MR. CROYDEN'S STORY
"Hundreds and hundreds of years ago," said Mr. Croyden, "while the
Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, and Romans were experimenting at
pottery-making, the Chinese, inside their great walled country, were
busy with the same task. In fact as far back as two thousand years
before Christ the Chinese were famous potters, making earthenware of
such fine quality that it was difficult to tell whether it was pottery
or porcelain. For the two are quite different, you must remember,
Theo. It is not enough to say that pottery is thick and porcelain
thin, for much of the Chinese and Japanese pottery is very thin
indeed. The difference lies in the clay itself, of which the ware is
made. Do not forget that. Pottery is an opaque ware composed of
various combinations of clay which afterward may or may not have a
coating of glaze put over it. But genuine porcelain is made from a
mixture of quite different materials--a mixture of decomposed feldspar
known as kaolin, and petuntse."
Mr. Croyden paused a moment.
"There are of course so-called porcelains made from other ingredients;
but we call them soft paste chinas, and do not rate them as true
porcelains. Only a hard paste, or kaolin ware, is acknowledged by
experts to be genuine porcelain. Now all this sounds very simple. By
putting the kaolin and the petuntse together in the right proportions,
moulding the clay, and afterward applying to it a glaze of some sort
the Chinese made their porcelain, and very beautiful porcelain it
was. Some day I will tell you more about it. This porcelain was not
only very hard but was semi-translucent; by that I mean that if it was
held to the light one could see the glow through it. It was not, of
course, transparent like glass. These two qualities of hardness and
translucence help us to distinguish porcelain from pottery."
Again Mr. Croyden stopped.
"For example, Canton ware, commonly known as Canton china, is not
really china at all, but is instead a fine quality of stone, or
earthenware, coated over with a slip or glaze containing porcelain.
Nor is the exquisite Satsuma ware china; that too is a pottery."
Theo listened intently.
"Now all this time the Chinese kept the secret of how they made their
wares to themselves, not sharing their knowledge with any outside
peoples. Many a nation would have given almost anything to know from
what materials the beautiful bowls, vases, and dishes were made. It
would have saved years and years of the toil of patient men. But the
Chinese had no mind to tell any one. Instead, they went on making more
and more pottery and porcelain, improving their work with each
successive generation. It is amusing to recall that while our
ancestors in England were barbarians, and were eating out of the
crudest clay vessels or from trenchers of wood, the Chinese were
enjoying the luxury of the finest pottery and porcelain."
Theo's eyes opened very wide.
"Undoubtedly the Chinese deserved the good results they obtained, for
they selected their clays with extreme care; ground and mixed them
most skilfully; modeled each piece with the keenest feeling for its
beauty and perfection; and decorated it in a truly artistic spirit.
"In the meantime they constantly became more and more expert. They
began to learn the use of colors, and to perfect them. Some of the
blues or cobalts they employed have never been surpassed. One for
instance is the blue used on their Nankin china, and known as Nankin
blue."
"Did the Japanese make pottery too?" questioned Theo.
"Yes, but we do not know exactly how early they began to make
it. Probably some of the Japanese crossed to China and there learned
the art. Some think pottery-making came into Japan through
Korea. However that may be, long before other countries had to any
extent perfected the manufacture of glazed pottery and porcelain
China, Japan, Persia, and India had turned their attention to it. As
far back as 1000 B. C. the Japanese were making porcelains
similar to those of China. Then followed a long stretch of years when,
because of various wars between China and Japan, the art of producing
glazed pottery and porcelain was lost. All those workmen who possessed
any knowledge of their manufacture perished. This was the period when
the Greeks and Romans were making their red and black ware which, you
recall, they did not know how to glaze, and therefore had no means of
preventing liquids from leaking through it."
"I wish they had had the secrets of the Chinese and Japanese!" Theo
said.
"I wish so too," echoed Mr. Croyden. "As it was, they struggled along
with their beautiful pottery vases through which the water percolated
just as it does through a flower-pot. And so it was for a time in
China and Japan. It was not until centuries afterward that the Chinese
and Japanese again rediscovered the art they had lost, and by that
time the Greeks and Romans were no more, newer races having taken
their places. Some of the wonderful old enamel work of the Chinese,
however, was never reclaimed, and rare pieces of porcelain of a kind
no one has yet been able to reproduce remain to tell us of the skill
of those ancient Chinese workmen."
"If the Chinese kept everything so secret how did the art of glazed
pottery-making ever get into Europe?" asked Theo.
Mr. Croyden smiled.
"It was a marvel that it ever did," he answered slowly. "Of course as
people traveled little in those days one country did not know much
about what another was doing. But there were wars when much booty was
carried from one land to another; the pilgrimages of the Crusaders,
too, helped to spread a knowledge of widely separated sections.
Gradually bits of Chinese pottery and porcelain found their way into
different parts of the East; and as a consequence men began to be
highly dissatisfied with their red and black ware, and with the crude
clay dishes they had previously thought so fine. They wanted to make
white ware like that of the Chinese. But because they did not know
what clays to use, or how to glaze their products, all their
experiments failed. There did nevertheless appear throughout the
Orient a ware of common clay over which a simple covering of white had
been painted, and this slip or engobe of white gave to the variety the
name of Oriental Engobe. This type of ware decorated with a
conventional dull-hued design was many years later revived and
imitated by Theodore Deck of Paris, one of the great French porcelain
makers. But even this was not like the white Chinese ware everybody
wanted so much to make."
"Did they never find out the secret?"
"Of that I will tell you some other time. It is a most interesting
story," returned Mr. Croyden. "In the meantime the Moors and Arabs
who had lived in the Orient had in some way learned that tin or lead
could be used for enameling clay surfaces. The discovery
apparently did not particularly interest them because, you see, in the
East minerals were not plentiful. When, however, in the twelfth
century they conquered Spain they found in that country quantities of
lead and tin, and they then recalled that these could be used as a
glaze for pottery. In consequence they promptly set to work making an
enameled ware called Majolica or Maiolica from the Island of Maiorca.
These Moors were a highly cultured race who built in Spain beautiful
temples and palaces, among them the Alhambra, of which perhaps you
have read."
Theo's eyes shone.
"We read about it at school!" he cried.
"I am glad to hear that," exclaimed Mr. Croyden. "Then you will
remember what a wonderful structure it was. In its interior have been
found many highly glazed tiles beautifully designed and decorated in
colors and in gold. Within this palace, too, was found the famous
Alhambra Vase, three feet four inches in height, and made in 1320. It
is a piece of work quite different from anything the Greeks made, but
in its way is quite as perfect. It is of earthenware, with a white
ground, and is enameled in two shades of blue with a further
decoration of gold or copper lustre. I speak particularly of this use
of glaze because it is very important. Until people knew how to glaze
their wares many of the comforts and conveniences of living were
impossible. Men carried water or wine in leather gourds, or in clay
vessels coated on the inside with a layer of gum to prevent the
contents from leaking or evaporating."
"I should think the gum would have made the liquid taste," said Theo.
"It did. That was precisely the trouble. Beside that think of the
waste. Suppose you lost half the water you needed for your journey by
having it evaporate. Think in addition what it meant if a large part
of your food dried up in the cooking."
Theo looked grave.
"I should not like that at all."
"Nor did your ancestors," laughed Mr. Croyden. "Well, it was to
these Mohammedan Arabs, or Saracens, as they are termed, that Europe
fundamentally owed its knowledge of the use of glaze, and its
consequent beginning in the art of pottery-making. The Saracens did
not, however, remain in Spain. There was an uprising of the Christians
and they were either driven out or slaughtered, almost every relic of
their civilization being destroyed. A stray temple or palace alone
remains as a monument to them and this was more the result of chance,
probably, than of intention. For two centuries following came an
interval known as the Dark Ages, when none of the arts flourished.
But before the Moors had fled from Spain the Italians who lived near
at hand and whose territory the invaders often plundered had tired of
their pillaging and in return had made an expedition into the
Saracens' country bringing back with them to Italy some of the
Majolica ware of the Arabs. When the nations began to awaken out of
their two hundred years of warfare and strife, and Genoa, Venice, and
Leghorn became great commercial centres, then the Renaissance came and
the Italians, who were ever an ingenious people, began among other
things to attempt to copy the glaze on this Majolica ware. As a result
in the fifteenth century Luca della Robbia, who was both a sculptor
and a potter, contrived to perfect his wonderful glazed terra cotta."
"Not the Delia Robbia who did the Singing Boys we have on the wall at
school!"
"The very same. He made great blue and white enameled tiles for wall
decoration too; figures of babies and children, as well as whole
altars fashioned entirely from this beautiful enamel. Whether he used
a plumbiferous, or lead glaze; or a stanniferous, or tin glaze, we do
not know. Probably it was of tin. But the important fact is that he
got a fine durable surface, very shiny and very hard, which wrought a
revolution in pottery-making. If you visit Florence some time you can
still see set in the walls of some of the public buildings the
identical enameled terra cottas made by Luca della Robbia."
"I'd like to see them."
"Then tell your dad to take you to Italy after this war is over. We
will pray that Germany may spare these art works of the world."
Mr. Croyden did not speak for a moment; then he said:
"And while you are remembering so many things remember in addition
that the word _glaze_ comes from the term _glassing_ or _glazing_,
which means putting a coating of glass over the surface. Of course
the covering is not really glass, but it is hard and shiny, and so
people used to think it was. Some day I will tell you more about the
different kinds of glazes."
"So it was the Italians who gave Europe its glazed pottery and
porcelain," remarked Theo.
"Not alone the Italians," protested Mr. Croyden, "although they
helped. Somebody else had a share in the discovery--somebody very far
away from Italy. It was the knowledge of the Italians combined with
the skill of this other distant nation that gave to Europe the perfect
product."
"What nation was that?" demanded Theo.
"The Dutch."
"The Dutch!"
"Yes. You see at this time the Dutch were great traders, and it was
while the nation was at the height of its commercial glory that the
Dutch began bringing from China shipments of Chinese porcelain.
Portuguese traders had also brought some of it into Europe, so in
these two ways the beautiful blue and white ware we know so well was
introduced to the Continent.
"The Portuguese were content to import it; they never attempted to
copy either the pottery or the porcelain. But the Dutch were more
ambitious. As early as 1300 they began experimenting with glazed
pottery. To the knowledge of glaze which they got from Italy they
added all they could find out about the making of Chinese wares. They
learned that the blue color the Chinese got came from oxide of cobalt,
which would melt and mingle with the glaze when exposed to a high
temperature; they also learned a little--a very little, of the
clay. As a result they began to turn out a blue and white pottery
known as Delft, which they soon made in great quantities and sold to
European nations at a much lower price than imported Chinese potteries
and porcelains could be bought."
Mr. Croyden bent forward and tossed a small log upon the fire.
"This fact revolutionized daily living throughout Europe. Up to this
time you must remember the common people everywhere were using square
pieces of tile or wood for plates, and were eating from wooden bowls
or hollowed out slabs of wood called trenchers. The more well-to-do
used pewter, and kings and queens dined from dishes of silver. There
was, it is true, some earthenware made in Saxony and France, but as it
was of a finer and more expensive quality than Delft ordinary persons
could not afford to buy it.
"At the time the Dutch began importing their Delft ware into England
Henry IV was on the throne; so you see how long ago all this
happened."
Mr. Croyden smiled mischievously.
"I suppose you have that date at your tongue's end," he added.
"I think it was about 1400," ventured Theo thoughtfully.
"Bravo! I had no idea you would remember it. Henry IV reigned from
1399 to 1413, so you see you are nearly right. As Delft ware began to
be manufactured in 1310 the art was pretty well developed by this
time, and much beautiful pottery was being made. Some of the best
Dutch painters were trying their hand at its decoration, and in the
Museums of the Hague there are old Delft pieces painted by many of
these famous artists. Most of the scenes upon them were copied from
the landscapes the Dutch saw every day--windmills, ships, Dutch women
in their quaint costumes, fishermen, and children in wooden
shoes,--the ordinary sights, such as were common in Holland, but novel
and interesting to those who lived in other places. There were, too,
many imitations of Chinese ware adorned with copies of Chinese
designs. Bear in mind, Theo, that all of this was pottery, not
porcelain; for the secret of porcelain-making had not yet been
fathomed," said Mr. Croyden impressively.
"It was glazed pottery," responded Theo.
"Exactly," nodded Mr. Croyden. "As time went on the Dutch increased
and perfected their output until they became ambitious to make larger
pieces. Potters began turning out small foot-stoves, vases,
candlesticks, and dinner sets. One of the most amusing relics of this
old Delft is now in one of the foreign museums. It is a violin
perfectly modeled and exquisitely decorated. The story goes that it
was one of four such instruments which were made as wedding gifts for
the four daughters of a rich Dutch pottery manufacturer. It is even
asserted that the instruments before being presented to the four
brides were used by the musicians at the wedding festivities. I'm
afraid they did not make very good music."
Theo smiled.
"Besides these fantastic things the Dutch also made tea sets, and when
I say that you must realize that this was a very important fact; for
up to about 1660 tea was a great novelty in England. It had but
recently been introduced there by Oriental traders, and was very
expensive, selling for about eight dollars a pound--at that time a
great deal of money, and even quite a price when rated by our own
standards. People were very ignorant still as to its use. You have
probably heard the story of the servant who, knowing nothing about
preparing the new delicacy, boiled the tea leaves, sprinkled them with
salt and pepper and, throwing away the liquid, served the dainty to
his master in a covered dish."
There was a hearty laugh from Theo.
"As late as 1661 an Englishman named Samuel Pepys, whose diary is an
interesting record of the time, writes: '_I had to-day some tea--a
China drink of which I had never drank before._' Isn't it a pity that
while he was writing the little man did not also put down how he liked
this new beverage?"
Mr. Croyden drew out his watch and rose.
"So you can see, Theo," he added as he stood with his back to the
fire, "what it meant to have tea sets introduced into England. Of
course the cups had no handles as do our teacups of to-day. The
Chinese cups were in reality small bowls without either saucer or
handle. Therefore the Delft teacups copied from them were made in the
same way. The Chinese did not drink their tea very hot, you see, and
therefore could take hold of the cup without burning their fingers;
moreover, they used in their houses tables of teak-wood to which hot
cups did no injury. Since, however, teak-wood was unknown in England
and oak was in general use the English found that the hot cups marred
their tables and later they invented saucers to go under
them. Nevertheless it was a long time before it dawned on potters that
they could make handles for their cups. One of the ear-marks of tea
sets of early manufacture is these handleless cups. With this advent
of dishes, of Delft plaques to be hung on the wall in place of
pictures, and of Delft tiles, many of the common people for the first
time awakened to the discovery that the interiors of their houses
might be made attractive, and something more than mere shelters from
cold and storm. They began buying vases and crude pottery ornaments,
images of flower-girls, fishermen, and of the saints. In Holland
people even hung Delft plaques on the walls of their stables. It was a
new thought to have anything about which was not for actual use."
"I should think that with all this Chinese and Delft ware to copy from
the English would have tried making earthenware of their own,"
speculated Theo.
"They did," was Mr. Croyden's prompt reply, "and of that I will tell
you some other day. But there is one interesting fact in connection
with these early tea sets. Remember that if ever you see in a museum
or private house a tea set which you are told came over in the
_Mayflower_ nothing of the sort could have happened. The Pilgrims
landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620, and it was not until from 1660 to
1770 that tea and tea sets became general in England. By that time the
Pilgrim Fathers, and more especially the Pilgrim Mothers, were far
across the ocean."
Mr. Croyden moved toward the door.
"Some one may have brought tea sets to them but they never carried
them in the _Mayflower_," he concluded. "Now I have talked too much
for one morning, and it is lunch time. Listen, there is the horn! And
see, Theo, the rain has ceased and the sun come out."
"I hadn't thought of the weather," smiled Theo. "I had not thought of
anything, I guess, but what you were telling me. You will come again,
sir?"
"Surely!"
"And you won't forget your promise to tell me about English pottery?"
"No indeed, son," was the cordial reply. "You are too good a listener
for me to forget."
[Illustration]