colors and shapes, as well as animals, are

employed as symbols. As the crane symbolized long life, so were certain

colors and forms distinctive of social rank. Let us take a vase and

study it closely, observe its proportions and decoration, and these will

guide us to its purpose and to the rank of the individual making use of

it. Vases and images tell of both the public and private worship of the

Chinese, and of the manner in which it was conducted. The excess to

which the Chinese carry the duties of hospitality and courtesy has been

frequently commented on. It would be hard to imagine anything showing

better the refinements of which etiquette is capable, than their manner

of decorating their reception-rooms, so that they may be filled with the

mildest incense of flattery to the expected guest. Should he be a

soldier, vases stand on all sides, decorated with the warlike scenes

best suited to his professional taste. Should he be a poet, war is

changed to literature, and vases are chosen which recall the great names

of the profession. After a manner similar to that in vogue among the

Greeks, pottery and porcelain were used by the Chinese as media for the

conveyance of compliments and good wishes, and as special marks of

honor. They were conferred on the officer by his sovereign, and passed

between friends at the customary times of rejoicing.

[Illustration: Fig. 6.--Greek Rhyton. (Trumbull-Prime Coll., N. Y.

Metropolitan Museum.)]

We approach Egypt, in this connection, with a certain amount of awe. We

examine its early pottery with a sensation similar to that with which we

view a mummy. It comprises relics of a civilization of so hoary an

antiquity, that to study them is like peering into the secrets of the

grave. It is, in fact, from the tombs that the treasures have been

exhumed which enable us to trace Egyptian ceramic art. They tell of

customs followed long before the Persian Cambyses

“O’erthrew Osiris, Orus, Apis, Isis,

And shook the Pyramids with fear and wonder

When the gigantic Memnon fell asunder.”

Some of the specimens date from the Third Dynasty, about four thousand

years ago. There is now in existence a porcelain box bearing one of the

names of Amasis II., the king whom Cambyses overthrew six hundred years

before our era began. The earliest relics may be said to have been

coeval with the invention of a written language.

[Illustration: Fig. 7.--Kylix, with Gorgon and Eyes.]

A very curious custom may be allowed to arrest our attention for a

moment. In the tombs previous to the sixth century B.C., have been found

cones (Fig. 8), having inscriptions on their base. From these we learn

the occupants’ names and office, whether scribes, priests, or nobles.

They served, in short, all the purposes of the inscriptions on the tombs

of our day, or of labels for establishing the identity of the dead.

Terra-cotta figures have also been found in some graves, bearing, like

the cones, the name and title of the deceased. In the same connection

may be mentioned the peculiar, and to us revolting, usage of devoting

vases to holding the viscera of the embalmed body.

[Illustration: Fig. 8.--Red Earthen-ware Cone. (Trumbull-Prime Coll., N.

Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]

The multitudinous domestic uses of jars cannot here be enumerated. We

know that they were devoted to purposes which would now be considered

somewhat at variance with the legitimate object of the manufacture of

earthen-ware. We might almost say that all the receptacles designed in

modern times for domestic convenience, such as baskets, boxes, and tin

utensils, have their counterparts among the earthen fabrics of the

Egyptians. Nor must we stop there if we observe the many other purposes

of ornament and religion to which their ceramic wares were devoted. The

Egyptians had an idea that the physical wants of the deceased did not

come to an end with life, and they accordingly placed in the tombs jars

with meat and drink for consumption after death. Of these jars, many had

unquestionably been previously employed in the household. From such and

other sources we learn that earthen pots were employed in cooking, as

those of metal are with us, that certain vessels were used for holding

water; others for the juice of the grape, for butcher-meat or poultry,

for cosmetics, and, stranger than any, for holding the flax while it was

being spun. Manuscripts, or papyri, have also been discovered in them;

so that it may easily be seen how important a part pottery played in the

every-day life of the Egyptians.

[Illustration: Fig. 9.--Ball of Painted Earthen-ware. Egyptian.]

If we turn to their glazed ware, or porcelain, as it has been called,

we find it much more extensively applied to decorative purposes. The

unglazed was almost exclusively restricted to articles of a domestic

kind. The glazed ware was employed in tiling, and inlaying coffins and

boxes, and in the making of various vases and cups. Balls, presumably

for the amusement of children, and other toys sometimes also made of

pottery (Fig. 9), ear-rings, the pieces for a game akin to draughts

(Fig. 10) or checkers, amulets, beads, necklaces, small figures of the

gods (perforated), emblematic animals, finger-rings, and sepulchral

figures, have all been found of this material. The extent to which such

discoveries illustrate the customs of the Egyptians need not be enlarged

upon.

Having thus brought forward China, Greece, and Egypt as instances, it is

hardly necessary to pursue this line of inquiry further. It may be said,

in the broadest language, that every nation of whose ceramic productions

we have any specimens, have in them reflected their religion and

customs, and thus furnished most important aids to the construction of

their national history.

[Illustration: Fig. 10.--Draughtsman of Glazed Pottery, from Thebes.]

Literature has been enriched by figures drawn from the ceramic art. Some

of the most effective similes of Biblical writers are thus derived. It

is under the type of a potter that Jeremiah represents God as showing

his absolute power over the Israelites: “Behold as the clay is in the

potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.” In a similar

manner, St. Paul typifies the divine control over man. “Nay but, O man,

who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to

him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter

power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and

another unto dishonor?” It is this absolute “power over the clay” which

led men to use it for the conveyance of their first conceptions of the

beautiful. The pottery of all countries shows how religion stimulated

art, by furnishing it with themes, and infusing into it a spiritual

signification which all could understand. The pottery of the Greeks

shows best how art may embellish religion and history, and perpetuate

the legends belonging to neither. To the above may be added the very

effective simile employed by Plato in characterizing Socrates: “The

outside of the vase is scrawled over with odd shapes and writing, but

within are precious liquors and healing medicines, and rare mixtures of

far-gathered herbs and flowers.”

[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Enamelled Babylonian Brick. (Louvre.)]

And thus, by a short step, we reach the art represented in pottery. It

supplies, beyond all question, the best means of observing the growth of

intelligence and the expansion of artistic ideas. The very qualities of

clay which led to its being used in the gratification of awakening

necessities, led also to its being adopted for the expression of the

first inspirations of art. When the Assyrian potter first ornamented the

brick he had moulded (Fig. 11), the mechanical pursuit was elevated to

the sphere of art. The same course was followed among all nations. When

the discovery was reached, that clay could be made serviceable for

building or for household vessels, decoration sooner or later suggested

itself. Either forms were varied and became in themselves ornamental, or

a superficial decoration was resorted to. The useful led to the

beautiful, and their combination, as seen on the dinner-tables of our

day, is the natural result of a universal process by which nations have

advanced from rude and unskilful ignorance to art. The aboriginal

American potter decorated his coarse vase with a few scratches made with

a stick; his modern successor moulds his porcelain into graceful forms,

and brings to its ornamentation a palette of bright colors, a trained

hand, and a cultivated taste. The one is a relic of barbarism, the other

a work of civilization, and both are the fruits of a combination to

which all nations have been irresistibly led, viz., the useful with the

beautiful. This course has been universally followed, and may, for that

reason, be called natural. Man in every part of the world has given vent

to his instinctive longing for that which, to him, represents beauty in

the embellishment of objects in daily use. It is by the consideration of

such facts that we learn to appreciate fully the bearing of pottery upon

art and history. Upon this point Dr. Birch says: “By the application of

painting to vases, the Greeks made them something more than mere

articles of commercial value or daily use. They have become a

reflection of the paintings of the Greek schools, and an inexhaustible

source for illustrating the mythology, manners, customs, and literature

of Greece. Unfortunately, very few are ornamented with historical

subjects, yet history receives occasional illustration from them; and

the representations of the burning of Crœsus, the orgies of Anacreon,

the wealth of Arcesilaus, the tributes of Darius, and the meeting of

Alcæus and Sappho, lead us to hope that future discoveries may offer

additional examples.”

This passage leads directly to the consideration of the permanency of

ceramic works as compared with those of other branches of art. The

“reflections of the paintings of the Greek schools” have come down to us

in all the beauty they possessed on first leaving the artist’s hand. We

may allow Mr. Ruskin to state the reverse case, and draw the conclusion.

“It is surely,” he says, “a severe lesson to us in this matter, that the

best works of Turner could not be shown for six months without being

destroyed--and that his most ambitious ones, for the most part, perished

before they could be shown. I will break through my law of reticence,

however, so far as to tell you that I have hope of one day interesting

you greatly (with the help of the Florentine masters) in the study of

the arts of moulding and painting porcelain; and to induce some of you

to use your future power of patronage in encouraging the various

branches of this art, and turning the attention of the workmen of Italy

from the vulgar tricks of minute and perishable mosaic to the exquisite

subtleties of form and color possible in the perfectly ductile,

afterward unalterable clay. And one of the ultimate results of such

craftsmanship might be the production of pictures as brilliant as

painted glass--as delicate as the most subtle water-colors, and more

permanent than the Pyramids.” Both these writers thus refer to

permanency as a feature of the potter’s art, which lends it a special

importance. Whatever form the art may have assumed, it is, when applied

to pottery, practically imperishable. By his allusion to the effect of

time and exposure upon the paintings of Turner, Mr. Ruskin invests the

results he contemplates with a certain kind of grandeur. He has in view

the culminating point of ceramic art, the apex to which the works of the

artists of all time lead up step by step. What process he would adopt,

or what forms of the art he would discard, we need not now inquire. It

will be sufficient to take our stand at the point indicated--the

perfection of form and decoration--and observe how the artists of the

past have approached it, and to mark the ideas by which they have been

influenced.

The ceramic is the union of two branches of art, the architectural and

the graphic. It combines form and proportion with drawing and color. It

is unnecessary here to define art in the abstract; but there are certain

general principles which may help us to estimate the works of the

ceramic artists of all countries. Of these, the first is thus stated by

Ruskin: “The entire vitality of art depends upon its being either full

of truth or full of use; and however pleasant, wonderful, or impressive

it may be in itself, it must yet be of an inferior kind, and tend to

deeper inferiority, unless it has clearly one of these main

objects--_either to state a true thing, or to adorn a serviceable one_.

It must never exist alone--never for itself.... Every good piece of art

... involves skill, and the formation of an actually beautiful thing by

it.” The “statement of a true thing” referred to in the passage quoted

is Similitude, one of the philosopher-critic’s essentials in the graphic

arts. In the architectural arts, including pottery, he demands Skill,

Beauty, and Use; in the graphic arts, Skill, Beauty, and Likeness. If,

however, we keep in mind what Dr. Birch says of the vases of Greece

being a reflection of the Greek school of painting, and also Mr.

Ruskin’s desideratum of pictures upon exquisitely moulded porcelain, we

shall see that the essentials of the ceramic art, as a special branch,

comprise those of both the architectural and graphic divisions--Skill,

Beauty, Use, and Similitude. In one respect, therefore, it may be said

to be the highest of all the arts.

The rule thus laid down can be easily applied, and is capable of various

modifications to suit the special object upon which it is brought to

bear. Thus, a work of art may represent Skill alone. Add, to equal

Skill, the second essential, Beauty, and the work will rank higher in

art. Invest an object for Use with both Skill and Beauty, and it is

raised still higher. If to these Similitude be added, the work will be

estimated according to the degree in which it possesses the four

essentials. It is obvious, however, that in the works of the ceramic

artist, it is neither always possible nor desirable to aim at bringing

the four essentials together; and this fact will receive ample

illustration from what follows. The rule has been modified by every

nation according to its views of art and beauty. It is better to

recognize the good in all, than to accept one standard and exclude all

others. Catholicity of sympathy and breadth of appreciation are as

necessary to the collector’s enjoyment as to the student-artist’s

benefit. Should the one raise an inflexible standard by which to measure

his admiration, or the other allow only one carefully defined style to

kindle his emulation, both will shut out the greater part of the world

of art. Every work of art is an expression of feeling, and, to

appreciate it, it is necessary to make as near an approach as possible

to understanding the sentiment it embodies. The form of expression

varies with different nations and with different men; and to catch all

the fine and elusive shades of feeling surrounding the art of different

times and peoples, the cultivation of a keen and sensitive perception of

beauty is better than voluntary slavery under a despotic and arbitrary

rule. Art is the universal language in which humanity has couched its

ideas of beauty. The form of expression varies, but the impulse is

everywhere fundamentally the same. We have endeavored to put in words

rather the common aim of all, than a rule by which to measure individual

endeavor. It does not follow that all efforts are equal. Some have

approached the common object by one route, and others by another, and

some have approached it nearer than others; but in no case can one be

singled out as the only correct course, to the condemnation of all

others. The true artist will combine the best features of all

achievements, and so win a place nearer the goal than his predecessors.

If we find one artist excelling in form, and another in color, he who

combines excellence of form with beauty of color will surpass both. The

narrowness of schools and the vagaries of fashion have been a burden

upon art; and the less we allow ourselves to be enthralled by either,

the greater will be our enjoyment of artistic work. The more rigid our

rule, the more precarious is its existence. The standard of yesterday is

to-day looked upon with a feeling akin to contempt. Methods, models,

ideals change; and the wise man is he who can see the merits and

shortcomings, the beauties and defects, of all.

We have said that different nations have shown in different ways their

sense of the aims and possibilities of ceramic art. The works of the

Greeks indicate an absorbing admiration of elegance of form and

figure-drawing. Their vases mark the second step in the progress of

decoration. Firstly came linear ornamentation, and then light and line,

of which all the Greek vases are examples. If, then, the Greeks in their

best days had only reached the second step in decoration, to what must

we ascribe the wonderful influence of their art? Certainly it is not in

the subjects they chose to illustrate that its charm consists.

Taking our stand in ancient Greece, we may glance along the whole line

by which the art has progressed toward an approximate perfection, and at

the same time see in what the Greeks were pre-eminent, and in what they

were deficient. “To Greece,” says one writer, “was intrusted the

cultivation of the reason and the taste. Her gift to mankind has been

science and art.” Her highest idea was beauty. She left behind her

canons of taste, beyond which, in their special application, we have not

advanced, and have little hope of advancing. We are not, therefore,

surprised when a writer on pottery reminds us that “to every eye

familiar with works of art of the higher order, the cleverest imitations

of nature, and the most elegant conceits of floral ornaments, whether

exhibited in the efforts of Oriental or European potters, appear coarse

and vulgar when contrasted with the chaste simplicity of the Greek

forms.” If we would appreciate the full truth of this, we have only to

make comparisons in any sufficiently extensive collection. The Greeks

took the articles of daily use, and made them representatives of their

ideas of beauty in both form and ornamentation. In this they followed

the examples set them ages before. In accomplishment only they were

alone. While, therefore, we study some as mere examples of skill, or

curiosities of design, we study the Greek forms as embodying our highest

ideal of beauty.

Let us now examine that in which they were deficient, and see how others

have tried to remedy it.

There are branches of the art which the Greeks either did not study, or

studied without success. They give little evidence of having been able

to appreciate color or to understand its uses. They, as Ruskin says,

painted anything anyhow--gods black, horses red, lips and cheeks white.

They attained to a certain unsurpassable elegance of shape, and the

beautiful outlines of their human-figure ornamentation can at times

hardly be sufficiently admired; but their coloring was purely

conventional, and its application but little understood. Its changes may

be noticed with some curiosity. At first the favorite ground was a pale

cream-color, which, later, turned to a redder tint, and human took the

place of animal forms. The vases in what is called the “old style,” show

black figures and ornamentation in monochrome, with the exception of

female faces, which are white, and eyes red. The effects of perspective

are only occasionally tried. White was used for the hair and beard of

old men. Coming down next to the highest art of Greece, the ground is

black, the figures red, and the ornamentation white. Specimens belonging

to this period show advance chiefly in the drawing and expression. We

remark further, that, besides the use of conventional colors, the Greeks

did not care to copy nature too closely, and thus in two distinct ways

showed their indifference or inability to introduce into their art the

element of likeness. When Jacquemart says that “no natural object, be it

plant, bird, or animal, is rendered in its real form, or in its intimate

details,” he gives expression to a fact which shows the distinction

between Greek ceramic art and that in which a nearer approach is made to

similitude by the use of correct drawing and color.

[Illustration: Fig. 12.--Japanese Hexagonal Vase. Deep blue ground.

Figures in dark brown, three shades of green, and yellow. Height, 16½

in. (R. H. Pruyn Coll.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 13.--Persian Tile. Arabesque Decoration.]

The Orientals went to the opposite extreme. They delighted in bright and

gorgeous decoration to an extent that, but for their many intensely

realistic works, would lead to the belief that the production of certain

effects in color was the highest object of their artists. Their strength

lies in their coloring. Nowhere else can the same skill be found in the

harmonizing of shades usually deemed discordant, and nowhere else have

colors the same brilliancy and depth (Fig. 12). The Japanese and

Chinese, in particular, appear to have thoroughly grasped the true place

of color in the decoration of curving surfaces, from which the

brilliant glaze reflects the light. The artists of Sèvres, anticipating

in a manner Ruskin’s idea, embellished their vases with compositions

similar to those on canvas. They made the mistake of thinking that the

artist’s work is independent of the surface on which it appears, whereas

perspective is altered and sometimes destroyed by the curvature of a

vase and the brilliancy of the enamel. The artists of the Orient, on the

other hand, either restrict themselves to subjects which can be treated

upon a judiciously limited part of the surface, or throw aside

compositions entirely, and trust to floral designs, isolated figures,

repetitious decoration without unity of design, or to beauty of colors

alone. Everything contributed to exalt their estimation of color for its

own sake, and to it we accordingly find that they devote the regard

entertained by the Greeks for form. Any ulterior use of color, as for

picture-painting on the flat surface of porcelain plaques, does not

appear to have occupied their attention to any very great extent. It is

in isolated figures and flowers that we can best study the marvellous

delicacy of the Chinese or Japanese brush, and the fidelity with which

the suggestions of nature are followed. There is little absolute

imitation. Color is paramount, and its beauty obscures the incongruities

of Oriental art.

The Persians, like the Greeks, mingled the natural with the

conventional. Their vases and tiles (Fig. 13) are ornamented with floral

designs, in which, while some of the flowers can be distinguished,

others are altered beyond recognition. Among the Mussulman Persians the

enamels reached the highest point of gorgeous brilliancy: glowing red as

a ground-color, dishes with bottoms covered with rich

arabesques--everything set in tints of the most pronounced and striking

kind. Their decorations are many-hued as the rainbow; and if at times

they lack its softly melting shades, they appear at others as if

suspended in the clear and liquid glaze, as soft as the tints of early

spring. White figures on a blue or yellow ground, or _vice versa_, are

distinctive of much of the ornamentation of Persia. The mosque at

Sultaneah (Fig. 14) is described as having its walls entirely “cased

with enamelled tiles of deep blue, with yellow and white scrolls and

devices.” The patterns are arabesque, occasionally mingled with animal

and floral forms. The finest specimens of Persian tiling at the Museum

at Sèvres are in blue and white, the latter forming the ground.

[Illustration: Fig. 14.--Mosque at Sultaneah. Cased, inside and out,

with enamelled tiles.]

[Illustration: Fig. 15.--Japanese Porcelain. Cloudy gray, flecked with

gold; dress, rose and gold. (Sutton Coll.)]

These technical secrets, known centuries ago in Persia and the far East,

have been coveted by ceramists down to the present day. They have been

and are the most jealously guarded possessions of artists and factories,

and history records many instances of the extreme precautions adopted to

prevent their spread. The Japanese, for example, although indebted to

China and Corea for the foundation of the knowledge upon which the

magnificent structure of their subsequent art was built, guard with the

utmost care the borrowed secrets in their possession. In a native work

on porcelain it is said: “The painting and decoration of vases is a

secret that it is not permitted to reveal.” Similar instances present

themselves on every hand. The production of any unusually beautiful

color, although really only one-half of the difficulty with which the

ceramic artist has to contend, is universally regarded as a triumph.

Such were the efforts upon which the potters of China expended their

skill, and upon which the emperors of the Flowery Kingdom bestowed

rewards. There are dynastic colors, but no dynastic style of

ornamentation with design. The ability to apply color to an artistic

creation was a secondary matter, and went without recognition. The

position of the artist and the workman were thus in a measure inverted,

if we insist that the production of color is mechanical, and its

application artistic. If the decoration be examined, its execution in

detail will be found to be almost perfect--birds of brilliant plumage,

flowers of richest hue, men and women draped in Oriental splendor (Fig.

15). In every case the colors used are those which produce the subtlest

harmony. They gleam through the glaze like gems, or lie upon its surface

like drops of pearl, ruby, or emerald. The drawing is precise and

minute. A cylindrical Japanese vase, in Mr. J. T. Sutton’s collection,

is decorated with a flock of cranes. They cover the upper part of its

surface, flying, turning, diving, in every conceivable attitude--a

perfect whirlwind of birds. The decorator has, with astonishing skill,

seized upon the varied attitudes most suggestive of motion, and has

produced what might be called “a study of cranes,” as far beyond the

apprehension of a European artist as the minutiæ are beyond his skill.

Elsewhere we may see a masterpiece of manual dexterity. It is

reticulated, or articulated; or has its paste perforated, and then

covered with glaze; or it may be a grotesque expression of Oriental

humor. Others are decorated with designs in color, and their aspects

have no monotony. Should one side weary, the vase may be partially

turned, and an entirely new effect is secured. In it, as in that

described above, there is no repetition.

In Oriental work, as a whole, we therefore find skill in manipulation,

similitude in drawing, and beauty in color; and the greatest of these is

color. We have seen how it was regarded by the Chinese themselves, and

our collectors follow their lead. They value one piece for the rarity of

its prevailing green, another for the depth of its turquoise, a third

for the clearness of its blue and the transparency of its white, a

fourth for the harmony of its many tints, a fifth for the skill

displayed in its quaint form and decoration.

We thus reach an interesting point where some instruction may be gained.

On the one hand, are the Greeks pursuing beauty of form with assiduity

and marked success; on the other, are the Orientals occupying themselves

with mechanical skill and the beauty resulting from color. Both were

right so far as they went. Men will admire Greek pottery so long as they

have any sense of elegant proportion; they will admire Oriental pottery

so long as they find any beauty in the changing colors of a kaleidoscope

or in a gem. The aims and ideals of the two peoples were different, and

the world has not yet seen the combination of a gracefulness of form

equal to the Greek with the coloring of the Orient.

[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Nankin Porcelain. Brown bands; base, white;

body, pale green; neck, light brown. Decoration chiefly pink, green, and

blue; neck and body crackled. (Sutton Coll.)]

In other directions, especially in Europe, it is more difficult to

unravel the lines of art, or to specify, without numberless exceptions

and modifications, the distinctive aims of artists or schools. The

example of the Orientals has led some manufacturers to choose the

production of color as their great aim. They have no intelligent

comprehension of its higher uses, as these might be studied in Chinese

decoration. They form an exaggerated estimate of Oriental processes, and

seek to equal the wonderful coloring of the faience of Persia or

Rhodes. If they fail, as is generally the case, they are in no way

deterred from using their inferior colors as the Orientals used the

riches of their palette. Instead of turning toward a new object within

the compass of their lower skill, they appeal to the eye with works

which, by suggesting comparison with the models that inspired them, are

at once condemned. If a vase of Nankin porcelain should be placed side

by side with a Delft copy, the force of this will at once be seen.

It is comparatively easy to assign a place to Palissy. His career

deserves study as an illustration of the movement of art between the

conventional and the natural. As we look back upon his works, we find

that truth to nature, in both form and color, was the guiding motive in

the production of his most remarkable pieces. We owe the romance of his

life to his earnestness in attempting to solve the mysteries of enamel.

“I thought,” he says, “that if I could discover the invention of making

enamel, I should be able to make vessels of earth, and other things of

beautiful arrangements, _because Heaven had given me to understand

something of painting_; and thenceforth, without considering that I had

no knowledge of argillaceous earth, I set about seeking enamel like a

man who gropes in the dark.” The story of his trials, his failures and

successes, his poverty, honors and persecutions, compose the great

romance in the history of ceramics. What he attained was, first, a white

enamel; then, jasper glaze of warm tints of blue, brown, and white;

lastly, his _Rustiques figulines_ (Fig. 17). The last was his crowning

effort. We regard him both as the leading representative of French art

in the sixteenth century, and as a great originator. He had made, after

long struggle and endeavor, a great discovery in enamelling; but what we

admire more than that is the ideal he had formed. He developed skill,

and aimed at both beauty and likeness. Palissy was great because, having

chosen a certain line of art, he adopted the only ideal by which he

could possibly reach perfection, viz., absolute truth to nature, alike

in form and color. He neither spared himself nor overlooked any detail.

His moulds were formed from living specimens. We recognize every

ornament--shells of the district round Paris, reptiles and plants from

the same places, and fish from the Seine. He did not dare to improve or

conventionalize. He preferred nature as he found her; and his wisdom was

genius. What we wish chiefly to note is, that here was an artist who

used the beauties of enamel for the reproduction of the natural. He not

only moulded the clay into the forms of living things, but reproduced

the colors of his models. No better examples can be given of Similitude.

It hardly seems possible that his was a branch of the same art that we

have seen in the East and in Greece. The fact of its being so merely

shows the wide scope of ceramic art, and the infinity of the forms it

may assume.

[Illustration: Fig. 17.--Palissy Dish. (Soltykoff Coll.)]

Having chosen representatives of three different components of what we

have assumed to be the highest form of art, we may now glance at the end

in view, and see to what extent the lower forms may be worthily

followed. Let us suppose that a piece of pottery or porcelain has been

painted, and that the action of the fire has made the coloring

perennial, so that we find on it a portrait or a landscape everlasting

as the ware itself. Let us suppose, further, that the tints are natural,

that, in short, the portrait is all that we now understand by the word,

and that in the landscape nature is displayed as on canvas--then we

should have a specimen of the perfect union of the potter’s and

painter’s art.

The lessening obstructions in the way of such a consummation may be

referred to in brief. The colors are mineral, and change by submission

to fire, different temperatures producing different tints, even when

the same pigment is used. The painter, therefore, in applying the

colors, must take into account the change to be effected by the fire in

endeavoring to produce a certain result. He has not merely, it will be

observed, to lay on given colors, and have them made perpetual by

glazing and firing. He must estimate and make allowance for the

transformations effected in the process. We are now in a position to

realize the difficulty attending the exercise of the combined skill of

potter and painter. As a consequence, although many great painters have

turned their genius to the decoration of earthen-ware, others have been

deterred from doing so by the very facts here mentioned. They are

unwilling to submit their work to processes unattended with certainty,

and to have their artistic individuality obliterated by the fire. It is

clear, therefore, that if by any means doubt can be changed to

certainty, and the finish characteristic of the individual artist be

preserved, artists of every grade will gladly avail themselves of the

opportunity to place their works above the reach of the defacing fingers

of Time. The ceramic art would be revolutionized. Artists, being at

present less able to follow nature, make a virtue of necessity, and lose

themselves among fantasies of tint and form. We find elaborately

decorated pieces, the great virtue of the floral ornamentation of which

is, that it is--not true, but--new. A new leaf or a novelty in flowers

is a valuable discovery; and the _répertoire_ of the potter is filled

with designs in which nature has no part. If nature be brought within

the artist’s reach, it will be followed more closely; and the result

might be the realization of Ruskin’s idea--the rendition of absolute

similitude in outline, color, and perspective.

The next question arising is, in view of the restraints upon artists,

what styles of decoration are the best? The subject is worth considering

at length. There may be a beauty of a certain kind in the ware itself.

As a rule, porcelain should never be overloaded with gold or any kind of

decoration or color less beautiful than its own enamel. It demands

lightness of ornamentation and gracefulness of design, rather than

brilliancy of decoration. We can, when these canons are observed, find

something to admire in capricious floral designs, even although they may

not be floral to the naturalist. The best rule is to adapt the

decoration to the object upon which it is laid. It would be a violation

of good taste to demand pictures upon plates, or that a soup-tureen

should resemble a sarcophagus. If an object be for use, let its

usefulness be the primary consideration; if for ornament, let its beauty

be its first; if it be meant to combine them, let the ornamentation be

that best suited to the useful purpose.

When we come to consider color alone, a distinction must again be drawn

between articles for different purposes. Ornamentation may address

either the eye alone or the sensibilities through the eye. Restricting

ourselves to the former, the article will be the most ornamental which,

apart from shape, seems most brilliant, and reflects the most light. To

illustrate this, we might reproduce an object in different

materials--diamond, ruby, topaz, gold, iron, lead, sand, and plaster.

Show it, in all these materials, to a savage, an ignoramus, an artist, a

woman, and each will select the copy in precious stone as the most

agreeable to the eye. The plaster would be the least likely to attract,

and the person choosing it would be at once put down as devoid of taste.

Suppose, now, that a vase is presented to us duplicated in different

materials, we should find the turquoise of Japan or the red of China

more pleasing to the eye than stanniferous enamel. It would, again, be

like choosing between ruby and plaster. In this way a rule could be

drawn up capable of universal application, one which would surmount all

the advancing and receding waves of changing fashion.

In the shape which an object intended for ornament should assume, or in

the style of its decoration, there is, as we have seen, no absolute

rule. Individual taste is paramount, since ornaments are intended mainly

to administer to the pleasure of the possessor, but one rule may be

considered universal in regard to the decoration. If the object be a

vase intended to brighten a house, then its ornamentation should never

be of such an order that its greatest and best effect is perceived when

it stands alone. What ought to be kept in view, is the extent to which

it will increase the attractiveness of the room in which it stands. It

is a very curious fact that the most perfect decoration demands

isolation for the appreciation of its full effect, and that decoration

of comparative mediocrity will frequently add more to an apartment. We

are thus led to observe that decoration is not an end, but a way, a

means to the beautifying of a home. Every such object in a house should

be a note, and from combination of all the notes comes harmony. Were

each a tune complete, however perfect, the result would be a jarring

discord. For that reason, a vase of one perfectly simple color may

harmonize with its surroundings as well as, or even better than, another

showing a masterpiece of painting. Such a color must, however, be as

near perfection as possible, like that of a precious stone. A vase of

turquoise-blue may produce in a room the effect of diamonds in the ears

of a woman. Taste is not likely to lead her to carry pictures in her

ears, nor to exclude all but picture-painted porcelain from her rooms.

[Illustration: Fig. 18.--Limoges Porcelain Plate. Painted by M.

Bracquemond. (Mrs. Charles Crocker Coll.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 19.--Limoges Porcelain Plate. Painted by Pallaudre.

(Thomas Scott Coll.)]

Having thus seen how ceramic productions illustrate the art ideas of all

nations, having touched upon the influence of pottery upon art in

general, and having glanced at its present aims and possible

accomplishments, it will not be forgotten, after what has just been

said, that the combination of the useful and the beautiful is the great

charm of the ceramic art, making between them a new beauty which finds

its best place in the household. Let us look at the usual appurtenances

of the table. They both reflect taste and form it. A wide range is

before us from which to choose--from the vulgarity of overloaded glaring

colors and gilt, to the most exquisite simplicity of design and

perfection of workmanship. Every house-keeper ought to visit an

extensive collection, and, by comparing and contrasting one style with

another, learn in what the true beauty of ceramic decoration consists.

The painting and moulding of pottery and porcelain are quite as

important as oil-painting and sculpture. As we look at the pictures and

statues in a gallery, we read the stories they tell, feel the sentiment

they express, study the grace they embody, or linger lovingly over the

evidences they present of artistic skill. A plate may appear an humble

thing to which to turn from them. But let us consider the intimate

relations into which we are brought with its unobtrusive beauty. It is

the daily contact that lends so comparatively lowly a matter its real

importance, and daily contact with delicately painted and gracefully

moulded cups, platters, and dishes cannot be without its influence upon

taste. Or suppose the ceramic treasure be an earthen-ware jar. It

presents us with green, its depth suggestive of a forest glade, shading

off into blue like that of the sky. As we turn it slowly round, a leaf

appears attached to a tiny stem, and still farther lies a flower,

colored with the very hue of nature, and suggesting the perfume of a

garden in summer. Art such as that is never out of place, and never

thrown away. Or let our attention rest upon more purely ornamental

representatives of the art. There are vases which, while offering for

our admiration a beauty which is eternal, are yet invested with a

chameleon-like power of change. They never allow monotony to break their

charm. It may consist of a mere color. Take the old turquoise-blue of

China. The eye can scarcely catch the fleeting shades, to determine

whether the vase is blue or green. While daylight lasts, the blue is

dominant, but when the lamps are lit in the evening, the blue gives

place to a green of greatly increased brilliancy. The same thing may be

observed in many flower-painted vases. They may be examined once without

revealing a tithe of their beauty. The sky is overcast and the outside

world gloomy, and the flowers, as sympathetic as though growing in the

garden, look sombre and drooping. But let a ray of sunshine fall across

the vase, and mark how the flowers are glorified. Their hues change and

brighten, and, as if endowed with life, they smile, and lift up their

heads in the face of the sun.

BOOK I.--NOMENCLATURE AND METHODS.

CHAPTER I.

TECHNOLOGY.

Confusion in Use of Terms.--Porcelain as an Instance.--Derivation

Ceramic.--Pottery.--Faience.--Majolica.--Mezza-Majolica.--Composition

of Porcelain.--Origin of Word.--Where first made.--When introduced

into Europe.--Hard and Soft Paste.--Soft Porcelain of Venice,

Florence, England, France.--Hard Porcelain invented at Meissen by

Böttcher.--Vienna.--Discovery of Kaolin in France.--Biscuit.

[Illustration: Fig. 20.--Blue-glazed Pottery. Egyptian.]

It will be necessary as we proceed to make use of certain terms, the

meaning of which should be defined with as much exactness as possible.

It may be premised that considerable confusion exists in the

nomenclature of the art. This has arisen partly from the want of

precision in the language employed by writers, and partly from diversity

of usage. As an illustration, the word “porcelain” may be adduced. The

material to which the Egyptians applied a glaze, and which was very

largely used in making ornaments and small images, has been called, and

is constantly spoken of, as Egyptian porcelain (Fig. 20). In reality the

substance is not porcelain, having neither the transparency nor the

hardness of that ware, but a compound between porcelain and

earthen-ware. The word was also used by the Italians in the sixteenth

century, to designate their finer qualities of majolica. An equally

incongruous application of it is made in the case of Lambeth faience,

which is described by the manufacturers as a “kind of porcelain.” Such

words as faience, hard and soft porcelain, majolica, stone-ware, etc.,

are in continual use by writers upon ceramic art, and a few of the more

important will now be defined.

Allusion has already been made to the derivation of the word “ceramic.”

Viewing the subject more prosaically, the name κεραμος was applied by

the Greeks to pottery in general, and also to a large jar; and several

derivatives were used for the designation of different vessels. The

potter himself was called κεραμευς, and the pot-market κεραμεικος.

Although the matter has been differently viewed, it appears probable

that the root of all the above words is κερας, a horn. The horn was

used at a very early period as a drinking-cup, and a more decided air

of probability is thus given to the above assumption, since Bacchus was

the reputed parent of κεραμος, or Ceramus. However philologists may

ultimately settle this matter, the word “ceramic” is now employed to

designate the potter’s art and its productions.

The word “pottery” is variously used. Its root is the Latin _potum_, a

drinking-vessel. It is applied, according to general English usage, to

all wares distinguished by their opacity from translucent porcelain. The

French word _poterie_, on the other hand, is applied to all vessels,

including those made of porcelain. The latter fact has led to a slight

confusion in the use of the English word. One writer makes the assertion

in one place, that the words “earthen-ware” and “pottery” have limited

and distinctive meanings, the former applying only to vessels of the

coarser qualities, the latter to the finest products of the fictile art,

“including even porcelain.” In another place, he draws a distinction

between pottery and porcelain, and in the latter course he is followed

by the present writer.

Faience, fayence, or fayance, is a French word applied to every kind of

glazed earthen-ware. According to the earlier French usage, the term

included porcelain, but more lately it has been applied only to pottery.

The word “majolica,” as now employed, has almost the same meaning as

faience. A more limited signification is attached to it by some. The

writer of the article on pottery in “Appleton’s Cyclopædia” says it is

used “to signify all faience of Italian manufacture. Lately the word has

been used as almost, if not quite, synonymous with faience.” A more

recent writer has said, “In its now common acceptation, the word is

applied to all kinds of decorated pottery made in Italy, or made in

colors and styles imitating the old Italian work. But when you read a

book on pottery written during the present century by an expert, you

will do well to remember that the word in that book means exclusively

Italian decorated pottery of the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and

eighteenth centuries, in the old Italian styles. It does not include

Italian vases made in imitation of German, French, Dutch, or English

wares.”

The changing meaning of this word is a good illustration of the careless

use of the terms employed in treating of ceramic art. Originally,

majolica, or maiolica, had a meaning different from any of those given

above. The name is derived from Majorca, the largest of the Balearic

Islands, between which and Italy intercourse is known to have taken

place in the twelfth century; and two hundred years later, the

commercial transactions of Majorca were of a very extensive kind. The

evidence in favor of the above derivation of the word is conclusive.

Scaliger says distinctly that the Italian pottery derived its name of

majolica from Majorca, where the pottery was most excellent. Ferrari

believes that “the use of majolica, as well as the name, came from

Majorca, which the ancient writers called Majolica.” The “Dictionary

della Crusca” adds weight to these authorities. Such being the case, it

seems probable that the Italians derived part of their knowledge of

making majolica from the place which gives it its name. Even admitting

that the Saracens who settled in Sicily, and the Moors expelled from

Spain who settled in Italy, initiated the Italians in the art, nothing

is thereby detracted from the importance of Majorca. The fact is left

unaffected that the intercourse with the Balearic group enabled the

Italians to find a name for the ware they admired so much. On trying to

imitate it, the ware called “mezza-majolica” was produced. The red clay

was first thinly coated with white earth, upon which the colors were

laid. After a partial firing, lead glaze was applied, and lustre

pigments gave the ware the iridescence characteristic of real majolica.

It was after this that tin enamel was used in place of a white slip; and

the lustre pigments being applied as before, fine majolica was produced.

It will thus be seen that the words “mezza-majolica” and “majolica” were

originally applied only to wares showing the _reflet métallique_, or

lustre. This limited use of the word was observed down to the middle of

the sixteenth century. Piccolpasso, writing in 1548, in no case applies

the name to the painted and glazed wares of his own production. All the

glazed earthen-ware of Italy was thereafter called majolica; and the

application of the word has been growing wider ever since. Mr. Fortnum

says, “We think, with M. Jacquemart, M. Darcel, Mr. J. C. Robinson, and

others, that the word ‘maiolica’ should be again restricted to lustred

wares.” Any such attempt must necessarily end in failure. The popular

employment of a word is not to be controlled by its scientific

application. The tendency is in the opposite direction--toward the

establishment of a universal usage by which faience and majolica will

become convertible terms.

The different kinds of ware, such as Lucca della Robbia, Palissy,

Doulton, and Limoges, will be found described under the countries to

which they belong.

Porcelain is composed of two ingredients, one of which--kaolin--is

infusible, and the other--petuntse--vitrifies, and envelops the kaolin.

It is translucid, and therein differs from pottery, which is opaque. As

to the origin of the word, we have already seen that it was, in its

Italian form, applied to majolica in the sixteenth century; and the word

“pourcelaine” occurs two centuries earlier. It was used to designate

Oriental china in the fifteenth century. Mr. J. F. Davis, in his work on

the Chinese (1840), quotes Marsden to the effect that the word

“porcelain,” or _porcellana_, was applied by Europeans to the ware of

China, from the resemblance of its fine polished surface to that of the

univalve-shell so named; while the shell itself derived its appellation

from the curved or gibbous shape of its upper surface, which was thought

to resemble the raised back of a _porcella_, or little hog. When

porcelain was first invented in China is not exactly known. The

combination was discovered in the province of Honan about eighteen

hundred years ago; but the date cannot be more specifically fixed. From

China it was introduced into Persia, Egypt, and Barbary, at a very early

period, and was thence imported into Europe, where, however, it was not

generally known until 1518. The first specimens of Oriental porcelain

known to have reached England were given by Philip of Austria to Sir

Thomas Trenchard, of Wolverton, in 1506.

To continue its history in Europe, it is necessary to observe that there

are two kinds of porcelain--the natural, or _pate dure_, and the

artificial, or _pate tendre_. The latter cannot stand so high a

temperature as the former, and can be scratched with a knife, which the

hard porcelain resists. The soft-paste was the first to be discovered in

Europe. Chemists, struck with the beauty of the Chinese porcelain, and

impelled by a desire to imitate, began to experiment in the sixteenth

century; and the first success, of which substantial evidences now

exist, was gained at Florence in 1580. It is said that a Venetian potter

made porcelain sixty or seventy years earlier; but no specimen known to

be his is now in existence. After that of Florence, the next discovery

was made by Dr. Dwight, of Fulham, England, in 1671; and in 1695 the

secret was penetrated by M. Chicanneau, at St. Cloud, France. By that

time the Florentine porcelain and process had been forgotten, and the

English and French ceramists pursued perfectly independent

investigations.

The problem of making a hard-paste porcelain resembling that of the

Orient still remained unsolved. No chemistry could avail the

experimenters so long as the materials were wanting. To the accidental

discovery of a bed of kaolin, Europe owed its first hard porcelain. This

important event took place about the year 1709, and the circumstances

leading to it are full of interest.

John Frederic Böttger, or Böttcher, was a chemist’s assistant in Berlin,

and having fallen under suspicion as an alchemist, he took refuge in

Saxony, which was then under the electorate of Augustus II. The elector,

having questioned him as to his researches in the forbidden science,

placed him in the laboratory of a chemist who was in search of the

philosopher’s stone. While working to that end, Böttcher surprised

himself by producing something akin to Chinese porcelain. The course of

his experiments was turned at once from the channel in which it had run.

The king gave him every facility for continuing his experiments and

working out his secret. He was first established at Meissen, then at

Königstein, and last at Dresden. The first results were comparatively

rude; then came a reddish stone-ware, and afterward a dull white

porcelain. How long his experiments might have been continued, or what

might have been their ultimate result, cannot be estimated, had not an

accidental discovery brought the object at which he was aiming suddenly

within his reach. John Schnorr, a wealthy iron-founder, riding one day

in the vicinity of Aue, near Schneeberg, Saxony, noticed that his horse

lifted his feet with difficulty. On examination he found that the clay

was very white and peculiarly adhesive. Schnorr, although rich, would

gladly be richer, and avarice made him ingenious. Why not use this white

earth in the making of hair-powder? was the question which occurred to

him. The commodity was dear, and clay was a cheap substitute. He took a

quantity with him, made the new hair-powder, and was successful in his

venture. In due course, the new powder reached Böttcher, and he, in

turn, found an original use for the white earth. Inquiring into the

nature of the powder, he found it was earthy, and at once tried it in

his laboratory. The powder was kaolin, and hard porcelain was

discovered. A manufactory was established at Meissen, of which Böttcher

was director until his death, in 1719.

In 1720, the manufacture was begun at Vienna, whither the secret was

carried by an escaped foreman from Böttcher’s works at Meissen.

It is very curious to note that the first manufacture of hard porcelain

in France was due to a chance discovery almost identical with that made

in Germany. Kaolin had been found at Alençon, but the porcelain made

from it was not pure in color. In 1765, the wife of a surgeon found near

St. Yrieix a peculiarly soft earth of great whiteness. Being poor,

Madame Darnet was also economical. Unlike Schnorr, her thoughts turned

in the direction rather of keeping down household expenses than of

adding to her income. The earth had a soft, oily touch, and the good

lady thought that it might answer all the purposes of soap. Her husband

sent a sample to a chemist, and it was soon afterward decided to be

kaolin. The manufacture of hard porcelain was begun at Sèvres in 1769,

the quarries of St. Yrieix supplying both the kaolin and petuntse. As

illustrating the ingratitude of the world, it may be mentioned that the

humble instrument by whose aid France reached its lofty eminence in the

manufacture of porcelain was, for about sixty years, left unrewarded. In

1825, Madame Darnet, spending her old age in poverty, received a pension

from Louis XVIII.

Biscuit is the technical term applied to both pottery and porcelain

before they are enamelled or glazed. In this condition, porcelain is of

a dead white, and is not very well suited to receive decoration in

colors which require a glaze to bring out their full beauty.

CHAPTER II.

CLASSIFICATION.

Tabulated View.--Brongniart’s Division: Its

Objections.--Classification adopted.--Leading Features and

Advantages.--Distinctions between Different Bodies and Different

Glazes.

In order to avoid repetitions and explanations, and for the sake of

lucidity, tabulated views of the different branches of ceramics are here

presented. The first is least detailed, but gives the salient points of

a systematic arrangement.

{ Unglazed Common brick. Earthen-ware.

{ _Soft_ { Lustrous Greek pottery.

POTTERY { { Glazed Some ancient and most modern faience.

{ { Enamelled Robbia ware.

{

{ _Hard_ { Stone-ware.

{ Fire-brick.

{ _Soft_ { Naturally soft English porcelain.

{ { Artificially soft { French porcelain, _pate tendre_,

PORCELAIN { { such as old Sèvres.

{

{ { China.

{ _Hard_ { Dresden.

{ Sèvres.

The following is more full, and is to be ascribed to M. Brongniart:

FIRST CLASS, SOFT-PASTE.

_1st Order._ Baked clay without glaze.

_2d Order._ Lustred wares with silico-alkaline glaze.

_3d Order._ Glazed pottery with plumbiferous glaze.

_4th Order._ Enamelled pottery, in the enamel of which tin is used.

SECOND CLASS, HARD-PASTE (OPAQUE).

_5th Order._ Fine faience, uncolored paste with plumbiferous glaze.

_6th Order._ Stone-ware without glaze, or with salt or plumbiferous

glaze.

THIRD CLASS, HARD-PASTE (TRANSLUCENT).

_7th Order._ Hard porcelain, paste and glaze both felspathic.

_8th Order._ English natural soft-paste porcelain--paste,

argillaceous kaolin, pegmatite, phosphate of lime, etc.; glaze,

boracic.

_9th Order._ French artificial soft-paste porcelain--paste, a frit,

marly alkaline; glaze, alkaline containing lead, alkali, and

silica.

If these tables be studied carefully, it will be found that in arranging

the nine orders, a gradual ascent is made from the humblest ware--baked

clay left unglazed--to the finest of artificial compounds. Its only

objection--and it is one very likely to confuse an inexperienced student

of the art--is, that, under the head of hard-paste pottery, are classed

the soft-paste porcelains of England and France. The question is, also,

very likely to suggest itself, why the distinction should be drawn

between the soft-pastes of England and France, and the one called

natural, the other artificial. The reason is that the paste of England

is naturally soft, while that of France is made soft by the chemical

action of certain of its ingredients. The classification has, on the

other hand, the advantage of being in general use. Terms are employed in

its construction which have a peculiar but well understood significance;

and even in its errors there is a modicum of truth. Thus, although the

artificial porcelain of France is invariably called _pate tendre_, or

soft porcelain, it is not improperly classed under translucent

hard-pastes. The error is in the distinctive name rather than in the

classification. There is, in reality, very little difference in hardness

between the hard-paste and the soft-paste; and although the glaze of the

latter is not so hard as the body, the appellation soft-paste has been

adjudged a misnomer. The question then came to be whether it might not

be better to retain the old terms, with an explanation of their

technical meaning, than to supplant them with something new. The latter

course has been adopted, upon the ground of obviating meaningless and

misleading distinctions. Both simplicity and a clear understanding of

one of the most important practical divisions of our subject point

toward a revision of the old system of grouping. Pottery and porcelain

differ in one essential respect, and their varieties can also be classed

according to the leading features of their composition, manufacture, or

appearance. These differences have been taken as the basis of the

following classification, against which, at least, none of the

objections to that of M. Brongniart can be brought. It has been prepared

by a distinguished French artist of the present time, and is offered in

the hope that it may be intelligible, although it is not claimed to be

either perfectly exact or altogether complete.

All wares are divisible into two great classes, viz., transparent

porcelain and opaque earthen-ware.

PORCELAIN may be natural or artificial.

I. Natural porcelain is made from kaolinic clay. It may have--

1. A pure felspathic glaze, such as porcelain of China, Japan,

Limoges, Sèvres, Dresden, Berlin; or,

2. No glaze, such as the biscuit porcelain of China or France.

II. Artificial porcelain may be made from alkaline clay, calcareous

clay, or felspathic clay.

1. Alkaline clay may have an alkaline glaze, either colorless or

colored, or may be biscuit.

_a._ Alkaline glaze, colorless--Persia, China, St. Cloud, Limoges,

Sèvres, Tournay.

_b._ Alkaline glaze, colored--Persia, China, Limoges, Deck.

_c._ Biscuit--Old Sèvres statuettes.

2. Calcareous clay has a colorless boracic glaze, as in the case of

the English china of Minton, Copeland, and Worcester.

3. Felspathic clay is exemplified in the parian of Copeland,

Minton, and Worcester.

EARTHEN-WARE is of two kinds--that showing a non-vitrified

fracture, and that showing a vitrified fracture.

I. EARTHEN-WARE with non-vitrified fracture may have either a

transparent glaze or an opaque enamel.

1. Transparent glaze may be plumbiferous or alkaline, and in either

case colorless or colored.

_a._ Plumbiferous.

Glaze, colorless--Faience d’Oiron or Henri Deux ware, Wedgwood,

Meakin, Creil, Montereau.

Glaze, colored--Palissy, Nuremberg, Minton’s majolica.

_b._ Alkaline.

Glaze, colorless--Persian faience, Chinese and Japanese faience;

Deck, of Paris.

Glaze, colored--Haviland or Limoges faience.

2. Opaque enamel is stanniferous, and may be either colorless or

colored.

Stanniferous, colorless--Della Robbia, Rouen, Moustiers, Delft,

Nevers.

Stanniferous, colored--Colinot, Parville, Longwy.

II. Earthen-ware with vitrified fracture may be either glazed or in

biscuit. Of the former, the _Grès_ of Germany, Beauvais, and

Doulton may be taken as examples.

For convenience of reference, the same classification may be given in

tabulated form:

CLASSIFICATION OF ALL KINDS OF WARE.

{China, Japan,

{Glaze of { Dresden, Berlin,

{_Natural_ Kaolinic { felspath, { Sèvres, Limoges.

{ paste { pure

{ {

{ {Biscuit {Biscuit porcelain

{ { of Limoges

{ { and China.

{

{ {Persia, China,

TRANSLUCENT{ { St. Cloud, Tournay

PORCELAIN. { {Alkaline {Glaze alkaline, { Sèvres, Haviland.

{ { paste { colorless

{ { {

{ { {Glaze alkaline,

colored Persia, China, Deck,

{ { { Haviland.

{ { {

{ { {Biscuit Old Sèvres statuettes.

{ {

{_Artificial_{Calcareous Glaze boracic, color English china,

{ paste Minton, Worcester,

{ Copeland.

{

{Felspathic Parian Copeland, Worcester,

{ paste Minton.

{Glaze, {Faience Henri II.,

{Plumbiferous{ colorless.{ Wedgwood, Meakin,

{ glaze { { Creil, Montereau.

{ {

{ {Glaze, {Palissy, Nuremberg,

{_Earthen body {Transparent{ { colored {Minton’s majolica.

{ with a { glaze. {

{ non-vitrified{ {Alkaline {Glaze, {Faience of Persia,

{ break_ { { glaze { colorless.{ China, and

{ { { { Japan; Deck.

{ { {

{ { { {Limoges faience

{ { { { of Haviland,

{ { {Glaze, { Bracquemond,

{ { { colored { and Chaplet.

{ {

OPAQUE { { {Delia Robbia,

EARTHEN { {Opaque {Stanniferous {Colorless { Rovigo, Fontana,

BODY. { { enamel { { Rouen, Moustiers,

{ { { Nevers, Delft,

TERRES. { { { Ulysses de Blois,

{ { { St. Clement.

{ {

{ {Colored Colinot, Parville,

{ Longwy.

{

{_Earthen body, {Biscuit Boccaro, Bizen.

{ with a {

{ vitrified {

{ break_ {Glaze Grès from Germany.

Under the above arrangement, it will be observed that the distinction

between hard and soft porcelain and pottery is done away with. The first

is divided into natural and artificial, the kaolinic paste being the

only one coming under the former head, and the “soft-pastes” of both

England and France coming under the latter. The subdivisions are made

according to the glaze employed. The division of pottery into two

classes, according to the nature of the body as revealed by fracture, is

the most lucid and comprehensive. The subdivisions, as in the case of

porcelain, are made according to the enamel or glaze applied to the

ware. It is presumed that any one can distinguish between transparent

and opaque wares, and thus tell porcelain from pottery, and similarly,

tell whether the fracture of a broken specimen is vitrified or

otherwise, and thus distinguish stone-ware, or _grès_, from ordinary

earthen-ware.

In the matter of glazes, it requires a great deal of skill and long

practice to tell one from another. All are transparent, with the

exception of tin or stanniferous enamel. Felspathic glaze is that most

readily recognized; but in the case of the others--the alkaline,

plumbiferous, and boracic--they are very often only to be distinguished

by their different effects upon the colors used in decoration.

CHAPTER III.

COMPOSITION OF WARES AND GLAZES.

Hard and Soft Pottery and Porcelain.--COMPOSITION OF PORCELAIN:

Kaolin--Its Derivation and Ingredients--Petuntse--How prepared in

China.--The European Process.--Differences between Chinese and

European Porcelains.--Chemical Analysis.--English Porcelain and its

Peculiarities: Its Average Composition.--How English Clay is

prepared.--French Artificial Porcelain.--Parian.--COMMON

EARTHEN-WARE.: Table of Ingredients of different kinds.--General

Table.--GLAZES: Classes.--Brongniart’s Classification.--Difference

between Enamel and Glaze.--Silicious Glaze.--History.--Use of

Oxides.--Egyptian Processes.--Metallic Lustre.--Stanniferous

Enamel: Its History.

The division of pottery and porcelain into two great classes, hard and

soft, is based upon the difference of their composition, their hardness

of surface, and their power of resisting the action of fire. The

simplest test is scratching with a knife or other instrument. Hard

porcelain and pottery resist the metal, while the soft is marked. The

former will also stand a temperature in the kiln at which the latter

would crumble or fuse.

To understand the composition of porcelain, it is necessary to bear in

mind that it is a compound of kaolin and petuntse, the former of which

is infusible, and the latter fusible at a high temperature. The former

constitutes the body of the piece, the latter gives it its translucency.

The word “kaolin” is derived from _Kaoling_, the name of a mountain near

King-teh-chin, one of the great centres of the manufacture in China.

Kaolin is simply the result of the decomposition of granitic rock, and

silica and alumina are its chief ingredients. Petuntse is pure felspar.

The conditions in which these materials are found in China may be

briefly stated. They are either in the form of stone or sand, from which

the unsuitable parts are removed by the action of water. When they are

thrown into the water, the fine particles which do not sink are

collected and dried. The paste, before being used, is again put into

water and strained through a sieve, so that only the finest is

preserved, and used in making porcelain. The materials are obtained

from different parts of the country, and blended according to their

respective qualities, as ascertained by the most systematic

investigation and experiment. The European process is similar, the

kaolin being first washed clear of all argillaceous impurity, and then

mixed with felspar and silicious sand. Of the further similarity between

the two, MM. Ebelman and Salvetat say:

1st. The kaolin and petuntse used in making paste for Chinese porcelain

are chemically identical with the materials used in Europe. The Chinese

kaolin is evidently disintegrated granite. Chemically, petuntse

resembles the pegmatite of Limoges; mineralogically, it is to be classed

with petrosilicious felspar.

2d. The mechanical preparation of the pastes of China and Europe is

based upon similar methods.

3d. The Chinese paste is the more fusible of the two.

4th. The Chinese glaze is also the more fusible, on account of the

addition of lime to the petuntse, which the French use pure.

It may be added that the Dresden, Sèvres, and Limoges porcelains are

baked at a higher temperature, and are harder than the Chinese.

The basis of the natural pastes of Germany and France is 46.66 parts of

silex, 40 of aluminous earth, and 13.33 alkaline earth, although the

proportions vary, and the following may be nearer an average: Silex, 66;

alumina, 30; potash, magnesia, and lime, 4. In the glaze the proportions

are different, the silica largely preponderating: Silex, 73.4; alumina,

15.7; potash, lime, and magnesia, 10.9.

The following table is given by M. A. Salvetat as the result of analyses

made at different times by himself and others:

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|

|China, 1st quality|69.00 |23.60 |1.20 |0.30 |0.02 |3.30 |2.90 |

|China, 2d quality |70.00 |22.20 |1.30 |0.80 |traces |3.60 |2.70 |

|China, 3d quality |73.80 |19.30 |2.00 |0.60 |traces |2.50 |2.30 |

|China, 4th quality|68.94 |21.30 |3.48 |1.14 |traces |3.42 |1.78 |

|Meissen |58.50 |35.10 |0.80 |0.30 |traces |5.00 |.... |

|Vienna |59.60 |34.20 |0.80 |1.70 |1.40 |2.00 |.... |

|Berlin |64.30 |29.00 |0.60 |0.30 |0.45 |3.65 |.... |

|Limoges |70.20 |24.00 |0.70 |0.70 |0.10 |4.30 |.... |

|Sèvres |58.00 |34.50 |.... |4.50 |.... |3.00 |.... |

|Sèvres (sculpture)|64.10 |30.24 |.... |2.82 |traces |2.80 |.... |

|Worcester |82.00 |9.10 |..... |1.30 |7.40 |.... |.... |

|Paris |71.20 |22.00 |0.80 |0.80 |.... |4.50 |.... |

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

The English artificial porcelain differs from the natural paste of China

and the European continent chiefly in one particular. At first the

compound used was white clay, white sand, and glass, the latter being

employed to impart the necessary transparency. More recently bone came

largely into use, and is now one of the distinctive ingredients of

English paste. The phosphoric acid of that material was found to

produce, in combination with the other materials, a clear, translucent

body, of less strength than natural paste, but less liable to sink. The

following may be taken as the mean composition: Bone, 47; kaolin, 34;

felspar, 19. The kaolin is found in Cornwall, where a very large tract

is formed chiefly of decomposed granite. The purest rock having been

selected, it is placed on an inclined plane, upon which water can be

turned. It is washed down into a trench, and thence into a catch-pit,

and again into lower pits, in which successively the impure ingredients

are retained, the water laden with the finer particles running into

tanks, and there depositing its fine silt. The clay is partially dried,

and cut into blocks, and in that shape reaches the potters. The manner

in which the kaolin is prepared bears a very close resemblance to that

adopted by the Chinese, as previously described. The glaze is composed

of felspar, carbonate of lime, borax, and white-lead. Sometimes the

kaolin is mixed with the bone and felspar in the proportions above

specified, and sometimes the bone is made, in combination with silex and

pearlash, into a frit.

The artificial or soft porcelain of France, exemplified in the old china

of Sèvres, was produced by a very intricate and ingenious process. A

frit was made of saltpetre, sea-salt, burnt alum, soda-ash, gypsum, and

sand. This mixture, having been purified by partial vitrification, was

ground, and mixed with chalk and marl. The glaze was as follows:

Litharge, 38; sand, 27; calcined flint, 11; and the carbonates of soda

and potash, 15 and 9 parts respectively.

The composition called parian, in which the potters of England and

America have executed much beautiful work, varies considerably. Analysis

of one specimen resulted thus: Silica, 58.57; alumina, 21; oxide of

iron, 1; lime, 0.14; magnesia, 0.5; potash, 11.40; soda, 5.08.

The clay from which common earthen-ware is made is composed to a great

extent of silica and alumina, with admixtures of iron, lime, and

magnesia. An average combination is 60 parts silex, 30 alumina, 7 iron,

and 2 lime. These proportions vary very widely, certain substances

appearing in one place and not in another. In some, carbon is found; in

others, quartz, sand, marl, or chalk, as the case may be. The work of

classification, except in a very extended form, is thus rendered

somewhat difficult. Possibly the following series of tables will serve

our purpose most intelligibly.

Column headings:

S: Silica.

A: Alumina.

I: Oxide of Iron.

L: Lime.

M: Magnesia.

W: Water.

C: Carbon.

+--------------+-------+-------+-------+------+------+-------+------+

| Pottery. | S | A | I | L | M | W | C |

+--------------+-------+-------+-------+------+------+-------+------+

| German | 63.90 | 12.76 | 10.24 | 1.04 | 0.52 | 9.98 | 1.02 |

| Scandinavian | 64.02 | 10.77 | 11.23 | 2.48 | 0.05 | 9.97 | 1.00 |

| Old Gallic | 62.22 | 18.36 | 5.71 | 1.17 | 0.47 | 10.56 | 0.78 |

| Peruvian | 67.04 | 10.83 | 10.17 | 3.24 | 0.28 | 7.07 | 1.00 |

| Etruscan | 64.02 | 12.49 | 8.53 | 3.00 | 1.83 | 8.13 | 2.00 |

+--------------+-------+-------+-------+------+------+-------+------+

In the following carbon does not appear, and the proportion of silica

increases:

+-------------+---------+----------+----------+-------+-----------+--------+

+-------------+---------+----------+----------+-------+-----------+--------+

| Roman | 64.00 | 17.77 | 10.23 | 4.86 | .... | 2.23 |

| Middle Ages | 72.55 | 20.27 | 2.54 | 1.04 | .... | 3.00 |

| Egypt | 81.00 | 13.50 | 1.00 | 3.00 | .... | 1.90 |

| Egypt | 92.00 | 4.00 | .... | 2.00 | 0.60 | 0.40 |

| Persian | 90.00 | 1.50 | 1.50 | 3.00 | 0.80 | 0.60 |

| Jerusalem | 87.16 | 5.50 | .... | 3.00 | 0.78 | .... |

| Arabian | 89.95 | 3.87 | .... | 2.00 | 0.51 | 3.00 |

+-------------+---------+----------+----------+-------+-----------+--------+

The Egyptian, compounded as above, is that which has been commonly known

as Egyptian porcelain. Many of the better known wares of Europe and the

East have a common characteristic in the calcareous nature of their

pastes. The silica decreases and the lime increases, while carbonic acid

appears as a new ingredient.

Column headings:

S: Silica.

A: Alumina.

M: Magnesia.

I: Oxide of Iron.

C: Carbonic Acid.

+--------------------+-------+-------+------+------+-------+-------+

| Pottery. | S | A | M | I | C | Lime. |

+--------------------+-------+-------+------+------+-------+-------+

| Lucca della Robbia | 49.65 | 15.50 | 0.17 | 3.70 | 8.58 | 22.40 |

| Majorca | 48.00 | 17.50 | 1.17 | 3.75 | 9.46 | 20.12 |

| Spain (old) | 46.04 | 18.45 | 0.87 | 3.04 | 13.96 | 17.64 |

| Valencia (modern) | 51.55 | 20.52 | 1.24 | 2.63 | 10.42 | 13.64 |

| Delft | 49.07 | 16.19 | 0.82 | 2.82 | 13.09 | 18.01 |

| Persian | 48.54 | 12.05 | 0.30 | 3.14 | 16.72 | 19.25 |

| Nevers | 56.49 | 19.22 | 0.71 | 2.12 | 6.50 | 14.96 |

| Rouen | 47.96 | 15.02 | 0.44 | 4.07 | 12.27 | 20.24 |

+--------------------+-------+-------+------+------+-------+-------+

Of the potteries which hold a place between the hard and soft wares are

the Palissy and Henri Deux. The composition of the former is 67.50

silica, 28.51 alumina, 1.52 lime, 2.05 oxide of iron, with a very slight

admixture of alkalies. That of the latter is 59.10 silica, and 40.24

alumina.

From what has been said, it will be seen that the difference between

earthen-ware, stone-ware, and porcelain is to be attributed to a few

minor ingredients, to the preparation, and to the degree of heat to

which they are subjected. The following table may be studied for the

sake of making comparisons:

Common earthen-ware Silica, 60; alumina, 30; iron, 7; lime, 2.

Blue clay Silica, 46; alumina, 38; iron, 1; lime, 1.

Staffordshire clay Pipe-clay, 40; kaolin, 25; quartz, 20; felspar, 15.

Stone-ware { Felspar, 25; quartz or silex, 25; soda, 25;

plastic clay, 15; boracic acid, 10.

Porcelain Silica, 66; alumina, 30; potash, 3.4; magnesia

and lime, 1.1.

Porcelain glaze Silica, 73.4; alumina, 15.7; potash, 7.4;

magnesia and lime, 2.2.

English porcelain Kaolin, 34; bone, 47; felspar, 19; soda ash, 36.

Old Sèvres soft-paste { Saltpetre, 22; sea-salt, 7.2; burnt alum, 3.6; soda

{ ash, 3.6; gypsum, 3.6; sand, 60.

{ This was made into a frit and mixed--75

{ parts frit, 17 chalk, and 8 of calcareous marl.

As to the glazes applied to clay or opaque ware, we have seen that they

are broadly distinguished as translucent plumbiferous or alkaline,

opaque stanniferous, and salt glaze. The distinction is also to be

observed between glaze and enamel, although they are often confounded.

Thus, according to M. Brongniart, there are three kinds of

glaze--varnish, enamel, and couverte--all of which are vitrifiable.

Varnish he describes as a transparent and plumbiferous material, melting

at a lower temperature than that required for baking the paste; enamel,

an opaque, generally stanniferous (containing tin) substance; couverte,

a substance which melts at a temperature equal to that required for

baking the paste. Birch, on the other hand, draws a distinction between

glaze and enamel. In one place he speaks of “opaque glasses or enamels,”

and again, “among the Egyptians and Assyrians, enamelling was used more

frequently than glazing.” So, also, Fortnum, who, dividing pottery into

soft and hard, subdivides the former into unglazed, lustrous, glazed,

and enamelled. The glazed he again divides into silicious, or

glass-glazed, and plumbeous, or lead-glazed, both of which are

transparent. The word “glaze” is thus more correctly applied to the

covering, which does not alter the color of the body upon which it is

laid, and “enamel” to that which obscures the body.

Glass, or silicious glaze, is formed by fusing sand with an

alkali--potash or soda. When to this is added the oxide of lead,

transparent plumbiferous glaze is the result; and when to both of these

oxide of tin is added, we have opaque stanniferous enamel. The glass and

plumbeous glazes may be colored with a variety of other oxides, without

losing their transparency.

When or where glaze was first applied to clay is not known. Like many

other branches of knowledge and many nations, it has its roots in the

East, but whether we are indebted for it to India, Egypt, or Assyria,

cannot now be decided. Upon this question Dr. Birch says:

“The desire of rendering terra-cotta less porous, and of producing vases

capable of retaining liquids, gave rise to the covering it with a

vitreous enamel or glaze. The invention of glass has been hitherto

generally attributed to the Phœnicians; but opaque glasses or

enamels, as old as the eighteenth dynasty, and enamelled objects as

early as the fourth (B.C. 3000-2000), have been found in Egypt. The

employment of copper to produce a brilliant blue-colored enamel was very

early both in Babylonia and Assyria, but the use of tin for a white

enamel, as recently discovered in the enamelled bricks and vases of

Babylonia and Assyria, anticipated by many centuries the rediscovery of

that process in Europe in the fifteenth century, and shows the early

application of metallic oxides. This invention apparently remained for

many centuries a secret among the Eastern nations only, enamelled

terra-cotta and glass forming articles of commercial export from Egypt

and Phœnicia to every part of the Mediterranean. Among the Egyptians

and Assyrians enamelling was used more frequently than glazing, and

their works are consequently a kind of faience, consisting of a loose

frit or body, to which an enamel adheres after only a slight fusion.

After the fall of the Roman Empire the art of enamelling terra-cotta

disappeared among the Arab and Moorish races, who had retained a

traditional knowledge of the process. The application of a transparent

vitreous coating, or glaze, over the entire surface, like the varnish of

a picture, is also referable to a high antiquity, and was universally

adopted either to enhance the beauty of single colors or to promote the

combination of many. Innumerable fragments and remains of glazed vases,

fabricated by the Greeks and Romans, not only prove the early use of

glazing, but also exhibit, in the present day, many of the noblest

efforts of the potter’s art.”

The use of oxides is also very ancient. The Egyptians employed that of

copper for the production of their turquoise-blue, and possibly also for

their green, manganese for violet, iron or silver for yellows, etc. The

same processes were known in Babylon and Assyria. To the Persians and

Arabians the application of metallic lustres was known at a very early

period. Plumbiferous, or lead-glaze, was employed by the Babylonians,

and the knowledge of its composition was in all probability imported

thence among the Greeks, and by them may have been carried into Southern

Italy.

The course of enamel is equally difficult of definition. Although used

in Egypt, Babylon, and Assyria, it does not appear to have supplanted

the lead-glaze; and for a long period all traces of it are lost, until

it reappeared among the Arabs. We next meet with it as a distinctive

characteristic of the potteries of Spain. It was also known to the

Saracenic and Moorish potters of Sicily, and from either of these

sources may have found its way into Italy.

CHAPTER IV.

MANUFACTURE AND DECORATION.

Divisions of Chapter.--Japanese Method of Preparing Porcelain

Clay.--Old Sèvres Soft Porcelain.--Pug-Mill.--Blunger.--Early

Italian Methods.--Shaping the Clay.--Moulding among the Egyptians,

Greeks, Italians, and at the Present Day.--Moulding

Porcelain.--Japanese Method.--European.--Throwing.--The Potter’s

Wheel in all Countries.--Baking and Firing.--Egyptian, Greek,

Italian, and Japanese Kilns.--Those of Modern Europe and

America.--Times of Firing.--Glazing and Painting.--Metallic-Lustre

Majolica.--Japanese Methods.--Glazing Stone-ware.--Natural and

Artificial Porcelain.

Having thus glanced at the different wares, and learned the composition

of the leading kinds of paste and glaze, the attention is next attracted

by the processes of preparing the materials, and the different methods

of manufacture. The levigation of kaolin and making of porcelain have

already been touched upon incidentally. The subject of the present

chapter naturally divides itself into the following heads:

Preparation of the paste;

Forming the vessel to be made;

Baking or firing;

Preparation of the glaze or enamel;

Applying the glaze or enamel;

Laying on the color and painting.

To what has been said about the preparation of English and Chinese

kaolin pastes, little need be added. There is, however, a peculiarity

about the Japanese custom not unworthy of notice. In that country the

raw material, whether kaolin, quartz, or felspar, is reduced to a powder

by a horizontal balancing pounder of primitive construction, and worked

by water-power. Two long beams are joined together at one end by an

iron-cased crossbar, and a trough is attached to the other. This frame

is then erected near a stream, so that the water will fall into the

trough. The weight of the water carries the trough down, and the other

end is raised to a corresponding height. When the trough has fallen so

far that, by reason of the slope, the water runs out and thus takes off

the weight at that end, the iron-shod beam at the other descends, and

falling into a stone mortar in which the raw material has been placed,

in a very short time pulverizes it. The above is the only machine

employed by the Japanese. After being pulverized, the paste is sifted,

mixed with water, and decanted, and the water is finally drained off

through matting and sand. The fine clay to be used in making porcelain

is deposited on the mat.

For the old Sèvres soft porcelain, the frit was crushed, cleared of

salts, and ground in water. The paste was then mixed with the other

ingredients, as previously given in the table.

[Illustration: Fig. 21.--Vertical Pug-Mill, in use at Union Porcelain

Works, Greenpoint.]

To prepare clay for making earthen-ware or stone-ware, machines are now

generally used. That for the coarser kind of wares, such as bricks or

common stone-ware jars, is a pug-mill (Figs. 21 and 22). The clay,

having been brought by water to a certain workable consistency, is put

into the mill. This is simply a cylindrical box, with blades projecting

from the inside, and having in the centre a shaft also armed with

blades. By the revolving of the shaft the clay is worked into a perfect

pulp, and in that condition issues from a hole in the lower end of the

mill. Should any hard substance have resisted the knives, it is removed

by hand.

[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Horizontal Pug-Mill, in use at Union Porcelain

Works, Greenpoint.]

For the finer kinds of earthen-ware, into the composition of which

pipe-clay, kaolin, quartz, and felspar enter, the ingredients are mixed

in a “blunger.” This machine is not unlike a steam butter churn, there

being a shaft passing from end to end, in exactly the same way, and

armed with similar paddles. Water is added to the ingredients, and, as

the blunger turns, these are all thoroughly mixed into a “slip,” which

is drawn off at the bottom. It is then strained and finally passed

through a pug-mill, and is ready for use.

Piccolpasso, or the Cavaliere Cipriano Piccolpasso Durantino, who wrote

in Italy, in 1548, gives very minute information regarding the processes

of the potters of his time and country. The clay was either washed down

by rivers or taken from pits. In the former case it was taken from the

river-bed when the water was low, and was placed in holes in the ground,

either after or without being dried in the sun. The object of keeping it

was to allow all impurities to pass off. Where there were no rivers, a

series of pits was dug in any convenient hollow, and connected by a

channel. The earth was washed down by the rain into these pits, and

purified by the passage from one to another. In some cases it was found

necessary to place the earth on sieves exposed to the rain, through

which the finer particles were washed into receivers placed below.

Instead of using a pug-mill, the Italian potters put the earth upon a

table, where it was beaten with an iron instrument, and thoroughly

kneaded and cleaned by hand.

The next process is the formation or shaping of the vessel. This may be

done either by moulding or by “throwing” upon the potter’s wheel. Both

of these methods are very ancient. The Egyptians used moulds in making

bricks before they resorted to the use of fire for baking them. Their

lamps, etc., also give evidence of having been moulded. The Greeks used

modelling tools for their ornaments, and also for _pithoi_, or casks.

Afterward moulding was resorted to, and by that means the potter made

certain parts of the vases--the handles and feet, for example, and also

the ornaments. The entire vessel was sometimes produced by moulding,

such as the _rhyta_, or drinking-cups, with terminations in the form of

animals’ heads. Amphoræ, cups, saucers, and vases of many shapes were

formed by the same process.

We must refer to Piccolpasso again for the manner in which the Italian

potters moulded. Like the Greeks, they appear first to have moulded the

parts, such as the handles, which were fixed to the body after it was

fashioned. They then, again like the Greeks, began to imitate metal

vessels, and thus were brought directly to the process of moulding upon

their models, or shaped pieces ornamented in relief. The moulds were

made of plaster of Paris, and, when ready, the clay was worked into a

cylindrical shape, and sliced by drawing a wire across it. The thickness

of the slice was regulated and made uniform by pieces of wood placed at

either side of the lump of clay. A slice was then taken and pressed into

the mould, and another for the other side into the other half of the

mould. Any excess appearing over the edges was cut away. The feet were

similarly moulded, and subsequently fixed to the body by means of a

composition of clay and fine wool cuttings. In making vases or ewers,

moulds were made for both sides, and joined at the front and back. A

wire was used to cut off the superfluous clay, and the two pieces were

joined together with the composition above mentioned. The handle was

fastened on by the same means.

Moulds are at the present day used in every branch of the art, from the

lowest to the highest. Drain-pipes are made in a cylindrical mould, with

a smaller and solid cylinder inside. The clay is pressed between the two

concentric cylinders. In making earthen-ware, the clay is sometimes

rolled out and spread upon a block of the desired shape. In making

plates, the clay is spread over a round block, and moulded by a form

pressed down from above. When plaster of Paris is used, the process is

very like that described by Piccolpasso. The mould is in two parts, into

each of which the clay is pressed. The two pieces are then brought

together, and the seams joined. Or a plaster mould may be used, into

which the paste is poured in a liquid state. The absorption of the

liquid by the plaster soon gives the clay sufficient consistency to take

the necessary shape. Subsequent shrinkage allows its removal from the

mould. After a partial drying, the ware is dressed or “shaved.” The

process is a very delicate one, especially in the finer kinds of ware,

in which a finely polished surface is necessary. The piece is placed on

a lathe, and cut to the necessary thickness, and receives its ornamental

lines, or has the mouldings applied. The handles are then attached, and,

after drying, the piece is ready for the kiln.

The moulding of porcelain requires very great care, on account of the

fragility of many of the pieces. In Japan, clay moulds were exclusively

used until within the past three years. After being thrown or moulded,

and slightly dried, the pieces are shaped by means of sharp metal

instruments in the same lathe on which the throwing is done. A coat of

pure white clay is then laid on for the purpose of enhancing the beauty

and heightening the effect of the color. This having been done, the

piece is ready for the preliminary firing. When large pieces are made,

the European method is to pour the necessary thickness of slip over the

inside of the mould, against the side of which it is kept by means of

forcing air into the interior, after covering the surface, or exhausting

the air through the mould. When sufficiently dry to support its own

weight, the piece is fired.

[Illustration: Fig. 23.--A Potter in Palestine.]

The other method of forming the wares is technically called “throwing”

upon the potter’s wheel, and is suitable for all circular vessels, or

those with modifications of the circular shape. The process is very

simple. A piece of clay, large or small, as required, is thrown down on

the revolving disk, and, as it whirls round, is formed by the potter’s

hand into the requisite shape. The potter’s wheel is one of the oldest

mechanical appliances in existence. Its invention was due to the desire

of remedying the irregularities of handiwork, and as such was a valuable

and in every way wonderful achievement. It brought symmetry and all the

varieties of circular form within the potter’s reach. Its inventor is

unknown. The prehistoric vases of Greece were made upon the wheel. It

was used in Egypt at least four thousand years ago. In Assyria, and

among the Jews, its use is attested by the frequent reference made to it

in Scripture.

It is curious to find a modern traveller, Dr. W. M. Thomson, speaking

thus in “The Land and the Book” of the potter of Palestine. “I have been

out on the shore again examining a native manufactory of pottery, and

was delighted to find the whole Biblical apparatus complete, and in full

operation. There was the potter sitting at his ‘frame,’ and turning the

‘wheel’ with his foot (Fig. 23). He had a heap of prepared clay near

him, and a pan of water by his side. Taking a lump in his hand, he

placed it on the top of the wheel (which revolves horizontally) and

smoothed it into a low cone, like the upper end of a sugar-loaf; then,

thrusting his thumb into the top of it, he opened a hole down through

the centre, and this he constantly widened by pressing the edges of the

revolving cone between his hands. As it enlarged and became thinner, he

gave it whatever shape he pleased with the utmost ease and expedition.”

[Illustration: Fig. 24.--An Egyptian Pottery. (From a Tomb.) _a_, _e_,

_i_, _p_, the wheels on which the clay was put. Fig. 1 forms the inside

and lip of the cup as it turns on the wheel _a_. _b_, _c_, _d_ are cups

already made. Fig. 2 forms the outside of the cup, indenting it with the

hand at the base, preparatory to its being taken off. Fig. 3 has just

taken off the cup from the clay, _l_. Fig. 4 puts on a fresh piece of

clay. Fig. 5 forms a round slab of clay with his two hands. Fig. 6 stirs

and prepares the oven, _q_. At _s_ is the fire, which rises through the

long, narrow tube or chimney of the oven, upon the top of which the cups

are placed to bake, as in _v_. Fig. 7 hands the cup to the baker, 8.

Fig. 9 carries away the baked cups from the oven.]

The entire process of making clay vessels in Egypt has been preserved in

a scene depicted in a tomb (Fig. 24). The clay was first trampled

underfoot to give it evenness of consistency and make it more perfectly

plastic. It was then prepared for working by being rolled out, and was

then put on the wheel. The latter was either round or polygonal and

flat. It was placed upon a stand, and was turned with one hand, while

with the other the potter shaped the clay, and, as he worked, sat either

upon a low stool or upon the ground. Both the hollowing and external

shaping were done by hand. The furnaces were hollow cylinders, about six

and a half feet high, in which the wares to be baked were placed about

half-way up. An aperture at the bottom admitted draught sufficient to

drive the flames out of the top of the furnace. Among the Greeks the

wheel was also employed at a very early period, so early that its

inventor or introducer is forgotten. One of the Grecian legends ascribes

the honor to Dædalus, an Athenian of royal descent, and inventor of the

wedge, axe, and other mechanical contrivances. Another legend ascribes

it to Talos, the nephew of Dædalus, whose murder compelled the latter to

seek safety in flight. To whatever individual or city the credit may be

due, the wheel was used by Grecian potters from time immemorial. They

turned it with the foot--as did the Egyptians also at one period--and it

appears that the turning was sometimes left to an assistant. The process

was almost identical with that described above. The clay was placed upon

the wheel and shaped by the hand, and when the vessel was of so large a

size as to make it necessary, one hand supported and shaped the clay

from the inside. In this way the body of the vessel was made, and before

the clay dried, the feet, handles, and other parts were fixed to it.

Before the wheel was known, the vessels were hollowed out and shaped by

the hand, and the larger vessels were subsequently made in the same way.

It is said that the potter’s wheel was invented in Japan, in the year

724, by a priest named Giyoki, and the event at once raised the potter’s

art into very high estimation. In Arita, the wheel consists of a

fly-wheel and revolving disk, the latter placed about a foot above the

former, and connected with it by a hollow wooden prismatic axle. In the

centre of the working disk, and between the three sides of the prism, a

hollow piece of porcelain is inserted. The whole is then placed upon a

pointed stick fixed firmly in the ground, in such a way that the entire

weight is supported upon the point of the upright wood. As that point

comes in contact with the inserted porcelain, friction is reduced to a

minimum. Vessels of any size can be thrown in this way--from the huge

basin three feet in diameter to the smallest work which the potter’s

hand has shaped. A driving cord is employed for turning the wheel when

very large pieces are being made.

The Italians of the sixteenth century used the wheel in the same way,

fashioning the clay with the hands and certain tools of wood and iron

(Fig. 25).

It would thus appear that the potter’s wheel improved in due course of

time. At first it was merely a horizontal revolving disk turned by hand;

then it consisted of a three-feet shaft with the disk on the top, and a

driving-wheel below to be turned by the potter’s foot; later still, it

was turned by means of a foot-board, like that of a turning-lathe or

printing-press; afterward the driving-wheel was separated from the disk

which it turned by means of a connecting rope or band, and was worked by

an assistant; more recently, steam has been brought in to the saving of

labor, and in many large factories is the chief power used.

[Illustration: Fig. 25.--Venetian Potters of the Sixteenth Century.

Showing two kinds of potter’s wheels in use among them. (From engraving

by V. Biringuccio.)]

It is almost unnecessary to add that when throwing was resorted to in

place of moulding, the subsequent operations of shaving, polishing, and

attaching the handles and ornaments were performed in the same manner as

that described above.

We now reach the third process, that of baking or firing. Sun-dried

bricks have been found in nearly every part of the world. They were

introduced into Spain by the Arabs, and in the New World have been found

from Mexico to Peru. In Egypt they represent the earliest works of the

potter; and from that country, Assyria, and Babylonia, relics of the

rudest stage of the art of working in clay have reached our own time.

The climate of Egypt was such that unbaked bricks were sufficiently

lasting for architectural purposes, and walls, tombs, and entire

pyramids were constructed of them. The use of sun-dried clay was

restricted in Assyria to bricks and small figures of an apparently

religious character. In Babylon, as in Assyria, similar bricks were used

as foundations for buildings. Among the Greeks sun-dried clay was widely

employed. Many of their temples and the walls of some of their fortified

cities were constructed of bricks dried in the sun. Even statues and

models were made of unbaked clay.

The kind of furnace in use among the Egyptians at a very early period

has already been described. No remnant of those used by the Greeks has

been discovered, and all the information regarding them has been derived

from representations on pottery or gems. A tolerably correct idea of the

more ancient ones may be conveyed by describing them as tall baker’s

ovens, into which the wares were pushed and baked like loaves. There

are several vases now in existence upon which furnaces of this kind

are depicted. A kylix from Vulci, and now at Munich, is remarkable for

the scene depicted on it. One of the epigrammata of Homer, entitled ‘Ο

Καμινς--“The Furnace,” has been translated by Cowper. The explanatory

preface is attributed to Herodotus.

“Certain potters, while they were busied in baking their ware, seeing

Homer at a small distance, and having heard much said of his wisdom,

called to him, and promised him a present of their commodity--and of

such other things as they could afford--if he would sing to them, when

he sang as follows:

“‘Pay me my price, potters! and I will sing.

Attend, O Pallas! and with lifted arm

Protect their oven: let the cups and all

The sacred vessels blacken well, and, baked

With good success, yield them both fair renown

And profit, whether in the market sold

Or streets, and let no strife ensue between us.

But, O ye potters! if with shameless front

Ye falsify your promise, then I leave

No mischief uninvoked to avenge the wrong.

Come, Syntrips, Smaragdus, Sabactes, come,

And Asbestus; nor let your direst dread

Omodamus delay! Fire seize your house!

May neither house nor vestibule escape!

May ye lament to see confusion mar

And mingle the whole labor of your hands!

And may a sound fill all your oven, such

As of a horse grinding his provender,

While all your pots and flagons bounce within.

Come hither also daughter of the Sun,

Circe, the sorceress, and with thy drugs

Poison themselves, and all that they have made!

Come also Chiron, with thy numerous troop

Of Centaurs, as well those who died beneath

The club of Hercules, as who escaped,

And stamp their crockery to dust! Down fall

Their chimney! Let them see it with their eyes,

And howl to see the ruin of their art,

While I rejoice: and if a potter stoop

To peep into his furnace, may the fire

Flash in his face and scorch it, that all men

Observe thenceforth equity and good faith.’”

The scene on the kylix at Munich is supposed to represent Homer among

the potters. The furnace is on the extreme right, and has a tall

chimney. The fire is seen below. In front of it is a man who has

apparently been placing a vase in the oven, and behind him comes another

carrying what may be a large jar on his shoulder. The next figure is

that of Homer, holding a staff; behind him is a vase, and a youth

carrying another vessel toward the furnace. The next group shows the

operation of “throwing,” a boy turning the wheel while an old man shapes

the vessel. On the left is a young man sitting and holding on his knees

a vase to which he seems to be attaching the handle. The entire

composition is interesting, since--assuming the old man with the crook

to be Homer, and not the proprietor of the pottery--it illustrates a

poem which shows how widely, even at the early age in which the poet

lived, the various operations in making vases were understood. For our

present purpose, however, attention is chiefly directed to the furnace.

The furnaces described by Piccolpasso as in use among the Italians were

of three kinds, one for oxidizing the tin and lead, a second for baking

glazed ware, and a third for majolica proper, or lustred ware. In the

first the furnace was rectangular, and was divided into two parts, one

of which was occupied by the fire, the other by the tray for the metals.

The latter was raised to such a height that the flames could play upon

the metals as they passed over them to the opening at the other side.

The baking furnace was also rectangular, and was built of brick. It was

divided by a perforated arch into an upper and lower compartment. In the

upper division the wares were placed. It had four openings on either

side and nine in the roof. Under the lower chamber was the ash-pit, and

each chamber had a door at one end. At Castel-Durante the usual

dimensions of a furnace were six feet in height and length, and five in

width. At Venice their dimensions were sometimes double those above

stated. The wares were arranged according to their quality.

Seggars--circular or oval cases of infusible fire-clay, bottomed, but

without covers, and perforated--were used for those of fine quality. The

seggars, which may be seen piled one above another in Fig. 28 and on the

lower right hand of Fig. 29, were placed as in the first of these

engravings, the bottom of the one above acting as a lid to that next

below; and the coarser wares were arranged in rows between the piles of

seggars. The openings having been partially closed, the fire was

applied below, and kept up for about twelve hours, when the first

firing was finished. The majolica furnace will be described hereafter.

[Illustration: Fig. 26.--Common Pottery Kiln.]

Among the Japanese the kilns are arranged in a peculiar manner. That in

which the first firing is done is a small furnace, used only previous to

the painting. The oxide of cobalt, which is more extensively employed

than any other, is laid upon the white clay coating, and the piece is

then glazed, usually in a compound of felspath and wood-ashes. The

second firing then takes place. The kilns are built in terraced rows of

from four to twenty, and rise about three feet above each other, growing

larger in size as they extend up the hill. The ground-plan is

trapezoidal, and the walls rise vertically for a few feet, and are then

rounded off into an arch. The front wall, looking toward the lower end

of the row, is pierced with holes near the ground, and others are made

in the back wall at about three feet above the ground, so as to open

directly upon the floor of the next kiln above. The draught in this way

rushes through the entire row toward the chimneys behind the largest and

uppermost kiln. The fuel is thrown directly into the kiln, and not into

a fireplace. It is arranged along the lower side in a narrow space

divided from the rest of the kiln by fire-clay slabs set upright. The

fire begins in a furnace attached to the lowest kiln. The hot air rushes

through the air-holes into the next kiln, which is thus heated before

its own firing begins, and so on throughout the entire range, the kilns

furthest up the line having thus to stand the highest temperature. Each

one has the benefit of the heat of all the lower ones. The Japanese do

not make any extensive use of seggars. To keep the pieces free from dust

or falling particles of the vault, the inside of each kiln is glazed

before the firing begins. The pieces are placed one above another upon

fire-clay stands. The small kilns for the preliminary firing are in the

potter’s yard, but the kilns above described belong to the community,

and are rented to the manufacturers.

[Illustration: Fig. 27.--Hard Pottery Kiln.]

[Illustration: Fig. 28.--Porcelain Kiln.]

The kilns in use in America and Europe vary very much in shape. M.

Brongniart gives representations of three--that for common pottery (Fig.

26), that for hard pottery (Fig. 27), and that for porcelain (Fig. 28).

Those used in England often take the shape of a low, vaulted chamber,

with the fire at one end, the chimney at the other, and the firing

chamber between. In the United States, the usual shape for both

earthen-ware and stone-ware is conical, not unlike a ball-cartridge. The

common pottery kiln is divided, by means of baked plates, into cells, in

which the wares are placed. The length of time during which they are

kept in the furnace varies according to the nature of the ware. It may

be twenty-four hours or, as in the case of fine stone-ware, several

days. For some wares, seggars are used in place of the open cells; and

the arrangement of the seggars may be seen in the porcelain kiln. When,

in the case of non-vitrifying earthen-ware, a combination of firing and

glazing in one operation is not practicable, the ware is kept at a

white-heat for about thirty-six hours; and on the kiln cooling, the

pieces then known as “biscuit” are removed for glazing. This operation

consists of dipping it into the glaze, composed as previously mentioned,

ground to a powder, and mixed with water until of the right consistency.

The second firing melts the glaze, and covers the surface with a thin,

transparent coating. The Italian potters gradually increased the heat

for four hours, and allowed the ware to remain at a white-heat for

twelve hours, and then to cool. Porcelain is fired according to its

composition. For English porcelain, the first firing lasts about fifty

hours; the second firing, after the glaze is applied, lasts about twenty

hours or less, at a lower temperature. Soft-paste or artificial French

porcelain takes from eighty to a hundred hours for the first, and thirty

for the second, firing. The greatest caution is demanded in placing the

pieces in the seggars and in regulating the heat. The chief peculiarity

about the making of porcelain is that the glaze fluxes with the paste,

and forms, with it, a translucent whole.

[Illustration: Fig. 29.--Broome’s Improved Porcelain or Parian Kiln. A,

ash-pit; G, grate; F F, flues; B B, bags for the flames; D, door for

filling the kiln; E, damper, or draught regulator; S S S, spy-holes for

watching, or trials while burning.]

Mr. Isaac Broome, of Trenton, has invented a new kiln, of which an

engraving is here given (Fig. 29). An equal distribution and perfect

regulation of the heat are the features which commend it to attention.

Very little more need be said here about the preparation and

application of the glaze, and that little can be included in what

requires to be added about the laying on of the colors. The Italians

worked in the following manner: The biscuit having been dipped in the

enamel bath, was allowed to dry, and was then painted and again dried.

The piece was then dipped in the transparent glaze, and, having been for

a third time dried, was ready for the final firing. Piccolpasso gives

much minute instruction regarding the preparation of the colors and

manner of painting, which must here be omitted. What he says about

painting majolica, or lustred ware, is, however, interesting. The parts

to receive the metallic-lustre pigment were sketched in outline, and

left white when the other colors were applied. After the piece was fired

the lustre pigments were laid on, and the piece was again placed in the

kiln. For this purpose a special kiln was necessary. It was built with a

square fire chamber intersected by two arches, on which was placed a

circular chamber large enough to touch the four sides of the square

kiln, but necessarily leaving the four corners uncovered. This chamber

was perforated in all directions, in order to admit the flames to direct

contact with the wares. Dry willow branches were used for the first

three hours, and then dry broom was thrown on the fire, which was kept

up for another hour. The kiln having cooled, the pieces were removed,

soaked in soap-and-water, washed, rubbed dry with flannel, and then

polished with wood-ash and flannel. The object of the process is

obvious. The flames being allowed to play directly upon the wares, the

carbon in the smoke decomposed the salts contained in the metallic

oxide, and the metal was left glittering and iridescent upon the

surface.

The Japanese porcelain painted under the glaze with the oxide of cobalt

has been already described. Other qualities are painted over the glaze

with colored enamels made from glass (or silica, litharge, and nitre)

and white-lead. The coloring oxides are gold for carmine, copper,

antimony, manganese, red oxide of iron, and oxide of cobalt. These are

mixed and applied directly by the painter without any previous

preparation, so that the colors do not show themselves until brought out

by the fire. The method of decoration is peculiar. The design is first

sketched in black lines, with strokes for the shades. When the enamel

colors are opaque, they are laid on thinly; when translucent or

resembling colored glass, so that the design appears under, they are

laid on more thickly. Occasionally a white opaque enamel--but containing

no admixture of tin--is first applied, and the colors are laid upon it.

Stone-ware is very seldom glazed by a “dip.” The usual method is to

combine the firing and glazing. When the ware has been exposed to the

maximum heat for the necessary time, salt is thrown into the kiln. The

heat vaporizes the salt, and of its constituent parts one, the chlorine,

escapes; while the other, the soda, is, on coming in contact with the

silex in the red-hot ware, formed into a silicate of soda, a perfectly

transparent and intensely hard glaze.

In regard to the colors, the only ones now known which will bear the

first firing--_couleurs de grand feu_--and are therefore put on before

glazing, are blue from cobalt, browns from iron, manganese, and chromate

of iron, green from chrome, and yellows from titanium and uranium.

Between these and the more delicate _couleurs de moufle_, or enamel

colors, are violets, reds, and browns from manganese, copper, and iron,

which are designated as _couleurs au demi grand feu_. Beyond these, the

colors used in decorating hard or natural porcelain are laid on the

glaze, to which they adhere without incorporating themselves.

The great difficulties attending the manufacture of porcelain may now be

estimated. The piece must pass through the kiln as many times as there

are colors requiring different temperatures. Too much heat will blot out

the delicate colors, too little will leave them dull. Those on

artificial or soft porcelain sink into the glaze, and thus present a

softness and creamy delicacy never seen on any other kind of ware.

The results are generally a sufficient reward for the difficulty of the

process. This is altogether exceptional in the case of _pate tendre_. As

its alkaline ingredients volatilize at a certain heat, the fire must be

stopped before that temperature is reached. The glaze, also alkaline, is

then applied in the form of dust, and not, as with hard porcelain, in

the form of a dip. The second firing melts the glaze. If the heat be too

strong, the alkalies will fly off; if too weak, the surface will be

uneven. For a third time the same danger is incurred, when the firing

for fixing the colors takes place.

BOOK II.--THE ORIENT.

CHAPTER I.

EGYPT.

The East the Cradle of Art.--The Antiquity of Egypt: Its Claim to

Notice in every Branch of Inquiry.--The Fountains of Oriental and

Greek Art.--The Nile Clay.--Egypt’s Early Maturity.--Limitation of

Material.--Effect of Religion upon Art.--Two Periods in Art

History.--Ancient Religion.--Various Symbols.--UNGLAZED

POTTERY--_Sun-dried_: Bricks.--Moulds, Stamps,

etc.--Vessels.--_Baked Ware_: Its Early Date.--Color of Vessels and

Bricks.--Coffins.--Cones.--Figures.--Sepulchral Vases.--Amphoræ and

other Vessels.--Decoration.--Græco-Egyptian Pottery.--GLAZED WARE,

miscalled Porcelain: Its Nature, and how Colored.--Wall

Tiles.--Inlaying of Mummy Cases.--Personal

Ornaments.--Images.--Beads, etc.--Vases.--Bowls.--Glazed

Schist.--Stanniferous Enamel.

To the Orient we look for the birthplace of man, and in it we also find

the cradle of Art. How it spread eastward to China and westward to

Egypt, we may not be able, with precise accuracy, to tell; but this we

know, that in and between these two countries the ceramic art had been

carried to a lofty eminence long before Europe had awakened from

barbaric slumber. Western history was, in fact, scarcely beginning, when

Eastern civilization was in one direction fading, and in another was

tottering to its fall.

In beginning with Egypt, the most ancient relics of primitive art pass

first in review. To that wonderful country, long hidden under a thick

cloud of mystery, we must, in fact, first turn, no matter what may be

the subject demanding investigation. It had reached antiquity before the

oldest countries of the West were born. In the ceramic art, it appears

as the centre from which radiated the two great branches, many centuries

afterward converging in Southern Europe. On the one hand is the

silicious-glazed pottery, which, after moving eastward, reached Europe

in a slightly altered form; on the other is the glazed and unglazed

terra-cotta, which the Greeks took up and carried forward to a new and

higher perfection. Egypt thus appears as the fountain-head of ancient

art. The progress it made toward comparative perfection will be

hereafter referred to. Meantime it may be pointed out, that, while

fortunate in one respect, Egypt was unfortunate in another. The banks of

the Nile gave a never-failing supply of pure and plastic clay, admirably

suited to all the purposes of the potter. When the periodical

inundations took place, they left a deposit of exceptionally pure silt

extending from the banks of the river to the furthest margin of the

flood. The material was thus ready to the potter’s hand. The counter

disadvantage was the absence of the materials required for the finest

ware, or their presence in such form as scarcely to suggest their

combination. The Egyptians appear to have carried their ceramic art to a

full development at a very remote stage of their history, or, in other

words, they soon arrived at the point beyond which they never passed.

The limitation laid upon them was that of material. The result of this

is shown by the other directions in which their art branched off. It

seemed impossible to accomplish anything in clay to vie with the

precious metals and stones. For purposes of ornament, therefore, clay

was discarded. It was worked by slaves (Fig. 30), and fashioned into

domestic vessels and bricks; and when the nearest approach to porcelain

was made, then only do we meet with ornamental works, or those of a more

strictly artistic character.

Their religion also appears to have deadened their ambition to reach a

higher excellence. There were two periods in their art history. In

studying the works belonging to the first, the observer will frequently

be impressed by the desire evinced to follow the forms offered by nature

for imitation. Such is the most striking characteristic of what may be

called the first school. It aimed at the reproduction of natural forms

in the most literal manner. Afterward, when the emblematic school took

its rise, the forms were still those of nature, with a religious or

spiritual significance superadded. The idea is evidently fatal to art,

that it can climb to nothing higher than the figure symbolical of a god.

In their efforts toward the production of what was graceful and

beautiful, the Egyptians are not, however, to be despised. Before

foreign influences made themselves felt, the Egyptian forms were

simple, and frequently displayed ideas of beauty which, if ruder than

those of the Greeks, are independent. The Egyptians were necessarily

original. They had no predecessors whose works they could copy; and in

appealing to nature for models, they took the only course open to them.

From their originality the Greeks borrowed and improved upon their

models, and it is in this view of its being a starting-point for

subsequent art that Egyptian pottery demands careful study.

[Illustration: Fig. 30.--Foreign Captives making Bricks in Egypt. 1, Man

returning from carrying load; 2, 7, and 10 carry the clay, after it has

been dug by 9, 11, 12, and 13, and throw it down at 7 and _j_, for the

brickmakers, 8 and 16; 4 and 5 carry them away to the drying-place or

furnace; 3 and 6 are taskmasters; 14 and 15 are carrying water from the

tank, _h_. At _c_ and _a_ are inscriptions to the effect that the bricks

were so made for the Temple of Amun-Ra, at Thebes.]

It is indispensable, in order to understand the highest forms of the art

in Egypt, that something should be known of its religion. In that

strange land we find an answer--possibly the first--to the question,

“The sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the hills, and the plains--

Are not these, O soul, the vision of Him who reigns?”

According to Bunsen, “the mythological system proceeded from ‘the

concealed god,’ Ammon, to the creating god. The latter appears first of

all as the generative power of nature in the Phallic god Khem, who is

afterward merged into Ammon-ra. Then sprung up the idea of a creative

power in Kneph. He forms the limbs of Osiris (the primitive soul) in

contradistinction to Ptah, who, as the strictly demiurgic principle,

forms the visible world. Neith is the creative principle as nature

represented under a female form. Finally her son, Ra Helios, appears as

the last of the series in the character of father and nourisher of

terrestrial things. It is he whom an ancient monument represents as the

demiurgic principle creating the mundane egg.” At the head of this

Pantheon stands Ammon, the concealed and invisible. The other figures

are personifications of his attributes, and appear as separate and

individual gods. In order to make the theogony intelligible to the

people, these gods are represented by symbols. There is thus a regular

gradation from the symbol to the divine attribute, and thence to the

Unknown Greatest. It is the sublimity of paganism, presenting us with

one god carrying on the infinite works of the universe by means of his

various attributes. The symbols were chosen from nature, and are

generally expressive, if not always dignified. Firstly, as to the

symbols proper, the lotus and scarabæus may be mentioned as of most

frequent occurrence. The former, the sacred flower, is often met with in

connection with the figures of the divinities, and symbolizes the

beneficence of nature’s revivifying powers, water and heat. The

scarabæus (Fig. 31) is the symbol of creation, and when represented with

out-spread wings, of immortality. It may appear singular that a

loathsome insect should thus have been honored, but the explanation is

simple. It is to be found in the habits of the insect itself. Placing

its egg in a ball, it buried the latter in the sand, where it was

hatched by the rays of the sun, and the ball opening with the breaking

of the egg, the young insect appeared. It was to the Egyptian a perfect

symbol of creation, and hence of the creative god Phtha. When found with

outstretched wings, it is an ornament of the dead, and symbolizes the

apparent circuit of the sun setting at night to rise in the morning.

Thus the sun of life sets in death to reappear in immortality, as the

scarabæus, under the influence of its divine warmth, breaks from its egg

into insect life. The sun was the symbol of Ra, the sun-god, “the father

and nourisher of terrestrial things.” In representing the gods, the

figures selected were to a great extent arbitrary. The Egyptians honored

themselves by discovering that in the humblest form of nature there was

something worthy of honor. They accordingly took the plants and animals

of their land and wove them into their religion, by adopting a system of

natural symbols too intricate to be here given in detail. The following

may, however, be found useful:

[Illustration: Fig. 31.--Scarabæus. Dark-blue Glazed Pottery. (Way

Coll., Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]

The vulture was the symbol of divine maternity, because thought to

conceive spontaneously; and hence Souvan, the mother of all, is

represented with a vulture’s head. This single instance furnishes a key

to the system. The symbol is chosen which most nearly represents the

principle, and thus becomes a part of the embodied form of the deity

possessing the principle as his or her peculiar attribute. The dog and

jackal were emblems of Anubis, the guardian of the tombs, and the deity

presiding over embalmment. The scarabæus was the emblem of the demiurgic

god Phtha. The lion was also the emblem of Phtha and of the goddess

Pasht. Cynocephali were emblems of Chous and Thoth.

Throughout the entire system, the birds, fishes, land animals, and

plants of Egypt, the hawk, vulture, ibis, uræi snakes, the cat, pig,

cow, and so on, are all used as symbols. It will be sufficient now to

glance at the converse, and note the forms under which the deities are

represented. Ra, the sun-god, appears with the head of a hawk; Athor,

the Egyptian Venus, with horns and ears of a cow; Anubis with head of a

jackal; Thoth with head of an ibis; Amun-ra, a man with solar disk on

head, and plumed; Mut, the mother goddess, crowned; Chous, sou of

Amun-ra and Mut, with moon disk, occasionally hawk-headed; Phtha with

scarabæus on head, sometimes with two heads, one of which is that of a

hawk; Pasht, Bast, and Tafne are all lion-headed goddesses; Her has a

lion’s head; Taur appears as a hippopotamus; Osiris sits enthroned with

the cap of truth, and holds a staff and scourge; Isis, like the Roman

Luna or Diana, appears in two forms, sitting as a terrestrial goddess,

suckling Horus or kneeling, or sitting in her celestial character, with

disk and horns, nursing her son Horus.

[Illustration: Fig. 32.--Egyptian Gods. (Way Coll., Boston Museum of

Fine Arts.)]

We are now in a position to give names to the group (Fig. 32), each

piece in which is of the blue or green glazed pottery to be noticed

hereafter. It may be said, however, that no engraving could give an idea

of the exquisite finish of these pieces, especially of the two in the

middle. The lower central figure is the plumed Amun. It is

turquoise-blue, and is one and three-quarter inches in height. The upper

central figure is the lion-headed Pasht, surmounted by the solar disk

and the asp. To the left is ibis-headed Thoth, a flat figure intended to

be sewn into a mummy covering. On the right are Isis and Nepthys, with

Horus between them. From the combination of symbols, the study of the

mythology of the Egyptians as found illustrated on their pottery is of

deep interest, and of great importance both to the ceramist and the

student of the science of religion.

The ceramic productions of Egypt are divisible into two great classes,

unglazed and glazed.

[Illustration: Fig. 33.--Earthen-ware Vessels found at Thebes.]

UNGLAZED POTTERY.--This may again be divided into the unbaked, or

sun-dried, and baked. Of these the former is unquestionably the more

ancient, and Egypt is one of the three countries whose sun-dried pottery

has lasted until the present time. Unbaked bricks are the oldest

examples. Some of those discovered recall the bondage and wrongs of the

Israelites under the “new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph.” The

command of Pharaoh will be remembered: “Ye shall no more give the people

straw to make brick as heretofore; let them go and gather straw for

themselves.” The straw was used to bind them together. They were moulded

generally in a rectangular shape, and were extensively used in the

construction of pyramids of various ages. They vary in size in different

edifices, and are marked according to their composition or destined use.

In the former case, the marks were used merely to distinguish the

quality; in the latter, the marks indicate either the individual’s tomb

in the construction of which they were to be employed, or the king in

whose reign they were made for public buildings. The whole process can

be studied in the engraving (Fig. 30). The stamp for bricks was not used

until the fifteenth century before the Christian era.

The vessels of unbaked clay which have been preserved are few in

number, and are either religious in character, or devoted to sepulchral

uses. The ornamentation is of the simplest kind.

[Illustration: Fig. 34.--Red Pottery Cone. (Trumbull-Prime Coll., N. Y.

Metropolitan Museum.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 35.--Fish-shaped Vase of Red Terra-cotta. Egyptian.

(British Museum.)]

Egypt was exceptionally favored by nature for advancing in the potter’s

art. The Nile mud was abundant and plastic, and was suitable for either

moulding or throwing. Specimens of baked earthen-ware (Fig. 33) have

accordingly been found belonging to a very remote period. They represent

the second step in the manufacture, which was reached nearly three

thousand years before our era. From the tombs of that period have been

exhumed vessels of various kinds, such as were employed by the Egyptians

in their households; and taking these as a starting-point, the art can

be traced to its decline under imported ideas and foreign domination.

This ware is mostly of a dull red color, verging at times toward purple

or yellow, according to the temperature at which it was baked. The baked

bricks were of the same red color. They were used, apparently, for

purposes for which the less lasting unbaked bricks were not suitable,

but were not generally employed. Of the same material coffins, although

rare, have also been found. Many of the objects connected with the

Egyptian customs regarding the burial of the dead were made of this

clay. Among these were the cones (Fig. 34), with inscriptions in

hieroglyphics stamped on the base, and giving the name of the deceased.

They indicate the resting-places of many civil and ecclesiastical

functionaries--clerks or scribes, priests, chamberlains, soldiers, and

seldom of women. They appear to have fallen into desuetude in the sixth

century before our era. Figures have also been found in the sepulchres

of a later period. The vases for holding the entrails of the embalmed

dead were of the same ware, and bring up for notice a very singular

custom. The viscera were divided into four parts, and deposited in

separate jars having the shapes of the genii of the Egyptian Hades,

Amset, Hapi, Tuautmutf, and Kebhsnuf. The ibis mummy pots belong to the

same class. They were used for holding the embalmed body of the sacred

bird, and are very frequently of a conical shape, with a slightly convex

lid. Of domestic vases in this ware, the shapes and uses are very

numerous. Great numbers have been found in the tombs, varying as much in

size as in purpose. The latter may often be divined from the shape of

the vessel: thus those for liquids are wide-mouthed for convenience in

drawing the contents; those for bread and flesh-meats are wider and more

shallow. Ointment pots and oil jars are also fashioned in view of their

respective purposes.

Another kind of unglazed ware is of a light gray color, and was common

to Egypt and some of the countries of Asia. Amphoræ have been found of

this material, with long bodies ornamented with horizontal grooves. Of

these the larger ones appear to have been intended for liquids, and the

smaller ones, some of which are very diminutive, for solids. The bases

of the former are pointed, while those of the latter are occasionally

rounded. The handles are both small and large, and the necks open or

contracted, according to their use. These are well deserving of notice

for the sake of comparison with the amphoræ of the Greeks; and for the

same reason reference may be made to the vessels with three handles,

which were in all probability the prototypes of the Greek _hydrai_, and

to others with only one handle, which were also reproduced in Greece.

The former are very frequently oval-bodied, and the position of the

handle is arbitrary. The latter were jugs of various shapes, with

pointed bases. The further we come down, the more distinct become the

proofs of Egypt’s having supplied models to the Grecian potters. It

would be impossible to specify all the shapes, but reference may be made

to those with handle arching the top from side to side, and of so small

a size that they are thought to have been used by children as toys.

[Illustration: Fig. 36.--Egyptian Red-polished Terra-cotta.]

The larger vessels, which answered all the purposes of a modern

meat-safe, have no handle, and have the usual pointed base for fixing

them upright in the floor of the cellar. They taper gradually from the

base upward, until their greatest girth is reached, when they curve more

suddenly inward to a short neck. From these the forms vary through the

intermediate shapes of oval jars, bottles with long necks, and narrow

oil vases, to wide bowls or dishes and plates. Reference was made in the

introduction to the multitudinous purposes to which clay vessels were

put by the Egyptians. They used their ware in many ways which to us

appear very primitive and strange--for storing all manner of eatables

and drinkables, for cooking and smelting. In fact, whatever one may

think of their ideas of beauty in pottery, there can be no doubt that

they took a very wide view of its infinite usefulness.

[Illustration: Fig. 37.--Egyptian Red-polished Terra-cotta Bottle.

(British Mus.)]

Decoration of a simple kind is occasionally found on both domestic and

sepulchral vessels. Colored bands were the usual ornament, and very

rarely the entire body was painted with a ground color upon which bands

were laid, and the whole was then varnished. It is rarely that a leaf or

lotus flower is found. The use of varnish points to a step in advance.

It has not yet been determined whether it is really varnish or a glaze

applied by firing, but in either case it is found upon the finer and

harder kinds of ware. The body color is black, brown, or red, of

different shades (Fig. 36). To this class belong the single and double

cruses, generally of pale red paste, but sometimes black, used

apparently for holding oil or ointment. The best examples of polished

ware are red. They show both ornamentation of a higher order and more

artistic shapes than the others. The shape of one of these vases

resembles the goddess Isis suckling Horus, in the attitude previously

mentioned; another is in the form of a woman playing upon a stringed

instrument (Fig. 37); a third is shaped like a fish; and many domestic

vessels, cups, jugs, and vases are of the same material.

The Græco-Egyptian pottery forms a distinct class, differing in paste,

color, and decoration. The outside shows varying shades of gray and

red, and the ornamentation consists of lines and animal and floral

forms, in colors capable of standing the kiln. At the same period was

introduced the custom of making writing tablets of this ware.

[Illustration: Fig. 38.--Glazed Pottery Vase. Egyptian.]

[Illustration: Fig. 39.--Egyptian Scarabæi used as Signets. Average, ¾

inch in length. Pale and dark green. (Way Coll., Boston Museum of Fine

Arts.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 40.--Egyptian Pectoral Tablets. (Way Coll., Boston

Museum of Fine Arts.)]

GLAZED WARE.--Leaving the unglazed and polished wares, there yet falls

to be considered that with an undoubted glaze, to which belong the most

artistic works of the Egyptian potters. This is the ware which has been

miscalled porcelain (Fig. 38); and as the unglazed ware was never

employed for purely ornamental purposes, so we find the glazed seldom

used for domestic vessels. Contrary to what might be expected, specimens

have been found as old as the Sixth Dynasty, or nearly two thousand

years before the Christian era. The ware is not at all close in texture,

and the silicious glaze was colored by metallic oxides, of the

properties of which the Egyptians had an intimate knowledge. Chief among

the colors thus produced are the blue and green, exemplified in some of

the finest relics of Egyptian art. Their beauty is occasionally very

remarkable, and led to their being highly valued both by the Egyptians

and others, and to the ware itself being applied to special purposes of

ornamentation. It is found, for example, in the form of tiles as a wall

decoration, and as a material for inlaying. Tiles with figures in

relief, having parts such as the hair, beard, eyes, or extremities

inlaid with glazed ware, are among the most curious specimens

discovered. Detached beards are not unlike spirally ribbed hose.

Coffins, or mummy cases, are similarly inlaid. The forms the glazed

pottery assumes, when employed for this purpose and for figures to be

attached to other substances, are very numerous. The moulded ornaments

and amulets of both the living and the dead were most frequently of the

same material. These take the shape of finger and ear rings (Fig. 39),

small images of the gods and of their symbols, and various other

ornaments, such as bracelets, necklaces, and hairpins. The nature of

the paste leads to the belief that these were more generally devoted to

sepulchral purposes, with a religious significance, than to any other.

All the minute beads, in a net-work of which the dead were often

encased, and also the pectoral or breastplates, were of this material

(Fig. 40). In the lower specimen, Ra is represented by the scarab. In

the barge, on either side, are Isis and Nepthys. This tablet bears the

inscription, “He that is worthy goes over in the barge of Ra.” Of the

upper specimen only one-half is preserved, showing the figure of Isis.

In the hollow centre has been a scarab, probably of jasper, and in the

borders colored stones or glass have been set. The lower border consists

of a series of lotus flowers, and the wavy lines represent the water in

which they grow. Above was the winged disk of the sun. Figures of the

gods and goddesses and their emblems, and sacred animals and plants,

which were deposited with the dead, afford some of the most exquisite

examples of Egyptian glazed pottery. The images have either a perforated

upright support behind, or are otherwise perforated for attachment to

the necklaces of the mummies. The scarabæus is very often met with on

the breastplates. All these symbols and images were employed for the

supposed benefit of the dead, either to save them from evil, or as a

direct means of bringing good, and can only be understood through an

acquaintance with mythology. Rings of various colors appear properly to

belong to the same category of ornaments of the dead. Other sepulchral

figures were deposited with the deceased, besides those of the

protecting gods. These were supposed to aid the departed in his labors

in the future state, and are invariably small representations of a

mummied figure, partially covered with hieroglyphics. Like many of the

other figures and objects, they are generally of the beautiful Egyptian

blue. In the example (Fig. 41) given on the following page, the figure

of a bird with human head, appears upon the breast. It is an emblem of

the soul leaving or returning to the body. The more usual form is that

seen in the central figure in the engraving (Fig. 42), with long beard,

a pickaxe and hoe in either hand, and having a cord in the right hand

which is crossed to the left, and allows the cord to pass over the left

shoulder. At the end of this cord is a bag or basket, which is faintly

discernible on the shoulder of the figure on the right. The

hieroglyphics are passages from the Ritual, in compliance with which

these figures were made. Balls, draughtsmen, and toys were also made of

glazed pottery. All the figures and ornaments to which reference has

been made were turned out of moulds, the friability of the paste not

permitting its being thrown.

[Illustration: Fig. 41.--Egyptian Mummy Figure. Style, XIXth Dynasty.

(Way Coll., Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]

For the same reason the glazed vases are diminutive, but often very

beautiful, and intended for purely ornamental purposes. They are of

different shapes and sizes, generally a few inches in height, and some

of them illustrate the peculiar ideas entertained by the Egyptians of

personal beauty. One of their customs was that of darkening the eyes

with a black powder, sometimes held in a small case resembling a series

of reeds. The toilet is otherwise represented by a variety of boxes,

jars, bottles, small vases, and oil flasks. The latter are unique, and

sometimes elegant in shape, and supply good examples of the greenish

glazed-ware to which reference has been made.

Many of the bowls evidently used by the wealthy are of a finer and

closer paste, and bear very characteristic ornamentation of flowers,

fish, hieroglyphics, or of lines only. Their uses can only be

conjectured from their shapes. The inscriptions sometimes point to their

owners, and at others to the place of fabrication.

The Egyptians also resorted to a process of glazing vases, figures,

rings, and other articles for which pottery was usually employed, made

of a variety of hard schists. These, however, as not being properly

potter’s ware, are here passed over.

It will thus be seen that the Egyptians did not carry the art to a very

high point. They were, however, successful in creating a foreign demand

for the productions of their potteries. From discoveries made in Eastern

Greece, Nineveh, and elsewhere, it would appear that the fine pottery

ornaments of Egypt were in considerable repute in neighboring countries;

and, as we shall hereafter see, Egypt contributed its full share to the

furtherance of the art by supplying suggestions and models.

[Illustration: Fig. 42.--Egyptian Mummy Figures. Blue or Greenish-blue

Enamelled Pottery. (Way Coll., Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]

One important matter remains to be disposed of. It has long been a

subject of doubt whether or not Egypt possessed the secret of

stanniferous enamel. It has been already intimated that the discovery of

the use of tin for a pottery enamel is due to either that country or

Assyria. The honor may probably be ascribed to Egypt. In the loan

collection of the Metropolitan Museum of New York is a fragment (Fig.

43) of a vase exhibited in the Egyptian section, and referable to a very

remote antiquity, covered with what is apparently tin enamel, bearing

purple decorations. Should this be the case, then this solitary fragment

will settle the matter, and we must believe that the Egyptians possessed

this secret of the art four thousand years ago. In that event, the

Assyrians probably acquired it from Egypt. The fact supplies us with the

means of arriving at a very clear idea of the grand antiquity of that

civilization under which a valuable art was practised, to which Europe

was a stranger for more than three thousand five hundred years

afterward.

[Illustration: Fig. 43.--Fragment with White Enamel. (Trumbull-Prime

Coll., N. Y. Metrop. Museum.)]

It is, as we have seen, long since the art purely its own reached its

culmination. The Egypt of the nineteenth century in this respect

scarcely suggests that of the Pyramids. If we were to take that country

as it appeared at the Philadelphia Exhibition, we would hardly be

prepared to look upon its ceramic products as those of a country in

which the art has been practised for four thousand years. A few pieces

exhibited were of light, slate-colored body, unglazed, and so brittle

that dozens were broken in transit. The ornamentation was laid on the

bare surface, and was, as a rule, bright to the verge of gaudiness. The

greater portion of the painting was the work of an Italian artist

resident in Cairo. Some of the red terra-cotta was more satisfactory;

but all that can be said in favor of either kind is that it was, in its

way, characteristically Egyptian. One specimen of pale green “porcelain”

was sent by the Museum at Cairo. The last is mentioned because it

represented the farthest point which the Egyptians reached on the way

toward a true porcelain.

CHAPTER II.

ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA.

Possible Priority to Egyptian Pottery.--Similarity between Assyrian

and Egyptian.--The Course followed by both Arts.--Unbaked

Bricks.--Baked Bricks.--Writing

Tablets.--Seals.--Vases.--Terra-cottas.--Porcelain.--Glazing and

Enamelling.--Tin.--Colored Enamels.--Babylonian Bricks.--Glazes.

[Illustration: Fig. 44.--Pottery found in the Tombs above the Palaces of

Nimroud.]

Although we have taken Egypt as our starting-point, there may have been

a pottery antecedent to that we have considered. Looking farther east

for the cradle of the human race, knowledge and art may have spread east

and west from the Euphrates, the great river of Babylon. Egypt having

been first inhabited by settlers wandering from the province of which

that city became the capital, who found in the Nile a river resembling,

in many respects, that which they had left, these colonists may have

carried with them some knowledge of the uses of clay. However this may

be, it is beyond question that the oldest pottery of which the age is

known is Egyptian, and that the knowledge acquired from the East was

returned with interest.

[Illustration: Fig. 45.--Terra-cotta Assyrian Venus.]

[Illustration: Fig. 46.--Assyrian Cylinder, inscribed with the Records

of a King’s Reign. (British Museum.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 47.--Inscribed Seal. (Assyrian.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 48.--Seal of Sabaco and Sennacherib.]

[Illustration: Fig. 49.--Impression of Sabaco’s Seal, enlarged.]

[Illustration: Fig. 50.--Back of Assyrian Seal, showing Marks of

Fingers.]

[Illustration: Fig. 51.--Fragment in Porcelain (?). (Nimroud.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 52.--Box in Porcelain (?). (Nimroud.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 53.--Enamelled Brick. (Louvre.)]

Assyria and Babylonia are almost necessarily considered in conjunction.

The latter having been a province of Assyria prior to its assertion of

independence, we anticipate, what is actually the case, a close

similarity between the ceramic productions of the two countries. In

tracing the history of their pottery, we not only discover many points

of resemblance between it and that of Egypt, but advance along an

exactly parallel line. From sun-dried bricks we pass to burnt bricks,

thence to unglazed pottery possessed of an artistic character, thence

again to glazed specimens and enamel. In both countries unbaked bricks

were made use of in the construction of mound-like foundations for

buildings. Walls, houses, and tombs were built of similar materials. In

Assyria, bricks were sometimes faced with marble, either externally, for

the sake of strength, or to give greater beauty to an interior. Some

were gilded and others colored. Small figures of both baked and unbaked

clay, and of a religious character, were also made by the Assyrians

(Fig. 45). From the stamped and baked bricks much has been learned of

Assyrian history and topography, the sites of cities and names of kings

having been thus discovered or substantiated. By the same people writing

tablets of rectangular, cylindrical, or prismatic shapes were very

commonly made of terra-cotta (Fig. 46). They form a very curious remnant

of ancient literature, which, thanks to the indestructibility of the

material upon which it was written, is still open to the study of the

historian. All kinds of records have thus been preserved--religious,

legal, and astronomical. The Assyrians and Egyptians both used seals

(Figs. 47, 48, 49, and 50) of baked and unbaked clay, in the same way

that wax seals are still occasionally appended or attached to documents.

[Illustration: Fig. 54.--Babylonian Baked Brick, with Nebuchadnezzar’s

Name. Twelve inches square, three inches thick.]

[Illustration: Fig. 55.--The Mnjellibé, or Kasr. Showing brickwork.]

Many of the vases discovered in the ruined cities of Assyria are clearly

to be attributed to foreign occupants, and are therefore of

comparatively late date. To this class belong many of the cinerary urns

exhumed from the tombs. Ancient and really Assyrian vessels have been

discovered of a pale brown clay (Fig. 44), unglazed, and of various

shapes, but seldom painted. It is, however, difficult, in many cases, to

discover the nationality of the potter or the age of the piece. Of

terra-cotta figures of the gods, several have been found, although these

must have existed in far greater numbers. Porcelain, or fine glazed

pottery (Figs. 51, 52), is rarely met with, and the specimens found are

inferior to the Egyptian. The several uses of the ware appear to have

been the same in the two countries. For a knowledge of glazing and

enamelling, the Assyrians were in all likelihood indebted to the

Egyptians. Bricks subjected to these processes, and ornamented with

flowers, leaves, and animals, were employed in decorating interiors and

even in building walls (Fig. 53). These bricks reveal the fact that the

Assyrians were aware of the peculiar suitableness of tin for making a

white enamel. The other enamels employed were yellow, brown, blue, and

green, and were produced from metals almost identical with those

employed by the Egyptians.

[Illustration: Fig. 56.--Terra-cotta Tablet, from Babylon. (British

Museum.)]

Like the Assyrian and Egyptian, the Babylonian bricks, whether unbaked

or baked, were moulded, and the latter were stamped. Hundreds of these

(Fig. 54) bear the stamp of Nebuchadnezzar, the sites where they were

found indicating with tolerable exactness the bounds of his kingdom. The

extensive use of bricks by the Babylonians may be taken as

characteristic of a people inhabiting the country where the Tower of

Babel was built (Fig. 55). In many respects the vessels found in

Babylonia resemble those of Assyria, so closely, in fact, that they need

not here be separately treated. As in the latter country, the

Babylonians used terra-cotta writing tablets. Several terra-cotta

bas-reliefs have been discovered, of one of the more remarkable examples

of which, now in the British Museum, we give the preceding engraving

(Fig. 56). This tablet was found near Babylon. The dog is of the huge

Thibet breed, and both figures have been modelled. The small size of the

pieces would almost preclude their use as ornaments; and Dr. Birch

ventures the conjecture that they may have been an artist’s studies for

larger works. The fine paste is the same as that used for the writing

cylinders.

[Illustration: Fig. 57.--Ram in Baked Clay, from Niffer.]

In regard to the earthen-ware vessels and figures, the same difficulty

in determining their age is encountered here that was met with in

Assyria. They have been taken from the mounds in large quantities. To

this class belongs the ram (Fig. 57) found at Niffer, on the supposed

site of ancient Babylon.

[Illustration: Fig. 58.--Glazed Coffins, from Warka.]

The Babylonian glazes resemble the Assyrian, and it may be particularly

mentioned that the oxide of tin was employed in making enamel. These

glazes are found upon both bricks and vases, and were applied

extensively to architectural decoration. At Warka, identified with the

ancient Ur of the Chaldees, thousands of coffins made of glazed ware

have been exhumed, variously decorated with figures. Of these one

specimen is given (Fig. 58).

CHAPTER III.

JUDÆA.

Art Derived from Egypt.--Never Reached any Eminence.--Preference

for Metals.--Frequent Allusions in Scripture.--Bought Earthen-ware

from Phœnicia and Egypt.--Home

Manufacture.--Decoration.--Necessity for Distinguishing between

Home and Foreign Wares.

[Illustration: Fig. 59.--Earthen-ware Jars and Water-pots.]

We now turn westward to Judæa, in order that, before penetrating farther

into Asia and to the extreme East, we may glance at a country showing in

its ceramic remains unmistakable signs of Egyptian teaching, but

exercising in its turn no recognizable influence upon the art which from

all sides of it was diffused over Southern Europe. The art never reached

any eminence among the Jews. They preferred the richer beauty of the

precious metals. Potters did, no doubt, exist among them in considerable

numbers, and were acquainted with the different processes of throwing,

firing, and glazing; but the formation of such a guild as that of which

Scripture speaks is not of itself a proof that the occupation was held

in high esteem. The few relics which can be ascribed to a purely Jewish

origin might be passed over as immaterial to observers of the progress

of the art, were it not that everything pertaining to the land once

called that of Promise, and now designated by all Christendom as Holy,

possesses an interest altogether independent of its artistic merit.

[Illustration: Fig. 60.--Terra-cotta Lamps and Oil Vessels.]

For such earthen-ware vessels as they required, the Jews appear to have

applied on the one hand to the Phœnicians, and on the other to the

Egyptians. The manufacture among themselves was restricted to domestic

articles. These resemble the Egyptian in both style and finish, the body

being of a somewhat coarse paste, and the glaze of that peculiar kind

which is hardly distinguishable from varnish or mechanical polish. A

fragment now in the Louvre, of blue-glazed earthen-ware, resembling the

finer ware of Egypt, and found in Judæa, further substantiates the close

similarity between the pottery of the Jordan and that of the Nile. In

ornamentation, however, the Israelites have some claim to originality

and independence. Associating the lotus, papyrus, and the symbols of

Egypt with idolatry, the Jewish potters substituted grapes, leaves, and

pomegranates. In the description of the building of the Temple, in the

First Book of Kings, the decoration within the oracle of “carved figures

of cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers,” was repeated on the walls

and doors; and on the chapiters of the pillars made by Hiram of Tyre

were long rows of pomegranates. A similar style of ornamentation was

adopted by the potters.

We have already seen that both Egyptian and Phœnician wares were

imported into the country, and in addition to these there have been

found at Jerusalem and elsewhere several examples of the red Roman, or

Samian ware.

CHAPTER IV.

INDIA AND CENTRAL ASIA.

Mystery Surrounding People.--History of its Art in great measure

Unknown.--Questions of its Existence and Originality.--How they

Arose.--The Brahmins.--Geographical Position.--Views of Early

Travellers.--Later Investigations.--More Ancient Pottery.--Clay

Used.--Knowledge of Glazing: Its Application to

Architecture.--Glazed Bricks.--Terra-cotta.--Chronological

Arrangement.--Porcelain: Its Decoration.--Use of Gold.--Siam.

The antiquity claimed for the Hindoos as a people cannot, unfortunately,

be elucidated either by the help of such chronicles as the granite

records of Egypt, the terra-cotta tablets of Babylon, or the writings of

China. The history of Indian art has been surrounded by a more or less

impenetrable mystery. Two questions accordingly arise as to its ceramic

productions: firstly, Did India possess any knowledge of the plastic

art? secondly--that question having been answered in the

affirmative--Was it original or borrowed? These doubts, in all

probability, arose from the success of the Brahminical endeavors to

invest every branch of Hindoo knowledge with a veil of secrecy, and from

the geographical position of Hindostan. Occupying a peninsula about

half-way on the route by sea between Eastern and Western Asia, Africa,

and Europe, it became the recognized mart for the exchange of mercantile

commodities. European traders found in it a convenient halting-place,

even before they fully realized its actual commercial importance.

Similarly, on the north, it intercepted a portion of the overland

traffic, and ultimately became the centre toward which gravitated the

productions of Persia and Arabia on the west, and of China and Japan on

the east.

Travellers who did not stop to examine things very closely, accordingly

declared India a stranger to ceramic art. Recognizing its importance as

an exchange, from the abundance of imports from abroad, they did not

pierce the commercial conditions which hid its productiveness and

originality. Later researches have shown not only that India was not

dependent upon other countries, but that it had developed an exceptional

skill in the application of porcelain to the embellishment of

architecture. As if completely to subvert the statements of the first

visitors to Hindostan, China, the great seat of the porcelain

manufacture, has acknowledged its indebtedness to that country, and the

extent to which it has imitated its styles. There is no reason for

supposing that a country which had early shown a wonderful capacity for

reaching the highest forms of architectural magnificence, and for

executing work of the nicest delicacy in the precious metals and gems,

lent to China alone its ideas of ceramic beauty. The absence of thorough

investigation on the one hand, and the presence of a tendency to take

refuge in secrecy in regard to both methods and results, rather than to

court observation on the other, may, however, have had their effect in

lessening the influence India might otherwise have exercised on the art.

That she borrowed and adapted styles originating in both Persia and

Japan, after her marts had been flooded with imports from these

countries, there is every reason for believing, even when she preserved

styles sufficiently distinctive to enable us to distinguish the foreign

from the native work.

Of the more ancient forms of pottery, specimens exist which are upward

of two thousand years old. The clay varies from red to a gray color, and

the ornamentation, when used, is simple and chaste. A funeral urn of

this class has a round body without decoration, short, thick neck,

projecting lip, and is accompanied by a lid. Another, of the same red

clay, instead of the rounded base of the former, has a wide, flat

bottom. A band is drawn round the widest part of the body, from which it

curves rapidly inward to the neck, and on this upper part, between the

greatest circumference and the neck, a simple ornament is laid. Although

rather clumsy in appearance, this urn does not lack a certain primitive

symmetry.

Like the other ancient nations of which we have already treated, India

was intimately acquainted with the processes of enamelling and glazing,

and, better than that, brought a cultivated taste to bear upon their

employment in both architecture and the decoration of pottery. Glazed

bricks, of many colors, were used with great effect in the building of

temples and other edifices. They are of much harder and finer material

than the bricks of either Egypt or Babylonia. The application of colors

and glaze to terra-cotta was productive of the most astonishing and

beautiful effects. The specimens preserved of a monumental character

substantiate the right of the Indian potters to a very high rank. Not

only is the coloring of their terra-cotta friezes brilliant, but the

floral and animal forms, introduced either for their symbolical

significance or by way of ornament, are masterpieces of art.

Arranging these products chronologically, the wares belonging to the

second or third century before our era will take precedence. The

buildings in which glazed bricks were used bring us down to from five

hundred to upward of a thousand years later. After them come the

specimens of glazed terra-cotta. Subsequently a kind of faience was made

which has been very generally ascribed to Persia, but which may, from

the internal evidence supplied by a comparison with purely Indian work,

be safely attributed to India. Lastly, there is the faience of the

present time, so intimately allied with the more ancient in both

ornamentation and the prevailing shapes, as to be confidently pronounced

its legitimate successor. Flowers and ornaments, incised or in relief,

and grounds of blue, green, or yellow, are designed and mingled in the

most artistic and effective manner.

The porcelain of India has been ascribed, on the one hand, to Persia,

and, on the other, to China or Japan, while a closer examination would

have revealed the fact that, though having many qualities in common with

them, it is yet radically distinct. It seems probable that in several

processes which the Indian artist borrowed, he followed Japan, without

allowing himself slavishly to copy. The art of India as represented in

porcelain manifests itself in a high technical skill, in the most

exquisite delicacy, and in a close attention to all the _minutiæ_ of

detail. Indian figure-painting owes to these three qualities its

superiority alike over those of Persia and of the extreme East. In the

beauty consisting of delicacy and careful precision of finish, neither

country makes even an approach to an equality with it. This truth is

one, however, which can only be fully understood by actual comparison. A

similarly painstaking care and conscientious literalness of

interpretation characterize the floral ornamentation of Indian

porcelain. Even when we find traces of Eastern inspiration in the Hindoo

deep-blue or green, the Indian artist asserts his superiority in working

out details. In many cases we detect more refined perception combined

with a greater technical skill. A deep bowl has floral decoration in

green, blue, and red, on a white ground, the flowers being alternately

red and blue. Another has a ground of pale green, divided into sections

by arches of gold, immediately under the outward curving lip. Upon this

are laid larger sections of a rich red color, and filled with flowers.

The contrasts are strong, and the effect is magnificent. In one respect

the Indian artists are particularly skilful, and that is in the use of

gold. It is employed generally with reserve, and always with rich

effect.

[Illustration: Fig. 61.--Washington’s “Indian” Porcelain Vases. Deep

blue and gold.]

A specimen of Indian porcelain (Fig. 61), of exceptional interest to

Americans, as having once belonged to George Washington, formed part of

the collection at Arlington House. It consists of a set of three vases,

presented to Washington by Mr. Samuel Vaughan, of London. Their value,

for our present purpose, is somewhat lessened by the fact that, though

made in India, the vases were painted in London.

In Siam, a style common to that country with India is prevalent, and is

the result of imitating _cloisonné_ enamel in porcelain. The practice

has had one result in both countries. It has led to a comparison of the

native porcelain with native work in metal, and the originality of the

decoration of the former has thus been substantiated and its source

explained.

[Illustration: Fig. 62.--Group of Chinese Porcelain. (From the Avery

Coll.)]

CHAPTER V.

CHINA.

Art Different from that of Europe or America.--How it must be

Viewed.--Religion.--Legend.--Hoang-ti the Inventor of Pottery.--The

Leading Points of Religious System.--Personified

Principles.--Lao-tsen, Confucius, and Buddha.--Kuan-in.--Pousa or

Pou-tai.--Dragons.--Dog of Fo.--Ky-lin.--Sacred

Horse.--Fong-hoang.--Symbols.--Meaning of Colors and Shapes.

As we approach China, we must prepare ourselves for the consideration of

its ceramic products, by once and for all giving up the attempt to judge

them by European or American standards. Whether or not art may have

travelled to China eastward from the cradle of the human race, it

certainly crystallized in China into distinctive forms. This fact must

be constantly kept in mind, if we would succeed in appreciating at its

true value the art of the Celestial Empire. As in criticising a book, it

is less essential to measure the difference between one’s own ideas and

those of the author, than to look at the subject from the author’s

stand-point, and to examine the result from the inside, so, in

estimating art, it is equally essential to enter into the artist’s

views, and to study not only the ideal he means to portray or the real

he tries to imitate, but also what he considers essential to imitation

and portrayal, and the intelligence to which he addresses himself.

[Illustration: Fig. 63.--Cheou-lao, God of Longevity.]

We have seen that the Egyptians honored the gods through their works.

The Chinese present us with a religion based, like that of the Greeks,

Scandinavians, and many other nations, upon hero-worship. We recede from

mankind backward to the time when heroes and gods are commingled, and

reach the horizon where humanity and divinity are one. It is claimed for

the Chinese that they are the only possessors of a correct, or at least

an exact, chronology, but even it does not substantiate the existence of

the first of human creatures, who is said to have lived well-nigh a

hundred millions of years before the Christian era. Fou-Hi was the first

man of whom we can take cognizance, and he lived B.C. 3468. Nearly eight

hundred years afterward, Hoang-ti invented pottery and was translated,

and the beginning of the manufacture may reasonably be fixed at that

date. He did many other useful things besides inventing pottery; but

what is now to be chiefly noted is that he was raised to the Chinese

heaven for his beneficence. Behind this simple and almost universal

hero-worship was a religion compounded of pantheism and a peculiar kind

of spiritualism. Chang-ti bears some resemblance to the Egyptian

concealed god Ammon, and those who choose may find similar counterparts

to the creative and productive principles of the Chinese theogony. These

were called the “yang” and the “yn,” and appear to be the active and

passive principles personified in Ti and Che, the presiding powers of

heaven and earth. In pottery, they frequently appear in connection with

the Pa-kwa, or eight diagrams of Fo or Buddha, a series of combinations

of three lines by which nature’s changes were represented. Thus on each

side of a square vase are the _yang_ and _yn_, with one of the diagrams

above and one below. On another piece of porcelain the _yang_ and _yn_

occupy the centre, round which, in a circle, the diagrams are arranged.

With such a foundation Chinese religion is divisible into three

component parts--that based upon the teachings of Lao-tseu, that of

Confucius, and Buddhism. Lao-tseu and the legend of his birth are

especially interesting to the student of Chinese ceramics. The story

goes that, after a pregnancy of eighty-one years his mother brought him

into the world, while she was a wanderer in the country. When born, his

hair was as white as that of an old man, and hence his name, Lao-tseu,

the old man-child. When he grew up, he became a recluse, and spent years

in the study of abstract religion, out of which studies grew the

“Tao-te-king,” an exposition of his views of religion and morality. His

followers deified him, and in course of time he was regarded as

identical with Chang-ti. In this form the potters represent him, and

also as the God of Longevity. He is called alternatively Lao-tseu and

Cheou-lao. As the God of Longevity he is represented (Fig. 63) with long

white beard and lofty, conical, bald head. His face wears a broad smile,

and in his hand is the fruit of the fantao, a fabulous tree symbolical

of long life, because it was said to bloom only once in three thousand

years, and to bear fruit a thousand years afterward. As Chang-ti, the

supreme god, he is riding or leaning upon a deer, is dressed in yellow,

and around him are clusters of the immortalizing agaric, ling-tchy.

Confucius, or Koung-tseu, who followed Lao-tseu, was a conservative

philosopher, who led his countrymen back to old forms and ancestral

hero-worship. He appears as the representative of Buddhism alternatively

with Fo or Buddha, and as such holds a roll of manuscript or a sceptre

in his hand.

Kuan-in (Fig. 64) was first taken to be the Chinese Venus. She is

represented in various attitudes--standing with downcast eyes, or

sitting, and holding either a child or a rosary.

[Illustration: Fig. 64.--Kuan-in. (S. P. Avery Coll.)]

Pousa, or Pou-tai, the God of Contentment, is also styled the potter’s

god. How he came to be the latter, or to be a god at all, is explained

by a good story. The emperor for the time being demanded porcelain, the

fabrication of which was represented to him as an impossibility. This

information only served to whet his appetite; and to gratify his

imperial whim, the workmen were oppressed by their overseers, and driven

by threats and blows to make all kinds of sacrifices and exertions to

reach the unattainable. At length one of them gave up the struggle, and

in despair threw himself into the furnace. When the contents of the kiln

were taken out, they were found to be all that the emperor desired, and

the rigor from which the potters had suffered was abated. The workmen

apparently concluded that such a result was due to some property unknown

to alchemy in the body of their comrade. Gratitude led them to respect

his memory, and in due course he became a hero and a god. Images of him

abound in the workshops of King-teh-chin. Full of sensuality and

good-humor, his face wears the laugh of contentment, and his heavy,

corpulent body is supported by the wineskin upon which he leans. Without

resorting to the explanation to be found in the story, one can readily

understand why such a god as Pou-tai should commend himself to the

slavish and impoverished potter.

In every collection of Chinese ware will be seen certain forms made use

of for decorative purposes, and which have also a symbolical

significance requiring explanation. Without going into the question of

the origin of the wonderful dragons of the Celestials, their presence,

in various degrees of hideousness, on vases and elsewhere, cannot fail

to attract attention and suggest inquiry. They are many-shaped, as the

devils which beset the good St. Anthony. There are the Long, dragon of

heaven; the Kan, dragon of the mountain; Li, dragon of the sea, and

many others, scaled, winged, horned, and hornless. Under the form of a

dragon many of the immortals are represented, and it only appears in our

mundane sphere on some great occasion, when, for instance, Hoang-ti was

called upon to join the powers above. As emblems, the dragons require

attention, since their significance varies with the number of their

claws. That with five claws is seen upon the imperial standard, and is

the emblem of the emperor and princes of the first and second class. The

four-clawed dragon is the emblem of princes of the third and fourth

rank. The Japanese dragon is a tripedal representative of the species.

Chinese princes of the fifth rank and mandarins have the four-clawed

serpent, Mang.

[Illustration: Fig. 65.--The Dog of Fo.]

Another figure very often seen upon Chinese vases, and now, alas! on

some European vases also, is the Dog of Fo (Fig. 65). It frequently does

duty as a handle, but occasionally it forms an ornament, either by

itself or sporting with another of the species. In the latter cases its

lion-like appearance degenerates into a hideous ugliness thoroughly

Chinese, and illustrates the peculiar tendency of that people to bestow

upon their fantastic monsters a massive breadth of jaw and cavernous

oral capacity, such as we find in their dragons and in the Ky-lin next

to be noticed. The Dog of Fo is the Buddhic guardian of temples and

altars.

[Illustration: Fig. 66.--Vase, surmounted by Ky-lin. Flowers in Relief.

(A. Belmont Coll.)]

The Ky-lin (Fig. 66) is one of the most forbidding chimeras ever chosen

as an omen of good. Its scaly body, its wide mouth fully armed with

formidable teeth, its dragon-like head and hoofed feet, make up a

monster as horrible in aspect as it is gentle in disposition.

[Illustration: Fig. 67.--The Sacred Horse.]

The Sacred Horse (Fig. 67) is preserved by the Chinese among their

symbols, because by the marks on the skin of a horse which suddenly rose

from the river, the philosopher Fo was inspired with his diagramic

solution of the methods of nature.

[Illustration: Fig. 68.--The Fong-hoang.]

The Fong-hoang (Figs. 68 and 69), the immortal bird, harbinger of good,

very often resembles a peacock on the wing. When represented in front,

its arching neck is turned to one side, and the long tail feathers are

fantastically drawn high over its body. Formerly it was the imperial

emblem; but on the adoption of the dragon it was relegated to the

empress, whose emblem it became.

The symbols of longevity are the white stag, the axis deer, the bat, and

the crane; of filial piety, the stork; of happy marriage, the mandarin

duck. The months are represented as follows: January, tiger February,

rabbit; March, dragon; April, serpent; May, horse; June, hare; July,

ape; August, hen; September, dog; October, wild-boar; November, rat;

December, ox.

[Illustration: Fig. 69.--Vase with Fong-hoang. (Robert Hoe, Jr., Coll.)]

In China, almost every usage is regulated by a specific rule; and we are

not astonished, therefore, to find that colors and shapes in porcelain

and pottery are distinctive of the rank of the possessor, and have,

besides, a symbolical signification. Thus one dynasty, the Tsin (A.D.

265), took blue as its imperial color; the Soui (581-618) took green;

the Thang (618-907) took white; the Ming, green; the Tai-thsing, yellow.

The colors thus frequently give a clue to the age of pieces. The first

dynasty began B.C. 2205; the twenty-first, or Ming, A.D. 1368; and the

twenty-second, or Tai-Thsing, in 1616.

Apart from the dynastic significance of colors, they enter largely into

the complex system of Chinese symbolism. Thus the points of the compass

and the elements are represented as follows:

Red Fire South.

Black Water North.

Green Wood East.

White Metal West.

The earth was figured by a square, fire by a circle, water by a dragon,

mountains by a deer.

The form of a vase is also of value in determining its use. Besides the

complimentary manner already alluded to, in which vases were employed,

they were bestowed as rewards upon deserving public functionaries, and

passed between friends as tokens of good wishes. They also occupied a

prominent place in religious rites.

We may now proceed to a division of Chinese wares into pottery and

porcelain.

POTTERY.

When First Made.--Céladon.--Crackle.--How Made.--Porcelain

Crackle.--Decorations on Crackle.--Household

Vessels.--Stone-ware.--Licouli.--Tower of

Nankin.--Pipe-clay.--Boccaro.--Colors and Decoration of

Pottery.--Colors on Crackle.

Although we may not accept without question the statement that pottery

was first invented either by the Emperor Hoang-ti, or during his reign

by Kouen-ou, it may at least be taken for granted that pottery preceded

porcelain. To define the character of the earliest ware is not

unattended with difficulty. One fact which had a great influence upon

Chinese art may here be referred to. So soon as pottery was invented, it

was taken under government supervision. Subsequently, when porcelain was

discovered, the manufacture for many years made very little progress. It

was not until it came under imperial protection and patronage that it

rose to its greatest height. It will be seen hereafter that in

Continental Europe also the best works in ceramic art were, as a rule,

produced under the fostering care of the sovereign power.

The oldest Chinese pottery is very hard, opaque, closely akin to

stone-ware, and covered with a partially translucent enamel. The latter

called Céladon, and made by mixing the colors with the glaze, varies

from the old, and now very rare, sea-green to a brown-gray. The term

_céladon_ was originally restricted to the sea-green variety, but was

ultimately applied to all wares, of whatever color, made in the same

manner. The most ancient specimens are of the coarse body above referred

to. Occasionally they are decorated with incisions in the paste under

the glaze, or with studs and other reliefs, or with flowered designs

(_céladon fleuri_), and are called by the Chinese _Tchoui_. There is

also a céladon of a deeper green than that last referred to, which, with

that of the gray varieties, is very often covered with an inextricable

net-work of cracks. This is the kind known as crackle. The process which

the Chinese succeeded in bringing to the most exact precision in regard

to the size of the cracks is not thoroughly understood. Several theories

have been advanced to explain it. Examination shows that the paste or

body of the ware and the glaze differed in consistency, the one being

more or less expansive than the other. To perform the operation

successfully, the vessel is while hot, plunged into cold water, or

brought suddenly into contact with cold air, when the glaze is at once

broken up into the much admired net-work of minute fissures. From this

it would appear that the desired effect is caused by the shrinkage of

the glaze on being suddenly exposed to cold. Another explanation is that

there are two layers of paste of different composition, and that the

cracks appear in the outer one. When the piece is glazed, the cracks are

covered over, and the surface made perfectly smooth, unless the cracks

are very coarse and large, in which case they are perceptible to the

touch. Through the cracks the fused paste or inner core appeared, and

made them more distinctly visible; or, to reach the same effect, ochre,

ink, or other coloring material was rubbed into the cracks. To produce

them with the absolute precision to which the Chinese attained, they

must have thoroughly studied the composition of the paste and glaze

employed, as we frequently find different kinds of crackle on the same

vase.

Steatite was sometimes mixed with the glaze, and had the same effect as

a sudden immersion. It would naturally follow that no such ornamentation

could be applied to porcelain, the paste and glaze being too closely

allied in composition. To surmount this difficulty, the glaze was

combined with materials destructive of its close affinity with the

kaolinic paste. A simultaneous shrinkage being thus made impossible, the

glaze cracked. Although both Chinese and foreigners place a high value

upon good specimens of crackle, admiration of such a style of ornament

involves a decided perversion of taste. It is safe to say that nine

persons out of ten would, if left to exert their own uninfluenced

judgment, condemn a crackle vase as devoid of all pretension to

ornament. It is when we find that the deformity is the result of design,

that the piece is a curiosity of workmanship, and represents the

mechanical ingenuity of the potter, that it becomes an object of

interest and a desirable possession. Crackle-ware has been made by the

Chinese since the Song Dynasty, which extended from A.D. 960 to 1279,

and probably from a much earlier date. Ornamentation is sometimes laid

above the glaze. One very old style of decoration in relief upon the

crackle (Fig. 70) consists of medallions and bands of a brown paste, of

which imitations, having lions’ heads holding rings in the centre of the

medallions, are abundant.

Pottery is used by the Chinese in the making of household vessels and

utensils of all kinds--as extensively, in fact, as by the Egyptians.

They have earthen-ware reservoirs and basins, lamps, cooking-pots,

water-filterers, teapots, and toys. Ornamental vases are also made of

earthen-ware, and some specimens show that the Chinese lavished upon

their comparatively humble wares--according to our ideas--ornamentation

as beautiful and elaborate as that upon porcelain.

[Illustration: Fig. 70.--Rice-colored Crackle, with Brown Zones. (S. P.

Avery Coll., N. Y. Metrop. Museum.)]

Their stone-ware, covered with porcelain, presents us with some of their

most wonderful works. This ware is made into jars, seats, cisterns, and

many other utensils and objects. It is said to have been in attempting

to make plaques of this kind that Pousa or Pou-tai met with his tragic

end as before told. The plaques, Licou-li, or glazed tiles, are devoted

to the embellishment of imperial and religious edifices, and by the

brilliancy of their many colors, yellow, blue, green, red, and violet,

produce a dazzling and gorgeous effect. The famous porcelain tower of

Nankin (Fig. 71), or, as it is alternatively called by the Chinese,

Tower of the Licou-li, or Poa-en-ssi, the Convent of Gratitude, was

covered with tiles of the above description. This building has been

repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. The original consisted of three

stories, and was erected B.C. 833. Having been demolished, it was

rebuilt A.D. 371-373. It was again destroyed, and again rebuilt by one

of the Ming emperors, who, after nineteen years’ work, finished it in

1431. Once more it was demolished during the insurrection of the

Taepings; and although travellers--including some Americans--have within

the past twenty years been fortunate enough to secure a few fragments as

relics (Fig. 72), nothing now remains to mark its site. It was this last

tower which was known as the Convent of Gratitude. It consisted of nine

stories, and was three hundred and fifty-three feet in height. It was

covered with enamelled bricks of red, white, blue, brown, and green

colors; but whether the previous towers were so decorated is not known,

so that the Tower of Nankin cannot be brought forward as proving the

architectural use of enamelled stone-ware at a very remote age.

[Illustration: Fig. 71.--Tower of Nankin.]

A material which is neither stone-ware nor porcelain, but resembles very

fine pipe-clay, is used in making opium pipes. The bowl is enamelled,

and decorated with flowers or other forms, and is not unfrequently

almost perfect as a work of art. The Chinese _boccaro_ remains one of

the finest specimens of a _grès_ known to ceramists, and far above any

of the stone-wares of Europe. Some specimens are as perfect in their

beauty as jewels. The paste is sometimes brown of a reddish tinge,

sometimes a gray faintly colored with yellow. It is made into single

pieces and services, occasionally of fantastic design. When covered with

colored enamels, the _boccaro_ is at once so delicate and brilliant as

to be likened to nothing but a gem.

[Illustration: Fig. 72.--Enamelled Bricks from the Tower of Nankin. (N.

Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]

At a very early period the Chinese attained to that wonderful mastery of

the secrets of color which made them the envy of the artists of all

subsequent time, and has led to the adoption of certain of their colors

as universal standards of beauty and excellence. Combined with the

certainty of their operations in crackle, their skill in color led to

many remarkable effects in wares, the precise nature of which cannot be

defined. Upon a rich golden crackle, white-and-blue figures are

occasionally imposed (Fig. 73). In some cases the enamels used for this

super-ornamentation are so transparent that the cracks can be seen

through them. Possibly the most curious kind is that in which the vase

is encircled by bands of crackle, some coarse and irregular, alternating

with others fine and regular, and divided by stamped zones of brown

ferruginous paste. Both Japanese and Chinese place a very high value

upon the ancient specimens, the priority in point of time being accorded

to the light blue. Besides the colors already mentioned, turquoise-blue,

yellow, and a bright red are found upon crackle, to the first of which a

special value is attached. The fine crackle, called by the French

_truité_, is most frequently applied to vases of pale and olive-green

not otherwise decorated. One cannot look at the exquisite coloring of

some of the rare old pieces, without being led to the conclusion that

the Chinese placed a value upon their ceramic productions not more than

commensurate with the artistic skill developed among them.

[Illustration: Fig. 73.--Crackle Vase, with Crabs in Blue. 7 in. high.

(J. C. Rankle Coll.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 74.--Chinese Porcelain Lantern. (S. P. Avery Coll.)]

PORCELAIN.

When Invented.--King-teh-chin.--All Classed as Hard,

Exceptions.--Old Porcelains.--Kouan-ki.--Blue-and-white.--Persian

Styles.--Turquoise and other Blues.--Leading Events of Ming

Dynasty.--Egg-shell.--Tai-thsing Dynasty.--Mandarin

Vases.--Families.--Old White.--Jade.--Purple and Violet.--Liver

Red.--Imperial Yellow.--Chinese Ideas of

Painting.--Soufflé.--Grains of Rice.--Articulated and Reticulated

Vases.--Cup of Tantalus.

Porcelain having been invented in the province of Ho-nan, during the Han

Dynasty, between the years B.C. 185 and A.D. 88, was manufactured for

upward of fifteen hundred years before it was generally known in

Europe. For about five or six hundred years the industry made

comparatively little progress, but after A.D. 583 it advanced with great

rapidity. In that year the imperial patronage was bestowed upon

King-teh-chin, a city in the district of Fauling, and province of

Kiang-si. There were here at one time, in 1717, three thousand furnaces.

It is said by some recent authorities that all the kilns and potteries

were destroyed by the Taepings, and that the entire city was reduced to

ruins. According to the official catalogue of the Chinese department at

the Centennial Exhibition, the city must have been rebuilt. Both the

largest quantity and finest quality of porcelain are said still to be

made at the imperial potteries at King-teh-chin, and out of upward of

seventeen hundred and fifty pieces exhibited, all were from that city,

with the exception of ten from Ningpo, Nankin, and Pekin. Some of the

others, although painted at and sent from Canton, were manufactured at

King-teh-chin.

All Chinese porcelain has been classed as hard. The only kind about

which any doubt has been entertained is the white, variously ornamented

in relief. To this ought, however, to be added certain rare but superb

specimens which come from China as well as from Persia. The process by

which they were manufactured is not known, but it seems clear that they

belong to the same family as the _pate tendre_ of France, that is to

say, that their vitrification is due to an alkaline frit, and that the

glaze is also alkaline.

Of the dynastic colors the azure-blue adopted by the Tcheou, in 945, is

the most celebrated. It was very highly valued, and after the secret of

making it passed out of sight, which it did at a very early date, it was

never rediscovered. It is known as Tch’aï porcelain, and in color

resembled the “blue of the sky after rain.” Under the Song Dynasty four

very valuable kinds of porcelain were made. The first of these was the

Jou-yao, a very fine blue, produced at Jou-tcheon, where crackle

porcelain was also made in great perfection; the second (1107-1117) was

the famous Kouan-yao, or porcelain for magistrates, of two shades of

blue, with a slightly reddish tint; the third takes its name from the

Tchang family of potters, and was pale blue and rice-colored crackle;

the fourth, the Ting-yao, was of different colors--red, white, brown,

and black, and was of great value. These, with the Tcheou blue, are the

five ancient qualities held in highest estimation.

There were many other kinds, too numerous to be here given in detail,

including the “porcelain of concealed color,” so called because designed

for imperial use, and others of varying tints of violet, brown, purple,

and blue. At King-teh-chin jade-colored porcelain was made before the

tenth century, and a hundred years later the entire empire was

interested in the manufacture. With a mere reference, in the mean time,

to the blue-and-white porcelain of the Youen Dynasty, we pass to that of

the Ming, to which some of the porcelain most highly prized by

collectors belongs. When, in 1369, a factory was started at

King-teh-chin to supply the imperial wants exclusively--an event not to

be confounded with the foundation of the King-teh-chin manufactory,

which took place during the Song Dynasty, three hundred and fifty years

previously--the vases of blue camaïeu, called Kouan-ki, or magistrate’s

vases, were made in that city. These valuable works were probably

intended to follow as nearly as possible the more ancient Tcheou

porcelain, which had reached so great a value that even fragments of it

were employed like precious stones. It will be observed that the earlier

magistrates’ porcelain was made under the Song, and the explanation is

given that the Ming Kouan-ki were so called to distinguish the porcelain

made at the royal factory from those made for vulgar use. It may be

added that the old turquoise blue was made from copper, and the sky-blue

from cobalt.

The blue-and-white “Nankin” is a comparatively modern ware made at

King-teh-chin. It takes its name from the place of export. It is, in the

strict application of the term, not older than the beginning of the

sixteenth century, when the Chinese began to use imported cobalt; but as

now employed, it includes all Chinese porcelain with blue-and-white

decoration. The folly of such an unmeaning subdivision finds its reward

in the confusion of the student. The blue-and-white is not only the

oldest of all Chinese decoration in colors, but is found upon some of

the most interesting and valuable works.

[Illustration: Fig. 75.--Pearl.]

[Illustration: Fig. 76.--Sonorous Stone.]

[Illustration: Fig. 77.--Tablet of Honor.]

[Illustration: Fig. 78.--Sacred Axe.]

[Illustration: Fig. 79.--Celosia.]

[Illustration: Fig. 80.--Treasures of Writing.]

[Illustration: Fig. 81.--Outang.]

[Illustration: Fig. 82.--A Shell.]

The best pieces, whether ancient or modern, are distinguished by the

purity of the white and the clearness of the blue. To this class belong

the Kouan-ki already referred to as having been made soon after the

middle of the fourteenth century at King-teh-chin. These productions

frequently bear certain honorific marks, from which their destination

can be inferred. The leading symbols are eight in number; and when, as

is very often the case, they have a ribbon attached, the pieces are

designed for sacred use. Thus the pearl (Fig. 75) marks pieces destined

for poets or literati, and is the symbol of talent. It varies slightly

in form, being in some cases very small, with a conical top, and in

others resembling a flattened sphere. The “sonorous stone” (Fig. 76) is

for judges or magistrates, and was hung above their door or at the

temple gates, to be struck by those seeking an audience. Pieces with

this mark were, therefore, exclusively for the use of judges. The Kouei,

or tablet of honor (Fig. 77), is the symbol of office. It was given by

the emperor to his noble functionaries, who were required to hold it

when discharging the duties of their office, and during an audience. The

sacred axe (Fig. 78) is the mark of warriors. The cockscomb (Fig. 79) is

the symbol of longevity. The “sacred things” or “treasures of writing”

(Fig. 80) are the emblems of the learned, and consist of paper, pencil

or brush, ink and pumice-stone. The outang (Fig. 81) is a leaf, the

significance of which is not understood. It is frequently found on the

bottom of pieces. The meaning of the univalve shell (Fig. 82) is also

unknown. These marks and many others are found variously disposed upon

blue-and-white porcelain. In the illustration (Fig. 83) the pearl, the

sonorous stone, and the Kouei are seen in combination with others, and

the inference is that the piece was intended for a man of letters, of

noble rank, who also held the office of magistrate. The lace or

lambrequin decoration round the border is exceedingly rich and fine,

and shows at once whence the artists of Rouen borrowed their favorite

design. In other pieces the honorific marks are introduced in the

design, or appear upon the neck of vases, or are so disposed as to

constitute the chief ornaments. The latter arrangement is exemplified in

a small vase, also in Mr. Runkle’s collection, where the symbols are

suspended one above another.

[Illustration: Fig. 83.--Blue-and-white Plaque, with Honorific Marks.

(J. C. Runkle Coll.)]

There is in Mr. Avery’s collection a Ming bowl, or cup of “the learned,”

which closely resembles one described by Jacquemart. The rim projects

slightly, and in panels reserved in the border are the honorific marks.

The author is represented seated at a table, deep in meditation, in the

very throes of composition. From his forehead issues a scroll which

expands into the semblance of a cloud, wherein are depicted by the

artist the scenes of the drama which the poet is composing. This method

of representing literary travail is in our time left to the

caricaturist; but it is, nevertheless, a vivid way of giving artistic

form to the thoughts passing in the brain of “the learned.”

[Illustration: Fig. 84.--Blue-and-white. Eight Chinese Celestials

standing on Clouds. (W. L. Andrews Coll.)]

The blue-and-white will amply repay the most careful and critical

study. This is absolutely necessary if we would distinguish not only the

art which is Chinese, but the best of the Chinese--that emanating from

King-teh-tchin--from the works of other factories. The influence of the

imperial factory is felt throughout the empire. Its styles and methods

are copied and adopted, but imperial patronage, and the resources of a

factory carried on under the highest political auspices, make the work

of provincial imitators difficult. Then, again, the blue-and-white of

Japan is sometimes mistaken for that of China, and it must be confessed

that the difference is not always easily detected. Close observation,

however, shows that the white of the Japanese differs from the Chinese,

and that the blue is less soft. The white of Japanese pieces is purer,

and sometimes it is what we understand by the phrase “dead white;” that

is, it resembles chalk, and lacks clearness. As a consequence, the color

does not derive from the glaze the softness and transparency of the

Nankin blue, but appears to lie upon the surface in harder outline and

with less depth. Besides the Japanese, there are qualities of blue from

India, Persia, and other countries, which require careful examination to

prevent their being confounded with those of China.

[Illustration: Fig. 85.--Blue-and-white Lancelle Vase, Ming Dynasty. (W.

L. Andrews Coll.)]

An exceptional style of decorating blue-and-white Chinese porcelain is

that in which a light buff, varying at times to a clear brown, is

mingled with the blue. This is seen in bands surrounding the necks of

bottles and similarly shaped pieces, and is also occasionally mingled

with the blue on the necks of vases.

[Illustration: Fig. 86.--Blue-and-white Chinese. (J. C. Runkle Coll.)]

As to the forms and styles of decoration of blue-and-white porcelain,

they are too varied to permit of classification. Some of the finest

shapes are to be found in this class, and also some of the most unique

and curious. Beakers, with gracefully expanding necks alternate with

clumsy pieces without any claim to beauty of form, and these, again,

with such elegant shapes as the Lancelle (Fig. 85). The decoration

includes every style known to Chinese art. On the Kouan-tse are dragons

writhing in tortuous folds among the clouds or in the water, and flowers

profusely scattered without any attempt at orderly disposal. On others

are historical scenes, _lang lizen_--the long young ladies of Dutch

traders--lace or lambrequin patterns, and many other designs. The

palm-leaf is very effectively used. In a beaker in Mr. Runkle’s

collection, the conical leaves are arranged round the body, whence they

rise toward the top and descend toward the bottom, and thereby give

emphasis to the shape as it expands to the lip and base. In such an

arrangement the taste of the Chinese artist is infallible. The

disposition of the decoration, which at first seems stiff and formal, is

not only in harmony with the shape of the beaker, but is the only one by

which its beauty of form could be fully brought out. When historical

incidents are the subjects of the painting, the execution of the figures

is admirable. It is in such pieces that we can best appreciate the

accuracy of the artist, and his admirable control of his brush. He

understands that a few judicious strokes may have a finer, and, by their

suggestiveness, a fuller, effect than crowded detail and the most

delicate shading. They show, further, that the art of decorating a vase

with human figures consists in judgment as much as in execution. Thus,

where the forms are distorted and the unity of the composition destroyed

by the shape of the vase and the disposition of the figures, not only is

the decoration unpleasing, but the artist fails in reaching the effect

aimed at. These are faults of which the Chinese artists are seldom

guilty, and their skill in overcoming the difficulties presented by the

curves or angles of the object to be decorated can be better studied in

a collection of blue-and-white than among the porcelain of any other

family. When it is considered that only one color is employed, the

diversity of the results is wonderful. In many cases this is effected by

apparently varying the application of the pigment, and laying it on more

thickly in some places than in others. We have seen this exemplified on

a vase where the ornamentation was chiefly floral, and the flowers were

painted so thinly as to give the effect of a distinct and paler shade of

color. We have also seen pieces where the differences of shade were so

regular and striking as to leave little doubt that two distinct

qualities of blue were used.

[Illustration: Fig. 87.--Blue-and-white Chinese, “Hawthorn” Pattern. (S.

P. Avery Coll., N. Y. Metrop. Museum.)]

When the Chinese artist condescends to adopt a regular pattern, his

attention is directed to relieving the monotony of repetition by

diversity of detail. In the vase (Fig. 86) there are at least six

distinct styles of edging, and a slight change in the arrangement of the

same pattern on the body and neck gives all the variety of two distinct

designs.

A well-known but rare pattern is that called Hawthorn (Fig. 87) by

Europeans, on the _lucus a non lucendo_ principle, since the so-called

“hawthorn” is the blossom of certain fruit-trees better known to the

Celestials. In this the blue is the ground-color, and in it the

decoration, consisting of sprigs of bud and blossom, is reserved. The

ground is varied with dark blue lines, as if to simulate crackle, and

the sections are shaded so as to have the appearance of overlapping each

other. The irregular lines and changing tints not only relieve the

ground of monotony, but enrich the general effect, and give the blue

additional depth and transparency. The illustration gives a good idea of

the freedom with which the spray is disposed, and the good taste with

which its arrangement is adapted to the shape of the vase. The

decoration is generally applied to vases and pots of the shape given

above. Further examples are in the collections of Mr. Robert Hoe, Jr.,

and Mr. W. L. Andrews. There are also many smaller pieces, such as

plates, narrow cylindrical beakers, and others, upon which it may be

seen. These are represented in the collections of Mr. Francis Robinson

and Mr. W. T. Walters. In such pieces as those last mentioned the ground

is less broken up by lines, and in some cases the white is reserved in a

ground of unbroken pale blue. In the second specimen (Fig. 88) the white

blossom is used with a more sparing hand than in the others, and the eye

more readily appreciates the wonderfully beautiful shading of the

overlapping sections. The unevenness of surface is also more perceptible

to the touch, and, to use a familiar illustration, resembles the

overlapping of slates upon a roof.

[Illustration: Fig. 88.--Blue-and-white “Hawthorn” Vase. (J. C. Runkle

Coll.)]

Although not belonging to the same family, we may here refer to a rare

vase (Fig. 89), which supplies us with a remarkably fine specimen of a

kindred style of ornamentation. In this case the ground is black, and

the “hawthorn,” or plum-tree, sprays, with white flowers, are wreathed

gracefully over its surface. The green of the leaves would lead us to

class it with the Green family. The piece is, however, exceptional,

since black is, as a rule, seldom introduced to any great extent in

decoration. To what fabric or age shall we attribute it? It is possibly

a specimen of the skill of Thang-kong, who lived between 1736 and 1795,

and was director of the Imperial works. Thang not only reproduced some

of the ancient colors, such as the dark-blue and red, but gave full sway

to his own inventive genius. Among his original works are a purple, a

black enamel, and a black enamel with white flowers, which suits the

description of the unique specimen referred to. It is, in any event, by

reason both of its graceful shape and decoration, deserving of

attention.

[Illustration: Fig. 89.--Chinese Porcelain. White “Hawthorn” on Black.

(S. P. Avery Coll., N. Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]

To return to the blue-and-white, there are specimens, generally plaques,

with flowers resembling asters, painted in blue (Fig. 90). One has some

difficulty in bringing the formal arrangement of these flowers into

accord with Chinese art as we find it elsewhere. The flowers are

regularly disposed in the centre of the plaques, and repeated, in

smaller size, in a single row round the rim. It seems more than probable

that the style is borrowed or slightly modified, and one is strengthened

in such a supposition by the fact that it is seldom, if ever, found upon

pieces as pure in paste as the average Chinese porcelain. Possibly, with

the intention of following his model more closely, the Chinese artist

designedly resorted to an inferior body, such as might have reached

China from Persia.

There are certain pieces of blue-and-white in which both Persian forms

and Persian styles of decoration have been followed, and these introduce

the general subject of Persian influence as felt in China. It first

manifested itself as far back as the Siouen-te period (1426) of the Ming

dynasty, and is further represented by pieces belonging to the

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The most easily recognized are

those in which the Persian form is adopted, although the paste alone

would lead one to ascribe them to China, as it is invariably finer than

anything known to have come from Persia. There is in Mr. Runkle’s

collection a ewer decorated with flowers in light-blue, resembling that

of Tch’aï porcelain, the famous “blue of the sky after rain.” Real

examples of this old blue must needs be rare, since the porcelain,

variously called Tch’aï, Tcheou, and Tchi-tsong, was, like the old

white, valued, even in fragments, as highly as jewels. A second from the

same collection is given on the following page (Fig. 91). The panels are

black, the flower and border decoration are in pink, green, and yellow,

and show the variety and execution distinctive of Chinese work. There

are many pieces of the same class in which the artist has attempted to

follow the Persian styles more closely, but even a slight examination

can leave little doubt of their Chinese origin. In connection with the

blue-and-white decoration may be mentioned the vases of sea-green

céladon, in which panels of white are reserved. On these are figures of

men and animals, landscapes or flowers, in blue. A favorite form, and

one well suited to this style of decoration, is a square bottle or vase,

the sides of which enable the artist to paint the design in blue upon

the flat.

[Illustration: Fig. 90.--Aster Decoration. Blue-and-white. (W. L.

Andrews Coll.)]

Of the other blues which were used as ground colors, one of the most

famous is the turquoise obtained from copper. It has all the clear depth

of the stone from which it takes its name, a liquid transparency

elsewhere unequalled. It appears on a great variety of pieces--gods,

kylins, birds, dogs, and vases. The latter are very often graved in the

paste, after designs more or less ornate. In the specimen given (Fig.

92), which is very finely crackled, the leaves are bound together by a

zone decorated with the Greek fret.

The _lapis lazuli_ blue has a deeper tint, and is usually decorated with

gold. It is used as a ground color, and fine specimens lead one to

question the appropriateness of the name, as the porcelain so decorated

has a brilliancy and depth far in advance of the comparatively dull

stone. The color is occasionally employed in Persian decoration, and

varies in shade.

[Illustration: Fig. 91.--Chinese Porcelain. Persian Style. (J. C. Runkle

Coll.)]

The mazarine blue is similarly treated, and is also effectively

heightened by a super-ornamentation of gold of different shades. There

are many other tints to which it is hard to give even a distinctive

name. They illustrate the extreme partiality of the Chinese for this

color, a partiality which has never wavered for at least sixteen

centuries. It has been the means of giving to the world a greater number

of beautiful works of art than would otherwise seem to be within the

reach of the most skilful manipulation and the most prolific fancy, when

restricted to a single color.

The _soufflé_ porcelain will be hereafter noticed, but in the mean time,

to prevent misapprehension, reference may be made to the _bleu fouetté_,

a style sometimes confounded with the _soufflé_. It is less deep in

shade than the _lapis lazuli_, and has a mottled appearance. It is used

as a ground color, in which are sections of white, and on the latter are

brilliant designs in red, green, and gold. The effect is rich, and the

contrast between the panel painting and the more sombre ground color is

very striking. There are also blues splashed over with spots of red and

lilac, and many others, such as the “transmutation” or flashed glaze,

illustrative of the magical dexterity of the Chinese workman. What on

first sight seems the result of an accident in the kiln, will often

prove to be that of a carefully conducted operation and deliberate

intention.

We may now glance briefly at the various fabrics of the Ming Dynasty, in

their chronological order.

[Illustration: Fig. 92.--Turquoise-blue Chinese Porcelain. _Truité_

Crackle. (S. P. Avery Coll., New York Metropolitan Museum.)]

The establishment of an imperial factory at King-teh-chin, as above

stated, marked the beginning of the Ming, during which (1368-1649) the

art rose to its highest level. After the blue Kouan-ki came vases and

vessels of various colors and styles of decoration. Between 1403 and

1424, egg-shell porcelain, so called from its remarkable thinness, was

first issued from King-teh-chin, and between 1465 and 1487 reached its

greatest excellence and fineness. It was made as thin as paper, and was

so favorably regarded by the emperors that they gave rewards to those

making the finest pieces. Its gauzy transparent tenuity is effected by

grinding it down after glazing. Vases, as well as cups, etc., were made

of egg-shell, which at a later date was painted in colors. The fifteenth

century saw the greatest triumphs of Chinese artists. From 1426 to 1435,

the Siouen-te period, very brilliant blue, red, white, and veined

crackle was made. Representations of crickets were a fashionable style

of ornamentation. Afterward, between 1465 and 1487, although the colors

deteriorated, the beauty of the ornamentation increased toward its

artistic extreme. With the sixteenth century, we have seen that foreign

material for ornamentation began to be introduced; and although many

original artists continued to appear, others restricted themselves

almost exclusively to the imitation of ancient wares. Tcheou, who lived

between 1567 and 1619, took particular delight in puzzling collectors by

skilful counterfeits of the most famous, rare, and valuable old wares.

According to a story told by Julien, he imitated the ancient Ting white,

made from three to six hundred years before his time, so closely, that

he duped the most acute collectors. More than a century later, between

1735 and 1795, Thang-kong, already referred to, displayed great

imitative skill. It is, however, evident, and a matter of regret, that,

from the beginning of the eighteenth century, the ceramic art of China

declined. While the materials employed are still equal to the most

ancient, the ornamentation after that date became, as a rule, manifestly

inferior. To what extent a more intimate intercourse with foreigners and

the more extended demands of trade resulting therefrom may have

contributed to such a result, we need not now inquire. The greater

rapidity of execution necessitated by increasing orders from abroad, and

the influence of European models, had no doubt their effect. All the

best pieces were retained for native use, and only the inferior

qualities were exported. The estimation in which the Chinese hold the

rarer pieces is further illustrated by the fact that specimens which

have found their way to Europe have been sent back to China to be sold,

because there they would realize higher prices. Many of the better kinds

have never been seen in Europe; and when in addition to this it is

remembered that, while skilled in production, the Chinese were equally

clever in imitation with fraudulent intent, many other kinds are in all

likelihood really unknown beyond the bounds of the Celestial Empire.

There are, besides the works of such an artist as Thang-kong,

exceptional pieces of the Tai-thsing Dynasty, especially those of the

Kien-long period, during which Thang-kong lived, that are in every way

admirable. One example of this period (Fig. 93) has a ground color of

light green, overrun with a graceful floriated design graved in the

paste, and having reserved panels, in which are a landscape on one side

and a tree and bird on the other. In another the ground is a delicate

pink, and the figures are raised. Examples might be multiplied to any

extent, which show that, however faulty the later specimens may be,

there is no lack of variety. The artists resorted to every style of

decoration within the reach of their skill, and some exceedingly

beautiful porcelain of various families will be found to belong to the

Kien-long period.

[Illustration: Fig. 93--Kien-long Green Porcelain Vase. (J. C. Runkle

Coll.)]

The Tai-thsing Dynasty is also marked by the production of the vases

called “Mandarin,” usually, but in our opinion mistakenly, ascribed to

Japan. The history of China at this time is for our present purpose

valuable. So long as the two dynasties were at war, art was neglected;

and we therefore find that, for several years prior to the establishment

of the Tartar Dynasty, the manufactories gave out no works of note. When

the Tai-thsings were firmly seated on the throne the art received a new

impulse. While Khang-hi reigned (1661-1722), Thang-ing-siouen was

director of the imperial factory, and made two yellows, a green and

blue. He was succeeded in 1722 by Nien, who was equally successful, and

in 1736 was associated with the artist Thang-kong before mentioned.

After Kien-long, the fourth of the Tartar Dynasty, the art went rapidly

downward. It will be observed from these few facts that when the decline

of Chinese art is spoken of as beginning with the eighteenth century,

allowance must be made for the check experienced under Kien-long

(1736-1795). When he ascended the throne there were, according to M.

Julien, fifty-seven manufactories of porcelain in China, of which seven

besides that of King-teh-chin were in the province of Kiang-si. Whatever

condition art may have been in, there was plainly no stagnation in

production.

And now as to the mandarin vases, which strictly reflect the history of

China: the word “mandarin” is applied to all the public functionaries

of China, and, in the decoration of porcelain, includes all the figures

with toque and vest seen on the vases of this period. When the Tartar

Dynasty came in, one of the first imperial acts was to issue an order

that certain new customs should be adhered to, and old ones renounced.

Though politic, in tending to erase even the remembrance of the

dethroned Mings, the act was in certain particulars a cruelty to the

conservative Chinese. It involved in their eyes degradation to the level

of the victorious Tartar; and rather than conform to the order requiring

the head to be shaved, many were willing that it should be cut off.

Conformity came in time, and the pigtail was an accepted necessity.

Changes in costume were also gradually effected. Of these the most

marked features are the rolled-up cap or toque and the short coat. To

distinguish the nine orders of public officers, the most minute

regulations were issued. These affected chiefly the button on the toque,

the squares on the front and back of the coat, and the decoration of the

belt.

The mandarin vases upon which these costumes are seen, are thick in the

paste and frequently uneven on the surface. The hexagonal form, as well

as the general features of the decoration, were followed and made

familiar to Europeans by the potters of Delft. The decoration is so

varied that the group is divided by Jacquemart into six sections. The

chief colors are pink, lilac, green, iron red, Indian ink, gold and

black. The painting is not executed after the usual Chinese fashion, and

the faces in particular are finished with a minute care suggestive of an

influence not felt before this period. What concerns us chiefly at

present is the reason given by Jacquemart for assigning the entire group

to Japanese workmanship. He says:

“The special character of this costume marks out perfectly the group of

porcelain upon which it is to be found. It offers, besides, the

advantage of rendering incontestable the Japanese origin of these

porcelains. The artists of the Celestial Empire have never represented

mandarins in their lacquer-work, carved wood or ivories, vases, bronzes,

hard or soft stones; no authentic _nien-hao_ piece has depicted anything

besides the heroes of ancient times and the subjects of ancient history.

It was left to neighboring nations, at the same time inquisitive and

commercial, to multiply upon the vases this execrated costume, imposed

only after a time by force.”

[Illustration: Fig. 94.--Chinese Ming Vases. White Ground. In

medallions, green and brown characters and figures. Darker part red and

white, with green flowers. (Geo. R. Hall Coll., Boston Museum of Fine

Arts.)]

This appears rather a slight reason for giving the entire group to

Japan. Let us look back to history. From the Wan-li period of the Ming

(1619) to the final fall of the dynasty in 1647, or from the irruption

of the Tartars in 1616 down to 1662, the Khang-hi period of the

Tai-thsings, we know of no porcelain having been made; but in that

period, as we have seen, the industry revived. It is then that we again

find a director at King-teh-chin, and seventy years later Thang-kong was

reviving the bright red and devising the gold ornamentation on black

which we find on the mandarin vases. Jacquemart suggests “some years”

after 1616 as the date when the Tartar costume was applied to vases. It

is probable that it was at least from fifty to seventy years after that

date, and that the best specimens belong to the Kien-long period, which

began in 1736. After 1662 the imperial factory was apparently as much

under the Emperor’s control as it had been under the Mings; in which

case he could, it is presumed, order such paintings and figures in such

costumes as he pleased. We know, further, that in 1698 two foreign

artists--an Italian and a Frenchman--were at the palace giving the

Chinese several new ideas about art, especially, as we shall see, about

perspective. This may, in part, account for the miniature appearance of

the face paintings on the mandarin vases. There is, moreover, no

ostensible reason for assigning to the Japanese the origination of a

style of decoration at variance with everything else we know of the

early traditions of their art, although they followed it afterward. We

might rather look to India. We know, at least, that during the Kien-long

period the Chinese incurred and acknowledged certain debts to India, and

it is in the same country that we find the best miniature painting of

the East. Such a supposition would also account for the unusual type

presented by some of the mandarins with long pointed beards.

[Illustration: Fig. 95.--Ming Vase. Historical Subject. (J. C. Runkle

Coll.)]

An apparently fanciful grouping of Chinese porcelain originated with

Albert Jacquemart and Edmond Le Blant. They divide it into four

families, the Archaic, the Chrysanthemo-Pæonian, the Green, and the

Rose: Céladon, Crackle, White, Blue, Turquoise-blue, Violet, Bronze, and

Lacquer are classed as exceptional. The Chrysanthemo-Pæonian is so

called from the prevalence of chrysanthemums and pæonies on the ground,

and the Green and Rose from the predominating colors. A large proportion

of the household ornaments of China, garden vases, and table-wares

belong to the first of these classes. Blues, red, and gold mingle with

each other, and are relieved by green, and sometimes black. Red and blue

grounds will be found with designs in white, green, and yellow; or a

rich gold will be overspread with green, pale buff, and white; or the

ground itself will be white, on which are designs in black, filled with

gorgeous flowers. These are the works of artists whose skill and

ingenuity are almost as limitless as their fancy. There is no law but

the harmony demanded by a florid taste, no aim but effect.

[Illustration: Fig. 96.--Green Family. Ming Dynasty. (F. Robinson

Coll.)]

Green was the imperial color under the Ming Dynasty (1368), and the

greater portion of the ornamentation of this family has either a

religious or a political significance. The bright copper-green lies

perfectly transparent upon the pure white paste. We have already seen

the eight immortals riding upon clouds, in a piece of blue-and-white,

and the design is repeatedly met upon pieces of the Green family. It is

here, in short, that we have the best opportunity of studying the

religious system and symbols of China. Dragons are represented with

diabolical ferocity; cranes, kylins, fong-hoangs, are intermingled with

floral designs, in which are asters and other flowers, and insects. On

the sacrificial cups of this family, dragons with forked tails climb the

handles, or hang head downward from the lip, while a hideous dragon-head

is introduced in the sides. From these grotesque and terrible figures we

turn to the pieces of a historical character. The scenes depicted are

chiefly taken from the early history of China, which was as prolific a

source of ideas to the Chinese artist as classical history and legend to

the poets of Europe. Vases of this character are also deserving of

study, as illustrating to a farther extent than was done in the

Introduction that aspect of the potter’s art in which it appears as the

handmaid and illuminator of history. The Chinese artist is rarely seen

to better advantage than when painting vases of this family. With a rich

palette comprising the prevailing green, blues of every shade, violet,

red, yellow, gold, and black, he produces effects of the most charming

beauty. When green is used as a ground color, as in the case of the

Kien-long vase referred to (Fig. 93), either it covers the entire

surface, or reserves are left for the landscape or trees. In the former

case the fruit, flowers, and leaves lie upon the bright-green enamel. To

the pieces in which green is mingled with yellow and blue upon a white

ground, producing the effect of variegated marble, the Chinese give the

name of Ouan-lou-hoang.

[Illustration: Fig. 97.--Chinese Plate. Rose Family. Sixteenth Century

(?). (Mrs. J. V. L. Pruyn Coll.)]

The Rose family (Fig. 97) is distinguished by the prevalence of the

color to which it owes its name--a pale red applied over the glaze. It

comprises what may most emphatically be called the decorative porcelain

of China. The body is the perfection of Chinese paste, and the

decoration partakes to the full of the vast wealth of Chinese color.

With regard to form, this family represents the most perfect pieces in

the art of China. With the exception of the old white and the modern

decorated with blue, the Tho-tai-khi, “porcelain without embryo,” or

egg-shell, belongs almost exclusively to this family, which is admirably

represented in Mr. W. L. Andrews’s collection. In such pieces we fully

apprehend the beauty of the “rose-back” decoration. The ruby color is

laid upon the back of the edge or rim of plates and saucers, and shines

through the thin paste with the softness of the pink lining of a shell.

It would be impossible to specify all the methods of decorating the

egg-shell belonging to the Rose family. We see borders of pink and

raised white enamel, others traced as delicately as the finest lace, and

still others with reservations filled with bouquets. The decoration

sometimes takes the form of exquisite paintings of birds, insects, and

flowers; and when scenes with figures are introduced, they are of a

totally different character from the religious and historical subjects

found in the Green family. They are drawn in part from literature, and

in part from the home life of the people. There is in Mr. Avery’s

collection at the Metropolitan Museum, a plate having a rose border with

raised flowers, and other objects in reserved sections. In the centre is

a young girl surprised, as she walks the garden at night, by her lover,

who, having thrown his shoes in advance, is mounting the wall. M.

Jacquemart informs us that the incident is taken from the “Si-siang-ki,”

or, History of the Pavilion of the West, a lyric drama composed by

Wang-chi-fou about A.D. 1110. A frequent design is a home scene, in

which a lady sits near a table attended by two children, and with one or

two vases standing round. These glimpses of domestic life afford some

little insight into the usages of the people, the courtesies of society,

and the occupation and pastimes of the young. When the pieces are larger

in size, the subjects are taken from court life, and very rarely from

religion. When strong contrasts are resorted to--as by coloring the

inside green and the outside rose--the effect is no less pleasing. The

combinations are almost confusing in their multiplicity, and in the

essential differences of their character. One piece may have flowers and

various household articles (Fig. 99) upon a white ground, or rose may

mingle with turquoise and maroon in the border. Nothing is too bold for

the Chinese artist, and no effect appears to be unattainable or untried.

He is equally at home painting on white enamel a delicate border, or

rivalling the rich hues of a gaudy butterfly in a life-like imitation of

the fluttering insect.

[Illustration: Fig. 98.--Chinese Rose Family. (Robert Hoe, Jr., Coll.)]

Before leaving the Rose family, let us glance at a few of the pieces

ascribed to Japan, and which ought to be restored to China. To

illustrate the difficulty of assigning them, with positive certainty, to

either country, the plate given on page 143 may be referred to (Fig.

100). Mr. Andrews considers his piece Japanese, and his opinion is

supported by the fact that other specimens, also claimed for Japan, have

the same subject painted in the centre. When a photograph of the piece

was submitted to the Hon. Jushie Yoshida Kiyonari, the Japanese Minister

at Washington, he replied: “It seems to me certain that the subject, as

well as the style of the painting, are strictly Chinese; and this much

I would say, if I had the piece in my possession, I could not but

consider it as a _good Chinese specimen_.”

[Illustration: Fig. 99.--Chinese Bowl. Rich Decoration, chiefly Yellow

and Rose. Height, 11 in.; circumference, 5 ft. 8 in. (Mrs. John V. L.

Pruyn Coll.)]

When Jacquemart tries to find an origin for the Chinese Rose family, he

says: “Does it issue from the accidental discovery of the red of

Cassius? Is it contemporary with other porcelains? Does it come from a

particular centre? We think its creation is to be attributed to the wish

of imitating the admirable porcelain of Japan.” The same writer, in

treating of what he calls “artistic” porcelain of the Japanese Rose

family, says: “If we required to seek the cause of these modifications

and of the particular style of artistic porcelain, we should find it in

a desire of rivalling the Chinese porcelain of the Rose family.” In

other words, the Japanese Rose suggested the Chinese Rose, and the

Chinese Rose suggested the Japanese Rose--a stage at which the

discussion becomes neither lucid nor satisfactory.

The circumstances leading to the confounding of Chinese and Japanese

porcelain arose chiefly from trade. The Japanese are said to have gone

to King-teh-chin, even in early times, to buy porcelain. According to

Duhalde, the Chinese repaid the compliment by loading their vessels with

Japanese porcelain on returning from that country. This is corroborated

by the missionaries at Pekin, who state that the people there highly

prized the Japanese porcelain, which was, in consequence, both rare and

dear. They even used it in preference to their own in making presents

to the emperor and grandees. De Pere states that when the Emperor wished

to send a present of porcelain to Peter the Great, he chose that of

Japan, where, says the writer, the people surpass those of China in all

the arts and industries. We know, moreover, that the Japanese import

Chinese egg-shell for decoration, that the Chinese have borrowed the

designs of the Japanese, and that the Japanese have borrowed those of

China. The most skilful imitators in the world, living next door to each

other, complimented each other’s skill by mutual imitation.

There are two chronological points that may help us to throw some light

into this confusion, which writers have succeeded in making twice

confounded.

[Illustration: Fig. 100.--Rose-back Egg-shell. (W. L. Andrews Coll.)]

There can be no doubt that the porcelain of the Rose family was at its

best about the end of the fifteenth century and beginning of the

sixteenth. Jacquemart, therefore, argues that the Japanese imitations

would date from the first half of the sixteenth century, and the

vitreous enamelled pieces would go back, at least, to the fifteenth. He

labors under a very serious mistake, which evidently takes its rise in

the assumption that the ware made by the Japanese in the seventh century

was translucent pottery, or that Kato-siro-ouye-mon, in the thirteenth

century, had acquired the art of making porcelain. We shall handle this

subject more in detail when treating of Japan; but meanwhile let it be

noted that the Japanese themselves call the thirteenth century ware

stone-ware, and that there is no reason for believing that porcelain was

made in Japan until near the middle of the sixteenth century, or about

the date assigned by Jacquemart to the so-called Japanese imitations of

the Rose family of China.

If this be admitted, it must be supposed that Japan began by imitating

some of the choicest works of China, and those presenting the greatest

difficulty to a beginner not perfectly sure of his practice. The

necessary result of this, so far as M. Jacquemart is concerned, would be

to transfer what he calls artistic porcelain to China. In any event, it

is clear that all representatives of that family which can be ascribed

to a date earlier than the latter part of the sixteenth or the beginning

of the seventeenth century are Chinese. Many years must have elapsed

before the Japanese could, with Shonsui’s assistance, attain to such

perfection in working a new material that their ware could be mistaken

for that of their teachers.

The difficulties of collectors are thus restricted to pieces which are

comparatively modern. Nothing is more natural than that, when the

manufacture was temporarily paralyzed in China by the disturbances

attending the change from the Ming to the Tartar dynasty, for several

years prior to 1662 the Japanese should have bestirred themselves to

supply the demand created by the regular trade in China. It is of this

period, and down to the beginning of the eighteenth century, that the

missionaries write when they speak of the demand for Japanese porcelain.

It must have been early in the eighteenth century, also, that the

imperial present of Japanese porcelain was sent to Russia. Japanese art

was rising as that of China declined; and so far from suggesting the

Rose decoration to China, the Japanese Rose was merely striving to take

its place, when the original was passing away. The Japanese found the

Chinese patronage valuable, and therefore they tried to please their

customers by perpetuating the styles of decoration with which they were

familiar. Their imitative skill makes the task of distinguishing the two

fabrics one of considerable difficulty, even with the limitations in

point of time to which we have alluded. The distinctive characteristics

of Japanese porcelain will be referred to in their proper place under

Japan; but, in the mean time, it is evident that many of the supposed

Japanese pieces, with domestic scenes, or with fan-shaped reservations

in wide borders of geometrical patterns, and containing brilliantly

feathered birds, are Chinese.

We have now glanced at the three leading families, even while disposed

to call in question the utility of the arrangement. A classification of

the above kind has the one great objection, that the exceptions are so

numerous as to leave the rule inapplicable to a vast number of the most

interesting specimens. And, further, no perfect arrangement is

practicable. The Chinese have always been imitators. The potters and

artists of the thirteenth century imitated those of the tenth; those of

the fourteenth imitated their predecessors of the thirteenth, and so on.

Any attempt at a chronological arrangement, with any pretensions to

absolute truth, is, for this and other reasons, out of the question. The

classification by families, besides its necessary deficiencies, gives no

assistance to one studying and trying to master the principles of

Chinese art. To such an one, therefore, the only course is to take every

specimen at its artistic worth. He may find a large proportion of

table-ware of the Chrysanthemo-pæonian family, but he will also find

much that is not of that family. He may find much of the Green family,

especially under the Ming Dynasty, with a political or a religious

significance, but he will also fail in discovering any such meaning in

many of its representatives. He will find chrysanthemums on members of

the Green family, and pæonies on members of the Rose. In short, the

better plan is, as we have said, to admire what is admirable, and to be

too curious neither about chronology nor the relationship of color.

Otherwise, in the latter case, he will come upon incongruities. The weak

and the beautiful will be placed side by side, as in the human family a

dwarf may be full brother to an Adonis.

From what has been said it will be inferred that the Chinese held in the

highest admiration the beauty to be found in color alone. In producing

it, they stand at the head of the ceramic artists of the world. The old

white porcelain--that is, porcelain decorated with white, and not the

undecorated ware--is by some considered the most ancient quality, and

is most carefully preserved by the Chinese. It was decorated with

designs either graved in the paste or painted in relief, or with figures

inserted between two laminæ of paste. In the latter case the design

remained invisible until the cup was filled with liquid. Others required

to be held up to the light before the design revealed itself. The best

white porcelain was made during the Song Dynasty (960-1278). Mention is

made of white porcelain manufactured for the Emperor during the Wei

Dynasty (A.D. 220-264), and we have already seen that white was the

dynastic color of the Thang Dynasty (618-907), but little or nothing is

directly known of these fabrics. That of the Song Dynasty was the

Ting-yao, already referred to as one of the five great qualities of

ancient porcelain. A cup (Fig. 101) of great beauty, very thin and

transparent, in the collection of Mr. J. C. Runkle, gives a good idea of

the old white. Its purity and brilliancy give a fine effect to the

decoration in relief. The latter consists of small sprays of blossoms

delicately moulded or carved, and showing through the clear glaze the

finest touches of the modeller or carver. This is one of the methods

followed in decorating the Ting porcelain with flowers, which were

either graved in the paste, applied in relief, or painted. The white of

the Yong-lo period (1403-1424) of the Ming Dynasty was also decorated

with engravings in the paste. Toward the beginning of the Ming Dynasty,

about 1380, a peculiar quality of white was made upon the same principle

as the egg-shell, _i. e._, by grinding down the paste, by which means

the piece assumed an unctuous, shining appearance.

[Illustration: Fig. 101.--White Chinese Porcelain, with Blossom in

Relief. (J. C. Runkle Coll.)]

With the white there naturally falls to be considered the porcelain

compared by writers and by the Chinese themselves with jade, the most

precious of stones in the eyes of the Orientals. It is likened in the

Li-ki, or Book of Rites, to the rainbow solidified and turned into

stone; and in another work occurs the passage, “When I meditate on that

wise man, his thoughts appear to me like the jade.” This applies to the

discourse of Confucius. The philosopher’s language is quaint and

figurative: “It is not,” he says, “because the jade is rare that it is

valued, but because from all time the sages have compared virtue to

jade. In their eyes the polish and brilliant hues of jade represent

virtue and humanity. Its perfect compactness and extreme hardness

indicate exactness of statement; its angles or corners, which are not

incisive, however sharp they seem, are emblematic of justice; the

pearl-like jades suspended from the hat or the girdle, as if falling,

represent ceremony and politeness; the pure sound which it emits when

struck, and which suddenly stops, figures music; as it is impossible for

the ugly shades of color to obscure the handsome ones, or for the fine

colors to cover up the poor ones, so loyalty is prefigured; the cracks

which exist in the interior of the stone, and can be seen from the

outside, are figurative of sincerity; its iridescent lustre, similar to

that of the rainbow, is symbolic of the permanent; its wonderful

substance, extracted from mountains or from rivers, represents the

earth; when cut as knei or chon, without other embellishment, it

indicates virtue; and the high value attached to it by the whole world,

without exception, is figurative of truth.” It is further used

throughout Chinese literature as a simile for the highest qualities of

virtue and purity.

The stone is called _yu_ by the Chinese, and is obtained from Tai-thong,

in the province of Chenn-si, and in larger quantities from Khotan, where

an entire mountain is said to be composed of it. It has been held in the

highest estimation among the Chinese from ancient times, and

notwithstanding its extreme hardness, it is made into the most beautiful

and curious objects, such as vases, cups, incense-burners, flasks; and

even instruments of music.

These facts will enable us to appreciate the comparison so often drawn

between porcelain and jade. Thus, the Thang white made by Ho is said to

have been “brilliant as jade,” and a contemporary was making vases of

artificial jade. Again, in the Song Dynasty, a red porcelain was made at

Ting-tcheou, decorated with flowers, graved, painted, or in relief, and

said to resemble “sculptured red jade.” Coming down to the Siouen-te

period of the Ming Dynasty (1426-1435), we again meet with cups “as

white and brilliant as jade,” with their surfaces slightly punctured.

These appear to have been imitated in the Wan-li period (1575-1619),

when beautiful cups of the whiteness of jade figure in the altar

services of the Emperor. The same description will apply to the

porcelain of both periods. The glaze is likened to “a layer of congealed

fat,” and has a pure ivory-like appearance and a soft unctuous touch,

more nearly resembling that of French _pate tendre_ than any other

modern ware. This feeling is heightened rather than diminished by the

slight roughness, or rather, irregularity of the surface, such as might

be caused by sinking minute grains in the glaze.

Let us now see how far these comparisons with jade are warranted by the

stone itself. Let it first be noted that many travellers bring from

Canton a green and dark-green quality of chalcedony, under the

impression that the wily merchants have given them genuine jade. There

are also certain kinds of felspar, called nephrite, which have been

mistakenly called jade. The genuine _yu_ varies in color from an ivory

white to a dark green. It is very hard, very heavy, and fine in grain.

Even after it is polished it has the appearance of wax, and the

impression made upon the eye is confirmed by the smooth, greasy touch.

The exceptional colors are red, black, orange, citron yellow, turquoise

and a deeper blue. The white variety called, _par excellence_, Oriental

jade, reflects a pure milky light nearly resembling that of the opal.

Japan and India supply a quality of white with the faintest possible

tinge of green. Another very beautiful variety is the “imperial jade,”

or emerald green, which is occasionally found mixed with white, like the

colors in agate.

The value attached to jade was so great, that in China a special officer

was appointed to take charge of the jade used in the personal decoration

of the emperor, who wore several pieces attached to his girdle. Every

description of jewel was made of jade, including those worn in the hair.

From these facts, and those previously narrated, it is evident that to

compare porcelain with jade is to compliment it in terms beyond which

Chinese language cannot go. Nothing higher or more laudatory can be said

of it, and we can thus form some idea of the extreme beauty of the

almost opalescent white porcelain of the Siouen-te and Wan-li periods.

The admiration of the Chinese for this stone in colors now unknown may

possibly also have inspired them to attempt its imitation in many of the

finest colors which claim our admiration. The passage quoted from

Confucius further suggests that even crackle may have originated in

trying to reproduce in pottery and porcelain the cracked variety of

jade.

Equal to the turquoise in purity is the violet obtained from the oxide

of manganese. Two artists (father and daughter) named Chou, made very

beautiful porcelain of this color during the Song Dynasty. Specimens are

now very rare, their brilliancy and richness leading collectors to grasp

with avidity at any opportunity of becoming possessors of a good

example.

[Illustration: Fig. 102.--Chinese Five-fingered Rosadon. Blood color,

shading from crimson to scarlet. Upper rim, cloudy white. (G. W. Wales

Coll., Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]

The aubergine, or purple egg-plant violet, was also made under the Song,

and is one of the celebrated productions of Kiun, in the province of

Ho-nan. This is, however, inferior in beauty to the manganese violet.

There is a third tint, of great softness and beauty. The violet is often

used in conjunction with turquoise blue, as in a crackle teapot in the

Avery collection in the shape of the peach of longevity, in which the

body is violet, and the spout and decorating leaves, which are in

relief, are in turquoise blue. The colors are also found intermingled in

such groups as the Dogs of Fo sporting. Very curious effects are

produced by shading the violet on either hand to blue and red. In pieces

of this character the blue will be found on the base, and the color

changes as it ascends, becoming a rich violet on the body and red on the

top. The violet is treated in a manner precisely similar to the

turquoise, the pieces being frequently decorated with incised designs.

The shaded violet specimens alluded to remind us of others, in a rich

liver-red, where the color becomes paler as it ascends. Thus, in the

five-fingered rosadon (Fig. 102) the base is a deep crimson, which turns

to scarlet on the body, and finishes on the tips of the fingers in a

cloudy white. This color, like the aubergine violet, and a bright red

were found upon some of the works made at Kiun in the tenth century; nor

must we forget the pieces like “red jade” made at Ting-tcheon about the

same period. It does not appear to have been used at King-teh-chin until

the Yong-lo period, early in the fifteenth century. The bright red was

reproduced by Thang-kong, the artist already mentioned, in the

eighteenth century. It is difficult to follow the Chinese in the

handling of colors so nearly akin, and yet differently treated, and

producing effects so varied. The liver-red often appears as a true

_céladon_ upon pieces closely resembling in paste the hard opaque body

of the old sea-green. These have rarely any decoration, and resemble in

this respect many small objects, such as narrow-necked bottles, to which

a bright red lends a color that in vivid brilliancy and clearness

involuntarily recalls the comparison of the Ting porcelain with red

jade.

[Illustration: Fig. 103.--Chinese Yellow; Green Decoration. (Sutton

Coll.)]

Of the yellow called “Imperial,” from its being the color adopted by the

Tai-thsing Dynasty, little is known. The shades vary from a deep orange

to a light straw color, but that called Imperial is said to be the

citron yellow. Mr. Marryat says that he has seen genuine specimens in

only two collections--the late Mr. Beckford’s and the Japan palace at

Dresden. He adds, that imitations have been made at Canton and exported.

Mr. S. P. Avery, of New York, has a number of pieces of different

tints--chrome, citron, lemon, pale and deep yellow, some of which are

very curious in both form and decoration. The different shades are also

well illustrated in Mr. W. T. Walters’s collection.

[Illustration: Fig. 104.--Grains of Rice. (S. P. Avery Coll.)]

The Chinese have ideas of painting peculiar to themselves. They have

little regard for perspective, and in ancient times had none whatever.

Even so late as the seventeenth century perspective was at direct

variance with the rules guiding their art. We can, for example, see

vases--particularly those of the Ming Dynasty--in which the personages

in a scene appear to be piled directly one above another, or mount

stairs, like upright ladders, in order to reach other personages

evidently some distance off, but as much in the foreground of the

picture as those nearer at hand. Coming down less than half a century

later, there is a change. In the Kien-long vase before given the view

recedes, and the far-off hills are partially shrouded in shadowy vapor,

which adds to the dimness of distance. The perspective is perfect. The

change is, no doubt, due to European intercourse. We may, therefore, in

cases of doubt derive from this feature a hint of the age of certain

pieces. But how account for the older usage? It is said that, when shown

the effect of perspective, the Chinese argued against it. There is not,

and cannot be, distance on a flat surface, they said; therefore

perspective is contrary to nature. They did not see that their art

should take cognizance of the delusions of vision, and represent things

as they _appear_, not as they _are_. To explain this farther, we have

only to look at the Chinese practice in decorating porcelain. The

painting is regarded as a purely mechanical process, and the same piece

may pass through seventy or eighty different hands, each artist

contributing his specialty to the general result, and knowing little or

nothing of the subject as a whole. Can we wonder, then, that he did not

learn to appreciate perspective, if he painted his figures without any

idea of their relation to each other or to the rest of the composition?

The most remarkable feature of the case is, that in this prejudice

against perspective, and supposed constancy to nature, the Chinese

artists take up an attitude altogether different from that in which they

usually appear. Everywhere they give a free rein to fancy. They are

perfectly unconscious of anomaly, or incongruity in, for instance,

painting a stag yellow or a horse green. They paint birds, butterflies,

flowers, in hues which nature never wore. Their taste for that harmony

of tints which is the perfection of surface decoration demands the

abnormal colors, and they never hesitate about using them. Their variety

is as wonderful as the wealth of their resources. One may turn from a

vase, representing the exercise of the most fearless and riotous fancy,

to another in which the details are as realistic as the lizards of

Palissy. Or, again, a vase which looks as though it might have been cut

out of a precious stone, with no decoration but its inimitable color,

may stand side by side with another covered with flowers so tenderly

treated and delicately colored, that one is inclined to pronounce the

painstaking Celestial the prince of artists.

[Illustration: Fig. 105.--Chinese Reticulated Vase. (S. P. Avery Coll.,

N. Y. Metrop. Museum.)]

Conceits in shape or design and victory over technical difficulties are

his delight. The _soufflé_ decoration is characteristic. The color is

inserted in a tube having one end covered with fine gauze, and when

blown upon the piece to be decorated, falls in minute air-bells, which

break into little circles. Red and blue are thus applied upon a pale

grayish-blue, and the effect is beautiful and entirely unique. When, as

frequently happens, the bubbles do not break, the result is hardly less

attractive, the color running into the ground and giving it the

appearance of jasper.

Another method of decorating porcelain, is that called “grains of rice

work” (Fig. 104), and is of Persian origin. The design is cut through

the thin paste, and on the piece being dipped in the glaze, the latter

fills up or covers over the interstices, leaving the design distinctly

traceable and perfectly transparent.

Among the curiosities of workmanship the most notable are the

reticulated and articulated vases and the “surprise hydraulique,” or Cup

of Tantalus. The outside of the reticulated vase (Fig. 105) is

perforated in different patterns and covers the inner vase without

touching it, except at the neck and possibly also the bottom. Ornaments

are often attached to the outside of the open-work. More wonderful than

the vases are the services of the same kind, in which the outer and

inner parts come so closely together as to render the baking of the

pieces extremely difficult and uncertain.

The articulated, or jointed, vases represent a similar victory over the

difficulties of workmanship. The vase is cut into two sections, which,

although separate, cannot be taken apart.

The “Cup of Tantalus” is so constructed that when raised to the lips the

expectant drinker finds himself deluged with the contents. It is a

Chinese practical joke, played by means of a syphon concealed in the

interior of the vessel. Our enumeration may conclude with this specimen

of manual dexterity.

[Illustration: Fig. 106.--Oriental Porcelain. Brought to Albany by

Captain Dean about 1777. (Mrs. J. V. L. Pruyn Coll.)]

To an American or European taking a wide view of the ceramics of the

Chinese, while it is evident that they have produced a vast amount of

very beautiful work, the question will no doubt present itself, whether

they do not sometimes confound ingenuity with genius, and value the

mechanical more highly than the artistic. That they were skilful and

rejoiced in exercising their skill is evident; but no one can look

without admiration upon their exquisite coloring and flower decoration.

If one could find anywhere a _complete_ collection of Chinese pottery,

stone-ware, and porcelain, it would be found to contain nearly

everything admirable in ceramics, although occasionally hard to

appreciate or understand. It would be found to illustrate the entire art

history of a people patient, laborious, keen to observe, and swift to

imitate, and whom, curiously enough, many of us would rather hear from

through the china merchant or collector, than meet in more direct

intercourse.

CHAPTER VI.

COREA.

Geographical Position.--Successive Conquests.--Its Independent

Art.--Confused Opinions regarding it.--Its Porcelain.--Decoration.

[Illustration: Fig. 107.--Old Corean Earthen-ware Five-handled Jar.

Yellow on Green. (A. A. Vautine & Co.)]

To the north-east of China, across the Yellow Sea, and adjoining the

Chinese province of Shengking, lies the peninsula of Corea. Situated

between China and Japan, it was alternately under the domination of its

more powerful neighbors, and has given, in its ceramic productions,

abundant evidences of their sway. At first its works were attributed to

Japan, from which country they were carried to Europe. Further inquiry

led to the discovery that Corea had an independent artistic existence,

and that, while borrowing from either side of it, it imparted to both

China and Japan the secrets it had mastered in the art of painting

porcelain. The confusion regarding Corean ceramics is entirely due to

the commercial intercourse between it and its neighbors, whose styles it

adopted and occasionally mingled. Its wares were also sent into their

markets. It long ago ceased to produce any kind of porcelain.

Describing some specimens of Corean porcelain, Julliot, a dealer of the

last century, speaks of “the fine grain of its beautiful white paste,

the attractive lightness and softness of its dead red, the velvet of its

bright-green and dark sky-blue colors.” The decoration consists of

conventional forms, either floral or animal. The peacock, pheasant, and

dragon are met with. The colors are limited to red, black, gold, and

pale shades of green and yellow, and the glaze is less vitreous than

either the Japanese or Chinese. The Coreans adapted the decoration to

the destination of the work. The pieces with Japanese ornamentation were

intended for the markets of Japan, those with Chinese for China. On some

of the pieces the styles are mixed, Chinese figures being accompanied by

Japanese marks, or _vice versa_. Many of the pieces display very fine

workmanship and simplicity of design. Finding their way to Europe in the

cargoes of Dutch traders, they were highly valued by collectors, and for

a long time served as models to both French and German artists. Their

simple style and the chaste employment of a few colors rendered them

peculiarly liable to kindle the emulation of unpracticed European

decorators.

[Illustration: Fig. 108.--Corean Porcelain. (W. L. Andrews Coll.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 109.--Corean Porcelain; Persian Decoration.]

[Illustration: Yebis. Shiou-ro. Bis-jamon.

Benten. Tossi-toku. Daikoku. Hotei.

Fig. 110.--Picnic of the Household Gods of Japan.]

CHAPTER VII.

JAPAN.

How to Study Japanese Art: Its Origin.--Its Revived

Independence.--Nomino-Soukoune.--Shirozayemon.--Raku.--When

Porcelain was First Made.--Shonsui.--Form of Government.--The

Gods.--Symbols.--“Land of Great Peace.”--Foreign

Relations.--General Features of Art.--Chinese and Japanese

Porcelains.

On coming to the land of Nippon, “source of the sun,” known to the

outside world as Japan, we must still keep in mind the warning with

which we entered China. Japanese art is of Chinese origin, but was

modified as it developed. It adapted itself to Japanese tastes, and to

the ideas of a people quick to imitate, but possessing a marked national

individuality upon which to modify their imitations. When Chinese art

began to fall under foreign influence and to renounce its own national

characteristics, the more conservative Japanese offered a greater

resistance to the overwhelming influx of ideas from abroad. That which

had been the strength of Chinese artists now became their weakness.

Foreign models gave them new subjects upon which to exercise their

marvellous mechanical skill and imitative dexterity, and their artistic

nationality was in a measure lost. The Japanese appeared doomed to a

similar fate. Western aggressiveness made its impression, and Europe

seemed to have led the extreme East captive. The death of an art

distinctively Japanese was predicted by some, and by others it was said

to have already taken place. These are the views of extremists. It is

just possible that the Japanese derived a hint of what their own

imitations were likely to be considered by the more fastidious

Europeans, from their own opinion of European imitations of the

decorations of China and Japan. For it must not be imagined that the

imitation was all perpetrated on one side. It is no unusual thing for

the frequenter of dealers’ emporiums to find a European vase surmounted

by the Dog of Fo, or decorated by birds nowhere visible except to the

imagination of a Celestial artist. Art cannot exist in slavery. The

European borrowed, and made himself ridiculous; the Japanese imitated,

and with servility found degradation. From his temporary aberration it

is to be hoped he will thoroughly rouse himself. The contact with Europe

which led him to follow after strange gods was not without its lessons.

In later times he has shown some capacity for studying and profiting by

them. It is the Japanese side of Japanese art that foreigners admire,

and not the produce of a foolish combination of the Oriental with the

European. It is idle, in view of what may be a lasting return to native

models, to bemoan their desertion. The Japanese have already shown a

capacity for appreciating their neighbors’ faults and their own merits

at a proper value. Comparison is leading them to adopt a standard of

criticism; and if they will only persist in cherishing their own good

traditions, and in giving play to their distinctively national genius,

it will certainly be better for their art, and probably for their

commerce also. At the Vienna Exhibition they made the discovery that the

imitation of the European had better be abandoned. At Philadelphia they

gave proofs of an almost complete emancipation from foreign domination

in ceramic art. There is, moreover, abundant reason for the

entertainment of such a hope in the evident enlightenment pervading the

councils of the Mikado. The following is the language of a Japanese

writer, and it shows that the press reflects an intelligence which even

that of America or Great Britain cannot afford to contemn: “The

Americans and Europeans are enlightened people, and do not without cause

call us semi-civilized. But what is the meaning of civilization? It

surely is not limited to the possession of fine houses, fine dresses,

and to sumptuous living. It is not confined to a flourishing state of

its manufactures or machinery. It means an advance in knowledge and

politics, a reverence for religion, the proper estimation of good

character, and the observance of good customs.” The press which can

convey such truths as these is not likely to neglect the national

evidences of civilization furnished by the arts and manufactures. If it

will not allow its readers to look for the signs of civilization upon

the outside of foreign institutions, it is as little likely to overlook

the best elements at home, whether in religious reverence, good customs,

or in art.

To begin with the rise of the art in Japan, although legend would carry

us back to the era of Oanamuchi-no-mikoto, and the inventor Oosei-tsumi,

long before history begins, we may content ourselves with a less hoary

antiquity. It is said that in the sixth century before Christ certain

kinds of pottery were ordered by the Emperor Jinmu for religious

purposes. The next five hundred years give no additional knowledge, but

in B.C. 29 we learn that in the province of Id-soumi there lived a

certain worker in stone and pottery called Nomino-Soukoune. The custom

at that time was for slaves to be buried with their dead masters,

presumably that the latter might have some one to wait upon them in the

next world. When Nomino-Soukoune heard of the death of the Empress, he

quickly made some images of stone or earthen-ware, and, taking them to

the Emperor, induced him to bury them with the Empress as substitutes

for her favorite attendants. The cruel rite was thereafter abolished,

and the potter and sculptor, as a reward and distinction, was allowed to

take for his surname Haji, the artist in clay. Two years later, B.C. 27,

a Corean prince, a son of the King of Sin-sa, landed in “The Land of

Great Peace,” and settled in the province of Omi, where his followers

founded a potters’ guild. It is said that both Haji and the visitors

from Corea made porcelain. But this is extremely improbable, as it was

only about the same period that porcelain was invented in China, and all

the evidence goes to show that the knowledge of making a translucent

ware passed from China to Japan. It is, therefore, not at all likely

that a secret jealously guarded by the Chinese should at once have

passed to a neighboring country.

After the above date the accounts open to us become slightly

contradictory. A maker of tiles is said to have come from Corea, about

the year 590, to Japan, to teach his business; that about sixty years

later the experiment of tiling a temple roof was first tried, and that

the pagoda of a temple in Yamato was built of brick. These assertions

point to a relatively backward state of ceramic art in Japan as compared

with China; and if tiles and bricks were still novelties in the former

country, we are quite prepared to hear that it was only in the year 724

that the monk or priest Giyoki introduced the potters’ wheel. This same

individual apparently figures in another account, under the name Gyoguy,

as a Corean priest of Buddha, who spread the knowledge of making

“porcelain.” In the ninth century the number of factories had greatly

increased; but native skill does not appear to have developed to any

great extent, although an imperial official superintended the trade.

Toward the earlier part of the thirteenth century, Kato Shirozayemon,

not being content with the rude works he was turning out, called _Koutsi

fakata_, pieces with worn orifice, undertook the journey to China, in

the company of a priest named Fogen, to acquire, if possible, additional

skill. In this he was successful, and on his return settled at Seto, in

the province of Owari, now celebrated for its porcelain. Several authors

speak of the earlier wares of Japan as porcelain; and Jacquemart says

that Kato Shirozayemon returned with _all_ the secrets of the art. The

question occurs, Is it likely, that, if Japan was at the beginning of

our era acquainted to any extent with making porcelain, it would, after

experimenting for twelve centuries, be so dependent upon Chinese

teaching as to make Kato Shiro’s journey necessary? The probability is

the other way. More than that, even the last named traveller cannot,

without question, be conceded to have mastered the secret of making

porcelain. The Japanese say that he only made stone-ware. Evidence to

the same effect is deducible from a Japanese custom. Tea was not

introduced from China until the beginning of the thirteenth century,

about the time of Kato Shiro’s journey. In or about 1450, the Shiogun,

or Tycoon, instituted the “Tea-parties” called _Cha-no-yu_. Toward the

end of the sixteenth century, under Hide-yoshi, the ceremonial was

improved. The guests drank out of a bowl of common pottery. These bowls

were sometimes imported from Siam and other countries, and vessels of

“raku” were made for the same purpose. This “raku” was a ware introduced

by a Corean called Ameya, about the beginning of the sixteenth century.

It is said that his descendants of the eleventh generation still pursue

the trade in Kioto. Raku is nothing more than a lead-glazed earthen-ware

(Fig. 111); and if porcelain was known even at that late date, it is

hard to understand why the Tycoon should have honored Ameya with a gold

seal for introducing the comparatively coarse raku. It is equally hard

to understand why raku should have been preferred to porcelain for this

special ceremonial. The fact that raku bowls are still used at the

_Cha-no-yu_ is probably to be credited to the regard for a custom

instituted by a Tycoon.

[Illustration: Fig. 111.--Raku Bowl; Green and Gold.

(A. A. Vantine & Co.)]

It may, further, be pointed out that the existing samples of the ware

made by Giyoki, or Gyoguy, in the seventh or eighth century, and now in

the temple of Todaiji, Yamato, are said to be earthen-ware. Upon the

whole, it is most probable that the secrets acquired by Kato

Shirozayemon did not carry him farther than the making of stone-ware,

and that real porcelain was not made in Japan until between the years

1530 and 1540, or about fifty years prior to the date of the discovery

of artificial porcelain in Europe. About that time Goro-dayu Shonsui, a

native of Ise, went to China, and, on returning from a lengthened

investigation, settled in Hizen, and instituted the manufacture of

porcelain. So thoroughly had he mastered the processes of China, that

he succeeded in producing all the wares which to-day give Hizen its

pre-eminence, viz.: Sometsuki, porcelain decorated with blue paintings

under the glaze; crackle; céladon ware; red Akai ware; and “Nishikide”

porcelain, decorated with vitrifiable colors upon the glaze. Japan

incurred, however, still further debts to Corea. In 1592 a number of

Corean porcelain makers were taken to Japan, and their descendants still

live in Arita. About the same time the Prince of Satsuma invaded Corea,

and took several families engaged in the porcelain industry back with

him. To these settlers Japan is indebted for its well-known Satsuma

ware. Through all these different channels Japan derived its knowledge

of ceramic processes from China and Corea, and was enabled not only to

equal, but in many respects to surpass, both its teachers.

[Illustration: Fig. 112.--Kiri-mon.]

[Illustration: Fig. 113.--Guik-mon.]

It is unnecessary for our purpose to enter fully into an examination of

the government of Japan. The central power is the Mikado, descendant of

the gods, political and ecclesiastical head of the government. The

Tycoon was the executive head, but was expelled a few years ago. What is

here to be chiefly observed is, that in the Mikado centres the loyalty

of his people, a loyalty based upon tradition and sanctified by

religion. The Mikado’s arms are twofold, the (Fig. 112)

Kiri-mon--official, and the (Fig. 113) Guik-mon--personal, the former

being the flower and leaves of the _Paullownia imperialis_, the latter

that of the chrysanthemum. The Tycoon’s arms (Fig. 114) consisted of

three mallow leaves.

[Illustration: Fig. 114.--Arms of the Tycoon.]

The religion of Japan, apart from its symbolism, has little appreciable

influence upon its pottery, possibly on account of the comparatively

late and rapid growth of the ceramic art. The original religion was

Kamism or Shintoism, the worship of ancestors. This is the religion

upheld by the Mikados. Upon it Buddhism was in-grafted, and supported by

the Tycoons. The two harmonized well, thanks to Japanese toleration, but

their combination presents many a curious puzzle. The Japanese cosmogony

is simple. Heaven and earth were evolved out of chaos, and then the

presence of controlling power being necessary, the gods came. At first

there were only three, but afterward seven generations of gods and

goddesses succeeded each other, and from the last pair of these came

Sin-mon, the founder of Japan. The seven household gods concern us more

in looking at Japanese ceramics. These represent the physical wants of

the people, and correspond with the Chinese god of longevity and his

compeers. The first, Ben-zai-ten-njo, or Benten, is the Madonna of

Japan, the ideal matron; Quamon, queen of heaven, appears to be the

ideal of happiness; Yebis is a jovial marine god, the food provider, and

is generally represented with long legs, claws, drapery of marine

origin, and riding on a dolphin. Hotei, a portly, complacent deity, is

the very picture and god of contentment. A totally different being,

short, thick, and almost lost in his clothes and under the burden of his

wealth, is Daikoku, the god of riches. Shion-ro, with long beard, placid

face, and towering cranium, is the god of longevity. He leans upon a

staff, and is attended by either a tortoise or a stork. He is evidently

a relative of the Chinese Cheou-lao. Tossi-toku, with staff and fawn, is

the dispenser of knowledge. The last and least esteemed of the seven is

the strong, armor-clad Bis-ja-mon, god of glory. Who shall say that

there is not philosophy in a religion which thus holds up military glory

almost to contempt, and discriminates between riches and contentment?

Besides the gods here mentioned there is a host of demons which need not

be enumerated, and which, with the household deities, are met with under

the most fantastic forms and in the most ridiculous situations, for,

according to Japanese ideas, ridicule did not necessarily involve

impiety.

[Illustration: Fig. 115.--Japanese Porcelain Bowl. Diameter, 3 ft. 7 in.

(Corcoran Art Gallery.)]

The symbols of Japan are nearly all taken from China. The imperial

dragon, though having only three claws, is closely allied to the four

and five clawed dragons of China. The Ky-lin and Dog of Fo both

reappear, and the Fong-hoang, or Foo, again presents itself with added

elegance of form and supreme beauty of plumage. Another bird, resembling

an eagle, deserves its title of imperial from its majesty of gait and

expression, and seems in perfect keeping with its accompanying noble

emblems. The sacred tortoise has a long feathery and fan-like tail, and

appears in numberless compositions. The crane, turtle, pine, and bamboo

are the emblems of longevity.

In view of all that Japan owes to China and Corea--a great part of its

religion, its knowledge of art processes, and its symbols, one would

expect to find little that is original in its ceramics. There is, on the

other hand, often visible a decided individuality and independence.

Japan absorbed and transmuted, while apparently engrossed in copying.

The process of assimilation, of bringing the foreign suggestion into

subjection to native principles, took time; but even while Japan was in

its pupilage, its national character was asserting itself. Its history

and position show alike the favorable conditions under which its art

grew up. After the aboriginal Ainos had been once subdued by their

Asiatic conquerors, history substantiates the claim of Japan to the

title of “The Land of Great Peace.” It is true that revolution has of

late years changed the form of government by the removal of the Tycoon;

but from the beginning of the historical period, B.C. 660, to the civil

wars which preceded the establishment of the Tycoons nearly three

hundred years ago, there was no war of any consequence. After that

event, and down to the return of the executive authority into the hands

of the Mikado, there was another long peace. The Japanese, be it again

observed, cared little for their god of glory, Bis-ja-mon. Isolation and

freedom from the disturbing consequences of war gave the Japanese an

opportunity of cultivating the arts of peace with a constantly

increasing show of independence, even when the art was based upon a

foreign foundation.

In viewing their earliest ceramic productions, there is some difficulty

in distinguishing them from those of China and Corea, and this

difficulty is increased when we find upon their vases scenes from the

court life of China, and a great deal of borrowed ornamentation. In

both countries it is said that the ceramic art rose to its highest point

in the sixteenth century, and then, we are told, declined. This date

may, in the case of Japan, be safely advanced to the seventeenth or

eighteenth century. Japan was even then not independent of its teachers,

and suffered from the influences adverse to art which affected them. The

Portuguese were the first nation to trade with Japan, and were expelled

in 1637. The tolerant Japanese, who were willing to make room for any

religion containing the seeds of good, could brook neither intolerance

nor interference with their civil government. Portuguese intrigue

accordingly led to expulsion and the massacre of forty thousand converts

to Christianity.

Specimens of “Christian” porcelain, made apparently by the Chinese for

the persecuted of Japan, are still in existence, and may be seen in many

American collections. After the Portuguese came the Dutch. Had the

latter restricted themselves to trading in porcelain, it would have been

better for Japanese art. Instead of doing so, they tried to imitate the

native wares, and, which was far worse, commissioned the native artists

to adopt European styles and to attempt to gratify the whims of European

taste and fashion. We cannot wonder that art declined, but are rather

led to be surprised that the decline was not more speedy and permanent.

The points of difference between the porcelain of China and Japan may be

briefly stated after the general features of Japanese art have been

examined. It is to the American a peculiar art. It does not touch our

admiration like the Greek for the truthful working out of its ideal

forms, nor for the ideals themselves. It does not imbue us with a sense

of the mysterious like that of Egypt. We can all admire its wonderful

coloring and its perfection of finish; but besides these there is a

fascination in the exuberant fancy, richness of invention, and happy

blending of tints. The Japanese are true to nature, far more so than the

Chinese; but they do not copy nature in every detail. In their best work

we will often find that, with a peculiar delicacy, the artist merely

indicates what an American or European artist would feel it incumbent

upon him to represent. The former holds our attention by leaving it to

the imagination to make his work complete. This will suggest what is

actually the case--that, as a rule, form is secondary to color.

Japanese porcelain and pottery differ from those of China in the

following general respects: perspective is permissible in painting; as a

rule, there is greater simplicity of design, and the ornamentation is

more chaste and less profuse; and, as already noticed, nature is more

closely followed. To explain the greater purity and refinement of

Japanese art, there are three points to be noticed. While the Chinese

degraded art by degrading the artists, the best and noblest Japanese

were themselves artists. Princes are said to have engaged in

lacquer-work. The Chinese lowered ceramic art into a merely mechanical

pursuit, by dividing the different parts of the ornamentation among

several workmen. Artistic conception was almost lost sight of where

mechanical finish was thus painfully sought. The Japanese give us the

creations of individual men, who bring their own marvellous industrial

skill to the expression of their own ideas. The third advantage which

they possessed was that already incidentally referred to, viz., the

prevalence of hereditary occupations. It has been seen that descendants,

of the eleventh generation, of Coreans who settled in Japan as workers

in stone-ware are now engaged in the same pursuit. The transmission of

technical knowledge was thus amply provided for.

Possessing such advantages and tendencies, the Japanese surpassed the

Chinese in several respects. That they do so to-day, the Centennial

Exhibition, even making a due allowance for the superior organization of

the Japanese section as a government representation, placed beyond all

question or cavil. This truth is one to which ceramists, undeceived by

the exaltation of China and the treatment of Japan as a mere offshoot,

should not be strangers. In lacquer-work the Japanese have always been

superior, and at the Exhibition one of the best specimens in the Chinese

section was from Japan. The lacquer was so laid on that the

ornamentation on the underlying porcelain disclosed itself, and animal

forms in red and gold decorated the lacquer. Similar acknowledgments of

the excellence of Japanese porcelain have been otherwise made. The

Chinese sometimes copy Japanese decoration. Further evidence is not

wanting, and has been referred to under China, of the rarity and high

value of Japanese porcelain in China.

In any event, the time for servile imitation has passed with all that

was worth imitating. Instead of devoting themselves, as the Chinese

have done for two hundred years, to vain attempts at rivalling the

attainments of their ancestors, the Japanese have shown an inclination

to return to their old and renounced standards as bases from which to

reach a new originality. They are, in one word, progressive in the best

sense. Instead of nineteenth century representations of the works of the

seventeenth, it may reasonably be hoped that the present day will

disclose an art at once national and its own.

POTTERY.

Geographical Distribution.--Classification.--Satsuma.--Difficult

Ware.--Saki Cups.--Imitations of

Satsuma.--Kioto.--Awata.--Awadji.--Banko.--Kiusiu.--Karatsu.--Suma.

[Illustration: Fig. 116.--Satsuma Vase. Dragon in Red and Gold. Height,

16½ in. (Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]

The ceramic industry of Japan is chiefly, if not entirely, confined to

the southern half of the empire. A line drawn from Tokio (Yeddo) to Kaga

is its northern limit, and between that line and Satsuma, one of the two

most southerly provinces of the island of Kiusiu, the manufacture is

pretty evenly distributed. The great centres are Kiusiu, in which are

Hizen and Satsuma; Kioto, round which are clustered the prominent names

of Awadji, Hiogo, Idsumi, and Nara; Owari and Mino; Kaga, including

Kutani, Yamashiro, and in the adjoining province of Echizen, the village

of Ota; and, lastly, Tokio, including Yokohama. From these five centres

come nearly all the wares which have of late years become so familiar in

the American markets. These wares are now known exclusively by the name

of the place of manufacture or the inventor. Whatever rule may have been

followed in the past, it is now therefore evident, that hereafter

Japanese pottery and porcelain must be treated after a method precisely

similar to that followed in discussing the wares of France or of

England, where, instead of families, we have Sèvres, Limoges, Palissy,

Worcester, Derby, and Wedgwood.

[Illustration: Fig. 117.--Satsuma Vase. (A. Belmont Coll.)]

The Japanese have an endless variety of earthen-ware made for household

use. Of this class some pieces are left unglazed, and others have a very

fusible plumbeous glaze, under which painted decorations are sometimes

to be seen. Of their semi-porcellaneous, highly refractory potteries,

the two best known in America are the Satsuma and Awata. The former

(Fig. 116) is so called from the province of that name, in the south of

the island of Kiusiu, where it has been made at or near Kagoshima for

nearly three hundred years. The latter is made in one of the suburbs of

Kioto, in Central Japan. The clay is kaolinic, and the glaze felspathic,

but not of the purity of porcelain; and, as a consequence, they do not

fuse to the same extent. The body and glaze not being perfectly

homogeneous, the latter presents a fine net-work of cracks. The

beautiful and soft buff color of the Satsuma ware is its first

characteristic. The ornamentation generally consists of birds and

flowers delicately outlined and colored. The chrysanthemum, the pæonia,

pheasants, and peacocks are especially abundant. This ware is

extensively used in the making of tea-sets, charming alike in form and

color. So light are the pieces that it is difficult to persuade one’s

self that they are not porcelain. The shapes are quaint, and suggestive

of flower-cups and leaves. One style of decoration may be taken as

typical. The delicious creamy buff paste, covered with crackle glaze, is

sprinkled with gold, after a manner in which the Japanese have no

equals. On this rich but delicate ground are many-colored flowers,

birds, or insects, which harmonize admirably with the shape of the cups.

In America so much beauty could be possessed only by the rich. In Japan

almost any one may be its owner. A feature distinctive of Japanese art

is, that it attempts to reach every grade, high as well as low; and that

art, being valued for its own sake, and not purely for its commercial

value, is brought to the embellishment of the lowly object as well as of

the intrinsically rich.

[Illustration: Fig. 118.--Satsuma Vase. Very Fine Crackle. Decoration:

leaves brown, veined with gold. Height, 15 in. (R. H. Pruyn Coll.)]

Another product of Satsuma is called “difficult ware,” from the extreme

nicety of the operation performed in making it. In this the body is

coarser than in that last mentioned. The ground is similarly prepared,

and upon it are laid in relief flowers and birds of fine porcellaneous

paste. The technical difficulties attending the production of such ware

are obvious. By what ingenuity does the Japanese artist overcome the

difference between decorating material and body? A precisely similar

style of decoration is employed on many household vessels of

earthen-ware or majolica. In these very fine effects are secured by the

choice of a sombre ground, from which the porcelain flowers and animals

stand out in clear and bold relief. The best Satsuma ware and crackle

are perfect marvels of color. The decoration bears a general resemblance

to that already described, but is finer. The cracks are scarcely

visible, the gold is more cloud-like and fleeting, and the floral

ornamentation is more tropically luxuriant. In the higher qualities of

crackle, the paste and glaze differ widely in composition, in order that

deeper and more distinct cracks may be produced; and tangled in the web

are wreaths of green, purple, crimson, and blue flowers mingled with

gold. A totally different style of decoration is seen on many

cylindrical vases, and shows that the Japanese artists have a clear

perception of the subtle harmony existing between form and ornament. In

these, to be in sympathy with the simple shape, the designs are bolder,

and the colors are laid on with a freer hand.

[Illustration: Fig. 119.--Satsuma Vase. Height, 7½ in. (J. W. Paige

Coll., Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]

The Satsuma paste varies in tint from buff to a cold and dark shade of

brown; but the decoration of the latter is, as a rule, decidedly

inferior. The shapes are manifold, and are generally characterized by

simplicity and elegance. When the potter turns to intricate designs, his

skill in manipulating the clay seems almost boundless. This feature is

more remarkable in the older pieces than in those of more recent date,

and is well illustrated in the vase on page 167 (Fig. 117), where a

series of thin loose rings gives the piece an appearance altogether

unique. The vase from Mr. Robert H. Pruyn’s collection (Fig. 118) is

presumably from the Prince’s workshop, and is an excellent example of

the refinement of Japanese taste. Full effect is given to the admirable

workmanship displayed in the basket-work moulding, which is relieved,

but not concealed, by the ivy decoration. A more prevalent style is

exemplified by the vase (Fig. 119) in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

The flowers appear to grow from the base to the neck, where a single

flower and a few green leaves are left to finish the bouquet. The piece

is a rare specimen both in regard to fineness of paste and the delicate

treatment of the flower decoration. It belongs to the large class which

is illustrative of the Japanese preference of flowers before figures,

and of the careful fidelity with which the former are treated. They lead

one to think that in the Japanese workshop the “Feast of Flowers” knew

no end.

A singular example of Satsuma ware--so singular both in body and

ornamentation as almost inevitably to suggest a doubt of its coming from

the same workshop--is the Sutton vase (Fig. 120). The decoration is in

high relief, and stands out strongly against the brown ground. There are

many fine examples of designs executed in relief. These assume the forms

of turtles, fishes, frogs, lizards, and crabs, carefully modelled and

truthfully colored. On pieces of a religious character the gods of the

Japanese pantheon are moulded in bold relief. The same idea is

occasionally carried out to a fuller extent by moulding the piece itself

after a natural form. Thus we find trays shaped like leaves, cups like

lotus leaves, teapots like melons, and one remarkable specimen in the

form of an elephant, with a saddle brilliantly painted on grounds of red

and gold.

[Illustration: Fig. 120.--Satsuma Faience. Buff and Gold; Decoration in

Relief. (J. F. Sutton Coll.)]

The religious vessels are very often elaborately decorated. Incense jars

have figures of the gods; the turtle, symbolical of longevity; and

medallions of flowers surrounded by borders of green, crimson, and gold;

or we may find the gods Shiou-ro and Tossi-toku, of longevity and

wisdom, in a landscape; or combats between gods and demons; or a mixed

assemblage of priests and gods. When the figures of the gods are painted

on the inside, the value of the piece may be estimated by the delicacy

of the figure-painting. Hotei, the god of contentment, and Yebis, are

thus figured on the inside of bowls; and sometimes there are priests and

women; or gods and dragons may be seen on the inside and priests on the

outside. Satsuma ware is also found in round, oval, or leaf-like

plaques, on which are religious and other subjects.

More frequently in Kaga or Kutani porcelain, but sometimes also in

Satsuma ware, will be found what are called “Saki” cups. Saki, or Sake,

is the chief alcoholic drink of Japan, and is made from rice. It is

drunk hot at meals from the cups known by its name. The size of these

pieces precludes excessive decoration, and the artist concentrates his

efforts upon fineness of execution and finish.

Satsuma ware is imitated at Kioto, Yokohama, and elsewhere; and there is

little doubt that pieces from these and other centres make their

appearance in America under the adopted and better known name. There are

no safeguards against deception but the character of the dealer and the

good taste and judgment of the collector.

[Illustration: Fig. 121.--Kioto Faience Censer. (A. A. Vantine & Co.)]

The Kioto pottery is scarcely inferior to the Satsuma. In the specimen

given below (Fig. 122) the creamy ground is covered with a kaleidoscopic

mingling of colors--yellow and purple chrysanthemums and cloudy masses

of gold--and in the foreground is a cock with brilliant plumage. Other

specimens are seen in Figs. 121 and 123.

Awata ware is made at Kioto, and is of more recent origin than the

Satsuma, from which it differs chiefly in the more pronounced tint of

its prevailing yellow color. From the latter characteristic it has been

called “egg pottery.” In the older pieces the style of decoration is

entirely different from the Satsuma. The colors used were few in number

and neutral in tone. More recently the artists of Kioto have resorted to

imitations of Satsuma and porcelain decorations, and of European styles.

[Illustration: Fig. 122.--Kioto Vase. Very Brilliant Colors. Height, 18

in. (Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]

Awadji, an island lying between Shikoku and Hiogo on the main-land,

produces a ware closely allied to the Satsuma. The glaze is similar, and

the kaolinic paste is made from ground granite found on the island. The

body-tint is an extremely soft yellow, the cracks are usually fine, and

the painting, outlined in black, is decided in character. From the same

place comes a strong stone-ware, either with a glaze containing oxide of

copper or covered with a slip. The cracks are few in number, and the

prevailing colors are green and russet.

The above names, it will be observed, are taken from the places of

manufacture. The Banko-yaki is so called from the inventor, and is made

in the province of Ise. The paste is a strong, tough brown clay, on the

unglazed surface of which enamel painting is laid. Very curious

tea-sets, wonderfully light and thin, considering the quality of the

paste, are made of this material. They are finished by hand, and the

marks of the potter’s fingers are distinctly visible on the clay. These

sets are favorites with the tea-drinkers of Japan. The white clay of Ise

is also used for pieces which come in biscuit. When mingled with brown

clay, the result is a peculiar mottled ware which has been extensively

made within the past few years. The Banko tea-sets are sometimes moulded

into imitations of the lotus leaf.

[Illustration: Fig. 123.--Kioto Faience. Brown, Red, and Green on Buff.

(J. F. Sutton Coll.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 124.--Kiusiu Earthen-ware. Blue on Purple. Height,

15 in. (A. A. Vantine & Co.)]

The ware called “Kiusiu” takes its name from the island already

mentioned, but the exact place of its manufacture is not more

specifically stated. The illustration (Fig. 124) exemplifies a large

division of this pottery, which has designs more or less intricate

graved in the paste, and painted purple or plum and turquoise blue. Some

of the finer pieces have floral and emblematic incisions, and upon the

mingled blue and plum are chrysanthemums and vines in lacquer.

Karatsu is a town in the province of Hizen, and gives its name to a buff

ware, somewhat resembling in appearance the darker qualities of Satsuma.

It is finely crackled, and the designs are exceedingly varied. The

tenacity of the fine paste is exemplified in the reticulated vase (Fig.

125), in which frequent changes in the pattern lighten, by variety, the

sombre character of the piece. It will be observed that the inner

surface is also decorated, and we are thus furnished with another of

the frequently recurring evidences of inexhaustible Oriental patience.

All the examples of this ware that we have seen are covered with very

minute cracks like those overspreading the Satsuma. The paintings on

tea-jars and incense-pots consist usually of flowers, insects, vines, or

bamboos sometimes arranged in panels or medallions.

[Illustration: Fig. 125.--Karatsu Vase. Reticulated Buff Crackle. (J. F.

Sutton Coll.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 126.--Suma Earthen-ware. Blue Slate Color; Black,

Red, and Reddish-brown Decoration. (A. A. Vantine & Co.)]

It is unnecessary to do more than enumerate the wares of Suma, or Soma,

Nara, Ota, Idsumi, and Kaga, or Kutani, some of which approach

translucent porcelain so nearly as to be entitled to be classed with it.

The specimen (Fig. 126) is chosen for illustration for a very simple

reason. The body is a common coarse earthen-ware, manipulated with very

moderate skill, and the color is in no respect remarkable. But in the

disposal of the grape-vine decoration, and the drawing and attitude of

the bird, there is nothing more simple and tasteful to be seen on the

finest Hizen porcelain. In spite of the humble material, the artist

compels our admiration. It is the same wherever we turn. Art is for all,

the lowly as well as the rich, and embellishes every object, the humble

as well as the most costly.

There are simple vessels, teapots, and cups of clay, thin as Banko ware,

and left unglazed, which for very oddity and perfection of workmanship

are worthy of a place in any collection. Mr. Sutton has two pieces of

this character. One is a teapot shaped like a partially folded leaf,

having its sides drawn together to form the spout. The lid is like an

elongated shell, and is thin and light as a leaf. The other is also a

teapot, and resembles a transverse section of the trunk of a tree. In

such cases the artist is lost sight of in the workman. The pieces have

neither grace of form nor beauty of color, but they attract us by the

evidences they present of human skill contending with difficulty for the

mere satisfaction of overcoming it. They are triumphs of dexterity and

curiosities of design, and, though rare, are thoroughly representative

of a large section of Japanese ceramic art. In its simplest as well as

its most beautiful forms, nature is the promptress of the Japanese

artist (Fig. 127). We see it in such works as those last described

equally with the gorgeous flowers and drooping vine, and in it have the

key to the infinite variety of the art of Japan.

[Illustration: Fig. 127.--Satsuma Vase. Decoration, Green and Red.

Height, 13 in. (Robert H. Pruyn Coll.)]

PORCELAIN.

Leading Differences between Japanese and Chinese.--Sometsuki

Blue.--Ware for Export.--Gosai, or Nishikide.--Arita, or

Hizen.--Families.--Decoration.--Modern

Hizen.--Seidji.--Kioto.--Eraku.--Kaga.--Portraiture.--Owari.

--Lacquer.--Cloisonné.--Rose Family.--Early Styles: Indian:

Dutch Designs.--General Characteristics of Japanese Art.

In porcelain, even to a more marked degree than in pottery, the

peculiarities of Japanese art are noticeable. It brings before us, in

their greatest perfection, the careful attention to finish, the

harmonizing of the most minute detail with the general design, the

boundless variety of form, and the general tendency to subordinate the

latter to ornamentation and color. The porcelain is less capable of

resisting heat than that of the Chinese.

[Illustration: Fig. 128.--Japanese Porcelain Plaque. (W. L. Andrews

Coll.)]

The leading differences between the porcelains of the two countries are

that the Japanese is of a purer white and finer quality, that its glaze

has a bluish tint, that the Japanese forms are usually better, and that

the extravagancies of Chinese decoration are toned down. The chief kinds

of porcelain are the Hizen (also called Imari and Arita), the Owari,

Kioto, Mino, and Kaga. That made at all these places, except Kaga,

belongs chiefly to the kind called Blue Sometsuki, in which the body is

decorated before glazing with painting in blue derived from cobalt. This

is the leading ware for home consumption. Two of the largest and finest

specimens that ever reached America were the immense vases and basins

sent to the Centennial Exhibition. Reference has been made, under China,

to the difference between the blue-and-white of Nankin and that of

Japan, viz., that the white of the latter is purer and the blue less

transparent. This may be accounted for in part by the inferiority of the

cobaltiferous ore of Japan, a circumstance which has led to the

importation of Chinese material, and in part by the preparation of the

paste. After being thrown or moulded, dried and turned, the piece is

covered with pure white clay, and then fired. The blue is afterward laid

upon the clay coating, and the piece is then glazed and fired a second

time. By the use of the _engobe_, the brilliancy of the blue is thought

to be enhanced, and the purity of the white must certainly be

heightened. The glaze is always felspathic, and is said to be less

vitreous than that of China. Like the Chinese, who made a specific ware

for the “Sea-devils”--a euphonious title under which all Europeans were

classed--the Japanese export from Hizen the same kind of porcelain as

that above described, but decorated with bright enamel colors on the

glaze, and specially designed for the foreign trade. The preparation and

application of the enamels have been described elsewhere. Paintings in

relief are produced by first laying on the parts to be colored a white

enamel of powdered glass and stone, and white-lead. This ware, once

called “Gosai,” and now “Nishikide,” is made at Arita, and was taken to

Nagasaki, and thence to the island of Desima, at the time when the old

Dutch traders had their settlement there. It is, therefore, this

porcelain that the Dutch first carried to Europe. That we may have a

clear view of the early condition of the industry, we must bear in mind

that it was in Hizen Shonsui put in practice the knowledge he had

acquired in China. It may, therefore, be expected that the older

specimens will show signs of Chinese teaching. That such is the case may

be inferred from the grouping usually resorted to in dividing Japanese

porcelain into Chrysanthemo-Pæonian and Rose families.

The place of manufacture of many of the pieces belonging to the first of

these families is authenticated by the peculiar Japanese symbols, such

as the Imperial bird, the _guikmon_, the Imperial three-clawed dragon,

the crane, bamboo, and other emblems of longevity; and also occasionally

by the pieces being decorated with legendary subjects. One of the latter

is decorated in part with a water-fall, and a carp leaping upward. The

latter is a symbol borrowed from China. Mr. Griffis says of it: “The koi

(carp) leaping the water-fall is a symbol of aspiration and ambition,

and an augury of renown. The origin of the symbol is Chinese. In an old

book it is said that the sturgeon of the Yellow River make an ascent of

the stream in the third moon of each year, when those which succeed in

passing above the rapids of the Lung Men become transformed into

(white) dragons.” The same writer relates that when Kiyomori was on his

way to view Kumano water-fall, a carp leaped out of the river upon the

deck of his state barge, and gave rise to much rejoicing as an

auspicious omen.

[Illustration: Fig. 129.--Old Imari Porcelain. (A. A. Vantine & Co.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 130.--Japanese Dish. Ground, Red and Blue; Figures,

Green and Gold. Diameter, 11 in. (Robert H. Pruyn Coll.)]

The paste and glaze of the older examples of Hizen are inferior to the

Chinese, the former being thick and comparatively coarse, as we find it

in the accompanying specimen (Fig. 129). Such are the early vases of the

Chrysanthemo-Pæonian family. They represent, apparently, the struggles

of workmen attempting to apply recently acquired knowledge to native

material: a further proof that when the Dutch opened their trade with

Japan the porcelain industry was still in its infancy. That the

manufacture improved with great rapidity is evident from such examples

as the dish (Fig. 130), an admirable specimen of early Gosai, or

Nishikide. Only five colors were employed in its decoration: black for

the outlines; red, green, gold, and blue, as we find them on Mr. Pruyn’s

dish, where the design in green and gold is laid upon a ground of red

and blue.

In modern times the porcelain of Hizen includes some of the best coming

from Japan. To it we owe those exquisite specimens of a double art,

trays and vessels of porcelain, decorated with flowers and birds in

raised enamels, encased in a cover of bamboo wicker-work.

The rich beauty of the coloring of Hizen porcelain is indescribable. One

vase has birds and flowers freely disposed over its surface; another has

reserved panels with birds and chrysanthemums in relief, and a third has

birds and flowers on a ground of gold, and set in an open border. The

desire to imitate objects in shape as well as color animates the

porcelain makers of Hizen equally with the potters of Satsuma. We find

bowls in the form of chrysanthemums, with the turtle, emblem of

longevity, on the cover. One of these is decorated with stripes of blue,

red, green, and yellow, and the favorite flowers and insects in enamel

colors. The rare and very handsome example of the striped style of

decoration here given (Fig. 131) was obtained at the Lyons sale, and is

presumed to be Hizen. The ground is a rich, clear blue, and the cranes,

foam of the sea, and stripes on the neck are in white relief. One is

anxious to find the sentiment embodied in such admirable work; and it is

possible that the piece may originally have been meant to convey a wish

for long life--by its symbol, the crane--amidst the mutations of life,

symbolized by the foam of the ever-changing sea.

[Illustration: Fig. 131.--Hizen Vase. Blue Ground; White Decoration.

Height, 13½ in. (Mrs. J. V. L. Pruyn Coll.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 132.--Japanese Porcelain Vase. (H. C. Gibson Coll.)]

Another piece, about which nothing certain is known, is the vase (Fig.

132) from Mr. Gibson’s collection. It is a marvel of patient and skilful

labor, and tells its story, no doubt, if the means of reading it were

only within reach. The lattice of gold hangs as fine as gossamer over

the figures, with sufficient transparency to leave the inside scene

distinctly visible.

To return to the modern pieces known to be Hizen, the bowls above

mentioned are supplemented by others shaped like pomegranates, and

profusely decorated, sometimes both inside and outside, with flowers,

insignia, and the imperial bird, or with vines and flowers in gold and

crimson. All family relationship is forgotten in the boundless variety

of the designs. A charming illustration of the refined taste of the

porcelain manufacturers of Arita was shown at the Centennial Exhibition.

It consisted of a set of three small oviform vases of a very delicate

blue tint, and having white dragons for handles.

The ware called Seidji is the Japanese _céladon_, and is decorated after

the style seen in China, _i. e._, with designs graved in the paste. It

has been made in Hizen ever since Shonsui settled in that province (A.D.

1580).

Leaving Arita, in the mean time, there are several other centres

demanding notice. The blue Sometsuki is also made in Owari and Kioto.

With the latter is associated a distinctive ware called Eraku, from its

inventor, in which gold decoration is laid upon a red ground. When

Indian-ink and the colors of the Nishikide are found on Kioto porcelain,

it resembles very closely that of Hizen. Green, blue, and gold are

frequently mingled. As in other Japanese centres, the tendency to seek

nature, either for suggestion or imitation, manifests itself at Kioto.

Vases with crabs and shells, moulded and painted from nature, remind us

of the “Palissy pottery, with raised fishes and fruit,” of which Sir R.

Alcock speaks.

[Illustration: Fig. 133.--Kaga Ware. Decoration, Red and Gold. (A. A.

Vantine & Co.)]

Somewhat similar to Eraku is the porcelain of Kaga. One quality (Fig.

133) of the latter has gold decorations on red or black grounds, mingled

with flowers or birds traced either in red or black, according to the

ground. On another quality the painting outlined in black is executed in

enamel colors, resembling those already described as in use at Arita.

The result is exceedingly rich. One specimen is described by Mr. Jarves

(“Art of Japan”), and is in the possession of Mr. Sutton, of New York.

On the outside are two men holding a conversation on the bank of a

stream. In the inside, in Chinese characters--adopted by the Japanese in

the third century--of the minutest size, is the following explanatory

legend: “Kutzen had already taken his leave, and was wandering by the

side of the river, in a sorrowful and dejected manner, when he met a

fisherman, who said, ‘Why do you come here? You are the chief retainer

of King Sâ.’ Then Kutzen replied, ‘The men of the world are all alike,

and as impure water, but I am pure; they are all drunk, but I am sober;

therefore I come here.’ Then the fisherman said, ‘An ancient sage has

said, that if we mix and associate with the men of the world, we shall

become as impure as they are; if they are all drunk, we shall be drunk

also, and drink the sediment of their drink; if they are dirty, we shall

be dirty also, and stir up the mud.’ Then Kutzen replied, ‘It is an

ancient saying, that when we dress our hair, we necessarily rub the dust

off our cap; when we bathe in hot water, we necessarily shake the dust

off our clothes; thus, when our hearts become pure, we shake off all

defilement. I would rather throw myself into the river, and become food

for the fishes, than to be defiled by thee!’ Then the fisherman went

away smiling, and, striking the gunwale of his boat, sang: ‘So, when the

waters of Soro are clean, I will wash my cap-strings; when the waters of

Soro are dirty, I will wash my feet.’”

Another cup, also in Mr. Sutton’s collection, of a somewhat similar

shape, _i. e._, narrow and high, has the inside almost entirely covered

with these minute characters. It is well-nigh impossible to trace with

the eye those near the bottom, and an estimate can thus be made of the

difficulty of forming them with the brush.

The decoration particularly characteristic of Kaga porcelain is the

multiplication of portraits. Occasionally we find medallions of flowers

set in colored borders, or fishes on the inside of both vessel and

cover, and vines and flowers on the outside; but the style most

intimately associated with Kaga is the marvellously minute and highly

finished painting of a crowd of faces. We have seen whole tea-sets thus

covered with what were said to be portraits of the poets of the Mikado’s

empire, executed with the most perfect finish upon a ground of pure

gold. On the inside of one shallow dish there were no fewer than

sixty-five portraits, on a ground of gold, and on the outside was a

landscape set in flowers. A plaque of the same ware had eighty figures,

on a gold ground, surrounding a medallion with flying birds. The

porcelain chosen for these curious and wonderful works is generally

thick and of inferior quality, but the effect of the red and gold

grounds, occasionally alternated with blue, is unquestionably rich.

[Illustration: Fig. 134.--Owari Porcelain, decorated at Yeddo. (Yoshida

Kiyonari Coll.)]

At Owari, the favorite colors would appear to be deep-blue and white,

the former being generally used as a ground, the latter for

ornamentation. The seat of the manufacture is Seto, a village near

Nagoya, the chief town of the province of Owari. Many of the heavy

vessels now manufactured at Seto have no artistic quality to recommend

them, but smaller specimens of great beauty may occasionally be met

with. A small vase, for example, has the base of deep blue, the body of

a paler shade, and the upper part deepening into a purplish tint. In

some cases the white decoration is in relief.

The porcelain and pottery reaching us from Yeddo (Fig. 134), or Tokio,

is largely composed of the different provincial products. They are taken

to that city to be decorated, and it is almost impossible in the great

majority of cases to specify the place of manufacture.

Two remarkable methods of decorating porcelain bring us to lacquer-work

and cloisonné enamel. Lacquer is a sap or gum drawn by tapping from the

_Rhus vernicifera_, a tree cultivated for this special purpose

throughout the entire southern half of Japan. After settling, the

lacquer is mixed with certain coloring and hardening powders, and

strained. The black quality is made by exposing the viscous gum for a

few days to the open air, and then diluting it with water which has been

for some time mixed with iron filings. The greater part of the water is

then allowed to evaporate, and the process having been completed, the

lacquer is ready for use. The ornamentation consists either of

mother-of-pearl, ivory, or metal sunk into the lacquer before it

hardens, or of painting. A pair of tall Arita vases (Fig. 135) which

were exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition are examples of this work.

Cloisonné enamel on porcelain (Figs. 136 and 137) is to be regarded

chiefly as a curiosity of workmanship, and as an example of the

irresistible tendency discoverable in Japanese artists to cope with

mechanical difficulty, since the very same effects are produced with

greater ease upon a metal base. Fine metallic lines divide the surface

into spaces or cells shaped according to the details of the design, and

are fixed to the biscuit by means of a fusible glass. The compartments

are then filled with vitrifiable enamels. These adhere after firing, and

help in keeping the cells in position. The chief places of manufacture

are Owari, Kioto, Osaka, and Tokio.

[Illustration: Fig. 135.--Lacquer on Arita Porcelain. Height, 8 ft. 8

in. (Corcoran Art Gallery.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 136.--Tokio Cloisonné Enamel. (Sutton Coll.)]

The system of classification which has hitherto been followed has been

adopted mainly in view of the modern manufactures of Japan. In looking

at its more ancient wares, the place of manufacture being, us a rule,

unknown, the method of assortment usually adopted is that based upon

general characteristics and marked features of resemblance.

Following the Chinese parallel, there are, as we have said,

Chrysanthemo-Pæonian and Rose families, but no Green. The symbols,

whether consisting of flowers or animals, are the best and safest

indications of the origin of the piece. Many of the finest specimens

belong to the Rose family, and it may as well be stated at the outset

that, in spite of the most careful examination, it is sometimes

impossible to ascribe its representatives to a certain origin, and to

discriminate between the works belonging to China and those of Japan. It

follows, that the finer pieces are at least equal to anything China has

produced. The Japanese used to say that human bones formed one of the

ingredients of the paste, and a meaning can easily be found for the

phrase in the vast amount of labor demanded by its preparation.

Specimens of the best qualities are as plentiful in Europe as in Japan:

perhaps they may become more so, should the revival now expected not

fulfil the hopes entertained regarding it.

[Illustration: Fig. 137.--Owari Cloisonné Enamel. (Sutton Coll.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 138.--Japanese Vase. White, Red, Rose, and Green.

Blossoms on Left; White Enamel Raised. Height, 6½ in. (Robert H. Pruyn

Coll.)]

Jacquemart classes all the fine porcelain of Japan under the Rose

family, to which would, therefore, belong the vase (Fig. 138) with white

enamel decoration in relief. The subdivision of the family into vitreous

and artistic porcelain, leads us to examine the grounds upon which it is

made. The distinction between the two classes is based upon the styles

of decoration. In both qualities the paste is very translucent, and the

colors are pure and clear. The decoration of the vitreous is sparing,

and of most careful execution, as though the artist were desirous of

giving full effect to the natural beauty of the ware in its unadorned

purity. Decorations of this kind gradually merge into more elaborate

designs, in which flowers are strewn in careless grace over the

opalescent paste, or animals are represented in gold and red. In the

artistic porcelain the decoration partakes more of the Chinese intricacy

and richness of color. Red, blue, green, yellow, and black mingle in

scenes in which appear birds, figures, and flowers surrounded by deep

and delicately shaded borders. It is inferred, from the gradually

increasing elaboration of the designs, that the vitreous preceded the

artistic, and that the latter, while tolerably distinct from the Chinese

Rose, is the result of Chinese influence.

By reason of his faulty chronology, M. Jacquemart’s inference is open to

question, although in the present case he appears to have reached a

partial truth. The condition of both China and Japan, as it can be

gleaned from history, detracts somewhat from the probability of the

assumptions of the author mentioned. Europeans first landed in Japan in

1542--almost contemporaneously with the earliest manufacture of

porcelain--and, in 1549, the first missionaries followed. In about

thirty years (1581) one hundred and fifty thousand converts had been

made, and, in 1583, an embassy was sent to the Pope by the daimios of

Kiusiu. This is the Japanese embassy referred to by Mr. Marryat, as

having taken place in 1584, on which occasion statuettes of the Virgin

and Child, made by the Chinese for the Japanese Christians, were sent to

Europe. But foreign intrigue and sectarianism soon culminated, and, in

1587, Hideyoshi banished all foreign missionaries. The work of

proselytism was still carried on in private by the Jesuits, and, in

1596, a number of missionaries and converts were crucified at Nagasaki,

in Hizen. The history of the next forty years is a narrative of

desperate contention between the missionaries and converts on the one

side, and the government on the other. The drama may be said to close

with the massacre already referred to, which took place in 1637, when

thousands of Christians were put to the sword, and thousands more were

drowned in the harbor of Nagasaki.

Mr. Marryat says that the interference of the missionaries with the

decoration of porcelain, by substituting scriptural subjects for the

“ancient orthodox native patterns which had existed from time

immemorial,” is supposed to have contributed to the massacre. In

connection with this subject the same author quotes from D’Entrecolles,

who states that a plate with a biblical subject was brought to him, and

that he was told this porcelain was formerly carried to Japan, but that

none had been made for sixteen or seventeen years; that apparently the

Christians of Japan had made use of this manufacture during the

persecution, but that discovery led to a stoppage of the traffic, and

that, in consequence, these works had been discontinued at

King-tehchin. Mr. Marryat then refers to the Chinese pieces sent with

the Japanese embassy to Europe. Assuming the statements in these

passages to be correct, it is well to bear in mind that they refer to

three distinct fabrics. To arrange them chronologically, the last

mentioned is the porcelain made by China for Japan, before its own

porcelain industry was well established, or before it had, at least,

been fully developed. This supports the statement that porcelain was not

made in Japan until shortly before the middle of the sixteenth century.

Otherwise, the question will at once occur, Why, if porcelain had been

made in Japan since the thirteenth century, should China be supplying it

with religious figures before any steps had been taken in Japan against

the new religion? The first of these measures, as we have seen, was the

decree of Hideyoshi, passed in 1587. The porcelain first referred to by

Mr. Marryat comes second in point of time, and is the porcelain assumed

to have been made in Japan, in the beginning of the seventeenth century,

for the Christian converts. The second is, chronologically, the last,

and is the porcelain made in China, about 1755, for the same people,

secretly adhering to their religion one hundred and twenty years after

the supposed extirpation of Christianity in Japan. Père d’Entrecolles

was attached to the King-teh-chin mission, about 1770.

While the religious troubles above detailed were keeping Japan in a

continual ferment, China was disturbed by the incursion of the Tartars

and the usurpation of the Tai-thsing Dynasty.

In Japan we have, therefore, an undisturbed period of not more than

fifty years (1540-1587) favorable to the development of that originality

which, according to Jacquemart, preceded the imitations of Chinese work.

Some singular evidence, which may be read, in one sense, to the same

general effect, has been brought together by Mr. B. Phillips, in the

_Art Journal_, in an article devoted to the Medicean porcelain in the

Castellani collection. He says that two Japanese experts examined the

specimen engraved (Fig. 223), and pronounced the decoration Japanese.

The style they attributed to Shonsui, and said that it was in use toward

the middle and close of the sixteenth century. A piece made by Shonsui

bore out the statement, it having similar decorations, even to the

flutings, which had been shaded after the same method. If the Medicean

bowl be examined, simplicity will be found to be the most marked

characteristic of the decoration; and it is clear that it must have been

copied from some Japanese porcelain made not later than 1580.

It may, therefore, be accepted as an incontestable fact, that there was

an essentially Japanese style of decoration, in the sixteenth century,

applied to the blue Sometsuki, the porcelain destined for the home

market. This leaves the question of precedence between the vitreous and

artistic porcelains of the Rose family practically unaffected. The

probabilities are all against M. Jacquemart’s, or any other unqualified,

theory of chronological sequence. The natural course is to proceed from

copying to originality. Japan had acquired the ceramic art from China.

Was it not likely to occupy its attention first with copying the simpler

styles of its experienced neighbor, while feeling after an equally

simple originality, such as the Italians copied in their turn? From the

first it may have had foreign taste to contend with, although very

little is said of a Portuguese trade in porcelain. Then came religious

troubles to delay the development of a national art, and, before they

were over, the dynastic war in China, causing a suspension of production

in that country, offered an inducement to supply a new market, and thus

again delayed the national development. One historical fact remains to

be added: In the “_Ambassades Mémorables_,” published at Amsterdam in

1680, we find allusion made to porcelain sent from the Dutch

trading-post at Deshima, which did not sell well, _because it had not

flowers enough upon it_. This clearly cannot refer to the “artistic”

porcelain of Jacquemart, with its rich borders and crowded flowers. The

only inference from all that can be said and legitimately assumed is,

that the Hizen porcelain of the beginning of the seventeenth century is

that which most nearly resembles the Chinese. To that period, therefore,

may chiefly be assigned those rich pieces of Japanese Rose which have

been confounded with the Chinese. When, afterward, the native taste for

simplicity was striving to reassert itself, it was again obstructed by

the demands of Dutch trade, and the requirements of such connoisseurs as

Wagenaar, who objected to a paucity of flowers. It follows that many

specimens of the vitreous class must have been subsequent to the

artistic. From the beginning of the history of Japanese porcelain

external influences were at war with native taste, and, in determining

the sequence of styles, the only data open to consultation are the

events ostensibly giving rise to them--the demand creating the

supply--and the probable condition of the skill required to meet that

demand.

The porcelain long called “Indian” belongs to the same period of

Japanese art, and was taken home in ship-loads by the Dutch monopolists

of the seventeenth century. The foreigners, not content with compelling,

by the influence of trade, a bending of Japanese styles to their taste,

supplied special designs. These were reproduced by the Japanese artists

with the most exact and faithful precision.

A story is told by Captain French, of New York, that when in China some

years ago, he saw fit to increase his wardrobe to the extent of a new

coat. He had some difficulty with the native artist of the shears, and

ultimately decided to send him an old coat as a pattern. In due time the

new garment was finished, and so closely had the pattern been followed,

that the sleeves were adorned with a couple of patches which had been

applied to the old coat to prolong its natural term of service to the

end of a protracted voyage. The Japanese artists were equally

unreasoning in their adherence to designs supplied from Holland. They

laid them upon the porcelain in all their crudity and roughness, and

treated imperfections as the tailor did the patches--reproduced them

with the most serious and unwavering fidelity to their model. Contact

with foreign nations has never had any other than a bad effect upon

Japanese art, excepting, of course, its early intercourse with China.

The genius of the people has been diverted from its natural channel. Art

has been in a manner subjugated by commerce. Hence came gloomy

forebodings and threatened ruin. Whenever it had an opportunity of

seeking free expression it changed its character. Instead, therefore, of

classifying Japanese porcelain according to the families above

mentioned, a better method might be to divide it into two great groups,

the national and the commercial. A great part of the so-called artistic

porcelain of the Rose family will belong to the latter class. It can

only be distinguished from the Chinese by observing the points already

noticed: the paste, the glaze, the greater purity of the enamel colors,

the insignia, symbols, and flowers. Even these will fail at times, as

the Chinese, led away by the improvements effected by the Japanese in

imitating their styles, did not hesitate to appropriate those of Japan;

while Japan, we are told, imports Chinese egg-shell for decoration.

Apart from these doubtful pieces, we can see, in both the old and modern

porcelain of Japan, national characteristics struggling with many

difficulties to reach artistic expression. We find technical skill

handling the finest material, shaping it into graceful form, and

decorating it with carefully compounded colors of the greatest beauty.

The true history of Japanese art is the history of the art we have

called national; all else is but the prostitution of individual genius

to commerce. In the former we find simplicity and piety mingled with a

humor often quaintly clothed in clay. There is abundant material for

research, for study and close examination. The art of Japan has many

peculiarities, and will give an observer ideas of artistic beauty and

æsthetic taste which an American or European education would never

suggest. In it we find, above all things, a deep love and admiration of

nature. All this is contained in the lines of the Laureate of the

Potter, which are charged with the very essence of Japanese art:

“All the bright flowers that fill the land,

Ripple of waves on rock or sand,

The snow on Fusiyama’s cone,

The midnight heaven, so thickly sown

With constellations of bright stars,

The leaves that rustle, the reeds that make

A whisper by each stream and lake,

The saffron dawn, the sunset red,

Are painted on these lovely jars.

Again the skylark sings, again

The stork, the heron, and the crane

Float through the azure overhead,

The counterfeit and counterpart

Of nature reproduced in art.”

CHAPTER VIII.

PERSIA.

Persia, and its Influence.--History.--Conquests.--Religious

Revolutions.--Zoroaster.--Mohammed.--Geographical

Position.--General View of Influences bearing upon

Art.--Decoration.--Flowers and Symbols.--Conventional

Styles.--Whence came the Monsters Appearing upon Wares.--Metallic

Lustre.

[Illustration: Fig. 139.--Persian Faience Plaque. (Robert Hoe, Jr.,

Coll.)]

It is unfortunate, considering the great importance of Persia in the

history of ceramic art, that it should have been a debatable ground to

travellers and ceramists. Of the extended influence of Persia upon

neighboring countries there can be no doubt. The Arabs acquired from

that people much of the knowledge which they subsequently brought to

Europe, and which will be treated of more fully as Saracenic and

Mauresque. Persia gave a language to the Mussulmans of India, and

supplied her with at least suggestions in the plastic art. Her art, in

fact, spread far beyond the wide bounds of that empire, which extended

from India on the east to the Mediterranean on the west, and from the

Black Sea and Caucasian range on the north to the Persian Gulf and

Arabian Sea. To have an exact knowledge of the problems with which we

have now to deal, the several great revolutions recorded in the history

of Persia may be briefly summarized. These changes were both religious

and political in character. Beginning with Cyrus the Great, we find the

empire as above described, about the year B.C. 559, when Media became

tributary to Persia, into which other kingdoms were afterward merged in

quick succession. The empire lasted until B.C. 331, when Alexander the

Great included Persia in his grand series of Asiatic conquests. On

Alexander’s death, when the tributaries of Macedonia were divided,

Seleucus Nicanor obtained Persia for his share; and the Grecian dynasty

lasted until the Parthians revolted, and met with such success that a

Parthian dynasty was founded which lasted for nearly five hundred years.

This brings us down to the year 229 of our era, when Artaxerxes headed a

revolt and laid the foundation of the second Persian empire. This is

known as the Sassanian Dynasty, which held the sovereignty until the

incursion of the Arabs, more than four hundred years later. Persian

independence was reasserted after the lapse of a second period of four

hundred years, and lasted until Genghis Khan and Tamerlane successively

brought it under Mogul domination. The succeeding wars with Afghans,

Turks, and Russians need not here be detailed.

The two great religious revolutions were occasioned by the adoption of

the doctrines of Zoroaster and Mohammed. The first of these appears to

have suddenly emerged from the comparative obscurity of the court of

Bactria--a country situated upon the eastern confines of ancient

Persia--and to have led the Persians to renounce their gross idolatry.

The leading tenets of his creed were the existence of a supreme being,

eternity, and the contending principles Ormuzd and Ahriman, good

symbolized by light and evil by darkness. The never-ceasing contention

between these two opposite principles is often represented by a bull and

a lion in conflict. The cypress was Zoroaster’s emblem. This religion

took a deep hold upon the Persians, and the first serious shock which it

sustained was from the religion founded by Mohammed in the wilds of

Arabia Petræa. Of the two Mussulman sects, Schiites and Sunnites,

created by the dissensions following upon the Prophet’s death, as to the

choice of a successor, the Persians preferred the former, and are

believers in Ali. The Turks, on the other hand, are Sunnites, believers

in the legitimate succession of Abubeker, Omar, and Osman. Propagandism

by the help of the sword being the privilege and virtue of the believers

in the Prophet, it is not astonishing that Turk and Persian should have

met in the argument of battle.

Coming next to the geographical position of Persia, it intercepted, in

its ancient extent, all communication between East and West. The vast

extent of territory owning its sway, stretching nearly three thousand

miles east and west, and two thousand miles north and south, must needs

be traversed by travellers between Europe and the extreme East. Long

before navigators had found the ocean highway round the Cape, Persia

received all the traffic from India, China, and Japan passing through

the Persian Gulf to Europe.

Let us now take in all that has here been stated, at one glance, and we

shall see clearly why Persian ceramic art has been viewed with doubt.

Overrun successively by Greeks, Parthians, Arabs, Moguls, and Turks;

widening and contracting its boundaries as the tide of conquest ebbed

and flowed; lending to India, and probably borrowing from it; taking

part, at one time, in the Zoroastrian worship of fire, and, at another,

in the Mohammedan praise of Allah; connected, through trade, with the

far East on the one hand and with Europe on the other, Persia was

pre-eminently a country to confuse the investigator by the mingled

types, symbols, and ideas which it derived alike from conqueror and

trader. One fact of peculiar interest remains to be added. When, in the

middle of the thirteenth century, Hulaku Khan came to Persia, he brought

among his Mogul followers a number of Chinese artisans. The Mogul

territory touched the western boundaries of China, so that it is quite

possible, that to the specimens of Chinese porcelain brought to Persia

by sea may have been added a number of Chinese artists and potters

arriving with the Moguls by land. In view of these facts it is not

difficult to account for the prevalence in Persia of imitations of the

Chinese, nor is it altogether incomprehensible that a question should

have been raised whether what is called Persian porcelain is not in

reality Chinese.

[Illustration: Fig. 140.--Persian Plaque. Crimson Pæony in Centre;

Foliage and Ground in various Shades of Green. (Boston Museum of Fine

Arts.)]

Persian decoration is rich in flowers (Fig. 140), for which that people

entertained a liking amounting almost to a passion. The tulip meant

love. Of the other symbolical forms found on pottery, the lion and bull

and the cypress have already been explained. The sun was the Zoroastrian

emblem of divinity, and the royal arms consisted of the lion couchant,

with its head turned toward the rising sun.

[Illustration: Fig. 141.--Persian Plaque. Central Section, Blue; Side

Section, Green; Scroll-work, Brown. (Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]

The various styles of decoration may all be qualified by one

word--conventional. Although on the earlier pieces the human figure is

found, with the Mussulman sway it disappears, to make way for hybrid

monsters resembling the half-human beings of mythology--compounds of

women and birds, men with horns and tails, like the satyrs of Greece,

and numberless other supernatural monsters illustrative of the artists’

compromise with the Mohammedan behest forbidding the representation of

the human form or of living beings. Even the greatly loved flowers

suffer in both tint and form from the artists of Persia. Colors were

used in a precisely similar spirit. Nature was sought for suggestion,

not for imitation. The question of color was decided solely with an eye

to effect; and if a violet horse should harmonize with its surroundings

better than a black, gray, sorrel, or bay, the fact that in nature no

such color is found on horses was not held to be a legitimate objection

to its use. In Persia, therefore, we are presented with a peculiar phase

of art. Nature, being followed neither in form nor color, nor in the

suggestive manner of the Japanese, which finds the highest art in the

combination of resemblance and imagination, is relegated to the position

of a promptress, and not of a guide. In richness and harmonious blending

of arbitrary colors, the Persian artist realized his highest dream, and

never forgot that, no matter what natural object might enter into his

design, the ornamentation of pottery was surface decoration, and nothing

more.

Before proceeding to the usual divisions hitherto observed, there is one

point demanding special attention, viz., the Persian _reflet

métallique_, or metallic lustre. The use of metallic-lustre pigments

was, as has been already stated, known in the Balearic Islands, and gave

the _original_ majolica its distinctive appearance. Long before that

date the process was known to the Persians in connection with silicious

glaze. The metallic lustre has also been found on Arabian specimens. It

is in Persia, however, that we must, in all likelihood, look for its

origin. The date of its invention cannot be fixed with even an

approximation to precision. The probability is that it was never very

extensively used, and the specimens obtained are mostly fragmentary.

Many of these are from the ruins of Rhages, a city which stood about

seventy miles south of the Caspian Sea. Earthquake and conquest

successively laid this city in ruins, and each time that it was rebuilt

its limits became more contracted. It was finally destroyed during the

Mogul irruption under Hulaku Khan, in 1250, and it is from the ruins

beyond the city of that era that the above mentioned fragments have been

taken. In fixing the origin, therefore, of metallic lustre, the latest

date would be six hundred and twenty-seven years ago, the most remote

perhaps over two thousand. The metallic-lustre pigments were made use of

as late as the time of Shah Abbas, who reigned from 1555 to 1628, and

whom Jacquemart calls the “Louis XIV. of Iran.”

POTTERY.

Composition.--Caution in Looking at Specimens.--Wall-Tiles and

their Decoration.--Vases.

[Illustration: Fig. 142.--Shrine of Imam Hussein, at Kerbela. Showing

the Use of Tiles in Persian Architecture.]

Chemical experiments have shown that in one kind of Persian paste there

is a large preponderance of silex, that when fired for a certain time

the result is a faience, and that a continued exposure to the kiln

reduces it to a partially translucent body resembling porcelain. Some of

the tiles show silica ranging about ninety per cent., and the remaining

fraction consisting of alumina and iron, lime, magnesia, and potash. By

comparison with the porcelain standard adopted in the table (Book I.,

Chapter iii.), it will be seen that this paste differs in the greater

proportion of silica and in the presence of iron. It differs from

earthen-ware, on the other hand, by its containing magnesia and potash.

The faience of Persia must, therefore, be treated with extreme caution;

and the authorities must be consulted with care, since what one calls

pottery, another treats of as soft porcelain. Of that coming most nearly

to what we understand by the word “faience”--that is, a perfectly opaque

ware--some of the specimens are glazed, and others are covered with only

a thin lustre or varnish. Very fine examples are found in the wall-tiles

taken from the different mosques. The same style of ornament was

applied to these and to vases, and its general character has already

been designated. Arabesques and flowers--some imitations of the natural

and others altogether conventional--are profusely spread upon both, with

a boundless wealth of rich color. The forms assumed by the various

vessels differ very widely from each other. Cups, open dishes with rims

of varying breadth, and a number of water-vessels illustrate certain

manners of the Persians. The color and ornamentation are distinctive.

The favorite ground colors were the blues of copper and cobalt, and

these alternate with red, and yellow tinged with red. The ornamentation

is very often white. The Mosque of Sultaneah has already been described

(see page 39). In others the colors are reversed, _i. e._, white is used

for the ground and blue for the decoration. At times we see the Persian

love of the chase triumphing over the Mohammedan prohibition of the

employment of animal figures, by the introduction of hares or gazelles,

generally upon grounds of light shades of green and blue. Some of the

most remarkable plaques belong to the same period, and in both the

earlier and later examples the coloring is exceedingly rich and

effective. What the latter lose in simplicity they gain in brilliancy.

Some pieces, apparently of great age, have a close resemblance to the

céladon of China. The vases _a reflet métallique_ are either blue, or

white with yellow ornamentation. The art of applying the lustre seems to

have disappeared about the middle of the seventeenth century. The tiles

of this kind date mostly from the time of the Mogul Dynasty. The larger

plaques measure sometimes six feet by eight feet; the smaller tiles

without inscriptions are star and cross shaped fitted together in a

mosaic.

PORCELAIN.

Had Persia a True Porcelain?--Classification, and the Difficulties

Attending It.--Decoration.--Classes Formed by Prevailing Color.

Although the discussion was long maintained, whether or not Persia

produced a true kaolinic porcelain, there seems to be no real ground for

doubting that such was the case. That India produced porcelain we have

already seen, and it becomes a question whether the art was not

practised elsewhere in Central Asia. The evidence bearing upon the

point clearly shows that Persia possessed the materials for making a

pure kaolinic porcelain. The presence of Chinese works and styles does

not affect the question. These may either have been the work of Persian

artists imitating Chinese models, or of Chinese artists working in

Persian material. The Persians call porcelain _tchini_, a name clearly

indicating that in one of the above ways they were indebted to the

Chinese.

By reason of the qualities of the paste already noted, the

classification of Persian porcelain is a matter of some difficulty. The

analysis which could alone decide the class to which the specimens

belong is in a great measure wanting. It may be inferred that two

pieces, apparently distinct in composition, may be really identical, and

representative merely of the successive changes effected by firing upon

the silicious paste. The most ancient kind is not older than the

Mussulman incursion. When subjected to a great heat it melts like glass.

[Illustration: Fig. 143.--Persian Porcelain Wine Bottle. Decoration in

Blue. (Jacquemart Coll.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 144.--Porcelain Narghili.]

What is called “soft porcelain” is not, properly speaking, a distinct

variety. It differs from the others in decoration, but not to any

perceptible extent in composition. The paste is very translucent, and

the glaze even. The external decoration is frequently blue or a tint of

mixed brown and yellow, upon which appear flowers and arabesques (Fig.

143). Cups and basins are the shapes most frequently occurring, and the

first decorative feature is that the outside and inside are seldom

alike. The latter may be white, with copper-lust re decoration, and the

outside may be in either of the two colors above mentioned. A style of

decoration very widely followed consists of a series of holes cut in the

paste round the rim of the basin or bowl, and filled in with the glaze.

This method was adopted at a very early period, and reappears in the

“grains of rice” work of China. A later specimen--probably not more than

two hundred years old--of Persian “soft” porcelain has its upper and

lower parts in blue and white, with lustred ornamentation.

Persian natural porcelain, about which writers have disputed, and called

by the Persians _tchini_, is closely related to the Chinese. An entire

class is characterized by its decoration of incised lines and blue

painting under the glaze. The paste is somewhat coarse, and lacks

cohesion. As to the antiquity of this quality, all that can be said is

that it was produced a long time prior to the fifteenth century. Red and

gold are seldom employed with blue, but rather characterize a distinct

class. Green was much more indiscriminately employed, as, for example,

with blue, brown, red, and gold. The céladons are to be distinguished

from the Chinese, not by the color--for they show the beautiful old

green of their Chinese counterparts--but by the design and form. All

that remains to be added is, that, like every other people to whom the

higher secrets of ceramic art were open, the Persians attached a very

great value to the best works in both porcelain and pottery. The former

is, in their literature, constantly associated with gold and other

precious materials.

BOOK III.--EUROPE.

CHAPTER I.

THE FOUNTAINS OF EUROPEAN ART.

Routes by which Art Travelled.--Their Point of

Convergence.--Cyprus: Its History.--The Successive Nations

Governing It.--The Strata of Ancient Civilization found within its

Shores.--The Discoveries of

Cesnola.--Larnaca.--Dali.--Athieno.--Curium.--Progress of Cypriote

Pottery.--Early Greek Art: Its Connection with Assyria and

Egypt.--Phœnician and Assyrian Art.--General Deductions.--Asia

Minor.--Oriental Art turning in various Streams to Greece.--What

Greece Rejected, Persia Seized upon.--Persia’s Contributions to

Ceramic Art.--History in Reference to its Art.--Effect of

Conquest.--What Persia Taught the Arabs.--Spread of Persian Art by

the Saracens.--Rhodes.--Damascus.--Progress of Saracenic Art.--The

North of Africa.--Metallic Lustre and Stanniferous

Enamel.--Hispano-Moresque.--Early Spain.--Persian Influence upon

Europe.

We now approach a point in our history which stands within sight both of

the wonders of early Greece and of the beginnings in the Middle Ages of

the best ceramic art of Europe. From Persia, as a centre, art travelled

north and west by many devious routes ere it touched the European

shores. But behind the Persian is the older civilization of Babylonia

and Assyria, to whose glories it succeeded. We are thus once more

brought back to Egypt and Egyptian influences. After spreading to the

east they extended northward, and in Greece are met by others transmuted

by a passage through Assyria and Phœnicia, but springing from the

same prolific source on the banks of the Nile. Persia, after acquiring

from Egypt’s eastern pupils her earliest knowledge, adapted the lessons

thus derived to her own ideas, and spread it across the tracts already

followed by others who had learned directly from her teachers. From both

the south and east these lines of original and derivative art converged

toward one point, the eastern shores and islands of the Mediterranean

and Greece. To show how difficult it is to disentangle the web of

footprints, let us glance at Cyprus, as revealed to us by the

discoveries of General Luigi Palma di Cesnola (Fig. 145), and described

in his work upon “Its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples.” The record

may be read by all who visit the Metropolitan Museum of New York. We

choose Cyprus because it was virtually the meeting-place of the East

with the West. Assyrian, Egyptian, Phœnician, and Greek influences

contend for the mastery.

[Illustration: Fig. 145.--General Luigi Palma di Cesnola.]

[Illustration: Fig. 146.--Phœnician Vase, with Figure. (Cesnola

Coll., N. Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]

There is no certainty as to the derivation of the first settlers. They

may have been either Phœnicians or Cilicians, and thus only another

branch of the great Semitic family to which the Phœnicians belonged.

Or colonists may have arrived from Cilicia and Phœnicia at about the

same time. There is less reason for believing that any settlers came

from Egypt, although the first historical conquest of the island was

effected by the Egyptians. This event took place about B.C. 1440, during

the reign of Thothmes III. How long it remained under Egyptian control

does not exactly appear, but it next passed into the hands of the

Tyrians at a date prior to B.C. 1000. It was next conquered by Sargon,

King of Assyria, and when, about B.C. 600, Apries, King of Egypt, took

Sidon, he included Cyprus in his conquest. Amasis, the successor and

murderer of Apries, completed the work of the latter. The Cypriotes then

turned for deliverance to Cambyses of Persia, and Cyprus became a

dependency of the great eastern power. Again the island was shaken by

revolt, and the greater part of its people joined the Ionians in an

unsuccessful attempt to throw off the Persian yoke. The Athenians and

Lacedæmonians, after taking a portion of Cyprus (B.C. 477), abandoned

their conquests. Then came the rebellion of Evagoras, King of Salamis,

whose father had been dispossessed by the Persians, the result of which

was that Evagoras recovered his own kingdom, but the island still

remained tributary to Persia. It then fell under the control of

Alexander of Macedon, and was held by his generals for a few years after

his death. Ptolemy Lagus, or Soter, again brought Cyprus under Egyptian

rule, and lastly came the arms of all-conquering Rome. We need go no

farther. We stand in Cyprus, upon a battle-field crossed by the armies

of every nation of antiquity with any claim to warlike renown, and find

in it at once the theme of ancient poets and the prize of ancient

warriors. So far we may travel in the track of war, but the history of

art is affected less by the conquest of battle than by permanent

occupancy and the more peaceful conquest of colonization. Thus we find

Phœnician art leaving a deeper impress upon Cyprus than any other,

and one to be detected even amidst the confusion of Semitic and Hellenic

remains. This art developed, on the one hand, into something bearing a

semblance of an independent Cypriote character, and, on the other, into

a form more distinctively Greek. Phœnicia was the country in which

the Assyrian and Egyptian elements of decorative art were combined, and

being brought on the other side into contact with Greece, the history of

Greek art is thus continued backward into a remote antiquity.

[Illustration: Fig. 147.--Phœnician Vase, from Curium. (Cesnola

Coll., N. Y. Metrop. Mus.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 148.--Phœnician Vase, from Dali, with

Phœnician Inscription. (Cesnola Coll., N. Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]

The early Phœnician settlers located themselves chiefly on the

southern and eastern sides of the island; the Greeks chose the north and

west. Both were evidently actuated by the same motive, viz., to give the

preference to the localities nearest the land from which they had come.

The Phœnicians founded Paphos, Amathus, and Citium; the Greeks

founded Salamis, Curium, Neo-Paphos, and several other towns. Tencer and

Agapenor, two of the Greek heroes from the Trojan war, settled in

Cyprus, and the island is thus introduced into Grecian legend. As time

passed, the Greek and Phœnician elements underwent a more or less

complete amalgamation. The Greek language became the prevailing tongue,

and the Phœnician religion became the common creed. Aphrodite, who

sprung from the foam of the sea, and was wafted to the shore of Cyprus,

was the Tyrian Astarte, the Assyrian Mylitta. Her worship extended over

the whole island, and was engaged in with all the licentious impurity of

the Oriental original. Greece rose as Phœnicia declined, and her

people spread beyond the limits of their ancestral settlements. One

civilization rose upon the ruins of another, and died in its turn; and

Cesnola found them piled one upon another in strata, to be opened up and

read like the stony leaves of the geologist’s book.

[Illustration: Fig. 149.--Phœnician Vase, from Curium. (Cesnola

Coll., N. Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]

That this is literally the case can be very easily shown. General di

Cesnola began his excavations at Larnaca, on the southern shore of the

island, or near the ancient Citium, or Kittim, a Phœnician city. Near

this city have been found a number of terra-cotta statuettes, which

General Cesnola ascribes to the fourth century before our era. He thinks

they were imported from Greece. They were accompanied by others, poorly

executed, and some figures suggestive of Phœnicia and Egypt. It was

here that the vase, Fig. 150, was discovered. Crossing the Santa Croce

range, he found, at Dali, on the plain of Messaria, the necropolis of

the Phœnician city Idalium. He began his excavations among the

Phœnician tombs, and exhumed a great quantity of pottery of several

shapes. The vases are of light-colored clay, and are variously decorated

with geometric patterns and concentric circles in brown color. One of

them (Fig. 148) has a Phœnician inscription, and all the others were

evidently Phœnician. Above the tier of tombs from which these were

taken, a second tier was discovered, of a different epoch, and

containing objects of a totally different character. Earthen-ware gave

place to glass in all the shapes found in Greek pottery, the amphora,

lekythos, krater, kylix, and others. Many were of a formation so

evidently late that the discoverer ascribes them to the Græco-Roman

period. Here then, was Greek and Phœnician work reposing in

juxtaposition. An explanation was found by returning to the Greek tomb

which had been first opened, and under it was discovered the

continuation of those of the Phœnicians. The Greek Idalium had grown

upon the ruins of a Phœnician predecessor, and hidden under the ashes

of the one Cesnola found the necropolis of the other. On prosecuting his

researches in the latter, the type of pottery again altered, and the

decoration of concentric rings reappeared. At Alambra, west of Dali, he

found a number of small clay images--horsemen, warriors, chariots, a

representation of a procession, and vases of two kinds. He made

excavations in five burying-grounds, all apparently belonging to the

Phœnician Idalium; and from a mound in the same district he obtained

a collection which, from the combination of Egyptian and Assyrian forms

and decoration, may be assumed to contain some of the most ancient

relics of Phœnician art. Two green-glazed bowls have Egyptian

paintings, and the vases occasionally take the form of animals and

birds.

[Illustration: Fig. 150.--Assyro-Phœnician Vase, from Larnaca.

(Cesnola Coll., N. Y. Metrop. Museum.)]

Striking eastward from Dali, the explorer reached Athieno, near the

ancient Golgoi, and there came upon a necropolis and an ancient temple

of Venus. The most remarkable fact concerning the statuary brought from

this locality is that the lines of nationality are so broad and well

defined. General Cesnola then determined to push his explorations

toward the East, and, after visiting Salamis, turned westward to Paphos,

Neo-Paphos, and then northward to Soli and other places on the northern

shore. Returning to the southern shore, a number of terra-cotta vases

and figures of the Phœnician type and Egyptian green-glazed vessels

were exhumed at Amathus. A statuette of Astarte and figures of Egyptian

deities were found almost together. Lastly, General Cesnola visited

Curium, a city said to have been founded by an Argive colony. There he

found pottery of the usual mixed types, including vases, terra-cotta

figures, and one large vase (Fig. 151), so strongly marked with Greek

influences that he ascribes it to the earlier period of Greek art. Both

General Cesnola and Mr. A. S. Murray think that it may have been taken

to Curium from Greece. Its four handles, its great size, and its

elaborate decoration make it unequalled among the vast number of

Cypriote relics in the Metropolitan Museum.

[Illustration: Fig. 151.--Greek Vase, from Curium. Height, 4 ft. 9 in.

(Cesnola Coll., N. Y. Metrop. Museum.)]

In constructing a theory of the progression of Cypriote pottery it is

necessary to examine closely the different styles of ornamentation. On

some we find Assyrian symbols and characteristic styles of decoration;

on others the figures are as evidently Egyptian. Thus the archaic vase

from Larnaca (Fig. 150) is just such a work as might be expected from

the Phœnician founders of Kittim while still directly under the

domination of Assyrian ideas. The pattern between the animals is

distinctively Assyrian. In a similar manner the vase (Fig. 146) is

decorated with an Egyptian figure, but in the subsidiary decoration--the

plaited pattern on the sides and the concentric circles arranged

vertically--there is nothing indicative of Egyptian influence. We see in

it the work of a potter who combined an Egyptian suggestion with a more

independent form of ornament. It has already been said that, of all the

nations of antiquity, the Phœnicians are most strongly marked by

influences emanating from Egypt, on the one hand, and from Assyria on

the other. To this people, therefore, we may attribute the two vases

last referred to.

[Illustration: Fig. 152.--Phœnician Vase, from Curium. (Cesnola

Coll., N. Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]

It is also necessary to bear in mind that, while certain symptoms of

independence on the part of Cypriote potters must be appreciated at

their full value, there are no evidences of the potter’s art ever having

developed among them to any great extent. It is possible that the

effeminate, voluptuous nature of the people prevented the attainment of

artistic superiority. It is also possible that their skill in working

metal may have distracted their attention from clay. In either event we

discover no well-defined gradation from the lower to the higher, such as

we find in Greece. Cyprus may have been still wrapped in slumber, while

Greece was striding forward in the full vigor of its young life. It may

have been following its ancient models, while Greece was turning from

the old to the new and original. It is difficult, therefore, to ascribe

with precision the Cypriote pottery to any given age. A rule by which to

determine such questions has been laid down in this way: vases painted

with linear designs are the most ancient; then follow those with animal

figures; lastly come those with human forms. Cypriote pottery makes the

application of such a rule extremely hazardous and difficult. How apply

it to the vase with vertical rings and human form and head (Fig. 146)?

The figure is Egyptian, and might, for that reason, carry us back to the

conquest by Thothmes III., were it not that it represents the latest

style of decoration according to the accepted rule, while the remainder

of the decoration belongs to the earliest.

[Illustration: Fig. 153.--Phœnician Pottery, from Curium. (Cesnola

Coll., N. Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 154.--Phœnician Vase, from Curium. (Cesnola

Coll., N. Y. Metrop. Mus.)]

The practice of ornamenting with concentric rings is an application to

pottery of a pattern borrowed from working in metal. Cyprus was famed

for its copper, and, from the legendary age downward, exported armor and

weapons of bronze. It is not singular, therefore, if on some of the

ruder relics of the potter we should find this ornament. In the curious

circle of vases (Fig. 153) we see arranged round the base the concentric

rings, which were in time transformed into the Greek spiral. The same

pattern is exemplified in the specimen from Curium (Fig. 154), from

which, and from several others in the Metropolitan Museum, it might

almost be inferred that the vessel had been shaped to suit the favorite

style of decoration. A cognate style, also having its origin in

metal-working, is that represented in the vase from Dali (Fig. 148),

sufficiently authenticated by its Phœnician inscription. It belongs

to a very large class, which appears to extend from the earliest times

down to the beginning of purely Greek art. It will be observed that the

squares run both horizontally and perpendicularly, an arrangement much

more noticeable in many other specimens. One of the earlier examples is

seen on the bird-shaped vase in the illustration Fig. 155. In what is

probably a much later vessel, a swan with circular body and triangular

wings makes its appearance. This is the rude attempt at decorating with

figures of an artist skilled only in geometrical designs. One point is

to be particularly noted before leaving these vases, viz., that in that

bearing the Phœnician inscription, the vertical lines or bands give

place to horizontal bands round the upper part of the body and neck. The

Greeks invariably make use of the horizontal band.

[Illustration: Fig. 155.--Phœnician Vases, found at Dali. (Cesnola

Coll., N. Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 156.--Phœnician Vase, from Curium. (Cesnola

Coll., N. Y. Metrop. Mus.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 157.--Phœnician Vase, from Curium. (Cesnola

Coll., N. Y. Metrop. Mus.)]

The approach to Greek art is marked by the introduction of several new

features. In the vases from Curium (Figs. 149, 156, and 157), the lines

are horizontal, the shapes improve, and the spout, consisting of a woman

holding a pitcher, is indicative of a skill in moulding and an

originality in designing, having little in common with the ruder forms

from the same city. This is one of the ideas which seems never to have

occurred to the modern potter, whose most fantastically turned and

severely shaped spouts contrast most unfavorably with the simple yet apt

design of his old Phœnician predecessor. The Phœnician vase with

animal figures from Dali (Fig. 158), is the ancestor of a large class of

early Greek pottery similarly decorated. The shape and the encircling

horizontal bands recall early Greek work, and the animal forms point to

an Asiatic influence transmitted in part through Phœnicia, but

probably also through other channels, to Greece. The style is rare among

Cypriote vases. It is carried farther in the large vase from Curium

(Fig. 151), which is remarkable as a combination of the Cypriote

rectilinear method of decoration, the earlier form of the Greek fret,

the Asiatic style of animal decoration, and the culmination of the

Cypriote rows of concentric rings found in the bands of spirals. This is

one of the most remarkable vases in the Cesnola collection, and also one

of the most important links between the art of Greece and those of

Phœnicia and the East. Even admitting it to have been made in Greece,

and thence taken to Curium, it is in perfect harmony with the

Phœnician vase last referred to, on the one hand, and with that

bearing the Phœnician inscription on the other.

The Greek vase and cups from Dali (Fig. 159) show a new motive in the

decoration. The spirals give place on the vase to a running scroll,

painted with a free hand; and in the kylix on the left, the concentric

circles become semicircles, festooned round the lip after the fashion of

lambrequins. In the kylix on the right, the rectilinear designs and

enclosed squares become the fret. It will be seen hereafter, when we

come to speak of Greece, how the forms of the kylix improve.

[Illustration: Fig. 158.--Phœnician Vase, found at Dali. (Cesnola

Coll., N. Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]

While we cannot assign an exact age to any of these works, we can see

how the beginnings of the art of Greece can be traced to a much more

remote antiquity than was previously apprehended. Mingling in the heroic

age with a people uniting in itself much of the civilization of Assyria

and Egypt, the Greeks were acquiring the knowledge which their own

artistic genius subsequently turned to such brilliant account. The

highway is complete from Greece to untold antiquity. We learn,

therefore, from the relics brought together by General Cesnola, that the

view taken of the devious course followed by ceramic art is correct.

Egypt gave instruction to all. In her is the spring of ancient art. The

Phœnicians studied under her Assyrian pupils, and the two branches,

from Phœnicia and Egypt, met in Greece, and there appeared in a new

form, more refined, and reflecting a higher ideality and a keener

sensitiveness to the subtlest lines of beauty. Di Cesnola has found in

Cyprus their point of contact, and has disclosed to our eyes the

teacher and scholar sleeping in a common grave.

[Illustration: Fig. 159.--Greek Vase and Cups, found at Dali. Cesnola

Coll., (N. Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]

Should it be asked if in Cyprus alone we must look for the ceramic

remains of Phœnicia, the Land of Palms, the answer must be negative.

It is true that few relics have come down to us from the sites of her

domestic industries. But let us glance briefly at the history of that

wonderful country, wonderful alike in enterprise and in science. Ptolemy

Claudius, writing in the second century, says that Phœnicia extended

from Egypt on the south to the Eleutherus on the north, and eastward to

the confines of Syria; or, in other words, that to it belonged the

entire eastern shore of the Mediterranean. Like all other eastern

nations, it changed its boundaries as the successive waves of war swept

over it. First came the Persians, then the Greeks, and, lastly, the

Romans. When enjoying its independence, in an earlier age, it was the

disseminator of the knowledge which, to a great extent, it acquired in

Egypt. To Greece it gave its alphabet, the foundation of the literature

which has kindled the admiration of the scholars of all times. Its

navigators passed the Pillars of Hercules and reached the shores of

England. Phœnician colonies were founded all along the Mediterranean,

at Utica and Carthage on the south, and at Marseilles in Gaul. Here,

then, was a people gathering in from every side all that the world

could give of art and science, and spreading its knowledge with every

keel which, from the great ports of Tyre and Sidon, furrowed the

Mediterranean. As might be expected, therefore, the remains of its

ceramic art and the evidences of its influence are found in Cyprus,

Malta, Egypt, Carthage, Greece, Sicily, Rome, and Etruria.

The ceramic remains found on the Phœnician coast are nearly all

referable to her later conquerors. One specimen is singular and

suggestive. It was found at Tyre, and is a polished cruse, with round

body, long neck, wide lips, and a handle joining the neck and body. It

resembles the Egyptian too closely to leave any doubt of the origin of

its style and manufacture. After our previous experiences we are quite

prepared to meet a mythical Phœnician worker in clay; but his

presence does not disturb our inferences. It merely pushes back to a

prehistoric age the date when the first of Phœnicia’s debts to Egypt

was incurred. Other examples, fragments with Phœnician inscriptions,

give further hints of the immediate well-spring of Grecian art.

Phœnician vases are found in Sicily. Egypt and Carthage teach the

same lesson, and illustrate the wide-reaching enterprise of the Tyrian

founders of Carthage.

Turning northward from Phœnicia to Asia Minor, the evidences of

ceramic skill point to identically the same conclusion. Let us take the

older first. There, as in Cyprus, we meet with early traces of Hellenic

art. Across the Ægean sea, on the shores of Asia Minor, Greece again

touched the older arts of Assyria and Egypt. The coffins found in

Mesopotamia are after the Assyrian type. From Tarsus come terra-cotta

works ornamented with green, in a simple style, closely allied to the

Greek. At Rhodes has been found a vase or pitcher of turquoise blue,

ribbed perpendicularly, and crossed at intervals by horizontal bands.

Such specimens take us back again to Egypt. In short, the history of

Asia Minor, its existence successively under Scythians, Medes, and

Persians, while it was receiving the surplus population of Greece from

the west, would lead us to look for what we only found in part in

Cyprus, namely, native styles moulded by influences from east, west, and

south. These generalizations are offered as a substitute for a more

connected history, for the construction of which intelligibly the

materials are wanting. Enough has been said to show that through many

different channels the arts of Egypt and the East set, in a long and

steady stream, toward Europe; that there, meeting with the rising

Hellenic civilization, they were transmuted and purified, and that from

the Hellenizing process emerged the admirable art now called Greek.

Meanwhile it is to be noted that, so far, we have made allusion to only

one-half of the debt which Europe owes to the East. Greece rejected the

rich coloring and fantastic forms which reached her from the centre of

all that was most brilliant in ceramics--the land between the Tigris and

Euphrates. These were seized with avidity by Persia, the only survivor,

in our time, of the four great monarchies of the East. Bright colors and

gorgeous combinations were grateful to the eye revelling in the splendor

almost unconsciously associated with the word “Oriental.” To Persia,

therefore, we must look, not only as the great conservator of previous

skill, but as the medium of its development into a higher form. That

part of her inheritance from Assyria and Babylonia which concerns us

now, was the knowledge of processes, of the deft mingling of colors, the

production of tints, and the skilful application of enamels. We have

seen to what purpose this knowledge was cultivated, in so far as the

evidences found within her own borders can show. We have seen what may

here be especially recalled, enamels and metallic lustre applied to

pottery, with an almost bewildering brilliancy.

We now approach the question of Persia’s contributions to the art. Can,

for example, none of the remains exhumed by Cesnola be claimed for

Persia? It appears not, at least not with certainty, although certain

plaques convey a hint of Persian workmanship. Whatever she left in

Cyprus, if anything, is hardly to be distinguished from the older works

of Assyria and Phœnicia. Had Persia, then, no originality, and where

beyond her own limits must we look for its distinctive impress. Let us

return for a moment to Persian history. We have already seen that the

country was occasionally overrun by surrounding nations, but the fact is

noticeable that when it could not resist, it absorbed its assailants.

Its nationality was preserved even in conquest. A similar capacity for

assimilation and independence is seen in its art. There can be no doubt

of its having drawn from Assyria and Babylonia. Its most ancient

architecture is sufficient to settle that point. But apart from that,

and keeping in view the influence of Mohammedanism and the influx of

Chinese wares and possibly workmen in the sixteenth century, the art of

Persia is marked throughout its entire course by certain distinguishing

features which invasion could not obliterate. The artistic instinct was

strong in the people as a whole; and conquest retarded the progress of

art only to see it rise again in all its first vigor, to be spread far

and wide even by those who had for a time hindered its native growth. In

this way we can trace its advance to Asia Minor and Rhodes, through

Egypt, along the northern coast of Africa, and thence to different

points in Southern Europe.

[Illustration: Fig. 160.--Saracen Tile. (Trumbull-Prime Coll., N. Y.

Metropolitan Museum.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 161.--Saracenic Tiles. Green and Dark-blue on White.

(Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]

The tracks we now follow are those of Eastern art in its second and more

modern progress toward the west. Persia was its real source. When the

Mohammedan Arabs overran Iran, they found art the handmaid to beauty and

luxury, to which they had been strangers. Essentially nomadic, the wild

fanatics from Arabia had given little attention to æsthetic culture.

They were captivated by what they found in Persia. If they modified it,

it was only to make it conformable to the behests of their religion. We

find, for example, a faience tile representing the sacred Temple of

Mecca, in two shades of blue, red, black, and pale-green, and with a

border of white and red. It is easy to imagine the caliphs of Bagdad

calling to their assistance the men whose works they had seen, to

complete the embellishment of their capital. The style called arabesque

is in all probability of Persian origin. In every collection of note are

examples of what is called Saracenic pottery. The Arabs were called

Saracens when they came to Europe, or met the arms of the Crusaders in

Palestine. Saracen pottery, therefore, is Persian modified by Arabian

taste or local style. And here, to save much trouble, and avoid the

confusion into which disputants over the wares of Damascus, Rhodes,

Cairo, and other localities might lead us, it may be as well, once for

all, to understand that at no place of which we have any knowledge were

the Saracens the first to introduce a rudimentary knowledge of pottery.

What they did was to bring with them certain distinctive styles; and

now, when all proofs of an earlier fabric are wanting, we may safely

take it for granted that it existed, and that the invaders and colonists

only superimposed a superior art. This should be borne in mind, because

it would be impossible to account for the abundant remains found on

certain sites by attributing them all to the Saracens. One of the first

things to which the Arabs turned their attention in each country to

which they carried their arms, was to raise mosques for the religions

observances attaching to their faith. The tomb of Mohammed, at Medina,

is covered with tiles so closely resembling those of Persia as to

suggest not only Persian inspiration, but Persian workmen. In Asia Minor

tiles belonging to the eleventh and twelfth centuries are abundant, of a

precisely similar character. History explains their presence there by

telling us that the Arabian or Saracenic conquerors sent for artists

from Persia to bring their skill to the embellishment of the new domain.

In this we have the key to much of the ceramic art of Asia Minor.

[Illustration: Fig. 162.--Faience Jug, from Rhodes.]

[Illustration: Fig. 163.--Faience Jug, from Rhodes.]

As to Rhodes and the origin of its faience (Fig. 162), we are tolerably

certain that in Persia was the source of the skill there developed.

History and tradition point to the same conclusion. Legend says that a

vessel bound for Venice, and having some Persian potters on board, was

wrecked on the island, and that there a manufactory was founded (Fig.

163). Possibly on this tradition the conjecture was based that a Persian

colony had settled there. In any case, Rhodes was occupied by Persians

in the seventh century, and then by the Greeks. When the crusading fever

was at its height, the knights of St. John held the island until

expelled by the Turks. It was probably these knights who captured a

vessel laden with Persian pottery and artists, and compelled the latter

to found the manufacture at Rhodes. At the Musée de Cluny are specimens

of their work, plainly Persian, but adapted to the changed condition and

limited appliances of the potters. The Rhodian differs little from the

Persian. The colors are less brilliant, and the ornamentation in relief

is like that found on vases and tiles in Asia Minor. The predominating

colors are white and blue for grounds and red for designs. Similarly as

to Damascus, it is beyond reasonable doubt that potteries existed there.

Their ruins are said to have been found; and it is probable that, so far

from importing the wares, Damascus supplied orders from without. These

facts lead to the conclusion that Persian art was carried by the

Saracens or their Christian opponents to the same countries that

Egyptian and Assyrian art had reached centuries before.

[Illustration: Fig. 164.--Maghreb Urn.]

Turning now to the south and west, we follow the line of Saracenic

conquest along the north coast of Africa until it reached the Atlantic

Ocean. Egypt first fell under Mussulman control, and the standard of

Islam was carried westward from the Nile. Thirteen hundred years after

Battus founded Cyrene, the Mussulman Keironan was built upon its ruins.

In Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco the Saracenic works multiply. One

traveller in Tunisia describes a mosque with the walls overlaid with

tiles of many patterns. Another, crossing Algeria, visits the mosque at

Telemeen, and finds _azulejos_ (from the Arabic for “varnished tile”)

equal to those of Granada, and tiling in blue, red, and yellow, again

compelling a comparison with the works of the Moors in Spain. The

brilliant domes and mosaic pavements of mosques and houses mark the

Saracenic progress. Besides these, many examples of urns and other

vessels of Saracenic fabrication have been found, colored in brown,

yellow, blue, and green, in styles not far removed from the Persian.

Viewed comprehensively, the pottery of Northern Africa (Fig. 164) would

show pieces of local fabrication, and Persian styles and processes

modified by removal from their eastern centre. What concerns us chiefly

is that the Saracenic predominates. It is reasonable to suppose that the

invaders, in order to decorate the edifices which quickly gave

indication of their presence, sent for tiles to the seats of the

industry in the East. Afterward, when the Mussulman power had been

firmly established, factories were built, and a new industry rose among

the conquered people. Imitations are mingled with works showing a

developing originality. The Mussulman and Persian traditions become

modified, and the symbolical meaning of the animals painted on the

dishes and basins appears to have become obscure to the artists

employing them as decoration.

A great deal of the African pottery can only be taken as a basis for

conjecture. Its place of manufacture is unknown. Its style is peculiar

and its coloring unique. It is not impossible that European art was

paying the debt it had incurred to Southern teachers. Ceramic art

travelled with the Saracens wherever they went. How far that was may be

estimated from the fact that they conquered within eighty years as much

territory as it had taken Rome four hundred years to bring into

subjection. They crossed into Spain, Sicily, and Italy, and there

planted settlements. A great deal has been said of the _reflet à

métallique_ and stanniferous enamel, and notably of the _discovery_ of

the latter in Italy. Both came from the East, and reached Europe through

the Saracens. The employment of tin in producing a white opaque enamel

was, as we have seen, known to the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and

Assyrians. It does not appear to have been so highly esteemed as the

silicious glaze by means of which the Persians worked their greatest

ceramic wonders, but it was not forgotten. Fragmentary evidences of its

use by the Saracens are found in the places which they passed, and it

is, at least, more reasonable to suppose that through them the process

reached Europe, than that it was rediscovered there. One is almost

wearied with the endless conjectures on these matters. We find a certain

art in the East. We trace the different channels of communication with

Europe. We find Greece touching Asia Minor, trade binding Phœnicia

with every port in the Mediterranean, Etruria bringing to her own ports

the manufactures of Eastern experts, colonies settling in all manner of

places and coming from many sources. It has been plainly demonstrated

that the lines of intercourse cross and recross in a hundred different

ways and directions. When, therefore, we have it proved to a

demonstration that analogous knowledge was transmitted by certain

routes, it is hardly worth one’s while to discuss the European discovery

of a process which we know did not originate there, however much it may

have been improved.

The art which we call Hispano-Moresque might, therefore, with equal

propriety, be called Persico-Spanish or Hispano-Saracenic. Spain was

twice overrun by Mohammedan conquerors. In the eighth century (711) the

Arabs subdued the Goths and founded the Caliphate of Cordova. It is both

singular and disappointing that no ceramic relic of this period has

been found. The Spanish, even under the sway of Rome, had attained to a

comparative excellence in the art, and the productions resulting from

the union of original traditions with Arabian influences would have

formed an interesting link in our history. The Arabians remained for

about five hundred years, when, in 1235 the Moors overturned the Arab

rule, and founded the kingdom of Granada. The Moors succumbed, in their

turn, to Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1492, and between these two dates,

1235 and 1492, was the golden era of the ceramic art of Spain.

Meantime it is to be observed, as showing the possible and actual extent

of Persian influence:

_Firstly._--That under the Moorish sway a colony of Persians existed in

Spain. This, according to Major R. Murdoch Smith, is attested by a

document recently brought to notice by a Spanish traveller in Persia,

assigning the town Rioja to the Persians as their place of residence.

_Secondly._--That mosaic work has been found in Persia, composed of star

and cross shaped tiles of different colors fitted together, and that

similar tiles are made in Spain at the present time.

_Thirdly._--That in Persia are found the prototypes of the Spanish style

of ornamenting vaults with hanging-work, like plaster stalactites.

_Fourthly._--That, according to Piot, “numerous Persian faience plaques

and pieces of vases, resembling those of our own time, are found

encrusted in the white marble of a church in Naples.”

_Fifthly._--That Mr. Drury C. Fortnum has found a specimen of Persian

ware in the church of St. Cecilia, at Pisa. The piece is clearly Persian

in style, black arabesques on a blue ground, similar to others found at

Rhages.

_Sixthly._--That the Saracens overran Sicily in the ninth century, and

that a Moorish colony landed there some centuries later.

The corollary deducible from these facts is clear, viz., that in Persian

art, as brought into Europe by the Moors, Arabs, or Saracens, and by the

Persians themselves, we must find the bridge upon which to cross from

the ancient arts of Assyria and Babylonia to those of Italy and Spain.

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