Potter

3808

Pottery

eriom actress. During tin- Boer War (1899-
1902) she was active in raising funds to buy
and equip the American hospital ship Maine
which was sent out to the Cape, and in 1910
she toured as Jacqueline in Madame X.

Potter, Henry Coaman (1835-1908),
American clergyman. In 1883 he was con-
secrated coadjutor bishop to his uncle, Ho-
ratio Potter, Bishop of New York, succeeding
the latter as bishop on his death in 1887.
During his bishopric was the beginning of
the erection of the Cathedral of St. John the
Divine in New York City.

Potter, Paul Meredith (1853-1921),
playwright, born in Brighton, England. His
first accepted play was The City Directory
(1889). Thcn followed The Ugly Duckling
(1890); The World's Fair (1891); The
Aw eric an Minister (1892), and Trilby (1895).

Potter's Earth, or Pipeclay, a white clay
consisting chiefly of kaolinitc, AlaOaaSiOaflHaO,
used for making tobacco pipes, and white
pottery.

Potter's Field, the name given to the
burial place of those who die alone and penni-
less.

Pottery or Ceramics, a term used to des-
ignate a large class of objects, both useful and
ornamental, fashioned of some variety of clay
when moist and plastic, and then fired. It is
one of the oldest branches of human industry.
Probably the earliest home of the ceramic
art is to be found in Egypt where excavation
has discovered specimens of pottery said to
have been fashioned as far back as the soth
century u.c. The history of the art in Greece
shows a remarkable and rapid development
from the crude productioas of prehistoric
times to the exquisite beauty of the work of
the 4th century B.C.

In the East, notably China and Japan,
ceramics have always held an important place.
Among the products of European countries
several stand out prominently for their beauty
and artistic merit. Thus we have the gray,
blue, and white delft of Holland, the fa-
mous porcelain of Sevres and Limoges in
France, the Dresden and Royal Berlin por-
celain of Germany, the Royal Copenhagen,
and Rorstrand porcelains of Denmark and
Sweden respectively, and the Wedgewood,
Crown Derby, Royal Worcester and Lowe-
stoft porcelains of England* The Incas of
Peru and the natives of Mexico have left us
the most beautiful and ingenious specimens,
showing that among these tribes the ceramic
art had known great development. Many of
the objects left by the Aztecs ww elaborate-

ly modelled and profuseh decorated. The
settlers in New England and the Southern
States found the pottery of the nomadic
tribes in possession very coarse and fragile.
About 1612 brick making was startod in the
United States and about 17^4 a stoneware
factory was established in New York. In
the latter part of the iSth century German
potters in Pennsylvania began the manufac-
ture of terra cotta roofing tiles and earthen-
ware. Tn 1825 a successful factory for hard
porcelain was opened in Philadelphia. Stone-
ware for domestic purposes is manufactured
in enormous quantities in Ohio and Indiana,
largely from local materials which are so
abundant in those two States. Most of the
whitcwarc and porcelain produced in the
United States is for table and toilet purposes,
and while there arc a number of factories
scattered over the States east of the Missis-
sippi, the two great pottery centers are Tren-
ton, N.J.. and East Liverpool, Ohio. Not a
little Belleek porcelain, however, is made in
Trenton.

In recent time a number of potters have de-
voted attention to the development of wares
having artistic value. Of these the Rockwood
Pottery of Cincinnati has achieved great suc-
cess. Many art potteries have specialized in
the development of opaque mat glazes of
green, blue, and other colors, such as are
seen in the Grucby, Teco, and Van Hriggle
ware. Other decorative and artistic pottery is
the Aurclian, Louwclsa, Korean, and Sicardo
ware of the Weller pottery at Zancsvillc, 0.;
the copper-red Rozunc pottery of the Rose-
vine pottery; in the sang de, bontf and crackle
ware of the Dedham pottery at Declining
Mass.; the original and beautiful ware pro-
duced by the Newcombe Memorial College,
New Orleans; and the Robincau ware of Sy-
racuse, N.Y,

The raw material used is clay, but it is clay
of varying quality and to which other sub-
stances are frequently added. Cornish clay,
or kaolin, a creamy white, plastic substance,
forms the main body of porcelain everywhere.
Glazes are specially composed glasses, ground
fine in water and spread over the warer to he
fused at a second baking in the oven. In .some
cases the decorations, if such there be, are
under the glaze, in others, over it. There are
two chief glazes, lead and salt. The modern
glazes are generally transparent silicates of
nlumina, compounds of Cornish china (koa-
lin); flint, and white lead, with borax and al-
kalis added as a flux. The steps common to all
grades p{ ware are; preparation, tempering,