POTTERY.
Poteric, FR. I Alfar, SP Topferarbert, . . GER.
The art of making vessels of baked earth is also known as ceramic work, from the Greek clay. It has been known to all races from the earliest times, and some of them 4000 years ago attained to great perfection. The art is alluded to in the book of Job. Thepotters of Samos were celebrated in the time of Homer. Great quanti ties of pottery have been found in Egyptian tombs, which to all appearance had lain unopened since the time of the Pharaohs ; and in the south of Persia, urns containing remains of some very ancient race. In all the cairns of the Peninsula of India, articles of pottery are found, although of the races who used this form of burial there is no record. The fragments of pottery everywhere found among the ancient cities of India, as in those of other parts of the world, afford the best record of the early races of man on the earth.
While metal is liable to corrosion, and wood to decay, pottery remains almost unalterable, and has thus been the means of discovering to later ages many points respecting the history, religion, customs, and manners of the ancients, which must otherwise have remained unknown. There is a general agreement in the nature and uses of ancient pottery, but at the same time a distinctive character belonging to each country and nation. The rude and simple urns of the early inhabit ants of Britain ; the more carefully fashioned pottery of the Romans ; the simple unglazed ' earthenware of ancient Greece; the more elaborate forms called Etruscan, of which the finest speci mens are, however, attributed to the Greek potters of the Isle of Samos, so celebrated for the delicacy and perfection of their workmanship ; the red and black potteries of India ; the black and white potteries of North America, the lattminterspersed with fragments of bivalve shells ; the, rregularly formed and fanciful pottery of South America,— all these possess a distinct individuality. The word porcelain existed in the French language in the century, and consequently anterior to the introduction of Chinese porcelain into Europe. The potter's art is represented in all its stages on the tombs of Thebes. ,.The mixing of the clay was effected by kneading with the feet, after which a mass of convenient size was formed with 'the hand, and placed on a wheel of very simple construction, and turned with the hand. During its revolution the forms of the vessel were made out with the fingers ; the handles were after wards affixed ; the objects were placed on planks to dry, then carefully arranged in trays, and car ried to the oven. Ornamental designs were traced with a wooden or metal instrument previous to the baking.
The earliest use of pottery was doubtless that of ordinary drinking vessels, but there was also a religious employment assigned to earthen vessels, which has been the means of preserving them for the inspection of after generations. In vases of
baked earth the ashes of the dead were frequently deposited, and even where the practice of burning the dead was not followed, still various earthen vessels have been found placed at the head and feet of the skeleton, and sometimes hanging on pegs along the sides of the tomb.
In China it was not till the 3d or 4th centuries of the Christian era that fine materials were employed, and that some degree of perfection was attained. When the Chinese had acquired a cer tain amount of skill and perfection, they appear to have rested entirely satisfied with the results, and to have continued producing it without variation for ages. So exclusively were the Chinese the manufacturers of porcelain, that it acquired the name of their laud, and became universally known (on its introduction to Europe in 1518) as china.
The Japanese have acted differently from the Chinese, and have produced porcelain-ware of the finest fabric, and in the highest artistic forms. The origin of the art in Japan is referred to the pre-historic era of Oanamuchi-no-niikoto, and the inventor, Oosei-tsumi. But in n.e. 29, when an empress of Japan died, and, according to imme morial custom, a selection from among the slaves of her household was doomed to death, so that she might not descend unattended into the grave, there arose in the province of Idsoumi the worker in stone and pottery whose name was Nomino Soukoune. He made images of clay, and, taking them to the widowed emperor, persuaded him to bury them with the body of the august lady, and to spare the lives of her favourite servants. Thereafter the cruel custom was discontinued, and Nomino-Soukoune was allowed, as a title of honour, the designation Haji—the artist in clay. It seems probable that for 1500 years or more pottery only, and not porcelain, was made in Japan; but in the time of Henry vm. of England, about 50 years before porcelain was first made in Europe, an artist who had travelled in China settled at Hizen, and instituted there a manufactory of the finer ware. But the earthenware of Japan is of such a quality that it has sometimes, appar ently, been described as porcelain. Raku-ware, which figures in Japan at ceremonial tea-parties, closely resembles china, but is nothing more than lead-glazed earthenware, introduced by Ameya, a Corean. about the year 1500. It is said that Ameya's descendants, in the eleventh genera tion, still pursue the trade of their ancettor at Kioto, — such is the permanence of Japanese institutions.