POTTERY AND PORCELAIN.
Josiah Wedgwood and the Wedgwood Ware--Worcester Porcelain.
When Mr Godfrey Wedgwood, a member of the famous firm of potters at
Etruria, near Burslem, Staffordshire, went to work about forty years
ago, his famous ancestor and founder of the world-famed Wedgwood ware
was still named amongst the workmen as 'Owd Wooden Leg.' A son of Mr
Godfrey Wedgwood, now in the firm, is the fifth generation in descent,
and the manufactory is still carried on in the same buildings erected by
Josiah Wedgwood one hundred and twenty years ago.
One hundred years ago Josiah Wedgwood, the creator of British artistic
pottery, passed away at Etruria, near Burslem, surrounded by the
creations of his own well-directed genius and industry, having
'converted a rude and inconsiderable manufacture into an elegant art and
an important part of national commerce.' His death took place on 3d
January 1795, the same year in which Thomas Carlyle saw the light at
Ecclefechan, and one year and a half before the death of Burns at
Dumfries. During fifty years of his working life, largely owing to his
own successful efforts, he had witnessed the output of the Staffordshire
potteries increased fivefold, and his wares were known and sold over
Europe and the civilised world. In the words of Mr Gladstone, his
characteristic merit lay 'in the firmness and fullness with which he
perceived the true law of what we may call Industrial Art, or, in other
words, of the application of the higher art to Industry.' Novalis once
compared the works of Goethe and Wedgwood in these words: 'Goethe is
truly a practical poet. He is in his works what the Englishman is in his
wares, perfectly simple, neat, fit, and durable. He has played in the
German world of literature the same part that Wedgwood has played in the
English world of art.'
[Illustration: JOSIAH WEDGWOOD.]
Long ago, in his sketch of Brindley and the early engineers, Dr Smiles
had occasion to record the important service rendered by Wedgwood in the
making of the Grand Trunk Canal--towards the preliminary expense of
which he subscribed one thousand pounds--and in the development of the
industrial life of the Midlands. Since that time Smiles has himself
published a biography of Wedgwood, to which we are here indebted.
More than once it has happened that the youngest of thirteen children
has turned out a genius. It was so in the case of Sir Richard Arkwright,
and it turned out to be so in the case of Josiah Wedgwood, the youngest
of the thirteen children of Thomas Wedgwood, a Burslem potter, and of
Mary Stringer, a kind-hearted but delicate, sensitive woman, the
daughter of a nonconformist clergyman. The town of Burslem, in
Staffordshire, where Wedgwood saw the light in 1730, was then anything
but an attractive place. Drinking and cock-fighting were the common
recreations; roads had scarcely any existence; the thatched hovels had
dunghills before the doors, while the hollows from which the potter's
clay was excavated were filled with stagnant water, and the atmosphere
of the whole place was coarse and unwholesome, and a most unlikely
nursery of genius.
It is probable that the first Wedgwoods take their name from the hamlet
of Weggewood in Staffordshire. There had been Wedgwoods in Burslem from
a very early period, and this name occupies a large space in the parish
registers during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; of the fifty
small potters settled there, many bore this honoured name. The ware
consisted of articles in common use, such as butter-pots, basins, jugs,
and porringers. The black glazed and ruddy pottery then in use was much
improved after an immigration of Dutchmen and Germans. The Elers, who
followed the Prince of Orange, introduced the Delft ware and the salt
glaze. They produced a kind of red ware, and Egyptian black; but
disgusted at the discovery of their secret methods by Astbury and
Twyford, they removed to Chelsea in 1710. An important improvement was
made by Astbury, that of making ware white by means of burnt flint.
Samuel Astbury, a son of this famous potter, married an aunt of Josiah
Wedgwood. But the art was then in its infancy, not more than one hundred
people being employed in this way in the district of Burslem, as
compared with about ten thousand now, with an annual export of goods
amounting to about two hundred thousand pounds, besides what are
utilised in home-trade. John Wesley, after visiting Burslem in 1760, and
twenty years later in 1781, remarked how the whole face of the country
had been improved in that period. Inhabitants had flowed in, the
wilderness had become a fruitful field, and the country was not more
improved than the people.
All the school education young Josiah received was over in his ninth
year, and it amounted to only a slight grounding in reading, writing,
and arithmetic. But his practical or technical education went on
continually, while he afterwards supplemented many of the deficiencies
of early years by a wide course of study. After the death of his
father, he began the practical business of life as a potter in his ninth
year, by learning the throwing branch of the trade. The thrower moulds
the vessel out of the moist clay from the potter's wheel into the
required shape, and hands it on to be dealt with by the stouker, who
adds the handle. Josiah at eleven proved a clever thrower of the black
and mottled ware then in vogue, such as baking-dishes, pitchers, and
milk-cans. But a severe attack of virulent smallpox almost terminated
his career, and left a weakness in his right knee, which developed, so
that this limb had to be amputated at a later date. He was bound
apprentice to his brother Thomas in 1744, when in his fourteenth year;
but this weak knee, which hampered him so much, proved a blessing in
disguise, for it sent him from the thrower's place to the moulder's
board, where he improved the ware, his first effort being an ornamental
teapot made of the ochreous clay of the district. Other work of this
period comprised plates, pickle-leaves, knife-hafts, and snuff-boxes. At
the same time he made experiments in the chemistry of the material he
was using. Wedgwood's great study was that of different kinds of
colouring matter for clays, but at the same time he mastered every
branch of the art. That he was a well-behaved young man is evident from
the fact that he was held up in the neighbourhood as a pattern for
emulation.
[Illustration: Wedgwood at Work.]
But his brother Thomas, who moved along in the old rut, had small
sympathy with all this experimenting, and thought Josiah flighty and
full of fancies. After remaining for a time with his brother, at the
completion of his apprenticeship Wedgwood became partner in 1752, in a
small pottery near Stoke-upon-Trent: soon after, Mr Whieldon, one of the
most eminent potters of the day, joined the firm. Here Wedgwood took
pains to discover new methods and striking designs, as trade was then
depressed. New green earthenware was produced, as smooth as glass, for
dessert service, moulded in the form of leaves; also toilet ware,
snuff-boxes, and articles coloured in imitation of precious stones,
which the jewellers of that time sold largely. Other articles of
manufacture were blue-flowered cups and saucers, and varicoloured
teapots. Wedgwood, on the expiry of his partnership with Whieldon,
started on his own account in his native Burslem in 1760. His capital
must have been small, as the sum of twenty pounds was all he had
received from his father's estate. He rented Ivy House and Works at ten
pounds a year, and engaged his second-cousin, Thomas, as workman at
eight shillings and sixpence a week. He gradually acquired a reputation
for the taste and excellence of design of his green glazed ware, his
tortoiseshell and tinted snuff-boxes, and white medallions. A specially
designed tea-service, representing different fruits and vegetables, sold
well, and, as might be expected, was at once widely imitated. He hired
new works on the site now partly occupied by the Wedgwood Institute, and
introduced various new tools and appliances. His kilns for firing his
fine ware gave him the greatest trouble, and had to be often renewed.
James Brindley, when puzzled in thinking out some engineering problem,
used to retire to bed and work it out in his head before he got up. Sir
Josiah Mason, the Birmingham pen-maker, used to simmer over in his mind
on the previous night the work for the next day. Wedgwood had a similar
habit, which kept him often awake during the early part of the night.
Probably owing to the fortunate execution of an order through Miss
Chetwynd, maid of honour to Queen Charlotte, of a complete cream service
in green and gold, Wedgwood secured the patronage of royalty, and was
appointed Queen's Potter in 1763. His Queen's ware became popular, and
secured him much additional business.
An engine lathe which he introduced greatly forwarded his designs; and
the wareroom opened in London for the exhibition of his now famous
Queen's ware, Etruscan vases, and other works, drew attention to the
excellence of his work. He started works besides at Chelsea, supervised
by his partner Bentley, where modellers, enamellers, and artists were
employed, so that the cares of his business, 'pot-making and
navigating'--the latter the carrying through of the Grand Trunk
Canal--entirely filled his mind and time at this period. So busy was he,
that he sometimes wondered whether he was an engineer, a landowner, or a
potter. Meanwhile, a step he had no cause to regret was his marriage in
1764 to Sarah Wedgwood, no relation of his own, a handsome lady of good
education and of some fortune.
Wedgwood had begun to imitate the classic works of the Greeks found in
public and private collections, and produced his unglazed black
porcelain, which he named Basaltes, in 1766. The demand for his vases at
this time was so great that he could have sold fifty or one hundred
pounds' worth a day, if he had been able to produce them fast enough. He
was now patronised by royalty, by the Empress of Russia, and the
nobility generally. A large service for Queen Charlotte took three years
to execute, as part of the commission consisted in painting on the ware,
in black enamel, about twelve hundred views of palaces, seats of the
nobility, and remarkable places. A service for the Empress of Russia
took eight years to complete. It consisted of nine hundred and fifty-two
pieces, of which the cost was believed to have been three thousand
pounds, although this scarcely paid Wedgwood's working expenses.
Prosperity elbowed Wedgwood out of his old buildings in Burslem, and led
him to purchase land two miles away, on the line of the proposed Grand
Trunk Canal, where his flourishing manufactories and model workmen's
houses sprang up gradually, and were named _Etruria_, after the Italian
home of the famous Etruscans, whose work he admired and imitated. His
works were partly removed thither in 1769, and wholly in 1771. At this
time he showed great public spirit, and aided in getting an Act of
Parliament for better roads in the neighbourhood, and backed Brindley
and Earl Gower in their Grand Trunk Canal scheme, which was destined,
when completed, to cheapen and quicken the carriage of goods to
Liverpool, Bristol, and Hull. The opposition was keen: and Wedgwood
issued a pamphlet showing the benefits which would accrue to trade in
the Midlands by the proposed waterway. When victory was secured, after
the passing of the Act there was a holiday and great rejoicing in
Burslem and the neighbourhood, and the first sod of the canal was cut by
Wedgwood, July 26, 1766. He was also appointed treasurer of the new
undertaking, which was eleven years in progress. Brindley, the greatest
engineer then in England, doubtless sacrificed his life to its success,
as he died of continual harassment and diabetes at the early age of
fifty-six. Wedgwood had an immense admiration for Brindley's work and
character. In the prospect of spending a day with him, he said: 'As I
always edify full as much in that man's company as at church, I promise
myself to be much wiser the day following.' Like Carlyle, who
whimsically put the builder of a bridge before the writer of a book,
Wedgwood placed the man who designed the outline of a jug or the turn of
a teapot far below the creator of a canal or the builder of a city.
In the career of a man of genius and original powers, the period of
early struggle is often the most interesting. When prosperity comes,
after difficulties have been surmounted, there is generally less to
challenge attention. But Wedgwood's career was still one of continual
progress up to the very close. His Queen's ware, made of the whitest
clay from Devon and Dorset, was greatly in demand, and much improved.
The fine earthenwares and porcelains which became the basis of such
manufactures were originated here. Young men of artistic taste were
employed and encouraged to supply designs, and a school of instruction
for drawing, painting, and modelling was started. Artists such as Coward
and Hoskins modelled the 'Sleeping Boy,' one of the finest and largest
of his works. John Bacon, afterwards known as a sculptor, was one of his
artists, as also James Tassie of Glasgow. Wedgwood engaged capable men
wherever they could be found. For his Etruscan models he was greatly
indebted to Sir W. Hamilton. Specimens of his famous portrait cameos,
medallions, and plaques will be found in most of our public museums.
The general health of Wedgwood suffered so much between 1767 and 1768
that he decided to have the limb which had troubled him since his
boyhood amputated. He sat, and without wincing, witnessed the surgeons
cut off his right leg, for there were then no anaesthetics. 'Mr Wedgwood
has this day had his leg taken off,' wrote one of the Burslem clerks at
the foot of a London invoice, 'and is as well as can be expected after
such an execution.' His wife was his good angel when recovering, and
acted as hands and feet and secretary to him; while his partner Bentley
(formerly a Liverpool merchant) and Dr Darwin were also kind; and he was
almost oppressed with the inquiries of many noble and distinguished
persons during convalescence. He had to be content with a wooden leg
now. 'Send me,' he wrote to his brother in London, 'by the next wagon a
spare leg, which you will find, I believe, in the closet.' He lived to
wear out a succession of wooden legs.
Indifference and idleness he could not tolerate, and his fine artistic
sense was offended by any bit of imperfect work. In going through his
works, he would lift the stick upon which he leaned and smash the
offending article, saying, 'This won't do for Josiah Wedgwood.' All the
while he had a keen insight into the character of his workmen, although
he used to say that he had everything to teach them, even to the making
of a table plate.
He was no monopolist, and the only patent he ever took out was for the
discovery of the lost art of burning in colours, as in the Etruscan
vases. 'Let us make all the good, fine, and new things we can,' he said
to Bentley once; 'and so far from being afraid of other people getting
our patterns, we should glory in it, and throw out all the hints we can,
and if possible, have all the artists in Europe working after our
models.' By this means he hoped to secure the goodwill of his best
customers and of the public. At the same time he never sacrificed
excellence to cheapness. As the sale of painted Etruscan ware declined,
his Jasper porcelain--so called from its resemblance to the stone of
that name--became popular. The secret of its manufacture was kept for
many years. It was composed of flint, potter's clay, carbonate of
barytes, and _terra ponderosa_. This and the Jasper-dip are in several
tones and hues of blue; also yellow, lilac, and green. He called in the
good genius of Flaxman in 1775; and, for the following twelve years, the
afterwards famous sculptor did an immense amount of work and enhanced
his own and his patron's reputation. Flaxman did some of his finest work
in this Jasper porcelain. Some of Flaxman's designs Wedgwood could
scarcely be prevailed upon to part with. A bas-relief of the 'Apotheosis
of Homer' went for seven hundred and thirty-five pounds at the sale of
his partner Bentley; and the 'Sacrifice to Hymen,' a tablet in blue and
white Jasper (1787), brought four hundred and fifteen pounds. The first
named is now in the collection of Lord Tweedmouth. Wedgwood's copy of
the Barberini or Portland Vase was a great triumph of his art. This
vase, which had contained the ashes of the Roman Emperor Alexander
Severus and his mother, was of dark-blue glass, with white enamel
figures. It now stands in the medal room of the British Museum alongside
a model by Wedgwood. It stands 10 inches high, and is the finest
specimen of an ancient cameo cut-glass vase known. It was smashed by a
madman in 1845, but was afterwards skilfully repaired. Wedgwood made
fifty copies in fine earthenware, which were originally sold at 25
guineas each. One of these now fetches L200. The vase itself once
changed hands for eighteen hundred guineas, and a copy fetched two
hundred and fifteen guineas in 1892.
[Illustration: Portland Vase.]
Josiah Wedgwood now stood at the head of the potters of Staffordshire,
and the manufactory at Etruria drew visitors from all parts of Europe.
The motto of its founder was still 'Forward;' and, as Dr Smiles
expresses it, there was with him no finality in the development of his
profession. He studied chemistry, botany, drawing, designing, and
conchology. His inquiring mind wanted to get to the bottom of
everything. He journeyed to Cornwall, and was successful in getting
kaolin for chinaware. Queen Charlotte patronised a new pearl-white
teaware; and he succeeded in perfecting the pestle and mortar for the
apothecary. He invented a pyrometer for measuring temperatures; and was
elected Fellow of the Royal Society. Amongst his intimate friends were
Dr Erasmus Darwin, poet and physician (the famous Charles Robert Darwin
was a grandson, his mother having been a daughter of Wedgwood's),
Boulton of Soho Works, James Watt, Thomas Clarkson, Sir Joseph Banks,
and Thomas Day.
We have an example of the generosity of Wedgwood's disposition in his
treatment of John Leslie, afterwards Professor Sir John Leslie of
Edinburgh University. He was so well pleased with his tutoring of his
sons that he settled an annuity of one hundred and fifty pounds upon
him; and it may be that the influence of this able tutor led Thomas
Wedgwood to take up the study of heliotype, and become a pioneer of
photographic science, even before Daguerre. How industrious Wedgwood had
been in his profession is evident from the seven thousand specimens of
clay from all parts of the world which he had tested and analysed. The
six entirely new pieces of earthenware and porcelain which, along with
his Queen's ware, he had introduced early in his career, as painted and
embellished, became the foundation of nearly all the fine earthenware
and porcelains since produced. He had his reward, for besides a
flourishing business, he left more than half a million of money.
WORCESTER PORCELAIN.
One of the most artistic and interesting industries in this country is
the manufacture of porcelain in the ancient city of Worcester. There is
no special local reason for the establishment of such works there, but
Worcester has been noted as the home of the famous porcelain for more
than a century. It was in 1751 that Dr Wall, a chemist and artist,
completed his experiment in the combination of various elements, and
produced a porcelain which was more like the true or natural Chinese
porcelain than any ever devised. This was the more remarkable because
kaolin had not then been discovered in this country. The inventor set up
his factory in Worcester, close to the cathedral, and for a long time he
produced his egg-shell and Tonquin porcelain in various forms, chiefly,
however, those of table services. Transfer-printing was introduced later
on, and was executed with much of the artist's spirit by experts who
attached themselves to the Worcester works after the closing of the
enamel works at Battersea. It was a remarkable century in its devotion
to ceramic art; and it was characteristic of the ruling princes of the
Continent that they should patronise lavishly various potteries of more
or less repute. Towards the end of the century the first sign of this
royal favour was vouchsafed to Worcester. George III. visited the
factories, and under the impetus given by his patronage, the wares of
the city advanced so much in popularity that, in the early part of this
century, it is said, there were few noble families which had not in
their china closets an elaborate service of Worcester, bearing the
family arms and motto in appropriate emblazonment. In 1811, George IV.
being then Prince Regent, several splendid services of Worcester
porcelain were ordered to equip his table for the new social duties
entailed by his regency, and one of these alone cost L4000. In the
museums at the Worcester works there are specimens of many beautiful
services, designed in accordance with the contemporary ideas of pomp and
stateliness. The porcelain artists in those days must have been well
versed in heraldry; for their chief duties seem to have been the
reproduction of crests and coats-of-arms. Some of the services have
interesting stories. There is one of deep royal blue, beautifully
decorated, and bearing in the centre an emblematical figure of Hope. The
story ran that it was ordered by Nelson for presentation to the Duke of
Cumberland, and that the figure of Hope was really a portrait of Lady
Hamilton. This, however, was an error: the service was ordered by the
Duke himself in the ordinary way, and though Lord Nelson did order a
service of Worcester porcelain, he died before it could be completed,
and it was afterwards dispersed. Another story attaches to a plate
adorned with a picture of a ship in full sail approaching harbour. The
Imaum of Muscat sent many presents to the Prince Regent, and hinted that
he would like a ship of war in return. The English authorities, however,
did not see fit to give attention to this request, and sent him instead
many beautiful things, including a service of Worcester ware, bearing on
each piece a scene showing the royal yacht which bore the gifts entering
the cove of Muscat. When the potentate heard, however, that his dearest
wish had been thwarted in this way, he refused to allow the vessel to
enter the harbour, and all the presents had to be brought back again.
The picture on the plate, therefore, is more imaginative than accurate.
[Illustration: The Worcester Royal Porcelain Works.]
The Worcester porcelain began to develop in fresh directions soon after
the Great Exhibition of 1851, which gave an impulse to the efforts of
the artists, and the decorative side of the work was brought into a much
more prominent position. For instance, the 'Worcester enamels,' in the
style of those of Limoges, were introduced, and an illustration of this
work is to be seen in a pair of remarkable vases, bearing enamel
reproductions of Maclise's drawings, founded on the Bayeux tapestries.
About this time, too, after several years of experiment, the ivory
ware--an idea inspired by the lovely ivory sculptures in the
Exhibition--was brought to perfection. It is a beautiful, creamy,
translucent porcelain, singularly fitted for artistic treatment, and it
is now the most characteristic of the later developments of the
Worcester work. In fact, the art directors of the enterprise will not
issue now any new wares in the style of those which found favour at an
earlier period, for they know that they would instantly be palmed off on
the unwary as the genuine products of the bygone times.
To trace the process of the manufacture, from the mixing of the
ingredients to the burning of the last wash in the decorated piece, is
very interesting. It is a process freely shown to visitors, and forms
one of the principal lions in the sober old town which has lain for so
many centuries on the banks of the Severn. The materials are brought
from all parts of the world. Kaolin, or china clay, which is the felspar
of decomposed granite washed from the rocks, is brought from Cornwall,
so is the Cornish or china stone; felspar is brought from Sweden, and
though of a rich red, it turns white when burnt; marl and fire-clay come
from Broseley, in Shropshire, and Stourbridge; flints are brought from
Dieppe; and bones--those of the ox only--come all the way from South
America to be calcined and ground down. The grinding is a slow matter;
each ingredient is ground separately in a vat, the bottom of which is a
hard stone, whereon other hard stones of great weight revolve slowly.
From twelve hours' to ten days' constant treatment by these remorseless
mills is required by the various materials, some needing to be ground
much longer than others before the requisite fineness is attained. It is
essential that all the ingredients should be reduced to a certain
standard of grain; and the contents of each vat must pass through a lawn
sieve with four thousand meshes to the square inch. When the materials
are sufficiently ground to meet this test, they are taken to the
'slip-house,' and mixed together with the clays, which do not need
grinding. A magnet of great strength is in each mixing trough, and draws
to itself every particle of iron, which, if allowed to remain in the
mixture, would injure the ware very much. When properly mixed, the water
is pressed out, and the paste or clay is beaten so that it may obtain
consistency. Then it is ready to be made into the many shapes which find
popular favour.
The process of manufacture depends on the shape to be obtained. A plain
circular teacup may be cast on a potter's wheel of the ancient kind.
When it is partly dried in a mould, it is turned on a lathe and trimmed;
then the handle, which has been moulded, is affixed with a touch of the
'slip'--the porcelain paste in a state of dilution is the cement used in
all such situations--and the piece is ready for the fire. A plate or
saucer, however, is made by flat pressing; a piece of clay like a
pancake is laid on the mould, which is set revolving on a wheel; the
deft fingers of the workmen press the clay to the proper shape, and it
is then dried. But the elaborate ornamental pieces of graceful design
are made in moulds, and for this process the clay is used in the thin or
'slip' state. The moulds are pressed together, the slip is poured into
them through a hole in one side, and when the moisture has been absorbed
by the plaster moulds sufficiently, the piece is taken out. It is often
necessary, in making a large or complicated piece, to have as many as
twenty or thirty castings. In moulding a figure, for instance, the legs
and arms and hands, even the thumbs in many cases, are cast separately,
and with many other parts of the design are laid before a workman, who
carefully builds up the complete figure out of the apparent chaos of
parts, affixing each piece to the body with a touch of slip. When these
wares are complete, they have to be fired for the first time; and they
are taken to a kiln, and placed with great care and many precautions in
the grim interior. The contraction of the clay under fire is a matter to
which the designers must give much study; and the change which takes
place during forty hours' fierce firing in the kiln is shown by
contrasting an unburnt piece and a piece of 'biscuit' or burnt ware, and
marking the shrinkage. Your ware must be calculated to shrink only so
much; if it shrink a shade further, the whole process may be spoiled.
There is a loss of twenty-five per cent. sometimes in these kilns, in
spite of the assiduous care of the workmen. When the biscuit ware has
cooled, it is dipped in the glaze, which is a compound of lead and borax
and other materials--virtually a sort of glass--and then it is fired for
sixteen hours in the 'glost oven.' There is no contraction in this
ordeal; but there is a risk none the less from other causes. In fact,
there is the danger of injury every time the ware goes to the fire, and
as the highly decorated pieces have to go to the kiln many times, it may
be inferred that the labour of weeks and even months is sometimes
nullified by an untoward accident in the burning.
It is during the process of decoration that the ornate vases and figures
make so many trips to the fire. The artist department is a very large
and important one. The designers, however, are a class of themselves.
They project the idea; it is the business of the artist, in these
circumstances, to execute it. The painters are taken into the works as
lads and trained for the special service. What you remark chiefly in
going through the decorating rooms is the great facility of the artists.
You see a man with a plate or vase on which he is outlining a landscape,
and you marvel at the rapid, accurate touches with which he does the
work. Flowers, birds, and figures they can reproduce with great skill,
and many of them are artists not merely in facility but in instinct.
They work with metallic colours only. They rely on copper, for
instance, to give black and green, on iron to yield red hues, and so on;
and the gold work is done with what seems to be a dirty brown paste, but
is really pure gold mixed with flux and quicksilver. When the first wash
is put on, the piece must be fired, so that the colours shall be burnt
into the glaze. Then it returns to the painter, who adds the next
touches so far as he can; the firing again follows; the piece is
returned to him once more; and so on it goes till the work is complete.
It is therefore a highly technical business, especially as the colours
change very much in the fire, and the painter has to work with full
knowledge of the chemical processes in every firing. There is one form
of the decorative process which is very singular--that is, the piercing
work. The artist has the vase in the dried state before the firing, and
with a tiny, sharp-pointed knife he cuts out little pieces according to
the design in his mind, and produces an extremely beautiful perforated
ware, the elaborate pattern and the lace-like delicacy of which almost
repel the idea that the work is done by the unaided hand of man. In the
colour processes, the work is virtually complete when the dull gold has
been burnished; and the porcelain is then ready to be transferred to the
showrooms, or exported to America, which is the greatest patron, at
present, of Worcester art. America, however, failed to retain one lovely
vase no less than four feet high, the largest ever made in the works; it
was taken to the Chicago Exhibition and back without accident, and was
then sold in England for one thousand pounds.
It is important to remember the distinction between 'pottery' and
'porcelain:' the porcelain is clay purified by the fire, whereas pottery
leaves the oven as it entered it--clay. The purification of the ware is
really an illustration of the process which sustains the artistic
inspiration of the work. The gross, the vulgar, the mean are
eliminated; a standard of beauty is set up, and to it every article must
conform. It is to this ideal, sustained by a long succession of artists
through a century and a half, that Worcester owes its world-wide
reputation as the birthplace of some of the loveliest porcelain ever
burnt in a kiln.
[Illustration: Chinese Porcelain Vase.]
[Illustration]