POTTERY, the art of forming vessels or utensils of any sort in clay. This art is of high antiquity, being practiced among various races in prehistoric times. We find mention of earthenware in the Mosaic writings. The Greeks had im portant potteries at Samos, Athens, and Corinth, and attained great perfection as regards form and ornamentation. Dem aratus, a Greek, the father of Tarquinius Priscus, King of Rome, is said to have instructed the Etruscans and Romans in this art. Glazed earthenware was long supposed to be of no older date than the 9th century of our era, and to have originated with the Arabs in Spain; but the discovery of glazed ware in Egypt, of glazed bricks in the ruins of Babylon, of enameled tiles and glazed coffins of earthenware in other ancient cities, proves that this is not the case.
The Arabs, however, seem to be en titled to the credit of having introduced the manufacture of glazed ware into modern Europe. The Italians set up their first manufactory at Faenza in the 16th century. In Italy the art was im proved, and a new kind of glaze was invented, probably by Luca della Robbia. The French derived their first knowledge of glazed ware from the Italian manu factory at Faenza, and on that account gave it the name of faience.
About the middle of the 16th century the manufactory of Bernard Palissy at Saintes in France became famous on account of the beautiful glaze and rich ornaments by which its products were distinguished.
A little later the Dutch began to manu facture at Delft the more solid but less beautiful ware which thence takes its name.
The principal improver of the potter's art in Great Britain was Josiah Wedg wood in the 18th century.
Porcelain or chinaware first became known in Europe about the end of the 16th century through the Dutch, who brought it from the East.
Porcelain or chinaware is formed only from argillaceous minerals of extreme delicacy, united with siliceous earths cap able of communicating to them a certain degree of translucency by means of their vitrification. Porcelain is of two kinds, hard and tender. Both consist, like other earthenwares, of two parts—a paste which forms the biscuit, and a glaze. The biscuit of hard porcelain is composed of kaolin or china clay, and of decomposed felspar. The glaze consists of a felspar rock reduced to a fine pow der, and mixed with water, so as to form a milky liquid into which the articles are dipped after a preliminary baking. Tender porcelain biscuit is made of a vitreous grit, composed of siliceous sand or ground flints, with other ingredients added, all baked together in a furnace till half-fused, and then reduced to a condition of powder. The glaze of tender porcelain is a specially prepared glass ground fine, and made into a liquid by mixing with water. The processes
i employed in manufacturing porcelain wares are very much the same as those used for other kinds of earthenware, but requiring more delicacy and care. The biscuit paste even of bard porcelain has so little tenacity compared with that of earthenware that it cannot easily be shaped on the wheel, and is consequently more frequently molded. The paste of tender porcelain is still less tenacious, so that the wheel cannot be used for it at all, and a little mucilage of gum or black soap must be added before it can be worked even in molds. During the baking, too, it becomes so soft that every part of an article must be supported. Tender porcelain receives two coats of glaze.
Metallic oxides incorporated with some fusible flux, such as borax, flint, etc., are used for painting on porcelain. The colors are mixed with essential oils and turpentine, and applied by means of a camel's hair brush. When the painting is finished the vessels are baked in a peculiar kind of ovens called "muffles," which are also used for fixing the printed figures on the glaze of stoneware. By the operation of the furnace most of the colors employed in painting porcelain be come quite different, and the change which takes place in them is usually through a series of tints, so that the proper tint will not be obtained unless the baking is stopped precisely at the proper time. Sometimes porcelain has designs etched on it by means of fluoric acid. Sculptures also are executed by casting in molds in various kinds of porcelain, called statuary porcelain, Parian, Carrara, etc.
The most celebrated ware of different times and countries are distinguished by distinctive names; as, Majolica-ware, Sevres, Chelsea, Palissy, etc.; and of these, the latter—the work of Bernard de Palissy, who lived in the 16th century —deserves some special attention. Pa lissy, having resolved to discover a method of enameling stoneware, suc ceeded, after 16 years' efforts, and pro ceeded to manufacture pottery charac terized by a peculiar style and many singular qualities. It is not decorated with flat painting, but with figures and ornaments, which are generally pure in form, and are all executed in relief and colored. The most remarkable of the works of Palissy are his "Pieces rus tiques," a designation given by him to dishes ornamented with fishes, snakes, frogs, crayfish, lizards, shells, and plants, quite true to nature in form and color.
In the United States great progress has been made in producing fine pottery. Bennington, Vt., and Baltimore, Md., are famous for flint enameled ware,