From time immemorial, the potter has formed an essential member of the Hindu village corn munity. Pottery is made in almost every village, from the small vessels required in cooking to the large jars used for'storing grain. In tasteful forms, the pottery of India is not surpassed by that of ' any other country, although its potters have much to contend with in the opinions of the I lindus as to ceremonial impurity, which prevent them using articles defiled by the touch of other castes. Hindus never use a polluted vessel, so no great expense will be incurred by them ; thus encourage ment is wanting to improve the nature of their pottery. In the exhibition of Indian pottery in 1851, numbers of the best judges greatly admired its elegant, even classical, gracefulness of form.
The glazed pottery of Burma, of which two very large jars were sent in 1851, has long been known for its glaze not being affected by acid. But the Buddhists of Pegu and Burma have no such notions of social uncleanness as the Hindus have adopted, and their great Martaban jars are used by themselves, and are largely exported. Muhammadan also are free from such views, and variously-coloured encaustic tiles have been used for the domes of some of the tombs near Heidi and Agra, as well as in Southern India in the tombs of Golconda. The tiles are in general character precisely similar to, although not so carefully made as, the oriental tiles known as Persian, which adorn the old mosques of Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and Persia ; but the mode of decoration upon many of them is remarkable, the figures being executed in pilte-sur-pate. Some have in scriptions impressed or incised on the surface, while on others it is reserved on the dark-blue ground. The colours used upon them are a rich copper-green, a golden-brown, dark and turquoise blue, etc. Some of this pottery is precisely similar in composition to that produced in Egypt 4000 years ago. The antiquary, the artist, and the manufacturer may do well to study these wares. As in their silk and woollen fabrics, their metal work, and other manufactures, an inherent feeling for, and power of, producing harmony in the distribution of colour and in surface decoration, exists among the orientals, which Europe should study and imitate, if it cannot copy.
Sind pottery is of two kinds,—encaustic tiles and vessels for domestic use. In both cases the colours are the same,—turquoise-blue, copper-green, dark purple or golden-brown, under an exquisitely transparent glaze. The usual ornament is a con ventional flower pattern, pricked in from paper, and dusted along the pricking. The tiles, which are evidently of the same origin as those of Persia and Turkey, are chiefly to be found in the ruined mosques and tombs of the old Muhammadan dynas ties ; but the industry still survives at the little towns of Saidpur and Bubri, and Sind ware is made at Hyderabad, Kurachee, Tatta, and Bala. Glazed pottery is made in Sind and parts of Upper India ; the turquoise-blue, as painted on a paste beneath a glaze, might have been unearthed in Egypt or Phoenicia. Of the specimens which have
been exhibited at times, a small bottle painted in blue on white, is the same as the ancient wares of Thebes ; a beautiful rich brown jar, painted with flowers in panels, by means of a white earth or 'slip' applied on the surface of the red clay in the consistence of thick cream (the pate-stir-pate of Sevres), the whole glazed over with yellowtsh brown, shows the figures, of pale colour, in slight relief on the darker {,sound ; a kw vase with similar ornament on plum colour, and a cylindrical jar of brilliant green was a fine example. This mode of decoration occurs on the heavy coloured and dark-blue porcelain ascribed to Persia, and is also used in China. A few years since it was a novel application at Stvrea, and Messrs. Minton have made a successful use of this method in the decoration of porcelain.
The Diming are equally successful with the white and black ware, and with basket ware.
Sonic of it is ornamented with red and blue colours; and with grey and copper-coloured mica of various degrees of fineness, rubbed on the clay, the potter gives a metallic effect on the surface of the piece.
The clays which are generally employed in the more populous part of British India, contain so much oxide of iron and carbonate of lime, that the vessels melt into a slag at a temperature little above that of redness. Deposits of a black stiff clay, containing much vegetable matter, occur in sonic districts; vessels made with it sustain a higher temperature. Clays capable of bearing great degrees of heat have, however, been dis covered in different parts of India. As one great object is to have porous vessels for cooling water, the ordinary clays answer sufficiently well for this purpose ; and some of the ware, as that of the tortoise-shaped, exposes a larger surface to the air. The essential ingredients in every kind of clay, and consequently in every article in pottery and porcelain, are silica and alumina. Isio clay or artificially prepared pottery or porcelain paste is ever free from admixture with other ingredients, such as iron, lime, potash, and other minerals. But by purging the p;,ste of the accidental ingredi ents, the iron, lime, etc., we exalt those properties which render it fit for the preparation of fictile articles. An intimate mixture of silica and alumina with water acquires, by exposure to a high tem perature, the required degrees of hardness and density ; but for many purposes it is necessary to impart a certain degree of fusibility, to which end other substances are used iu various proportions, capable of forming vitrifiable double silicates with alumina and silica. These substances, diffused through the paste formed by the simple silicate of alumina, in some eases with silica in excess, in others with excess of alumina, greatly contribute to the cohesion and hardness of the mass. The various mixtures employed in the different branches of the manufacture were thus classified by N. Dumas :— Silica, alumina. • • • Ideal type.