Gold is applied to china in tho state of amalgam ground fino iu tur pentine with a metallic flux. Thus, geld oxidised by being thrown in a melted state into squafortis, 1 ounce ; quicksilver 14 pennyweights, oxide of bismuth 1 pennyweight, chloride of silver 2 pennyweights. In the enamel-kiln, the bismuth and silver melt, and fix the gold to the china, without dissolving it so as to prevent its being burnished.
There has been some dispute (into which it is unnecessary to enter) as to the invention of parian, the beautiful biscuit-ware adopted for statuettes. The substance itself came into use about the year 1842, and is difficult to manufacture ; the articles are moulded in many pieces, and shrink much during several successive firings.
Pottery.—This name is often given to the coarser kinds of red, yellow, and brown ware, such as that of which large vessels are made ; but the word, like porcelain, is used in a very indeterminate way. Be the name what it may, however, the substance itself has become com mercially of much importance. Lambeth is the head-quarters of this manufacture. What is called Lambeth stoneware is a vitrified body, having its surface coated with a glaze made at a very high heat by throwing salt into a hot oven ; or with a glaze of silicate of soda. According to a paper read by 31r. Goddard, before the Society of Arts, in 1860, there were in Lambeth, about the year 1820, six or seven potters, having sixteen small kilns of 8 feet diameter, making about 20/. worth per kiln-full of blacking-bottles, ginger-beer bottles, pickle jars, and articles of a like kind ; and for some years afterwards the trade did not materially change its character. At a later date, how ever, when sanitary measures began to be adopted in the metropolis and other towns, a demand for stoneware drain-pipes gave a new impetus to the Lambeth potters, who have ever since made rapid advances in the scale of their manufactures. Casting in moulds and
turning in the lathe are processes now much mere adopted than formerly in the production of this kind of ware ; as a consequence, the quality and finish of the articles are greatly improved. The Lambeth potters used to content themselves with any kind of clay that came to hand ; but now the higher kind of ware demands the clays of Devon and Dorset, and a peculiar variety found near Fareham. Vessels are new made of Lambeth stoneware capable of containing 300 gallons; they are formed of layer upon layer of clay, successively and carefully applied, and each is hardened before the next is added. Filters for domestic use now constitute a large and important department of Lambeth manufactures. Drain and other pipes, condensers and worms for distilling, pumps, jugs, ladles, funnels, pans, baths, jars, druggists' pots, tobacco jars, telegraph-insulators—these are among the large number of articles made of Lambeth stoneware. There are now in this district seventy kilns, with an average capacity of 50/. worth of ware per kiln. One firm alone, that of Messrs. Doulton, consume about 8000 tons of coal and 8000 tons of clay annually ; for it appears that, taking one kind with another, the stoneware requires about as much coal to bake it as clay to make it.
Of the commonest kinds of pottery, such as flower-pots, &c., nothing need be said ; the cheapest clay and the quickest work suffice for their production.