Black Earthenware in most instances is the red pottery blackened by the simple process of damping or checking the fire when it is beginning to decline, and thus throwing a great deal of smoke amongst the wares when the heat is not sufficiently intense to burn it off. A better and stronger kind of black earthenware is manufac tured at Bangalore from a fine dense clay that contains both manganese andiron. This approaches the black stoneware of Egypt, and is strong and sonorous when struck.
White Earthenware.—Light and elegant goblets, butter pots and vases, are made at Arcot. This branch of the art is conducted with more care and cleanliness, attention being paid to the sifting of the materials and to the ornamenting and finish ing of the articles. The material selected is a decaying white granite resembling the Cornish stone of England or the grauen of Germany. This is carefully washed and decanted to free it from sand or impurities ; it is then allowed to subside, the water is poured off, and the soft clay is collected on a clean cloth and laid on a heap of white wood ashes to dry ; a small percentage of alkali is thus absorbed through the cloth, and is incorporated through the mass by kneading. This decayed white granite is the true Kaolin or porcelain earth of China and Europe. It is particularly abun dant in India, and occurs in beds of enormous extent, and of every variety of colour. It pos sesses the valuable qualities of combining with a large percentage of silica, felspar, barytes, or other stony bodies, and of resisting the most intense heats ; but in India it is employed alone, and pro duces a soft, brittle, porous ware, which is not susceptible of being well glazed. Numerous at tempts have been made to glaze this description of pottery, but the glaze crazes or cracks all over the surface, and allows water to penetrate to the body. The reason is that the 1Cao•lins require flint, felspar, or stone to open them, and exposure to a long-continued and steady heat before they are thoroughly burnt in the biscuit state. They also require a hard fritt or porcelain glaze, which cannot be prepared without expensive machinery. The firing also involves a great consumption of fuel, as the heat must be kept up steadily for 40 or 60 hours.
In China, the districts of Ping-le and Kot-kow in the province of Kiang-si are the most noted for their plastic clays of all the eighteen provinces of China. Very excellent plastic clays are also found in Wy-chow, in the province of Ngan-huy ; the clays are soft, smooth, and, with one excep tion, uniform in point of colour. The excepted clay alluded to is streaked or veined, and is pre ferred by many potters. Kin-tee-ching, a town near Ping-le and Kot-kow, from the most ancient times has been pre-eminent for its china-ware factories. The clays are classed as Kaolin and
Pe-tun-tse. The Pe-tun-tse is taken from the quarries to the pounding mills, and then thoroughly crushed in large mortars, by means of pestles moved by water-wheels. It is then thrown into a pond and well mixed with the water. The heavier parts fall to the bottom, but the cream coloured liquid on the top is drawn off into another basin, where it is well stirred by labourers who walk about in it. The heavier parts that sink to the bottom are re-pounded and treated as before. The cream-like liquid being allowed to stand, deposits its fine clay, which is formed in moulds into bricks called palt-tan, or white bricks.
The Kaolin clay is similarly prepared, and the bricks of the two clays are separately powdered and washed, and then mixed and formed into a paste, which is ready to be formed into vessels on the wheel, or by means of knives, and hardened in the sun or in a drying chamber. They are glazed by dipping them in a fluid mixture. - The painting of the porcelain is by different artists, who take respectively the landscapes, rivers, trees, butter flies, birds, human figures, and buildings, and are again fired. The designs traced upon their porce lain or china are very inferior, but the colours used by the artists who paint these designs are far superior to any European colouring. The greater part of the modern Chinese porcelain, so abun dantly imported into Europe, is made at King-teu, near Kin-kiang, and is enamelled or painted else where. The yellow, so much prized by connois seurs, indicates that it formed part of the annual tribute aid by the pottery districts to the emperor.
In Japan, the porcelain of the' small Island of Anadji, in the province of 31 iodo, requires much skill for its production. The porcelain from the city of Arita, fn the province of Saga, is the most important of all the manufactures of porcelain in Japan. Kaga ware is made in the province of Tahi-kawa, and is the best known of all the Japanese porcelain. It is often of the egg-shell quality in thinness, beautifully trans lucent, and almost invariably ornamented in red and gold, or red only. The Satsuma pottery is the most famous of all the Japanese manufacture. It is made in the department of Kagosina in various potteries belonging to the Daimio Sat suma. The body is very hard,—indeed, half porce lain,—of a soft greyish stone colour, pencilled, daintily coloured, and decoratedwith birds, insects, flowers. Nagasaki porcelain closely resembles Kaga ware in its delicate thinness and decoration. Porcelain ware of Seto (owari) in Japan is famed for its colours.—Gray, ii. p. 230 ; Mad. Exh. Jur. Rep. See Porcelain ; Pottery.