_Artistic Results._--While the great potteries of Europe have been
employed in improving their methods of manufacture and in consolidating
their knowledge on the technical and scientific side, so that they are
able to produce pottery more perfect in shape, with a higher degree of
finish and greater certainty of result than was ever known before, it
cannot be said that the artistic results have been commensurate with the
labour expended. Fortunately, however, the success of these important
industrial concerns in stereotyping modern production has incited a
considerable number of clever men, either potters or artists, to become
artist-potters and producers of individual wares, often recalling the
works of the great schools of bygone centuries. This movement, which
to-day has its exponents in every European country as well as in the
United States of America, originated in France between 1840 and 1850,
when the formation of the earliest ceramic museums and the new-born
interest in the old French faience led to various attempts at
pottery-making by the old methods of handwork and rule of thumb.
Avisseau of Tours (1845), Pull of Paris (1855), and Barbizet (1859)
began to make pieces in the style of Palissy, and Ulysse of Blois (1863)
revived painted faience in imitation of that of Nevers. Slowly a demand
for painted pottery was created among collectors and amateurs, and in
France and other countries artists began to dabble in the painting of
pottery. In some cases the artist retained his freedom, painting pieces
obtained from some pottery manufacturer, which he sold on his own
account after they had been decorated and fired; or he became attached
to a particular factory and his productions were sold by the potter; or
the artist became an amateur potter, and either worked alone or
encouraged other artists to co-operate with him.
It is impossible to do more than mention a few of the prominent men in
each class, whose works were not only esteemed in their own day, but are
also likely to be regarded always as among the distinguished productions
of the 19th century. Emile Lessore and Chapelet were both painters who
were attracted by the technique of the potter. For some time they bought
specimens of pottery from a small manufacturer named Laurin at
Bourg-la-Reine, and after a time they definitely forsook pictorial art
for that of the potter. Lessore painted in underglaze colours in a
delicate sketchy style figure-subjects, mostly adapted from old
engravings. He worked for a short time at Sèvres, and then, like so many
other French pottery artists of this period, he came to Minton's in
England, and finally entered into an engagement with the old firm of
Josiah Wedgwood & Sons which continued almost to his death (1860-1876).
On their fine cream-coloured earthenware he sketched many thousands of
fanciful designs which had a great vogue in the 'seventies and 'eighties
of the last century. Chapelet pursued a very different course. His first
innovation was a method known as "Barbotine" or slip-painting, in which
coloured clays were used "impasto," often in considerable thickness, so
that after the work had been fired and glazed it bore some resemblance
to an oil painting. For a few years this style of decoration became the
rage all over Europe, but it fell into contempt almost as rapidly as it
had found favour, and is now only used for the decoration of common
wares. Ultimately, Chapelet gave up painting and applied himself to the
discovery of technical novelties. He was apparently the first European
potter to produce flambé glazes after the manner of the Chinese, and a
fine collection of these productions of his is preserved in the museum
at Sèvres.
The greatest of all the French innovators was, however, Théodore Deck,
who had been trained as a working potter and was led to forsake the
management of an ordinary tile and pottery business in Paris to
experiment on his own account. He started a little workshop in the
Boulevard Montparnasse in Paris and rapidly gathered round him a number
of young painters all eager to experiment in the magnificent colours
which Deck with his passionate love of Persian and other oriental
pottery could place at their disposal. Within a few years this venture
was so successful that Deck was known all over the civilized world as a
great potter, and his original creations, painted by men like Ranvier,
Collin, Ehrmann, Anker and other artists, were readily purchased by the
lovers of ceramic art in every country. The crown of his career came in
1887, when he was appointed director of the National Manufactory at
Sèvres, for he was the only practical potter who had ever occupied that
position; but he died in 1890 before he had been able to impress his
personality on the work of Sèvres.
The same movement that was active in France found its exponents in other
countries as well. In Italy and the south of France the last quarter of
the 19th century witnessed a revival of Italian majolica and of lustre
decoration. Prominent in this direction were the productions of
Cantegalli of Florence and of the Massiers of Golfe-Juan near Cannes;
while in England William de Morgan created an artistic sensation by his
tiles and vases decorated with lustres, or with painted colours
recalling those of the Persian and Syrian potters of the middle ages.
This departure in England was, however, followed up by many
manufacturers who were keenly alive to the possibilities of pottery
colour, and Mr Bernard Moore, of Longton, Maw & Company of Jackfield,
and Minton's of Stoke-upon-Trent, produced much excellent work, in tiles
and vases inspired from the same oriental sources.
Meantime, in America there had been growing up a manufacture of pottery
after the approved methods, in Trenton, New Jersey; East Liverpool,
Zanesville and Cincinnati (Ohio). To all these centres English workmen
had been attracted, and earthenware after the current English styles was
manufactured; but, as was the case in Europe, individual efforts were
made to produce artistic pottery. The first and best known of these
artistic departures was that of the Rookwood Pottery at Cincinnati, and
again it was an amateur, Mrs Bellamy Storer, who founded an enterprise
which has since produced some very original work. From 1880 to 1889 the
work was mainly carried on at the expense of this lady, but since that
date the enterprise has been self-supporting, and the Rookwood pottery
has become known throughout the world.
The latter half of the 19th century also witnessed the development of
new branches of pottery manufacture for sanitary purposes--and it is not
too much to say that much of the improved sanitation of modern dwellings
and towns has been rendered possible by the special appliances invented
by potters for these purposes. In this direction the English potters
undoubtedly led the way, and not only have their methods been imitated
abroad, but English manufacturers have also established large works in
Germany, France and the United States of America. Varieties, too, of
hard-fired pottery, comprising earthenwares, stonewares and porcelains,
have been invented for use in the chemical and electrical industries.
But these belong to the great modern branch of pottery manufacture, not
to pottery art. In the same way, the revived attention paid to the
various forms of pottery for the interior and exterior of buildings
belongs rather to the question of mural decoration than of pottery.
At the beginning of the 20th century we find England and Germany the
leading pottery manufacturing countries; Germany excelling in the amount
of its output, and England in the fineness and finish of its
productions. France, in addition to the National Manufactory at Sèvres,
as much as ever divorced from commerce, has its porcelain industry at
Limoges and large manufactories of tiles and earthenware in many
departments; while there are also a number of artist potters like
Lachenal, Dalpayrat, Delaherche and Taxile Doat who make purely artistic
pottery in hard-fired stonewares (_grès_) and porcelain, while the
production of decorative stonewares for building purposes has been
developed by such firms as Bigot, Boulanger and E. Müller. A great
development has also taken place in the production of decorative pottery
and tiles in Holland. The famous Delft works, besides producing
quantities of painted blue and white earthenware (made in the English
and not in the old Dutch fashion), has been experimenting largely in the
development of crystalline and opalescent glazes and in lustres, while
the Rozenburg factory at the Hague and a factory at Puramerende, near
Amsterdam, have made some distinctive but rather bizarre painted pottery
and porcelain. The success of the Royal Copenhagen factory has already
been mentioned, and this success led to the foundation of Bing &
Gröndhal of Copenhagen, who largely follow the styles of decoration
initiated at the Royal works. In Sweden there are two important
factories at Rörstrand and Gustafsberg. Under the accomplished director
of the Rörstrand factory, Mr Robert Almström, a great variety of
products have been successfully manufactured, including hard-paste
porcelain, English bone china, earthenware, majolica and stoves. Italy,
Spain and Belgium have also important modern pottery works.
In the United States of America there are large establishments for the
manufacture of earthenware, bone china and tiles, all after the English
fashion, while in addition there are a number of experimental kilns at
work producing artistic pottery. The Rookwood factory has already been
mentioned, but the wares produced at the Grueby factory and by Mrs
Robineau and T. Brouwer are also worthy of note. (See "Report on
American Art Pottery," pp. 922-935 of _Special Reports of the U.S.
Census Office, Manufactures_, pt. iii., 1905.)
_Technical Pottery Works._--It is only possible to give a selection of
the best of the modern standard works dealing with the technical side
of pottery production. Brongniart, _Traité des arts céramiques_ (3rd
ed., Paris, 1877), with notes and additions by Salvétat; E. Bourry,
_Traité des industries céramiques_ (Paris, 1897); Théodore Deck, _La
Faïence_ (Paris, 1887); A. Granger, _La Céramique industrielle_
(Paris, 1905); E.S. Auscher, _La Céramique cuisant à haute
température_ (Paris, 1899); _Technologie de la Céramique_ (Paris,
1901); _Les Industries céramiques_ (Paris, 1901); Seger, _Gesammelte
Schriften_ (Berlin, 1896; Eng. trans., Eastern, Pa., U.S.A., 1902);
Langenbeck, _The Chemistry of Pottery_ (Easton, Pa., U.S.A., 1895);
William Burton, _Porcelain_ (London, 1906). (W. B.*)