POTTERY AND PORCELAIN. The pottery art appears to have been practised in the earliest ages, and undoubtedly has been known amongst the rudest nations. The most ancient records allude to the potter's wheel, and we have proof that great skill had been acquired in the manufacture of porce lain of a superior quality in China and in Japan at a very remote date. The little figures, covered with a fine deep-blue glaze, which are deposited with Egyptian mummies, and numerous jars, some specimens of which may be seen in the British Museum, show that in Egypt, likewise, the art was anciently practised. Vestiges of considerable Roman potteries have been discovered in many parts' of this island. In newly-discovered countries it has been found that the use of earthen vessels is familiar among people otherwise little acquainted with the arts of civilised life.
Although Earthenware may be considered as a general term applicable to all utensils composed of earthen materials, it is usual to distinguish such utensils more particularly into three different kinds, namely, Pottery, Earthenware, and Porcelain. Under Pottery are classed the brown stoneware made into jugs, &c., red pans and pots, porous vessels, &a. Earthenware consists of the white, blue and white, and yellow ware, which is so exten sively used in this country. Porcelain is distinguished from earthenware as being a semi-vitrified compound, in which one portion remains infusible at the greatest heat to which it can be exposed, while the other portion vitrifies at a certain heat, and thus intimately combines with and envelopes the infusible part, producing a smooth, compact, shining, and semi-transparent substance, well known as the characteristic of true porcelain.
Until the beginning of the 18th century, the manufacture of earthenware in this country was confined to a few objects of the coarsest description, and till nearly the close of the same century, the porcelain of China was still in common use on the tables of the wealthy, the home manufacture being confined to articles of the commonest domestic use. Earthenware was likewise largely imported from Holland, and superior kinds from Ger many and France. English earthenware and porcelain are now not only brought into gene ral use in this country, to the exclusion of all foreign goods, but earthenware is also largely exported to almost every part of the known world, and even to those countries where the art was previously prosecuted. England is
mainly indebted to Mr. Wedgwood for the extraordinary improvement and rapid exten sion of this branch of industry. Before his time our potteries produced only inferior fabrics, easily broken or injured, and totally , devoid of taste as to form and ornaments. Wedgwood's success was not the result of any fortunate discovery accidentally made, but' was due to patient investigation and unre mitting efforts. He called upon a higher class of men than had usually been employed in this manufacture to assist in his labours, and in prosecuting his experiments he was guided by sound scientific principles ; and signal suc cess,which crowned his first exertions, only served as an additional motive for continuing his pursuit. One of the principal inventions of Mr. Wedgwood was his table ware, known at present as Queen's Ware. It is cl:aracter ised as a dense and durable substance, covered with a brilliant glaze, and capable of bearing uninjured sudden alternations of heat and cold. Mr. Wedgwood's more beautiful inven tions were—a terra cotta, which could be made to resemble porphyry, granite, Egyptian peb ble, and other beautiful stones of the silicious or crystalline End ; a black porcelainous bis cuit, very much resembling basalt in its pro perties, and therefore called Basa1tes ; a white and a cane-coloured porcelain biscuit, both smooth and of a wax-like appearance ; and another white poreelainous biscuit, distin guished as jasper, having in general all the properties of the basaltes, with a very impor tant addition, the capability of receiving through its whole substance from the admix ture of metallic oxides, the same colours as those oxides communicate to glass or enamel in fusion. This peculiar property renders it applicable to the production of cameos and all subjects required to be shown in bas-relief, as the ground can be made of any colour, while the raised figures are of the purest white. Mr. Wedgwood likewise invented a porcelain biscuit, nearly as hard as agate, which will resist the action of all corrosive substances, and is consequently peculiarly well adapted for mortars in the chemist's laboratory.