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.
The ceramic history of the British Isles is invested with a peculiar
interest by reason of its nearly perfect continuity from the early
Celtic works to the Romano-British wares, the early Saxon, the Norman
mediæval imitations of Saracenic tiling, the lead-glazed wares of the
sixteenth century, the stone-ware of the same period, the pottery of
Staffordshire and Wedgwood, the first appearance of English porcelain,
and so on, downward, to the works of Minton, Doulton, and others at the
present time. In no other country do we find material for an equally
lucid illustration of the regular advance of the art from the primitive
and rude to the elaborate, beautiful, and skilful. England supplies us
with a wonderful and in every way admirable picture of the efficacy of
persistent skilled endeavor in contending with technical difficulty.
From the old tumuli, or barrows, have been exhumed urns in which were
held the cinerary remains of the dead (Fig. 309). The differences
existing among them are such, in regard to both composition, shape, and
ornament, that they evidently belong to different periods and to
different branches or tribes of the early British population. They have
been found all over England, from the Channel Islands to
Northumberland. They are sun-dried and hand-made, and have wide
orifices, often expanding gradually from a comparatively narrow base to
the lip. They are pale in color, either yellow or gray, and the
ornamentation consists of zigzags, frets, and studs.
In Scotland the general character of the remains is the same as that of
the English. The appearance of a number of them suggests, however, the
use of the wheel. They have been exhumed in every part of Scotland, from
the Tweed to the Orkney Islands.
[Illustration: Fig. 309.--Group of Ancient British Vases.]
The Irish urns are somewhat in advance of those found in England and
Scotland. The red paste shows that considerable care was bestowed upon
its preparation, and the entire body is very often covered with
ornaments of lines and zigzags. As in the case of the English and
Scotch, we are indebted for the preservation of these relics of the
Irish Celts to a usage which our researches have shown to be almost
universal, that of employing urns in connection with the interment of
the dead. Cremation was not resorted to in every instance. The Celts put
the ashes in the urns, or covered them by inverting the urns over the
spot where the ashes were laid, or placed their sepulchral vases round
the unburnt remains.
[Illustration: Fig. 310.--Celtic Urn.]
[Illustration: Fig. 311.--Celtic Pottery, found in Staffordshire.]
In the first century before Christ the tide of Roman conquest passed the
white cliffs of Albion, and a new element was introduced into its
ceramics. There, as elsewhere, the Romans made and imported the ware, of
which examples have been brought to light all over the old Roman Empire,
from England to Jerusalem. The extent to which the manufacture was
carried in England may be estimated from one fact stated by Dr. Birch,
that the Roman potteries have been traced for twenty miles along the
gravel banks of the Nen, in Northamptonshire. Caistor, in the same
county, is an exceptionally interesting locality, as both early Celtic
wares and the remains of a Roman kiln have been found there. Under the
Romans it must have been an important seat of the manufacture, as its
productions have been unearthed at several places on the Continent--in
France and the Low Countries. The Caistor ware is very often ornamented
with unusual skill and taste by means of reliefs. The Roman Samian ware
is found in many sections of England, whither it was probably imported.
Some of the specimens belonging to the latter part of the Roman period,
and to be classed as Anglo-Roman, are of a thin black paste, carefully
wrought and totally devoid of ornament. After the arrival of the Saxons
the pottery was more closely allied to the Teutonic found in Germany
(Fig. 314).
[Illustration: Fig. 312.--Romano-British Ware.]
[Illustration: Fig. 313.--Romano-British Upchurch Ware.]
[Illustration: Fig. 314.--Saxon Vase.]
The urns are black, hand-made, and stamped with a variety of decorative
designs. The shapes are heavy, and the appliances for firing were
apparently of a rude kind. Of the Anglo-Saxon period few relics have
been discovered, and little is in consequence known. One fragment of the
eleventh century, or possibly earlier, is described by Mr. Marryat as
“of a yellow color, coarsely made and unglazed.” It seems probable that
the disturbances attendant upon the Norman invasion in 1066 distracted
the popular attention from the plastic art, as the next evidences of its
pursuit belong chiefly to the thirteenth century. These are the tiles
employed in paving the ecclesiastical edifices of the day. In the
greater number the patterns are inlaid, or filled in with white paste,
and the whole then glazed yellow. To this class belong the thirteenth
century tiles from Chertsey Abbey, in Surrey, and those of the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries from Malmesbury Abbey and Malvern.
Those from Chertsey are peculiarly elaborate. One has a scene
representing a king and a female harper, surrounded by a circular
border, the whole forming the inside of a square richly ornamented in
the corners and on the sides. The Malvern tiles are also very
elaborately decorated with designs of an apparently heraldic character.
Another style of tile decoration, followed from the thirteenth to the
eighteenth century, consisted of mouldings in relief. The glaze is green
or brown.
[Illustration: Fig. 315.--Anglo-Norman Vases.]
In others the patterns are incised, but not filled in. A very good
example of this style is to be seen in Crauden’s chapel at Ely. The
fourth style of decoration was upon the _pate-sur-pate_ principle--a
white paste being employed as a pigment upon the body of the tile, after
which the piece was glazed. The introduction of tiling for pavements and
walls was evidently in a great measure due to English intercourse with
Spain and the East. Toward the close of the eleventh century, while
England had not yet recovered from the first shock of the Norman
invasion, Peter the Hermit was carrying from land to land the
anti-Saracenic Gospel of the Sword, which led to the First Crusade.
Fifty years later, in 1147, the Second Crusade was organized, while
England was still groaning under the oppression of her rulers. In the
first quarter of the twelfth century the Saxon chronicler says: “God
sees the wretched people most unjustly oppressed: first they are
despoiled of their possessions, then butchered.” Under Stephen, “Men
said openly that Christ and his saints were asleep.” Clearly this was no
time either for joining in crusades or cultivating art. When, in 1189,
the Third Crusade was arranged, Richard the Lion-hearted was one of the
three sovereigns who joined in the ineffectual enterprise. With his
followers may have been brought back the incentives to art cultivation
which make their effects apparent in the next century. The government
was, in the mean time, taking the form which it assumed before the end
of the thirteenth century, and which it has retained ever since.
Political and art history here run exactly parallel. Given disorder and
despairing apathy, and art is unknown. But let order take the place of
chaos, and constitutional rule that of despotism, and the discarded arts
again blossom into flower. Eastern influences manifested themselves in
England almost contemporaneously with the revival of the ceramic art. On
one specimen from Ely, a scriptural subject--Eve offering the apple to
Adam, while a human-headed serpent coils itself round the tree--is
surrounded by several designs of clearly Saracenic or Moorish
inspiration.
[Illustration: Fig. 316.--Old Tile from Salisbury. (Boston Household Art
Rooms.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 317.--Old Tile from Milton Abbey. (Boston Household
Art Rooms.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 318.--Old Tile from Chester. (Boston Household Art
Rooms.)]
For at least four centuries tiles formed the staple production of the
potters of England. The annals indicate a popular indifference to the
domestic use of earthen-ware, which contrasts strongly with more
southern preferences. In the reign of Edward I. a chance cargo from
Spain, containing some plates and other household table-wares, reached
England, but failed to affect the national use of wooden trenchers,
leathern jugs, and metal. Lead-glazed pottery was, however, made as
early as the fourteenth century, though not to a great extent. The
specimens which have been preserved are generally coarse in texture, and
are covered with green or yellow glaze. A ewer of the thirteenth or
fourteenth century is rudely designed to represent a mounted knight.
Other examples of the same period are jugs, of which some are
inartistically formed, while others are not devoid of a certain
gracefulness of shape. Costrels, or costrils (elongated bottles which
answered the purpose of the modern flask), occur of a red paste with red
and white glaze. A candlestick with white studs for ornaments has been
found of the same red color.
As we pass to the later works of English potters, we become conscious of
the difficulty of following our usual plan of dividing them into
pottery, stone-ware with vitrified fracture, and porcelain. The
treatment of the name of Wedgwood alone would make such an arrangement
undesirable, as tending to break the continuity of our narrative.
Stone-ware and earthen-ware will therefore be considered together.
The making of both enamelled pottery and stone-ware appears to have been
an imported industry. Dutch potters are said to have settled at both
Lambeth and Fulham in the seventeenth century, and to have there
originated the manufacture of what was called “Delft,” after the name of
the seat of the industry in Holland. White wine-pots of this ware date
from about the middle of the seventeenth century. Plates, oval and round
dishes, mugs and cups, of the same ware appear in various collections,
some with figures in relief, others with paintings in brown, blue,
yellow, and green, and others with medallions or mottoes. They generally
date from between 1650 and 1690. Delft was also made in Liverpool and in
Staffordshire.
The first mention of stone-ware occurs in 1581, in the petition of a
certain William Simpson, for “full power and onlie licence to provyde,
transport, and bring into this realm, drinking stone pottes” made at
Cologne and transported into England by a dealer living in
Aix-la-Chapelle. As a reason why his prayer should be granted, Simpson
stated that he would, “as much as in him lieth, drawe the making of such
like pottes into some decayed town within this realm, whereby many
hundred poore men may be sett a work.” Whether he found some decayed
town suitable for the carrying out of his philanthropic intent does not
appear; but in 1588 a Delft potter was carrying on his business at
Sandwich. Lambeth, Fulham, and the Staffordshire potteries appear among
the later producers of stone-ware.
[Illustration: Fig. 319.--Posset-pot. Staffordshire. Fifteenth century.
(Bateman Coll.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 320.--Staffordshire Tyg, or Drinking-cup.]
The leading English centres are the Staffordshire Potteries, including
Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, the Fentons, and other towns comprising
Stoke-upon-Trent, Lambeth, Fulham, Liverpool, Leeds, Lowestoft, Bristol,
Yarmouth, and Nottingham. Of these the place of honor must be accorded
to Staffordshire. It has been associated with the ceramic art ever since
the Roman invasion; and the name of a family in the district
(Tellwright) is adduced as a proof that under the Saxons the advantages
of the locality for the making of pottery were fully recognized. The
name is a corruption of tile-wright, or potter. Many interesting facts
relating to English pottery in general, and to that of Staffordshire in
particular, are brought together by Mr. Marryat, whose able work
deserves the study of all desirous of following the gradual development
of the art in England. Early specimens of Staffordshire ware are the
butter-pots of the period, and the tall vessels (Fig. 320) called
“Tygs.” About 1650, Thomas and Ralph Toft and Thomas Sans were making
round dishes with some pretensions to an ornamental character. The year
1680 was made memorable by the discovery of salt glaze. The story goes
that a servant of Mr. Joseph Yates, occupant of Stanley Farm, near
Palmer’s Pottery, Bagnall, was boiling salt in water preparatory to
using it in curing pork. An earthen pot was used as a pan, and the
servant having left it for a time, the water boiled over, and would also
appear to have all boiled away, since the pan became red hot. When it
cooled it was found to be covered with what was afterward known as salt
glaze. The hint was quickly taken by the potters in the neighborhood,
and the process soon became common. The Burslem makers adopted it in
1690, and called the salt-glazed ware “Crouch-ware.” Five years earlier,
Mr. Thomas Miles was making stone-ware at Shelton, and the district
production from about that time increased very rapidly.
[Illustration: Fig. 321.--Teapot. Elers Ware.]
[Illustration: Fig. 322.--Medallion of Wedgwood, by Flaxman. On Monument
in Stoke Parish Church.]
At Bradwell, in 1690, the Elers brothers, from Nuremberg, who had
crossed with the Prince of Orange, set up one of the first
establishments worked upon a regular mercantile basis. It had been for
some time the object of both native and Dutch potters to imitate the red
ware of China, and the Elers were the first to reach approximate
success. Having discovered a bed of red clay, they set about working it
in conjunction with gray stone-ware, with which they produced very fine
reliefs (Fig. 321). Notwithstanding the strictest watchfulness, and the
employment of semi-idiotic workmen, their secret was stolen by one
Astbury, who for several years feigned idiocy in order to be allowed to
work in their place, and in that way secure possession of their methods.
The competition then became so great in their neighborhood that in
twenty years they closed their establishment. Their reliefs were
remarkably sharp in outline, and the paste was of fine quality.
[Illustration: Fig. 323.--Cameo Medallion, by Flaxman. Mrs. Siddons as
Lady Macbeth.]
It is curious to find that to another accident the Staffordshire potters
were indebted for the discovery of the value of calcined flint mixed in
the paste. A son of the above named Astbury was riding through Dunstable
in 1720, when he noticed symptoms of disorder in his horse’s eyes. The
hostler at the inn where he stopped undertook to cure the animal by
burning some flint and blowing the powder thus produced into the horse’s
eyes. Astbury saw the dust, and it at once occurred to him that it might
be useful in his business. From calcined flint, sand, and pipe-clay
colored by means of oxides, were made the wares called “Agate” and
“Tortoise-shell.” Then followed the adoption of plaster of Paris moulds
and a more general resort to mouldings in bas-relief.
We now approach the era made illustrious by the name of Mr. Josiah
Wedgwood (Fig. 322), the greatest of English potters, of whom it has
been said, in the most unqualified terms: “With him the ceramic art
received its highest development in ancient or modern times; for while
greater beauty of decoration in painting characterized other wares, he
produced the noblest artistic results of the moulding in clay.” However
much others may be led by individual preference to qualify this
encomium, there is no doubt that Wedgwood ranks among the highest names
known in the history of English ceramic art. Born at Burslem, in
Staffordshire, in 1730, of a family which had been engaged in the making
of pottery for many years, Josiah enjoyed in early life none of the
educational advantages which might have developed in him the promise of
his future brilliant career. It is highly probable that his schooling
did not carry him farther than reading and writing, and at the age of
eleven we find him engaged as a thrower in his brother’s workshop. Then
came sickness in the worst of all its forms, smallpox, which left him so
lame that amputation of one leg became necessary, and ended his career
at the wheel. It is possible that, in current phraseology, this
misfortune may have been a blessing in disguise. He at once turned his
attention to the production of ornamental pottery and the imitation of
precious stones, mixing variously compounded clays with oxides, and
otherwise experimenting.
[Illustration: Fig. 324.--Black Basaltes. (Meyer Coll.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 325.--Black and White Jasper. (Barlow Coll.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 326.--Early Wedgwood. Blue; Moulded. (W. S. Ward
Coll.)]
The idea must have got abroad that he had talent, as, at the age of
twenty-two, we find him in partnership with a Mr. Harrison, and then, in
1754, with Mr. Thomas Wheildon, of Fenton. This gentleman lacked his
partner’s enterprise, and in 1759 Wedgwood was in business for himself,
at Burslem, at first in a small way, then in a larger, and again in a
still larger manufactory. In the last he made the ware called
“Queen’s-ware”--a cream-colored fabric of very delicate color, composed
of white clay mixed with flint, and brilliantly glazed. It derived its
name from a specimen service having been accepted by Queen Charlotte.
His fortune was now practically guaranteed, and his career an assured
success. Court patronage made him the fashion in England, and we also
find him engaged in an export business. Prosperity did not rob him of
any of his early enterprise, but rather acted upon him as an incentive
to farther and greater exertion. He continued studying, investigating,
and experimenting, and with the assistance of his partner, Mr. Bentley,
pushed his business in all directions. Several kinds of earthen-ware and
stone-ware were produced by him (Fig. 326), and after effecting various
improvements upon his table ware, he turned his attention to those
imitations of the antique, and of cameos, intaglios, and seals, with
which his name is indissolubly associated. With these are to be classed
his fifty copies of the Barberini, or Portland vase (Fig. 327). The
original is glass in two strata--dark blue and opaque white--and is an
example of Roman work of the second or third century. It was bought by
the Duke of Portland for £1029.
These works admit of no classification. Some are earthen-ware, others
stone-ware, and others are of such a composition that they may be most
correctly classed with porcelain. The name “Basaltes” was given to a
series of imitations of Egyptian styles in black biscuit, with reliefs
in white and red (Figs. 324 and 325). More charming than these is the
jasper or onyx ware from the blue or soft green ground of which the
white busts (Fig. 328), figures, and flowers stand out in the most
exquisite relief. The biscuit is a porcelaneous stone-ware, colored all
through by means of oxides. Wedgwood made in all more than two thousand
copies of antique gems.
[Illustration: Fig. 327.--The Barberini, or Portland Vase.]
In 1771 Wedgwood removed from Burslem to Etruria, a village which he
erected in proximity to his works, and for the accommodation of his
workmen. There he also built for himself a handsome residence, which he
occupied until his death, in 1795, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.
His decorated cream-colored ware had, in the mean time, become known all
over Europe, in India, and in this country. In 1775 he made a service
for the Empress Catherine II. of Russia, undervalued at fifteen thousand
dollars. We close our brief sketch of his remarkable career by noting
that the success of the Etruria of his foundation was based upon
commerce, and not upon royal patronage; that his humblest works are
marked by a thoroughness and fitness parallel with the artistic
qualities of his higher pieces; and that excellence of workmanship was
in all cases his primary aim. One of his contemporaries and successors
was Mr. Enoch Wood, who established a workshop at Burslem in 1770, and
was succeeded by Messrs. Caldwell & Wood.
[Illustration: Fig. 328.--Wedgwood Jasper-ware. (John W. Britton Coll.)]
The later products of the Wedgwood factory are hardly less varied than
those of its founder’s lifetime. The jasper-ware is still produced, and
although some of the pieces lack the exquisite finish of the original,
others show little, if any, inferiority. The plate of blue jasper, with
white decoration, given in the illustration (Fig. 330), is a remarkably
fine example of recent work. The Wedgwood majolica is, both in regard to
color and the modelling of the ornaments and figures, unsurpassed by any
similar ware of the present time. Of this the vase (Fig. 331) is an
excellent illustration. The body is a clear deep blue.
[Illustration: Fig. 329.--Recent Wedgwood Earthen-ware. (D. Collamore.)]
In our time the Staffordshire Potteries maintain their old repute. One
well-known name is that of Minton. It occurs in three firms, all located
in the Potteries: Minton & Co.; Minton, Hollins & Co., of
Stoke-upon-Trent; and Mr. Robert Minton Taylor, of Fenton. The
establishment of Minton & Co. was founded while Wedgwood was still
alive, by Mr. Thomas Minton, in 1791. The founder of the firm had been
successively an employé of Mr. Thomas Turner, of Caughley, and of Spode,
before, in 1788, he went to Stoke, and there bought land and built a
house and factory. In 1790 he took Spode’s manager, Mr. Joseph Paulson,
into partnership, and in 1793 assumed a second partner, Mr. Pownall. The
latter retired in 1800, and Paulson died in 1809, after which, for a
number of years, Thomas Minton carried on the works alone. Previous to
1798 the factory made nothing but earthen-ware, the greater portion of
which was decorated in blue and white, after the type supplied by the
porcelain of Nankin.
[Illustration: Fig. 330.--Modern Wedgwood Jasper. (Tiffany & Co.)]
In 1817 Herbert Minton, a younger son of Thomas, was taken in as partner
by his father, and although he practically retired from the business
between 1823 and 1836, he succeeded to it in the latter year on the
death of the founder. He went into partnership first with Mr. John
Boyle, who subsequently joined the Wedgwoods, and secondly with Michael
Daintry Hollins. At the time of his death, in 1858, he had two partners,
Hollins and Colin Minton Campbell. At that time fifteen hands were
employed in the factory. Herbert had directed his attention to the wide
range of works which have since given the name of Minton a world-wide
reputation. These were earthen-ware, artificial porcelain, natural
porcelain, parian, encaustic tiles, azulejos, mosaics, Della Robbia
ware, Palissy ware, and majolica. The Mintons divide with Copeland the
honor of first making parian. Both firms exhibited it at the London
Exhibition of 1851, and the jury to which the question of priority was
referred could not decide between them. To continue the history of the
firm, Colin Minton Campbell dissolved his partnership with Hollins in
1868, and now carries on the business in connection with his cousins,
Thomas, William, and Herbert Minton, the great-grandsons of the founder.
[Illustration: Fig. 331.--Wedgwood Majolica. (Horace Russell Coll.)]
The firm now ranks with the first of English manufacturers. Their
enterprise has traversed a field as wide as that into which Wedgwood
entered, and their success has been very great. In the pursuit of the
commercial they have not neglected the artistic. It is said of Wedgwood
that he copied and imitated everything worth imitating. Minton & Co.
have followed a similar course, though in a different direction.
Twenty-five years ago we find them attempting to make natural porcelain,
but the enterprise was abandoned. When the taste for Oriental styles
revived, they were among the first to succeed in gratifying the public
whim. In doing so they produced specimens of color highly praiseworthy,
and of a beauty vividly recalling that of the Oriental originals. Their
Persian ware and _pate changeante_ have both excited the admiration of
connoisseurs. The Mintons have also been successful in reproducing with
wonderful fidelity the _cloisonné_ enamel of China and Japan, using a
porcelain base. Here, as in the Persian ware, their turquoise blue is
very effective, and the decoration in enamels reflects faithfully the
tone of Oriental ornament. Leaving the East, Minton & Co. have been no
less fortunate in imitating the Italian Grafitto ware of the fifteenth
century, and the famous inlaid Henri Deux ware of France. Several
specimens of the latter were exhibited by Messrs. A. B. Daniell & Son at
the Centennial Exhibition, and included a teapot, a pitcher, and a pair
of candlesticks, all of pale yellow body inlaid with red. Examples are
in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and in the collections of Mr. Walters
and Mr. W. L. Andrews. A mere reference must suffice for their majolica
(Fig. 334), which is rather an independent product than an imitation of
the majolica of Italy. It is peculiar both in composition and in the
colors employed in its decoration, and is fired at a very high
temperature. Mr. Herbert Minton was the first to copy the azulejos of
Spain. The above are only a few of the achievements which might be
adduced to show how Minton & Co. have boldly essayed to duplicate the
choicest products of ceramic art. One is forcibly reminded by them of
the Chinese workman’s delight in contending with technical difficulty
for the mere sake of surmounting it. Among their artists are Mr. Solon,
W. S. Stevens, Charles Toft, H. Darling, J. Leese, M. Mussill, Kirby,
Mellor Slater, F. Fuller, and H. Protat.
[Illustration: Fig. 332.--Minton Stone-ware. (D. Collamore.)]
The firm of Minton, Hollins & Co., of Stoke-upon-Trent, was founded by
Michael Daintry Hollins, on the dissolution of his partnership with
Colin Minton Campbell in 1868. He built extensive works, and began to
make majolica and encaustic tiles, slabs, panels, and other similar
wares. The firm now produces an almost endless variety of tiles. At the
Centennial Exhibition this firm was represented by some pieces of great
brilliancy of color and very careful drawing. In one scene two finely
plumaged wading-birds appeared among the water-lilies in a brook. The
soft gray of the feathers tipped with bright blue, and the green of the
reeds and other plants, were thrown out well by the dark-brown
background. On some smaller pieces birds of tropically gay plumage were
painted upon a sombre chocolate ground. On others were flowers and
butterflies upon a pale ground. The style of treatment is purely
Oriental. Drawing and color are paramount. The ground is merely
intended for contrast with, or the heightening of, the superimposed
decoration. Some beautiful heads of dogs, lions, and asses were
marvellous examples of animal portraiture, and illustrated the capacity
of tiling for the reception of that style of decoration. In them was
seen the work of an artist who fully understood that, given the
requisite mastery of color, a tile may be employed as a more lasting
substitute for canvas. It is also worth noting that whenever tiles are
used for covering a large surface, and each one is treated as a unit,
the result is an artistic blunder. The eye wearies with monotonous
repetition, and no minuteness of finish in the single tile can relieve
the bewildering effect of the mass. Minton, Hollins & Co. have been
fortunate in designing fire-places of tiling, with side paintings of
birds and flowers, and larger scenes above the mantel, of a character in
keeping with their place in a household.
[Illustration: Fig. 333.--Minton Plaque, by Mussill. (Tiffany & Co.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 334--Minton’s Prometheus Vase. (Corcoran Art
Gallery.)]
From the Trent we pass to Lambeth, near London. It was here that in 1640
the Dutch makers of stone-ware and delft settled. At one time there were
twenty different establishments, but on the rise of Staffordshire their
number decreased under the weight of competition. Some of the early
Lambeth ware is very skilfully painted, the tiles with a blue ground
being especially commendable. At the present time Lambeth is best known
by its Doulton ware and Lambeth faience. The Doulton or Lambeth pottery
was founded by Mr. John Doulton, who was born at Lambeth in 1793. He
served an apprenticeship with White of Fulham, and in 1815 associated
Mr. John Watts with himself in establishing the present pottery. Mr.
Watts died in 1858, and Mr. Doulton in 1873, and the business is now in
the hands of Messrs. Henry and James D. Doulton, sons of the founder. In
1870 they first issued an artistic ware, and in 1872 turned out the
first specimen of what they have called “Lambeth faience.” The “Doulton
ware” may, without detracting from the originality of much of the
decoration, be described as a revival in both composition and style of
the German stone-ware, miscalled _Grès de Flandre_. Like other
stone-wares the body is highly silicious, close in texture, and very
brittle. The necessary firing takes several days to accomplish, and the
glaze is made by throwing salt into the kiln, according to the process
discovered, as we have seen, in Staffordshire, and long practised at
Lambeth. The body-tints are the result of washing the pieces in a
preparation of oxides, varied according to the shade desired. The
ornamentation is fourfold. It consists either of incrustations,
indented designs, incised figures or scenes, or colors. These methods
are occasionally combined. The Lambeth faience is a finer ware, and is
decorated under the glaze with paintings of flowers, landscapes,
portraits, and figures. The Messrs. Doultons’ artists are all taken from
the ranks of pupils in the Lambeth School of Art. Among them are Miss
Hannah B. Barlow, a very skilful animal painter, Mr. Arthur Barlow, Mr.
Frank A. Butler, Mrs. Sparkes, and Mr. George Tinworth.
[Illustration: Fig. 335.--Doulton Ware. (W. B. Dickerman Coll.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 336.--Doulton Ware. (W. B. Dickerman Coll.)]
A great deal of the Doulton ware very closely resembles the _Grès de
Flandre_ in its decoration, but even to these specimens is to be
accorded the originality resulting from a modified development of the
fundamental style. A larger experience may lead to something more
perfectly original. The present tendency appears to be toward an excess
of ornament, in some instances not a single square inch being left
uncovered. Studs and bosses are affixed in bands, are led over the
surface in floriated designs, and give the arched handles a peculiar
serrated appearance. A very ingenious design consists of incised broad
leaves overlapping each other, and becoming more sharply pointed and
elongated as they rise up the neck to the lip. Studs are then laid in
vertical bands from top to bottom, the lines converging as the leaves
become smaller. In many cases, however, the reliefs destroy the outline,
and mar the beauty of a host of otherwise admirable shapes. In the
matter of form, the Messrs. Doulton, in fact, leave little to be
desired. Many of their vases display a pure, classical gracefulness, and
others are possessed of a quaintness and novelty almost equally
attractive. Canettes, goblets, and small covered jars decorated with
plain or ornamental bands, and dotted with flower-like studs, are to be
classed among the best examples of the more characteristic or
distinctive style of Lambeth decoration.
[Illustration: Fig. 337.--Lambeth Faience.]
The plaques and tiles of Lambeth faience deserve separate notice. Some
of the smaller pieces illustrate the capacity of the ware for
portraiture. The drawing is invariably careful, and the coloring is
applied with both taste and delicacy. The colors will probably be
improved in time, and become more decided without losing anything in
softness. The pieces we have seen inspire us with this hope, and that
here again experience may lead to greater excellence. A large
tile-piece, by Mrs. Sparkes, representing the departure of the Pilgrim
Fathers, and painted upon two hundred and fifty-two tiles of Lambeth
faience, was exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition. The lady-artist is
deserving of all praise for her composition and drawing. The perspective
was very well managed, and the figures were brought out in strong relief
against a sky glowing with the rays of the setting sun.
[Illustration: Fig. 338.--Lambeth Faience. (D. Collamore.)]
The Messrs. Doulton have achieved some wonderful results in the
combination of terra-cotta with their stone-ware. At the Centennial
Exhibition they had a brown terra-cotta fireplace and mirror-frame, with
tiled panels and hearth and terra-cotta fender. In another mantel-piece,
of oak, a set of tiles in the panels showed admirably designed and
executed illustrations of scenes and characters from Shakspeare. In
these and other similar works a great deal of taste and ingenuity was
shown in the combination of material. A magnificent example of the
union of terra-cotta with Doulton ware is now in the Smithsonian
Institute at Washington (Fig. 340). It is a pulpit of red and light buff
terra-cotta with ornaments of blue stone-ware. The balusters on the
stairs leading up to the pulpit are Doulton ware ornamented with bands
of terra-cotta. Under the base of the balustrade, and round the pulpit
under the panels in front and on the sides, are bands of Doulton ware. A
similar band surrounds the alcoves or panels. The latter are by Mr.
George Tinworth, of London, and illustrate scenes in the life of Christ,
from the offering in the Temple of “a pair of turtle-doves or two young
pigeons” to the ascension. Of this artist’s execution, also, are the
panels in a baptismal font which accompanies the pulpit. These and other
similar works are so deeply sunk that they have the appearance of groups
of figures separately modelled and placed in the recess rather than of
mouldings in relief. They are in every way admirable. The expression and
attitudes of some of the faces and figures are marvellously life-like
and forcible.
[Illustration: Fig. 339.--Lambeth Faience. (D. Collamore.)]
Fulham owes the beginnings of its pottery to the Dutch. In 1684 Mr. John
Dwight was making stone-ware, earthen-ware, statues, and porcelain. The
latter was very soon discontinued. The production of other wares was
carried on by descendants of the founder.
The history of Bristol pottery is said to go back to the commencement of
the thirteenth century, but its first piece with a date is five hundred
years later. It is delft-ware, and is dated 1703. A German, named Wrede,
or Reed, is said to have made stone-ware about the same period.
Otherwise Bristol is unimportant in so far as earthen-ware is
concerned.
Leeds is one of the towns which, toward the close of the last century,
were adopted as fields for a pottery enterprise. It did an extensive
trade with the Continent in a cream-colored ware.
[Illustration: Fig. 340.--Terra-cotta Pulpit. (Smithsonian Institute.)]
Liverpool begins its history, in 1716, with the manufacture of delft.
The first event of any importance is the invention by Mr. John Sadler,
in 1753, of a method of printing upon earthen-ware. Wedgwood was in the
habit of sending Queen’s-ware to Sadler to be printed. In 1752 Mr.
Richard Chaffers set up an earthen-ware establishment, but soon turned
his attention to porcelain, which he succeeded in making after
discovering the necessary material in Devonshire. On his death the
enterprise came to an end. The next name of distinction is that of
Pennington, who, about 1760, made delft bowls and vases, some of which
were painted by an artist named Robinson. Pennington ultimately returned
to Worcester. In 1794 the “Herculaneum Pottery” was opened at
Birkenhead, and was worked until 1841.
[Illustration: Fig. 341.--Lambeth Faience. (Dr. H. G. Piffard Coll.)]
Mr. Herolin Luson made an ineffectual attempt to establish a pottery at
Lowestoft in 1756. His failure is to be attributed to the infidelity of
his workmen, who were induced by the London manufacturers to spoil the
ware. Notwithstanding the opposition which led competitors to resort to
similarly unworthy devices, Walker, Brown, Aldred, and Rickman founded a
workshop within a year of Luson’s failure, and by taking the necessary
precautions against treachery, placed it upon a permanent basis. It made
ware of every grade. The Lowestoft earthen-ware was usually decorated
with blue, and occasionally with red. The early porcelain was painted in
the same colors, and the later pieces were ornamented with flowers. The
latter are artistically drawn and colored, and equal the best work found
on English porcelain. Plain Chinese ware was imported and decorated at
Lowestoft; but the production ceased about the year 1830.
[Illustration: Fig. 342.--Lowestoft Pottery. (F. Robinson Coll.)]
It is questionable if ware of any kind was ever made at Yarmouth,
although it is certain that a decorating establishment and kiln existed
there probably about 1752. It is more than possible that this workshop
was in part supplied with Lowestoft biscuit.
Nottingham manufactured pottery from about 1650, and the business was
continued for at least a century. The precise period at which it came to
an end is not known.
The Shropshire factories were offshoots of those of Staffordshire. The
Brosely establishment was founded by Mr. Richard Thursfield, of Stoke,
in 1713, and passed from his family into the hands of the Roses of
Colebrookdale about 1799. A black stone-ware decorated with gilt or
with reliefs was the chief product.
Mr. Francis Place, of the Manor-house, York, made fine pottery or
stone-ware in the latter part of the seventeenth century. The well-known
“Rockingham ware” took its name from a brown pottery made upon the
estate of the Marquis of Rockingham, at Swinton, in Yorkshire. The
production originated in 1757, and the enterprise was subsequently
carried on by Mr. William Malpass (1765); Mr. Thomas Bingley (1778);
Messrs. John and William Bramfield (1807-1842), when the works stopped.
The brown teapots of this factory were at one time very fashionable in
England. Of these and other works each had its specialty of decoration
or composition, but to detail them in full would only complicate a
sketch in which it is intended to give merely salient points, on a
comprehensive plan.
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.
It may be as well to premise that the porcelain now made in England all
belongs to the soft, or, according to our classification, the artificial
class. Its composition has already been described. The leading seats of
the industry are Bow, Chelsea, Derby, Plymouth, Bristol, Worcester, and
a few workshops in the midland counties and Wales.
With the possible exceptions of Lowestoft and Bristol, Plymouth stands
alone as the only place in England at which a manufactory of hard, or
natural, porcelain ever existed (Fig. 343). This distinction is due to
the enterprise of William Cookworthy, who was born near Plymouth, in
1705. Cookworthy was a chemist and druggist, and was led into his
porcelain venture by the discovery of kaolin and petuntse near Helstone,
in 1755. Five years later his manufactory was running at Coxside, but
meeting with no adequate commercial support, he sold his patents, in
1772, to Richard Champion, of Bristol. The production then ceased.
Cookworthy’s first attempts were not encouraging, but perseverance
brought a certain measure of success, and his later works are of fine
quality. He procured a Sèvres painter, and also employed Bone, the
enameller and artist, and by their help turned out many valuable
services and pieces richly ornamented after the prevailing Oriental
styles, with birds, flowers, and insects.
[Illustration: Fig. 343.--Plymouth Hard Porcelain Coffee-pot.]
Before Cookworthy embarked in his porcelain enterprise at Plymouth,
artificial porcelain was made at Stratford-le-Bow and Chelsea. The
beginnings of the industry at neither place have ever been
satisfactorily freed from obscurity, and it is not known to which the
priority belongs. Thomas Frye, an Essex artist, superintended the works
at Bow for some time, and is said to have been the first who succeeded
in making English porcelain. He died in 1762. Probably the Bow and
Chelsea works both started about twenty years before that date. It is
certain that both stopped after less than fifty years existence. The
porcelain made at Stratford-le-Bow, and designated “Bow china,” is of
coarse paste, and is often found decorated with a bee either painted or
embossed (Fig. 344). The painting of flowers and scenes is not of a high
order, but the reliefs are frequently effective and well executed. The
Bow artists also made figure groups.
[Illustration: Fig. 344--Bow cream-jug.]
The decoration of early Chelsea porcelain closely followed the Chinese,
which it was intended to rival. The business there did not attain to
any eminence, nor did the art rise to a noticeable height, until the
works were patronized by the Court of George II and supported by the
Duke of Cumberland. Between 1750 and 1765, Chelsea porcelain most
closely approached its great Continental rivals (Fig. 345). After 1750
the manufacture could hardly be called an English enterprise, since
material and workmen were both imported from Germany. The management
also was in the hands of a foreigner named Spremont. The articles
produced included all the forms of Sèvres and Dresden, table services,
candlesticks, figures, vases, and the numberless designs among which the
inventive ingenuity of Continental artists was exercised. In 1784 the
works stopped. The Chelsea paste was extremely soft, and the glaze was
vitreous and liable to crack. The colors were superb, and included some
of the choicest found on Sèvres porcelain, besides at least one other, a
claret color, peculiar to Chelsea. Very high prices have been obtained
for this porcelain at auctions, more than a thousand dollars having been
given for a pair of vases. In design, workmanship, color, and
decoration, there are pieces of Chelsea porcelain unexcelled by any
other establishment, either English or foreign.
[Illustration: Fig. 345.--Chelsea Porcelain Vase.]
[Illustration: Fig. 346.--Derby Porcelain. Third Duesbury Period. (F.
Robinson Coll.)]
Mr. Duesbury, who purchased the Chelsea works in 1769 and finally
transferred them to Derby, had been making porcelain in the latter place
since 1750. He had also bought and transferred the Bow works, and
carried on a most extensive business, taking the place in public
estimation of the two establishments he had consolidated. The elder
Duesbury died about the year 1788, and the subsequent proprietorship is
not very clear. He appears, however, to have been succeeded by his son,
who died in 1798, and the works then fell to the third Duesbury, who
carried them on in conjunction with Michael Kean until they were
acquired by Robert Bloor in 1815. Bloor kept them until he died in 1849,
and then Locker & Co. held them until 1859, when they were assumed by
Stephenson & Hancock, of which firm Mr. Hancock, the surviving partner,
came into sole possession in 1866. The ware was called Chelsea-Derby
from 1769 to 1773, when it received the name of Crown-Derby, a crown
having been added to the mark after a visit of the king and queen. The
Derby paste was very fine and translucent, and in the production of
biscuit figures it was unrivalled. The best of the old Derby colors was
a beautiful bright blue.
[Illustration: Fig. 347.--Bloor-Derby Porcelain. (F. Robinson Coll.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 348.--Old Worcester Porcelain. (Robert Hoe, Jun.,
Coll.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 349.--Worcester Porcelain. (G. Collamore.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 350.--Worcester Porcelain. (D. Collamore.)]
The Worcester works were founded in 1751, by a company headed by Dr.
Wall. To this gentleman has been ascribed the invention of printing on
porcelain, which we have already found in use on pottery in Liverpool in
1753. The matter is involved in doubt, as the process was in vogue at
Battersea about the same period, and it is improbable that it was
simultaneously invented at three different establishments so far apart.
However this may be, Dr. Wall availed himself of the invention, and
handled it with great skill and precision. Steatite obtained from
Cornwall was first used by the company in 1770, and in 1783 the Messrs.
Flight bought up the original establishment, which had found competitors
in the Chamberlains, who had commenced business as decorators in 1786.
In 1788 the works were visited by King George III., who became a patron
of Flight, and were afterward called the Royal Worcester Porcelain
Works. One of the Flights died in 1791, and a partnership was formed by
the survivor with Martin Barr in 1793. The concern was carried on under
the firm of Flight & Barr until 1807, when it became Barr, Flight &
Barr, Jun., and in 1829 another change was made to Flight, Barr & Barr.
It retained that form until 1840, when an amalgamation was effected with
the Chamberlains. In 1862 a joint-stock company was formed, under which
Mr. R. W. Binns, the author of a history of Worcester potting, acted as
superintendent of the artistic department. It is estimated that at
present upward of four hundred workmen are employed in the Worcester
establishment, which is made all the more interesting by reason of its
being one of the few survivors of the old English works. Every effort
is made to bring the porcelain to perfection, and the body and
decoration are both very fine. The Worcester paste does not appear at
first to have equalled that of some other English centres, but its
yellowish tinge made it very well suited for the brilliant color
demanded by the Oriental styles of decoration. The process of transfer
printing is said to have been perfected by Josiah Holdship, who was
assisted by his brother Richard in engraving the plates. Robert Hancock
was also an engraver in the factory. Some rare specimens of transfer
printing are found painted with colors and gold, by which means good
imitations of Dresden were made. This success led to the adoption of the
Dresden mark, a practice to which the Worcester manufacturers seem to
have been too much addicted, as the marks of several of the leading
workshops are found upon their wares. At the present time the Worcester
factory is turning out a great deal of excellent work. The table ware,
of which an example is given (Fig. 351), is generally tastefully and
often brilliantly decorated. The colors in the specimen given are
yellow, red, blue, green, and gold, very judiciously combined, and have
a warm and rich effect. The portrait plaque (Fig. 349) is by A. Handley,
and is executed in flat colors. The flesh-tint is especially soft and
refined. It is a highly satisfactory example of its class.
[Illustration: Fig. 351.--Worcester Porcelain. (D. Collamore.)]
A work widely differing from either of the above is the basket vase
(Fig. 350), with rustic handles and feet, and decorated with leafy
branches in relief. The only color used is a pale shade of blue, which
deepens in the interstices of the wicker-work. These examples have been
chosen not for any exceptional qualities, but for the purpose of
illustrating the average products of a factory which ranks among the
first in England.
The Mintons, although devoting themselves chiefly to stone-ware and
earthen-ware, made porcelain at an early period of their history. This
occurred in 1798, when a semi-translucent porcelain of inferior quality
was made. The production ceased in 1811, and was taken up subsequently
by Herbert Minton. Their _pate-sur-pate_ has been noticed under France,
but we here give a superb specimen of their decoration in that style by
Mr. Solon (Fig. 352).
[Illustration: Fig. 352. Pate-sur-pate, by Solon. (H.C. Gibson Coll.)]
Another famous firm working at Stoke-upon-Trent is that of the
Copelands. It was founded in 1780 by the first Josiah Spode, who
established himself in the works which had been occupied by Banks &
Turner. He appears to have been chiefly engaged in the manufacture of
blue printed willow-ware, and imitations of the more famous works of
Wedgwood, especially his cream and jasper wares. He died in 1797, and
his son and namesake carried on the business, and first turned his
attention to porcelain about the beginning of the present century. The
body he used was of great purity, and the ware was chiefly decorated
with gold and flowers after the fashion of his day. In this venture he
was very successful, and devoted every energy to pushing his enterprise.
In 1805 he achieved another triumph by what he described as “a sort of
fine ware, called opaque porcelain,” which was extensively consumed on
the Continent, to the great detriment of the makers of French faience.
In 1806 the honor was conferred upon him of being appointed potter to
the Prince of Wales, and in 1827 he died, after amassing a large
fortune. The firm consisted for some time of Josiah Spode, William
Spode, and William Copeland, and in 1833 the concern was bought by a son
of the latter, William Taylor Copeland. He was joined by Mr. Garrett in
1843, and the firm consisted of Copeland and Garrett until 1847, when
Mr. Copeland again became sole proprietor, and continued so until 1867,
when he was joined by his sons. The works are now carried on under the
firm of Copeland & Sons, and have attained to great dimensions, covering
about twelve acres of ground, and giving employment to about nine
hundred operatives.
[Illustration: Fig. 353.--Copeland Vase. (Tiffany & Co.)]
Mr. Abraham, art director of the Copeland works, has furnished much of
the above information, and of that which follows regarding the wares of
both Spode and Copeland. According to Mr. Abraham, one of Spode’s most
celebrated wares was the stone china already referred to, an opaque or
nearly opaque compact body of a blue-gray tint resembling Oriental
china. It was fired at a much higher temperature than earthen-ware, and
in reproducing it at the present time it is fired in the porcelain kiln.
It was decorated by Spode in various ways, the qualities most highly
prized being the “old Japans” and oven blues of different shades.
Spode’s stone china and ivory bodies are exceptionally well adapted for
treatment in which oven blue is employed.
This stone china has never been entirely out of use, but for a long time
it did not receive the attention it deserved, and has only been recently
revived. When receiving least attention its manufacture was restricted
to matching sets, the possessors of which were so sensible of its high
qualities as a table ware, that they were desirous of making up
deficiencies in their services whenever practicable. The name of
Copeland is now well known wherever commerce has carried the ceramic
wares of England. Some of the most artistically designed and finely
decorated pieces found in the collections of the present time are from
this workshop. The Copelands have rivalled the most prominent houses of
England, we might say of Europe, both in the many-sidedness of their
enterprise and in its results. The best artists and modellers are
employed, and the products may be compared with any in Europe. What may
be considered a specialty of the Copelands is the employment of royal
blue upon porcelain, both in arbitrary designs and in landscape and
figure painting. They have it so perfectly under control that the most
delicate tints and the greatest depths of which the color is capable are
produced at will, without the overflowing of the color on the one hand,
or on the other the harshness and poverty of tone so common in works
decorated in this blue.
[Illustration: Fig. 354.--Copeland Parian.]
[Illustration: Fig. 355.--Copeland Parian.]
A great deal of the Copeland jewelled ware is exceedingly beautiful. We
have chosen one specimen as being exceptional, both in its design and
decoration (Fig. 353), and it would certainly be difficult to lavish
upon it too much praise. The base is gilt, the body is of two shades of
blue, and the gracefully expanding neck pale brown dotted with brown of
a darker tint. The handles consist of golden butterflies resplendent
with jewels. The effect is rich, but harmonious and charming, and the
piece may be regarded as one of the most favorable illustrations of what
the English artists of our time can accomplish.
[Illustration: Fig. 356.--Copeland Reticulated Porcelain. (W. B.
Dickerman Coll.)]
In approaching the Copeland parian (Figs. 354 and 355), we find
ourselves among some of the finest works in that material yet given to
the world. An enumeration of the artists regularly or specially engaged
in this department would include many of the highest names in the
profession. This branch of art has developed rapidly, partly on account
of the rivalry between manufacturers, but chiefly by reason of the
welcome everywhere extended to the works issued. Among the subjects
chosen by the Copelands, many, possibly the greater number, are
ideals--such personifications as those of Music and Poetry. It could not
be expected that all these would be of equal merit, and fault may
occasionally be found with attitudes and proportions; but they are, as a
whole, admirably executed.
Yet another branch of art in which the Copelands have been eminently
successful is represented by the perforated or reticulated ware of which
the Chinese supply the types. The potting difficulties and risk in
making this double surface ware are greater or less according to the
intricacy and delicacy of the perforations. In the cup and saucer here
given (Fig. 356) the manipulation and firing were exceptionally delicate
and hazardous, far more so than in the case of the honey-comb
perforation. Held up to the light, the inner surface appears to be as
thin as egg-shell; and it seems a perfect marvel that, when the heat has
softened the body, the upper surface does not sink down upon that below.
Where plugs can be used to keep them apart, or where the perforated
surface is strongly arched, or where the article can be placed upright,
the danger is manifestly less than in such a piece as the saucer, with
its pointed leaf-work bending downward rather than arching. It is also
necessarily placed flat in the kiln. Many pieces of the same kind have
been made by the Copelands.
We have already seen that Cookworthy sold his patent to Mr. R. Champion,
of Bristol. It appears, however, that he retained an interest in it
after Champion started his manufactory in that city until the year 1773,
when he relinquished his right on payment of a royalty. The Bristol
workshop was founded a few years previously, but no natural porcelain
was put upon the market until that date. The fact that Champion was, in
1776, making artificial porcelain indicates that he very soon found his
hard porcelain venture would not be remunerative. He was, according to
one authority, associated with a company of Bristol gentlemen in his
enterprise, and it appears to be certain that when he applied for the
extension of his patent he did not stand alone. In 1781 or 1782 he
resigned his right to a company of Staffordshire potters, and was
appointed Paymaster of the Forces, under his friend Mr. Edmund Burke. He
died in 1787, at Camden, South Carolina. The Bristol china is chiefly
valuable by reason of its rarity. The decoration is after Continental
and Chinese styles, and the paste is inferior.
The company which purchased Champion’s patent continued to make natural
paste until 1810, first at Tunstall and afterward at Shelton. It was
called “New Hall china.” Artificial porcelain was made until 1825.
When, in 1807, the Bramelds acquired the Swinton works, they conjoined
the manufacture of Rockingham and fine pottery with porcelain of
excellent quality. They endeavored to make a ware of the finest sort in
both body and decoration, but fell into financial difficulties in 1826,
and, although assisted by Earl Fitzwilliam, finally succumbed, as we
have already seen, in 1842.
Caughley is the earliest and most important of the Shropshire
porcelains. The workshop would be deserving of remembrance were it only
for one reason--that it was here Mr. Thomas Turner originated, in 1780,
the willow pattern. The manufacture of porcelain at Caughley was
inaugurated soon after the middle of the eighteenth century. Turner took
the management about 1780, although he had been interested in the works
for some years previously. He effected great improvements, introduced
printing, raised the quality of the ware, and engaged the most skilful
decorators. He also made white ware for other decorating establishments,
especially those of Worcester. The Caughley works were, in 1799,
amalgamated with those of Colebrookdale.
A factory was founded at Nantgarrow in 1813, by Walker & Beely, or
Billingsley, and was carried on, in conjunction with Mr. W. Young, until
1828, when it was bought by Mr. John Rose, of Colebrookdale.
The “Cambrian Pottery” of Swansea was founded in 1750, and began to make
“opaque china” in 1790, and from 1814 to 1819 was making porcelain.
Young and Billingsley, the Nantgarrow artists, both appear to have been
employed at Swansea, by Mr. Dillwyn, who had bought the works in 1802.
In 1820 they passed into the possession of Mr. Rose, of Colebrookdale.
At this place, or Coalport, as it is alternatively called, the Caughley,
Nantgarrow, and Swansea factories were thus consolidated in the hands of
Mr. John Rose, a pupil of Turner of Caughley, and a man of great
enterprise. He took with him the best artists of the works successively
absorbed, and it is here that we again meet Walker and Billingsley as
superintendents. The present proprietor is Mr. W. F. Rose. The Messrs.
Daniell, of London, are among the leading supporters of the factory, and
have incited Mr. Rose to some of his most successful experiments in
color. Of these the Dubarry rose, one of the most famous and beautiful
colors of Sèvres, is probably the most important.
Billingsley worked first at Derby, then successively at Pinxton,
Mansfield, Worcester, Nantgarrow, Swansea, and Coalport. He died at the
last mentioned place in 1828.
The Pinxton factory here mentioned was established in 1795, by Mr. John
Coke, who transferred it to Billingsley, from whom it passed to Mr.
Cutts. It was closed in 1812.
[Illustration: Fig. 357.--English Porcelain. Brown, Westhead, Moore &
Co. (D. Collamore.)]
Brief mention has already been made of Tunstall and Shelton. The latter
place is less known in America, in connection with the working of the
Champion patent, than by the names of Ridgway and Brown, Westhead, Moore
& Co. (Fig. 357). Job Ridgway was a Shelton potter in the latter part of
the last century, and was, in 1814, succeeded by his sons John and
William, who were followed by the above firm. The porcelain of both
firms is well known in this country. With Shelton, although there are or
have been many other factories in England, we close our sketch of that
country.
[Illustration: Fig. 358.--Belleek Porcelain. (Tiffany & Co.)]
A peculiar ware from Belleek, Lough Erne, Fermanagh County, Ireland, has
made its appearance in America within the past ten years, and has been
received with considerable favor both here and in Canada. It is
carefully and artistically wrought into ornamental pieces and services.
Its chief peculiarity is an iridescent glaze of a silvery, lustrous
appearance. In the specimen (Fig. 358) the pedestal is unglazed, and its
dead white contrasts admirably with the lustrous flowers, base, and top.
The ware is obtained from a combination of clays found in the
neighborhood from which it takes its name. It is a true porcelain and
very translucent, and in thin lustred pieces rivals the egg-shell of the
far East. It is equally beautiful in biscuit or glazed.
[Illustration: Fig. 359.--Belleek Porcelain. (Tiffany & Co.)]
Several original designs appear among the table services of this ware,
which are rendered very attractive by the peculiar glaze. Exceedingly
beautiful imitations of shells (Fig. 359) are made of Belleek ware, a
purpose for which it is especially suited by reason of the similarity
the glazed surface presents to the inside pearly lining of a shell (Fig.
360). A ware somewhat similar in appearance is made in England and
France, where an artificial metallic glaze is employed to produce the
_madreperla_ lustre.
[Illustration: Fig. 360.--Belleek Porcelain. (Tiffany & Co.)]
The ceramics of England are of special interest to the American reader.
In many of our old homes are to be found samples of English pottery and
porcelain brought to this country long before Revolutionary times. Many
of them are, like heirlooms, passed on from generation to generation,
the remnants being all the more highly prized as they become fewer in
number. A great deal of the earthen-ware and porcelain used here within
the last century has come from the centres of which we have been
treating. To the student of the art, also, England has an interest all
its own. The workmen of England have, from the earliest times, shown
that moral as well as mental capacity for coping with mechanical and
scientific difficulties which marks the typical English character.
Wedgwood was a remarkable instance of a man who, with materials usually
considered of inferior quality for artistic embellishment, steadily
aimed at producing works which should be, and actually were, the best of
their kind. So it is with the Mintons and Doultons of our day. They
surround themselves with the best artists they can find, and have taught
England, which was still disposed to reserve its warmest admiration for
works executed in the long-coveted and only recently possessed
porcelain, to forget the medium in the art it conveys.
[Illustration: Fig. 361.--Tile-piece, by F. T. Vance.]
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.
The ceramics of America bring us into a field hitherto unexplored, and
showing few footprints of the investigators who have been led to its
borders. We are here confronted by a state of things to which we have
hitherto been strangers. As creatures belonging to the New World we have
been taught to look with a respect in which America has no share upon
the aged civilizations of Egypt, Assyria, and China. Their ancient
inhabitants were the patriarchs of the world, the pioneers of
civilization; we are the latter-day heirs to the arts and sciences of
which they laid the foundations. The present citizens of those lands are
the children of æons, we the mushroom growth of centuries. Research has
already partially succeeded in endowing America with so much of the
venerable as can be conferred by age. Such notions as those above
referred to are being rapidly dissipated. We have long known that the
hemisphere we inhabit was styled new, not because its geological
formation is of later growth than those of the Old World, nor because
its inhabitants are the after-math of the world’s population, but
because five hundred years ago it was new to the navigators of the East.
We now know that, from Lake Superior to Peru and Chili we can traverse
the sites of old settlements and find the vestiges of peoples who lived
we cannot tell how many hundred or thousand years ago. In the history of
ceramic art America in no way differs from Europe or Asia. We can begin
with the sun-dried bricks of the Peruvians, or Mound-builders, and end
with the porcelain of Greenpoint. As Europe loosed its hold upon the
earlier arts of Greece and Rome, was dismembered, and was for centuries
plunged in darkness by the incursions and dispersal of barbarians, and
then, as it revived, developed a new artistic sense and greater
strength, so America passed through a precisely similar ordeal.
Two thousand years ago--possibly many more--art and civilization existed
here, and continued to expand until Europeans came and checked their
farther growth. America is not even singular in this, that a broad chasm
divides the old from the new.
There are thus two great periods which we shall be called upon to
consider. There is, first, the ancient, when the aboriginal people were
building curious and wonderful monuments of their presence, and
modelling the quaint vessels now found in our museums. There is, then,
the second period, limited to little more than half a century, in which
art wears a modern guise, when the products of American potteries become
a recognized item in the industry of the country, and the manufacture is
substantially founded upon a broad commercial basis. Our inquiry will
not, therefore, be entirely confined to a recent past and a present
chiefly remarkable for the promise that it contains. We shall, in a
hasty review, turn back across the centuries intervening between the
present time and the advent of Europeans with Columbus, Cortez, and
Pizarro, across the barbarism of the Indian period, across even the
earlier times, when the Aztecs in the North, and the Peruvians under the
Incas in the South, were cultivating their peculiar forms of
civilization, to a more remote past occupied by those elder children of
Time, to whose heritage these peoples appear to have succeeded.
Afterward will come the indulgence of the characteristic tendency of the
nineteenth-century American, who is more addicted to looking to the
future than to the past. In the mean time, we must try to accustom
ourselves to the fact that, for the purposes of a continuous history,
the potters of our own time are the successors of those who deposited
their urns in the mounds of the Mississippi valley and in the tombs of
Peru.
It will probably be both the only historically consequent and the most
lucid method to treat the different countries from south to north. We
begin with Peru. We need not go into the theories, mostly fanciful, by
which an origin and genealogy are found for the ancient inhabitants of
America. We cannot even undertake to solve the question whether the New
World may not be the Old.
[Illustration: Fig. 362.--Peruvian Water-vessels.]
The evidence in support of America’s having been the resting-place of
the lost tribes of Israel, of its having been visited from the Pacific
by Malays, from the Atlantic by Phœnicians, of the truth of the old
legend of Atlantis, a land which lay beyond the Pillars of Hercules, is
in great part composed of inferences from assumptions. Reason would
point to Behring Strait as the point at which the first inhabitants
entered, but even that supposition may account for nothing more remote
than the arrival of the Indians of North America. Or, to find a
genealogy for the same people, we might adopt Mr. Griffis’s very
plausible theory of a Japanese descent, based upon the fact that “for
twenty centuries past Japanese fishing-boats and junks, caught in the
easterly gales and typhoons, have been swept into the Kuro Shiwo, and
carried to America.” It is more pertinent to our purpose to find that,
amidst a civilization which bears a stamp of originality, ceramic art
followed the course it had taken in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Similarity in forms, even in symbols, may argue nothing more than a
mysterious identity in the workings of humanity toward artistic and
religious expression. They cannot, without other evidence, be held to
prove an identity of origin. This preliminary observation is made that
we may not fall into the baseless theorizing which is the bane of
science. External resemblances have, before this day, sadly misled
scientists, with whom possibilities have become probabilities, and
probabilities have unconsciously passed into assumed facts.
Let us take the parallel supplied by the search for the primitive tongue
before language became the subject-matter of a science. For centuries
the idea was entertained that the honor of priority was to be accorded
to the Hebrew. In the sixteenth century Goropius, of Antwerp, proved,
beyond a peradventure, that the language of Paradise was Dutch. Erro
advocated the claims of Basque; and about a century after Goropius had
settled the question, it was gravely recorded in the minutes of the
Chapter of Pampeluna, that, though it could not be asserted with
confidence that Basque was the primitive language of mankind, yet “it
was impossible to bring forward any reasons or rational objection to
this proposition, that it was the only language spoken by Adam and Eve
in Paradise.” Assume the positive, and leave it to objectors to prove
the negative! Science came afterward, and found that not fanciful verbal
resemblances, but similarity of grammatical construction, was the test
of radical affinity, and all the above fine theories were exploded. The
rule will hold good with pottery. If two potters at two places far
remote from each other, possibly as far removed in point of time, should
produce similar forms, it would be rash at once to conclude that they
were inspired by the same idea or followed the same model. The adoption
of such a course would amount to a resuscitation of the extinct
philological rule of comparing the words in different tongues to
demonstrate relationship. We shall find a point for this caution as we
proceed.
When Peruvian civilization began we have no means of ascertaining.
Repeated changes have swept over it. It rose and fell, and rose and fell
again, at epochs only partly within our ken. Of the overwhelming
antiquity claimed for it some of the facts brought together by Mr. J. D.
Baldwin may give an idea. Montesinos, a Spaniard, who believed Peru to
be the Ophir of Solomon, dates its ancient history from the year B.C.
2500. His first period extends down to the first or second century of
our era, when the ancient kingdom was broken up into fragments, and
shorn of its earlier glory. Then came a long interval of confusion,
strife, and internecine struggle, which ended with the advent of
Inca-Rocca, the first of the Incas. The Incas had extended their sway
over the old limits of Peru, when Pizarro came, in 1531, and with his
Spanish followers swept everything back into chaos. A greedy lust for
gold was the sole impulse of the treacherous and brutal invaders.
Perfectly dead to every sense of honor, stained with the reddest hues of
crime, too rapacious to withhold their hands from the commission of any
brutality, too crassly ignorant to care for knowledge, the Spanish
buccaneers turned Peruvian progress back in its course, and struck such
a blow at the vitality of the country that it has never recovered.
It will at once be thought that B.C. 2500 is a very remote date at which
to begin the history of a country in the New World, but let us see what
countenance science lends to such a chronology. Professor Orton says:
“Geology and archæology are combining to prove that Sorata and
Chimborazo have looked down upon a civilization far more ancient than
that of the Incas, and perhaps coeval with the flint flakes of Cornwall
and the shell mounds of Denmark. On the shores of Lake Titicaca are
extensive ruins which antedate the advent of Manco Capac (the second of
Montesinos’ oldest dynasty of kings), and may be as venerable as the
lake-dwellings of Geneva.” Mr. James S. Wilson, in 1860, found “ancient,
or fossil, pottery” on the coast of Ecuador. To help in assigning it an
age, the fact is all-important that it was found _below_ a marine
deposit several feet in thickness. This pottery, then, was made; the
land was submerged at a rate almost incalculably slow; it was covered
with a marine deposit; the land was then upheaved to its former level,
again at a very slow rate, and seventeen years ago, the pottery came to
light, like a fossil taken from the rocks, to tell us that at an age so
remote that it is hard even for imagination to reach it, the Peruvians
were accustomed to working in clay. Compared with this people the Incas
are creatures of yesterday, and the earliest date of Montesinos is
hardly mediæval. The difficulty is to assign an exact, or even an
approximate, date to the ceramic remains we possess. Many of them belong
to an era preceding that of the Incas, but no more precise language can
be employed in specifying their age. The conditions, moreover, are such
that an erroneous deduction might easily be made. The great road from
Quito to Chili, for instance, is built chiefly of stone. The same
material was used for the inns along its course, and for many other
buildings. This road must, at least in part, be ascribed to a period
anterior to that of the Incas. At a later date, when the least ancient
part of Pachacamac, the ruined city of the Incas, near Lima, was built,
sun-dried bricks appear as the chief building material. Pachacamac was
originally built by the natives of the coast, and among its ruins are
those of one of their temples, composed of adobes painted red. The Inca
Mamacuna on the same site is composed of the same material. This is a
reversal of previous experience. We have hitherto associated unbaked
bricks with the earliest attempts of the potter. If we argue from
Asiatic or European usage, the most ancient Peruvians would appear as
primitive settlers ignorant of art, which we have already seen they were
not.
The best articles of pottery have been taken from the tombs. The
connection of moulded clay with the burial of the dead was thus
universal. We have seen the Egyptian mummy surrounded by vases and jars,
urns holding or covering the ashes of the ancient British dead, the
hut-shaped urn of the Teuton, the remains of the Roman legionary
deposited in an _olla_ covered by tiles or bricks, and the _tuguria_ of
Etruria; and here, in Peru, is a precisely similar custom regulating the
burial rite.
At Pachacamac Mr. Squier found three strata of mummies. Most of these
were taken from little vaults of adobes, roofed with sticks and rushes.
In one of them he found, lying beside the dead family, the implements of
the husband’s business as fisherman, the wife’s domestic articles,
including a primitive spindle, a girl’s work-box under her body, small
contrivances of hollowed bone for cosmetics, and between her feet the
dried body of a pet parrot. An infant’s body had a rattle beside it.
“Besides the bodies there were a number of utensils, and other articles
in the vault; among them half a dozen earthen jars, pans, and pots of
various sizes and ordinary form (Fig. 363). One or two were still
incrusted with the soot of the fires over which they had been used.
Every one contained something. One was filled with ground-nuts,
familiar to us as peanuts; another with maize, etc., all except the
latter in a carbonized state.” Probably the nuts and maize were
deposited for the use of the deceased in the future, and the supposition
helps to increase the illusion that we are away from Peru, and back
among the graves of Ancient Egypt. To this superstition, common, as we
have seen, to nearly all peoples, we are therefore indebted, not only
for our knowledge of Peruvian pottery, but for much of our information
regarding the people themselves. No other place could have equalled the
grave in safety for the preservation of the records which have been
passed from its secrecy into our hands. The imaginary wants of a future
state led the poor and the Inca to be laid in their respective vaults
with the articles they had used here, and which they were supposed to
stand in equal need of hereafter. “Every Inca,” says Mr. Ewbank, “had
his cooking utensils in his cemetery; not only his gold and silver ware,
but, observes the native historian, ‘the plates and dishes of his
kitchen.’” The favorable conditions of soil and climate under which they
were interred increase the difficulty of telling their age by
examination merely. They might from their appearance have been buried
for generations or for ages. It is, however, evident, from the character
of the deposits and the assumed wants they anticipated--corn,
cooking-vessels, toys, pets, fishing-lines, spindles--that the Peruvians
shared the belief held by Christians, that here they were strangers and
sojourners. They prepared for the next life by taking all their movables
with them, as if merely changing their place of abode.
[Illustration: Fig. 363.--Pottery from Pachacamac.]
The tombs being thus the great receptacles of Peruvian antiquities, what
do we find to be the general character of the art represented in the
pottery? The same that is found in the architecture or statuary of the
country, viz., the greatest possible disparity in both design and
workmanship. On one hand are creations of art, the conception of an
artist carried out by an artist’s hand; on the other are the most
outrageous concessions to an idolatrous barbarism. In a similar manner,
earthen-ware vessels of diametrically opposite types are found side by
side in the same tomb. To perplex us still farther, French writers have
advanced the theory that for a very long period art in South America
gradually but surely declined. They state that from a primitive
simplicity and purity of style it sank step by step into barbarism.
This may or may not be true, but in any case the two sets of facts may
be thus explained. We have seen that in Egypt religion set a limit to
art. Practically the matter resolved itself into this, that the
potter-artist could rise above neither the god he worshipped nor the
sacred symbol he revered. Priestcraft is necessarily conservative.
Change and improvement involve a departure from the old, and the ancient
gods might be left behind and their shrines deserted, were art to rise
above the delineation of the artistic abominations which were encased in
sacred tradition as the symbols of deity. The image cannot change any
more than the god. In Egypt nearly every form of life--bird, beast, and
plant--was monopolized by its religious system and petrified into a
traditional form. It is possible that a similar influence was at work in
Peru. The rude forms may really have been what we have styled them,
“concessions to an idolatrous barbarism.”
It is necessary in the case of Peru, as in that of China or Egypt, to
make an attempt to discover the essentials of its religion, that we may
understand its ceramic art. With Peru, however, we must in part work
backward, by first constructing a system from what we find upon pottery.
Mr. Squier gives much valuable information on this point. “To them,” he
says, referring to the sacred vessels of pottery devoted to religious
and mortuary services, “in default of other probable or possible means
of recording a religious symbolism, we must look for all the scanty
illustrations we are ever likely to obtain of the religious ideas and
conceptions of their makers.” Pachacamac took its name from the chief
divinity of the people prior to the coming of the Incas, and means, “He
who animates the universe,” “The creator of the world.” The idea of a
supreme being may thus be inferred to have been the foundation of a
system which, like many other ancient religions, resorted to symbols,
and thence by an easy transition assumed in popular practice the form of
idolatry. We thus find that when the Inca Yupanqui invaded the Chimus,
he called upon them to renounce their worship of fishes and animals, and
turn to that of the sun. There is no reason for believing that the creed
of the Incas was superior to that of the Chimus. It appears rather that,
in broadly condemning that people for their worship of animals, the Inca
mistook the use of symbols for the adoration of the animals so used. Our
researches in Egypt and elsewhere would lead us to the conclusion that
if the worship of animals existed anywhere, it resulted from a
misapprehension by the ignorant of the purpose of symbolizing by living
things the attributes of a higher power. As in Egypt, so in Peru the
religion may be said to have been dual. On the one hand is the worship
of a supreme power, and the personification of visible agencies in air,
earth, and water. On the other is a lower form, an idolatry bordering
upon fetichism. Under the higher form water is personified, and the god
thus constructed is accompanied by befitting symbols of his domain--the
turtle, fish, or crab; the earth is personified, and has as symbols the
serpent and lizard; the air is also personified, and the figure carries
in his hand a spear, as representing the thunder-bolt, his symbol. Mr.
Squier gives an engraving of a design upon a Chimu vase, in which the
powers of earth and sea are arrayed in combat. The latter is armed with
the claws and shell of a crab, hence assumed to be his symbol. The
former bears on his front a serpent’s head, wields a horned serpent in
one hand, and has two similarly horned reptiles hanging at his back:
hence the serpent is accepted as his symbol. Probably coeval with a form
of belief which sought such expression, was another under which images
were resorted to, and set up as the recipients of the worship originally
directed to a higher power. It is not impossible that the worship of a
supreme being, and of his attributes and symbols, may have been
coexistent among the same people. On the contrary, such actually appears
to have been the case; and if the highest form of belief existed along
with the lowest form of expression, it is not hard, as already pointed
out, to find a reason for the coexistence of the highest and lowest
forms of art.
As to the French theory of a long-continued decline of Peruvian art, if
we assume its truth, it may be explained in the light of Peruvian
history. The supposition has reference, apparently, to the earliest
Peruvian elevation, prior to the dismemberment of the empire. Before the
coming of the Incas art must have suffered from the civil discord, and
under the Incas its recovery was probably hindered by the wars which
extended down to the Spanish conquest. After Pizarro--a second death.
[Illustration: Fig. 364.--Peruvian Water-jar. (Smithsonian Institution,
5341.)]
Let us now examine some of the forms of Peruvian pottery. It would be
impossible to classify or enumerate them all. Nature and religion
contributed decorations and forms. The beings of earth, sea, and
air--men, fishes (Fig. 364), animals, and plants (Fig. 365)--were
modelled in clay, and decorations were drawn from the same sources and
from the customs of the people. The only classification of a
comprehensive character is that into coast and inland. The former of
these divisions comprises the greater part of the specimens now
existing, including, of course, all from Pachacamac, Huacho, Santa, and
Truxillo, or Chimu. The latter includes all that comes from Cuzco (Fig.
367) and other places in the interior.
[Illustration: Fig. 365.--Peruvian Pottery.]
Visitors to the Centennial Exhibition may remember to have seen a large
array of vases and household utensils sent from Lima. In the collection
of Mr. W. B. Colville were several clay idols, belonging to the period
before the advent of the Incas. Some of these were wrapped in cloth, and
none possessed any claims to artistic finish or design. A similar image
was exhibited by Brown University, in the Rhode Island section. All were
mere caricatures of the human form. Along with them, in the space
allotted to Lima, were several hundreds of quaintly shaped water-vessels
and bottles. In some of these were to be found those compound typical
forms distinctively American. In others appeared forms which at once
recalled the Egyptian. Of the latter the most remarkable were the
double or twin bottles joined together by bands at the neck and base,
after a fashion observed in Egypt and also in Mexico. It is unnecessary
to conclude from this fact that Egypt had an ancient connection with
Peru. Sometimes on one of the bottles a head was placed as a cover to
the orifice, others had both necks plain and open.
[Illustration: Fig. 366.--Peruvian Drinking-vessel. Stag and Doe.]
The more characteristic forms belonged to the class comprising the
water-vessels. Of these the favorite form appeared to be what might be
described as a pot-bellied graybeard ornamented with a rude semblance of
the human face, hands, and feet. It was made of all sizes. Another might
be taken as the prototype of the modern round-bodied glass water-bottle,
or carafe. A third had the arched syphon handle characteristic of an
entire class; and on the body, under the span of the arch, was the
figure of an animal, too rudely modelled for us to give it a name. On a
small proportion of those mentioned weak and undecided colors were
applied in a primitive style of decoration, and in others the
ornamentation consisted of lines and dots or studs.
[Illustration: Fig. 367.--Vases from Cuzco.]
The Peruvian potters bestowed a large share of their inventive talent
upon water-vessels, and the reason is not difficult to find. According
to its present limits, Peru extends from the third to the twenty-first
degree south latitude. In the sixteenth century it included the entire
territory now divided into Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, and Chili. The
country in which its remains are found extended over two thousand miles
south of the equator. In some parts of this vast territory rain
occasionally falls, in others never. In this fact we see the necessity
for ample means of slaking thirst. The quaint forms are largely due to
the dread of small creeping animals finding their way into the jars or
flagons. The latter were, therefore, made in the comparatively intricate
shapes already described, and in others still more complex and more
highly ornamental.
[Illustration: Fig. 368.--Coiled Water-vessel. Peru. (Smithsonian
Institution, 1403.)]
The largest class comprises those with the bifurcate spout, which serves
at the same time for a handle. This is found attached to vessels of
every conceivable form. The simplest shape is that seen in the specimen
from the Smithsonian Institution (Fig. 368), the body of which, however,
is somewhat peculiar, by reason of its rising from the base in a coil of
spiral folds. Several modifications of this style are seen in the
engraving (Fig. 369). The presence of this spout in any of its forms is
of special interest as distinctive of pottery from the coast
settlements. Its modifications include a vast number of interesting
examples more or less artistic. From the single vessel with bifurcate
spout we may pass to others in which there are two openings joined
together by a handle. Higher than these are the vases, in which, with
only one orifice, the body is double.
[Illustration: Fig. 369.--Ancient Peruvian Pottery.]
[Illustration: Fig. 370.--Peruvian Pottery.]
In one the receptacle for the water consists of a series of four
chambers, with pointed bases arranged in a circle, and joined together
(Fig. 370). The handle is the arch, with spout on the top. In some the
vessel assumes the form of a fish, with a handle on the ridge of the
back, or of an animal with semi-human face. The twin shape is
exceedingly varied. A very fine specimen has the bottles with round,
flattened bodies, and one of them surmounted by a diminutive human
figure holding a cross on the right shoulder, while from the left the
handle crosses to the tall, slightly tapering neck of the twin bottle.
The flat sides of the bottles are decorated with studs and zigzags,
which might be construed into serpentine forms. A bird sitting in the
cavity of one neck sometimes takes the place of the heads already
alluded to. In some of the double bottles the communication is through
the handle. In others it is effected by joining the bodies together, as
in the curious specimen (Fig. 371), in which the rudely modelled
kneeling figure of a man eating and drinking is joined to the twin
compartment at the back by the passage-way between the two sections.
There are many other varieties; but the most remarkable specimens are
those in which an attempt is made to simulate the human head and form.
The former is carved in coarse lines covering the entire expanse of a
heavily formed vase, the handles of which, low down on the body,
represent the ears. Even lower than this, and parallel with the most
primitive _bessa_ of Egypt, are other wide-mouthed jars of a type
altogether different, designed to serve a purpose entirely distinct from
those last considered. From these as a base we can rise to what we must
regard as the _chefs-d'œuvre_ of ancient American art.
[Illustration: Fig. 371.--Peruvian Water-vessel. (Smithsonian Inst.,
1399.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 372.--Greek Drinking-cup.]
It is curious to observe, en passant, a similarity of usage between Peru
and Greece (Figs. 372 and 373) in selecting the human head as the model
of a drinking-cup; but let us observe the Peruvian type. In one (Fig.
373) the head is thrown back, and from the forehead to the crown passes
the syphon handle. To balance this backward weight the face is thrust
forward, and the expression is affected by the position. We see that the
artist has made allowance for this in the lines round the mouth and the
slightly parted lips. A faint suspicion of weakness is thus left upon
the countenance. Taking it in profile, one almost wonders where the
artist found a model for the large but well-formed nose and strong
underjaw. Even finer is another head (Fig. 374), covered with a
close-fitting cap falling in heavy flaps behind. In this the face is, we
would say, of the best Saxon type, full of strength, vigor, and
determination. Not a weak line can be found. With it before us, all
wonder as to the civilization of ancient Peru is at an end. Apart
altogether from the workmanship, there are moral qualities traceable in
the model which convince us that with such men civilization was a
condition of life; not a labor, but a necessity. The face wears the
placid, self-confident, powerful expression of one born to be a ruler of
men. That the artist has caught such a look of strength in repose may
imply either his mastery of portraiture or his familiarity with a high
type of manhood.
[Illustration: Fig. 373.--Peruvian Drinking-vessel.]
[Illustration: Fig. 374.--Peruvian Water-vessel.]
[Illustration: Fig. 375.--Head of Ruminhauy.]
Belonging to a lower order of the same class is that given in the
engraving (Fig. 375), the head of a man whose whole history is written
in indelible lines in his face. The head is that of Ruminhauy, or
Rumminaui, a Peruvian cacique. The piece is from the collection of
Senhor Barboza, Rio de Janeiro, and originally belonged to General
Alvares, “the last Spanish political chief and commandant of the
province of Cuzco.” Mr. Ewbank saw it at Rio, and gives a description of
it, and a sketch of the monster whose features are thus preserved. The
piece is of reddish clay, modelled by hand, nine inches in height, and
with an internal depth of six inches. Everything indicates that the
work is a likeness. Little peculiarities, such as the want of a tooth
and a scar on the cheek, cannot be explained upon any other hypothesis.
The piece is comparatively recent. When, in 1531, Pizarro entered Peru
at Tumbez, the Inca, Huayna Capac, had divided his kingdom between his
two sons, Huascar and Atahualpa, between whom a struggle ensued for the
sole power, and resulted in the death of Huascar. Atahualpa was
afterward seized by Pizarro, and, under circumstances of gross treachery
and brutality, was put to death. It was then that Ruminhauy comes upon
the scene in the history of Garcilasso de la Vega. Scheming to succeed
Atahualpa, he invited his brother and children to a banquet, and, after
making them drunk, murdered them. With the skin of Atahualpa’s brother
he covered a drum, and left the scalp hanging to it. His next atrocity
was the burying alive of a number of women, young and old. “Thus,” says
Garcilasso, as quoted by Mr. Ewbank, “did this barbarous tyrant discover
more inhuman cruelty and relentless bowels by this murder committed on
poor silly women, who knew nothing but how to spin and weave, than by
his bloody treachery practised on stout soldiers and martial men. And
what farther aggravates his crime was, that he was there present to see
the execution of his detestable sentence, being more pleased with the
objects of his cruelty, and his eyes more delighted with the sad and
dismal sight of so many perishing virgins, than with any other prospect.
* * * Thus ended these poor virgins, dying only for a little feigned
laughter, which transported the tyrant beyond his senses. But this
villany passed not unpunished; for, after many other outrages he had
committed during the time of his rebellion against the Spaniards, and
after some skirmishes with Sebastian Belalcaçar (who was sent to
suppress him), and after he had found by experience that he was neither
able to resist the Spaniards, nor yet, by reason of his detestable
cruelties, to live among the Indians, he was forced to retire with his
family to the mountains of _Antis_, where he suffered the fate of other
tyrannical usurpers, and then most miserably perished.” These details,
beside giving a ghastly kind of interest to the object engraved, enable
us to form an opinion of the artist’s ability. Aside from the
possibility that the piece has preserved the actual features of the
monster, it certainly gives expression to all the bad qualities with
which the historian has clothed Ruminhauy, and contrasts strongly with
those given above, and with that (Fig. 376) from the Smithsonian
Institution.
[Illustration: Fig. 376.--Peruvian Water-vessel.]
[Illustration: Fig. 377--Peruvian Water-vessel. (Smithsonian
Institution, 7242.)]
After these individual examples a few of the leading points of Peruvian
decoration and technique must be noticed. We have seen that in forms the
leading tendency was toward the reproduction of the natural object.
Mingled as the high is with the low, the ultimate aim appears to have
been the excellence contained in similitude. In decoration we find
designs with which old-world experience has made us more or less
familiar. The vessels on which they appear illustrate the tendency not
toward a purely ornamental art, but toward the artistic embellishment of
the useful. Like all other nations, the Peruvians rose from use to
beauty, and having devised the shape best subserving the useful object,
they then attempted its ornamentation. In doing so they resorted to
decoration closely allied with the European and Asiatic. Their fret is
the same as that distinguished by the name “Grecian,” although it
originally came from Asia. Their scrolls also occasionally bear a close
resemblance to the European. The faces already referred to are either
incised, engraved, or laid upon the surface. Those engraved leave the
impression of having been cut into a body made sufficiently thick to
permit of the successful application of such a method of decoration.
They have no appearance whatever of having been made from a mould. Of
the same general character is the drinking-vessel (Fig. 377). The
design, the import of which it is difficult to determine, is graved in a
panel covering the greater part of one side of the piece. Other pieces
have the figures similarly graved upon panels studded with dots, for the
evident purpose of heightening the relief. On one of this class is a
long-billed bird, and on another, which is here given (Fig. 378), the
design consists of a nondescript animal. A singular resemblance to a
Chinese habit is discoverable in the employment of monkey forms, either
for handles or otherwise, where the Chinese used those of lizards. On
one of the double-bellied bottles common to Peru, China, and Japan, we
find two monkeys clinging to the upper sphere, as if supporting it.
[Illustration: Fig. 378.--Peruvian Pitcher. (Smithsonian Institution.)]
The chief colors employed were red, black, and brown. It appears
probable that they were mineral colors fixed by firing, since we cannot
otherwise account for their preservation. The Chilians are said (Hartt)
to have baked their pottery in holes dug in the hill-sides, and to have
applied to it a sort of varnish made of mineral earth. It is worth
noting, however, that the Peruvians possessed vegetable dyes of which we
have no practical knowledge. All the wonderful colors used for dyeing
cloth, which preserved their original hue and brilliancy after ages of
exposure or burial in the tombs, are vegetable. The lasting quality
alone does not, therefore, compel the conclusion that the colors on
pottery are mineral.
[Illustration: Fig. 379.--The Caballito, from Chimu.]
The consideration of the uses of these colors, and of several other
kinds of decoration, may be combined with that of the customs and tastes
of the Peruvians as reflected in their clay records. Travellers reaching
Peru from the sea tell of encountering, as they neared the shore,
numbers of the natives paddling their _caballitos_. These quaint
apologies for boats are merely bundles of reeds tied together, across
which the boatman strides, and rows, Indian fashion, with a
double-bladed paddle. The prow is turned up in front. So crazy a craft
would seem to be among the things least calculated to inspire the potter
with an idea. It did, however, prove suggestive (Fig. 379), and the
_caballito_ has been found in clay on the sites of different coast
settlements.
[Illustration: Fig. 380.--Trumpet. Baked Clay.]
[Illustration: Fig. 381.--Tambourine Player.]
We also learn from their ceramic decorations that the Peruvians of Chimu
lived in buildings of a single story with slanting roof, and having a
hole in the gable for light or ventilation. That they had a taste for
music is placed beyond dispute by their vessels and instruments of clay
(Fig. 380). Some of their ruder devices are very singular. Mr. Ewbank
mentions a whistle formed in the body of a small bird of baked clay. The
relic, he says, was very old, and the head missing. “The tone was shrill
and clear, and was pleasantly modified by partially or wholly closing
with the finger an opening in the breast.” The water-vessels are also
sometimes so constructed that the handle passes from the spout on one
side to a similar projection on the other, on which is a bird or
animal’s head. The air rushing through a hole left in the latter, as the
vessel is being filled or emptied, frequently causes a sound resembling
that peculiar to the bird or animal. To this class of “whistling jars”
belongs the double vessel (Fig. 371) representing a man at lunch.
Musicians and musical instruments are painted upon vases, and, as in the
cut (Fig. 381), the vessel itself may be a representation of a musician.
[Illustration: Fig. 382.--Black-ware. Peruvian. (Smithsonian Inst.,
1701.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 383.--Peruvian Cup, found at Arequipa. (Smithsonian
Inst., 1812.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 384.--Peruvian Pottery.]
[Illustration: Fig. 385.--Peruvian Vessels.]
The decorations hitherto observed have consisted of gravings in the
paste, dots, and colors. The black-ware jar (Fig. 382) is a farther
exemplification of the first of these methods. The head and the ears of
corn which divide the surface into four sections have all been
apparently carved in an originally thick body. By cutting it down the
ears are left in high relief. The specimen is evidently very old. The
vessels decorated with paintings are generally of a totally different
artistic order, although a few, such as the cup here given (Fig. 383),
combine painting with a rude attempt at modelling. The handle consists
of a monkey with its forepaws, or hands, resting upon the edge of the
cup. It was taken from a grave at Arequipa, eleven feet below the
surface of the soil, and was brought to this country and presented to
the Smithsonian Institution by United States Consul Eckel, Talcahuana,
Chili. The decoration is dark brown on a creamy ground. Similar to it,
but having the mitred head of an Inca on the handle, is the cup on the
left of the adjoining cut (Fig. 384). The other vessels, with the
exception possibly of the lower one, have been used as pans or boilers,
the largest showing marks of the fire, and all being destitute of
ornament with the exception of the painted stopper of the largest
specimen. It thus appears the Peruvians used earthen-ware for culinary
purposes, and several vessels of this kind are elaborately painted in
black and red on the yellow ground. In the illustration (Fig. 385) Nos.
1 and 3 are of this class. They were apparently designed either to be
suspended above an open fire, or to rest in a stove-cover perforated for
their reception. To serve the purpose of a lid hollow stoppers, like No.
4, were used. The lower part of the vessels is undecorated. The
flat-bottomed pitcher and bowl, Nos. 2 and 5, are especially worthy of
attention for their decoration. The light red body of the former is
covered with a dark chocolate ground-color, in which the design appears
in white--a mingling of the star, circle, and chain pattern. Other
varieties are seen in the pieces (Fig. 386) from Senhor Barboza’s
collection. On the left is a caldron, flat-bottomed and with side rings.
The greater part of its ornamentation has been worn away. The remaining
three pieces are supposed to have been used for carrying liquids, and
that on the right has, besides the rings on the body, perforated ears
immediately below the lip. The decoration of the small round-bottomed
pichet consists of incised lines. The long-necked bottle is ornamented
in colors, in regard to the arrangement of which the piece may be taken
as representing a large class of vessels in which the
decoration--consisting of squares, the larger containing the smaller--is
arranged vertically. The art is of the same order as the geometrical
designs and concentric circles of Phœnicia and early Greece. We find
it again in the shallow ladles (Fig. 387), notably in that on the right,
which was found near St. Sebastian, Cuzco, in 1820.
[Illustration: Fig. 386.--Peruvian Pottery. (Senhor Barboza Coll.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 387.--Peruvian Pottery. (Barboza Coll.)]
On these pieces yellow is combined with the red, white, brown, and black
we have hitherto met. A yet richer palette was brought to the decoration
of the flat circular bottle (Fig. 388), the upper part of which is
painted upon the red paste in black, white, green, and purple lines.
As to the processes to which the Peruvians resorted, Marryat quotes a
passage from Southey’s “History of Brazil” which gives a little light.
“The Tupinambas,” he says, “were in many respects an improved race. The
women were skilful potters. They dried their vessels in the sun, then
inverted them, and covered them with dry bark, to which they set fire,
and thus baked them sufficiently. Many of the American tribes carried
this art to great perfection. There are some who bury their dead in jars
large enough to receive them erect.
[Illustration: Fig. 388.--Peruvian Pottery. (Barboza Coll.)]
“The Tupinambas, by means of some white liquid, glazed the inside of
their vessels so well, that it is said that the potters in France could
not do it better. The outside was generally finished with less care.
Those, however, in which they kept their food were frequently painted in
scrolls and flourishes, intricately intertwisted and nicely executed,
but after no pattern; nor could they copy what they had once produced.
This earthen-ware was in common use; and De Lery observes that in this
respect the savages were better furnished than those persons in his own
country who fed from trenchers and wooden bowls.” Other Indian tribes
used water-colors after burning, and also a vegetable varnish. How far
these customs extended we cannot define by geographical limits. It shows
the tendency of this people, already remarked in the Peruvians, to
making beauty subservient to use. An inside glaze in connection with a
rough exterior is something rarely to be found elsewhere. That the
Peruvians used moulds is almost certain. Mr. Hartt is of the opinion
that many of their vessels were moulded in two parts and then luted
together, and that some of the moulds were made from natural objects. He
also suggests that the mould was sometimes made from a pattern vessel,
and then baked.
To conclude as to Peru, its ceramics may yet be more fully and
systematically studied. At present it is instructive to remark how, on
the assumption of its art being original and not derivative, it sought
expression in ways so nearly identical with those of the Old World. A
theory of chronology cannot, in the present condition of our knowledge,
be constructed. The works passed in review evidently belong to epochs
far apart from each other, and probably to different branches of the
people inhabiting Peru. Some of the specimens are undoubtedly very old,
and others, including the painted wares, cannot be ascribed to a very
remote era. The head of Ruminhauy cannot be referred to a more distant
date than the middle of the sixteenth century, and the modern work,
though inferior to that we have noticed, is too closely allied to it, in
composition and the style of decoration, for us to feel justified in
according to much of the older painted pottery a greater age than two or
three hundred years.
[Illustration: Fig. 389.--Brazilian Pottery.]
[Illustration: Fig. 390--Brazilian Coroados Chief, in Funeral Urn.]
Of modern Brazil we would expect much, if we take its ruler, the
indefatigable and enlightened Dom Pedro, as a representative of his
people. Our knowledge is extremely meagre. In an otherwise admirable
section at the Centennial Exhibition, the pottery was of little
consequence. The best works were unglazed terra-cottas, Greek in form,
and decorated with Greek subjects. There were also some vases of red
clay representing native Brazilian forms decorated with reliefs,
medallions, and faces, in light-brown clay. In others the colors were
reversed, the light brown clay forming the body and the red the
ornaments. Some of the better specimens are now in the Smithsonian
Institute, at Washington.
[Illustration: Fig. 391.--Modern Brazilian Pottery.]
Of the ancient Brazilian pottery Mr. Thomas Ewbank describes a basin
(Fig. 389) in the Rio Museum. It is made presumably by hand, as no marks
of the wheel are observable, of a grayish yellow clay imperfectly
burned, covered with a light and poor kind of glazing, and is overrun by
minute cracks. It is colored inside and out with red, yellow, and brown.
The outside was black with smoke, and suggests that the vessel may have
been used as a pot or caldron. The decoration consists of a dark-red
band just below the rim, and a tangled mass of lines and dots. Some of
the tribes, and among them the Coroados of the Parahiba River, used
earthen jars for the reception of the mummies of their chiefs (Fig.
390). Mr. Ewbank also gives some interesting details regarding the
making and quality of modern Brazilian pottery. On one estate which he
visited he found a number of female slaves engaged in making bricks and
tiles. The native Brazilian gives no encouragement to foreign trade,
preferring the pottery of his own country as better suited to the
domestic usages among which he lives. Water-vessels form the staple of
the industry, entire cargoes sometimes consisting of _talhas_ and
_moringues_, for holding water and drinking. The large centre piece in
the illustration (Fig. 391) is a _talha_, and may be seen in almost any
Brazilian house. It will hold from ten to fifteen gallons. The four
vases in the engraving, two on either side of the talha, are varieties
of the same vessel. Of the drinking-vessels the most common is that
called the “monkey” (Fig. 392, _a_). Although it holds from a gallon and
a half to two gallons and a half, it is used without the intervention of
a tumbler, the smaller spout being applied to the lips. In the same
engraving, _b_, _c_, _d_, and _e_ are table moringues, as are those at
_i_, _i_. The decanter, _h_, is common porous earthen-ware, admirably
suited for keeping its contents cool. The ewer and basin, _f_ and _g_,
are highly colored earthen-ware from Bahia, and between them stands an
Indian moringue of ingenious construction. It is filled from the bottom
by means of the tube marked by a dotted line. The cup-like vessel at _k_
is one of the ordinary kind of censers.
[Illustration: Fig. 392.--Modern Brazilian Pottery.]
[Illustration: Fig. 393.--Corrugated Ware. Colombia. (Smithsonian
Institution, 15,352.)]
To show that the Peruvians did not necessarily use mineral colors for
their pottery, Mr. W. H. Edwards’s description of the processes he found
among the wild tribes on the Amazon may be referred to. Their colors
were of the simplest kind: indigo blue, black from the juice of the
mandioca, green from another plant, and red and yellow from clays. A
small kind of palm was made into a brush to apply the pigments. The
designs consisted of squares, circles, and rudely drawn figures. A
resinous gum was rubbed over the vessels after they had been warmed, and
answered all the purposes of a glaze.
Before leaving the South American continent attention may be directed to
a single specimen from Colombia. It is (Fig. 393) an unpainted bowl of
corrugated ware, and is of importance to the present inquiry, as
belonging, apparently, to a class of pottery of which examples have been
found in many parts of the North American continent. These will be
treated of hereafter.
CHAPTER II.
CENTRAL AMERICA.
Connection with Peru.--Nicaragua.--Ometepec.--Modern
Potters.--Guatemala.--Ancient Cities.--Who Built
Them.--Copan.--Quirigua.--Palenque.--Mitla.
[Illustration: Fig. 394.--Red-ware Vase. Ometepec. (Smithsonian
Institution, 28,914.)]
Passing the Isthmus we reach the archaeological wonderland comprising
Central America and Mexico. It is not improbable that there was an early
connection between the ancient occupants of these regions and the South
Americans. As they appear to us in their architectural remains, however,
there is little beyond the grandeur common to their undertakings to
suggest affinity. At the time of the Conquest the natives of the Isthmus
had undoubtedly relations with Peru. It was there that Balboa and the
more successful Pizarro first heard anything definite of that country.
On Pizarro’s second attempt to reach the rumored land of gold, he met
one of the Peruvian _balsas_ laden with textile fabrics, silver mirrors,
vases, and general merchandise. It is curious to find Mr. Squier
describing the same primitive craft in the Gulf of Guayaquil, more than
three hundred and fifty years later. These rafts could hardly have been
used for distant voyages, but were apparently the means of carrying on a
coast trade between Peru and the north. The inhabitants of the Isthmus
had a tolerably intimate acquaintance with Peru, and Balboa, according
to Mr. Baldwin, gained clear information in regard to that country from
natives who had evidently seen it. From this it may be inferred that the
intercourse between the two peoples was sufficiently close to account
for any similarity between the pottery belonging to Central America and
that of Peru.
[Illustration: Fig. 395.--Nicaraguan Vase. Ometepec. (Smithsonian
Institution, 28,436.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 396.--Painted Tripod. Ometepec. (Smithsonian
Institution, 28,479.)]
Passing northward through Costa Rica, where many specimens have been
found, we reach Nicaragua. Dr. J. F. Bransford, U. S. N., exhumed from
the graves on Ometepec Island, in Lake Nicaragua, a number of very
interesting relics, which are now in the Smithsonian Institution. They
are especially worthy of study as having been discovered in different
deposits marked by successive layers of volcanic matter. One of the
oldest (Fig. 394) was taken from a grave below the low-water level of
the lake. Making due allowance for the fact that the lake lies in a
region dotted in every direction with volcanoes, the grave and its
contents must still possess a very respectable antiquity. Generally the
old burying-grounds occupy elevated sites. The design resembles the
double cross, and is graved in the paste. A similar style of decoration
appears on another vase (Fig. 395) from the same district. The red clay
is covered with a creamy enamel, overrun with incised lines. These are
carried round the body in two bands of three lines each, and are
otherwise disposed over the surface without any apparent method in the
arrangement. The colors found upon many of the Peruvian vessels, red,
creamy buff, and black, are seen upon the tripod (Fig. 396), also from
Ometepec. Whatever may have been the purpose for which this vessel was
employed, its use was not confined to Ometepec. At Gueguetenango, in
Guatemala, Mr. Stephens found one of polished ware of the same general
design. It was taken from a vault containing bones, under a
religious--probably a sacrificial--pyramidal structure. The specimen
from Ometepec was found in a grave.
[Illustration: Fig. 397.--Burial Urns from Ometepec.]
The urns of the ancient Nicaraguans are generally of one shape (Fig.
397), and have been found containing both ashes and unburned bones.
Terra-cotta vessels of all kinds, some of them painted, have been dug up
both within and beyond the bounds of the cemeteries. They occasionally
take the form of men (Fig. 398) and animals.
[Illustration: Fig. 398.--Terra-cotta from Ometepec--¼ size.]
The present inhabitants are skilful potters. They follow methods of
decorating practically identical with those of the Brazilians, and such
as they have been acquainted with for at least three centuries. The
wheel is unknown among them. Colors and a kind of glaze are both brought
into requisition.
The old inhabitants of Guatemala have left clay idols and urns. One of
the former, from Santa Cruz del Quiche, and here given in front and
profile (Fig. 399), is hollow, very hard and smooth. It is said to be
the image of Cabuahuil, one of the old deities of the country. From the
same district come the terra-cotta heads (Fig. 400), one of which--that
on the left--is hollow, and the other is solid. They are well polished
and extremely hard.
[Illustration:
Profile of Figure.
Fig. 399.--Terra-cotta Hollow Figure, from Santa Cruz del Quiche,
Guatemala.]
[Illustration: Fig. 400.--Terra-cotta Heads, from Santa Cruz del Quiche,
Guatemala.]
Resembling the burial urns of Ometepec is one taken from a mound at
Gueguetenango (Fig. 401). The chief differences are the handle and a
decoration in relief on the unpolished surface. It was accompanied by a
vase or cup (Fig. 402) of polished ware tastefully decorated with bands
and a graved design.
[Illustration: Fig. 401.--Vase found at Gueguetenango, Guatemala.]
[Illustration: Fig. 402.--Vase found in a Mound at Gueguetenango,
Guatemala.]
Over this entire region, extending from Nicaragua to Mexico, and only
partially explored, there are evidences of successive changes having
taken place between the Spanish conquest and a remote antiquity. As in
Peru, dates are purely conjectural. Epochs are marked by broad
divisions, such as make it clear that the changes which took place were
deeply felt. History, properly so called, gives us but little aid. We
are told of a time when the Chichimecs inhabited the country--a rude,
ignorant people, classed as aboriginal. The name Chichimecs is applied
to all savage tribes. They may have been either the original inhabitants
of the country, or wanderers from the Peruvian centre of civilization,
from which they had been separated so long that they had relapsed into
barbarism, or detached portions of the original settlers who travelled
from the north to the south. In any event, civilization came to Central
America with the Colhuas, who introduced the arts and industries, and
left the grandest monuments to be found in that strange land. Who were
the Colhuas? and whence did they come? No positive answer can be
returned to these questions, and that is selected which appears most
reasonable, viz., that they came by sea from the northern parts of South
America. Tradition points in this direction. After the Colhuas the
Toltecs arrived, and reduced their predecessors to subjection at a
suppositious epoch, B.C. 1000. For some reason or other, possibly on
account of both internal disorganization and attack from without, the
Toltec power is said to have decayed a few centuries before the Aztecs
appear on the scene. Several hundred years later (1519) Cortez arrived,
and the results marking Pizarro’s conquest of Peru followed in Mexico.
That the Aztecs were a people of great intelligence cannot reasonably be
doubted; that they equalled their Toltec or Colhuan predecessors may be
questioned. All the evidence goes to show that they went upward from the
South, where they had existed as a semi-civilized tribe, and that, on
reaching the seat of the Toltecs, they subjugated them, and availed
themselves, to the best of their ability, of all the knowledge and
attainments with which conquest brought them in contact. The beginnings
of Central American civilization are buried in an antiquity which even
to the Aztecs was remote. To measure it, we must bear in mind that
forests grow upon the ruins of cities which were as inaccessible to the
Aztecs as they are to the modern explorer, and that the science and art
of which they are the monuments must have required many centuries to
develop.
We have already glanced at a few of the ancient settlements on the
Pacific slope. The remains found among the ruins of Yucatan and the
entire sweep of country between the Sierra Madre and the Gulf and
Caribbean Sea were also taken from the tombs. They are usually of a red
paste, and present an endless variety of form and, if those found
together are contemporaneous, an equally wide range of taste. Of the
leading cities it is necessary to mention only Quirigua, Copan, and
Palenque. Of these the first named is considered the most ancient, and
Palenque the most modern. Copan is situated in the western part of
Honduras, and many urns of the prevailing red color have been taken from
the recesses of its arched tombs. At Palenque and Mitla a
silico-alkaline glaze covers some of the specimens of gray earthen-ware.
The shapes include grotesque images of deities and priests, and rudely
modelled snakes and other animals. Found at places far apart, and
presenting widely varying characteristics, these potteries admit of no
classification, either by date or character.
In Central Mexico bricks were used alternatively with stone for facing
the gigantic pyramidal mounds which there abound. The Tlascalans, who
aided Cortez in his war upon Montezuma, burned their bricks.
At Palenque, farther to the south, the ceramic remains are of a higher
artistic order. At the risk of invading the domain of architecture, we
may mention the stucco or plaster figures with which the buildings were
embellished. In other places were statuettes, one of which is described
as “made of baked clay, very hard, and the surface smooth, as if coated
with enamel.” At Mitla we again meet with the phenomenon which we found
so strange in Peru--the association of two entirely different orders of
art, the most magnificent architecture and exquisite inlaid decoration
with rude paintings of the figures of idols. The knowledge of coloring
materials is nowhere better illustrated than in Yucatan, where red,
yellow, blue, green, and brown appear in the wall-paintings. We find the
pottery of Nicaragua compared with that of Mexico and Peru, but far more
enthusiastic language was employed by the Spaniards in regard to what
they saw. Cortez, in 1520, compared the pottery of Tlascala with the
best of Spanish manufacture, and Herrera finds in Faenza ware the best
parallel with that of Chulula.
Should farther explorations be made of the cities buried by the forests
which have sprung up around the ruins we have indicated, a more
connected history of the ceramics of the entire region may be written.
At present one is liable to be lost in conjecture, and to launch into
speculations such as that which very plausibly attributes to Central
America a civilization the most ancient in the world.
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.
[Illustration: Fig. 403.--Mound-builders’ Vases, from Southern Missouri.
Centre piece, height, 9 inches. (Mrs. J. V. L. Pruyn Coll.)]
In the central part of the North American continent, along the valleys
of the Mississippi and the Ohio, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great
Lakes, the land was, in a very remote age, settled by a people akin to
those of Mexico and Central America. Their name is now unknown, and to
designate them they are, from the great mounds of earth which they have
left, called “Mound-builders.” Whence they came or whither they went is
unknown. It is conjectured that they are the same people whom we have
called Toltecs; that therefore they passed up from the south, and then,
in course of ages, deserted their northern settlements on the incursion
from the north-west of the Asiatic tribes known as North American
Indians. It is surmised that they were then in part absorbed by the
invaders of their lands, and that they in part sought refuge in the
south, whence they had issued centuries before. Their long absence had
given them all the appearance of a distinct people. The evidence in
favor of these several surmises may be condensed into the following
form:--
That the mounds of North America were intended apparently for both
religious and defensive purposes, and are practically identical with
those of Central America;
That their most populous settlements were in the southern part of the
Mississippi valley, whence they passed upward until they reached and
overspread the valley of the Ohio;
That, according to old books and traditions, the Toltecs reached Central
America from the north-east;
That the reason given for the Toltecs deserting their settlements in the
north-east, designated Huehue-Tlapalan, was the successive attacks of
Chichimecs. We have already seen that the name Chichimecs was applied to
all barbarians, and would in this case point to the North American
Indians.
[Illustration: Fig. 404.--Mound-builders’ Vase. (Boston Museum of Fine
Arts.)]
The question is an important one, since in the above view the
Mound-builders would, as we shall hereafter see, form the link
connecting the ancient people of South and Central America with the
pottery-making Indians of our own time in New Mexico, Colorado, and
Arizona.
[Illustration: Fig. 405.--Missouri Mound-builders’ Vase. (Smithsonian
Institution, 27,939.)]
Now and again new discoveries are made which act as stimuli to fresh
researches. A few months ago a terra-cotta tablet covered with written
characters was reported to have been brought to light in Stoddard
County, Missouri. It was said to bear the appearance of having been
impressed with its undecipherable characters while the clay was still
damp, to have then been hardened and glazed. A hint is all that is
needed to originate speculation. We can turn to the terra-cotta tablets
of Assyria and ask if there is no connection between them and this
Missouri relic, and if the partially submerged continent in mid-Atlantic
of old writers is really mythical. Such a hint was dropped at the time
of the discovery. It might possibly be better to compare the tablet with
some of the inscriptions of Central America. It concerns us more at
present to find that the Mound-builders used sun-dried bricks in rearing
their giant structures. In the Lower Mississippi and along the Gulf
these bricks appear to have been generally employed to strengthen the
embankments. One in Mississippi is described as having a supporting wall
of “sun-dried brick two feet thick, filled with grass, rushes, and
leaves.” On some appears the impress of human hands. As to their
pottery, it may be said in general terms to compare well with that of
the South Americans. In the Peabody Museum at Harvard, an extensive
collection has been brought together. Some of the vases are admirably
finished, and of good design. Others are quaintly designed, but somewhat
rudely worked, and would appear to indicate that fictile art had little
attraction for that people. We have seen numberless specimens showing a
partiality even in the humblest vessels for imitations of animal and
human forms. Examples of this and other kinds are given in the preceding
illustrations.
[Illustration: Fig. 406.--Mound-builders’ Jar. (Boston Museum of Fine
Arts.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 407.--Mound-builders’ Vases.]
From a comparison of the pottery of the Mound-builders with that of
South and Central America, the conclusion will be inevitably reached
that the view already taken of the migrations of the former people is
correct. Between the ruder works of the two peoples there is often a
striking and close resemblance. To this class belongs a great deal of
the pottery of the Mound-builders to be seen in collections. Among them
we find nothing equal to the best Peruvian art; but in the details of
decoration and the tendency of the potter toward certain typical forms,
specimens may be discovered such as we might expect from a nation
composed of emigrants, and far removed from the centre where the
rudiments of their art were acquired.
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.
After the Mound-builders came the Indians. A distinction must be
observed between the real North American Indians and those tribes in New
Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona, of whose pottery specimens belonging to
the present day have been obtained. It is clear that whether or not the
Mound-builders and Toltecs were the same people, the former had no
affinity of race with the Indians. They were undoubtedly an American
race, while the Indians were as undoubtedly Asiatic, for whom no
ancestry can with any show of reason be traced to the Mound-builders.
Were the resemblance between the Indians and the nomadic tribes of
Siberia beyond Behring Strait to be set aside as proving nothing, we
should yet have the tradition common to many tribes pointing to a
north-western source, to fall back upon in disposing of the question of
the origin of the red man. We may, therefore, leave him out of farther
present consideration, and turn to the successors of the Mound-builders.
Professor O. C. Marsh in a recent lecture touched upon this point, and
at the same time hinted at a possible community of race among all the
ancient peoples of America. “On the Columbia River,” he said, “I have
found evidence of the former existence of inhabitants much superior to
the Indians at present there, and of which no tradition remains. Among
many stone carvings which I saw, there were a number of heads which so
strongly resemble those of apes that the likeness at once suggests
itself. Whence came these sculptures, and by whom were they made?
Another fact that has interested me very much is the strong resemblance
between the skulls of the typical Mound-builders of the Mississippi
valley and those of the Pueblo Indians. I had long been familiar with
the former, and when I recently saw the latter, it required the positive
assurance of a friend who had himself collected them in New Mexico to
convince me that they were not from the mounds. In a large collection of
Mound-builders’ pottery, over a thousand specimens which I have recently
examined with some care, I found many pieces of elaborate workmanship so
nearly like the ancient water-jars from Peru, that no one could fairly
doubt that some intercourse had taken place between the widely separated
people that made them.”
According to this view the Mound-builders would have a relationship with
the Peruvians on the one hand, and with the Pueblos on the other. When
the Mound-builders retreated from their upper settlements, they
maintained for some years their occupancy of territory along the lower
Mississippi, before finally retiring toward the south. It is hardly
possible that they disappeared _en masse_ before the invaders, or that
those lingering behind the main body should have been utterly
exterminated. It would be difficult in that case to account for such
exceptional Indian tribes as the Natchez and Mandan. Both tribes were
skilful workers in clay. The Natchez, at the time when the West was
first opened up by Europeans, over three hundred years ago, were making
pottery comparable with that of Europe. They found the requisite clay on
the banks of the Mississippi, and were acquainted with the use of color.
The Mandans employed earthen-ware in their households, almost as
extensively as any modern people. They baked pots in such a way that
they were as capable of resisting the action of heat as the metal
utensils of the present day. These were hung over the fire for purposes
of cooking and numberless other articles of earthen-ware were seen in
their lodges. The Mandans were making pottery on the upper Missouri
forty-five years ago, and probably continued doing so until a late date.
The Pueblos of New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona present us with another
problem, which can only be solved by one of two suppositions, either
that they are the descendants of emigrants from Central America who
degenerated through contact and association with Indians, or that they
represent a remnant of the Mound-builders who sought in the west the
security which the main body of their countrymen found in the south. We
shall find additional reason hereafter for believing that if there was
no extensive amalgamation of the races, the Indians at least borrowed
some of the customs of their predecessors. If it be well understood that
the ancient occupants of the territory extending from the mouth of the
Mississippi northward and westward to Arizona had a common origin, and
that their victorious barbarian successors were in certain districts
modified by absorption, such facts as a similarity between the pottery
of Louisiana or Illinois and Colorado need not be received with either
hesitation or bewilderment. And, besides, the historical necessity for
ascribing it to a specific age is thereby materially lessened.
The Pueblos, or Village Indians, of New Mexico and Arizona have left
many interesting pieces of earthen-ware, and many others of the present
time come from the same section. There is abundant proof that this
entire district was inhabited at a very ancient date, and the relics of
successive degrees of civilization are found in the ruins. El Moro, in
New Mexico, was visited by Lieutenant Simpson in 1849, and afterward by
Lieutenant Whipple. Pottery was found painted in zones and wavy lines,
and occasionally highly polished. Following the same parallel westward,
Lieutenant Whipple discovered other ruins to which no age could be
ascribed, although some were clearly more ancient than others,
indicating that the region must have been inhabited throughout a long
series of years. More pottery was collected, brightly colored, and
painted after patterns resembling those noticed at El Moro. The
paintings occasionally assumed the forms of animals and insects. Still
farther to the west, at Zuni, and at places beyond it in the same
direction, the examples of the ceramic work of the early inhabitants
multiplied. Sun-dried bricks were found to have been employed in
building, and in addition to painted pottery, an older indented kind was
met with.