Full text of "Leadless decorative tiles, faience, and mosaic, comprising notes and excerpts on the history, materials, manufacture & use of ornamental flooring tiles, ceramic mosaic, and decorative tiles and faience"

L e adles s D ecorative Til es 
Faience and CD osaie 



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WILLIAM J FURNIVAL 



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Leadless decorative tiles, faience, and 




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LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE 
AND MOSAIC 



Leadless Decorative Tiles, Faience, and Mosaic 



COMPRISING NOTES AND EXCERPTS ON THE 



HISTORY, MATERIALS, MANUFACTURE & USE 

OF 

Ornamental Flooring Tiles, Ceramic Mosaic, and 
Decorative Tiles and Faience 

WITH COMPLETE SERIES OF RECIPES FOR TILE-BODIES, AND FOR 

Leadless Glazes and Art- Tile Enamels 



WILLIAM JAMES FURNIVAL 

RESEARCH CERAMIST AND CONSULTING POTTER ; HONOUrT'mEDALLIST IN TOTTERY AND PORCELAIN, 

CITY AND GUILDS OF LONDON INSTITUTE 

AUTHOR OF "researches ON LEADLESS GLAZES," "STAFFORDSHIRE POTTERIES SLOP FLINT 

AND STONE TRADE CALCULATOR," "EQUIVALENT MEASURES OF CLAY SLIPS," ETC. 



The Work includes the following specially written Contributions 
Notes on the Decorative and Architectural Use of Glazed Tiles and Faience in China 

By Dr STEPHEN W. liUSHELL, M.D., C.M.G., for over thirty years Resident Physician to 
H.M. Embassy at Peking; Author of "Oriental Ceramics." 

A List of the Principal Existing Monuments in India upon which Tilework Decoration appears 

By C. STANLEY CLARKE, Esq., Indian Section, Victoria and Albert Museum. 

Notes on the Tile Decoration found on Buildings in Punjab and Bengal 

By J. H. MARSHALL, Esq., Director-General of Archseology, India. 

Designing for Ornamental Tilework and Faience 

By AMBROSE WOOD, Esq., Hanley, Stafford.shire. 



PUBLISHED BY 

W. J. FURNIVAL, Stone, Staffordshire 
1904 

\_All rights reserved\ 

T 



k-\%'\\o^ 



C0 

Manufacturers of Decorative Tiles and Faience 
throughout the world who desire to protect 
their operatives from Lead Poisoning, and to 
all who are interested in the highest welfare 
of the Ceramic Industry, this volume is most 
respectfully addressed 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

The author's acknowledgments are due and are hereby most gratefully 
tendered to the Board of '"Education for permission to illustrate several 
historical pieces of enamelled-tile work in the Victoria and Albert Museum ; to 
Sir C. Purdon Clarke, C.I.E., for most courteous explanation of the examples ; 
to the Trustees and Director of the British Museum for permission to illus- 
trate clay tablets, enamelled bricks, and other antiquities ; to Dr. E. A. Wallis 
Budge, LittD., for his great kindness in perusing the notes on Assyrian and 
Egyptian tilework ; to Dr. Bruno Giiterbock for information concerning 
recent excavations at Babylon ; to Dr. A. S. Murray, LL.D., F.S.A., for 
criticism of the notes on Grecian decorative ceramics ; to Professor W. M. 
Flinders Petrie, D.C.L., F.R.S., for the loan of valuable specimens and books 
relating to Egyptian antiquities, for permission to illustrate many examples 
from his private collection, and for considerable special help in kindred 
matters ; to C. H. W. Johns, Esq., M.A., for careful perusal of the notes on 
Babylonian and Assyrian work ; to Sir George Birdwood, Kt, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., 
M.D., LL.D., for perusal, correction, and complimentary criticism of portions 
of the MS. relating to Persian, Syrian, Saracen, and Indian decorative-tile 
work ; to Professor W. M. Ramsay (Aberdeen) for comments upon the notes 
on Syrian and Turkish products ; to C. Stanley Clarke, Esq., of the Indian 
Section, Victoria and Albert Museum, for much self-denying and painstaking 
help in the description and illustration of Indian, Persian, and Turkish 
glazed-tile work, and for the compilation of a valuable list of the principal 
Indian examples extant ; to Monsieur G. Maspero, and Baron Von Bissing, of 
the Gizeh Museum, Cairo, and to Max Herz Bey, of the Arab Museum, Cairo, 
for information respecting ancient and mediaeval Egyptian antiquities ; to 
Dr. Stephen W. Bushell, M.D., C.M.G., for his most valuable special contribu- 
tion on Chinese decorative and architectural ceramic products ; to Professor 
W. R. Lethaby, of the Royal College of Art, for particularly serviceable 
criticism and correction of the notes on Syrian and Persian work ; to Professor 



viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

R. W. Atkinson, B.Sc, of Cardiff, for information about Japanese ceramics ; 
to W. R. Barker, Esq., J.P., Cliairman of the City of Bristol Museum Com- 
mittee, for permission to reproduce illustrations of ancient mosaics recently 
discovered at Brislington ; to the Committee and Executive of the City of 
Birmingham Free Library and Museum for permission to illustrate certain 
tiles and mosaics; to the Committee of Hanley Museum for permission to 
illustrate a valuable screen of Chinese porcelain tiles and other antiquities ; 
to the Librarian and Committee of the Public Library, Stoke-upon-Trent, for 
the use of valuable books of reference and permission to reproduce certain 
illustrations; to the Committee of the Shrewsbury Museum for permission 
to illustrate Romano-British mosaics from Uriconium and Lea; to the 
Executive Committees of the Society ot Antiquaries, the Royal Geographical 
Society, the Geological Society, the Royal Institute of British Architects, 
and the Society of Biblical Archaeology, for permission to reproduce illus- 
trations; to W. H. St. John Hope, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., for permission to 
reproduce coloured drawings of Romano-British pavements at Silchester ; to 
Mr. George Clinch, F.G.S., for several special investigations ; to W. H. 
Rylands, Esq., F.S.A., and Walter L. Nash, Esq., for the use of valuable books 
upon ceramic antiquities ; to Professor Reynard, of Rome, for assistance in 
compiling the notes on ancient mosaics at Rome and Pompeii ; to Miss Maud 
Cruttwell for permission to reproduce illustrations from her classical work 
on the Delia Robbias ; to J. H. Marshall, Esq., Director-General of Indian 
Archaeology, for great assistance in matters relating to Indian tilework ; to 
the Government of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh for permission to 
reprint portions of the late E. W. Smith's Moghul Colour Decoration of Agra ; 
to W. G. Wood, Esq., Under Secretary to the Government of the United 
Provinces, for photograph and particulars of the University buildings at 
Allahabad and a valuable monograph on Indian pottery ; to Romesh. C. Dutt, 
CLE., for help in matters of Indian history ; to the High Commissioner for 
Canada, the Agents-General for Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, 
South Australia, New Zealand, the Japanese Legation, the Chinese Legation, 
the British Consuls at Moscow, Barcelona, and Malaga, for valuable informa- 
tion ; to Dr. R. Forrer, of Strassburg, for permission to reprint many illus- 
trations from his Geschichte der europdischen Fliesen-Keramik ; to Halsey 
Ricardo, Esq., for permission to make use of his lecture on " The Architect's 
Use of Decorative Tiles and Faience"; to H. B. Wheatley, Esq., M.A., Editor 
of The Journal of the Society of Arts, for his courteous and highly valued 
permission to make numerous excerpts from the journal ; to the Editors and 
Proprietors of The Pottery Gazette, The British Clayworker, The Brick and 
Pottery Trades Journal, The Studio, The Connoisseur, The Royal Magazine, 
The Cosmopolitan Magazine, and others, for like favours ; to John Murray, 
Esq., Albemarle Street, London, for the loan of valuable out-of-print 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix 

standard works, and permission to reproduce many illustrations from Sir 
A. H. Layard's Monuments of Nineveh, Fergusson's Nineveh and Persepolis, 
Dr. Birch's Ancient Pottery, Marryat's Pottery and Porcelain, and other 
publications; to Messrs. Methuen & Co., Cassell & Co, H. Grevel & Co., 
Williams & Norgate, Sampson Low, Marston, & Co., T. Fisher Unwin, and 
Ward, Lock, & Co., for permission to reproduce illustrations ; to F. W. Rudler, 
Esq., I.S.O., F.G.S.,etc., formerly Curator of the Museum of Practical Geology, 
for valuable notes on rocks and many helpful courtesies from time to time 
during the compilation of this volume; to John Ward, Esq., F.S.A., J.P., of 
Belfast, author of Pyramids and Progress, etc., for help in Egyptian subjects 
and permission to illustrate several treasures of his private collection ; to 
T. R. Spence, Esq., for notes dn the tilework of Jerusalem ; to Paul 
Waterhouse, Esq., M.A., R. F. Chisholm, Esq., Hugh Stannus, Esq., C. H. 
Townsend, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Sir W. B. Richmond, A.R.A., C. L. Burdick, 
Esq., W. L. H. Hamilton, Esq., and J. D Grace, Esq., for much assistance 
and permission to use interesting illustrations ; to Professor Sir Oliver Joseph 
Lodge, D.Sc, F.R.S., etc., Principal of the City of Birmingham University, 
for permission to publish a private letter on the subject of wireless electrical 
pyrometry ; to Messrs. James Pitkin & Co. (London), Herr W. C. Heraeus 
(Hanau), Charles Engelhard (New York), and H. G. Montgomery, Esq. 
(London), for assistance in the illustration of electrical pyrometry ; to Alfred E. 
Hudd, Esq., F.S.A., of Clifton, for the loan ol Isca Silurum and other helps ; to 
the Hon. Charles D. Walcott, Director of the United States Geological Survey, 
Dr. Robert Bell, Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, Walcot Gibson, 
Esq., B.Sc, F.G.S., of the British Geological Survey, and Thomas W. Gibson, 
Esq., Director of the Ontario Bureau of Mines, for information and statistics 
relating to ceramic minerals; to H. Watson, Esq., of the Imperial Institute, 
Messrs. Richardson & Son, of Kingston (Ont), R. C. Smith, Esq., K.C., of 
Montreal, and Charles Jenkins, Esq., of Petrolia, for particulars of the 
Canadian feldspars ; to Professor Edward Orton, jun., E.M., of Columbus 
(Ohio), Professor C. F. Binns, M.Sc, of Alfred (N.Y.), Professor C. W. 
Parmelce, B.Sc, of New Brunswick, and Professor H. A. Wheeler, E.M., of St. 
Louis, for highly technical information and permission to reprint numerous 
instructive excerpts ; to Samuel Keys, Esq., founder and superintendent of 
The Star Encaustic Tile Company, of Pittsburg (Pa.), U.S.A., for self- 
sacrificing and longrcontinued help in matters attending the compilation 
of notes on the materials and present condition of the decorative-tile 
industry in the United States of America, also for many specimens of 
American raw materials and plans and particulars of tilework kilns fired by 
natural gas ; to I. Mandle, Esq., of St. Louis (Mo.), for his careful perusal and 
correction of the notes on American native clays ; to John Sant, Esq. (East 
Liverpool), Ernest Mayer, Esq. (Beaver Falls), John C. Smock, Esq. (Trenton), 



X ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

W. H. Cutter, Esq. ^Woodbridge), and J. R. Edgar, Esq. (Metuchen, N.J.), for 
notes on the whiteware potters' clays of America ; to Robert Almstrom, Esq., 

of Rorstrands, Stockholm, for particulars of Swedish feldspars ; to Dalgas, 

Esq., Director of Fajancefabriken Aluminia, Copenhagen, for assistance in 
matters relating to Danish ceramics ; to Mrs. Henry Vatcher for memoranda 
about Jersey china-stone and permission to illustrate the Rose Mount Quarries ; 
to Mrs. David Cock, of Roche, Cornwall, for permission to reprint illustrations 
from the late David Cock's treatise on china-clay ; to Joseph Henry Key, 
Esq., of Torquay, formerly of Newton Abbot, Devonshire, in respect of notes 
and diagrams relating to Devonshire ball-clays ; to E. Holwill, Esq. (London), 
for photographs of and comments upon North Devon clays ; to C. W. 
Blake, Esq., of Newton Abbot, for information regarding Devon china- 
clays; to Messrs. Bowes & Sims, analytical chemists, Blackley, Manchester, 
Joseph Lones, Esq., F. l.C. (Smethwick), W. Fowlkes Lowe, Esq., F.l.C, 
Assay Office, Chester, H. Hughes, Esq. (Connah's Quay), A. C. Bowdler, Esq., 
F.l.C. (Blackburn), and James Baynes, F.l.C, Esq. (Hull), for special chemical 
analyses of clays and materials ; to H. A. Humphrey, Esq., F.C.G.I., etc., and 
the Commercial Education Department of the London Chamber of Commerce, 
for permission to reprint a portion of a lecture on Mond-gas production ; to 
Messrs. Doulton & Co., of Lambeth, London, for the use of illustrations ; to 
Messrs. Maw & Co., of Jackfield, Shropshire, for permission to reproduce 
designs in ceramic mosaic pavements and mural decorations ; to MM. H. 
Boulenger & Cie., of Choisy-le-Roi, for permission to reprint an illustralion 
of an exhibition mantelpiece ; to the United States Tile Manufacturers' 
Association for permission to reprint their official pamphlet on setting tile ; 
to the United States Geological Survey for permission to reprint illustrations 
of American clay-mines and works from professional paper No. 1 1 on Clays 
of the United States East of the Mississippi River, by Dr. Heinrich Ries ; 
to Mr. W. Jackson, A.R.C.S., Instructor in Pottery and Porcelain under the 
Staffordshire County Council, for assistance in connection with technical and 
historical notes on clays, materials, and products ; to the North Staffordshire 
Ceramic Society for permission to make valuable excerpts from their 
Transactions ; to the Secretary and Executive of the American Ceramic 
Society for like favours ; to Mr. Henry Watkin, of Burslem, for the use of 
copyright tables relating to pyrometry ; to Mr. T. G. Whitfield, of Cobridge, 
for his careful perusal and editing of the notes on saggar and setter marls so 
far as they relate to local products ; to Mr. John Sneyd, of Basford, for 
particulars of the manufacture of blue and red floor-quarries; to Mr. R. A. 
Binnall, of Tunstall, for voluminous practical information respecting the 
actual manufacture of floor-tiles and glazed-tiles as conducted in North 
Staffordshire ; to Monsieur Louis Mark Solon, of Stoke-upon-Trent, for a 
photograph of L. J. F. Arnoux, Esq. ; to Messrs. T. & R. Boote for 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi 

permission to illustrate the manufacture of encaustic-figured tiles ; to Ambrose 
Wood, Esq., for his contribution on tilework designing ; to Harold Moorcroft, 
Esq. (Wolstanton), for careful perusal and painstaking revision of the 
technical chapters, and for technical drawings ; to Messrs. Carter & Co., art 
tile manufacturers, Poole, Dorsetshire, for valuable information relating to, and 
permission to illustrate, their manufacturing processes ; to Messrs. William 
Boulton, Limited, The Crossley Manufacturing Co., The Abb6 Engineering 
Co., and others for the use of illustrations of machinery ; to a large number of 
pottery and tile manufacturers throughout Great Britain who have from time 
to time burned many trial-pieces ; to my son Mr. W. Norman Furnival for 
several photographs and for long-continued assistance in the researches and 
compilation ; and to the many authors, photographers, and publishers whose 
works have been consulted and have so greatly helped to make this book 
what it is. 

The especially gracious and most courteous acceptance and acknowledg- 
ment of a copy of my former work. Researches on Leadhss Glazes^ by his 
Imperial Majesty King Edward VII., and also by His Royal Highness the 
Prince of Wales (then Duke of Cornwall and York), the yet earlier encourage- 
ment by Her Grace the Duchess of Sutherland, and by the late respected The 
Right Honburable the Marquess of Salisbury, and other distinguished and 
learned personages, together with the very, complimentary character of the 
review of the former publication by the Editors of the Lancet, leave me no 
room to doubt that this further contribution toward the elimination of 
plumbism from the ceramic industry will be generally approved. 



W. J. F. 



Stone, Staffordshire, 
Anno Domini 1^04. 



ABBREVIATIONS 



W.M.F.P. Coll. 
J.W. Coll. 
Forrer Coll. 
V. & A. M. 
B.M. 

W.N.F. Coll. 
E.E. Fund 
E.R.A. . 
Trans. Am. C.S. 
Trans. JSr.S.C.S. 

Trans. A.I.M.E. 

Jour. Soc. Arts . 
Mus. Pract. Geol. 



Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie's Collection (London). 

Mr. John Ward's Collection (Belfast). 

Dr. Forrer's Collection (Strassburg). 

Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 

British Museum, London. 

W. Norman Furnival's Collection (Stone). 

Egyptian Exploration Fund. 

Egyptian Research Account. 

Transactions of the American Ceramic Society. 

Transactions of t}ie IVorth Staffordshire Ceramic 

Society. 
Transactions of the American Institute of Mining 

Engineers. 
Journal of the Society of Arts, London. 
Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn St., London. 



CORRECTIONS 



On Plate XIIL 
On page 204 
On page 230 
On page 624 
On page 679 
On page 686 



For " boarder " in the legend, read " border " 

For "Boulanger" in legend, fig. 131, read "Boulenger." 

For " ;^i, 000,000," read "$1,000,000." 

For "No. 6" on line 21, read "No 5." 

For "^7 14 o" read "^7 4 o." 

For "glaze-pan" on line 30, read "glaze or colour pan." 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Acknowledgments, . ... vii-xi 

Abbreviations, . . . ... xiii 

Corrections, . . . xiii 

Contents, ... xv-xvii 

List of Illustrations, . . xix-xxii 

List of Plates, ... . . . xxiii 

Chapter I. — "Raison d'^itre," ... .... 1-22 

Object — Parliament and lead-poisoning — Preventive measures — Arbitration proceed- 
ings, November 1901 — Manufacturers' opinions — Outsiders' — Commercial aspect — 
Oven fumes — Looking backward — Public opinion — Adjourned arbitration — The 
award — Conclusions. 

Chapter IL — Historical Review of Decorative-Tile Work, . . 23-179 

Service of the potter's art in history — Babylonian and Assyrian — Egyptian — Grecian 
— Roman — Romano-British — Persian — Syrian — Rhodian — Saracenic — Turkish — 
Hispano-Moresque — Indian — Chinese — English mediaeval — Italian mediasval and 
renaissance — German renaissance — French mediseval and renaissance — Delft. 

Chapter III. — Rise of the Modern Industry in Decorative Tiles, . 180-238 

Revival of the use of tiles — English Delft tiles — Herbert Minton — G. Maw — Prosser 
and Blashfield — Michael Daintry Hollins — L. Arnoux — Coloured glares — Dust 
encaustics — British manufacturers — Continental — Persian — Indian — U.S.A. — Australia 
— New Zealand — China — ^Japan. 

Chapter IV. — Sources and Preparation of the Clays, Materials, 

and Colourants, 239-399 

Choice of clays — Subsidiary ingredients — Chemical analysis — Saggar marls — Buff 
marls— Red marls — Ball-clay — Siliceous clay — Kaolin — China-stone — Felspar— Quartz 
— Flint — Whitening — Barytes — Alumina — Boracic acid — Borax — Soda — Nitre — Pearl- 
ash — Zinc oxide — Tin oxide — Compounds of iron — Manganese — Cobalt— Nickel — 
Copper — Chromium, etc. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Chapter V. — Ceramic Pyrometry, 4oo-435 

Wedgwood's pyrometer— Kirkup's contraction tables— Brongniart's pyrometer— Seger 
cones — Professor Orton's batch-weights for cone compositions— Holdcroft & Co.'s 
thermoscope— Watkin's heat recorders— A. B.C. pyro-indicators— Professor Sir Roberts- 
Austen's electrical pyrometer— Le Chatelier's pyrometer— The "Queen" electrical 
pyrometer— Cambridge electrical pyrometer— Automatic wireless electrical pyrometry 
— Immersion thermometer. 

Chapter VI. — Blue avd Red Floor-Quarries, 436-443 

Use of floor-quarries— Clays— Analyses— Preparation of clays— Moulding— Drying 
—Kilns — Setting in — Burning red quarries — Burning blue quarries — Chemistry of 
bluing. 

Chapter VII. — Plain and Encaustic Floor-Tiles and Tessera, . 444-5^7 

Definitions— Desirable qualities— Durability — Colour — Exactness of size— Foothold— 
Discoloration — Frost resistance — Strength — Preparation of bodies — Dusts — Tile- 
pressing — Encaustics— Biscuit oven — Burning — Sorting— Recipes for bodies. 

Chapter VIII. — Mosaic (Museaic) Pavements and Mural Decor-Wion, 518-545 

Definitions — Chaldaan cones — Egyptian inlaid work — Grecian — Roman — Glass 
mosaics — Byzantine — Italian — Venetian — British — St. Paul's Cathedral — Marble 
mosaics — Grecian — Roman — Italian — Saracen — Indian — Modern European — Ceramic 
mosaic — Roman — Blashfield — Prosser — Minton— Contemporary. 

Chapter IX. — Composition of Glazing-Tile Bodies, . . . 546-57^ 

Interchange — Crazing — Defects of dust-made tiles — Insanitation — Qualities of a good 
glazing-tile body — Preparation of bodies — Shrinkage — Tile-pressing — Embossed tiles — 
Placing — Burning — Recipes. 

Chapter X. — Underglaze Decorative Processes, .... 573-610 

Slip-painting — Barbotine — Recipes for coloured slips — P&te-sur-pMe — Parian — 
Sgraffito — Biscuit- painting — Biscuit-printing — Roller printing machines — Underglaze 
colours — Aerograph. 

Chapter XI. — Leadless Glazes and Art-Enamels, .... 611-714 

Leadless glazes now in use — Precautions recommended — Opinions of experts — 
Defects in lead glazes — Public discussion — Essential qualities of glazes — The Lancet 
analytical commission — Government inquiry — Contemporary glazes — Individual 
influence of ingredients— Preparation of frits and glazes— Composition of glazes — Costs 
— Recipes. 

Chapter XII. — Application of the Glazes, 715-735 

Tile-dipping — Clouding — " Majolica " painting — Glaze-enamelling — Spraying — 
Drying— Placing — Setting in kiln — Glaze kilns — Firing — Sorting — Shading — Vitreous 
fresco — Salt-glazing. 

Chapter XIII. — On-Glaze Decorative Processes, .... 736-748 

Emery-wheel etching — Sandblast — Enamel-colour painting — Glost-printing — I.itho- 
transfers — Aerographing — Lustres — Copper-ruby glaze — English lustres. 



CONTENTS xvh 

PAGE 

Chapter XIV. — Constructional Faience and Enamelled Terra- 
cotta, 749-779 

Evolution — Early pioneers — Doulton's exhibits at Philadelphia — Wilcock's glazed 
fireclay wares — Lustres— Faietice for exteriors — Stonewares — Doulton wares — Recipes 
for bodies — Models — Mouldmaking — Pressing — Biscuit-firing — Glazing — Glost-firing. 

Chapter XV. — Colour, Design, Drawing, and Estimating, . . 780-818 

The need of colour — Light and colour^Complementary colours — Tints and shades — 
Decorative colour schemes — Colour in architecture — Design — General principles — 
Pictorial — Symbolism in design — Designing for tilework and faience — Drawing — 
Estimating. 

Appendix A Amended Special Rules, . . 819-827 

„ B.— Setting Tile, ... ... 828-836 

„ C. — Notes on the Tile Decoration found on Buildings 

in Punjab and Bengal, ... . . 837-840 

Index, . . . - ... 841 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

{See also LIST OF PLATES) 



CHAPTER I. 

1. Leadless-glazed embossed tile, 

2. Do. do. specimens, . 

3. Do. do. china and earthenware. 



4. 
S- 
6. 

7- 
8. 

9- 
10. 
II. 
12. 

'3- 
14. 

IS- 
16. 

17- 
18. 

19- 
20. 
21. 
22. 

23- 

24. 

25- 

26. 

27- 

28. 
29. 

30- 



CHAPTER n. 



Enamelled brickwork from Babylon, 
Enamelled-brick reliefs do. 
The lion of Babylon, enamelled brick. 
Blue-glazed tile from Naqada, 
Green-glazed relief tile from Abydos, 
Tenoned ribbed-faced glazed tile, . 
Step Pyramid of Sakkarah, . 
Interior of Step Pyramid, 
Convex-faced tile from Sakkarah, . 
Cartouche tiles from Karnak, 
Relief tile from Tell el YehfldJyeh, 
Roundel inlay tiles from do. 
Enamelled-tile work — fruit and lotus, 
Relief tile, Tell el Yehddtyeh, 
Tile from Koptos, 
Pliny's doves, mosaic, . _ . 
Wall-mosaic from Hadrian's Villa, 
Mosaic floor in the House of Faun, 

Do. pavement found near the Bank 
of England, .... 
Mosaic pavement found in Leaden 

hall Street, 
Mosaic pavement at Bignor, . 

Do. do. Silchester, 

Do. found at Cirencester, 

Do. from Woodchester, . 
Fragments of mosaic from Uriconium, 
Centre of pavement found at Lea Cross, 
Mosaic pavement found at York, . 



23 
29 

30 
35 
35 
36 
37 
37 
3« 
44 
46 
46 
47- 
47 
48 
52 
53 
55 

57 

57 
59 
61 
64 

65 
66 

67 
69 



FIG. |.AGE 

31. Tomb constructed of mud, . . .71 

32. Ruins of Persepolis, • ■ ■ 73 

33. Archer frieze from Susa, . . 74 

34. Lion do. do. ■ ■ ■ 75 

35. Persian inscribed tile, thirteenth century, 77 

36. Mosque of Sheikh Lulf Allah at Ispahan, 78 

37. The Mahun Shrine near Kerman, . 80 

38. Persian star tile, .... 81 

39. Do. do. and cruciform tile, . 81 

40. Do. tile, thirteenth century, . 81 

41. Hadrasi i Ispahan 83 

42. Persian tile, seventeenth century, . . 84 

43. Do. do. . . 85 

44. Damascus tile, ... 87 

45. Do. a picturesque locality, . 88 

46. An interior, ..... 88 

47. The House of Ananias, . . 89 

48. Tekiyeh, Dervish mosque, . . 90 

49. Colonnade of the Grand Mosque, . . 91 

50. Damascus tile, W.N.F. Coll., . . 92 

51. Do. sixteenth century, . 92 

52. Mosque of Omar, Jerusalem, . 93 

53. Exterior detail of Mosque of Omar, 93 

54. Saracenic tile 95 

55. Eight tiles from the Mosque of El Azhar, 96 

56. Border tiles. Mosque of Azhar, . 97 

57. Kiosk at Constantinople, . . . lOl 

58. Turkish fireplace, . . . .102 

59. Tile in Arab Museum, Cairo, . . 103 

60. Do. do. do. . . 104 

61. Panel of tiles, eighteenth century, . . 105 

62. Gate of mosque at Cordova, . 107 
6j. Tiles from synagogue, Toledo, . . loS 

64. Do. do. do. . . 108 

65. Hall of Ambassadors, Alcazar, . .105 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



KIG. 




PAGE 


66. 


Seville tilework, sixteenth century, 


. no 


67. 


Madrid do 


. tic 


68. 


Calatayud do 


. no 


69. 


Enamelled tile from Madrid, 


. Ill 


70 


Do. do. Barcelona, . 


. Ill 


71. 


Room of the Divans, Alhambra, . 


. 112 


72. 


Gaur tile or enamelled brick. 


• 117 


73- 


Do. do. 


• 117 


74. 


Do. do. 


. 118 


75- 


Do. do. 


. 118 


-76. 


Sind lattice window, . 


. 126 


77. 


ChinJ-Ka-Rauza, 


. 130 


7S. 


Kanch Mahal gateway, 


• 132 


79- 


Porcelain Tower of Nanking, 


■ 134 


80. 


Ruins of Wan Shon Shan, . 


138 


81. 


Chinese roof-tiles, 


139 


82. 


Mediaeval tiles, Malvern, . 


14s 


■83. 


Hulton Abbey tiles, . 


147 


84. 


The Duomo, Florence, 


150 


85. 


Portion of frieze by Luca della Robbia 


, IS' 


86. 


Do. coffered roof do. 


151 


87. 


Luca della Robbia, 


152 


88. 


Stemma of Ren^ d'Anjou, 


153 


89. 


Tabernacle at Impruneta, 


155 


■90. 


Gubbio tile, S.K.M., . 


157 


91- 


Majolica tiles, Bologna, 


159 


92. 


Tile from Perugia, Ferrer Coll. , . 


160 


93- 


Do. do. do. 


160 


•94- 


Tile pavement, Siena, 


160 


95- 


German impressed tiles. 


161 


96. 


Do. stove-tile. 


162 


97- 


Do. tiled stove. 


163 


98. 


Do. do. 


163 


99- 


Enamelled tile, Niirnberg, . 


164 


100. 


Green-glazed relief tile, Koln, 


i6s 


lOI. 


Yellow-glazed do. do. 


i6s 


102. 


Caen tiles, ...... 


166 


103. 


Incrusted tile from Paris, 


166 


104. 


Do. do. 


166 


105. 


Tiled floor, St. Omer, 


167 


106. 


Incrusted tile, Dijon, 


168 


107. 


Do. do. 


i63 


108. 


Tile-panel from Ecouen, 


169 


109. 


Do. do. . . 


169 


no. 


Faience tiles of Abaquesne, 


170 


III. 


Do. do. 


170 


112. 


Do. do. 


170 


113. 


Do. do. 


170 


114. 


Rouen wall-tiles, 


172 


115. 


Delft tiles, eighteenth century. 


'74 


116. 


Do. do. 


174 


117. 


Delft dish, ... 


177 


118. 


Delft tiled stove. 


178 



CHAPTER III. 

119. Tile-panel by .Maw & Co., . 

120. Bristol Delft tiles, 

121. Liverpool Delft tiles, . 

122. Six do. 

123. Maw & Co.'s exhibit, Chicago, . 

124. Do. do. do. 

125. Interior do. do. 

126. Interior do. do. 

127. Encaustic tileworks, Poole, 

128. Hamworthy works, Poole, . 

129. Doulton & Co.'s works, Lambeth, 

130. Doulton's pavilion at Paris, 1900, 

131. Chemin^e, Bouleiiger & Cie., 

132. Victor Boch, 

133. Boch Freres' works, . 

134. New Town Hall, Copenhagen, 

135. Interior do. do. 

1 36. Detail of interior, do. 

137. Sir C. Purdon Clarke's fountain, 

138. Tomb of glazed tiles, made at Multan, 

139. Muhammadan wall-panel, . 

140. Inter-state fair certificate, . 

141. Vitreous tile made in 1867, 

142. Star Encaustic Tileworks, Pittsburg, Pa, 

143. Two Japanese tiles, .... 

CHAPTER IV. 

144. Clay-mine, North Devon, . 

145. Shale-pit near Belleville (111.) 

146. Sketch-map, Corfe Castle district, 

147. Section along line CD in fig. 146, 

148. Do. of lower Bagshot beds at the 

Matcham clayworks, 

149. Section of the clay - beds near New 

Cross, ..... 

150. Section of the clay-beds at the Decoy, 

151. Do. of clays and lignites at Aller, 

152. Marland clay-pit. North Devon, 
'S3- Open-pit working, do. 

154. Shafts working vein of blue ball-clay, 

ISS Clay-pit at Woodbridge, N.J., 

156. Kaolin mine, Dillsbro, N.C., 

157. Kaolin-pit near Hockessin, Del, 

158. Kaolin-washing plant, do. 

159. Clay-pit at Edgar, Fla., 

160. China-clay sett, . 

161. Plan of china-clay works, . 

162. Elevation-section, do. 

163. Rosemount Quarry, Jersey, . 

164. Wet-grinding flint-mill, 

165. Washtub, .... 

166. Duplex dry-grinding cylinders, 



180 
181 
182 
183 
193 

193 
194 
194 
197 
198 
199 
202 
204 
206 
207 
208 
209 
210 
214 
224 
225 
230 
230 
231 
237 



239 
251 
264 
265 

265 

266 
267 
26S 
269 
270 
272 
28 [ 
293 
297 
297 
298 
309 

5'o 
310 

321 
340 
34' 
342 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



XXI 



167. Pebble mill, Abbe Eng. Co. 

168. Do. encased, 

169. Do. opened. 



170. 
171. 
172. 
173- 
174- 
«75- 
176. 
177- 
178. 
179. 
V80. 
181. 
182. 

183. 
184. 
185. 

186. 

187. 
188. 
189. 
190. 
191. 
192. 

193A. 
19315. 
194. 
195- 

[96. 
J97- 



CHAPTER V. 
Pyrometer, 

Wedgwood's pyrometer, 
Pyrometer test-pieces, 
Seger cones. 

Do. in use, 

Holdcroft's thermoscope. 

Do. do. 

Do. do. 

Watkin's heat recorder, 

Do. do. 

Section before firing, . 

Do. after do. 
Watkin's 4iscoverer, . . . . 
Roberts-Austen's recording pyrometer. 
Do. do. do, 

Do. do. do 

(Pitkin's form). 
Diagram, .... 
Pitkin's indicating pattern, 
Do. portable pyrometer. 
Do. do. thermo-junction. 

Do. thermo-junction. 
Do. office pyrometer. 
Do. works do 



Hot-blast records, . 

" Queen " electrical pyrometer, 
Callendar's recording resistance thermo 

meter, . 
Callendar and Griffiths' do. do. 

Thermo-electric thermometer and indi 

cator, '. . . . . 



345 
345 
346 



400 
403 
403 
406 
409 
412 
412 
412 
414 
414 
414 
414 

415 
420 
421 

422 

423 
424 
424 
42s 
425 
425 
425 

426 

429 

431 
432 

432 



436 
439 
440 



CHAPTER VI. 

198. Two modes of laying floor-quarries, 

199. Beehive kiln for quarries, 

200. Basket-work setting of quarries in kiln, 

CHAPTER Vn. 

201. Encaustic tile 444 

202. Arm -Hunger for rough marls, . 450 
202A. Tier of slip sieves, . . • 45 1 
202B. Boulton's clay-blunger, . . -451 

203. Do. damped-clay pulverizer, . 452 

204. Section of tile-dust damping-bed, 453 

205. Dust-tile press, ..... 454 

206. Do. do. . . 455 
2o6a. Mosaic-tile cutter, . 457 



FIG. 

207. Plaster mould for encaustic-tile making, 

208. Red and buff encaustic tile, 

209. Do. do. 

210. Buff on black do. 

211. Encaustic-tile press, . 

212. Pattern-plate and pressing-plate, . 

213. Encaustic press, .... 

214. Do. 

215. Do. 

216. Do. 

217. Encaustic-tile pressing, 

218. Encaustic tile 

219. Do. tiles, . 

220. Buff on black encaustic tile, 

22 1 . Do. do. 

222. Saggarmaker at work, 

223. Biscuit oven, 

224. Fireman's trial, .... 

225. Gas kiln, .... 

226. Mond-gas producer, , . 

227. Diagram of Mond-gas plant, 

CHAPTER VHI. 

228. Mosaic from Cirencester, 

229. Mosaics, St. Paul's Cathtdral, 

230. Mosaists working in studio, 

23 r. Artists and workers examining a mosaic, 

232. Siena Cathedral, .... 

233. Akbar's Mausoleum at Secundra, 

234. The first process in mosaic-work, 

235. A stock of stone cubes, 

236. Cut stone stored in lockers, 

237. Making and mounting the design, 

238. Moving the work when finished, 

239. Putting the finished work to dry. 

240. Working a ceramic mosaic pattern , 

CHAPTER IX. 

241. Intaglio tile, .... 

242. Knife blunger, 
242A. Duplex blunger, 
242B. Clay-slip agititor, 

243. Tier of sieves 

244. " Needham and Kite" clay-press, 

245. Crossley's iron clay-presses. 



246. Do. complete outfit, . 

247. Do. sifter, 

248. Do. dust-mill or disintegrator, 

249. Tile-press for large sizes, . 

250. Diagram of shrinkage, 

251. Modelling embossed tiles, . 

252. Ss^gars and kiln. 



458- 
458 
458. 

459- 

460 

461 

461 

462 

462 

462. 

463 

463 

463. 

464 

464 

465 
466 
467 

474 
477 
478- 



518. 

528 

53°- 

531 

535- 

536- 

537 

53« 

538 

539- 

539- 

539- 

542 



546 

550 

551 

551 

552 

553 

553. 

554 

555 

559 

560 

561 

562 

564- 



XXll 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



CHAPTER X. 

253. Printed tile, . . -573 

254. Lilies, ... ' . . 574 

255. Painting a plaque, . . . 594 

256. Muffled kiln for tiles, . . 595 

257. The Bay of Naples, . . 595 

258. Artists at work, . 596 

259. Printing press, . 598 

260. Roller printing machine, 603 

261. Do. do. do. . 603 

262. Aerograph, . . . . 605 

CHAPTER XI. 

263. Embossed tile, . 61 1 

264. Flux kiln for nine movable crucibles, 667 

265. Single-crucible kiln, . . 668 
265. Nine-crucible flux kiln, 668 

267. Glaze frit kiln, . 669 

268. Wet-grinding potters' colour-pans, . 672 

269. Colour-pan muller ; and sketch show- 

ing under-grooving, . • 673 

270; Double-cylinder colour-mill, . 673 

271. The "Little Trojan" mill, . . 674 

272. Section of single-jar mill, . . 674 

273. Enamel or glaze mills, 675 

274. Magnetizing machine, 67(1 

CHAPTER XII. 

275. Tile-dippers at work. . 716 

276. Cloudev, . 717 

277. Decorating, . . . 719 

278. Wenger's foot-power air-compressor, . 720 

279. Vapo-cans, 721 

280. Tile-boxes, cranks, and setters, 722 

281. Muffled kiln, . 724 

282. Glost oven, 726 

283. Panel in vitreous fresco, . 729 

CHAPTER XIII. 

284. Sandblast-decorated glazed tile, . 736 

CHAPTER XIV. 

285. Faience hob-side, . . . 749 

286. Modelmaker's templet, mount, and horse, 765 

287. Mouldmaking, . . . . 766 

288. Cornice modelmaking, 766 

289. Do. mouldmakmg, . . 767 

290. Frieze block and section, . . 768 

291. Pilaster base, 7.68 

292. Modelmaking of curved forms, , . 769 

293. Book-mould making, .... 769 



FIG. 
294. 

295- 
296. 
297. 



298. 
299. 
300. 
301. 
302. 
303- 
304- 
305- 
306. 

307- 
308. 

309- 
310. 

3"- 
312. 

313- 
314- 
315- 
316. 

317- 
318. 

319- 
320. 
321. 
322. 
324- 

325- 
326. 

327. 
328. 
329- 



Tracery window. 
Do do. . 

Faience-work, . 
Decorating, 

CHAPTER XV. 
From Proverbial Philosophy, 

y Decorative designs from Denderah, 



Dado decoration, Karnak, . 
Frieze of urosi and cartouches. 



\ Examples of Egyptian patterns and 
designs. 



Design for tiles, ..... 
Do. do. . . . . 

Glazed tiles. 
Cartoon for overmantel. 
From Photography Christmas Number, 



Do. do. do. 

Key-plan for mosaic-work, 
Fireplace, .... 
Briquette fireplace, 
Faience do. 

Do. surrounil, 

Do. stove, 
Printed-tile patterns, . 
Printed and coloured tiles, . 
Panel dado for porch, . 
Diagram, . 
Diagram, . . . . 

APPENDIX B. 



do. 



PAGS 
771 
772 

774 
776 



780 
794 

794 

794 

795 



797 
797 
798 
799 
799 
800 
805 
807 
807 
808 
809 
810 
811 
812 
812 
815 
817 



( 



Illustrations of approved American 
methods of laying and fixing- 
decorative tiles, 



829 

S30 

830 

830 

831 

83" 

832, 

833 

833 

834 

835 



LIST OF PLATES 



I. Babylonian baked-clay tablet. {Photo-block), 

II. Mitani baked-clay tablet from Tell el Amarna. {Photo-block), 

III. Enanielled-brick reliefs from Babylon. {Three-^colour block), 

IV. Assyrian enamelled bricks and design. ( Three-colour block), 

V. Enamelled tiles from Tell el Amarna and Gurob. {Three-colour block), 
VI. Enamelled-tile work from Tell el Yehudlyeh. {Photo-block), 
A'll. Romano -British mosaics from Brislington. {Lithograph), . 
VI H. Do. do. do. ( Do. ), 

IX. Persian glazed-tile panel from Ispahan. ( Three-colour block), 
X. Syrian and Turkish tiles. ( Three-colour block), 
XI. Spanish tiles, sixteenth century (after Dr. Forrer). ( Three-colour block), 
XII. Entrance to the Tomb of Wazir Khan. {Photo-block), 

XIII. Detail-types of Indian decorative-tile work. {Three-colour block), 

XIV. Indian enamelled-tile work. ( Three-colour block). 
XV. Indian enamelled-tile work. ( Three-colour block), 

XVI. Indian enamelled-tile work. ( Three-colour block), 
XVII. Chinese arched gateway at Wo Fo Ssii. {Photo-block), 
XVIII. Screen of Chinese porcelain tiles. {Photo-block), 
XIX. Mediaeval tiles of Bristol Cathedral. {Lithograph), 
XX. Painted Delft tile, in dark violet. {Photo-block, monochrome), 
XXI. Painted Delft tiles, in blue. {Photo-block, monoch-ome), 
XXII. The late Herbert Minton. {Photo-block), .... 

XXIII. Refreshment-room tiled pillars, S.K.M. {Photo-block), 

XXIV. The late Leon Fran9ois Joseph Arnoux. {Photo-block), 
XXV. Design for treatment of a staircase. {Photo-block, monochrome), 

XXVI. The late Sir Henry Doulton. {Photo-block), 
XXVII. University buildings, Allahabad. {Photo-block), 
XXVIII. Samuel Keys, Esq., Pittsburg, Pa. {Photo-block), 
XXIX. Star Encaustic Tile Company's floor-tile patterns. {Lithograph), 
XXX. Do. do. do. . ( Do. ), 

XXXI. Marble mosaic turrets at Agra. {Photo-block). ... 
XXXII. Specimen designs ft)r ceramic mosaics. {Three-colour block), 

XXXIII. Examples of leadless-glazed tiles. {Lithograph), 

XXXIV. Keramic Gallery, S.K.M. {Photo-block) 

XXXV. Faience corridor. Municipal Buildings, Glasgow. {Photo-block), 

XXXVI. Examples of tilework designs. {Three-colour block), . 
XXXVII. Drawing of floor-tile patterns. {Lithograph), . 



TO FACE 
PAGE 

• 24 
26 
30 
32 

. 42 
48 

. 64 

. 66 

. 84 
90 

. 112 
122 
126 

. 128 

130 
132 
140 
142 
146 

174 
178 
184 
18S 
190 
198 
202 
228 
230 

2?2 

234 
536 

544 
718 
750 
768 
«04 
816 



LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, 
AND MOSAIC 



CHAPTER I. 
"RAISON D'ETRE." 

'' If preventable, why not prevented?" (H.M, King Edward VII. when Prikce of Wales). 

Contents. — Object — Parliament and lead-poisoning — Preventive measures — Arbitration proceedings, 
November 1901 — Manufacturers' opinions — Outsiders' — Commercial aspect — Oven fumes — Looking 
backward — Public opinion — Adjourned arbitration — The award — Conclusions. 

The object in writing and publishing the 
following pages is not simply to issue a dis- 
sertation upon the history and manufacture of 
decorative faience and mosaic — although this 
and other matters have been introduced to 
extend the usefulness of the volume ; — the 
principal aim is, to place before those who are 
either interested in, or engaged in these manu- 
factures throughout the world, a series of re- 
cipes for the preparation of leadless glazes for 
the purpose, and so to assist in eliminating 
lead-poisoning from the industry. 

Legislative coercion excites opposition, and,, 
to be just and beneficent, requires consummate 
judgment in its exercise. A more effectual course to pursue in endeavouring 
to bring about the desired change is, perhaps, to discover and publish less 
injurious glazes and enamels than those in general use, and let competition, 
common sense, and public opinion do the rest. 

In a former publication — Researches on Leadless Glazes — written six years 
ago, it was shown, on the authority of Sir Matthew White Ridley, that during 

I 




Fig. 



I. — Leadless glazed embossed 
tile. 



LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



two and a half years, between 1895 and 1898, the total number of reported 
cases of lead-poisoning in the manufacture of earthenware and china, among 
women and girls alone, had been 591, equivalent to a yearly average of 
about 230. 

That these figures have now declined to about 47 per annum, or a total of 
87 for both sexes per annum (increased to 97 in 1903), cannot logically be said 
to prove that further attention to the matter is unnecessary ; it rather shows 
conclusively the value of public discussion of a grievance, and — to make use 
of the language of the late respected William Woodall, Esq., M.P., himself an 

eminent manufacturer of earthenware 
— " more than justify the concern and 
solicitude that has found expression in 
Press and Parliament." 

The subject of " lead-poisoning " hav- 
ing been so frequently discussed by 
Parliament, by the Home Office, by the 
Press, by manufacturers' associations, 
by medical and clerical assemblies, by 
learned societies, and other public bodies, 
it will be generally conceded that there 
is room for technical publications directed 
towards its absolute and final elimina- 
tion on the line Professor Thorpe has 
asserted is the only one by which com- 
plete immunity is ever likely to be 
attained, namely, by the discontinuance 
of the use of lead compounds. 

Several, if not many, tile and faience 
manufacturers have at various times 
made or caused to be made numerous 
practical experiments in this direction, 
but they do not publicly give the industry in general an opportunity of 
profiting by their labours. 

So far, at least. Researches on Leadless Glazes apparently remains the only 
work in English especially devoted to this phase of the subject ; and as the 
practical recipes therein suggested were for the most part applicable chiefly to 
general earthenware, chinaware, and similar pottery, further recipes were 
required for other classes of ceramic products in the manufacture of which 
different conditions prevailed, or the attainment of different objects was 
sought. 

The increasing extent and complexity of the manufacture of tiles and 
faience for structural embellishment, and the fact that this branch of industry 




Fig. 2. — Leadless glazed specimens. 



"RAI30N D'ETRE "—Preventive Measures 3 

was being conducted by the use of even greater proportions of lead compounds 
in the glazes and enamels than that of china and earthenware, appealed 
strongly -for attention. Hence special researches were undertaken with 
redoubled vigour to discover if it were possible to reconstruct the glaze 
formula for decorative tiles in such a manner as to eliminate all salts of 
lead without deteriorating the effectiveness, utility, and durability of the 
product. 

This, the writer claims, has now in a very large measure been accom- 
plished, and the selected and experimentally tested results of the investiga- 
tions are herein respectfully submitted to all whom it may concern. Not 
as absolutely perfected and cosmopolitan formulae adapted to every individual 
requirement or fancy, but as reliable bases upon which, by slight modification, 
each manufacturer may prepare either coloured or colourless glazes, suited to 
his own special conditions and products — a starting-point, a helpful guide, a 
practical desk friend specially devoted to the subject. The writer is con- 
scious of some imperfections, but most of these are believed to be susceptible 
of removal by the exercise of acquired operative skill in actual practice, when 
that practice is not antagonistic. 

The recipes are given in commonplace industrial terms, so that anyone 
possessing reasonable knowledge of potters' materials and methods can 
straightway mix the ingredients and produce what is stipulated. 

Preventive Measures. — Almost all concerned now admit that the 
compounds of lead have in the past been used excessively, and often in a 
more or less indiscreet manner ; and efforts have been made to amend the 
methods so long sanctioned by injudicious custom. The best firms have 
erected fans for rapidly removing deleterious dust from the workrooms, 
provided overalls and ablutionary facilities, and arranged for occasional 
medical inspection, with the object of minimising the risks of lead-poisoning. 
Recognising the wisdom and advantage of such precautionary measures, the 
Home Office issued revised rules for regulating the conduct of the industry, 
so as to bring up all factories abreast to the requisite standard of hygienic 
efficiency ; and established a system of medical examination, with powers 
of suspension, in certain cases, of workers exhibiting initial symptoms of 
plumbism ; the happy result of these organised efforts, together with greater 
individual care by operatives and all concerned, being a marked decline in 
notified cases of lead-poisoning in potteries. 

But other influences undoubtedly contributed an appreciable quota toward 
bringing about this welcome decline in the rate of sickness : for instance, the 
reduction by some manufacturers of the hitherto excessive proportion of lead 
salts in their glazes ; the more frequent use of glaze compounds in which the 
lead salt has been judiciously fritted in certain special proportions with the 
object of reducing its rate of solubility ; the partial return to the use of nature's 



LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



own lead salt — Galena ; and last, but not least, the increasing use of lead-free 
glazes. 

Proof of this exists in the fact that under the Earthenware and China 
Award (December 1901) Special Rules, undertakings received and certificates 
granted in pursuance of Rules 22, 23, and 24, up to the end of March 1903, 



were as under. 



{Published by permission oj the Home Office.) 



Class of Ware. 


Rule 22. 

"Leadless" 
Glaze. 


Rule 23. 


Rule 24. 

2 per 
cent. 
Glaze. 


(a) 5 per 
cent. 
Glaze. 


{b) Moist. 

Ware 
Cleaning. 


China, ... . .... 

Earthenware — 

General earthenware, without stated distinction of ware, 
Do. do. including majolica ware. 
Do. do. including majolica tiles. 
Do. do. excluding majolica ware and tiles, . 
Do. do. includingjet and Rockingham ware, 
Do. do. excludingjet and Rockingham ware, 
Do. do. including electrical fittings and 

china furniture 

Do. do. including sanitary ware. 
Tiles— 

Do. including majolica tiles, 

Do. excluding majolica tiles and majolica ware, . 

Majolica Ware 

Jet and Rockingham, 

Electrical Fittings and China Furniture, 

Do. do. including sanitary ware, 

Sanitary Ware, . . 

Stoneware, . . 

Total number of certificates, 


I 
10 

2 
X 

3 
2 


6 

4 

1 

I 

I 

I 


86 
9 
3 

5 
4 

n 

2 

•20 
2 

13 


I ' 


19 


14 


172 


I 



* Coarse ware firm, using Galena only. 

The foregoing necessarily includes only those manufacturers who had 
advanced so far as to be able and willing to publicly give an undertaking and 
legally bind themselves to do certain things. Many others, no doubt, are 
slowly endeavouring to qualify in a similar way, and so avail themselves of 
the advantages offered. 

All these improved means necessarily tell upon the health of the operatives 
concerned, and the results demonstrate the value of greater care in 
manufacture. 

One of the first of Staffordshire earthenware makers who adopted the use 
of leadless glazes throughout the whole of their works did so by means of 
formula discovered in the course of the series of experiments recorded in 
Researches on Leadless Glases ; and the firm in question have, since about 



" RAISON D'ETRE "—Arbitration Proceedings 




IV.F.M.] [Photo. 

Fig. 3. — Leadless glazed china and earthenware. 



March 1899, uninterruptedly continued to manufacture, exclusively, leadless 
glazed Staffordshire wares to the value 
of between ;£'i2,ooo and ;^i 5,000 annu- 
ally, in which underglaze colours are 
more satisfactorily developed, and in- 
herent good - wearing qualities mani- 
fested, than when similar wares were 
being made by means of ordinary 
plumbic glaze — moreover, at a less 
cost, and with evident benefit to their 
operatives. 

Several other very large firms have 
also made considerable commercial use 
of somewhat similar leadless glaze re- 
cipes for the glazing of a portion of 
their productions. This encouraging 
experience in the matter of general 
earthenware and china gives the author 
great confidence in submitting these, for the most part, newly discovered 
formulae for easily fusible non-plumbic glazes for decorative faience. 

Arbitration Proceedings, November 1901. — The evidence given during 
the arbitration at Stoke-upon-Trent in November 1901, between the Home 
Office and the United Associations of Glazed Pottery and Tile Manufacturers, 
forms no proof of impracticability of leadless glazes ; not a single specialist in, 
nor exclusive maker of, or advocate of, leadless glazed Staffordshire wares 
having been heard. 

This battle-royal, in fact, was not fought over the question of plumbic 
versus non-plum-btc glazes', but merely over the question of the commercial 
practicability of certain fused compounds, all of which contained a consider- 
able proportion of compounds of lead : it was, in short, except for discussion 
upon minor matters about which very little difference of opinion existed 
between the contending parties, an arbitration upon fritted lead glazes versus 
unfritted lead glazes. The principal Government witness, however, proved 
unable to maintain the position the Home Office desired to establish ; and 
the settlement of the contentious portions was eventually adjourned for 
eighteen months. It would have been absurd to coerce manufacturers to use 
particular compositions in their processes, even though the proposed composi- 
tions were of a less harmful nature, until such particular compositions had been 
demonstrated to be commercially practicable. 

Lord Henry James and the arbitrators undoubtedly were at that time 
favourably impressed by the gratifying decrease in notifications of cases of 
plumbism among pottery operatives, and justly considered it a tribute to the 



6 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

advantages arising from the greater precautions, self-imposed or compulsory, 
already practised both by employers and the employed. These precautions 
being largely a consequence of previous action by the Home Office, under 
ipressure of pubHc opinion, are to that extent a vindication of the efforts of 
jthe Home Office, and such results should have saved our governing authority 
[much of the criticism inconsiderately heaped upon it. For even if, in their 
[laudable desire to permanently stamp out a preventable disease, the Home 
joffice unsuccessfully sought to burden the ceramic industry with rules of a 
[too stringentf?type, this eJchibition of excessive zeal cannot be justly stig- 
'matised as a great fault, because, firstly, they submitted to arbitration, and 
secondly, they were influenced by very strong assertions on the part of those 
concerned. 

For instance, their scientific adviser had said, ' It must be clearly under- 
stood that complete immunity from lead-poisoning can never be obtained so 
long as lead compounds continue to be used." And again, " Are lead com- 
pounds actually necessary to the potter?— I unhesitatingly reply that as 
regards glazes they are not. Leadless glazes of sufficient brilliancy, covering 
power, and durability, and adapted to all kinds of table, domestic, and 
sanitary ware, are now within the reach of the manufacturer .... if the 
public insisted on being supplied with leadless glazed ware, its demands 
would be met." {Roj/al Institution, 4th May igoo, p. 12.) 

The United Associations of Manufacturers had admitted that " We 
believe the time has come when the use of raw lead in glazes may be pro- 
hibited." {Brown Book, p. S). And Mr. W. Burton, F.C.S., had written, " Could 
leadless glazes be discovered which were applicable to the conditions of what 
is known as the general earthenware trade, an immense stride would have 
been taken towards absolutely ridding our industry of the slightest risks of 
plumbism." {The Use of Lead Compounds in Pottery, p. 39.) 

Manufacturers' Opinions. — Glancing at prominent events which have 
occurred since the arbitration of 1901, at a complimentary banquet on i8th 
December 1901, inaugurated by the associations of pottery and tile manu- 
facturers to mark their appreciation of the services rendered by Mr. Rawdon 
Smith, Major Bernard Moore, and Mr. William Burton, F.C.S., Mr. Burton is 
reported to have said, among other things : — " Lead in any form was a 
dangerous substance to handle. They could not get out of that, and they 
should therefore take these two precautions ; first, to see that the amount of 
lead they used in their glazes was as small as was possibly compatible with 
the results they must obtain on their wares. He realised to the full that 
every manufacturer must produce the very best he was capable of; and he 
knew perfectly well that there were certain manufacturers in this country who 
made wares of such excellence and such quality that nothing less than raw 
lead under their conditions would produce what they desired. All he had to 



" RAISON D'ETRE "—Manufacturers' Opinions 7 

say to such gentlemen was : then, for their own sakes, and for the sakes of 
their trade, make their conditions of life and work as good as they could be. 
There were others who could reduce the quantity of lead they used in their 
glazes, or reduce to a certain extent the standard of solubility. To them he 
said it was their very plain, simple duty to make the reduction." {Stafford- 
shire Sentinel^ 19th December 1901.) 

If Mr. W. Burton had definitely specified the particular class of ware, in 
the glaze of which he asserts that raw lead is, under certain conditions, 
essential, it would then have been possible to discuss the evidence pro and 
con : in the absence of such particularization, we can only draw attention to 
the encomiums lavished by Mr. Burton and other eminent savants upon 
mediaeval Persian wares ; and their own equally emphatic complaint of the 
dangers of lead glazed wares, both to the operatives who make them and, in 
certain classes of ware, to the consumers who use them. 

Mr. Burton's sterling advice to other manufacturers whom, he asserts, 
" could reduce the quantity of lead they used in their glaze," should be heartily 
approved and endorsed, and it is to be hoped that manufacturers promptly 
took the course their distinguished expert fellow-manufacturer so publicly 
and fearlessly pronounced to be " their very plain, simple duty." 

At the same notable banquet. Major Bernard Moore, another manufacturer 
who had taken a prominent part in the negotiations between the Potters' 
Associations and the Home Office, remarked that : — " There were men, finally, 
who thought that a brother manufacturer who used leadless glazes, or a glaze 
of low solubility, or even one who fritted his lead, was a kind of traitor. He 
cared nothing for the opinion of such a man. He recalled the words of Lord 
James, who hoped the manufacturers would do their best to make the world 
around them a better world and to improve the condition of their workers. 
If he (the speaker) refrained to do what he could, he would stand there 
ashamed. If ever restrictive legislation of an injurious character were 
imposed upon the trade, it would rest at the doors of those who sat still and 
did nothing to improve their methods." {Sentinel, 19th December 1901.) 

Thus, admittedly, there is a field for judicious interference by the Home 
Office in the interests of humanity. And if the Home Office find it impera- 
tive to frame and to enforce rules to meet such deplorable contingencies as 
Mr. Moore so plainly indicated, then let Major Moore himself, who enunciated, 
and the hundred manufacturers who thereupon approved his emphatic dis- 
avowal of the class he referred to, stand by his words and support the Home 
Office in its benign endeavours. 

Outsiders. — Derogatory comment has frequently been made upon the 
misguided (?) interference of well-meaning " outsiders " : yet, curiously enough, 
the history of ceramic art furnishes very many instances of potential improve- 
ments by outsiders. For example, the discovery and practical use of Cornish 



8 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

china clay and china stone for bodies and glazes ; of plaster of Paris for 
moulds ; of transfer printing upon pottery ware ; of salt glazirig ; of the-^use 
of calcined flints ; of the invention of the filter-press for clay preparation ; of 
stilt-making machines ; of cobalt oxide as it is now obtained for the industry ; 
of liquid gold ; of ruby lustre ; and last, but not least, perhaps the dust-tile 
press itself: really, upon reflection, it is seriously to be doubted whether the 
complacent, conservative, and self-esteemed " insider " has anything better to 
record; and by-the-bye were not Luca della Robbia, and Bernard Palissy, 
and Boettgher, and Elers, and Thomas Minton "outsiders"? 

Even in this particular question of lead-poisoning which has been 
smouldering in potting circles since Josiah Wedgwood began to make his 
famous Queensware (see Letters of Josiah Wedgwood to Bentley, vol. ii. pp. 43 
to 48), and since the days of Simeon Shaw, are we to suppose that in the 
absence of outside agitation, and of action by the Home Office, the cases of 
plumbism in potteries would have receded as they have, from 432 in 1896 to 
106 in 1901, and 87 in 1902? reductions equivalent to 15,000 cases within 
half a century. Such a supposition is hardly a tenable one, in face of the 
remarkable coincidence of the work of the Hanley Labour Church Committee, 
in December 1897, and subsequently, with the formation of a public opinion 
on the question, and its culmination in a demand for public inquiry. Indeed, 
Mr. Laurence Wedgwood stated in evidence before the adjourned arbitration 
that " he attributed the freedom from lead-poisoning enjoyed by his firm to a 
large extent to the rules of 1898." {Staffordshire Sentinel, ist July 1903.) 

The Commercial Aspect. — Again, with equal inaccuracy and injustice, 
articles have been published in the Press conveying the innuendo that 
commercial failures among potters, if not. wholesale bankruptcy, was almost 
certain to accompany the general adoption of leadless glazes. Now, of what 
the future may have in store we know nothing, but we know something of 
the recent past, and that proves beyond question that not a few firms who 
have used ordinary lead glazes have appeared in the Bankruptcy Court. A 
comparison of the Pottery Gazette directory of 1890 with that of 1 904 reveals 
the fact that more than sixty failures may be counted, to say nothing of those 
who have risen, shone, and declined, in the interim. 

Not only so, for it is now becoming fashionable, or at least not unusual, 
to advocate the manufacture of hard porcelain as a means of saving our 
chinaware trade. Refer to Mr. A. F. Wenger's speech at the English China 
Manufacturers' Association meeting at Longton on 19th February IQ03, 
wherein he clearly suggested the manufacture of leadless glazed wares as a 
commercial expedient to conserve the staple of the Longton chinamakers' 
trade. In commenting upon this speech, the Staffordshire correspondent of 
the Pottery Gazette remarked, "That is a suggestion wcrth considering. It 
has been more than once suggested in these columns, not, indeed, that the 



"RAISON D'ETRE "—Commercial Aspect 9 

manufacture of bone china should be discarded, but that some enterprising 
potter should see what could be done with the manufacture of hard porcelain. 
It is a beautiful product when well made and fired, and its greater durability 
in contrast with much of the cheaper qualities of bone china is a thing not to 
be denied." (Pottery Gazette, March 1903, p. 286.) 

If one thing is more certain and evident than another it is that leadless 
glazed hard porcelain wares are gaining a well-merited public esteem ; and 
that a silent process of irresistible evolution is going on, under the influence 
of public opinion and self-interest, which must ultimately aiTect the question 
of plumbism in potteries almost as powerfully as any changes enacted by 
Parliament. Previous to the agitation in favour of leadless glazes these 
ceramic compositions certainly had not received, in Great Britain, the atten- 
tion they deserved from manufacturers, even on purely economical grounds, 
although several English potters had made careful inquiry on the Continent, 
and attempts at home, in the direction of hard porcelain. 

Returning to the subject, in the Pottery Gazette of April 1903 the same 
correspondent remarks, "The question of all others which needs to be decided 
is that of bone versus felspar china. Is the latter, for cheap and useful lines, 
ousting the former from its place ? That the cheapest Longton china is not 
a very choice production, either from a utilitarian or aesthetic point of view, is 
undeniable. Cheap bone ash and inferior china clay and stone produce a 
china of very small value from any point of view, and felspar china of almost 

any description has the advantage of superior wearing qualities " " It 

is a significant fact that the United States imports vastly more of Limoges 
and continental china generally than of our china, and that such china as is at 
present manufactured on the new continent is of the felspar variety." (Pottery 
Gazette, April 1903, p. 393.) Then, in the May issue, he reports that Mr. 
Harold Plant, son of one of the largest china manufacturers of Longton, had 
very recently said, " They were on the verge of a revolution in the china 
trade," and had " either got to adapt themselves to new methods, or to go 
under and let Germany and America go to the top." (Pottery Gazette, May 
1903, p. 497.) 

In the Staffordshire Sentinel of 29th June 1903 it is asserted that foreign 
earthenware and china is being imported into the United Kingdom at the 
rate of ;£'i,ooo,ooo per annum, and this before any regulations as to composi- 
tion of the glazes had been settled ; while Rules i and 2 stood adjourned, and 
"lead" still dominant and free. Therefore, clearly, "lead" is not such a 
complete safeguard of manufacturers' interests as has been assumed, nor a 
bulwark against foreign competition. Indeed, it would appear almost that 
the much abused leadless glazes may yet be the most powerful means of 
saving the Longton china trade. And as to profit, the Pottery Gazette, 
July 1903, p. 696, refers to German manufacturers' profits as 12-98 per cent. 



lo LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

These things, perhaps, are rather aside of the subject of decorative tiles, 
but they are legitimate citations in the advocacy of non-poisonous glazesi 
Nor is the analogy overstrained, for, on the one hand, there is a remarkable 
example of hard-porcelain tiles in the Hanley Museum, in the form of a screen 
of Chinese tiles ; and, on the other hand, it is well known that constructional 
faience for exterior work has met a powerful competitor in the form of 
polychrome enamelled stonewares of a leadless type. Of these Mr. Burton 
has said : — " On the Continent, however, and to some extent at home^ a newer 
kind of stoneware is coming to the front, in which there is greater range of 
colour, texture, and^ glaze quality than is possible with salt glaze. In France, 
this movement is most strongly marked ; and in addition to such well-known 
firms as Emile -Muller, Bigot, etc., we find artist potters like Delaherchey 
Lachenal, and Delpayrat producing most artistic work in gres or stoneware 
.... the body is hard and vitreous, and, in most cases, body and glaze are 
produced at one fire, and that a high one. The glaze, however, is no longer 
salt-glaze, but in most cases is produced by simply softening some native 
felspathic mineral, similar to our Cornish stone, by added fluxes. With the 
hard fire necessary to melt such a glaze, and the fine colour-developing 
qualities inherent in felspathic materials, the results are often singularly soft 
and harmonious ; and as the range of colour obtainable is very great, from 
the softest grey blues to rouge flambe, the newer stonewares will undoubtedly 
form an important addition to the long list of pottery species. On the 
Continent, and especially in France, Germany, and Hungary, these stonewares 
are rapidly coming into use for the exterior decoration of buildings, a service 
for which their hardness and durability admirably fits them. Perhaps in 
another half-century, English architects will wake up to this fact, and give 
the English potter a chance in the same direction." {Journal Society oj Arts, 
22nd February 1901, p. 217.) 

Oven Fumes. — Another " bogey " used in connection with the public 
discussion upon leadless glazes is that of "borrowed plumes" from the oven 
fumes, the influence of oven fumes upon leadless glazes being discussed in 
such a manner as to convey to the general public the impression that the good 
appearance of leadless glazed wares arises from the effect of these undesirable 
gases. 

Now if oven fumes, as existing outside the saggars, are beneficial, why do 
manufacturers lute and glaze the saggars and muffles, and take every practicable 
means of excluding such fumes? All that can justly be taken into considera- 
tion is the effect of fumes from the saggar wash, acting separately within each 
saggar. To test the effect of this, specimens dipped in lead-free glazes have 
been fired in saggars washed with lead-free glaze, and placed in the oven 
between other saggars similarly washed, and the results were perfectly 
satisfactory. Trials dipped half in lead glaze and half in leadless glaze, 



"RAISON D'ETRE "—Looking Backward ii 

prepared in duplicate and fired, one series in saggars washed with lead-free 
glaze and the other in saggars washed with ordinary lead saggar-wash, 
convincingly demonstrated the fallacy of the "borrowed plumes" bogey. 
Subsequently, duplicate series of " majolica " leadless glazed decorative tiles 
were fired, one series in a leadless glaze washed box, and the other in a lead 
glaze washed box, and certainly the trials showed that whatever advantage in 
appearance there was between the two, gravitated towards the lead-free 
series. 

During a long course of experiment the author cannot recollect a single 
instance in which a wrongly compounded lead-free glaze has been improved 
so as to appear good by any influence of saggar-wash fumes ; and he is 
persuaded that such effect is practically a negligible quantity compared with 
the influence for better or for worse of the glaze itself. 

Looking backward. — To understand the true state of affairs from a 
technical point of view prior to the recent public agitation against lead 
poisoning and its causes, it is necessary to look back a little. The following 
excerpt from the expert evidence given before the Potteries Committee of 
Inquiry in 1893 will enlighten us : — " Mr. T. W. Harrison, colour maker, 
Hanley, and Mr. Harrison, jun., potters' chemist, Hanley, attended, and the 
former, in reply to questions, said : — The proportion in which raw white lead 
enters into glazes varies considerably — in white glaze from 15 per cent, to 30 
per cent. Good glaze should not contain more than 1 5 per cent, of raw lead. 
In yellow or ' cane ' ware, about 30 per cent, is used ; in a soft glaze for 
common ' Rockingham ' teapots, as much as 40 per cent. For practical 
purposes, nearly all the lead is used raw. Vinegar or soda will set free the lead 
in very soft glazes containing a large proportion of raw lead. These soft glazes 
are not only injurious to the pottery workers, but also to the public. 
Majolica ware is covered with a coloured glaze, and in this the proportion 
of raw lead is from 25 per cent, to 40 per cent, by weight. Considers it more 
injurious to workers than any other, and has known of more cases of lead- 
poisoning amongst majolica paintresses than amongst any other workers. . . . 
As to the practicability of using fritted lead he does not entertain any doubt, 
and produces specimens of ware dipped in a glaze in which all the lead has 
been fritted, also a plate, half of which has been dipped in a fritted glaze, and 
the other half in a raw lead glaze, and there is no appreciable difference. . . . 
Fritted lead is practicable for majolica and other colours, but it would be more 
costly, and it wears out the frit kiln very fast. As a manufacturer of glazes, 
he would not be afraid of a law prohibiting the sale of glaze containing raw 
lead." {Report on Conditions of Labour in Potteries, 1893, p. 18.) 

The inference from the foregoing is that the manufacture of decorative 
tiles has hitherto been effected by means of a hazardous proportion of lead 
compounds in the glazes, and this is confirmed by the series of chemical 



12 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

analyses of such glazes by Professors Thorpe and Oliver, in which the use of 
from 49 to 57 per cent, of lead oxide is proved. 

It would seem that, of all the branches of pottery manufacture, the 
decorative tile industry has employed the greatest proportion of lead salts in 
the glazes ; if, then, this new series of non-plumbic formula or recipes render 
practicable the manufacture of these goods without the aid of lead, just as 
the writer's former publication assisted in the production of general earthen- 
ware and chinaware without lead, then the whole range of Staffordshire 
ceramic manufactures may be considered possible without the use of lead 
compounds. 

Obstacles — Whether the demonstration of such a portentous fact in a 
few instances will be the means of an early and general abandonment 
of lead is another question. Many interlocking interests are at stake. One 
pottery manufacturer may have thousands of pounds invested in lead works ; 
another may be resident local representative of makers of white lead ; others 
may have, in the recent discussions, practically staked their reputation as 
expert ceramists against leadless glazes; inertia, fear, prejudice will do the 
rest ; and so a host of enemies range themselves almost unconsciously and 
unintentionally athwart the path of lead-free glazes for Staffordshire products, 
and in actual practice it is so convenient to charge against any innovation 
all the everyday troubles that arise from time to time — troubles that have 
been repeatedly confessed to in the case of ordinary lead-glaze wares. 

'' Disaster after disaster," we are told, crossed the path of Josiah 
Wedgwood, as he persevered in the perfection of his now famous Queen's 
ware. "Even long experience cannot enable us to foresee all possible 
accidents," said M. Solon, after practising his special art of Pdte-sur-Pate for 
thirty-five years. " Even when the conditions are most closely observed, the 
results will show unexpected variation," wrote De Morgan. " Every potter 
knows by bitter experience how easy it is to spoil certain kinds of glaze by 
inattention during the firing process." W. Burton, ¥.CS., Journal Soc. Arts, 
22nd Feb. 1901, p. 216. 

And more : the special correspondent of The Pottery Gazette, referring to 
ordinary lead-glazed wares, confessed that dippers, placer.s, and other workers 
know from "practical experience what it is for ware by the hundred dozen 
to come out of the oven bad." {Pottery Gazette, Dec. 1901.) 

Is it, then, unreasonable to crave a modicum of forbearance and impartial 
criticism of lead-free glazes? If after a hundred and thirty years of con- 
secutive and cumulative experience, /licking- out the good \s still necessary with 
lead-glazed wares, why deny a few crumbs of just consideration to wares 
glazed with leadless glazes? 

But we know that " nolens volens " action even on the part of a friendly 
employer is almost impossible on his own factory. We therefore foresee a 



"RAISON D'ETRE "—Public Opinion 13 

great group of adverse circumstances that inevitably form obstacles to the 
rapid adoption of leadless glazes. Meanwhile, we ask that those who still 
discredit them will reserve their criticism, or else personally test the formulae, 
for non -representation is better than mis-representation. 

First attempts at the practical solution of all great and difficult problems 
are usually accompanied by initial disappointments. The massive chains 
now forming Clifton Suspension Bridge are said to have lain idle many 
years awaiting funds and enterprise. In like manner, leadless glazes for 
decorative tiles and faience when once discovered must nevertheless bide 
their time, until those who possess the power and opportunity put them 
into use. 

Public Opinion. — Speaking in the House of Commons on 25th June 
1903, H. J. Tennant, Esq., M.P., remarked that "the example set by that 
House, by the House of Lords, and by public departments, had resulted in 
this remarkable circumstance, — that they were able to purchase in the open 
market leadless glazed articles every bit as good in quality, and as cheap, if 
not cheaper in price, as articles made with lead glaze." {Pottery Gazette, 
July 1903, p. 718.) That intelligent public opinion is strongly in favour of 
lead-free glazes caimot be denied, and they are labouring under a very 
misleading delusion who suppose that when an architect reads of the sickness 
or death of a dipper, a placer, or a majolica paintress from lead-poisoning — 
even though the notified cases have been reduced to less than a hundred per 
annum — he calmly ignores it, or facetiously explains it away. 

Paul Waterhouse, Esq., M.A., etc., probably echoed the genuine and 
general opinion of the profession when he said : — " Many architects who had 
consciences on the subject of lead-poisoning might have felt that by an 
extensive use of glazed tiles they might be increasing the modern evil of 
lead-poisoning. There was, however, another side to an architect's feelings on 
the subject, namely, that he not only had that difficulty before him, but he 
had the opportunity of doing a great deal of good in connection with the 
matter. Those who would take the trouble to make inquiries as to the 
nature and as to the relative poisonous qualities of the various glazes in 
different kinds of tiles, would find that the mere fact of inquiring on the 
subject helped the battle which the Home Office was endeavouring to 
successfully carry through against careless manufacturers. He could not 
claim to have been innocent in this matter, nor to have never made use of 
tiles which were poisonous ; but he had made some inquiries on the subject, 
and it was refreshing to find, not only how much was done by the more 
enlightened manufacturers in the way of getting rid of harmful glazes, and 
the substitution of those which were either harmless or less harmful, but also 
that of recent years some extremely successful experiments had been made in 
the use of altogether leadless glaze. Not long ago, inquirers would have been 



14 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

informed by any manufacturer of faience that it was impossible to produce 
a leadless glaze which had the proper external appearance. That was no 
longer true. More than one manufacturer was now engaged in producing 
tiles which were absolutely leadless." (^Journal Society of Arts, 24th January 
1902, p. 168.) 

Assuming, then, as we have a perfect right to do, that an equally 
sympathetic disposition pervades the whole profession, who, as Mr. Waterhouse 
implies, have considerable power, it is worth remarking that that influence 
can make itself felt in favour of those manufacturers who are willing to make 
decorative wares by means of non-plumbic glazes. It therefore behoves those 
concerned to put their house in order before business is diverted to foreign 
channels even for home requirements. 

The salts of lead are well known to be poisonous : in the United Kingdom, 
during 1902, in all trades, including house-painters, there were 807 cases of 
lead-poisoning, and these included 46 deaths. In white-lead, red-lead, and 
yellow-lead works where potters' requirements among others are prepared, 
there were in 1902 in the United Kingdom 156 cases, including i death. In 
the china and earthenware industry and litho-transfer works in the United 
Kingdom, during 1902, there were 88 cases, including 4 deaths. And the 
number of pottery employees " suspended" in the Hanley, Burslem, Tunstall, 
and Stoke districts alone during 1902 was 68 (63 females and 5 males), of 
which 2r were believed to have been permanent — see Government reports — 
the statistics for 1903 showing a rather greater number of cases. 

Lead compounds thus are a nationally recognised danger and an obstacle 
to the extension of the ceramic industry, because fear and distrust enter the 
minds of those who would be otherwise willing to make greater use of ceramic 
products. Remove the obstruction by adopting lead-free glazes, and then 
architects and others will be perfectly free to follow up the use of ceramic 
products in architecture to its utmost possibility. 

The Adjourned Arbitration. — In due course the adjourned meeting of 
the arbitration took place on Tuesday and Wednesday, 30th June and ist 
July 1903, at the North Stafford Hotel, Stoke-upon-Trent, — Lord James of 
Hereford presiding in the capacity of umpire, as before. 

The object was to consider and discuss the statistics relating to cases ot 
plumbism in potteries which had arisen during the period of the adjournment, 
and to settle upon some definite course respecting Rules i, 2, and 6 of the 
previously proposed Special Rules, which, owing to their contentious character, 
had been postponed from the previous inquiry for eighteen months. 

The proposed rules in question were : — 

" No. I. After [st July 1901, no material containing lead which has not 
been fritted shall be used in any of the following places : 



"RAISON D'fiTRE "—Adjourned Arbitration 15 

" Dipping-house, or dippers' drying-room, or in any of the following 
processes : 

" Ware cleaning after the application of glaze by dipping or other process. 

" Glost placing. 

" Colour dusting (whether on glaze or under glaze). 

" Colour blowing (whether on glaze or under glaze). 

" Groundlaying. 

" Painting in majolica or other glaze. 

" Glaze blowing. 

" Lithotransfer making. 

" Or in any other place or process in which materials containing lead are 
used or handled in the dry state (except for the making of fritts) or in the 
form of spray, or in suspension in liquid other than oil or similar medium. 
Provided that nothing in this rule shall prevent the use of any ore or chemical 
compound of lead which, without the admixture of any other material, con- 
forms to the standard of insolubility specified in Rule 2. 

" No. 2. After ist July 1902 no glaze shall be used which yields to a 
dilute solution of hydrochloric acid more than 2 per cent, of its dry weight 
of a soluble lead compound calculated as lead monoxide when determined in 
the manner described below : — A weighed quantity of dried material is to be 
continuously shaken for one hour, at the common temperature, with looo 
times its weight of an aqueous solution of hydrochloric acid containing 0*25 per 
cent, of HCl. This solution is thereafter to be allowed to stand for one hour 
and to be passed through a filter. The lead salt contained in an aliquot 
portion of the clear filtrate is then to be precipitated as lead sulphide and 
weighed as lead sulphate. 

"No. 6. Every person employed in a place or process included in Rule i, 
or in the process of china scouring, shall be examined once in each calendar 
month by the certifying surgeon for the district. The certifying surgeon may 
order, by signed certificate in the register, the suspension of any person from 
employment in any place or process included in Rule i, or in the process of 
china scouring ; and no person after such suspension shall be allowed to work 
in any place or process included in Rule i, or in the process of china scouring, 
without a certificate of fitness from the certifying surgeon entered in the 
register.'' 

Mr. J. Roskill, K.C., submitted evidence showing that the number of cases 
of Plumbism in Potteries during 1903, up to date, was the same as during a 
similar period of 1902, and he claimed that upon the whole, "the figures the 
Home Office had put forward clearly showed that the prevalence of lead- 
poisoning amongst the women and children was as bad in 1903 as it was in 
1902 — perhaps worse. He thought a fair deduction from that fact was that 



i6 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

inspection was not sufificient . . . ,"" inspection alone had proved insufficient 
in the case of women and children, and that it was proper to infer that it 
would prove equally insufficient in the case of men." 

At another stage he remarked that ''with regard to Rule i, the Home 
Office did not lay much stress on the question of fritting, because it had arrived 
at the conclusion that fritting, if negligently or unintelligently carried on, 
offered no safeguard on the question of low solubility." He nevertheless 
asserted — in reply to an inquiry by Lord James for a suggestion as to a 
low solubility rule — that " the Home Office proposition was and still remained 
2 per cent." 

He criticised the provisions of the Potters' Insurance Scheme as " ridicu- 
lously insufficient," and stated that it did not satisfy the Home Office ; and in 
conclusion he said, " There was nobody at present In that room, he was certain, 
who was not alive to the pressing importance of that question. The Home 
Office were satisfied if these Rules were passed that at last something would 
be done final in its nature which would preserve the health of the workers of 
this district, and render safe one of the earliest and most beautiful industries 
of civilisation." {Sentinel, ist July 1903.) 

Mr. Fletcher Moulton, K.C., with conspicuous ability, pointed out that 
"since July 1901, i.e. two years, no case had been found amongst the boys 
engaged, and since September 1901 no case had been found among the girls 
engaged " ; but he admitted that " In consequence of the new rules a larger 
number of women were certainly employed in the dipping houses .... 
instead of boys." 

He claimed that "The position he took up as representing the manu- 
facturers .... was perfectly reconcilable to the greatest possible care of the 
health and the well-being of the operatives. His clients objected to no 
particular rule regulating the apparatus used, the precautions to be taken with 

regard to cleanliness, and the use of fans They also had no objection 

to — in fact they themselves had tried, as far as possible, to introduce a system 
of regular inspection of adult males, and they were also willing to co-operate 
with and to follow the advice of the Home Office and his Lordship with 
regard to insurance .... but they believed it was absolutely impossible, 
without injuring the industry and producing suffering infinitely greater than 
that already existing, to interfere with the discretion of the manufacturers in 
the selection of the materials used and the form in which they were used 
.... any attempt to interfere with the way in which they were to deal 
with the lead would be disastrous to the most important and most advanced 

part of the industry " He admitted that " Plumbism is very, very 

common among house painters," yet, he said, " No one ever thought of for- 
bidding a man to paint a board with white lead," and he premised this by 
saying that " .... He could not help feeling that if there were people to 



"RAISON D'ETRE "—Adjourned Arbitration 17 

be trusted with the use of white lead, it was the manufacturers who had to 
act under those rules and who were willing to have that insurance scheme." 

With regard to Rule 2, he said, " There was a unanimous feeling among 
his clients that any action which treated Rule 2 as being a practical rule 
would be disingenuous on their part, and they could not in any way consent 
or do anything but resist, so far as they had the power, a rule of the nature 
of regulating the solubility." In discussing a question by the learned umpire, 
addressed in the first instance to Mr. W. Burton, F.C.S., as to what objection 
he would have to any rule, provided there were a provision that it should be 
held not to apply to every factory the owner of which had joined the associa- 
tion in the agreed terms, and which had been carefully and properly conducted, 
Mr. Fletcher Moulton observed, amongst other things, " If Rule 2 were passed, 
the Home Office would very likely think that all they were doing was simply 
controlling the manufacture, whereas the whole trade knew it would be simply 
destructive to the whole trade." (^Sentinel, ist July 1903.) 

But the most instructive evidence at this adjourned inquiry was that of 
Mr. William Burton, F.C.S., and he is deserving of the highest praise for his 
courageous admission of the practicability of leadless glazes. After all that 
has been poured out of uninformed minds against leadless glazes, it was an 
intense pleasure to peruse Mr. Burton's evidence. And be it remembered, he 
claims that " without boasting, he could say that they had in their business a 
greater amount of scientific knowledge than probably any other firm in the 
country." {^Sentinel, ist July 1903.) 

In the first place, respecting Rule 6, he is reported to have stated " That 
every manufacturer believed as strongly as he did in the advantage of Rule 6,, 
and that the great majority of manufacturers would be willing to enter into 
an insurance scheme on the lines of the Workmen's Compensation Act," and 
he added that " he thought they ought to be compelled to do so." {Sentinel^ 
1st July 1903.) 

" Mr. Burton went on to say that he had for a long time considered the 
possibility of making restrictions as to the fritts and the solubility of the lead, 
and that he had found that' it was possible for certain manufacturers to use 
leadless glazes. There were a few manufacturers who could use leadless glazes 
entirely, and they ought to be encouraged to do so." .... " Mr. Burton proceeded 
to say that there were other manufacturers who partly used leadless glazes. 
He himself had used it successfully for the cheapest and commonest class of his 
work, but for the great bulk of his output — the better-class work — he could 
not use it at all, although it might be put on the same body and fired in the 
same ovens." {Ibid.) 

" Mr. Burton handed to the arbitrators and umpire samples of tiles produced 
with leadless glazes, and said that if he were asked to supply a quantity of 
white tiles with leadless glaze he could not supply them unless the purchaser 

2 



1 8 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

agreed to take his selection. In another department he had used fritted lead 
quite successfully, He had also tried lead of low solubility— under 2 per 
cent.— quite successfully, but with the difference that while his ordinarily 
glazed ware was fired in all parts of the ovens, and had to take the chance of 
hard fire and poor places, and he got 94 per cent, of best goods, the ware 
glazed with 2 per cent, soluble lead had to be fired in the best parts of the 
kiln with great care, and he got 86 per cent, best goods. Of the ware glazed 
with leadless glaze only 70 per cent, was best goods. The ordinary glazes, 
although fritted, were soluble up to 40 per cent, and in the purview of that 
inquiry they might be regarded as equivalent to raw lead. The ware coated 
with leadless glaze or with low solubility glaze always had preferential 
treatment in the oven. He expressed the opinion that the great reduction in 
the number of cases of plumbism among majolJqa paintresses — from 10 per 
cent, in 1898 to about 07 at the present time — was~-due firstly to the monthly 
medical examination, and secondly to the exercise of greater care by the 
workers themselves. It could not be contended that the decrease had been 
brought about either by the use of fans or by the use of glazes of less solubility. 
Fans were not required in that process, and it was impossible to deal with the 
solubility of the glaze used in majolica work. He employed more majolica 

paintresses than anyone in North Staffordshire There had undoubtedly 

been efforts made among the trade to increase the use of fritted lead and of 
glazes of low solubility. He himself had endeavoured to find a good standard 
of solubility that would cover the whole of his works, but such a standard 

would have to be 50 or 60 per cent " Mr. Burton also referred to the 

Jet and Rockingham trade as a proof that " white lead could be handled with 
impunity and without fritting." {Ibid?) 

" Asked by Mr Roskill whether he still believed in fritting, the witness 
said that personally he fritted every ounce of his lead . . . ," but he added, 

" Fritting .... did not do away with the difficulty " " He thought the 

operation of the new rules would tend to reduce lead poisoning " ; but when 
questioned as to the acceptability of a rule relating to solubility, but subject 
to a provision that it should not apply to those factories the owners of which 
joined the association and accepted the terms to be agreed as to compensation, 
and could prove that the work was carefully and properly conducted, he 
answered, " It is not a question of sentiment. It is a question of this kind, 
that, in order to arrive at that, I am to allow to be put down in the rules as a 
possible thing — as a thing which can be worked at all — something which my 
•experience has proved to me is impossible." {Sentinel, ist July 1903.) 

The assertions from such an authoritative source that " there were a few 
manufacturers who could use leadless glazes entirely," and that " he himself had 
used it successfully for the cheapest and commonest class of his work" would 
probably have electrified the arbitration of 1 901, and have caused potential 



"RAISON D'ETRE "—Adjourned Arbitration 19 

changes then : but, coming at this comparatively late hour, they exercise less 
independent force, because the practicability of leadless glazes for many 
purposes was already demonstrated by the nineteen certificates of exemption 
granted under Rule 22. 

" Without boasting," then, it seems only fair to remind all whom it may 
concern that a statement as to the practicability of leadless glazes was at the 
service of the industry in 1898, namely, that " Fair leadless glazes, answering 
reasonable expectations and requirements, are not only desirable, but are an 
accomplished IdsX" {Researches on Leadless Glazes, p. 28); and if the source 
was not so authoritative, it was equally true. That is nearly six years ago, 
and since then very much more has been learned about the possibilities and 
practicabilities and durabilities of leadless glazes ; and so far as these have 
come under the observation of the author, all this newly acquired knowledge 
is herein submitted to the industry and the public, with a view to assisting in 
lessening plumbism in potteries and glazed tile factories. 

Not only so, but the recent determination of the Home Oiifice to withdraw 
from its position with regard to the proposed Rule i and all indiscriminate 
fritting of the lead compounds was unmistakably anticipated on pages 2, 3 
and 4 oi Researches on Leadless Glazes, published in 1898. 

As to comparison of specimens of leadless glazed tiles with lead glazed tiles, 
shown to the arbitrators, the writer respectfully submits that these should not 
be taken as correctly presenting the case for lead-free glazes, because they were 
not shown by advocates of the use of exclusively leadless glazes. Could not 
less excellent specimens of lead-glazed tiles have been submitted, and better 
ones of leadless glazed tiles ? and in that way the comparison very greatly 
modified ? 

But however that may be, leadless glaze advocates may take consolation 
from the manufacturers' evidence that leadless glazed ware, in whole ovenfuls, 
exclusively, is in certain cases practicable. 

It then becomes only a question of quality, which necessarily is a matter 
for the jury of public opinion, and may be left to the exigencies of competition. 

The public have now — publicly, in evidence — been most authoritatively 
informed that they can be supplied with leadless glazed tiles : the onus is thus 
laid upon the public : if they want to buy tiles glazed with non-plumbic glazes 
they can have them. 

In concluding the proceedings of the adjourned arbitration, Lord James 
observed : " I purpose giving my decision in writing within a short time, 
certainly within two or three weeks. That decision in writing will convey all, 
I think, ought to be conveyed to the public on the subject. Rut there are 
one or two direct matters, apart from the whole extent of that decision, which 
I must mention. Although I am giving no decision here, as I say, orally, the 
train of my opinion has probably been more or less conveyed to those who 



20 



LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



have been in this room— necessarily conveyed by the questions I have felt it 
my duty to put, and by the statement I made yesterday morning; and, 
therefore, it is not disclosing at all what may be in my mind if I say that it 
may be that it will be necessary to frame a schedule, an agreement with a 
schedule— rather regulation— a regulation to be placed in the schedule, con- 
trolling an assurance scheme of compensation in the case of illness from lead- 
poisoning. That is a matter of detail, and it is a matter which so closely 
concerns the material interests both of the employer and employed, that 

great care ought to be taken in framing it, if it is framed at all I do 

not wish to do anything hostile in a matter of such importance ; but consider- 
ing fully all I have heard, I do wish, however, to say that I am rendered more 
hopeful by what has occurred in the past in the lessening of the amount of 
disease that now exists. I am also rendered more hopeful by what has 
occurred in this room. I do not think I have heard either from the employers, 
or from the Home Office representatives, or from the operatives, one word 
which does not tend, I think, to display a desire to bring about an arrange- 
ment, a determination that shall bring about a lessening of this disease 

Now, gentlemen, all I will promise you is that on this day twelve months — on 
1st July 1904— I will send to the Home Office to know the result that has 
been accomplished by our labours, and I am very confident that, without 
injuring the trade in the way it is carried on, we shall have produced results 
that will have brought about a lessening of this disease, almost to a nominal 

extent I hope my confidence will not be so without foundation, because, 

although I have some fear of it, I assure you my mind is full of good wishes 
towards the great and beneficial trade, and also towards the workmen who 
are engaged in supporting that industry." {Sentinel, ist July 1903.) 

The Award. — The text of the award, which was signed by Lord Henry 
James of Hereford in December 1903, was not published in precisely the 
terms in which it was signed ; but the results of the award were embodied in 
a series of amended special rules prepared in pursuance of the award. 

These amended rules we are permitted by Dr. Whitelegge, Chief Inspector 
of Factories, to publish in full, and they will be found reprinted at the end of 
this volume as an appendix (Appendix A). 

The necessity for such safeguards as it provides clearly demonstrates the 
seriousness and reality of the problem and the desirability of ridding the 
industry as soon as possible from an ingredient that renders necessary such 
an organised effort to mitigate its pernicious effects. 

Conclusions. — Finally, it may be remarked that in summarising the fore- 
going, three points should be kept in view : — 

Firstly, that notwithstanding the great decrease of notifications of plumbism 
in potteries between 1898 and 1903, if we except house painters, then white 
lead works, whence potters obtain their supplies of prepared lead compounds. 



"RAISON D'ETRE "—Conclusions 21 

together with the ceramic industry, still, as a whole, numerically head the list 
of notified cases in the annual returns, standing in violent contrast with other 
trades. 

DISEASES OF OCCUPATIONS IN FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



Table showing the number of cases of lead, mercurial, phosphorous, and arsenic poisoning and of 
anthrax reported to the Home Office under the Factory and Workshop Act, during the under- 
mentioned periods. Compiled from official figures published by the Labour Gazette {Sentinel, 
January 1903-4). (Cases include all attacks, fatal or otherwise, reported to the Home Office.) 







Cases. 


Deaths. 


Disease and Industry. 


Year ended December 


Year ended December 






1901. 


1902. 


1903. 


1901. 


1902. 


1903. 


Lead Poisoning — 

Smelting of metals, .... 

Brass works 

Sheet lead and lead piping, . 

Plumbing and soldering, 

Printing, ... ... 

File cutting 

Tinning and enamelling of iron hollow ware, 

White lead works 

Red and yellow lead works, . 

China and earthertware, . 

Litho- transfer works, .... 

Glass cutting and polishing, . 

Enamelling of iron plates. 

Electrical accumulator works, . 

Paint and colour works, . 

Coachmaking, . ... 

Shipbuilding, ... 

Paint used in other industries. 

Other industries, . 




54 
6 

17 

25 

46 

10 

189 

14 

106 

7 

II 

9 
49 

'\ 

25 

61 
89 


28 

S 
12 

23 
19 
27 
II 
143 

8^ 
2 
8 

3 

16 
46 
63 
15 
44 
64 


37 
15 

26 

13 

24 

14 

109 

6 

97 

3 

4 

4 

28 

39 

74 

24 

46 

40 


3 

I 

I 

7 

7 

5 

3 

I 

4 
I 

I 


4 


2 

2 
2 

2 
3 

I 

5 
I 
I 




863 


629 


614 

201 
8 


34 

41 


14 


19 


House Painters and Plumbers, . Total, . 


169 


179 


32 


39 


Mercurial Poisoning, . . . Total, . 


18 

4 


8 


Phosphorus Poisoning, . . Total, . 


I 


5 
38 




2 




Arsenic Poisoning, . . . Total, . 


12 


5 


I 






Anthrax, Total, . 


39 


47 


9 


9 


II 



2 2 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Secondly, that the cases (47) among females in china and earthenware 
manufacture were numerically equal to those of all other trades combined 
during 1902. 

Thirdly, that a slight recrudescence occurred in the month of July 1903, 
14 cases having been notified as compared with only 4 cases in July 1902, 
and that affected the annual returns to a like extent; these show 97 notified 
cases of lead-poisoning in the china and earthenware trades during the year 
1903 as compared with 87 during 1902, although the deaths during 1903 were 
one less than in 1902. 

Then, in January 1904, china and earthenware works again show a con- 
spicuous recrudescence as compared with other industries, 15 cases being 
notified in January 1904 against 8 cases in January 1903. 

Therefore, though it may be granted that, nationally speaking, there are 
very many more urgent fields for reform, and many greater social problems 
awaiting solution in which more lives are at stake, this question of plumbism, 
at least, is one channel wherein it can be clearly demonstrated that prevent- 
able disease awaits prevention, and so furnishes the " Raison d'etre " of this 
volume. 



CHAPTER [I. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW 

OF DECORATIVE TILEWORK AND CHROMO-FAIENCE. 

Contents.— Service of the potter's art in history— Babylonian and Assyrian— Egyptian— Grecian— 
Roman— Romano - British— Persian— Syrian— Rhodian— Saracenic— Turkish— Hispano - Moresque 
— Indian— Chinese— English Mediaeval — Italian Mediseval and Renaissance— German Renaissa,nce 
— French Mediaeval and Renaissance — Delft. 

Before entering upon the 
technique of decorative ceramic 
prod ucts, some historical notice 
of their use in the past seems 
desirable, irrespective of the 
chemical nature of the glazes 
or enamels upon them. 

Fortunately or not, we can- 
not begin at the beginning, 
forthe beginning of the " Tigel- 
wyrtena craft," as our Saxon 
forefathers styled it, is lost in 
the mists of antiquity. 

Nevertheless, the story of 
this branch of art, even though 
imperfectly told, may be inter- 




FiG. 4. ^Enamelled brickwork from Babylon— " The Dragon 
of Babylon." {By permission of Williams &" Norgate, 
London, ) 



esting, for historical records not infrequently are a means of rescuing fronr 
oblivion and restoring to utility neglected or long-forgotten arts, — salvage 
so to speak, from " the wrecks of another world." 

If less exciting, the peaceful history of industry and art is at least more 
elevating than much of that dispensed in text-books or proclaimed by 
sculptured rocks — history of the conquests and defeats of armies, the rise and 
fall of empires — often little more than one long horrible revelation of the 
greed, the vanity, the duplicity, and the cruelty of man. 



23 



24 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

In countries where marble and stone are abundant and clay deposits rare 
the use of ceramic products in building construction is, usually, subordinate ; 
its highest development mostly coinciding with the occurrence of suitable 
materials, favourable environment, artistic propensities, and possibly some 
more or less beneficent tyranny. 

Modified by these and other less manifest influences, the ornamental-tile 
maker's craft has flitted fitfully hither and thither in the wake of early civiliza- 
tion, leaving indefible traces where once the Babylonian, Egyptian, Persian, 
Arab, Mongol, Moor, or monk held sway. 

It has been said, " the useful arts are the offspring of necessity " ; perhaps 
it would be equally true to assert that they are more easily learned than 
invented : Asiatic migrates to Egypt and teaches the Aboriginal the arts of 
Asia : Greek, learning in Egypt, can afterwards teach his Roman or Turkish 
master : Saracen carries the knowledge from Persia and Byzantium to Spain : 
Spain or Byzantium pass it on to Italy : Hollander learns in Italy, and his 
posterity, exiled by civil strife, flee tp Lambeth, and take the art with them to 
a hospitable home in the British Isles : whence in later times it speeds across 
the Atlantic to the newly found continent of Arherica. 

And, by the way, observant and inventive units add their own touch of 
genius ; and the art gathers utility, variety, attractiveness ; wins the favour 
of princes ; becomes installed in palaces and temples ; and, ebbing and 
flowing with the chameleon tides of national prosperity, advances as genius, 
enterprise, patronage and fashion supervene, or languishes by dearth of them. 

Not only in the service of Art and Architecture, however, but also in the 
service of History, has Pottery attained an honoured place. Papyri, parch- 
ment and paper have been the custodians of records of many momentous 
events ; implements of fractured flint, hieroglyphics carved in stone, bronzes 
and sculptures from the bottom of the sea, coins from buried caskets, jewellery 
and apparel from tombs, have each in turn preserved for ages a simple truth- 
ful record of facts, and at last delivered it safely into the hands of alert and 
sympathetic antiquarians : so also Pottery, yea even castaway potsherds — of 
which Dr. Petrie speaks as "the commonest relic in all countries" and as 
"the key to all historical excavation" {Leisure Hour, 1891) — share the 
honour. 

The discovery and identification of Naukratis is a brilliant example. 
Professor Petrie wrote of it thus :— " There I met a sight which I had never 
hoped for— almost too strange to believe. Before me lay a long low mound of 
town ruins .... wherever I walked I trod on pieces of archaic Greek pottery ; 
soon I laded my pockets with scraps of vases and of statuettes, and at last 
tore myself away, longing to resolve the mystery of these Greeks in Egypt. 
.... The next season I returned to this curious site, determined to understand 
its history. The only place that I could find to live in about there was an 



PL. I. 







^ 






^■. -- i K MBI ^ir''. 




Memorial tablet of E-an-na-du, Governor of 
Shirpula (Lagash) about B.c. 4500. (B.M.) 
(By ierjnission of the Director of the British Mtiseum^ 



HISTORICAL REVIEW — Service of the Potter's Art in History 25 

old country-house of a Pasha ; and while looking at it I noticed two blocks of 
dark grey stone by the side of the entrance. Turning one of them over I 
there saw the glorious heading HHOAIS HNAYKPATI .... a decree of the 
city of Naukratis was before me, and the unknown town now had a name ; 
and that a name which had been sought for, often and far from this place. 
.... All that day Naukratis rang in my mind, and I sprang over the mounds 
with that splendid exultation of a new discovery long wished for and well 
found." {Ten Years^ Digging in Egypt, 'R.T .S.) 

Another, and possibly an even more important example of the service of 
the potter's art to history, is found in the inscribed baked-clay tablets of 
Babylonia and Assyria. .Scores of thousands of these terra-cotta documents, 
recording ordinary and extraordinary incidents of daily life 2500 to 5000 
years ago, are included in the ceramic treasures of British and Foreign 
national museums, — one such tablet, indeed, an illustration of which we are 
permitted to reproduce by the Director of the British Museum, being assigned 
to a remote epoch — ^4500 B.C. — (Plate I.). 

Until the discovery and deciphering of these inscribed tiles, which had 
" remained in darkness while the long roll of European history was enacted," 
no authentic record of the long-past history of these ancient kingdoms was 
available, and historians bewailed the fact that nothing was known of either, 
beyond what is mentioned in Scripture. 

Painstaking transliteration and translation by learned palteographists — of 
whom the premier honours belong to Sir Henry C. Rawlinson and Dr. Hincks 
— revealed the far-reaching and momentous fact that these tablets were the 
imperishable archives of ancient civilizations, enabling us to peer down the 
long vista of time and read royal letters of Babylonian and Assyrian kings 
(Plate II.), court decrees, private deeds of land, histories, hymns, tables of 
arithmetic, business accounts, vocabularies, sign lists, even spelling-books, 
dating back 2300 years, and often very much more. 

Of many of these, English translations are given in Smith's Assyrian 
Discoveries, and in works by Sir H. C. Rawlinson, and those who have made 
use of his system and followed up his labours. 

What paper and parchment are to us, these baked-clay tiles seem to 
have been to them, for they too were a literary people {Leisure Hour, 1885, 
P- 359) ; for want of enduring records such as thpse, the ancient history of 
Persia is mostly lost; and if the doings of men have as much value for 
posterity as they certainly have interest, then it would follow that our own 
archives of to-day and those of other great nations would more prudently be 
entrusted to ceramics than to decayable, combustible animal and vegetable 
substances, so frequently employed. 

Listen to Dr. Petrie's lamentation as he slowly, with infinite gentleness, 
unfolded the half-charred papyri at Tanis :— " A yet more heart-rending sight 



26 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

was the pile of papyrus rolls, so rotted that they fell to pieces with a touch, 
showing here and there a letter of finest Greek writing." {Ten Years' Digging 
in Egypt, p. 33, R.T.S.) On the other hand, of clay-tablets he writes: — 
" During the age of the decline of Egyptian power in Syria, when the great 
conquests of Tahutmes I. were all gradually lost, a splendid store of informa- 
tion was laid by for us in the cuneiform correspondence at Tell el Amarna " 

(Plate II.). "The clay tablets, mostly from Syria were deposited in 

'the place of the records of the palace. of the King,' as it is called upon the 
stamped bricks which I found still remaining there." {Syria and Egypt, p. i, 
Methuen.) 

Again — to quote. Dr. S. Birch, F.S.A. — "While the paper and parchment 
learning of the Byzantine Alexandrian schools has almost disappeared after 
a few centuries, the granite pages of Egypt and the clay-leaves of Assyria 
have escaped.'' {Hist, of Ancient Pottery, p. 53.) 

The chronological order adopted in this review is unavoidably open to 
adverse criticism, for with so much complex concurrent international activity, 
events occur in such manner as to prevent consecutive narration or tolerable 
sequence, and so opens the door to criticism. 

Profound questions such as the precedence of Akkad or Egyptian must 
obviously be left to authorities, one of whom — Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge, Litt.D., 
etc. — mentions the existence of highly organised states or confederations of 
Babylonian cities at a period indicating that the beginning of Sumerian 
civilisation may date even from 8000 B.C. {Guide to Babylonian and Assyrian 
Antiq. in Brit. Museum, p. 3.) 

In another place Dr. Budge writes : — " The importance of the Asiatic 
element in the historical Egyptian has been understated .... the new- 
comers appear to have taught the men they vanquished the arts and crafts of 
which up to that time they were ignorant." {History of Egypt, vol. i. pp. xiii 
and 38, Kegan Paul & Co.) And Professor A. H. Sayce has written : — '■ The 
dynastic Egyptian had come from Asia." {Connoisseur, Nov. 1902.) 

Hence it would seem justifiable to give precedence to Babylonian phases 
of decorative ceramics, even though positive evidence of priority in the 
application of the art to the embellishment of buildings over that of Egypt 
may be slender, or possibly wanting ; and the fine enamelled-brick reliefs of 
Babylon, probably made long after the decorative tilework of both Tell el 
Amarna and Tell el Yehudtyeh. 

Babylonian and Assyrian.— Babylonia is situated in the valley of the 
Euphrates, some 200 miles N.W. of the head of the Persian Gulf, in Asiatic 
Turkey. Approximately it extends from about the 30th to the 35th parallels, 
of N. latitude, and the 42nd to the 48th degrees E. longitude. 

It should be mentioned that there are ruin mounds of an ancient Roman 
stronghold, called " ruins of Babylon," close to Cairo ; but this apparently is 



PL. II. 



i .-■ .,... „ . . . ■i i .r„ i . _^^— . iZ t -^:^^=::^ '-' 'J- 






{ *^if#i^#*^«g^ 






Letter from Tushratta, King of Mitani, to Amenophis III. 
King of Egypt, about B.C. 1450. (British Museum.) 
(By permission of the Director of the British Museum.) 




HISTORICAL REVIEW — Babylonian and Assyrian 27 

merely an instance of the application of the name of a famous city to another 
place, just as European names are used in America and Australia. 

The origin of Babylonian art is wrapt in profound mystery, and it is 
beyond the scope of this volume to attempt to penetrate or elucidate that 
mystery ; evidence of the existence of the art and of its character only must 
suffice. 

Anderson states that " the culture of the Akkads must have reached its 
complete form between 5000 and 6000 B.C." {Story of Extinct Civilization, 
p. 36, Newnes.) 

Fortnum asserts that " There can be little doubt that at a remote period 
glass glazed wares were made throughout the Babylonian and Assyrian 
kingdoms as well as in Egypt, and that from one or the otiier of these great 
centres of early civilization the mode of fabrication spread to surrounding 
countries." {Maiolica, Ashmolean Museum, p. 9.) 

Sir George Birdwood, K.C.I. E., M.D., has said, " Babylonia was archi- 
tecturally and artistically .... entirely a creation of the potter." {British 
Clayworker, August 1899.) 

Professor Herman v. Hilprecht has written, " We are faced with the 
strange but undeniable fact .... that Babylonian art 4000 B.C. shows a 
knowledge of human forms, an observation of the laws of art, and a neatness 
and fineness of execution far beyond the product of later times. The flower 
of Babylonian art indeed is found at the beginning of Babylonian history." 
{Recent Research in Bible Lands, p. 88, Wattles & Co., Philadelphia.) 

Of excavations and discoveries in Babylonia: in the year 1854, at Birs 
Nimrud, near Hillah, on the banks of the Euphrates, about 70 miles south of 
Bagdad, Sir Henry C. Rawlinson directed excavations on the traditional 
site of the Tower of Babel, and from inscriptions found it was proved that 
the building was the once famous tower of the seven planets, built upon an 
ancient site of a temple by Nebuchadnezzar II., king of Babylon, B.C. 604-562. 
Each story of the tower was constructed of bricks, glazed with the colour 
attributed to the particular planet to which it was dedicated. (See Guide to 
Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum^ 

Of this structure W. K. Loftus, F.G.S., writes, "There are few ruins in the 
world which have excited such general interest and speculation regarding 
their object and origin as the vitrified brick edifice which crowns the summit 

of Birs Nimrud Sir Henry Rawlinson ascertained that the structure 

consisted of six distinct platforms or terraces. Each terrace was about 20 
feet in height and 42 feet less horizontally than the one below it. The whole 

were so arranged as to constitute an oblique pyramid Upon the sixth 

story stands the vitrified mass concerning which such discussion has arisen 
and which it is now suggested was the sanctum of the temple. Built into 
the corners of the stories were cylinders of Nebuchadnezzar, designating the 



28 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

whole structure " the stages of the seven spheres of Borsippa " ; each story was 
dedicated to a planet, and stained with the colour peculiarly attributed to it in 
the works of the Sabean astrologers, and traditionally handed down to us. from 
the Chaldeans. The lowest stage was coloured black in honour of Saturn ; 
the second, orange, for Jupiter ; the third, red, for Mars ; the fourth, yellow, 
for the Sun; the fifth, green, for Venus; the sixth, blue, for Mercury; and 
the temple was probably white, for the Moon." {Chaldcea and Susiana, p. 28, 
Nisbet.) 

Mr. Loftus also gives Sir Henry C. Rawlinson's translation of the 
cuneiform record, which states that Nabu-Kuduri-uzur's restoration took 
place 504 years after the original foundation by Tiglath-Pileser I., who dates 
as far back as 1 100 B.C. The existing edifice is regarded as a facsimile of 
the one destroyed, which Nebuchadnezzar even in his day found in a decayed 
and ruined state. 

In A.D. 1888 an American expedition was equipped and sent out by the 
University of Pennsylvania, and directed its efforts chiefl}' to vast ruin 
mounds at Niffer, Nuffar, or Nipper, in the northern plains of Babylonia. 

Like most expeditions of a similar nature, the members experienced unfore- 
seen perils and privations, including the wrecking of some of the party off the 
island of Samos, as they were being conveyed in a French steamer from 
Smyrna to Alexandretta. 

Yet, notwithstanding the immense difficulties of access to, and the weird 
silence and desolation of the locality, together with inter-tribal strife, treachery, 
toirrid heat and pestilence, the expedition made and recorded remarkable 
discoveries. Herman v. Hilprecht, Ph.D., D.D., the Assyriologist of the 
expedition, writes : " The terraces of the temple of Ekur .... rose even 
more distinctly out of the rubbish mass which had grown above it through 

millenniums The platform of the first king of Ur, who built here about 

2800 B.C., was soon reached, but deeper still sank the shafts of the Americans 
.... numerous bricks bearing the name of the great Sargon, who, 3800 B.C. 
had extended his powerful empire to the shores of the Mediterranean, came 
forth to the light of day under pickaxe and shovel. By this the expedition 
supplied irrefutable proof of the historical character of this primitive Semitic 

kingdom But although the excavations have gone already (March 1896) 

35 feet below the platform of King Ur-gur of Ur (about 2800 B.C.), not yet 
have they reached the deepest foundations of this venerable sanctuary, whose 
influence for over 4000 years had been felt by all classes of the Babylonian 

people In the presence of this fact we begin to have some notion why 

Nippur is spoken of as the oldest city of the earth in the old Sumerian legends 

of the creation My own investigations .... have shown that about 

1000 years before the so-called first dynasty of Ur, there was a still eariier 
powerful dynasty of Babylonian kings." Dr. Hilprecht then makes the 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Babylonian and Assyrian 



29 



remarkable statement which we repeated on a previous page, to the effect 
that Babylonian art was at its zenith 4000 B.C. {Recent Research in Bible 
Lands, pp. 57, 88, Wattles, Philadelphia.) In another publication, Dr. 
Hilprecht records the results of the memorable Fourth Expedition, 1 898-1 900, 
when hundreds of important antiquities were discovered, and the library and 
Priests' school at Nippur located and partially excavated. (See Exploration 
in Bible Lands during the igth Century.) 

More recently Assyriologists sent out by the German Oriental Society, 
excavating on a portion of the site of ancient Babylon, cleared away the 
rubbish from one of the great city gates and revealed a remarkable series of 
enamelled-brick reliefs, some of the drawings of which we are permitted to 
illustrate (Plate III.). 

In a lecture about these excavations by Dr. Friedrich Delitzsch, delivered 
in Berlin on 12th January 
1903, in the presence of His 
Majesty the German Em- 
peror, the learned Professor 
said (translated), — " King 
Nebuchadnezzar relates that 
he adorned the city-gate of 
Babylon, which was dedi- 
cated to the goddess Ishtar, 
with bricks on which rfimu 
and immense serpents, stand- 
ing erect, were depicted : and 
the recovery of the Ishtar 
gate, together with the work 
of laying it bare to a depth 
of I4metres, where the water- 
level begins, constitutes one of the most important achievements of recent 

years in our excavations on the site of Babylon How the pulses 

quicken when, after long weary weeks of work with pick and spade, under the 
scorching rays of an Eastern sun, the long-sought building is disclosed — when, 
inscribed on an immense slab of stone, the name ' Ishtar-gate ' is read, and 
piece by piece the great double gate of Babylon, flanked northward by three 
mighty towers, emerges from the bowels of the earth in splendid preservation. 
Whichever way we look on the wall-surfaces of the towers as well as of 
the gateway passages, every part swarms with reliefs, r^mu coloured on their 
surface, with enamels standing out against the background of deep blue. 

Mightily the wild ox strides with long step, and neck proudly raised, with 
horns bent threateningly forward, ears turned back, nostrils dilated, the 
muscles tense and swollen, the tail lifted and falling away in a vigorous curve 




Fig. 5. — Enamelled-brick reliels from Babylon. {By per- 
mission of Williatiis &° Norgate, London. ) 



30 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



— all as nature dictates, yet enhanced by an air of nobility. If the smooth 
skin is white, the horns and hoofs are of a brilliant golden hue ; if the skin is 
yellow, then both are of malachite green, while the mane in each case is 
painted a deep blue. Of truly noble appearance, however, is a white bull in 
relief, of which not merely the horns and hoofs but the mane as well are 
painted sap-green. 

Such is the r^ em of the gate of Ishtar, through which the Procession 
street of Marduk led, a worthy companion to the well-known " Lion of 
Babylon," which adorned that famous street. And besides this the German 
Oriental Society has also presented Biblical science with another animal of 
the rarest kind, with a fabulous beast which our religious training has made 
us well acquainted with, and which must make a fascinating impression on 
all who approach the palace of Nebuchadnezzar through the Ishtar gate — I 

mean the Dragon of Babel 
(Plate III.), "with neck ex- 
tended far forward and poison- 
threatening glance, the mon- 
ster strides along" — it is a 
serpent, as the long double- 
tongued head, the long scaly 
body, and the serpentine tail 
clearly show ; but it also at 
the same time possesses the 
fore legs of the panther, while 
its hind legs are armed with 
immense talons : and in addi- 
tion it carries long straight 
horns on the head, and a scor- 
pion sting at the end of the 
tail." {Babel and Bible, p. i66, Williams & Norgate.) 

The words cited in the above passages. Dr. Delitzsch explains subse- 
quently, are from an essay by Walter Andrae, in which he describes in detail 
the painted representations in relief on brick of the wild ox as well as of the 
dragon. {Ibid., p. 221.) 

Dr. Bruno Giiterbock, Secretary of the German Oriental Society, very 
courteously informs the writer that the enamelled-brick reliefs have partly 
been left in situ at Babylon, but 400 chests of bricks and pieces of bricks 
have by permission of the Turkish Government been removed to Berlin. The 
clearing and recomposing of these is an operation that will take a very long 
time, and years may elapse before these reliefs can be restored to their former 
glory. Then they will probably be exhibited for a time in Beriin, and partly 
perhaps sent back to Constantinople. 




Fig. 6. — Enamelled-brick reliefs from Babylon. {^By per- 
mission of Williams Of Norgate, London. ) 



z 

o 

CQ 
< 
CQ 



o 

Cirr 
co 

tu 
u 

CQ 

I 

Q 
W 

W 

< 

W 






HISTORICAL REVIEW— Babylonian and Assyrian 31 

The representations of animals, however, only form part of these treasures ; 
evidence of beautiful geometrical and conventional designs worked out in 
enamelled brickwork in several colours, chiefly dark blue, turquoise, yellow 
and white, has been gained. 

Brongniart mentions enamelled bricks found in the ruins of Babylon, and 
remarks that they cannot well be of more recent date than the time of the 
destruction of Babylon by Darius, 522 B.C., and were probably much older. 
He refers also to the travels of Mr. J. C. Rich around Babylon, and of his 
iinding a great quantity of glazed tiles of which the colour and brilliance are 
astonishing. Brongniart further explains that small scales or chippings of the 
glazes or enamels of specimens of these ancient enamelled bricks were ex- 
amined in the laboratory at Sevres by M. Salvetat and M. Lenormant, and 
they reported that the glaze did not contain either lead or tin, and could not 
therefore be considered like faience enamel, but were more like a vitreous 
coating or glaze composed of " silicate-alcalin d'alumine'' coloured by metallic 
oxides, analogous to the glazes of the Egyptians. ( Traite des Arts Ceraniiques, 
vol. ii. p. 89.) 

The comparative durability of Babylonian ceramics when compared with 
stone may be inferred from a remark by a traveller who recorded his impres- 
sions in Blackwood's Magazine, June 1863. Referring to some ruins between 
Mohawell and Hillah, he wrote: "The bricks were square, of large size and 
beautiful make : the angles of some clear and sharp, as if the brick had but left 
the kiln yesterday, instead of nearly twice two thousand years ago. Turning into 
a little hollow way between the mounds, we came suddenly upon the colossal 
stone lion. Time, with his leaden hand, had knocked away at all the sharp 
angles of the statue. The features of the lion are completely obliterated, as 
are also those of the prostrate form that lies so helpless, so utterly and wholly 
human, beneath the upraised paw of the king of beasts." 

Respecting Assyria : Nineveh, the ancient capital of Assyria, was, according 
to Scripture, " an exceeding great city '' (Jonah iii. 3) ; it is said to have had 
walls 100 feet high, broad enough on the top for three chariots to run abreast : 
1500 towers are said to have studded these immense walls, and accommodated 
the guard. This city "stood from obscure antiquity .... till it was 
destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians, 607 B.C." (Bagster's Teachers' 
Bible.) In 1820 Mr. J. Rich examined some mounds at Kuyunjik — the 
Turkish name given to a group of mounds situated on the east bank of the 
river Tigris, opposite to the town of Mosul — and after careful examination 
formed the opinion that Kuyunjik was part of the site of the ancient city 
Nineveh. {Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian Antiq. in British Museum^ 

In 1842 M. Botta, French consul at M6sul, conducted excavations both at 
Kuyunjik and at Khorsabad, most of his valuable findings going to Paris. 
In 1846 Sir A. H. Layard carried out further excavations in the mounds of 



32 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Kunyunjik and Nimrud, and succeeded in locating the site of the great 
palace of Senacherib at Nineveh ; making careful sketches on the spot, and 
sending most of the archaeological treasures he unearthed to the British 
Museum. But many of the antiquities he saw were in such an advanced 
stage of decay that they could not be removed. 

In his Monuments of Nineveh Sir A. H. Layard tells us that the 
sculptures and bas-reliefs stood in the walls of palaces and temples which 
had been buried for nearly twenty-five centuries beneath a vast accumulation of 
earth and rubbish. Some of these works of art he attributes to the remotest 
antiquity, others to the later dynasty which ruled over Assyria at the time of 
the fall of the empire about 6oo B.C. The north-west palace is believed to 
be a most ancient Assyrian edifice, and the south-west one the more recent ; 
and it seems to have been from the former that Layard obtained the painted 
bricks. 

By the kind permission of Mr. John Murray, of Albemarle Street, London, 
we are able to reproduce several coloured drawings from Sir A. H. Layard's 
great work, Monuments of Nineveh (Plate IV.). These substantiate the asser- 
tion that, notwithstanding the lapse of twenty-five centuries, their ornamental 
designs are still capable of yielding highly decorative effects, acceptable to 
the most cultivated minds in our own day. 

Professor Sayce has explained that the Assyrians had originally 
migrated from Babylonia, and that they had carried with them the traditions of 
the art and architecture of their mother country. Consequently although in 
Assyria clay was comparatively scarce and stone plentiful, the Assyrians 
nevertheless did not forego the use of brick. The walls of Nineveh, in 
spite of their height, were constructed of brick, and it was only the basement 
of the palaces which was of stone. Hence we need not be surprised to find 
a slavish imitation of the style of architecture, rather out of place in the 
country to which it had been transferred. Vast platforms of bricks were 
used upon which the temples and palaces were built. In Babylonia these 
were necessary in order to secure the erections from destruction by floods in 
a marshy country, but in Assyria these precautions were unnecessary. 

Mr Joseph Mayer, F.S.A., of Liverpool, states that — "The Assyrians 
used terra-cotta largely in the ornamentation of their houses .... a line of 
granite slabs sculptured with the great doings of their monarchs formed a 
lofty wainscot to their halls, whilst the short corridors leading from one to the 
other were decorated with colossal bulls, etc. Above these slabs ran a line 
of tilework of very graceful and ingenious device, but subdued in tone. 
Pale blue, olive green, and dull yellow predominated, with white and black 
and brown occasionally introduced; red was rare." {History of the Art of 
Pottery, p. ii.) 

Dr. Samuel Birch, LL.D., F.S.A., /'.S.B.A., wrote as follows :—" The 



ASSYRIAN. 



PI. IV. 




,- 









-wsi 


c 


f 


"ik. 


/% 

^ 


J 


-^ 


J 


W-' 


^ 


k 


^ 


i 




\ 


1 




From Sir A. H. Layard's •'Monuments of Nineveh,'- PI. LXXXIV., LXXXVI., LXXXVII. 
(By Permissmi of Mr, John Murray, Albemarle. Street, London J 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Babylonian and Assyrian 33 

application of a glaze to bricks in order by this means to give the appearance 
of fayence to the sides of the rooms .... was probably derived by the 
Assyrians from the Egyptians, who at a very early period had inlaid in this 
manner the chambers of the pyramid at Saqqara, and later the temple of 

Rameses III. at Tel el Yahoudeh The glazed or enamelled bricks from 

Nimriid are of the usual kiln-dried kind, measuring 13I inches square and 
about 4J inches thick. They were laid in rows horizontally above the slabs of 
sculpture of the Mosul marble, and seem to have been employed in the construc- 
tion of cornices. They are glazed on one of the narrow sides or edges only, 
having on this edge various patterns, chieily of an architectural nature, such as 
guilloche or chain ornaments, bands of palmettes .... and fleurettes of 
flowers of many petals. The colours employed were blue, black, yellow, 
red, and white. The glaze, which is much decomposed, easily exfoliates, 
and the colours have lost much of their freshness. It would appear that 
patterns of tolerably large size were executed in this manner, each brick 

having its appropriate portion enamelled upon it The analysis made in 

the Museum of Practical Geology of the colours of the enamel .... shows 
that the opaque white was produced with tin, the yellow with antimoniate of 
lead or Naples yellow, the brown with iron, the blue and green with copper. 
The flux and glazes consisted of silicate of soda aided by lead. The body or 
paste of the brick is of a very calcareous quality." {History of Ancient 
Pottery, pp. 89-90, Murray.) 

About 1850 Mr. Loftus visited some extensive mounds at Warka, in 
Chaldaea, where both early cuneiform inscriptions as well as Greek records 
had been discovered. The immensity of the ruins and the sacred character 
attached to them indicated that this site was that of Erech (Gen. x. 10), or 
the Orchoe of the Greeks, where, he says, a university existed in the time of 
Alexander the Great. {Chaldcea and Susiana, p. 161.) He refers to finding 
several fragments of coloured enamelled bricks similar to those found on the 
ruins of the Kasr at Babylon ; and gives some very instructive and interesting 
sketches of a mode of ornamenting walls at Warka by means of small yellow 
terra-cotta cones 3 J inches long. These, he remarks, " were undoubtedly much 
used as an architectural decoration in Lower Chaldaea, and always in connection 
with sepulchral remains." {Chaldceaand Susiana^-pp. iS/^iSg, Nesbit.) Judging 
by Mr. Loftus's drawings, the effect is rather like mosaic, and this Chaldaean 
example indicates the great antiquity of such styles of mural embellishment. 

Ancient Egyptian. — " When Abraham visited Egypt the three pyramids 
of Gizeh had been already built, and the land had witnessed the rise and fall 
of two empires.'' (Bagster's Teachers Bible?) 

In his interesting book. Ten Years' Digging in Egypt, Professor Flinders 
Petrie, referring to the evidence that the cliffs air along the Nile are worn by 
water running at a great height, remarks that even then "man was there, 

3 



34 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

.... as his rude flint implements, river worn and rolled, high upon the hills, 
now show us." Coming to a later age, when the Nile had fallen to its present 
level, he continues, " The civilization that we find in the earliest known history 
appears elaborate and perfect" .... "completely master of the arts of 
combined labour, of masonry, of sculpture, of metal-working, of turning, of 
carpentry, of pottery, of weaving, of dyeing, and other elements of a highly 
organized social life ; and in some respects their work is quite the equal of 
any that has been done by mankind in later ages." {Ten Years' Digging in 

Egypt, v9- 149. 151. R-T.S.) 

For the sake of perspicuity, one eminent writer classifies Egyptian periods 
into three divisions, viz. — Predynastic, all that occurred before B.C. 4777. 
Primitive, the first three recognised dynasties, B.C. 4777 to B.C. 3998. 
PIiSTORIC, from B.C. 3998 to the time of the Romans. 

" In respect of the predynastic antiquities of Egypt," writes Dr. Budge, 
" almost the latest possible date that can be assigned to them is B.C. 5000." 
{History of Egypt, vol. i. p. 33, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.) Yet even of 
this remote age there have been found indications of glazed tilework. During 
the winter of 1894-1895 Dr. Petrie conducted excavations on a site bordering 
on the desert between Ballas and Naqada, some thirty miles north of Thebes, 
where, amongst other things, he found pottery and blue-glazed quartz, and he 
concluded that " the art of glazing was well known." (History of Egypt, vol. i. 
p. 9, Methuen.) Many of the antiquities of Naqada have since then been 
independently assigned to predynastic times. (See Dr. Budge's History of 
Egypt, vol. i. p. 12, Kegan.) Again, at Hierakonpolis, excavations were made 
in 1898, under the direction of Mr. Quibell, and amongst the antiquities 
discovered was a small glazed plaque, with a perforated tenon at the back to 
enable it to be attached to a wall. This is assigned to a predynastic age, 
about 4800 B.C. . {Hierakonpolis, pi. xviii. fig. 2. E.R.A.) 

These are very meagre indications of the early practice of decorative 
ceramic art in Egypt, but meagre though they are, their significance is 
undeniable. Had the Abu Roash pyramids remained, something might have 
been learned from them, but the hand of the despoiler and the utilitarian has 
obliterated these memorials for ever. Mr. John Ward, F.S.A., tells us that 
they have nearly all been quarried away, and " nothing but their sites remain, 
marked by heaps of broken stones and granite." ( Windsor Mag., Jan. 1902.) 

With regard to the Primitive period — B.C. 4777 to B.C. 3998— by the 
courtesy of Dr. Petrie we are able to illustrate an example of glazed tile of 
this period ; namely, a small tenoned tile from Naqada, of ist dynasty, 
B.C. 4700, completely covered with fine turquoise-blue glaze of a very lively 
tint, the body consisting of white vesicular granular substance, slightly 
friable, and probably highly siliceous (fig. 7). 

Another example of 1st dynasty glazed tile in Dr. Petrie's collection is a 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Ancient Egyptian 



35 




Fig. 7. — Blue-glazed tile from Naqadi 
B.C. 4700.' (W.M.F.P. Coll.) 



ribbed-faced tenoned tile about 5J inches long and a similar width, probably, 
when whole. It is glazed all over with turquoise glaze of pale greenish tone ; 

the tenon is dovetailed, and there is a hole 
perforated in the back of the tile, which would 
render it suitable for attachment to a wall, to 
represent papyrus stems in an architectural or 
decorative scheme. The body of this tile is 
also white, granular, semi-vitrescent, like petri- 
fied snow. 

Abydos, another site where vast remains 
of early dynasties have been found, had ap- 
parently yielded no fragments of glazed tiles or decorative faience until 
the season before last, when Dr. Petrie discovered some wall tiles in the great 

brick-built mounds there. 

In a letter to the Times of 29th June 1903 the learned Professor 

explains that the clearance of the old 

temple site over several acres brought to 

light no less than ten successive temples, 

ranging in age from 5000 to 500 B.C., the 

most striking change appearing about 

the period of the 4th dynasty, when the 

temple was abolished, and only a great 

hearth of burnt-offering is found, full 

of votive clay substitutes for sacrifices. 

This, Dr. Petrie tells us, exactly agrees 

with the account of Herodotus, that 

Cheops had closed the temples and for- 
bidden sacrifices. 

In the way of pottery, the explorers, 

including Dr. Grenfell and Dr. Hunt, 

found among other things part of a large 

green - glazed vase, with King Menes' 

name inlaid in purple ; thus giving evi- 
dence of polychrome glazing thousands 

of years before it was previously known 

of ; and he adds, " The free use of 

great tiles of glaze for wall coverings 

shows how usual the art was then." 
By the kindness of Dr. Petrie, we are 

tiles of green-glazed pottery from Abydos. 

Fig. 8 represents a high-relief tile, formed from the flat by cutting out the 

relief by hand while the clay tile was in a sun-hardened condition, and after- 




FlG. 8. — Green-glazed relief tile from Abydos 
Temple, 1st dynasty, 5 ins. x 3 J ins. x j in. 
(W.M.F.P. Coll.) (See Abydos, ii. pi. i.) 

able to illustrate several remarkable 



36 



LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



wards glazing and burning. It has no dovetailed tenon or groove at the back, 
and was probably a votive offering rather than a wall tile. The figure is of 
negroid type of a prehistoric people ; the hieroglyphic inscription being 
translated by Dr. Petrie as the name of a chief, "TERA-NETER" = devoted 
to God ; of the fortress of the ANU, in the town of Hemen. This and another 
tile found at Abydos introduce a style of relief work on glazed tiles not 
hitherto found of such an early period. (See Abydos, ii. p. 25, E.E. Fund.) 

Fig. 9 illustrates a large green-glazed wall tile from Abydos, in which the 
surface is formed to represent papyrus stalks in low relief This tile measures 
iij inches by 6§ inches, and is f inch thick. It has a dovetailed tenon at the 
back, through which holes have been drilled or made to enable a copper wire 
to be passed through the tenon, and so assist in securing the tile to the building 
without disfiguring the tile face. Many smaller turquoise- or green-glazed 

wall tiles were also found, having 
plain convex faces, and at the back 
dovetailed tenons. These are similar 
to those found at Sakkarah ; they 
measure about 2| inches X if inch. 
The effect produced upon a wall 
when large numbers of these small 
convex-faced glazed tiles are placed 
upon it must have been peculiar, and 
certainly is suggestive. Such a sur- 
face would at least not be open to the 
criticism sometimes flung at modern 
tilework of being a dead, flat, unin- 
teresting one. 

Very pretty green-glazerl pottery 
capitals of small decorative columns 
were also founH, and are illustrated in Dr. Petrie's Abydos, ii., E.E. Fund. 
These pottery-ware and tiles, together with finely wrouglit ivory carvings, and 
carvings of limestone, slate, and alabaster, have drawn from Dr. Petrie the 
statement, " We must now reckon the earliest monarchy as the equal of any 
later age in such technical and fine art." (Times, 29th June 1903.) 

Of decorative ceramic antiquities of the Primitive period, those of 
Sakkarah appear equally important. This district is an extensive ancient 
cemetery, pitted all over with tombs, situated about 12 miles south of Cairo, 
and believed to be the burial-place for Memphis. There are eleven pyramids 
at Saqqara, one of which is built in the form of steps and known as the 
Step pyramid. This is supposed to be the most ancient of them all, 
and is ascribed by Dr. Budge to King Tcheser of the 3rd dynasty, B.C. 
4155 circ. 




Fig. 9. — Tenoned ribbed-faced glazed tile from 
Abydos Temple. ( W. M. F. P. Coll. ) 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Ancient Egyptian 37 

Fifty years or so ago, Dr. Samuel Birch, when referring to ancient 




Fig. 10. — Step Pyramid of Sakkarah. (Dr. Petrie's History of Egypt, vol. i. p. 22, fig. 17. 
By permission of Methuen &f Co.) 

Egyptian blue porcelain 







wrote : — " One of the 

earliest instances ol its 

application is to decorate 

the jambs of an inner 

door of the pyramid at 

Saqqara, in the style of 

the chimney-pieces plated 

with Dutch tiles which 

were in fashion about half 

a century ago. The tiles 

are 2 inches long by i 

broad, and almost an 

eighth of an inch thick. 

Some are of a bright blue 

colour, slightly convex on 

the exterior, having a 

plate behind, which was 

perforated horizontally, and was let into a layer of piaster — a wire having 



Fig. II. 



-Interior of Step Pyramid. (See Egypt. Archeology, 
p. 267. By permission of Grevel b' Co.) 



38 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

been probably run through the tiles to secure them to the jamb." {History 
of Ancient Pottery, p. 49, Murray.) 

Professor Maspero, in his Egyptian ArchcBology, gives a restored representa- 
tion of the use of tiles in this instance, which, by consent of Messrs. H. Grevel 
& Co., of London, we are able to reproduce. The 
learned Professor remarks that up to the beginning of 
the 19th century "one of the chambers in the Step 
Fig. 12. — Convex-faced pyramid at Sakkarah yet retained its mural decoration 
tile from Sakkaiah ' ^j- gj^^ed ware. For three-fourths of the wall surface it 

[By permission of ° ... ., ,, ■, n^iii. 

Grevel&' Co.) was covered With green tiles, oblong in shape, flat at the 

back, and slightly convex on the face. A square tenon, 
pierced through with a hole large enough to receive a wooden rod, served to 
fix them together in horizontal rows. The three rows which frame in the 
doorway are inscribed with the titles of Zeser, a Pharaoh who belonged tq the 
third Memphite dynasty." {Egyptian Archceology, p. 268, Grevel.) 

There are several specimens of these tiles in the British Museum, which 
Dr. Budge speaks of as " beautiful blue-glazed faifence tiles." {Hist. Egypt, 
vol. ii. pp. 8-9, Kegan.) 

Respecting these antiquities, a very interesting translation from Cornptes 
Rendus appeared in The Pottery Gazette of August 1900, p. 923. It reads 
thus: — "The question whether or no the ancient Egyptians really ever 
produced true porcelain .... has often been discussed. Brongniart, in his 
classic treatise on Ceramics, decided in the negative, and that all the specimens 
of porcelain found in Egypt were of Chinese manufacture. Le Chatelier, 
however, found, among a number of specimens submitted to him by Dr. 
Morgan, a fragment from a funeral statuette discovered at Saggarah (Memphis), 
which he regards as undoubtedly of porcelain, and the hieroglyphics inscribed 
on its surface leave no doubt as to its Egyptian origin. The body, which is 
hard and translucent, is of a pale blue colour, and exhibits the following com- 
position, differing absolutely from that of Chinese porcelain : — Soda, 5'8 per 
cent; cupric oxide, 17 percent.; lime 2-1 percent; alumina, 1*4 per cent ; 
ferric oxide, 0*4 per cent ; silica, 88'6 per cent. 

" It is thus a true soft porcelain, coloured blue by a little copper, and may 
be imitated by compounding a body from blue glass 40 per cent, ground 
sand 55 per cent, and white clay 5 per cent, the blue glass being prepared 
of such ingredients as to correspond to the formula 3-3 SOg, 0-23 CaO, 0'I3 
CuO, 0'64 Na^O. Firing at 1050° C. gives a pale blue mass, which turns green 
if the kiln temperature be raised to about 1200° C. By reason of the low 
proportion of clay, the body when damp is of low plasticity, and is only 
suitable for moulding into solid shapes like the Egyptian statuette in 
question." {Pottery Gazette, August 190Q, p. 923.) 

Coming now to the Historic period, i.e. subsequent to B.C. 3998. The first 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Ancient Egyptian 39 

2400 years of this epoch appear to yield but little tangible evidence of the use 
of glazed tiles in building construction. Discoveries that would throw light 
upon this period may have escaped the writer's path of inquiry, or, on the 
other hand, the very monuments that could have enlightened us may have been 
destroyed, for Egypt has witnessed many despoilers, both native and foreign. 

When referring to a visit to Beni Hasan, Mr. John Ward, F.S.A. (in 
Pyramids and Progress), remarks upon the beautiful paintings in the interiors 
of the rock-cut tombs of the great 12th dynasty (about 2600 B.C.), and of 
similar internal embellishment of Egyptian temples, near the site of 
Antinoe, but makes no mention of decorative ceramic products. 

And in references to the exhibits of results of the 1902-3 season's excava- 
tions at Beni-Hasan by Mr. J. Garstang — shown in the rooms of the Society 
of Antiquaries, Burlington House, July 1903 — there appears to be no mention 
of tiles. 

From about B.C. 1550 to B.C. 1400 the Egyptian empire became powerful 
and extensive, Nubia, on one side, and Syria, on the other, owning her 
supremacy ; it is in the latter part of this period we find a startling and 
most brilliant example of decorative ceramic art. 

Professor Maspero writes, — " The fabrication of many-coloured enamels 
seems to have attained its greatest development under Khuenaten ; at all 
events, it was at Tell el Amarna that I found the brightest and most delicately 
fashioned specimens, such as yellow, green, and violet lings, blue and white 

fleurettes, fish, lutes, figs, and bunches of grapes However restricted 

the space, the various colours are laid in with so sure a hand that they never 
run one into the other, but stand out separately and vividly." (Manual of Eg- 
Archmology, p. 265, Grevel.) 

Of this period Dr. Budge writes, — "The kings of the i8th dynasty were 
undoubtedly the greatest who ever occupied the throne of Egypt." .... 
'' Hand in hand with the growth of power went increase in the wealth of 
Egypt, and the buildings which the greatest kings .... set up in their 
capital, Thebes, testify to the lavishness with which they spent." .... " The 
most interesting though certainly not the most important of the kings of the 
1 8th dynasty was Amenhotep IV." During his reign painters, sculptors, and 
handicraftsmen of every kind developed a new style of Egyptian art, 
" characterised by great realism and freedom from conventionality." {History 
of Egypt, vol. iv., preface, and p. 161, Kegan.) 

From Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie's account, it seems that early in 
the lifetime of Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV.) a great reformation in religion, 
ethics, and art was attempted, and with the object of shaking off the thraldom 
of the priests, the Egyptain court was removed from Thebes to a new city 
erected on an excellent site 200 miles or so further north, on the east bank 
of the Nile, which is now known to Europeans as Tell el Amarna. 



40 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

The effect of this reformation on art, says Dr. Fetrie, was " the direct study 
of nature, with as little influence as possible from convention ; animals in 
rapid motion and natural grouping of plants were specially studied, and 
treated in a manner more natural than in any other oriental art." {History of 
Egypt, vol. ii. p. 219, Methuen.) 

It was in 1891 that Dr. Petrie obtained permission to excavate at Tell el 
Amarna, and although debarred from examining the tombs,, his "eagle eye" 
enabled him to fix upon a favourable spot for operations, and within three 
jiays of actually commencing work, he tells us, he found the painted stucco 
pavement of the palace, and within a fortnight the government were building 
a house to protect it ; yet the site, which was originally discovered by Lepsius 
about fifty years earlier, had often been plundered and everything visible and 
portable removed. 

" These painted pavements,'' writes Dr. Petrie, " were formed by laying a 
floor of mud bricks on the soil, covering them with a coat of mortar or fine 
concrete, about half an inch or an inch thick, so as to produce a level surface • 
and then facing that with fine plaster mixed with hair about one-eighth of an 
inch thick, on which the painting was executed. The colours were laid on 
while the plaster was wet .... after painting, the whole surface was polished 
and waterproofed." (Tell el Amarna, ^gi. 12.) 

. From this pavement rose columns to support the roef, some' of which .Dr. 
Petrie describes as having moulded and glazed representations of creeping 
plants upon them, and capitals wonderfully inlaid with glazes. " On the 
walls," he writes, " glazed tiles were much used : all along the west side of 
the great hall of columns, fragments of green tiles with daisies and thistles 
were found scattered. Probably, therefore, there were more than 200 feet of 
this tile dado, with inlaid white daisies and violet thistles. From the number 
of pieces of tile with water pattern, lotus, fishes and birds, it seems that tiled 
floors also existed in the palace. The stone walls were inlaid with glazed 
figures of birds and glazed hieroglyphs." ( Tell el Amarna, p. 28.) 

" Here the jeweller's design was boldly carried in architecture on the 
largest scale, and high capitals gleamed with gold and gem-like glazes." 
" Large green reed signs and others all show that great inscriptions, intended 
to be seen from a distance, on the palace walls, were blazoned out in gorgeous 
coloured glazes, set in the white limestone." .... "In the same region were 
the pieces of glazed table dishes, imitating half gourds, half-fishes, etc., which 
show that the royal table service was an anticipation of modern taste." ( Tell 
el Amarna, pp. 10-12.) 

The technically interesting part of Dr. Petrie's discoveries, however, remain 
to be told ; for he found the sites of three or four glass-works and two large 
glazing-works, wherein the " waste " heaps were full of fragments showing the 
methods employed. " We can therefore now trace," writes Dr. Petrie, " almost 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Ancient Egyptian 41 

every stage and detail of the mode of manufacture .... we are already 
familiar with the frits made by the Egyptians from the 12th dynasty onward 
for colouring purposes. These have been carefully analysed and remade by 
Dr. Russell ; and we know that the components were silica, lime, alkaline 
carbonate, and copper carbonate, varying from 3 per cent, in delicate greenish 
blue up to 20 per cent, in rich purple blue. The green tints are always 
produced if iron be present ; and it is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain 
silica from sand without the iron in it preventing the blues being produced. 
One of the first requisites, therefore, is to obtain the elements of the mixture 
free from iron. How this could be done was quite unknown until I picked 
up a piece of a pan of frit, which had been broken in the furnace and rejected 
before it was combined. This showed clearly through the mass the chips of 
white silica ; and from their form they were clearly the result of crushing the 
quartz pebbles which are to be found on the surface of the desert, having been 
rolled down by the Nile from the disintegration of primitive rocks further 
south." .... " The lime, alkali, and copper had combined already, and 
the silica was in course of solution and combination with the alkali and lime." 
.... " The carbonic acid in the lime and alkali had been partly liberated 
by the dissolved silica, and had rdised the mass into a spongy paste. With 
longer continued heating, the silica in ordinary samples has entirely disap- 
peared, and formed a mixture of more or less fusible silicates. These made a 
pasty mass when kept at the temperature required to produce the fine colours ; 
and this mass was then moulded into pats, and toasted in the furnace until 
the" desired tint was reached by the requisite time and heat, and a soft 
crystalline porous friable cake of colour was produced." {Tell el Amarna, p. 25.) 

" Among the furnace-waste," continues Dr. Petrie, '' were many pebbles of 
white quartz. These had been laid as a cobble floor in the furnace and served 
as a clean space on which to toast the pats of colour, for scraps of the paste 
of frit were found sticking to one side of the pebbles. The floor also served 
to lay objects on for glazing, as the superfluous glaze had run down and spread 
over the pebbles as a thin wash of green." {Tell el Amarna, p. 26.) 

Dr. Petrie found fritting-pans, measuring about 10 inches across and 3 
inches deep ; also cylindrical jars, 7 inches diameter and 5 inches high, that 
he assumed to have been used as supports upon which the pans of frit composi- 
tion rested whilst in the melting-kiln. Even the potters' working moulds were 
found ; and whereas from Memphis, Thebes, Gurob, etc., only a few dozens of 
moulds were obtained, he brought nearly 5000 from Tell el Amarna. These 
moulds are rough pats of baked coarse clay, with the impression on one side, 
and marks of the palm of the hand on the back. Many of these moulds, and 
a considerable number of glazed plaques for inlaying in walls, are now located 
in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford ; and there are others in the Edwards 
Museum, University College, London. 



42 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

This remarkable discovery of highly decorative glazed tiles explains much 
that the earlier discoverers of the later work in the palace of Rameses III. at 
Tell el Yehudiyeh found very perplexing. It may also be worth noting that 
the reign of Amenhotep IV. (Akhenaten) coincides with a period of early 
civilisation and art in Greece (1400 B.C.). 

The plate of coloured illustrations (Plate V.) represent five fragments of 
enamelled tiles from Tell el Amarna, date B.C. 1370, kindly lent by Professor 
W. M. Flinders Petrie, D.C.L., F.R.S., for the purpose of copying and illustra- 
tion in this volume, also some pieces from Gurob. 

A, is a fragment of an enamelled tile of semi-vitreous .granular vesicular 
white body, ornamented in choice shades of green and brown, with a few 
touches of dull-toned slate-blue enamel. 

B, is a piece of an inlaid enamelled tile, the surface or field being of 
lovely tinted green enamel, decorated simply with lines of brown, while inlaid 
in cleanly cut out circles of the surface have been white porcelain daisies, 
conventional in form, with yellow centres. One only of these daisies remained 
in position, thus explaining the object of the empty depressions. And it is 
not a little surprising to find one's own child bringing in from the garden a 
living flower of daisy type, as nearly as possible identical in form and colour 
with this ancient Egyptian representation. Mr. John Ward, F.S.A., of Belfast, 
tells me he has seen these porcelain daisies in collections, by fifties, and has 
picked up several himself at Tell el Amarna. They appear to have been 
used in very large numbers ; and a little consideration will show that the form 
of the daisy is peculiarly amenable to decorative uses. They also appear on 
the enamelled bricks of Babylon. 

C, is a similar fragment of similar composition, having a beautiful green 
enamelled surface, with lines in brown enamel, representing the stems and 
leaves of the daisy plants. This piece also has several circles cleanly cut out 
for inlaying, and most probably these were originally inlaid with porcelain 
daisies. 

D, is a small portion of a tile inlaid with yellow or buff coloured body or 
paste, having incised cuts around the inlays describing leaves and flowers, 
enamelled with rich yellow enamel, with green leaves, outlined with brown. 

E, is a fragment of enamelled moulding, of identically similar semi- 
vitreous, semi-friable, granular vesicular white body to that of the tiles, very 
thinly enamelled on the front only, with very pretty yellow green enamel. 

F, represents a fragment of inlaid red glazed ware, kindly lent to me by 
Dr. Petrie, which, he says, originally formed part of a cushion in a figure 
scene. The pattern is chequered in yellow enamel lines, the zigzags forming 
the rhomboid spaces or trellised work. Alternate rows of centres are inlaid 
with a slate-blue coloured enamel composition. 

G, is a fragment of an inlaying tile from Gurob (i8th dynasty); enamel 



EGYPTIAN. 



PI. V. 




Frag^ments of Enamelled Tiles from Tell-el-Amarna and GuROB. 

( By permisswn of Professo-r W. M. Flinders Petrie, D,C.L., F.R.S.) 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Ancient Egyptian 43 

inlays on a white tile. The body is white, siliceous, and rather friable, about 
a quarter inch thick. Part is inlaid deeply with slate-blue ceramic paste or 
body, and part is glazed or enamelled with turquoise. Outlines, shadings, and 
markings are in brown enamel applied by brush. Other parts and the back 
is white-glazed, and all is very skilfully executed and skilfully burned. 

H, is another really choice fragment of inlaying tile from Gurob, said by 
Dr. Petrie to be of i8th dynasty. This tile is only an eighth of an inch thick. 
Body almost white, siliceous, and slightly friable. Apparently this has been 
covered with glaze while in the clay state, and then deep inlays cut out very 
cleverly and vitreous inlays inserted, thick and deep ; these had contracted 
during burning : the yellow-green tint harmonising most sweetly with the 
rich red and cream colour and the brown outlines, altogether forms a highly 
artistic and suggestive design. 

Besides those just mentioned, Dr. Petrie has a fragment of glazed brick or 
of a large slab from Tell el Amarna. The body is apparently chiefly com- 
posed of silica sand, bound with a little diffused frit, producing a remarkably 
firm body, with sandy vesicular fracture. Upon the body there appears to 
have first been applied a thin wash of vitreous siliceous engobe. Super- 
imposed on this on three faces is another engobe, nearly one-eighth of an inch 
thick, of lavender or puce coloured dense but siliceous paste. Through this 
lavender- coloured engobe a white inlay has been cut down for and inserted. 
Then the whole three faces glazed with turquoise glaze, which appears 
turquoise on the white inlay and dark slate-blue on the main portion. 

Sundry other pieces of glazed pottery were also made during the i8th 
dynasty for decorative purposes, such as representations of bunches of grapes 
of dark blue glazed porcelain, with perforated tenons for attaching to wood- 
work. Also highly finished plaques or small slabs, with relief patterns of 
sacred birds, and eyes and hands, elaborated in white enamel with brown out- 
lines and shadings. 

To this period— 1 8th dynasty — is assigned the magnificent turquoise- 
blue glazed sceptre from the temple of Nubt, presented to the South 
Kensington Museum by H. M. Kennard, Esq. It is a most beautiful object, 
about 9 feet high, richly inscribed. (See V. and A. M. Catalogue, p. 29.) 

" Of the houses in which the Egyptians lived at this period," writes Dr. 
Budge, " we know little." .... "Of the furniture which was used in such 
houses we know a great deal, thanks to the tombs at Thebes, from which 
have been recovered so many beautiful examples of tables, chairs, couches, 
etc., often inlaid with ebony, ivory, and cedar wood, and the fact should 
always be remembered that by far the greater number of objects of this class 
which are found in the museums of Europe are the product of the i8th 
dynasty, and belong to no later period." {History of Egypt, vol. ii. p. 178, 
Kegan.) 



44 



LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



In connection with the 19th dynasty, Mr. John Ward, F.S.A., has very 
kindly permitted the illustration of two fragments of encaustic inlaid or 
figured cartouche tile of Seti XL, B.C. 1189. One of the fragments is shown 
in Mr. Ward's Sacred Beetle, plate vi.; this portion was found at Karnak some 
years ago. When there again early in 1902 he luckily obtained a fragment 
of another very similar tile, which, singularly enough, contained the other 
portion of the design, and so completed and explained both. 

The body of these tile fragments is white, semi-vitreous, and remarkably 
durable ; the inlay is a slate-blue coloured ceramic composition ; and the 
whole is glazed with a hard and nearly transparent glaze. The general 
appearance is not unlike Wedgwood Jasper ware. An incised mark at the 
back seems to be the maker's initial, or some significant sign. Mr. Ward 

thinks there must have 
been hundreds of such 
tiles in a small shrine 
erected by Seti at Kar- 
nak, but has never seen 
any other of the same 
encaustic tiles in any 
collection. 

Professor Petrie, how- 
evei;, appears to have a 
circular inlaid cartouche 
tile of similar kind, 
but with the hierogly- 
phics of Amenhotep III., 
1400 B.C. 

The next point of in- 
terest is Tell el Yehu- 
diyeh. Ceramic antiquities from this locality are usually attributed to the 
time of Rameses III., about B.C. 1170, but this monarch by repute sometimes 
destroyed ancient monuments to provide material for new buildings of his 
own, so that in case of some of these things there is room for doubt as to 
when and where they were manufactured. 

It may not be out of place here to remark — as Mr. Ward kindly pointed 
out — that we are now dealing with a period when the Egyptians had already 
possessed a knowledge of glazing for more than three thousand years; the 
recent discoveries at Abydos demonstrating that glazed pottery and tiles were 
made during the time of the ist dynasty. 

From Dr. Budge we learn that this powerful monarch rebuilt and repaired 
many ancient temples of Egypt, and that his name has been found on their 
remains in many places between the Mediterranean and Wadi Haifa. 




Fig. 13. — Cartouche tiles, j in. thick, trom Karnali (Thebes). 
Seti II., iglh dynasty, 1189 B.C. (J.W. Colin.) 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Ancient Egyptian 45 

Edouard Naville, in his report to the Egypt Exploration Fund on " The 
Mound of the Jew," mentions that in the great Harris papyrus all the buildings 
erected by Rameses III. are described at great length, and that amongst these 
reference is made to "the abode of Rameses in the house of Ra, north of 
On " : this is assumed to have been a palace for his own use when coming 
periodically to worship at Heliopolis, the centre of Egyptian sun-worship. 
But Rameses died and was gathered unto his fathers, and in course of time 
came the hosts of the Persians under cruel Cambyses, who destroyed the city 
of Heliopolis, leaving the deserted and desolate palace of the great Pharaoh 
to the bats. 

A thousand years later some Jews, seeking refuge and protection in Egypt, 
by chance came upon the ruins of On, and begged and obtained permission 
to live there. There they dwelt and multiplied, and lived and died, until in 
A.D. 70 the Romans persecuted, plundered, and expelled them. 

Hence the coincidence of Tell el Yehudiyeh (the Mound of the Jew) with 
the ancient site of Rameses' palace, north of On. The site is about 16 miles 
N.N.E. of Cairo, but the writer understands from Mr. Ward that it is only 
accessible at low Nile. And even when the travellers get there, it seems that 
the site is about all that remains to be seen. Professor Maspero says the 
temple was rifled at the beginning of the 19th century, and specimens of 
glazed tiles brought thence have been in the Louvre since the time of 
Champollion, and all that remained of the building and its decoration was 
demolished a few years ago by dealers in antiquities. {Egypt. Archce., p. 269, 
Grevel.) In 1870 the mound was examined by Dr. Brugsch, Mr. Chesters, 
and Mr. Eaton, who found there the remains of a chamber lined with enamelled 
tiles, of the time of Rameses III. " But the discovery," writes Edouard Naville, 

" has been fatal to the mound When I arrived at Tell el Yahoodieh, 

in the winter of 1887, the chamber of Ramseses III. had entirely disappeared. 
.... Not only the chamber, but nearly all the monuments indicated either 
by Brugsch or by Professor Lewis have vanished." {The Mound of the Jew, 
vol. vii. pp. d-T, E.E. Fund.) 

Navilletells us that Dr. Brugsch's attention had originally been directed 
to the place by some fine enamelled tiles and inlaid ornaments which he 
had purchased from a dealer at Shibeen-el-Kanater. Brugsch excavated and 
found traces of an alabaster pavement, and a considerable number of enamelled 
and porcelain tiles. He brought back from the mound 3600 disks of various 
sizes and a great number of tiles, more or less broken, bearing either flower 
ornaments, or birds, animals, and portraits ; also many with hieroglyphic 
inscriptions, giving the names and titles of Rameses III. 

Thus it comes about that just as we have now to seek for the remains 
of Heliopolis or On, not so much in Egypt, as in the ruins of ancient Rome, 
and the public squares and museums of European and American cities, in like 




46 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

manner relics of the palace of Rameses III. must now be sought, not at Tell 
el Yehudiyeh, but at Cairo, Berlin, London, Aberdeen, etc. 

So long ago as A.D. 1873 Dr. S. Birch wrote, "In the temple of Rameses 

III the walls .... were revetted with porcelain tiles containing the 

legends and conquests of the monarch. Some of the tiles consisted of long 
rectangular slips with the hieroglyphs incused and inlaid with 
pastes The backgrounds of these tiles were gener- 
ally blue Another class of tiles representing Asiatic 

and negro prisoners conquered by the same king are of 
entirely novel character, and resemble modern Palissy 

ware Among the Asiatic tribes were the Khita, the 

Fig. i4.-Reiief tile from ^^^]^^^ the Tahemu, and others. Both black and copper- 
Tell el YehCidiyeh. , , .. / r/- * /j ■ .. d ..^ \ 
{Bj, permission of coloured negroes appear. {Hist. Ancient Pottery, p.- 49.) 

Grevei &' Co.) Professor G. Maspero says, "The pictorial subjects, 

instead of being sculptured according to custom, were of 
a kind of mosaic, made with almost equal parts of stone tesserae and 
glazed ware. The most frequent item in the scheme of decoration was a 
roundel moulded of a sandy frit, coated with blue or grey slip, upon which 
is a cream-coloured rosette. Some of these rosettes are framed in geometrical 
designs or spider-web patterns ; some represent open flowers. The central 
boss is in relief; the petals and tracery are encrusted in the mass. These 
roundels, which are of various diameters, ranging from three-eighths of an 
inch to four inches, were fixed to the wall by means 
of a very fine cement. They were used to form many 
different designs, as scrolls, foliage, and parallel fillets, 
such as may be seen on the foot of an altar and the 
base of a column preserved in the Cairo Museum. 
.... The details, either incised or modelled upon the ^''^•. "S-— Roundel inlay 

,,/■/•• r. J • i. 1 -.v. 1 tiles from Tell el Ye- 

clay before firmg, were afterwards pamted with such hfld?yeh. (By permis- 

colours as might be suitable. The lotus flowers and sion of Grevel Ss' Co.) 

leaves which were carried along the bottom of the walls 

or the length of the cornices were, on the contrary, made up of independent 
pieces, each colour being a separate morsel cut to fit exactly into the 
pieces by which it was surrounded." {Manual of Egyptian ArchcBology, 
p. 269, Grevel & Co.) 

A piece of enamelled tile from Tell el Yehudiyeh, corresponding to one of 
these sections (fig. 16), may also be seen in the museum at Stoke-upon-Trent. 

Professor Maspero states that Mariette (a French Egyptologist who visited 
this site about thirty-four years ago) recovered, though with great difficulty,, 
some of the more important fragments, such as those upon which the name 
of Rameses III. was identified, and which thus dates the building. Among 
these were fragments of tile ornamented with birds or bats (fig. 17). A 




HISTORICAL REVIEW— Ancient Egyptian 



47 




Fig. i6. — Enamelled tilework — fruit and lotus design— from Tell 
el Yehildiyeh ; now in British Museum. {Illustrated by per- 
mission of Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge, Litt.D.) 



fragment of similar design, kindly lent to the writer by Dr. W. M. Flinders 
Petrie, showed the possibility of highly effective ornamentation by this kind 
of enamelled tile ; the bat or bird was painted in relief with thick opaque 
white enamel ; the eye, beak, ear, etc. outlined in dark brown ; and Dr. Petrie 
stated that the field was originally filled up level with bright greenish cement. 
Patiently copied and elaborately coloured illustrations of enamelled tiles 
from Tell el Yehudiyeh are 
given in Birch's History 
of Ancient Pottery, and in 
vol. vii. part 2 of the 
Transactions of the Society 
of Biblical Archaeology, the 
latter being accompanied 
by a detailed description 
by Professor Hayter Lewis, 
who was much concerned 
toaccount for such a sudden 
outburst of decorative cer- 
amic art, and laboured to 
explain in some plausible way how it came about, not knowing, as we now 
know — thanks to Dr. Petrie — that equally artistic enamelled tiles were 
employed in the days of Akhenaten, 1400 B.C., if indeed some of the relics 
of Tell el, Yehudiyeh are not themselves spoils from Tell el Amarna. 

Mr. Henry Wallis makes sparse reference to Egyptian glazed tiles, but his 
comments on the antiquities from Tell el Yehudiyeh could scarcely be in 
terms of higher praise : — " With the advent of the third Rameses in the 20th 

dynasty a marked revival of the art took 
place. This is clearly discernible in the 
series of wall tiles which decorated the 
king's palace at Tell el Yahoudieh. All 
the resources of the art were employed on 
these splendid plaques. We find therein 
bas - relief inlaying and a palette of the 
widest range ; nothing can be imagined 
in ceramic art more masterly than the 
modelling of the human figures and the 
animal forms ; the lions especially are of sculpturesque dignity. The types 
of the different nationalities (prisoners of war) are seized with an accuracy 
which may be termed scientific ; their costumes display a wealth of imagina- 
tive details worked out in schemes of colour so resplendent and harmonious 
as to be the delight of all artists. Some of the greatest triumphs of 
decorative art have been achieved in the direction of wall tiles ; yet it woiild 




Fig. 17.— Relief tile. Tell el Yehudiyeh. 
{By permission of Grevel &r' Co. ) 



48 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



be difficult to name a series of any period or country on which have been 
lavished such high artistic qualities as on those which ornamented the 
palace of Rameses III. on the Delta of the Nile." {Egyptian Ceramic Art, 
Macgregor Colin., p. , Quaritch.) 

Another Egyptian tile, kindly lent for examination and illustration in this 
volume by Professor Petrie, is one found on the site of Koptos, and attributed 
to the 20th dynasty. This prettily tinted little tile measures 2| inches by 2| 
inches by f inch or thereabout, and has chamfered edges, which cause the face 
to be somewhat larger than the back. There is no tenon. 

The body is of porous light buff-coloured substance, yet still frit-bound and 
slightly vesicular. The inlay is of severe design, with a distinctly Assyrian 
motif ; the inlay measures slightly less than 2 inches by 2 inches, and is most 
cleverly and artistically applied in a delightfully pretty tint of dark silver- 
grey or pale lavender vitreous enamel or paste. 
This specimen Dr. Petrie justly prizes as a 
precious one; nevertheless he kindly favoured 
me with the loan of it for purposes of inspection 
and illustration. 

The 26th dynasty, which commenced under 
Psametik I., B.C. 670, and terminated at the 
conquest by the Persians, B.C. 525, is reputed 
to have been conspicuous for its encouragement 
of art and trade. Its capital, Sais, about 60 
miles from Alexandria, was formerly recogniz- 
able by a few mounds, but Mr. John Ward 
informs me that these have now been carried off 
for fertilizing purposes ; and the Nile has risen 
so much that the site of the ancient city is 
often unapproachable by land, and any ruins must be waterlogged and 20 
feet below. In Pyramids and Progress he writes : — " Considering the elaborate 
description of the extent of Sais given by Herodotus, one would have expected 
great remains .... but Mariette's researches gave but a poor result. The 
very site of the ancient buildings could not be discovered, and none of the 
great monuments.'' 

During the Ptolemaic period — B.C. 323 to B.C. 30 — Dr. Budge leads us to 
infer that the court and the army were Greeks and spoke the Greek language, 
yet they governed the Egyptians with great consideration and tact, and 
under these monarchs Egypt became as great and as rich as ever. The 
Ptolemies were a long line, and Dr. Budge declares Cleopatra VII. to have 
been by far the cleverest of all their descendants {Hist. Egypt., vol. viii., 
preface, Kegan). But during all this time practically no reference to 
the use of glazed tiles appears in history, coinciding remarkably with the 




Fig. 18. —Tile from Koptos. 
(W.M.F.P. Colin.) (By permis- 
sion of Dr. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S.) 



PL. VI. 




Enamelled tiles or faience from Tell el Yehudiyeh. (B.M. ) 
(By permission of Dr. E. A. IVallis Budge, LL.D., etc., Keepr 
of the Assyrian and Egyptian Antiquities, British Museum.) 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Grecian 49 

collateral absence of such architectural luxuries in Greece, Phoenicia, and 
Judea. 

Summarizing, then, it will be observed that five principal examples of the 
decorative use of glazed tilework by the ancient Egyptians have been identi- 
fied, namely: — 

1. In temples of the ist dynasty at Abydos. 

2. In a chamber of the step pyramid of Sakkarah, 3rd dynasty. 

3. At Gurob, during the i8th dynasty. 

4 In the palace of Amenhotep IV. at Tell el Amarna, i8th dynasty. 

5. In the palace of Rameses III. at Tell el Yehudtyeh, 20th dynasty. 

Antiquities and relics from these sites may be seen in the new museum at 
Kasr-en-Nil, Cairo (opened 15th November 1903), whither the treasures of the 
old Gizeh Museum have been removed ; also in a great number of national, 
local, and private collections in Europe and America. 

Grecian. — Unsurpassed if not unsurpassable in sculpture, bronzes, and 
die-sinking, raising almost every craft they attempted to the level of an 
exemplary fine art, the Greeks of the fifth century B.C. yet derived their first 
artistic impulses from some still more ancient civilizations. 

Sir George Birdwood, in his instructive address at Kidsgrove on 22nd 
June 1899, remarked that the Greeks "were, until very recently, supposed to 
have received the first inspiration of their arts from Egypt and anterior Asia ; 
and one of the greatest services rendered by the potter to the history of art 
has been to prove, within the present generation, that, while Hellenic art 
certainly received certain impulses and a variety of decorative motives from 
both Mesopotamia and Egypt, there existed in Greece, centuries before the 
Dorian invasion {circa B.C. 1 100), a highly developed indigenous art, which, in 
the traditions it provided of the close study of nature and of refined technical 
methods, laid the solid foundations of the Hellenic art of Greece, as it began 
to assert its independent individuality between the eighth and seventh 
centuries, and reached its perfection in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. ; 
and that the influence of this pre-Hellenic art of Greece not only dominated 
the immigrant Hellenes, but asserted its influence over Europe, far beyond 
the limits of Greece, to the very shores of the Baltic Sea and the German 
Ocean. In 1868 Schliemann made his marvellous discoveries in the prehistoric 
mound at Hissarlik in the Tjpad, and in the prehistoric ruins at and about 
Mycenje in the Argolid. These discoveries included not only figurines, but 
all sorts of objects of art, of which the most sensational were, of course, the 
jewellery of elaborately wrought gold. Schliemann thought he had broken 
into the treasuries of Priam and Atreus and laid bare the very bones of 
Agamemnon. But he had done something much more important in the 
elucidation of the history of European art, for his discoveries — confirmed as 
tliey were by the discovery of similar figurines .... in the neighbourhood of 

4 



50 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Athens and, sporadically, all over Greece— demonstrated that an indigenous 
civilization, capable of the highest artistic achievements, had preceded the 
primitive Hellenic civilization of Greece, and that its beginnings must have 
extended back to the very verge of the neolithic night of Europe ; and after 
it was suddenly blotted out by the Dorian invasion of Greece {circa B.C. i lOO), 

the tradition of it still remained a living artistic force in Greece This 

Mycensean or, as it is now called, ^gean art culminated in the fifteenth 

century B.c The jewellery is, as already said, wrought with the utmost 

skill, while the pottery, in the best-baked ware, is found fully developed in 

colour, glaze, and varnish The recent excavation of the Acropolis, 

below the ddbris of the buildings re- erected on the sacred hill after the 
destruction of Athens by the Persians B.C. 520, led to the discovery of ... . 
immense collections of the remains of primitive Hellenic art that had lain 
there buried and undisturbed for over two millenniums. After this date there 
was a rapid evolution of Hellenic art, the chronology of which, from first 
to last, is always to be most clearly and fully traced in the fictile wares." 
(British Clayworker, August 1899.) 

The Parthenon at Athens, commenced about B.C. 447 and completed 
about B.C. 438, may be taken as a representative structure upon which 
Hellenic-Greek artists and architects lavished their best. Its costly embellish- 
ments have often been described, and, though almost entirely of marble. Sir 
W. B. Richmond tells us it was coloured from top to toe. Yet with all its 
structural and sculptural display, no ornamental tiles or ceramic plaques are 
found upon its walls or floors. 

In like manner no mention of decorative faience appears in descriptions 
of either the temple of Apollo at Phigaleia, nor the great temple of Artemis 
(Diana) at Ephesus, each of which were magnificent erections embodying 
superb architectural and artistic skill. (See Guide to Greek and Roman 
Antiquities in the British Museum^ 

Terracotta they had certainly — their vases in this material still form 
patterns for the civilized world ; and of their constructional terracotta, 
Mr. Joseph Mayer, F.S.A., of Liverpool, has written : — " Enamelling was not 
then known, but the exceeding beauty of their moulded tiles and cornices 
excites our admiration to this day." {History of the Art of Pottery?} 

Mr. John Ward, F.S.A., in his Rambles in Sicily, graphically describes the 
ruins of a Grseco-Roman theatre — the most perfect in the world — at Taor- 
mina. It is, for the most part, an old Grecian structure, occupying an out- 
lying hilly site on an unsubmerged portion of the ancient Greek city Naxos. 
A portion of this theatre, Mr. Ward tells us, is built of red terracotta ; but 
not a word about glazed tiles is vouchsafed. 

It would seem almost incredible that the Greeks of the fifth century B.C., 
with all their love of art, should from choice or caprice neglect colour-effects 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Roman 51 

such as glazed ceramics afforded ; and yet their intercommunication with Persia 
at this period would necessarily bring some of them within touch of Babylon 
and Susa. 

It would be a libel to say they were deficient in colour-sense. The only 
alternative, therefore, seems to be to suppose that, with all their skill in terra- 
cotta, they yet had not acquired greater proficiency in the preparation of 
glazes and ceramic enamels than the simple varnish and black enamel they 
made such effective use of upon vases. 

Roman. — Long before Rome rose to power an early Greek civilization 
spread to Italy ; and after the partial eclipse of this civilization in the mother- 
country of Greece itself by reason of the barbaric Dorian invasion, this hardy 
offspring retained its power in Italy; so that even until about 800 B.C., 
Professor Petrie asserts, the arts stood high in Northern Italy. 

The Etruscans, whose name is so often on our lips, yet of whom we know 
so little, are believed to have entered Italy from the north, probably before 
the beginning of written history. As their territory lay near Rome, thej' 
became, when the Romans gathered strength, the early objects of jealousy 
and attack, and ultimately, about B.C. 285, were politically extinguished. 

In course of time Imperial Rome became an example of the most 
prodigal architectural magnificence, grand vistas in the city and river- 
scapes by the Tiber .lending their aid ' in the general effect. Superluxurious 
buildings became a fad or fancy of patrician and plebeian alike, the interior 
embellishment of which was equally lavish and extravagant ; for, as a con- 
quering nation, the Romans wrested spoils from many lands, and had these 
gems of ornament reconstructed in the imperial city. To the decorative tile- 
maker, the most striking feature of ancient Rome and her many colonies 
is their mosaic pavements. The elaboration and gorgeousness of many of 
these are astonishing, and their durability is demonstrated by hundreds of 
examples nearly 1700 years old. 

The enormous proportions of the Colosseum enabled it to very largely 
resist burning and pillage by the Goths and Huns, and it is said to have 
remained tolerably complete down to the eighth century A.D. But thence- 
forward for hundreds of years it suffered despoliation by successive Roman 
princes and popes, who used it as a kind of quarry from whence to draw 
material for the erection of palaces for themselves. During this period 
probably the mosaics, with which the walls of the Colosseum are said to have 
been covered, were taken away : anyhow, none of them appear to have come 
down to our times. 

The Pantheon, one of the very few ancient buildings of Rome still 
standing in a splendid state of preservation, originally built by Agrippa, B.C. 
27, seems to have no mosaics and no glazed tilework. It was built of Roman 
concrete faced with bricks and covered with Greek marble. The roof was 



52 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



WMMMMl 






►i- 



OS 

i 






',:iB- iWJ'm^W. 







divided into sunken coffers and gold gilt. The floor is covered with Egyptian 
granite and porphyry and Numidian marble. 

According to Professor Reynaud, the principal examples of ancient 
mosaic floors now open for inspection in or near the imperial city are the 
following : — 

(a) At the Capitoline Museum, a mosaic known as Pliny's doves, found in 
Hadrian's Villa, near Tivoli, and which was seen and described by Pliny as a 
Roman copy of the work by Sosus of Pergamus. 

By the courteous permission of the Board of Education an illustration of 
this (fig. 19) is shown, being reproduced from Dr. Wollaston's series of 
drawings in the Art Library, South Kensington. 

Mr. Guy Wilfrid Hayler, in a communication to the Society of Arts, speaks 

of this example as the work 
of " early Greeks " ; and 
states that " it is composed 
entirely of cubes of marble 
without any admixture of 
coloured glass, thus show- 
ing that it is some of the 
earliest work of its kind." 
{/our. Soc. of Arts, iSth 
February 1901, p. 209.) 

{b) At the House of 
Livia (House paternal of 
Germanicus) the floor of the 
tablinum or sitting - room 
is covered by fragments of 
mosaic showing a Greek 
pattern of exquisite design, 
(c) At Hadrian's Villa, 
once an extensive and magnificent ancient Roman pleasure-ground, near 
Tivoli, a number of rooms in that part called Ospedale have the floors covered 
with mosaic of white and black colours. Flere, too, are wall mosaics (see 
fig. 20). The one illustrated is entitled " Summer," and is, by permission, 
reproduced from Dr. Wollaston's drawing in South Kensington Museum. 

{d) At the Lateran Museum may be seen a, splendid and very large 
mosaic, which was removed from the baths of Caracalla. It represents 
gladiators and fighters. 

(e) At the Vatican, in the round hall, is to be seen the mosaic floor 
found at Otricoli, representing sea-monsters; in the cabinet, the mosaic 
representing masks found at Hadrian's Villa ; and in the hall of animals, 
beautiful slabs of mosaic representing cattle, also from Hadrian's Villa. 






Fig. 19. — Pliny's doves. Mosaic. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW- Roman 



53 



near 



(/) At the Borghese Museum, in the saloon a mosaic floor found 
Torre Nuova representing gladiatorial and wild-beast combats. 

The ancient Roman method of forming such floors seems to have been, first 
of all, to construct a thick firm foundation of rough concrete ; or in cases where 
heatmg chambers (hypocausts) were below, to cover these in with large tiles 
restmg upon the brick pillars ; then upon these tiles a layer of small bricks, set 
herring-bone style, with a thin stratum of lime and chalk cement superimposed ; 
upon this were fixed the very small blocks, or tesserze, of marble, precious 
stones, glasses of various colours, and baked-earth fragments, artistically 
arranged according to the design, and set in cement or mastic of some kind. 
These floors sometimes consisted of only two or three colours, such as black 
and white marble and red tile. At other times they prove to have been 
gorgeously elaborate pictures, con- 



structed with infinite labour, skill, 
and expense, — the scenes depicted 
including horsemen, charioteers, 
birds, flowers, etc., of extreme 
beauty of form and colour, albeit 
what we now see being only the 
wrecks remaining after 1400 years 
or more of decay, despoliation, 
restoration, and removals. 

It would seem, however, that 
we cannot justly apportion all the 
praise of this exhibition of artistic 
skill to the Roman people them- 
selves. Mr. Mayer asserts that 
" the pottery of Rome, like all the 
other arts of that military people, 
was borrowed. They had no style, 
although there is a very marked 

manner about the productions made under their dominiort." All their works 
of art appear in reality to have been of Greek design and frequently of Greek 
execution. 

Langenbeck emphasizes a feature of these mosaic pavements, which, from 
the ceramist's point of view, is of importance ; namely, that in the floors of 
Roman villas preserved in France, Germany, and England, the marble portions 
were worn through in the days of their use, whilst the tesserae of baked clay, 
forming the reds, bufis, and browns of the floors, and used in conjunction with 
the marble in the same floors, are hardly touched to this day. {British Clay- 
worker, July 1899, p. 104.) 

Professor Reynaud remarks that as long as the ancient Roman mosaics' 




Fig. 20. — Wall mosaic. From Hadrian's Villa. 



54 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

are protected by a roof they keep well fixed, but when from any cause they 
become exposed to heat and cold the work splits. For this reason, in summer 
the mosaic pavements in Ronje are covered with mortar. 

The ancient Romans made use of tiles for many other purposes than 
floors, as, for instance, in the construction of drains, hypocausts, walls, and 
roofs, the colour being mostly red. Brongniart refers to lead-glazed ware 
of the third century A.D., but neither this nor the Samian ware appear to have 
been applied to architectural purposes by the Romans. (Traite des Arts 
Cer antique, vol. ii. p. io6.) 

With regard to Pompeii, Mr. Dawson, in his Great Cities of Italy, 
graphically describes its present condition thus : — " Pompeii itself is the most 
amazing spectacle in all Italy. Here is a Roman town, precisely as it was 
1800 years ago, miraculously preserved for our inspection. Here are the deep 
ruts in the street worn by innumerable chariot wheels .... the shops of the 
winesellers and manufacturers of mosaic, with the signs of their respective 

trades still above their doors The mosaics which adorned the floors 

and thresholds of the houses, and sometimes covered the walls, are of incom- 
parable excellence One represents a comic scene, another depicts with 

admirable realism various kinds of fish, all of which are caught to this day 
in the Bay of Naples. In these mosaics, jasper, agate, and porphyry are 
employed." Finally Mr. Dawson asks, " If a little second-rate town was the 
centre of so rare an art, what was the grandeur that was Rome ? " {Great Cities 
of Italy.) Respecting the destruction of Pompeii, Dr. Dyer has recorded that 
about A.D. 74 Vesuvius afforded unmistakable signs of evil intentions, several 
buildings being overthrown. On 24th August A.D. 79, without other warning, 
a vast column of smoke was ejected from the mountain, followed by thin 
light ashes, then small heated stones and stifling gases. Soon streams of 
dense mud poured irresistibly down the mountain and over the city, those 
who had taken refuge in buildings and cellars being closed in for ever. 
Thus, amid many pathetic incidents, Pompeii disappeared ; how pathetic, 
how horribly pathetic, can be imagined by reading Lieutenant Scott's 
description of the recent eruption of Mont Pel^e, and the woes caused, 
thereby in the town and harbour of St. Pierre (Martinique). (See Strand 
Magazine, September 1902.) 

Centuries passed away, and with them the power and glory of Imperial 
Rome and the very recollection of Pompeii. Fifteen hundred years later 
labourers cutting a canal discovered evidences on the site, but not until A.D. 
1763 was it placed beyond doubt that long-lost Pompeii had been found. 

Fortunately, the nature of the overburden facilitated excavations, and 
under judicious control and direction marvellous examples of ancient arts 
and customs were opened to view ; an enormous collection of articles gradu- 
ally accumulating, most of which may now be seen in the Museum at Naples. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Roman 



55 



mill iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiMiiiiiiiiiini .tt, 



Many Pompeian mosaic floors have, worked into the pattern near the 
entrance door, the inscription SALVE, meaning Welcome ; others have CAVE 
CANEM, i.e.. Beware of the dog. A phenomenally fine mosaic, which origin- 
ally formed the floor of the dining-hall of a house excavated at Pompeii in 
the year 1829, called the House of Faun, may be seen in the Naples Museum. 
It is a pictorial representation of a historical subject worked out with greatest 
skill. When first discovered Italian critics were enraptured with it ; the 
vividness and harmony of the colours, the apparent transparency of the 
atmosphere, and the good figure-drawing were astonishing. Professor 
Quaranta wrote of it thus : — " The extreme delicacy of this work in marble 

far surpasses the celebrated mosaic of Palestrina It is impossible to 

describe the consummate skill with which so many figures are arranged and 
grouped in this confined space, or the truth and correctness of the drawing, 
the distribution of light 
and shade, the effect 
of the colours, and 
scrupulous attention to 
the minutest acces- 
sories. Michael Angelo 
and Raffaelle might 
have been proud of the 
dying horseman." In 
this mosaic are repre- 
sented twelve horses, a 
large war-chariot, and 
twenty - two persons, 
more than half the 

natural size, without reckoning those that were on the left side, which is 
almost totally destroyed. (Pia. GaU. Arts, p. 180.) 

In the entrance or vestibule of the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, will be 
found some very large coloured drawings of Pompeian mosaics which convey 
some idea of the excellence of the work. 

There is something very pathetic in the more recent discovery that 
Pompeii was not the first place to be overwhelmed by Vesuvius. Under the 
title An Earlier Pompeii, the Illustrated London News of 13th June 1903 
says :— " It would appear that Vesuvius began its work as a conservator of 
antiquity earlier than the memorable year A.D. 79. During the excavations 
in the valley of the Sarno, near San Marzano, in Campania, some most 
interesting antiquities have come to light. These had been covered by a 
volcanic deposit about 6 feet thick, which points to an eruption of Vesuvius 
which must have taken place certainly not earlier than the seventh century 
before Christ. The relics include a Greek burying-place. 




IIIIIIIIIIIIIHI 



iiiiinilijjiililillliilliiliiilllilllliiiiiliilililiili 

Fig. 21. — Floor in the House of Faun. 



archaic Italian 



S6 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

tombs, and various bronzes and terracottas. Near the same site, but of 
course not covered by the volcanic deposit of the earlier eruption, is a 
Roman house of the time of Augustus. The house was, indeed, built upon 
the bed of cinders and pumice-stone beneath which the tombs, bronzes, and 
terracottas were discovered. The dwelling escaped the catastrophe of A.D. 79, 
for Pliny tells us that a strong wind blew the ashes in the opposite direction 
from the valley of the Sarno. The latest researches have brought to light a 
village of the earliest inhabitants of that region." A sheet of illustrations 
accompanies the above comments, but there is no mention of tiles. 

Dr. Wollaston's series of coloured drawings of ancient mosaics, which he 
bequeathed to the Science and Art Department at South Kensington, reveal 
the fact that mosaic pavements were used in all the principal colonies and 
dominions of the Romans. In France examples of mosaics have been 
discovered at Aries, Autun, Avignon, Bergheim, Besancon, Bevoy, Dijon, 
Lyons, Nantes, Ntmes, Orange, Poligny, and Vienne. One dug up at Lyons 
was composed of small cubes of marble, interspersed in some places with 
pastes of different colours. In this the whole details of the circus games 
were represented. It comprised no fewer than eight chariots, which appeared 
as if they had started together, but some having fallen, the horses and 
charioteers were represented as having also fallen. Spectators are depicted 
as having surrounded the scene and to have been regarding it with eager 
interest. 

In Spain numbers of examples have been found, Dr. Wollaston's draw- 
ings including mosaics from Italica, Rielves, and Tarragona. Towards the 
close of the eighteenth century a remarkable specimen was discovered 
near Seville, at a small depth below the surface of the ground. It was 
40 feet long by 30 feet wide, and contained, in the centre, a representation 
of the circus games of the ancients, while on three sides were compart- 
ments containing figures of the muses, etc. {Pict. Gall. Arts, p. .) 
According to Rev. S. Manning, Italica was a Roman-Spanish city, founded 
by Scipio and adorned with sumptuous edifices by Adrian. It was situ- 
ated at the foot of olive-covered hills, five miles from Seville. Like most 
of the ancient remains in Spain, it has served as a quarry for builders of 
succeeding times. Its massive stones became material for a neighbouring 
convent, and for a breakwater in the Guadalquivir. In the vaults of the 
ruined amphitheatre, which once served as dens for animals and captives, 
beggars now lurk to beset the visitor with entreaties for alms. All else is silent 
as the grave, where once stood a wealthy city, the birthplace and home of 
Emperors. {Spanish Pictures, p. 156, R.T S.) 

Romano-British.— Even before the invasion of Britain by the Romans, 
the condition of the inhabitants seems to have been far above that of bar- 
barism. Intercourse with Phoenicians, Gauls, Belgians, and possibly with the 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Romano-British 



57 



Greeks of Massilia (Marseilles), had already raised the people out of savagery. 
Coins were struck, and beautiful enamelled work is mentioned as having been 
made at this early date. But dur- 
ing the 400 years or so of Roman 
occupation of England, civilization 
of a still higher degree spread over 
the central and southern districts. 
At this time the fertility of the 
island was turned to such good 
account that 800 vessels are said 
to have been at one time en- 
gaged in conveying corn to 
Roman cities in Germany. 
Walled towns were built, great 
main roads formed, aqueducts 
and baths constructed, and com- 
forts and luxuries greatly in- 
creased. According to Gibbins, 
there were no less than fifty-nine 
cities in Britain in the middle of 
the third century a.d., and a 




Fig. 22. — Mosaic pavement found near the Bank of 
England, 1805 (now in the British Museum). {From 
Dr. Wollasion's drawing in the Art Library, South 
Kensington, by permission. ) 



population of 10,000,000. (^Indus- 
trial History of England?) 

In the twelfth century, Wright 
assures us that England was covered 
with the remains of Roman ruined 
towns and villas standing above- 
ground. It is not surprising, 
therefore, to find, here and there 
throughout the whole length and 
breadth of the land, remains of 
Roman erections, the most striking 
of which are the mosaic pavements. 

Londinum (London) in Roman 
times was, apparently, not a capital 
city, but chiefly a place of trade. 
It was burnt in the great revolt 
under Boadicea ; but from its ashes 
rose again and became prosperous. 
Many beautiful examples of artistic 
Roman floors of villas have been 
In 1803 one was unearthed opposite East India House in 




Fig. 23. — Mosaic pavement, Leadenhall Street. 
(From Dr. Wollasion's drawing. South Kensington 
Musenm Art Library, by permission.) 



discovered. 



S8 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Leadenhall Street, at a depth of 9 feet 6 inches below the street. The central 
device was a figure of Bacchus, reclining on the back of a tiger, a purple and 
green mantle falling from his right shoulder. The square border surrounding 
it consisted of two belts of ornate design. Beyond this a margin of 5 feet 
broad was formed of plain red tiles, each an inch square. Great ingenuity 
was evinced in forming this floor, some twenty separate tints of different 
materials being introduced, the major part consisting of baked earths ; the 
more brilliant colours of green and purple being of glass. {Pict. Gall. Arts.) 

Cannon Street, Holborn Hill, Crutched Friars, Broad Street, Fenchurch 
Street, Eastcheap, Lothbury, Threadneedle Street, and the vicinity of the Bank 
of England have all furnished similar antiquities ; and how many have been 
destroyed, and how many more remain undiscovered, we may never know. 
Examples are preserved in the British Museum and the Guildhall Museum. The 
illustrations, figs. 22 and 23, are from Dr. Wollaston's drawings, by permission. 

Camulodunum (Colchester). — Professor A. H. Church describes this as 
the first regular military colony formed during the governorship of Ostorius, 
the captor of Caractacus. Several ancient tessellated pavements are preserved 
in the Colchester Castle Museum, and Mr. Alfred Bennett Bamford, curator, 
states that particulars of these have appeared in the Trans. Essex ArchcBological 
Society, vol. iv. p. 53, and vol. iii. new series, p. 207. And there are descrip- 
tions of other pavements found in the locality, but not removed, vol. v. p. 154, 
vol. ii. new series, p. 189, and vol. iii. new series, p. 140 — all illustrated except 
the one mentioned in vol. v. 

Northleigh (Oxfordshire). — Remains of a Roman pavement still exist here, 
but I have been unable to obtain a description. Formerly there were also 
remains of a pavement at Stonesfield, which the Right Hon. Viscount 
Djlldn very kindly informs me is engraved in Vetusta Monumenta, but 
he believes that the pavement itself has been long destroyed. 

Bignor (Sussex) furnishes remarkable examples of ancient mosaics. 
From ArchcBologia, vol. xviii. p. 203, we learn that: — "Roman remains 
were first noticed here in 181 1, when a mosaic pavement was discovered about 
a quarter of a mile east of the church." Then follow minute descriptions of 
its materials and design, and of other pavements discovered. In the following 
year, Samuel Lysons, F.R.S., most carefully investigated these remains, 
and prepared elaborate drawings and descriptions, which are reproduced 
and placed on record at great length. The most artistically attractive 
floor is described by Lysons thus: — "About 30 feet north of the 
room marked I in the plan, a piece of very fine mosaic work was 
discovered, a little below the bottom of the ditch on the north side of 

the field Careful investigation in 1813 of this pavement (see K 

on plan) showed that it was a parallelogram of 22 feet by 19 feet 10 
inches, with a semicircular recess at the north end, 10 feet in diameter, 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Romano-British 



59 



making the whole length 32 feet , The design of the pavement was 

remarkably rich and its subject particularly interesting ; it consisted of one 

large compartment, 13 feet 6 inches square, between two narrow oblong 

ones, with a fourth approaching 

to a semicircle, occupying the 

recess at the north end. The 

square enclosed an octagon, 

within which had been eight 

small oblong compartments 

meeting towards the centre, 

where they must have formed an 

inner octagon, none of which 

remained. Each of the small 

oblong compartments was 2 feet 

9 inches by 16 inches ; two of 

them were entire, containing 

figures of cupids or genii 

Two of the triangular divisions 
at the four corners of the square 
contained figures of urns, with 
fruit and foliage ; the other two 
were filled with cornucopia and 
foliage. The several divisions 
of the large square compartment 
were formed by a guilloche, of 
the same alternate colours as 
those in the other pavements. 
The oblong compartment on the 
north side, the square one, was 
13 feet 7 inches long and 2 feet 
6 inches wide, including the 
border formed of a doubly 
braided guilloche: it contained 
twelve figures of cupids or genii 
habited as gladiators, and ex- 
hibiting a very complete repre- 
sentation of the costumes of the 

retiani and secutores The 

semicircular division at the north 

end of the pavement is formed by a guilloche, within which is an elegant scroll 
of foliage proceeding from a goblet ; and enclosing a circular compartment 
with a fret border, within which is represented a female head, ornamented 




N. IFrigAt.] 



Fig. 24. — Mosaic pavement, Bignor. 



[Photo. 



6o LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC ,1 

with a chaplet of flowers ; tresses of hair appear on the shoulders, which 
are naked. The most remarkable circumstance attending this subject is 
that the head is surrounded with a nimbus, like that of a Christian saint, of 

a light-blue colour On each side of the circular compartment are 

cornucopi and festoons of foliage, with two birds, one on each side, which seem 

to have been designed for pheasants The ornaments and general 

style of the mosaic work at Bignor bear a striking resemblance to those of 
the pavements discovered at Pompeii, which could not have been of a later 

date than the reign of Titus The Bignor pavements differ from any 

yet discovered in Britaiii^and have the appearance of much. greater antiquity. 
The figures, too, are composed of much better materials, and are much better 
drawn and executed than those which appear in other works of the kind so 
frequently found in this island." {Arckceologia, vol. xviii.) 

Dr. Wollaston's series include six drawings from Bignor. 

Calleva (Silchester). — About ten miles south-west of Reading the site of a 
large Romano-British town is being slowly explored. It comprises about lOO 
acres of what is now arable and pasture land in the parish of Silchester, 
enclosed by the remains of a Roman wall nearly two miles in circumference. 
In the illustrated report of the excavations during the years 1895 and 1898 
are coloured drawings by W. H. St. John Hope, Esq., M.A., and George G. 
Fox, Esq., M.A., representing both red-tile tesserae and artistic marble 
mosaics. A portion of one of these drawings we are courteously permitted to 
reproduce. (Fig. 25.) 

Referring to the pavements, the 1 895 Report states that : — " The first im- 
pression conveyed to the eye by these floor mosaics is that of a predominance 
of black and white in the designs. But a second glance will show a variety 
of. colouring not perceived at the first moment. In the pavements of 
chambers 22 and 27 of House No. i (Insula XIV.), besides the invariable 
black and white, we have a scarlet and purple red, a greenish and orange 
yellow, a bluish, a greenish, and a brownish grey. The materials of which 
these floors are composed are, with very few exceptions, all of native 
stones, or Purbeck marble ; the principal exception being in the composition 
of the bright-red tesserae, which are always of brick, whether employed in the 
larger form as a ground for the finer work, or as smaller cubes in the finer 
work itself. The tesserae of which the finer mosaics are composed are on the 
average -l-inch square.'' 

On the coloured plan of House No. i (Insula XIV.), in the 1895 Report, 
no less than twenty-two floors, corridors, etc., show evidence of having been 
paved with red-tile tesserae ; and those floors where mosaics are employed 
generally have wide margins of red-tile tesserae all round the mosaic. 

From the 1898 Report we gather that the black tesseras were sandy lime- 
stone ; the white tesserae, hard chalk ; and the dull orange were supposed to be 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Romano-British 



6[ 




Fig. 25.— Mosaic pavement at Silchester. {By permission oj W, H. St. fohn Hope, Esq., F.S.A.) 



62 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

a burnt stone. The dark greenish-grey tesserze were always of Purbeck 
marble ; the reds always of brick, but two qualities were used — one orange in 
colour, the other the usual red. 

Durnovaria (Dorchester). — Mr. H. J. Moule, in his Dorchester Antiquities, 
writes : — " Durnovaria seems to have abounded in these handsome floors." 
The most remarkable find appears to have been made in 1858, when three 
floors of a Roman house were uncovered at the east end of the grounds of 
Dorchester Gaol. In. other words, this house was almost certainly within the 
precincts of Dorchester Castle ; and this, again, very probably took the place 
of the Roman Governor's house. In 1862 and 1875 other finds occurred; 
and in 1900 large portions of a floor were struck during preparations for the 
new Devon and Cornwall Bank in South Street. The largest Roman floor 
found in or near Dorchester was discovered in 1899, in the back-garden of a 
new house in Olga Road'. As to Roman coins, Mr. Moule says the place, 
after all these centuries of casual findings, is still full of them. 

With regard to a Roman pavement found at Somerleigh Court, Mr. Moule 
writes : — " The sight of a mosaic floor as the Romans left it is a rare event. 
Therefore no time was lost in going to Somerleigh Court. There, at the 
bottom of a trench, 5 feet or more deep, half-covered with earth, could be seen 
bits of the floor, dim-looking enough. But Mr. Tite flushed away the loose 
earth with a pailful of water. Then almost flashed on the site the bright 

tessellation, striking in colour, lovely in design It is a sight of beauty 

.... a sight full of emotion." {Dorchester Antiquities?) 

AqucB Solis (Bath). — The Roman roads from Calleva and Lindum to 
Ilchester crossed in the neighbourhood of Bath, and upon Hampton Downs 
there is the ancient borough or camp. In the second century A.D., it is sup- 
posed that the site was changed on account of the proximity of the mineral- 
water springs, which were even then becoming famous, and a new city, Aqu(B 
Solis, was erected where Bath now stands. Here the Romans built palatial 
baths, which were rediscovered in 1754. Three large Roman villas have been 
discovered in the Bath valley, and these, together with a few fragments of 
paving, of altars, and of tombs, in conjunction with the baths themselves, 
form the only remaining local relics. (See Bath as a Health Resort, Bath 
Corporation.) The Illustrated London News of i ith November 1902, however, 
gives illustrations on p. 697 of some more recent discoveries in the neighbour- 
hood of Bath ; and on p. 690 these are referred to thus : — " In a garden a few 
yards to the north of Box Church, about 5 miles from Bath, some excellent 
remains of a Roman villa have, during the last three months, been excavated 

by the Wiltshire Archaeological Society Mr.- H. Bell, of Cleeve 

House, Melksham, undertook to bear the whole expense The mosaic 

pavement was wrought in five colours— white, blue, yellow, red, and purple." 
Isca Silurum (Caerieon) —The history of Caerleon during Roman times 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Romano-British 63 

so far, appears to be undiscovered. It is supposed to have been founded A.D. 
70, and was the seat of the second Augustan legion, and capital of the Roman 
province of Britannia Secunda. Taking into consideration the many times 
Caerleon has been attacked and plundered since the days of the Romans, it is 
no wonder that comparatively little remains. Still, pavements have been 
found here. So long ago as A.D. 1693, Edward Lhwyd wrote: — "These 
ancient pavements are not buried so deep in this county as they are in the 
churchyard at Woodchester in Gloucestershire, for that lies about three foot 
depth ; this at Kaer Lion lay no deeper than the ploughshare." (Camden's 
Britannia?) 

In 1862 Mr. J. E. Lee, F.S.A., of the Priory, Caerleon, wrote an illustrated 
catalogue of the antiquities in the Caerleon Museum, which by the kindness of 
Mr. Alfred E. Hudd, F.S.A., of Clifton, I have been able to examine. It 
mentions and illustrates inscribed stonesj altars, coffins, red-glazed ware, 
lamps, vases, bricks, moulded cornices, tiles, mosaic pavements, fibulae, nails, 
hooks, chains, bells, spears, coins, spoons, etc., etc., besides numerous mediaeval 
rehcs. And there is a coloured plate of a mosaic floor at Caerwent, simple 
and unpretentious in design and colouring, but very pretty. 

Venta Silurum (Caerwent). — Systematic excavations were begun on this 
site by a committee of the Clifton Antiquarian Club in August 1899. Up to 
January 1901 about three acres had been explored, and amongst other 
buildings traced was one containing upward of forty apartments, wherein were 
found remains of tessellated pavements, baths, etc. On all four sides of the 
peristyle of another house, an ambulatory was found of an average width of 
9 feet, paved with tesserae of brick. Wherever mosaic pavements were found 
in the interiors they appear to have been of the kind distinguished as Opus 
Signinum, i.e., the simplest kind of Roman mosaic. An illustration of one of 
these is on plate xxv., Isca Silurum, by J. E. Lee, F.S.A. ; and coloured 
reproductions of two floors are shown on plates x. and xi., ArckcBologia, 
vol. Iviii. 

Brislington, near Bristol. — In December 1899 remains of a Roman villa 
were discovered, in a field on the north side of the present Bath road, about 
half a mile beyond Arno's Vale Cemetery, the actual discovery taking place 
when workmen were cutting trenches for the drainage of a new road. Before 
measures for the preservation of the tessellated floors could be taken, they had 
been cut through ; but sufficient plans and drawings of the remains were 
secured by the exertions of the Clifton Antiquarian Club and the Bristol Museum 
Committee, to enable Mr. W. R. Barker, J.P., the chairman of the Museum 
Committee, to form a very succinct and interesting description, which is now 
published (price one shilling). 

From this it appears that the pavements were found pear the surface in 
an unprotected condition; and owing to the concrete foundation having 



64 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



partially decayed, different parts of the pavements were found at irregular 
levels, and created difficulty in their removal to the museum. 

Two pavements are figured in the published account of the discovery. 
These, by careful consideration of portions secured, are drawn out as completely 
as possible; and as Mr. W. R. Barker has very kindly consented to their 
reproduction in this volume (see Plates VII. and VIII.), a lengthy letterpress 
description is uncalled for. 

Pavement No. i (Plate VII.) is a simple but pleasing geometrical design, 
in which the prevailing colours are red, white, and blue, with some tesserae 
of brown and grey. 

Pavement No. 2. — In this case much had been destroyed by violence or 
time, but, by a happy circumstance, the centre, to which all the rest was 
subordinate, had been wonderfully preserved. A beautifully coloured drawing 
of this centre was made by Mrs. Flora Bush, before the pavement was dis- 
turbed (Plate VIII.), and eventually 
the centre was successfully removed 
to the museum in one block. 

Several other interesting antiqui- 
ties and relics were found on the same 
site, and are illustrated in the Bristol 
Museum publication about the Roman 
villa at Brislington. 

Cormmm (Cirencester). — Professor 
A. H. Church, M.A., F.R.S., in an in- 
teresting pamphlet on the Corinium 
Museum, mentions a very great variety 
of tiles and other Roman relics found 
in that district. Respecting the pave- 
ments he writes : — " The two fine mosaic pavements which occupy the greater 
part of the floor of the museum were discovered in a Roman villa in Dyer 
Street, Cirencester, in the year 1849, during drainage operations. . . . Both 
pavements are of high quality, the larger one . . being of singular merit in 
design and excellent in execution. . " Prpfessor Church describes these 
floors in detail ; and mentions others that have been found in the same 
neighbourhood. One had a walnut tree growing above it. 

Woodchester, or Woodmanchester, near Stroud, Gloucestershire. — Under- 
neath the quiet churchyard of this modest village, for centuries, lay the remains 
of one of the largest and finest mosaic pavements of Romano-British times 
ever discovered in England. Through the kindness of the rector. Rev. 
Frederick Smith, an illustrated pamphlet has been furnished describing this 
wonderful floor. Even in A.D. 1695 Woodchester was famous for its 
"tessariack work of painted beasts and flowers .... in the churchyard." 




Fig. 26. — Mosaic found at Cirencester. (From 
CasselPs Technical Educator, vol. iii. p. 201.) 



ROMANO-BRITISH MOSAIC FROM BRISLINGTON. 



PLVri 




iVAftS A C'LITH BROftD 5' BHIStOl- 



PAVEMENT No. 1. Complijte design. 



Reprinted by permission of W. R. Barker, Esq., J. P., Chairman of the City of Bri.stol 

Museum Committee. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Romano-British 



6S 



I I Ml I I I IT 






^£ 



i' | i i', i , i ,i',',i | i'JJ,'.V'.'M,i I 






SKiBiSSn 



In 1779 Rudder wrote : — '' Many coffins are placed upon the pave- 
ment, but it has been broken through at the request of some families 
who desired to have their friends interred at greater depth." In 1783 part 
of it was destroyed by exposure to wet and frost; and some years after- 
wards a portion of the scroll-work was presented to the British Museum 
by Lysons. Lysons examined it very carefully, 1793-179S, and discovered 
the foundations of a palatial residence, and published a monograph about it 
in 1797.. 

The " famous tessariack " proved to be the floor of the principal hall or 
ATRIUM, and measured 48 feet 10 inches square, the central part being 
formed in a circle 25 feet 
diameter, enclosed within a 
square frame, so to speak, 
of twenty - four compart- 
ments, each of intricate de- 
sign and colouring. Within 
the braided guilloche is a 
broad circular band con- 
taining representations of 
animals, each about 4 feet 
in length. Originally there 
were twelve of these, separ- 
ated from each other by 
mosaic representations of 
small trees set in a white 
background. Another, but 
much -damaged portion 
contained representations 
of birds, and, by report, 
another contained pictures 
of fish and sea-monsters. 

Beecham of Cirencester made an elaborate coloured drawing of this magni- 
ficent floor, and published lithographed copies of it many years ago. 

Altogether Lysons is said to have ascertained the dimensions of sixty-five 
rooms, and three large courts — one 90 feet square, another 1 50 feet square ; also 
evidences of other rooms — the whole covering an area of at least 550 teet by 
300 feet. From its extent and evident magnificence, and its situation near 
three great Roman roads, this residence is supposed to have been that of the 
Proprsetor, or chief military governor of the province, and may at times have 
been an imperial palace. 

In the centre of the entrance-hall of the Museum of Practical Geology, 
Jermyn Street, London, is an example of Minton's modern British tessellated 

5 




Fig. 27. — Mosaic from Woodchester. (Casse/h' Technical 
Educator, vol. iii. p. 201.) 



66 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



pavement, from a design founded on the mosaics of Woodchester. (See 
Handbook to the Jermyn Street Museum, p. i lo.) 

Uriconium or Viroconium (Wroxeter). — Situated at the termination of the 
famous Watling Street, about six miles from Shrewsbury, are a few visible 
ruins of a once populous town, said to be 2000 years old. We learn from a 
publication by Thomas Wright, M.A., that one large structure appears to have 
been paved in its whole length (226 feet long by 30 feet wide) with small 
bricks, 3 inches by i inch, set in herring-bone style. In another part were 
found pavements in fine mosaics, evidently intended for roofed apartments, 
elegantly adorned within. One of the rooms adjoining the old wall (a 
remnant of solid Roman masonry .still standing above-ground) had the interior 

surface of its walls orna- 
mented with tessellated 
work, the floor having a 
plain pavement of small 
white marble tessellae. In 
1857 George Maw, Esq., 
F.G.S., of Broseley, made 
coloured drawings of 
several fragmentary por- 
tions of mosaics found at 
Uriconium, a reproduction 
of which we have been per- 
mitted to publish by the 
Committee of the Shrews- 
bury Free Library and 
Museum. Mr. Maw fur- 
nished the- museum with 
some interesting comments 
on the nature of the 
materials used in forming the ancient mosaics of Uriconium, and these may 
be seen in wall-cases. 

In the same museum is an illustration of a beautiful mosaic pavement 
which was discovered at Lea Cross, near Pontesbury, some time earlier than 
A.D. 1793, for it is mentioned in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1793, part ii. 
p. 1 144. 

Deva (Chester).— This central stronghold, upon which five Roman roads 
converged, became a flourishing town ; but the numberless vicissitudes it has 
subsequently experienced, together with the obliteration arising from con- 
tinued occupation by man, has efifectually reduced the traces of Roman 
life and customs to a vanishing point. What fragmentary relics have 
been preserved are now mostly housed in the Grosvenor Museum ; the 




Fig, 28. — Fragments of mosaics from Uriconium. {From a 
drawing by George Maw, Esq., by permission of the Shrews- 
bury Musaini Committee. ) 



ROMANO-BRITISH MOSAIC FROM BRISLINGTON. 

PI. VIII 




CENTRE OF PAVEMENT No. 2. 

.Reprinted by permission of W. R. Barker, Esq., J. P., Chairman of the City of Bristol 

Museum Committee. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Romano-British 



67 




Fig. 29. — Centre design of mosaic pavement found at Lea Cross. {From a coloured drawing 
in Shrewsbiiry Museum, by permission.) 



68 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

specimens of'.Roman flooring and tiles there are Nos. 187, 188, 189, 191, 
200, 201, 202. 

Rata Civitas Legionum (Leicester). — An interesting monograph by 
W. T. Tucker, Esq., F.G.S., of Loughborough, recently published in the 
Reliquary, furnishes the following: — "In the year 1832, whilst digging the 
foundations for some small houses, situated to the south-west of the Jewry 
wall in Leicester, a portion of an elaborate Roman pavement was discovered. 
At length the Town Council purchased the property, with the object of 
preserving the pavement in situ. During operations to make it accessible 
it was found the floor continued underneath the adjacent house. The owner 
was arranged with and the site fully explored, when an apparently square 
floor of about 23 feet was disclosed, together with its borders, and one piece 
of the original wall, bearing a face of ornamented plaster-work. It is quite 
impossible to describe the beauties of the geometrical patterns of which the 
floor is made up ; suffice it to say its workmanship and colour-design are 

perfect It was with considerable curiosity that I heard of the recent 

find near to St. Nicholas' Church. I at once visited the site, and was struck 
with the resemblance to the floor found in 1832. The floor appears to be a 
square of about 14 feet, and is divided into nine octagonal portions, the central 
one being occupied by the peacock. The borders are wide and are well 
shown in some places, the design is very elaborate, and the same heart-shaped 
pattern occurs as in the borders of the 1832 floor. It is 8 feet below the 
level of the present street, and about 50 yards from the south side of 
St. Nicholas' Church. A plainer floor of about 10 feet square was found in 
the position where one would expect the corridor to have been, and it has 
recently been found that the 1832 floor was provided with a similar corridor. 
It was claimed for the 1832 floor that such a magnificent and costly floor 
could only have been found in the principal villa, and that it must have been 
the site of the Prefect's house. But this new discovery, which is quite as 
beautiful and 400 yards away, would indicate that there were other villas 
equally worthy of being the house of the Prefect." {Reliquary.) 

Lindum or Lindum Colonia (Lincoln). — In the City of Birmingham 
Reference Library there is a magnificent book of coloured engravings of 
Roman mosaics discovered mostly in Lincolnshire, drawn by W. Fowler, A.D. 
1796-1802. Many of these are elaborate in the extreme. One, discovered 
near Winterton, A.D. 1797, is really of lovely design, apparently formed of red, 
black, and white tesserae, Another floor, discovered about A.D. 1796, near 
Roxby, is also particularly fine ; the colours are red, silver-grey, and white, 
and the design is made up of key-patterns, cables, lovers' -knots, and diamond 
shapes. The whole book is not only a monument of skill and patience in 
itself, but sets forth in a startling manner the marvellous works of the 
Romans. By permission of the chief librarian, Mr. A. Capel Shaw, a 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Romano-British 

le w gw E w 



, 69 




Fig. 30. — Mosaic pavement found at Micklegate Bar, York. {After Fowler.) 
{^By permission of the City of Birmingham Free Library and Museum Committee.') 



70 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

reproduction of one of the wonderful drawings is illustrated in this 
volume. 

Eburacum (York). — York having been continuously in occupation since 
Roman times, and subject to spoliation and overbuilding, cannot be expected 
to furnish more than a mere morsel of its ancient glory in mosaics. The 
Roman camp or capital here at first appears to have occupied only about sixty- 
five acres on the left bank of the Ouse, but this limited space seems soon to 
have become too small, and its population and buildings then occupied 
adjoining lands. Its importance may be inferred from the fact that the 
Roman Emperor Severus and his two sons, Caracalla and Geta, resided here 
a considerable time ; indeed, according to history, the Emperor Severus died 
at York, A.D. 211, as also the Emperor Constantinus, A.D. 306. (See Smith's 
History of England, p. 5.) 

In the grounds of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society a portion of the 
Roman wall and a Roman tower are still preserved. And among the 
antiquities in the museum is a Roman tessellated pavement, 14 feet 3 inches 
square, the pattern chiefly composed of labyrinthine fret, one centre repre- 
senting the head of Medusa, and four others are symbolical of the seasons. 
This pavement was discovered in 1853 in Toft Green, about 14 feet below the 
present surface, with portions of another and the border of a third. In 
another room are two Roman pavements from neighbouring localities, the 
larger one from Oulston, near Easingwold, which was originally 36 feet long. 
Other pavements also have been discovered near York 

When all are counted up, it would really be astonishing what a number of 
fine pavements have been found. Fowler's great book, and Lysons' Reliqum 
Britannico- Romano and Archceologia, teem with descriptions and illustrations. 
Thus, under the very feet of our ancestors, unheeded for centuries, lay the 
patterns from which our most modern ceramic floors are really derived. 
An art lost to us for fifteen hundred years is being relearned and re- 
stored to practical utility. 

Persian — The art of the decorative tilemaker, whether originating with 
Babylonian or Egyptian, apparently spread eastward to Persia. Sir George 
Birdwood asserts most positively that : " In Persia the ancient art of glazing 
earthenware had come down in an almost unbroken tradition from the period 
of the greatness of Chaldsea." (Jour. Soc. Arts, 28th February 1879, P- 31 1-) 

For a long time evidence of this was not too plentiful, because the ancient 
Persians left few records and few enduring buildings ; their most extensive 
and populous, and by report their oldest city, Istakhr, is gone, with barely 
a trace remaining to tell of its existence. "All we know of Persia," writes 
Fergusson regretfully, « during her most brilliant period we learn orily from 

her enemies Not one scrap of their literature remains to us, nor one 

native utterance, except it be the buildings of Persepolis and those in its 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Persian 



71 



neighbourhood. These are all that Persia has left us of herself. Had they 
perished, and had. other nations not transmitted to us her story, we might 
scarcely have known of her existence." {Nineveh and Persepolis, p. 87, 
Murray.) Subsequent excavations in Susiana certainly have yielded results of 
historical interest which we shall shortly notice, but the greater part of 
Persia proper is still barren and silent to the antiquary and archaeologist in 
respect of its ancient glory. The explanation seems to be that the Persians 
built mostly of mud or sun-dried bricks, and this enabled the inclement 
climate effectively to reduce their " earth to earth." 

In a very instructive paper on " Mud : a Material in Persian and Eastern 








Fig. 31. 



-Tomb constructed of mud. {By permission of the Royal Institute of British 
Architects. See Transactions R.I. B. A., vol. iii. N.S. p. 68.) 



Architecture," read at the Society of Arts, 17th May 1892, Mr. W. 
Simpson, R.I., stated that "not only villages but large towns are built 
of mud or sun-dried bricks," and " over a large geographical space in the 
eastern world the building material of the present day is almost exclusively 
mud." And lest we should think that system of building belongs only to a 
rude condition of civilization, and only produces houses little better than 
hovels, Mr. Simpson asserts that "this manner of building was developed into 
a.highly decorative style." (Jour. Soc. Arts, 3rd June 1892, p. 703.) 

Even in the case of the ruins of Persepolis, which abound with marble 
pillars, doorways, stairs, and terraces, the astonishing feature about them is 



72 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

an absence of walls. As Fergusson shows, if the walls had been of kiln-burnt 
bricks, chippings and fragments at least must have remained. No such tell- 
tales being found, he infers that the walls of Persepolis originally consisted of 
sun-dried bricks, partly ornamented with enamelled tiles after the manner of 
their neighbours. These tiles, he supposes, were either removed by the hand 
of man, or disintegrated in situ. Another supposition has been advanced by 
Vaux with reference to these ruins of Persepolis, namely, that hangings of 
some textile fabric may have been used to connect the pillars and doorways, 
and so form apartments or halls of audience. In support of this view he quotes 
Esther i. 5 and 6. {History of Persia, p. 116, S.P.C.K.) But Vaux assures 
us that " the oldest certain relic of Ancient Persia " is " the curious structure 
commonly called the Tomb of Cyrus. . . . This remarkable building stands in 
the middle of the plain of Murghdb, on a site usually identified with that of 
Pasargadai, the capital of Persia in the time of Cyrus." Even this seems to 
have been so very thoroughly restored by order of Alexander the Great, that 
what now remains conveys the impression of Grecian rather than Persian 
architecture. The only point of interest in it for us is that there is no mention 
of decorative tiles within or without this structure. {History of Persia, 
pp. 87-90, S.P.C.K.) 

Another important monument from which it is disappointing to learn so 
little is the inscribed rock of Behistin, which includes nearly 1000 lines of 
cuneiform character, and which those who formed it took great pains to 
render durable and inviolable. Vaux speaks of it as " the most valuable of 
all Achsemenian remains " ; but he tells us sorrowfully that Sir H. C. Rawlinson 
has remarked that " we must be content for the most part to peruse a certain 
formula of invocation to Ormazd, and a certain empty parade of royal titles, 
recurring with a most wearisome and disappointing uniformity." {Persia, p. 96, 
S.P.C.K.) More tangible evidence, however, was eventually wrested, at great 
risk and cost, from this apparently barren field of archaeological research : 
first, by W. K. Loftus, F.G.S., about 1852, whose perilous enterprises at Susa 
have been so graphically recorded in his Chaldcea and Susiana, and whose 
relatively small finds, including some fragments of enamelled bricks, were sent 
to the British Museum ; and, secondly, by the remarkable discoveries of 
M. Dieulafoy in the same locality, subsequently. The superb specimens of 
ancient mural ceramics, dug up by the latter in 1885, were essentially composed 
of many small enamelled bricks formerly forming part of a frieze in the 
palace of Darius I. (521 to 485 B.C.) at Susa. The originals were safely 
transferred to the Louvre, and have since formed one of the wonders of 
that home of wonders, and the chief theme of many a eulogy of Ancient 
Persian art. 

Mr. Clement Heaton, speaking at the Society of Arts (24th March 1891), 
described these examples as a " grand series of works in low relief and enamel 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Persian 



73 




*''* fe'!'5|iir''''^' 



74 



LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



from the palaces of Darius and Artaxerxes Mnemon at Susa." " One of these 
friezes," he says, "is 12 yards long by 11 feet high, in perfect preservation, with 
a procession of archers in profile, and bands of ornament. Another is a frieze 
of lions with ornament above and below." The effect, he assures us, is one of 
striking beauty — a harmony of soft blues, greens, and yellows, with a little 

white and brown, the whole 
treatment being that of cloi- 
sonne, of which the outlines 
consist of " fillets of clay, 
separating the enamels and 
reflecting lines of light." 
(Jour. Soc. Arts, 3rd April 
i89i,p. 379.) 

This palace of Darius I. is 
said to have been destroyed 
by fire during the reign of 
Artaxerxes I. (465 to 425 
B.C.), but the final destruction 
of the city of Susa by the 
Saracens, and its desertion, is 
assigned to a date shortly 
after A.D. 709, that being the 
latest date of the coins. Here 
then, at least, the Arabs had 
opportunity of learning 
of the wonderful 
ceramic decoration of Ancient 
Persia. One striking feature, 
however, cannot well have 
escaped the notice of the 
reader, namely, the remark- 
able similarity between these 
Susa friezes and those found 
recently by the German ex- 
plorers at Babylon. The 
question at once presents 
itself : are these Ancient Persian enamelled brick- reliefs " spoils of war " 
from Babylon, or are they the work of artist Chaldean captives sent by 
Cyrus or Darius to Susiana? This would seem much more probable than 
that Persian amateurs should have made them. The vigour and well- 
developed muscle so forcibly depicted in the figures, both human and animal, 
are clearly neither Persian nor Egyptian, but characteristically either Chaldean 




an 



something 



Fig. 33.— Portion of the "Archer Frieze," from a replica in 
coloured plaster-work, Victoria and Albert Museum. 
(Illustration reprinted from " Arch. Review," April 
1902, p. 117.) 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Persian 



7S 



or Assyrian. And it may be noted that about A.D. 1901 the French 
archaeologist De Morgan, in company with the monk Scheil, found at 
Susa a diorite block upon which were inscribed 282 paragraphs of the 
laws of King Hammurabi of Babylon, B.C. 2250. {Babel and Bible, p. 185, 
Williams & Norgate.) 

History tells also of a Median example, namely, the city of Ecbatana, of 
which Halsey Ricardo has said : — " In Mesopotamia the Medes built the town of 
Ecbatana. Up the sides of a steep hill rose the seven circular walls, one inside 
the other, enfolding the treasury and the king's paAace. The outer wall was 
of immense diameter, and the terraces enclosed by each ring carried collections 

of country houses with small farm and gardens attached The city was 

consecrated to the great powers of the firmament, and the devotion of its 
founder was registered in the form and colour of its walls. The battlements 
to the outer wall were white ; to the next, black ; the third, scarlet ; the 
fourth, blue; the fifth, 
orange ; the two last walls 
had their battlements 
silvered and gilt. Return- 
ing from an expedition or 
from the chase, there stood 
before the eyes of the be- 
holder the city of his home, 
voicing in its chords of colour 
the seven great orbs that 
guarded his family and 
hearth — the sun, the moon, 
and the five planets — who 

rose and set in ceasekSs vigilance This profusion ot colour and 

metaUwork strikes us as extravagant .... but Herodotus dealt with facts 
well known to many of his readers who had seen Nineveh and Babylon and 
the pictured splendour of Egypt ; and this is how he describes Ecbatana. 
Amidst this wealth of artificial colour grew up the art of Persia." {Arch. 
Rev., pp. 118, 119, April 1902.) 

Less than a century perhaps after the height of luxury at Susa, the ebb- 
tide of Achzemenian power and splendour set in. In B.C. 335-334 Alexander 
the Great crossed the Hellespont with a large army, and by B.C. 330 Susa and 
Persepolis were under the dominion of the Macedonian, and the ancient 
history of Persia was a closed chapter. Thenceforward for nearly five 
hundred years the Persian remnant shrank within their own circumscribed 
boundaries and learned what it was to " wear the yoke." Meanwhile, about 
B.C. 250, arose the Parthian Empire, which eventually extended its dominion 
over many territories between the Indus and the Tigris. . (See Persia, by Vaux, 




Fig. 34. — Portion of frieze of lions, from replica in Victoria and 
Albert Museum. {By permission oj the Boardof Education.) 



76 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

p. 121, S.P.C.K.) They, too, appear to have left no records, and their history 
has to be learned from what the Romans and the Armenians wrote about them. 
In course of time Parthia and Rome came in touch, and for years these Titan 
forces wrestled for supremacy. When at length the " mistress of the world " 
had humbled the proud and powerful Parthian "king of kings," then, for- 
sooth, the Roman soldiery contracted disease in Babylonia, which scourged 
their empire through to the very shores of the Atlantic. {Persia, by Vaux, 
p. 148, S.P.C.K.) 

Another long break in the chain of evidence relating to the continuity of 
the ceramic art in Persia demands explanation, namely, the period from 
A.D. 220 to A.D. 636. This is known as the Sassanian period. Parthia having 
been overpowered and devastated by the Romans, and the Romans debilitated 
by pestilence, the Persian remnant under Ardashur I. and Shahpur I. re- 
established an independent kingdom of their own, and once more the Persians 
(Sassanians) became powerful ; even Egypt was entered again by them, and, 
the inhabitants of Constantinople knew what it was to see a Persian camp at 
their door. The western capital of this empire was Ctesiphon, but they left 
few records apparently, for Vaux writes : — " We have but few materials for the 
early part of their history. Native and contemporary chronicles there are 
none." {Persia, p. 152, S.P.C.K.) Of ruins, those of the city of Shahpiir, 
about fifteen miles north of Kazerun, are considered the most celebrated of 
Sassanian age. Authorities refer to a high state of civilization at this time, 
but no examples of ceramic decoration appear to be mentioned. This is not 
to be wondered at, for after Heraclius (about A.D. 628) had shattered the 
strength of the Sassanians, the Mohammadans found them an easy prey ; 
and when Ctesiphon was captured, it is said that one-fifth of the entire booty, 
together with all the works of art, was sent to Medina. " The Arabian writers 
afterwards described in glowing colours the palaces and gardens, the beautiful 
streets, the luxury of the houses, and especially the royal palace, with its 
portico of twelve marble pillars, each 1 50 feet in height ; its hall with vaulted 
roof, brilliant with stars of gold .... a carpet of white brocade, 450 feet long, 
with a border of precious stones." {Extinct Civilizations of the East, p. 219, 
Newnes.) 

Possibly to this period may be ascribed certain fragments of early glazed 
wares from Persia, of uncertain date, which are rudely decorated with figures of 
men and animals, plants and leafage, painted on a sandy body beneath a 
silico-alkaline glaze ; these things and the plunder of Sassanian cities may 
possibly account for the presence of leadless glazed tiles on the tomb of 
Mohammad at Medina, built A.D. 707. 

Thus for many centuries little is to be learned of Persian decorative 
ceramics. Meanwhile, " old times were changed, old manners gone " ; Chaldean 
models give place to Saracenic, Indian, and Chinese ; palaces and temples 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Persian 



77 



are displaced by mosques. Suddenly, about the twelfth centurj- a.d., from 
somewhere spring up artistic tastes and art manufactures, such as have earned 
renown for the Persians in every civilized land, and spread its far-reaching 
influence through Asia, Africa, and Europe. 

If it were necessary to trace continuity in this art in Persia from ancient 
times, the associations of the Chaldean-speaking portions of Persian peoples, 
together with the facts already referred to, are at our service. While the 
savage Parthian and the empire-fevered Roman were grappling in deadly 
grip, the colour-loving Chaldean may have quietly cherished and handed down, 
from generation to generation, the memories and crafts of Babylon, Ecbatana, 
and Susa. 

Yet, again, de novo invention is possible to the sagacious Iranian, perhaps ; 
and if there were not other explanations, this might pass for one of the 
possibilities of the problem. It is, however, equally important to recall that, 
at the commencement of the 
twelfth century, the principal 
Mohammadan invasion of 
India took place, and vast 
booty was deported, together 
with many captives, from 
Northern India, westward, 
by the victorious Moham- 
madans. 

Further, Sir John Mal- 
colm, in his History of 
Persia, vol. i. p. 422, states 
that a hundred families of 
Chinese artisans and engineers came to Persia with Hulaku Khan about 
A.D. 1256. Among these may have been ceramists. {Persian Arts, p. 11, 
Chapman & Hall.) Afterwards, in a.d. 140a, occurred the great conquests 
of the Moguls under Tamerlane, of whom Sir George Birdwood said :— 
" In all the imperial Mogul cities of India where it [the art of glazed pottery] 
is practised, especially in Lahore and Delhi, the tradition is that it was 
introduced from China through Persia .... through the influence of Tamer- 
lane's Chinese wife." {Tour. Sac. Arts, 28.2.79, p. 310.) 

Add to this the fact that, until the discovery of the passage by the Cape 
of Good Hope (a.d. 1497), Persia was near to or upon the great highway of 
whatever commerce there was, from all time, between China and Europe. 
Thus we need make little -call upon our imagination to find reasons for 
suspecting Chinese influence. (See Persian Art, p. 6.) 

Hence, while ware of simple turquoise-blue glaze or of polychrome enamels 
may with justice be assumed to have had a Chaldean or Egyptian prototype, 




Fig. 35. — Persian inscribed tile, thitleenth century. {By 
pel-mission of the proprietors of" The Connoisseur") 



78 



LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 


















s 



cq a. 



a, 
< 



■^S J! 



S It 









o cq 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Persian 79 

on the other hand, conventional painting of flowers, etc., in blue on a white 
ground has such close resemblance to early Chinese methods, and appeared 
in Persia at a period so exactly synchronizing with the events above related, 
that it seems most reasonable to assign to it a Chinese or Mongolian 
origination. 

Nevertheless, Sir R. M. Smith writes :— " Persian art is, if possible, still 
less indebted to the Moghul than to the Arab invaders of the country. The 
successive hordes of Chenghiz Khan, Halaku, and Tamerlane, as well as the 
fanatic rule of the lieutenants of Omar, served only to destroy much that had 
previously existed. Some of the descendants of these conquerors, it is true, 
became, like the Arab kalifs, patrons and promoters of art and science. The 
productions of their time, however, are none the less the work of the native 
Aryans." {Persian Arts, p. 5.) 

The mosques are mostly closed to Europeans, bu| one of the highly 
decorated Sheah-Mohammedan shrines of Persia is that of Meshed 'All, and 
to this Mr. Wj K. Loftus once had the good luck to obtain access. In his 
Chaldcea and Susiana he has given a graphic description of his visit. After 
detailing the incidents and perils of the attempt, he speaks of its ornamenta- 
tion thus : — " It is all but impossible to convey to the mind of another the 
impression produced cfei the senses by the first inspection of a Persian mosque. 
The extreme richness and brilliancy of the polychromatic decoration, and the 

exquisite harmony of the whole, cannot fail to leave a lasting impression 

Like the generally of mosques, that of Meshed "All is arranged in the form 
of a rectangle. The mausoleum stands nearly in the centre of a large court, 
the walls of which, as well as those of the principal building, are adorned from 
top to base with square encaustic tiles. The design on these is a succession 
of scrolls, leaves, and doves wrought into the most intricate patterns. The 
colours, though bright, are so admirably and harmoniously blended and 
softened down- by lines of White, that the surface appears like a rich mosaic 
set in silver. Each wall is divided into two tiers of blind arches, ornamented 
throughout in a similar manner, above each of which are texts from the Koran 
written in letters of gold. Two highly decorated gateways, deeply set in 
lofty flat panels, give admission to the great court of the mosque, and serve 
to relieve the otherwise monotonous aspect of the enclosure. The summit 
of the mausoleum walls are likewise surrounded by passages from the Koran. 
At three corners are minarets, two of which in front are covered throughout 
with gilt tiles, said to have cost two tomans {£\ sterling) each. These, 
together with a magnificent dome of the same costly material, give to the 
tout ensemble a gorgeous appearance. Seen in the distance, with the sun 
shining upon it, the dome of Meshed 'All might be mistaken for a mound of 
gold. . . . The tomb of the great saint was not for infidels to approach and 
defile, but the Ghydwr were perfectly content with the sight they were 



8o LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 




Fig. yj. — The Mahun Shrine near Kerrnan. [By pei-viission oj the Royal Geographical 
Society and the proprietois of the "Architectural Review," See Arch. Review, 
April 1902, p. 122.) 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Persian 



8i 



permitted to behold in the court of the mosque We did not tarry long, 

as it was evident, from the demeanour of those around us, that we were not 

welcome We slowly retired, casting a last 

lingering glance on this noble and fascinating 
specimen of Persian art." {Chaldma and Susiana, 
p. 53, Nesbit.) 

Sir George Birdwood also has given a glowing 
description of these Eastern ceramics. Long 
ago he wrote : — " The sight of wonder is, when 
travelling over the plains of Persia or India, 
suddenly to come upon an encaustic-tiled mosque. 
It is coloured all over in yellow, green, blue, and 
other hues ; and as a distant view is caught of it at 
sunrise, its stately domes and glittering minarets 
seem made of purest gold .... a fairy-like appari- 
tion of inexpressible grace and most enchanting 
splendour." {Industrial Arts of India, p. 140.) 

With regard to the later Mohammedan-Persian decorative ceramics. 
Sir R. Murdoch Smith states that, "In the sixteenth. and seventeenth centuries. 




Fig. 38. — Persian star tile. {By 
permission of the proprietors of 
" The Connoisseur") 




Fig. 39.— Persian star and cruciform tile, thir- 
teenth century. (By permission oj the 
proprietors of ^ The Connoisseur." See Con- 
noisseur, November 1903, p. 164.) 



Fig. 40. — Persian tile, thirteenth century. No. 
1841 — 176, South Kensington Museum. {By 
Permission of the Board of Education.) 



unlustred and even surfaced tiles of bright colours and very varied floral 
designs were extensively used in decorating the walls of public buildings 



82 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Sometimes the design covers several bricks, but more usually the pattern is 
formed by a mosaic of small tiles, each of only one colour.. Gateways 
of cities, of caravanseras, and of large buildings are usually embellished 
in this manner." {Persian Arts, p. 36, Chapman & Hall.) 

M. Texier ascribes the tiles, both of the mosque and the palace at Ispahan 
(the former capital of Persia), to the seventeenth century. The palace is said 
to be decorated with large tableaux representing Persian history, composed of 
tiles or bricks of several colours. (Traite des Arts Ceramiques, vol. ii. p. 87.) 

Sir C. Purdon Clarke, CLE., Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, 
holds the opinion that about the sixteenth century a colony of Chinese potters 
was introduced into Persia, and that their descendants still live near Ispahan, 
and are called Bacha-Chinese, or sons of the Chinese. This circumstance may 
account for the Chinese motif in Persian work of sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries. The old coloured enamels, applied either cloisonne or mosaic 
fashion, are thus augmented by painted designs in blue on white, so 
like Chinese products. 

So, also, Persian turquoise-glazed wares have their counterpart in India, in 
work of the Pathan period (twelfth and thirteenth centuries A.D.), and Persian 
floral-painted patterns their counterpart in Indian ceramic products of the 
Moghul period (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries A.D.) 

It would be interesting to know what districts of Persia were the chief 
centres of ceramic manufacture. Of course, these would inevitably shift with 
the shifting of the metropolis from age to age, and naturally would gather 
round the centres of habitation of the period as far as practicable. 

Fergusson tells of the use of tiles at Tiflis, Ispahan, and Teheran, but, as 
' far as we know, gives no clue to the makers' names or abode. From Sir R. 
Murdoch Smith, however, we learn that " The chief seat of earthenware 
manufacture was Kashan and the neighbourhood, including Nain, where good 
clay is still found. Cobalt, the colour chiefly used, is also found at Kashan 
and Koom. The common name for Persian earthenware is still ' Kashi 
Kari' or Kashan worT<." {Persian Arts, p. 25, Chapman & Hall.) 

Again, according to Sir George Birdwood, the Semitic word Kas, meaning 
glass, is in use both in Arabic and Hebrew, and the art of glazing earthenware 
is known in Persia by the name Kasi. {Jour. Soc. Arts, 28.2.1879, P- 3i '•) 

Rhe or Rhages, also, in its day {i.e., anterior to A.D. 1256) was probably a 
seat of ceramic industry, pieces spoilt in the baking having been found on the site, 
and even remains of potters' kilns. {Persian Arts, pp. 2 1-23, Chapman & Hall.) 
Many fragments of lustred ware have also been found there, as well as in 
the district of Kashan ; and according to Sir R. M. Smith, the paste or body 
of lustred tiles often resembles that of the old bricks with which the site of 
Rh6 or Rhages is covered. It is therefore quite likely that this great city 
was, at some period of its existence, one of the chief centres of the trade. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Persian 



83 




Fig. 41. — Hadrasi i Ispahan. {^By permission of the Royal Geographical Society and the 
proprietors of the " Architectural Review." See Arch. Rev,, April ig02, p. 122.) 



84 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



Beautiful lustred fragments and tiles are said to have been recently found 
by Major Sykes among the ruins of Kerman. (See Connoisseur, September 
1903, p. 22.) 

Experts and connoisseurs never tire of praising Persian tiles. Mr. Sparkes, 
of the Royal College of Art, said : — " Persian tiles looked as if a piece of glass 
had actually been melted down on the surface, so enormously thick was the 
glaze. That thickness was one of the greatest factors to the pleasure one 
had in looking at a piece of Persian ware ; it was the depth through which 
the rays of light passed to the background, that was missing in the modern 
ware completely." {Jour. Soc. Arts, 17th February 1893.) 

Mr. H. Longden has said : — " To his 
mind, Persian tiles were the most beautiful 
that were ever made. If anyone wished 
to get the finest colouring in tiles they 
must look to Persia." {Jour. Soc. Arts, 
pp. 713, 3.6.1892.) 

Mr. W. Burton, F.C.S., in a lecture at 
Hanley (February 1891), remarked : — "At 
a very early time, certainly as early as 
the Christian era, the Persians had learned 
the secret of manufacturing a true glaze; 
and their glaze was of a very simple com- 
position^ consisting of a mixture of clean 
white sand and either soda or wood-ashes 
or potass. Glazes of this nature were 
very brilliant in appearance, very good 
for developing colours, and in the case of 
the Persians, they adhered perfectly well 
to the ware. One of the striking peculi- 
arities of all alkaline glazes was their 

extraordinary brilliance From 

about the eleventh to the seventeenth 
century the Persians were perhaps the best decorative artists the world 
had ever seen." {Sentinel, 23rd February 1891.) 

One of the most distinctive characteristics of Persian ceramics was their 
lustre ; and unless in some way learned from China or India, this seems to have 
been their own de novo invention. W. De Morgan is of opinion that neither 
Assyrians nor Egyptians practised this method of enhancing the artistic effect 
of their wares. Even in Persia itself, lustring had a short existence; the 
earliest specimens known being those from the ruins of Rhages, whilst the art 
has been lost in Persia since the reign of Shah Abbas, A.D. 1665. 

The superb example of Persian coloured tilework which we are permitted 




Fig. 42. — Persian tile, seventeenth century. 
{By permission of the proprietors of ' ' The 
Connoisseur,") 



o 

I 

a 



a 
< 

W 
2 











"•^ ^ • -i 






.«&•;?•« 



«V '*/'- 






<.lVrf '-iff/ 








'd^^Slfc. 



a 












" -2 Q 



.a -s 



S >- 






" 5 
s >> 

o u 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Persian 



85 



to illustrate (Plate IX.) by the Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, 
London, and which was kindly selected for this publication as a typical 
specimen of Persian art, of about A.D. 1600, by C. S. Clarke, Esq., of the 
Indian Section, is described as a panel of earthenware consisting of thirty-six 
tiles and a border which are enamelled in colours. A princess, clad in richly 
decorated garments and wearing a diadem, is reclining on cushions beneath the 
shade of trees in a garden. Her attendants, two on one side and three on the 
other, are similarly dressed, and offer her refreshments in bowls and long-necked 
bottles. On either side of the lady are two cypress trees. The border, which 
runs along the top and down both sides, is composed of a repeating desif^n of 
leafy scrolls and Chinese clouds. There 
is a depression in the centre for a niche. 
This panel formed part of a dado in 
the pavilion of Chehel Situn or the 
forty columns, Ispahan, built during 
the reign of Shah Abbas I. (1587- 
1628). Size, height 3 feet 7 inches, 

length 7 feet 3 inches 139 — 1891. 

S.K.M. 

C. Stanley Clarke, Esq., refers to 
this magnificent original piece of 
Persian tilework from Ispahan as an 
exceedingly fine and well-known piece, 
of gorgeous colouring, and typically 
Persian. 

The British Museum also contains 
interesting examples of Persian wall- 
tiles, particularly of the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries, but those already 
referred to amply represent this section 
of our subject. 

Summing up the bearing of this de- 
light in colour among the Persians, Sir 
R. M. Smith remarks : — " The style of Persian art, innate as it is to the country 
is in many respects illustrative of the national character, so truly depicted in 
the inimitable pages of Morier's Hajji Baba, a work which may be taken as a 
moral photograph of the nation. The lively and poetical imagination of the 
Persians .... finds vent in the varied and symmetrical intricacy of the 
ornamentation with which they delight to decorate the surface of even the 
poorest materials, while their want of many of the sterner virtues leads them 
to neglect .... everything which does not at once appeal to the eye of 
the beholder. Thus the beautiful tiles with which their public and private 




Fig. 43. — Persian tile, seventeenth century. 
Victoria and Albert Museum. i^By per- 
mission of the Board of Education.) 



86 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

buildings were adorned only too often concealed the meanness in other 

respects of the structures themselves The beauties of their art, as of 

their character, lie on the surface, while the defects of both are carefully 
concealed by a pleasing lacquer of polished refinement." (^Persian Arts, p. 5, 
Chapman & Hall.) 

Syrian. — Glazed or enamelled tilework very like Persian was used in 
Syria and parts of Asia Minor during mediaeval times, but no mention of 
ancient examples of pre- Mohammedan age have come under my notice : yet, 
as Syria lay between countries eminent for their ceramics — countries, indeed, 
that apparently were somewhat indebted to each other in these matters, 
Egypt and Assyria — ancient examples might reasonably have been expected. 
In connection with Syria's share in the use of decorative ceramics, Europeans 
naturally turn to Bible history. Therein we find one point of considerable 
significance, namely, the absence of tile-decoration of any description what- 
ever in the successive Jewish temples at Jerusalem. When King Solomon 
built his world-renowned temple, B.C. 1012, he makes no reference to glazed 
tiles. The temple was built of hewn stones, great and costly, and of cedar 
of Lebanon; "and the floor of the house he overlaid with gold within and 
without " ( I Kings v. and vi.). Thirty-three years later this superb temple 
was plundered by Shishak, King of Egypt, whose army is believed to have 
carried away the plates of gold. By B.C. 889 it had fallen into great 
decay, and was then repaired ; but at length was utterly destroyed by 
Nebuchadnezzar. Another temple, built about 516 B.C., was of similar 
materials, and still no mention of glazed tiles ; yet Jews, Persians, and 
Phcenicians were all concerned in it. 

When, in turn, Zerubbabel's temple had become unfit, and Herod, to con- 
ciliate the Jews, began to rebuild — B.C. 16 — we still hear nothing of decorative 
tiles: yet, it is said, 18,000 men were employed in the work, and the stones 
were mostly white marble and unspeakably beautiful. Instead of doors the 
gate was closed with veils, flowered with gold. Double rows of Corinthian 
columns formed the outer courts on the west, north, and east. And a " Royal 
Porch " formed a principal entrance on the south. This temple was the one 
destroyed by the Romans, A.D. 70. 

If this omission or absence of ornamental faience arose from religious 
motives, one might have expected some comment to that effect ; and, at least, 
in the case of the city of Tadmor, built by Solomon, about B.C. 1000, such 
motives would have had less force by reason of its cosmopolitan situation and 
object. The Greeks afterwards named this same city Palmyra, and in the 
course of its existence and prosperity Jews, Greeks, and Romans had much 
to do with it ; Mesopotamians, Persians, and Parthians also can scarcely fail 
to have been frequently there. Rev. J. L. Porter visited its ruins about 
A.D. 1863, and describes them as almost unsurpassed in the world for beauty 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Syrian 



87 



and extent ; yet, notwithstanding exceedingly rich and chaste interior decora- 
tions, we hear nothing of tiles. 

If the art of the ceramist decorator had any active existence during this 
long period, these considerations appear to place its locale far outside the 
sphere of Jewish, Greek, and Roman influence, and render its ultimate revival 
all the more remarkable. 

Fortnum, in his catalogue of Damascus tiles in the Ashmolean Museum 
(Oxford), assigns none to an earlier date than the fourteenth century A.D., and 
nearly all are catalogued as fifteenth and sixteenth century ; and the specimen 
from Baalbec, mentioned 
by Brongniart (vol. ii. 
p. 91, Traite des Arts 
Ceramiques), is assigned 
to the ninth century A.D. 

Nevertheless, Dam- 
ascus, the capital of 
Syria, is a very ancient 
city. Rev. J. L. Porter 
wrote : — " By wliomso- 
ever founded, one thing 
is certain regarding 
Damascus. When Abra- 
ham crossed the desert 
from Haran 3800 years 
ago, the city was already 
standing on the banks of 
the Abana ; and from 
that day till this it has 
held a first place among , 
the capitals of Western 
Asia. It has seen many 
changes. It has passed 
through many hands. It has been ruled by many masters. Syrians, Persians, 
Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Turks have in turn governed or oppressed it ; 

but it has lived and flourished under them all Twelve times it had 

been pillaged and burned ; yet it has always arisen with new beauty from its 
ashes." {Syria's Holy Places.) 

In the Temple Magazine of April 1903, from which we are kindly allowed 
to make excerpts and reprint illustration by the courtesy of Paget Baxter, 
Esq., and the proprietors ot the Cosmopolitan Magazine, Dulany Hunter 
very graphically describes Damascus of to-day, with its cool covered streets, 
its luxurious baths, with domes heaped one upon another like bubbles, its 




Fig. 44. — Damascus tile. i^By permission ot the froprietors 
of" The Connoisseur."^ 



88 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

blue-tiled courts in which are wide divans, its great reception-rooms, its floors 
of variegated marbles, its walls incrusted with alabaster, porphyry, and lapis 




Fig. 45. — Damascus. A picturesque locality. 

lazuli, its gardens with even greater charm, stretching for miles around the city, 

" beside silvery seas of shimmering olives amid a wilderness of groves of fruit." 

" Thus lightly," he tells us, " does Damascus wear her years. She has had 

a longer continuous exist- 
ence than any city that is 
standing in the world to- 
day After the fall of 

Nineveh, she passed under 
the sway of Babylon, like 
almost all the cities of the 
East, and afterwards she 
was forced to bear the 
heavy yoke of Persia — it 
was within her walls that 
Darius left his family and 
treasure when he went to 
meet Philip of Macedon 
on the fatal field of Issus. 
.... Over this garden- 
spot of the desert there has 




Fig. 46. — An interior. 



been eternal conflict. Bloodshed has been its portion, and century after 

century has witnessed battle without and massacre within its walls 

In it Pompey spent the proudest year of his life (64 B.C.)." 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Syrian 



89 



Long afterwards came the Saracens, and upon the ashes of her former 
splendour built a kind of fairy capital. But now, again, " Her palaces have 
fallen, most of her mosques have crumbled away .... in turn, all save 
one of the fair edifices of the Saracens have perished, but around this existing 
monument, this temple known as the Mosque of the Omeyyades, there throbs 
to-day the same life that beat so gloriously in the tinie of the caliphs, and 
there are few places more interesting in the broad domains of el Islam than 
the splendid precincts of this ruined fabric of Arabian architecture " (fig. 49). 

The causes that influenced ceramic art in Persia and India very greatly 
influenced that of Syria and other portions of the Turkish Empire, and by 




Fig. 47. — The house of Ananias. 



the seventeenth century the similarity of product is remarkable. By the con- 
sent of Sir C. Purdon Clarke, C.I.E., Director of the Victoria and Albert 
Museum, and by the kind assistance of C. Stanley Clarke, Esq., of the Indian 
Section (V. and A. M.), who has selected typical examples, Syrian and 
Turkish tilework of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have been 
illustrated in colour on Plate X. by the three-colour block process. 

Fig. 50 illustrates a Damascus tile, with an unmistakably Chinese motif 
in the design, yet both body and glaze have Egyptian characteristics, except 
that the body effervesces slightly to acids. No engobe or slip-wash can be 
detected ; the glaze appears to have been applied directly upon the body. 



90 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



The glaze is transparent, colourless, and of somewhat vesicular nature, and 

slightly inclined to eggshell-like surface, yet quite glossy enough for mural 

decoration. 

The colours are dark blue, turquoise, grass green, and purple brown, and 

these are painted boldly on a white ground in conventional floral style, either 

under glaze or on glaze, and then burnt in with the glaze at the same firing, 

and the colours flow into the glaze. 

It has a particularly effective design, well proportioned for decorative 

purposes. Similar con- 
ventional hyacinths and 
asters or crysanthemums 
appear on a Tazza of 
Damascus ware, figured 
by Fortnum on plate 
iii., Catalogue of Maiolica 
in Ashmolean Museum, 
which is attributed to the 
sixteenth century. 

Some fifteen tiles, 
classed by Fortnum as 
Damascus tiles, in the 
Ashmolean Museum, 
Oxford, are described in 
the catalogue as having 
a white ground, orna- 
mented with conventional 
floral sprays, painted in 
dark blue, etc., under or 
into a colourless trans- 
parent glaze. This style 
therefore seems typical. 
The tiles referred to 
measure 6\ inches by 6| 
inches, 8 inches by 'j\ 

inches, lo inches by 8^ inches, lo inches by i^\ inches, 9 inches by 9 inches, 

and similar sizes. 

Other typically Damascus tiles are elaborately ornamented in green, 

turquoise blue, and dark blue, such as No. 949 — 73, S.K.M. (fig. 5 1). 

The absence of red colour on Damascus tiles, for which a peculiar purple 

—very like Egyptian— serves, is characteristic, and distinguishes them from 

Rhodian tiles. 

Upon close examination of either Persian, Syrian, Rhodian, or Turkish 




Fig. 48. — Tekiyeh. Dervish mosque. 



SYRIAN AND TURKISH TILES. 

Typical examples selected by C. Stanley Clarke, Esq. Indian Section. Victoria and Albert Museum. 

PLX. 




ANOHE * BLEICM, LTD., BU»HEV. HERTB. 



1. Turkish. i6th Century. V. & A. M. 

2. Syrian (Damascus). 17th Century. V. & A. M. 

3. Turkish: about 1500 A.D. V. & A. M. 

(Illustrated by permission of the Directors V & A. M.). 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Syrian 



91 



tiles, it may often be noticed that where cupreous grass-green colour has been 
applied, the glaze surface is depressed, as though the copper salt had induced 
vitrifaction of the siliceous body, and so caused shrinkage of the particular 
parts to which the colour had been applied. The red colour on Rhodian 
or Turkish tiles, on the contrary, almost invariably exhibits a distinctly raised 
surface wherever applied. 

Fortnum expresses the opinion that potteries were in operation at all the 
principal sites of manu- 
facturing industry through- 
out Syria and Asia Minor, 
for the making of richly 
painted tiles in conventional 
and floral designs such as 
were used on the mosques 
and tombs of Constanti- 
nople, Broussa, and Jeru- 
salem. The pottery, he 
tells us, was composed of 
a sandy and aluminous 
paste, sometimes of fine 
grain, sometimes coarse 
grained, and of a siliceous 
nature ; while on the finer 
pieces a thin wash of white 
clay or stanniferous enamel 
may be found beneath the 
rich vitreous glaze, the tiles 
being of the same general 
character as the pottery. 
The colours used are mostly 
blues and greens, among 
which are an intense lapis 
and a brilliant turquoise; 
some red, a dull purple, and some yellow. 
Museum, Oxford, pp. 10, 11.) 

Of the specimen from Baal bee, or Balbeck, Brongniart remarks that it 
is like Arab work, but produced in a little different manner. It has a hard 
white body, yet sandy and porous ; a pale green-blue glaze, with black orna- 
mentation ; the fragment, although very small, sufficed to enable them to 
learn that the glaze did not contain lead. Its date is supposed to be about 
the ninth century. (Traiti des Arts CSramiques, vol. ii. p. 91.) 

At Baalbec, the ancient, the classical, and the mediaeval appear to have 




-Colonnade of the Grand Mosque. 
{Catalogue to Maiolica, Ashniolean 



92 



LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



met and parted ; the erstwhile costly sculpture and architecture of nnagni- 

ficent temples are now but mazes of 
ruins. The great temple of Baal, the 
temple of Venus, the Roman temple 
of Jupiter, the Saracen Citadel, all have 
fared alike ; and now but an insignificant 
village suffices for its inhabitants. It 
is situated between Beyrout and Dam- 
ascus ; but apparently furnishes no prom- 
inent example of faience decoration. 

Reverting again to Jerusalem : the 
shrine of Omar, or the "Dome of the 
Rock," is possibly the most impressive 
example of the use of decorative tile- 
work in Syria. This, fortunately, has 
been often and ably described. For 
our purposes the description of an eye- 
witness — Mr. T. R Spence (London) 
— which appeared in the Architectural 
Review of December 1899, will provide 
all that is needed. Referring to the 
exterior, he says : — " Each side of the 
vertical portion supporting the dome 
is covered with exquisitely coloured 
Kishani tiles carried over both the flat 

surfaces and what may be called the frame 

faces of the windows, which are of stone 

and pierced with polygonal openings.. The 

combination of the shadowed forms of 

these incisions, combined with the brilliant 

covering of the face of the framework, 

is a decorative triumph. Under the 

cornice of the dome runs a striking 

decorative tile frieze of quotations from 

the Koran." 

" The interior," he writes, "in the dim 

reflected and diffused light, is a dream of 

luscious colour in mosaic, gold, iron, and 

marble." {Arch. Rev., December 1899, 

p. 258.) 

According to Murray's Handbook to 

Syria and Palestine (pp. 96, 97), the date of its erection is 688 A.D., the 




Fig. 50.— Damascus tile. (W.N.F. Coll.) 




Fig. 51. — Damascus tile, sixteenth century. 
949— 73> S.K.M. {By permission of the 
Board of Education. ) 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Syrian 



93 




Fig. 52. — Mosque of Omar, Jerusalem. (See Architectural Review, Deceniber 1899, p. 257. 
By permission of the Technicals Journals, Ltd.) 




Fig. S3.— Exterior detail of the Mosque of Omar. (See Architectural Review, December 1899, 
p. 259. By permission of the Technicals Journals, Ltd.) 



Q4 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

date of the windows 1528, and the date when the exterior was adorned with 
the KashSni tiles 1561 A.D. 

Brongniart mentions a small fragment of a tile from the Mosque of 
Jerusalem as being in the C^ramique Museum at Sevres. He describes this 
fragment as having a turquoise-blue ground with dark blue ornamentation, 
the glaze being free from lead ; the body is sandy and resembles stone ; so 
much so that he suspects it to be a rock of some kind that has been 
enamelled. 

Brongniart also gives the following as Salvetat's analysis of the body 
or stone of an enamelled brick from Jerusalem : — 

Silica, 87 '16 

Alumina and iron, ... ..... S'Jo 

Lime, .... .... . 3'oo 

Magnesia, . . . o"28 

Carbonic acid, \ . . . 2 '86 

Potash and moisture, i '20 

Another building in Jerusalem to which Mr. Spence refers is the 
Armenian Monastery. In the church of this, he tells us, there is a very 
large area of beautiful Arabic tiles, quite as interesting as those on the Omar 
Shrine. " It is like a choice museum of the arts and crafts — rich in beautiful 
brass and silver lamps, knockers, inlays, tiles, and carvings in cedar and other 
woods. The chapel walls are lined with lovely Persian tiles to a height of 
9 feet or 10 feet." 

In conclusion he adds, rather sadly : — " It seems to me that a guardian 
angel should conduct you over Jerusalem .... shedding on you a happy 
forgetfulness of its poverty, its dirt, cruelty, and disease, its bigotry, its feuds 
and scrambles for holy sites, its carrion, its squalor, and the sunbaked 
desolation of its noontide. With him either in the rose of dawn or the gold, 
amber, and purple of early twilight, to wind through the grey-green trees 
and down the stony slopes .... then Jerusalem is divinely beautiful." {Arch. 
Rev., December 1899.) 

Rhodian. — According to some authorities, both Damascus tiles and those 
called Rhodian were made by Persian artists working respectively at 
Damascus and on the Isle of Rhodes, the Rhodian tiles usually being 
characterized by having portions of the decoration in strong red underglaze 
colour. All appear to have been manufactured by a process in some way 
derived from the Persian, viz., with a white siliceous engobe, upon which the 
decoration is placed, and the whole then glazed with a transparent silico- 
alkaline glaze. Or at times when the body was white enough for the purpose, 
the engobe may have been omitted, and the colour merely applied on the 
glaze before burning. Binns pronounces their underglaze red "the marvel 
of all who understand the difficulties of the case." 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Saracenic or Arab-Mohammedan 



95 



According to Fortnum, the chief site of production was probably Lindus, 
where, it is stated, remains of potteries have been found. He considers 
Rhodian wares colonial productions, so to speak, by Damascus or Anatolian 
potters and their descendants, who became established in the island of 
Rhodes ; and he tells us the earlier are very superior to the later productions. 
Fortnum also shows that " red " colour appears on Anatolian wares, and that 
on Rhodian the rose, aster, and carnation frequently occur in the design. 

Saracenic or Arab-Mohammedan — Tytler asserts that the Saracens are 
mentioned in history for the first time when they defeated the Romans A.D. 
189. Internal quarrels and external attacks thereafter occupied the Romans 
too fully to enable them to crush this rising power. By A.D. 547 Rome 
herself was overcome, and 
thirty years later Latin ceased 
to be used as a mother- 
tongue. 

About this time (a.d. 569) 
Mohammed was born. In 
course of time he became 
caliph of the Saracens, and, 
joined by, the brave Omar, in 
a few years overcame all op- 
position to his pretensions and 
authority in Arabia and parts 
of Syria. Mohammed died 
A.D. 632, at the age of sixty- 
three. He was succeeded by 
Abubeker, who took Jeru- 
salem : in two years Abubeker 
died, and Omar was elected 
caliph. Under his leadership, Syria, Phoenicia, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Persia, 
Egypt, Lydia, and Numidia were subjected to the Mohammedan supremacy ; 
Spain being conquered by the Morocco section A.D. 713 ; and but for the stout 
defence of Rome itself by Pope Leo IV. in A.D. 848, Italy too must have 
been added to the great empire of the Saracen. 

At a comparatively early period in their national existence, the Saracens 
used glazed tiles for decorative purposes, for the tomb of Mohammed at 
Medina, built A.D. 707, was lined with tiles. Whether these were manufactured 
by the Arabs, or by artisans from Susiana or from Egypt ; or whether they 
were loot from Susa, or from Sakkarah, or Tell el Yehudiyeh, may never be 
ascertained, but this circumstance seems to have set the example to all the 
faithful thereafter. 

Brongniart tells us the glaze upon these tiles is silico-alcaline, and that in 




Flc. 54. — Saracenic tile. l^By permission of the 
proprietors of "The Connoisseur."^ 



96 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



the Sevres Museum there is a most interesting piece of decorative ware from 
the tomb, namely, a mural plaque, about 9I inches long, |-inch wide, and J-inch 
thick. The body is whitish and siliceous, but hard, and covered with a good 
glaze, well made. Across the centre is a streak of black, dividing the plaque 
lengthwise into two divisions, one of which is green, the other blue, neither of 

which contains either lead or tin. It is 
a silico-alcaline glaze analogous to that 
of Egyptian. The body of this plaque 
or tile, writes Brongniart, compares in 
character rather with the so - called 
porcelain of Egypt. The analysis by 
M. Salvetat of the body of a plaque from 
the tomb of Mahomet at Medina is 
given as follows : — •Silica, 89'95 ; alumina 
and iron, 3'87 ; lime, 2'Oo; magnesia, 
0"5i ; potash and moisture, 3'0. (Traite 
des Arts Cerainiques, vol. ii. p. 92.) 

Sir George Birdwood says : — " The 
Saracens from the first used glazed tiles 
for covering walls and roofs and pave- 
ments, and of course with a view to 
decorative effect. The use of these tiles 
had come down to them in an unbroken 
tradition from the times of the Birs 
Nimrud, of the Temple of Seven Spheres 
at Borsippa, of the temple of Sakkara in 

Egypt Glazed tiles had, however, 

fallen into comparative disuse before the 
rise of the Saracens, and it was, un- 
doubtedly, the conquests of Chingiz 
Khan, A.D. 1 206-1 227, which extended 
their general use throughout the nations 

Fig. 55.— Eight tiles from the Mosque el Azhar, of Islam." {Jour. Soc. Arts, p. 307, 28th 
Arab Museum, Cairo. {By permission of February 187Q) 
Max Herz Bey. Photo by Lekegian 6^ t 1 1 • 1 ^ . . 

Co., Cairo.) ^ « In lookmg around for authentic ex- 

amples that may with propriety be 
attributed to the period of Arab rather than Turkish ascendancy', those of 
Egypt appear most accessible, yet even here little remains of this earlier age. 
In the introduction to the catalogue of exhibits at the National Museum of 
Arab Art, located in Cairo, Max Herz Bey writes : — " Although the conquest 
of Egypt by the Saracens was completed in 641, we have no Arab monument, 
still standing in its original form, of an earlier date than 876. During these 




HISTORICAL REVIEW— Saracenic or Arab-Mohammedan 97 

two hundred and thirty-five years of artistic silence, Egypt was merely a 
province .... and no temporary governor, except its first conqueror, cared to 
waste upon it the wealth and labour necessary for great monuments. Where 
no monuments are built, Arab art cannot flourish ; for to the Saracens 
architecture was the art par excellence!' {^Catalogue, Arab Museum, Quaritch.) 

Herz states that 'Amr's great mosque, founded at the conquest for the 
new capital El-Fustat, has so often fallen to ruin and been restored, that 
scarcely anything of the original building can be proved to remain. He then 
proceeds to describe many mosques erected near Cairo, from A.D. 868 down- 
ward, but we find little about glazed tiles referable to a period earlier than 
the thirteenth century. 

What perished when El-Fustat was burned a.d. 1168 cannot now be 
known, though Herz trenchantly observes that " The potter's art was assidu- 
ously cultivated in Egypt from very early times, and it was certainly not 
allowed to deteriorate during the Mohammadan period . . . almost a history 
of the art could be traced, by means of the numerous fragments, from the 
commonest domestic crockery to the 
finest decorative work, daily picked up 
among the rubbish mounds which mark 
the site of the old city of Fustat (near 

' old Cairo ') The glazed faience 

forms a rich series worthy of more care- 
ful study than it has hitherto received." 
(Catalogue, Arab Muieum, p. 64, 

(-\ -i. ^\ I Fin. 56. — Border tiles, Mosque el Azhar. Arab 

LJuaritcn.; Museum, Cairo. (Photo by Lekegian &= 

Buildings and ruins of buildings are Co., Cairo.) ■ - 

the only promising fields of research for 

examples of early Saracenic glazed tiles, for, as Stanley Lane-Poole says, 
"all Saracenic art is decorative or subsidiary to architecture .... inlaid 
doors, sculptured stone, and plaster ornament .... marble mosaic and other 
substantive parts " ; also, even detached objects like enamelled glass lamps, 
and exquisite filigree bronze tables inlaid with silver, " however beautiful in 
themselves, were strictly connected with some mosque and in harmony 
with its decorative style." {Catalogue, Arab Museum, p. 11, Quaritch.) 

In commenting upon individual specimens in the museum, Herz further 
states that " The Arabs, unlike the Persians, made but a sparing use of wall- 
tiles in their decoration ; but this is explained, no doubt, by their preference 
for marble, which was readily obtained in Egypt, or near by, and which in the 
form of mosaic produced a richer effect than tiles could give. In this prefer- 
ence they followed the Romans. As a matter of fact, the only monuments of 
Arab rule in Egypt which are decorated with tiles are the minarets of the 
mosque of En-Nisir in the citadel (13 18), the tomb of Tashtemir, the cup- 




98 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

bearer (1334), and the tomb called that of the Khawand Baraka. In the 
minarets of En-N^sir the tiles are of single colours, white, brown, and green. 
.... The cupola of Tashtemir has a band of green tiles in the drum. That 
known by the name of the Khawand Baraka .... has on its cupola a course 

of tiles forming an inscription The large white letters stand boldly out 

of the ground, which is of two shades of green, and set off by foliage in dark 
brown faience." {Catalogue, Arab Museum, p. 66.) 

But both in his chronology, p. xvi, and in the introduction, p. xxvi, Herz 
Bey has shown that the Mamluks seized the government of Egypt, and over- 
threw that of the Arabian princes A.D. 1250, and he classes the medresa 
of En Nasir as Mamluk; so that even these would appear more appro- 
priately to fall into the category of Tartar and Turkish. 

How far the Arabs deserve to be credited with the arts they encouraged 
must ever, apparently, remain a subject for discussion ; but W. De Morgan 
has very forcibly pointed out that " however ready we may be to ascribe a 
Persian parentage to the arts of the Arabs, we cannot shut our eyes to the 
fact that the area of Arab conquest in the ninth century is almost exactly co- 
extensive with the distribution of the manufacture of lustres, so far as it is 
known to us, in the twelfth." {Jour. Sac. Arts, 24th June 1892, pp. ']^^-767^ 

Sir George Birdwood, M.D., K.C.I. E., asserts that " There is no Arab 
art, not even in Arabia, and to this day all the Arabesque embroidery of 

Egypt and Syria is done by Greek tailors They [the Arabs] were 

nothing more than the diffusers of the science and art received by them from 
the Greeks." {Jour. Soc. Arts, 24th June 1892.) 

But even if the Arabs were merely diffusers of knowledge — and few of us 
are more — that of itself is not altogether unworthy of praise. Indeed, Tytler 
expresses admiration for them on that account. He wrote :■ — " The first restorers 
of learning in Europe were the Arabians, who, in the course of their Asiatic 
conquests, becoming acquainted with some of the Ancient Greek authors, 
discovered and justly appreciated the knowledge and improvement to be 
derived from them. The caliphs procured from the eastern emperors copies 
of the ancient manuscripts, and had them carefully translated into Arabic, 
esteeming principally those which treated of mathematics, physics, and meta- 
physics. They disseminated their knowledge in the course of their conquests, 
and founded schools and colleges in all the countries they subdued. The 
western kingdoms of Europe became first acquainted with the learning of the 
ancients through the medium of those Arabian translations. Charlemagne 
caused Latin translations to be made from the Arabian, and founded, after 
the example of the caliphs, the Universities of Bononia, Pavia, Osnaburg, 
and Paris.'' {General History, p. 329.) 

Turkish or Tartar-Mohammedan.— Originally the Turks or Turcomans 
are believed to have been a Scythian or Tartar race, inhabiting a country 



HISTOJIICAL REVIEW— Turkish or Tartar-Mohammedan 99 

between the Black Sea and the Caspian, and to the north of Thibet, for 
they appear to have harassed the Chinese on one side and the Europeans 
on the other. 

About the seventh century A.D. some of these Turks are said to have been 
employed as mounted mercenaries by the Christian emperor of Byzantium. 
Later, Saracen caliphs employed them in a similar capacity, and converted 
them to Mohammedanism. Gradually the Turks acquired power, and, ulti- 
mately throwing off Saracen authority, established a separate government. 
About A.D. 1043 they are stated to have subdued Persia, and in 1055 they 
took Bagdad and overthrew the Saracen caliphs. (Tytler's General History, 
p. 282, Simpkin.) 

During the eleventh century the Seljukian Turks under Soliman, son 
of Cutulmish, invaded Asia Minor and founded the dynasty of the Seljuks, 
A.D. 1074. 

These movements plausibly account for the examples of decorative tile- 
work found in Anatolia, Armenia, and the Caucasus. Other speculations are 
possible, as, for instance, that the Persians were not the only nation who 
cherished traditions of Babylonian and Assyrian ceramics. The art of enamel- 
ling bricks, which evidently travelled eastward via Susa, may also have 
trekked north into Armenia and the Caucasus, and there have been tenta- 
tively exercised and preserved. 

Indeed, Fortnum, when' describing five cups of Anatolian ware in the 
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, remarks upon the strong affinity between the 
early alkaline-glass glazed wares of Egypt and Babylon, and the potter's 
productions of Persia, Damascus, and Anatolia, during the Middle Ages 
and following centuries ; although at the same time mentioning a plate of 
Kutayan ware,' decorated with a pattern of foliated sprays in dark blue on 
white ground, the latter probably of sixteenth-century work. 

A scrutiny of M. Texier's list, pp. 86 and 87, Traitd des Arts Ceramiques, 
shows that he attributed the monuments of Konieh (Anatolia) to the eleventh 
or thirteenth centuries ; those of Tabriz (Azerbijan) to the twelfth century ; 
and the faience-ornamented minaret at Nicea (Bithynia) and the memorial 
tomb of Mohammed I. at Broussa (Bithynia) to the fourteenth century. 

Brongniart states that Texier believed the ornamentation of the buildings 
at Konieh (Anatolia) with enamelled work was not anterior to the time of 
Sultan Kilidji-Arslan, who reigned in 1074 a.d. He supposes this prince or 
his successors obtained artists either from Arabia or Persia, who were able 
to cover the structures with enamelled tiles ; and that these Seljuk princes 
established works for the manufacture at Nicea and at Broussa. 

General Sir Charles Wilson, in a letter to Mr. W. Simpson about the 
remains at Konieh, wrote : — " It may interest you to know that in Anatolia 
there is much mud-building ; and that most of the great buildings of the 



loo LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Seljuks, more especially their great palace at Konieh, were of mud faced with 
glazed tiles. Some of the minarets of their mosques, built with sun-dried 
bricks, arranged in patterns and faced with glazed tiles, or with the ends of 
the bricks glazed, are extremely beautiful in their decay. The Seljuk 
architecture is Persian with a development of its own." {Jour. Soc. Arts, 
P- 903> Srd June 1892.) 

Brongniart, quoting from the writings of Dubois de Montperreux, tells of 
the gate of a castle at Nakhtchevan in Armenia, which is decorated with 
mosaic composed of enamelled bricks, the date of the erection being between 
1 146 and 1225. He also tells us that in the fortress of Erivan (Russian 
Armenia) may be seen a mosque of the eleventh century now converted 
into a Russian church, the dome and facade of which are covered with 
enamelled bricks arranged as mosaic. {Traite des Arts C^ramiques, vol. ii. 
pp. 87, 88, 106.) 

About this period occurred the horrors of the " Crusades," in connection 
with which it has been computed that upwards of 2,000,000 Europeans were 
buried in the East. 

In A.D. 1227 there was another great disturbance in Asia. Gengiskan (or 
Chingiz Khan) with his Tartars broke down from the north upon Persia and 
Syria, massacring all who opposed them, whether Turk, Jew, or Christian. 

But by A.D. 1300 the Turks had so far recovered from these shocks and 
reverses that Othman was then able to lay the foundation of the Turkish 
empire, and assumed the title of Sultan. To the period immediately succeeding 
this event the erection of the memorial tomb of Mohammed at Broussa 
(Bithynia) is assigned. In describing the decorative faience employed upon 
this monument, Jacquemart wrote : — " The casing tiles placed on the exterior 
.... were moulded in relief and painted, a special mode of decoration 
applied, as it is said, for the first time. The ground is a metallic brown ; some 
with scrolls in reserve have fine projecting inscriptions in blue .... other 
tiles present arabesque combinations, the outline of which described by a 

cloisonne line encloses coloured enamels In the interior the arched 

roofs and ceilings are decorated with monochrome pieces describing vast 
mosaics." {History of the Ceramic Art, p. 114, Sampson Low, etc.) 

In 1402 the Turks again suffered temporary defeat and eclipse at the 
hands of the powerful Usbek Tartar prince, Timur-bek or Tamerlane, a 
descendant of Gengiskan, who established a capital at Sa,rmarcand, where,, 
though illiterate himself, he encouraged learning and refinement. (Tytler's 
General History^ After the death of Tamerlane, the Turks again recovered 
power and resumed their designs on the Christian empire, whose capital was. 
Byzantium. On 2Sth May 1453 they assailed and took the city, its emperor^ 
Constantine II., being slain in its defence. Thus ended the Byzantine power, 
which had existed 1123 years. Thus also Christianity received possibly the 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Turkish or Tartar-Mohammedan 



severest blow ever delivered against it by an opposing sect ; which, in con 
junction with the earlier destruction of the Christian power in Egypt, vastly 
reduced the area of its influence. 

Thenceforward the Turks became a powerful and united nation. In the 
sixteenth century they invaded Egypt and overcame the Mamelukes — a 
race of Circassians who, as we have already seen, had, in A.D. 1250, put an 
end to the government of the Arabian princes in Egypt and seized the 
power themselves. 

Seven centuries of such alternating service and supremacy under the 
influence of Mohammedanism resulted in the modern Turk or Osmanli — 
an outcome of much racial fusion, yet still retaining characteristic antipathy 
to personally engaging in manufacture. 

The arts being left very largely in the hands of subjected races, partake so 
strongly of characteristics 
indigenous to the country 
concerned as to be practi- 
cally indistinguishable from 
what immediately preceded. 
Hence, in some museums art 
products of this period from 
several countries are classed 
as Turkish. 

The two examples of 
Turkish tilework on Plate 
X., one of the fifteenth and 
the other of the sixteenth 
century, kindly selected by 
C. Stanley Clarke, Esq., of 
Victoria and Albert Museum, as typical ones for illustration in this volume, 
with the sanction of the Director, Sir C. Purdon Clarke, CLE., should be 
referred to. 

By the same authority we are permitted to illustrate a fine example of 
Turkish ceramic art of the eighteenth century, in the shape of a fireplace, 
now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. This is officially described as of 
"enamelled earthenware tiles, consisting of a pyramidal hood with wavy 
arch beneath, surrounded by a setting enclosed within a border. The tiles 
are painted in red, blue, and green on a white ground, with floral scrolls and 
wavy leaves placed diagonally, enclosing spaces ornamented with Chinese 
clouds and three circles. The borders are decorated with leaves and flowers 
united by intertwining stems. On either side of the point of the hood is a 
very large boss. The front of the hood is further decorated with seven 
medallions inscribed with the names of the seven sleepers." This piece was 




Fig. 57. — Kiosk at Constantinople. 



LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



formerly in the palace of Fuyad Pasha at Constantinople, and is dated A.H. 
1 143 ( = A.D. 1 731). The palace was burnt down in the great fire of 1857, and 
it is to the credit of ceramics that this interesting object escaped destruction. 

Turning once more towards Egypt, Herz Bey, the chief architect of the 
commission of Arab monuments, asserts that the richest and most flourishing 
period of Saracenic art and architecture was that of the Mamluk Sultans of 
the Bahry or Turkish dynasty (1250-1382). In support of this he then proceeds 

to quote from Stanley Lane-Poole's 
Cairo Sketches as follows : — " The 
Mamluks offer the most singular con- 
trasts of any series of princes in the 
world. A band of lawless adventurers, 
slaves in origin, butchers by choice, 
turbulent, bloodthirsty, and too often 
treacherous, these slave kings had a 
keen appreciation for the arts, which 
would have done credit to the most 
civilized ruler that ever sat on a con- 
stitutional throne. Their morals were 
indifferent, their conduct violent and 
unscrupulous ; yet they show in their 
buildings, their decoration, their dress, 
and their furniture, a taste and refine- 
ment which it would be hard to parallel 
in Western countries even in the present 
aesthetic age. It is one of the most 
singular facts in Eastern history that 
wherever these rude Tartars pene- 
trated, there they inspired a fresh and 
vivid enthusiasm for art. It was the 
Tartar Ibn-Tulun who built the first 
example of the true Saracenic mosque 
at Cairo ; it was the line of Mamluk 
Sultans, all Turkish or Circassian 
slaves, who filled Cairo with the most 
beautiful and abundant monuments that any city can show." {Cairo : Sketches 
of its History, Monuments, etc., pp. 95-97.) 

Herz Bey then continues :■ — " There was a transitional period, at first, 
before the true Mamluk architectural style was formed. In the mouldings 
of the great mosque of Ez-Zahir Beybars (1268), the facades of Kalaun's 
monuments, etc., we have signs of exotic influences ; whilst the Gothic portal 
from a church at Acre, bodily transported to form the doorway of the medresa 




Fig. 58.— Turkish fireplace. V. and A. M. 
(j^y permission. ) 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Turkish or Tartar-Mohammedan 



103 



of En-Nasir in the Suk-en-Nahhasin, shows alike an appreciation of foreign 
styles and an indifference to artistic consistency. But these exotic influences 
from Syria and elsewhere soon found their true place, and became assimilated, 
so far as they were harmonious, in the rapidly developing Mamluk style. 
The long reign of over forty years (1299-1341) of En-Nasir Mohammad, son 
of Kalaun, gave time for the work of selection, adaptation, and precision, to 
which the admirable style of the numerous mosques erected by En-Nasir, his 
sons, and the officers of his court, bear witness. The abounding energy of this 
productive epoch bore the happiest results for art. The hesitating experi- 
ments of the earlier period gave place to a rare distinctness of architectural 
conception. Despite a remarkable variety and incomparable wealth of form 
and combination, the unity of design stands 
clearly out and reveals a finished and 
singularly adequate style. In the arrange- 
ment of the facade .... the larger sur- 
faces are given perspective by a system 
of high, shallow niches in which the 
windows are set in double rows ; these 
niches are brought back to the face above 
by stalactite cornices, and the portals, 
though wider and deeper, are treated in 
the same way, and richly coated with 

marble The wainscots or dado 

are of marble mosaic, often to the height 
of several yards, and the pavements are 
tessellated in bold and striking mosaics. 
The rich and harmonious effect of the in- 
terior is enhanced by the panelled and inlaid 
pulpit .... and enamelled glass lamps. 
And from the few remains that have come 

down to us .... it is clear that the palaces and private houses of the Mamluk 
age hardly fell short of the mosques in the beauty and elaboration of their form 
and decoration." {Catalogue of Arab Museum, pp. xxvi-xxix, Quaritch.) 

Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole expresses the opinion that tiles made from about 
A.D. 878 to 1516, whether Indian, Persian, Syrian, or African, should be all 
grouped as Saracenic. Of these he gives the palm to those of Egypt. To 
use his own delightful phraseology : — " The mosques of Cairo furnish a fuller, 
longer, and more continuous record of the arts employed in their construction 
and decoration than any other series of monuments in a single Mohammedan 
city, and the simple lines and restrained decoration of the Egyptian artists 
exhibit to perfection the essential character of the Saracenic art." {Art of 
the Saracens in Egypt, preface, Chapman & Hall.) 




Fig. S9.— Tile in Arab Museum (222), Cairo. 
{Photo by Lekegian &r Co. ) 



104 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



Marble mosaics, enriched witii mother-of-pearl and blue and red ceramic 
tesserjE of minute delicacy, were placed as a dado, 4 feet high, along the 
interior walls of mosques and principal houses. {Ibid., p. 104.) 

About the thirteenth century, he tells us, glazed painted tiles were intro- 
duced ; but that the coating of the remarkable minarets of the mosque of En- 
Nasir-Mohammad, in the citadel of Cairo, is of glazed blue tiles, which carries 
them back to the first quarter of the fourteenth century. 

Of the mosque of Aksunkur, Mr. Lane-Poole avers that " no more 
splendid example of the use of tiles in large surfaces can be seen in Cairo," 

and that "It is impos- 



sible to give any idea of 
this magnificent wall, 
covered with tiles from 
top to bottom, and dis- 
playing the typical 
Cairene pattern of blue 
flowers and leaves in 
the utmost perfection." 
(Ibid., p. 237.) 

From the same 
authority we learn that 
this mosque was built 
about 1347'A.D., of stone 
with a vaulted roof and 
a pavement of marble. 
Later, a fountain was 
added by Amir Inghan. 
This -.was covered by a 
roof resting on marble 
columns. 

Continuing, Mr. S. 
Lane - Poole says : — 
" But the historian (El- 
Makrizy) provokingly says nothing about the tiles, and we are forced to 
believe that, as he could hardly have omitted to mention so salient and 
almost unique a feature if it had existed in his time, the tiles must have 
been inserted when Ibrahim Agha restored the mosque in 1652." {Art of 
the Saracens in Egypt, p. 237, Chapman & Hall.) 

Max Herz Bey, also, when referring to the mosques of Aksunkur and of 
Amir Sheykhu, writes that these " have sometimes been cited as examples of 
the early use of wall-tiles ; but a glance at the latter will show that the tiles 
are mixed up without any method with the remains of the original marble 




Fig. 60. ■ 



-Tile in Arab Museum (223), Cairo. 
Lekegian &= Co.) 



{Photo by 



HISTORICAL REVIEW — Turkish or Tartar-Mohammedan 105 




Fig. 61. — Panel of tiles, eighteenth century. Arab Museum, Cairo. [By permission 
of Max Hers Bey, curator. Photo by Lekegian &= Co., Cairo.) 



io6 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

mosaic work, and there is no doubt that the tiles which line the liwan of 
Aksunkur were placed there by the restorer Ibrahim Aga. The tiles of 
both mosques, too, are not of the simple Arab style ; they are Turkish." 
{^Catalogue. Arab Museum, p. 68, Quaritch.) 

Splendid illustrations of the tilework of the Mosque of Ibrahim Aga, or of 
Aksunkur, may be found in M. Prisse d'Avenne's L'art arabe, a copy of 
which may be consulted in the City of Birmingham Reference Library. 

Hispano- Moresque. — "A nation .... without a legitimate country or 
a name. A remote wave of the great Arabian inundation cast upon the 
shores of Europe": so wrote Washington Irving, of the Moors. 

After the conquest of Egypt, the Saracens spread rapidly along the 
northern coast of Africa, and ultimately established themselves, none too 
securely perhaps, in Morocco. To their restless ambition Andalusia offered 
temptation, and in a.d. 675 they invaded it and were repulsed. InA.D. 711 
a second attempt was more successful, and eventually resulted in the estab- 
lishment of Moorish supremacy in Southern Spain. Years of strife followed, 
both among themselves and with neighbouring Christian states ; but they 
gradually gathered power. 

Under Abd-er Rahman, about A.D. 760-770, they cast off allegiance to 
the Syrian caliphs, and he established himself as King of Cordova. There- 
after the city of Cordova became a seat of refinement and civilization, with 
which, excepting only Byzantium, no city in Europe could compare. Plants 
and seeds and gardeners were brought from Syria to fill Cordova with 
Eastern luxuriance. Its palace roofs rested upon marble columns and its 
floors were inlaid with mosaics. By repute there were 50,000 houses of the 
aristocracy, 100,000 or more dwellings, 800 schools, 700 mosques, 900 public 
baths, so hospitals, and a library of 600,000 books — all this, be it remembered, 
when our Saxon forefathers dwelt in wooden hovels and trod on dirty straw. 
The noble mosque is still a wonder and delight to travellers : splendid glass 
mosaics, which artists from Byzantium came to make, still sparkle like jewels 
in the walls. {Spanish Pictures and The Moors in Spain}) Art, literature, 
and .science prospered at Cordova, and students from France and Germany 
and England came to drink at the fountains of learning there. Yet, not- 
withstanding all this grandeur, nothing in the shape of decorative faience is 
mentioned in connection with this period. Glass and marble mosaics were 
the nearest approach. 

Toledo, another city, also rose to prosperity under the Moors. During 
their supremacy Christians were protected and allowed to own property and 
to exercise their faith ; and Jews were even permitted to share in the 
administration of public affairs. The latter became so numerous that two 
synagogues were built— one in the ninth century, which eventually fell into 
disuse ; the other in 1357 A.D., by Samuel Levy, treasurer to Don Pedro the 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— HisPANO-MoRESQUE 



107 




Fig. 62.— Gate oi mosque at Cordova. (See Moors in Spain, p. 137. By 
permission of T. Fisher Unwin, London.) 



io8 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 




Figs. 63 and 64.- 
Toledo. 



-Tiles from synagogue, 
(J.W. Coll.) 



Cruel. That would, of course, be after the 
reconquest of Toledo by the Christian powers 
(A.D. 1085). The ornamentation of the ceiling 
and walls of the last-named synagogue are 
said to have been delicate and beautiful. 

John Ward, Esq., F.S.A., who visited 
Toledo, in company with Sir Henry Doulton, 
in April 1879, has most courteously granted 
the author permission to examine and illus- 
trate three enamelled tiles he obtained from 
one of these synagogues. 

The body of the larger pieces (fig. 63) 
is pale buff, that of the smaller piece (fig. 
64) is pale red colour; the large square tile 
seems to have originally measured about 
5^ inches by S| inches by. i inch. The 
enamels are excellent, and are applied in 
cloisonne style, in black, green, ochre, and 
white colours ; apparently directly upon the 
body itself, without engobe. All except 
white and black are almost transparent, yet 
richly coloured, very effective, and adhering 
perfectly. 

The designs are Moorish rather than 
Gothic, perhaps excepting fig. 64. This 
may be accounted for by the probability 
..that, although Toledo had been recovered 
from the Moors by -combatant Christian 
forces, amicable relations may have existed 
at intervals between the civil populations. 

Mr, Ward explains the circumstance in 
another way, namely, that the Jewish syna- 
gogue was originallya Mohammedan mosque; 
but when the Moors were driven out of 
Spain, the Jews, having been allies of the 
Christians, were given the building for their 
religious worship. 

Seville, too, provides remarkable relics 
of the Moors. It is said that it was Julius 
Caesar who originally raised this city to 
importance by making it the capital and 
designating it Romula (Little Rome); it 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— HisPANO-MoRESQUE 



109 




no LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



would therefore, in all probability, be a flourishing city long before the 

advent of the Saracen. "By far the 
finest relic of purely Moorish archi- 
tecture in the city is the tower of 
the Giralda," wrote Dr. S. Manning. 
{Spanish Pictures, p. 159, R.T.S.) 

On the other hand, it is perhaps 
equally true to assert that its most 
brilliant example of the decorative 
use of tiles is found in the Alcazar. 
Strictly speaking, perhaps, these tiles 
should not be classed as Moorish, be- 
cause whatever the Alcazar was origin- 
ally, it was rebuilt by Pedro, after the 
expulsion of the Moors from Seville, 




Fig. 66. 



-Seville. Sixteenth century. 
(Forrer Coll., 11.) 



and the tiles were 
of the later period, 
say about 1 360 A.D. 
But as the Alcazar 
of Seville is prob- 
ably little more 
than an imitation 
of the Alhambra of 
Granada, and is 
reputed to have 
been reconstructed 
under the direction 
of the architects 




Fig. 67. ■ 



Madrid. (Forrer Coll., 10.) 

and builders who built the 
Alhambra, there is, after all, 
some plausibility in considering 
the work, from an artist point 
of view, inseparably associated 
with the Hispano - Moresque. 
Indeed, Halsey Ricardo asserts 
that " the Spaniards took over 
the potting business of the 
Moors as a going concern," 
Dr. Forrer, in his Geschichte 
Fig. 68.— Calatayud. (Forrer Coll., 12.) '^^^ europdiscJien Fliesen- 

Kerainik, has several'^remark- 
able coloured plates illustrating Hispano-Moresque tilework, his plates 32, 




HISTORICAL REVIEW— HisPANO-MoRESQUE 




Fig. 69. —Enamelled tile from Madrid. 
Sixteenth century. (Forrer Coll.) 



36, 43, 45, 46 being especially attractive illustrations. Of his uncoloured 
illustrations we are permitted to reproduce examples of sixteenth-century 
work from Seville (fig. 66), of work of the same period from Madrid (fig. 6y^, 
and of the later Renaissance period (fig. 68) from the Castle Ram, near 
Calatayud, being a relief-work panel. 

Selected examples from Dr. Forrer's coloured plates of Spanish tilework 
are, by permission, reproduced by the three- 
colour block process on Plate XI. 

Alderman W. R. Barker, of Bristol, in his 
book on St. Mark's, or The Mayor's Chapel of 
Bristol, mentions that the floor of the Poyntz 
Chapel there is laid with a mosaic of Spanish 
enamelled tiles, said to be similar to those in the 
Alcazar of Seville, and of the time of Charles V. 
They are supposed to have been imported by a 
Bristol merchant, or brought over by Sir Francis 
Poyntz about the year 1527. These tiles are 
probably unique, so far as England is concerned, 
and have always attracted much attention locally. 
Granada. — About A.D. 1090 the power of the 
Moors began to wane, and the Christians of Northern Spain pressed them 
closely. Assistance was obtained from Northern Africa, but these eventually 
turned upon the original Moors of Spain and took the government in their 
own hands. Various changes took place, and by A.D. 1260 the Moors had 

been forced back until they were restricted to the 
single province of Granada. Here for two and 
a half centuries they made their last stand in 
Spain. Not an inglorious stand either, if what 
we read is true; for Mr. Prescott writes :—" The 
Moorish territory of Granada contained within 
a circuit of about 180 leagues all the physical 
resources of a great empire. Its broad valleys 
were intersected by mountains rich in mineral 
wealth, whose hardy population supplied the State 
with husbandmen and soldiers. Its pastures were 
fed by abundant fountains, and its coasts studded 
with commodious ports, the principal marts in the 
Mediterranean. In the midst, and crowning the 

whole as a diadem, rose the beautiful city of Granada On the 

summit of one of the hills of the city was erected the royal fortress or 
palace of the Alhambra, which was capable of containing within its circuit 
40,000 men. The light and elegant architecture of this edifice, whose magni- 




FlG. 70. —Enamelled tile from Bar- 
celona. Sixteenth century. 
(Forrer Coll.) 



112 LEADLESS DECORATIVE -TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



ficent ruins still form the most interesting monument in Spain .... shows 
the great advancement of the art since the construction of the celebrated 
Mosque of Cordova. Its graceful porticos and colonnades, its domes and 
ceilings glowing with tints which in that transparent atmosphere have lost 
nothing of their original brilliancy, its airy halls, so constructed as to admit 
the perfume of surrounding gardens .... its fountains which still shed their 
coolness over its deserted courts, manifest at once the taste, opulence, and 

sybarite luxury of its proprietors The reputation of the citizens for 

trustworthiness, says a Spanish writer, was such that their bare word was 
more relied on than a written contract is now among us." {Spanish Pictures, 
p. 134, R.T.S.) 

The fortress-palace Alhambra is also described in glowing terms by 

Washington Irving and by 
Rev. S. Manning. Of 
its tilework the Rev. 
Hartwell Home wrote : — 
" The lower part of the 
walls, to the height of about 
4 feet, is covered with por- 
celain mosaics of various 
figures and colours ; and it 
appears, from a few remain- 
ing fragments, that the 
floors and columns of some 
of the apartments were also 
covered with similar 
mosaics. The Arabs took 
great pleasure in these 
decorations, a luxury unknown to their Gothic contemporaries, who skirted 
their halls with mats and covered their floors with bulrushes." 

Mr. Lewis F. Day, in like manner, speaking of the tilework of the 
Alhambra, comments upon its mosaic character thus : — " He did not think 
people realised how entirely it was mosaic. He himself did not until he 
went to Spain. Practically all the Moorish tilework in the Alhambra was 
a mosaic of bits of tiles." {Jour. Soc. Arts, 24.1. 1902, p. 167.) 

How far the Moors themselves executed the decorative work in the 
Alhambra is very uncertain. Sir R. Murdoch Smith observed that a " peculiar 
pendent ornamentation of vaults and niches, of which the Alhambra is so 
typical an example, is identical in style with that used throughout Persia 
down to the present day ; and specimens of which in plaster have been found 
in the ruins of Rhages, a city finally destroyed six hundred years ago." On 
the other hand, he says :— "The Arabs themselves were probably never an 







^^Hi^Sr^Hflkrlr 


^^^^^^m^^MSSSSBta 


^^^^B 
^^^^H, 




j«B 




SlHHflii^^^^B^P^^^^>^^H 


^m 



Fig. 71. — Room of the Divans, Alhambra, Granada. 
photograph in S.K.M., by permission.) 



{From 



SPANISH TILEWOKK. 



PI. XL 








Spanish Azuleios and Relief Tiles, 15th and i6th Century. After Dr. Forrer (by permission. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— HisPANO-MoRESQUE 113 

artistic people, although many of their rulers were .... patrons and pro- 
pagators of art and science." " It is far from improbable," he continues, " that 
even the Alhambra itself was chiefly the work of Persians, who stood to the 
Arabs in much the same relation that the Greeks did to the Romans. 
The presence of a considerable colony of Persians in Spain, in the time of 
the Moors, is attested by numerous documents still in existence." {Persian 
Arts, p. 4, Chapman & Hall.) 

Mr. W. De Morgan observed two distinct periods of manufacture in the 
tiles of the Alhambra. He said : — " The old tiles with which its walls are 
covered are genuine native azulejos of the date of the completion of the build- 
ing, about A.D. 1350. They must be distinguished from those placed in the 
building when it was restored by Charles V. in the sixteenth century. They 
belong to the same group of manufactures as the great jars which were found 

full of coin under the building These, and one or two others, are the 

oldest surviving examples of the practice of lustre in Spain. There does not 
seem to be any need to assume that they were imported from Cairo or Persia, 
and we may probably ascribe their manufacture to Malaga. The Alhambra 
tiles may have been made there too ; although, in view of the comparatively 
simple operations involved in the making and firing of the latter, and the 
vast quantity required, it might be more reasonable to suppose that they were 
made on the spot." {/our. Soc. Arts, 24.6.92, p. 757.) 

Again, with special reference to the very early period of Saracen and 
Moorish supremacy in Spain — about 900 to 990 A.D. — Mr. De Morgan 
remarks : — " The course of the Arabs, from Cairo to Tangier, has been said to 

be traceable by the glazed and decorated wall-tilings of their buildings 

This is in some sense true, but it has been more than once told, so as to 
convey a false impression that the Saracen invaders of Africa built tile-kilns 
at every station of importance, and that pottery factories were at work in 
Spain, if not during the time of the Abbasides, at any rate very soon after the 
establishment of the Caliphate of Cordova. Wall-tiles, beautifully decorated, 
were placed by the historical imagination on the walls of the great mosque at 
that town, and by implication at Seville and Toledo also. But the tendency 
of more recent investigation is to ascribe all the surviving examples of Arab 

wall-tiling in Spain to a much later date The construction of the 

mosque was still going on in the time of the Vizier Almansor, who melted up 

the bells from the shrine of Compostella to make lamps for the mosque 

This was in 985. But if we judge by contemporary descriptions of buildings, 
these great mosques, and others, such as the palaces of Az-Zahra, at Cordova, 
were marvels of decoration in marble, gold, and ivory, but were entirely 
without wall-tiling. Moreover, mosques of the same period, at Cairo and 
elsewhere, are entirely without tile-decoration," {Jour. Soc. Arts, 24.6.92, 
P- 757) 



IJ4 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

In the Handbook to the MuseUm of Practical Geology, London, reference 
is made to the fact that the Moors introduced their lead glaze in Spain in the 
thirteenth century. 

Again, Senor Juan Riano notes that soon after the fall of the caliphate, 
metallic lustred ware was made- in Spain ; and he tells Us that Edrisi, an 
Arabic geographer of the Middle Ages^ in describing Calatayud, wrote: — 
" Here the gold-coloured pottery is made which is exported to all countries." 
Now, Edrisi was born i loo A.D., studied at Cordova, and finished writing his 
book in A.D. 1 1 54. 

Summarizing, then, we are led to the inference that three distinct styles 
of tilework for interior embellishment characterize Hispano-Moresque archi- 
tecture, namely : — ^Firstly, ceramic tessera;, associated with glass and marble 
tesserae in the floor and wall mosaics, as used in the buildings at Cordova. 

Secondly, mosaics of bits of glazed or enamelled tiles such as appear in 
the earlier decorative work of the Alhambra at Granada, of a date about- 
A.D. 1350. 

Thirdly, larger tiles covered with plumbo-stanniferous enamels, often 
associated with painted and lustre ornamentation, all of this subsequent to 

A.D. 1350. 

Indian — Authorities agree that a knowledge of art and science existed in 
India at a very early date. Romesh. C. Dutt, C.I.E., tells us that the Aryans 
were settled on the Indus and its tributaries two or three thousand years 
before Christ, and that the hymns of the Veda give a complete though 
fanciful picture of the arts, industries, and agriculture of the Indo-Aryan tribes, 
whose civilization forty centuries ago was the earliest form of civilization reared 
by the great Aryan race. Every considerable Aryan village, says Dutt, had 
its artisans in those days as now, and numerous references to arms, chariots, 
carts, ornaments, and domestic utensils show that they were in common use. 
About 1400 B.C. the Hindus of the Punjab extended their dominions, until 
the valley of the Ganges also was colonized, and eventually the newly acquired 
area excelled even the mother-country of the Punjab in wealth and power, 
and in learning, arts, and civilization. Thus in place of small states arose great 
and populous kingdoms, ruled over by august sovereigns. {Civilization of 
India, Dent & Co.) 

But there was civilization in India before this. Sir George Birdwood, M.D., 
K.C.I.E., asserts that " When the Aryas made their way through Afghanistan 
and Cashmere into the Panjab, they found the plains .of the Indus already 
occupied by a Turanian race, which they easily conquered, but which, as the 
caste regulations of the code of Manu prove, was far superior to themselves in 
industrial civilization. These aborigines already worked in metal and stone, 
wove woollen, cotton, and linen stuff, and knew how to dye them, and how to 
embellish their buildings with paintings." {Industrial Arts of India, p. 158.) 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Indian 115 

Hence it would seem that the art and learning of the Hindoos, i.e., of the 
portion of the Aryan race settled in the districts around the Indus and 
its tributaries, had received its early impulse from a Turanian or yellow 
Mongolian race, of greater antiquity, who occupied India before them. 

Hindu supremacy and religion eventually spread over the whole of India, 
and nearly all non-Aryan races were subjected. About 522 B.C. Gautama 
Buddha, a learned prince who had become dissatisfied with the trammels of 
priestly rules and rites, began to preach his newly found tiruth that "the 
salvation of man lay — not in sacrifice and ceremonials, nor in penances — but 
in moral culture and a holy life, in charity, forgiveness, and love." For forty- 
five years, Dutt tells us, Buddha preached and organized his new system, and 
thereafter for a thousand years Buddhist monasteries multiplied all over India. 
By the tenth century A.D., however. Buddhism had become practically exiled 
from India, and a modified form of the more ancient Brahmanism super- 
vened. Thus it is that the earliest existing specimens of Indian architecture 
are the ruins of Buddhist churches and monasteries. (^Civilization of India, 
p. 47, Dent & Co.) 

But there appears to be no mention whatever of decorative ceramics in 
connection with these ruins. The reason is not far to seek, for Dutt informs 
us that "they are not constructed but excavated in rocks. Twenty or 
thirty churches are known to exist, and with one exception they are all 
excavated." .... " The most perfect specimen of this kind of architecture," 
he tells us, is " the church of Karli, excavated in the first century before 
Christ " ; it " consists of a nave and side-aisles, terminating in an apse or semi- 
dome, round which the aisle is carried. It is 126 feet from the entrance to 
the back wall, and 45 feet 7 inches wide. Fifteen pillars on each side separate 
the nave from the aisles, and each pillar has figures of elephants on the top, 
with well-executed human figures on them. Above this springs the semi- 
circular roof, and the whole interior is lighted by one undivided volume of 
light coming from a single opening overhead." {Civilization of India, p. 60, 
Dent & Co.) 

One of the far-famed temples of EUora, of the eighth or ninth, 
century A.D., is said to be situated in a vast pit, excavated in solid rock. 
In the centre stands the temple (the Temple of Kailasa), with a high tower, a 
large porch supported by sixteen columns, a detached porch, and a gateway, 
all carved out of the solid rock. {Ibid., p. 73.) 

Dr. Kennedy, writing of India many years ago, describes bricks he saw 
there, of unequalled quality. He wrote : — " Nothing I have ever seen has at all 
equalled the perfection of the early brickmaking which is shewn in the bricks 
to be found in these ruins [ancient tombs on the Makli range of hills near 
Tatta, in Sind], — the most beautifully chiselled stone could not surpass the 
sharpness of edge and angle and accuracy of form, whilst the substance was 



ii6 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

so perfectly homogeneous and skilfully burned, that each brick had a metallic 
ring, and fractured with a clear surface like breaking freestone. I will not 
question the possibility of manufacturing such bricks in England, but I must 
doubt whether such perfect work has ever been attempted." (^Pict. Gallery of 
Useful Arts^ 

But sculpture and carving seem to have been the strong point of ancient 
Hindu architecture ; for instance, the tower of the great Temple of Bhuvaneswar, 
we are told, is i8o feet high, and is completely covered with elaborate carving 
and sculptures, upon which infinite labour has been bestowed. {Civilization of 
India, p. 71.) 

The Dravidian style of architecture, which is perhaps not only pre- 
Mohammadan, but in essence, also, pre- Aryan, i.e. pre-Hindu, is exemplified 
in Southern India. The Dravidians, however, were not the aborigines, but, like 
Aryans, were early immigrants from Central Asia ; and to their credit it is 
said of their descendants, who are a dark-skinned race forming about one-fifth 
of the population of India, that they are active, hardworking, docile, and 
enduring, and are more sober, self-denying, and less brutish than Europeans. 
They show greater respect for animal life, and have more natural courtesy of 
manner. {Indian Pictures, p. 52, R.T.S.) 

Madura, in Madras Presidency, was an ancient Dravidian capital centuries 
before the Mohammadan conquest ; a kind of metropolis of learning and 
religion in the far south of India, escaping thus many of the vicissitudes of 
the war-traversed north. 

Rev. W. Urwick, M.A., has written of it thus: — "The ruins of the palace, 
together with the immense Temple of Siva, covering twenty acres, are standing 
memorials of its early greatness. Here we come face to face with the master- 
pieces of Dravidian architecture for which the Madras Presidency is famous, 
and which, in their number, their vastness, and the elaborateness of their 
workmanship, astonish and almost bewilder the Christian tourist." {Indian 
Pictures, p. 54.) After describing the Pagoda of Madura, which, he says, dates 
from the third century B.C., but which was destroyed in A.D. 1324, and restored 
in the seventeenth century, he briefly refers to the Palace of Tirumala, in 
Madura, built in 1623, the hall of which is a quadrangle 250 by 150 feet, 
with an elaborate corridor, and one hundred and twenty-eight massive granite 
pillars ornamented with stucco, made from chunam, or shell-lime. 

It is noteworthy that in his description of the above, and also of the still 
more extensive Dravidian temples of Seringham, which are seven miles in 
circumference, no mention of decorative tiles or glazed terracotta occurs. 

This absence of decorative faience both from Buddhist and Dravidian 
architecture should be carefully noted. 

The most ancient examples of Indian tiles known appear to be those 
found in the ruins of the city of Gaur, of which there are several specimens 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Indian 



117 



^IBh 



• ».# »;• 



BliSiS 




Fig. 72. — Gaur tile or enamelled brick. Indian 
Section, V. and A. M. (By permission.) 



in the Indian Section of tlie Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, 
London. Sir George Birdwood, in his Industrial Arts of India, tells us not 
only that Gaur was the old Mohammedan capital of Bengal, but that it was 
a famous Hindu centre long before the Mohammedan invasion. And he 
observes that " some of the oldest of the India Museum Gaur tiles are not 
of any style of Mohammedan glazed tiles known elsewhere in India, and 
have a marked Hindu character quite 
distinct from the blue, diapered, and 
banded tiles which are distinctive of 
Mohammedan manufacture elsewhere 
in India before the floral designs of the 
Mogul period came in vogue." {In- 
dustrial Arts of India, ■^. 155.) 

He suggests the possibility that 
these tiles may have had to do with the earlier history of Gaur, and advises 
an examination of any ruins about the Sena capital of Nuddea for old tiles 
to compare with those of Gaur. 

Mr. Romesh. C. Dutt has kindly written explaining that " Gaur is in Bengal, 

about one hundred and sixty miles due north from Calcutta It was an 

ancient Hindu capital in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and when the 
Mahomedans conquered Bengal they made that place their headquarters for 
a time. A great plague desolated the city later on, and the people abandoned 

the place, which has been in ruins since. I 
should think the glazed tiles and bricks 
were originally a Hindu art, and the 
Mahomedans employed Hindu artisans 
when they began to build their mosques 
in the old Hindu capital." {Letter, 17th 
May 1903.) 

A critical comparison of the specimens 
from Gaur with those from other parts of 
India impresses us with a sense of their 
greater antiquity. My son, who, by the 
kindness of C. Stanley Clarke, Esq., of 
the Indian Section, Victoria and Albert 
Museum, South Kensington, has personally 
examined many of the Gaur tiles, tells me they are, correctly speaking, 
enamelled bricks or enamelled terracotta rather than tiles; and that he is 
convinced that if any of the Indian tiles shown in the Indian Section are 
pre-Mohammadan, these Gaur tiles certainly are they. 

The body is similar to that of red bricks, the pieces being moulded on the 
edges or sides into relief patterns, over which a dark poor blue vitreous dip has 




Fig. 73.— Gaur tile or enamelled brick. 
Indian Section, V. and A. M. {By 
permission. ) 



ii8 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 




been applied, forming a ground of opaque blue. Upon this ground patterns 
in opaque white enamel or opaque white clay have been laid. From the dull 

appearance of the surface, it is uncertain whether 
the whole was subsequently treated with a glaze 
or smear, or whether the gloss arises from the 
vitreous nature of the engobe or enamels. The 
other parts of the brick or tile surface are merely 
biscuit red-brick body. 

By kind permission of the Director we are 
enabled to illustrate several specimens, but many 
other forms and patterns than those shown here 
have been found. " Some of the ornament on 
pieces in our possession," writes C. Stanley Clarke, 
Esq., "is distinctly Saracenic, but most of it Hindu 
without doubt." " The general appearance of this 
enamelled tilework," says the same authority, " re- 
minds one vaguely of the well-known Florentine 

Delia Robbia ware Although the discovery 

that oxide of tin yields opaque white enamel is 
far back as the 



^#m^. 



^^^^ 



Fig .74. — Gaur tile or enamelled 
brick. Indian Section, V. and 
A. M. [By permission.) 



credited to Persians, as 
thirteenth century, it is quite possible that 
this secret was also known and utilized by 
Hindus — or call them what you will — 
inhabiting Gaur in its early days. Re- 
garding those ' early days,' it is impossible 
to say whether general opinion, which rele- 
gates them to the eleventh and twelfth 
centuries, is correct." 

Arab influence appears to have been 
almost inappreciable in Indian art. H. M. 
Birdwood, Esq., C.S.I., basing his state- 
ments upon Sir H. M. Elliot's Arabs in 
Sind, has said : — " The Arab dominion was 
maintained for three centuries, but left but 
little impress on the language, arts, archi- 
tecture, and customs of the people. The 
Arabs built cities with materials taken 
from the cities of former rulers ; but their 
own cities — Mansura, Mahfuza, and Baiza 
—have entirely disappeared, while the older cities of Bhambora, Alor, Miiltan, 
and Sehwan still remain." {Jour. Soc. Arts, 29th May 1903.) 

From A.D. 800 to a.d. i 200 seems to have been a dark age in Northern 




Fig. 75. — Gaur tile or enamelled brick. 
Indian Section, V. and A. M. {By 
permission. ) 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Indian 119 

India — no great native kings, no notable art or architecture. The tide of war 
swept over the country again and again, until at length, in the twelfth century. 
Northern India from Panjab to Bengal was under Mohammadan rule. 
{Civilization of India, p. 79.) The most notorious historical figure of this 
period was Mahmud of Ghazni, of whom Dutt observes : — " His expeditions 
served no civilised purpose, did not spread his own faith, and did not conduce 
to the establishment of a stable empire. They form a sickening record of the 
plunder of rich temples and towns, the massacre of brave garrisons, and 
the enslaving of unoffending men and women by the hundred thousand." 
{Ibid., p. 82.) 

Should the ruins of Brahmanabad (Sind) — a vast and ancient city which 
was suddenly destroyed in A.D. 1020, probably by a sandstorm — ever be 
thoroughly excavalted and examined, further light may be thrown upon early 
Hindu architecture and products. Fragments of glazed pottery, earthenware, 
and china are said to have been found there many years ago by Messrs. 
Bellasis and Richardson, who visited Brahmanabad and partly explored- it. 
{Jour. Soc. Arts, 29.4.03, p. 605.) 

H. M. Birdwood, Esq., C.S.I., kindly writes that he found some pieces of 
pottery at Brahmanabad, but they were not coloured like the Hala tiles, and 
he had no opportunity of making any real search among the sand-covered 
heaps which constitute all that can be seen of the old town except the walls 
and one tower {letter, 16.9.0 j). Except for the possible antiquity of the tiles 
from the ruins of Gaur, then, evidence of any very early use of glazed decora- 
tive ceramics in India' is for the present apparently wanting. Indeed, Sir 
C. Purdon Clarke, CLE., during the discussion upon his paper on " Modern 
Indian Art," read at the Society of Arts on 15th April 1890, remarked that 
" if we would leave ancient records alone, and consider only the evidence of 
existing monuments, we in England could show, date for date, about as good 
art examples as India, and probably China." {Jour. Soc. Arts, 18.4.1890.) 

In the course of the lecture he further said : — " The arts of India, in which 
we are more interested, are, like ourselves, aliens to the country ; they belong 
more to the military splendour of the conquering Mongols than to the 

pastoral simplicity of Aryan Hindu life The period of Roman and 

Greek history which left such glorious remains in Europe is scarcely repre- 
sented in India by existing monuments or works of importance 

The art-pottery of the country is entirely of foreign origin, and Mr. Muk- 
harji's assumption that glazed pottery is an art introduced from China through 
Persia is not very far wrong, except when applied to the enamelled architec- 
tural pottery of the Panjab, which came in through Persia from Assyria. Of 
this architectural pottery we know a great deal, as it can be found in a good 
state of preservation on buildings in Scinde and the Panjab, and we are 
enabled to compare qualities of this art so far back as the sixteenth century ; 



120 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

but of pottery for domestic use, probably owing to its inferior quality, very 
little has survived." (Jour. Soc. Arts, 18.4. 1890.) 

As to the circumstances of the manufacture. Sir C. Purdon Clarke, C.I.E., 
observes that " It is probable that the princes maintained a staff of workmen 
always engaged in producing for the court. But as several of the Hindu 
princes use the Persian ' Karkhaneh ' or workshop for this portion of their 
establishment, it may be that this custom was only introduced in imitation of 
the Moghul court. It was in these royal Karkhanehs that all the great work 

was done In a few places, such as Jeypore, Ulwar, and Vizianagram, 

royal Karkhanehs still exist ; but somehow, owing to a mistaken sense of their 
utility, they could be scarcely said to be producing works of art, except at 
the Ulwar court, where much decorative work is going on." {Jour. Soc. 
Arts, i8th April 1890, p. 513.) 

Sir George Birdwood, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., states that "the old glazed tiles 
to be seen in India are nearly always from Mohammedan buildings, and they 
vary in style with the period to which the buildings on which they are found 
belong, from the plain turquoise-blue tiles of the early Pathan period, A.D. 
1 193-1254, to the elaborately designed and many-coloured tiles of the latter 
part of the great Mogul period, A.D. 1556-1750." {Industrial Arts of India, 
p. 155.) In another place the same distinguished authority remarks : — "The 
art of glazing pottery in Scinde and the Panjab is probably not older than the 
time of Chingiz Khan. In all the imperial Mogul cities of India where it is 
practised, especially in Lahore and Delhi, the tradition is that it was introduced 
from China through Persia by the Mongols, through the influence of Tamer- 
lane's Chinese wife ; and it is stated by independent European authorities that 
the commencement of ornamenting the walls of mosques with coloured tiles 
in India is contemporary with the Mongol conquest of Persia." {Jour. Soc. 
Arts, 28th February 1879, p. 311.) 

According to R. C. Dutt, CLE., the great Moghul conquest of India 
occurred in the following manner: — " Babar, the sixth in descent from the great 
Tartar conqueror Timur, was born in 1482, and was, after various adventures, 
expelled from Ferghana and Samarkhand ; and seized the kingdom of Kabul 
in 1504. Twenty-two years after this he ... . conquered from the Afghans 
the throne of Delhi." At his death his son Humayun succeeded. This ruler 
had a chequered career, but his son Akbar became the greatest sovereign India 
had experienced since the time of Vikramaditya. This Akbar — Akbar the 
Great, A.D. 1556-1605 — was the real builder of the Moghul empire in India. 

Influenced by a faith in a supreme God, and enlightened beyond many 
of his Musulman contemporaries, he treated all sects with tolerance. His 
capital was Agra; the red sandstone fort he built there was erected after 
beautiful designs and sculptured by masterly artists. In the province of 
Gujrat, too, painters and handicraftsmen were numerous, and wonderful 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Indian 121 

products were made in jewellery and stuffs. The capital of this province 

Ahmadabad — was then a very prosperous city with one thousand mosques. 
{Civilisation of India, p. 120.) 

From 1573 to 1600 A.D. Ahmadabad was considered the greatest city 
in Western India, and the handsomest town in Hindostan, or perhaps, at 
that time, in the world. Sir Thomas Rowe is said to have declared it to be 
" a goodly city as large as London." 

This brilliant Moghul period being the most interesting from our present 
standpoint, a more detailed reference to a few of the principal examples of 
the use of decoratives tiles in Panjab, Sindh, and Agra will be desirable, to 
demonstrate the astonishing elaboration of colour and design characterizing 
Indian architecture at this time. 

Two points of historical importance should, however, be borne in mind 
in the meantime, viz.: — (i) That in 1 194 A.D. Kutb-ud-Din conquered Northern 
India from the Hindus, and thus began the Pathan period.^ (2) That in 
1526 A.D. Babar conquered Northern India from the Pathans or Afghans, 
and so established a Moghul dynasty in India. 

Fergusson, in his History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, divides the 
periods thus : — 

Early Pathan style, 1193 to 13 16 A.D. 

Late Pathan style, . 13 16 to 1554 a.d. 

Moghul period, . . 1554 to 1706 or 1750 a.d. 

With regard to the decorative tilework of these periods, the author is 
indebted to C. Stanley Clarke, Esq., of the Indian Section, Victoria and 
Albert Museum, South Kensington, for a very instructive list of existing 
monuments in India upon which tile-decoration still appears. It reads as 
follows : — 

" Lahore, Panjab. — Lahore and district has numerous buildings ornamented 
with glazed and enamelled tilework and tile-mosaic-work. The following 
is a selection from some of the most important Muhammadan tombs, 
mosques, and gateways; Indo-Persian (Mogul period), chiefly seventeenth- 
century examples. Of these, the Mosque and Tomb of Wazir Khan is 
easily singled out as the finest. 

"I. Tomb of Shah-Musa, at Lahore, known locally as 'Sabz Gumbaz' 
('the green dome'). Built during the reign of the Emperor Akbar (1556- 
1605 A.D.). Probablj^ the earliest example, illustrating Persian influence, to 
be found amongst numerous buildings ornamented with glazed tilework in 
Lahore and neighbourhood. 

"2. Tomb of the Emperor Jahangir {d. 1627) and of his Queen, Nur- 

^ From Living Races of Mankind, p. 213, we learn that " By the people of India, Afghans are 
called Pathans." 



122 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Jahan {d. 1646), in the Shahdara gardens on the bank of the River Ravi, 
opposite Lahore. Built about 1620 A.D. It is sometimes claimed that Queen 
Nur-Jahan erected this tomb in 1630 A.D. 

" 3. Tomb of Farid Pakkiwala. A religious teacher, pupil of the once 
important Manj Darya of the court of the Emperor Akbar. Built in the 
reign of the Emperor Jahangir in 1621 a.d. 

"4, Mosque and Tomb of Wazir Khan, in Lahore. Wazir ('Vizier' or 
Minister) to the Emperor Shah Jahan. Built 1634 A.D. In excellent pre- 
servation, possessing tilework and tile-mosaic-work of extraordinary beauty. 

"5. Tomb of Asof Khan {d. 1641), at Shahdara, on the bank of the River 
Ravi, opposite Lahore. Wazir ('Vizier' or Minister) to the Emperor 
Jahangir; also a brother of Queen Nur-Jahan. Built about 1635 A.D. 
(Indian Section, Victoria and Albert Museum, possesses enamelled tiles 
from this tomb.) 

"6. Shahlimar Bagh, or the Imperial Palace Garden, outside Lahore, has 
many fine pavilions and gateways ornamented with tilework. Built by AH 
Mardan Khan for the Emperor Shah Jahan, in 1637 A.D. (Ali Mardan Khan, 
an eminent engineer and architect of this period, was in succession Governor 
of Khandahar, Kashmir, and the Panjab, then minister and director-of-works 
under Shah Jahan.) 

" 7. Gateway of the Gulabi Bagh (' Garden of Roses ') at Lahore. All 
that remains now of this royal garden, built by Sultan Beg, son-in-law of 
the Emperor Shah Jahan, about 1640 A.D. 

" 8. Tomb of Mian Mir, at Mian Mir, near Lahore. A religious teacher of 
high rank in the reign of the Emperor Shah Jahan. Built by his pupil Prince 
Dara Shiko, the eldest son of the emperor, in 1640 A.D. (Indian Section, 
V. and A. M., possesses several enamelled tiles from this tomb.) 

" 9. Gateway known as the ' Charburji ' (' four towers '). All that 
remains now of the garden of Zit-un-nissa, daughter of the Emperor 
Aurangzib. Built about 1665 A.D. (Three towers still adorn this gateway.) 

"Jalandhar district, Panjab. — i. Jalandhar and district has several tombs 
of the Lahore type, decorated with similar seventeenth-century tilework and 
tile-mosaic-work. 

" 2. Dakhnai Sarai, in the Jalandhar district. A royal country-seat, or one 
of the Moghul Emperor's numerous halting-places or rest-houses on the road 
from Delhi through Lahore to Kashmir. Built in Shah Jahan's reign, about 
1640 A.D., by the already-mentioned Ali Mardan Khan, minister and director- 
of-works. 

''Delhi, Panjab.— \. Indian Section, V. and A. M., possesses some 
remarkable fragments of early tilework dug up in a garden at old Delhi 
consisting of portions of a battlement, cornice pieces, and several tiles ; some 
of the latter have raised inscriptions in Arabic and Cufic characters. ' Com- 



X 






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w 
ij 

H 

Q 
fd 

W 

S 
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H 
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-=t^K?!-fif 




HISTORICAL REVIEW— Indian 123 

position, in each case, is red earthenware, with moulded ornament in relief, 
showing surface remains of turquoise or copper-blue glazing weathered to 
a green colour in places. Muhammadan work, probably of the thirteenth 
century. 

" 2. Numerous Pathdn tombs, chiefly of the fifteenth and sixteenth 
century, are scattered around Delhi, many elaborately ornamented with 
marble-work, and also decorated with tilework of great beauty both in 
respect of colour and design. Glazed or enanielled tiles, in copper-blue, 
cobalt, and mustard-yellow colours, were those most frequently used in 
external decoration ; sometimes, of course, applied as a kind of mosaic-tile- 
work, the patterns being cut out in one coloured tile, and filled up by a tile 
of a second colour. 

"3. Tomb of FiezuUa Khan {d. 1535), known locally as the ' Malana 
Jamali' (literally 'small palace of beauty'), in the Delhi district, near the 
ruined city of Taglakabad and the Kut'b Minar. A court poet in the reigns 
of the Emperors Baber and Humayun. Built in 1528 A.D. Late Pathdn 
work; externally ornamented with copper-blue, cobalt, and yellow glazed 
tiles, and the interior with encaustic tiles and coloured plaster-work. . 

"4. Delhi, and district, has many tombs of the Lahore type, decorated 
with similar sixteenth and seventeenth century tilework and tile-mosaic- 
work, mostly without names, and for the most part in ruined condition. 
(Indian Section, V. and A. M., possesses several fine Indo-Persian tiles from 
the neighbourhood of Delhi ; sixteenth-century work. Composition in each 
case : red earthenware, enamelled in colours, with conventional floral or 
foliate patterns on a coloured slip surface, usually of mustard-yellow or 
apple-green.) 

" Multan, Punjab. — Multan has numerous examples of coloured tilework of 
the Mogul period, but far more characteristic of this neighbourhood is the 
later 'blue and white' work. Composition: red earthenware, with cobalt 
and copper-blue decoration, floral and geometrical patterns, on a white slip 
surface, glazed. Found chiefly on tombs and mosques of the late seventeenth, 
eighteenth, and early nineteenth century. 

" I. Mosque and Tomb of Yusuf Sh'ah Gadez, Muhammadan merchant 
of Multan. Built about 1750 A.D. (Indian Section, V. and A. M., possesses 
full-sized reproductions, made in Multan, of the doorway and other 
parts of this mosque. A magnificent example of ' blue and white.') [See 
Chapter III.J 

"2. Tomb of a Muhammadan merchant, adjoining the Mosque and Tomb 
of Yusuf Shah Gadez, at Multan. Built about 1750 A.D. (Indian Section, 
V. and A. M., possesses a full-sized reproduction of the entire tomb, selected 
as a type or illustration of certain small blue and white tombs in MQltan.) 

" Agra, N. W. Provinces. — Agra has tombs and other buildings of the 



124 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Lahore type decorated with similar sixteenth and seventeenth century tile- 
work and tile-mosaic-work. 

" I. Tomb of Akbar the Great (JaMl-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, d. 1605) 
at Sikandra, near Agra. Building commenced by the Emperor himself before 
1600 A.D., and completed by his son Jahangir between 1605 and 161 5 A.D. 
Tile-mosaic-work and tilework is employed for covering the outsides of 
kiosques round the third floor. 

" 2. Kanch Mahal (literally ' the palace of glass '), known also as Jodh- 
Bai's Mahal, on the road leading from Agra to Sikandrd. Built probably by 
the Emperor Jahangir as a country residence for Queen Jodh-Bai, about 1610 
A.D. The north facade of this building has elaborate tilework after the 
Lahore type. 

" 3. The tomb known locally as ' Chini-Ka-Rauza,' on the River Jumna, 
at Agra ; traditionally ascribed to Afzal Khan, the poet {d. 1639). Built 
probably during the reign of the Emperor Aurangzib (1658-1707 A.D.) to the 
memory of his favorite. The name ' Chini-Ka-Rauza ' is derived from the 
circumstance that the tomb is overlaid with tile-mosaic-work. The glazed 
patterns are made up of thousands of small pieces of tiles, carefully embedded 
like true mosaic into the face of the plaster covering the brickwork. On 
examining the walls it is found that the patterns have been first traced upon 
the plaster when in a plastic state, and the small tile-mosaic pieces laid 
accordingly. 

" Tatta, Sind. — A vast series of Muhammadan tombs are to be found in 
the vicinity of Tatta, chiefly on the plateau of the Makli range of hills. These 
extensive ruins reach from Pir Patho, the southernmost limit of the Makli range, 
to Sammanagar (or Samui), the site of the ancient capital of the Samma rulers 
of Sind (Samma dynasty: 1351-1521 A.D.), about three miles north-west 
of Tatta. Kennedy, who wrote of these ruins, described them as a vast 
cemetery of six square miles, containing, roughly, not less than a million 
tombs. This tableland, covered with sepulchres of all kinds and sizes, has 
evidently been used as a sacred burial-ground for many centuries. The most 
important are those erected under the Mogul dynasty by the princes or 
governors of the province from about 1570 to 1640 A.D. Great beauty of 
pattern and exquisite harmony of colouring marks the tilework of this 
period. The structure is usually of brickwork, ornamented with glazed or 
enamelled tiles. 

"I. Tomb of Mirza Muhammad Baki Tarkhdn {d. 1585), on the Makli 
Hills, near Tatta. Prince or Governor of Lower Sind : Tarkhin dynasty. 
Built about 1580 A.D. 

"2. Tomb of Amir Kholil Khan, on the Makli Hills, near Tatta. An 
officer under Mirza Muhammad Baki Tarkhdn, Prince or Governor of Lower 
Sind: Tarkhan dynasty. Built, between 1572 and 1585 A.D., during the 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Indian 125 

lifetime of Kholil Khan, but, in accordance with his final wishes, his body 
was buried near it, and bodies of seven hafizes (religious devotees) were buried 
in the tomb. 

" 3. Tomb of Mirza Jani Beg Tarkhan {d. 1599), on the Makli Hills, near 
Tatta. The last of the Tarkhan governors of Lower Sind : Tarkhan dynasty. 
Built about 1600 A.D. His son Gazi Beg {d. 161 1), Governor of the Province 
of Kandahar under the Mogul Emperors Akbar and Jahangir, is also buried 
in this tomb. 

"4. Tomb of Diwan Soorf Khan {d. about 1644), on the Makli Hills, near 
Tatta. ' Diwan ' or minister to Nawab Amir Khan, a governor of Sind 
under the Emperor Shah Jahan. Built in 1639 A.D. 

" 5. Mosque and Tomb of Nawab Amir Khan {d. 1650), on the Makli Hills, 
near Tatta. Governor of Sind under the Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan. Built 
about 1640 A.D. 

" 6. The ' Juma Masjid ' (' Friday Mosque '), in Tatta. Built betv/een 
1644 and 1657 A.D. On this, tilework, with conventional floral ornament in 
blue and purple on white, has been used. Composition : red earthenware, 
with decoration in copper-blue, cobalt, and manganese-purple on a white slip 
surface, glazed. (Indian Section, V. and A. M., possesses reproductions, 
made in Tatta, of spandrils and other parts of this mosque.) 

" Haidarabad and Hala, Sind. — In both of these cities, including their 
environs, are tombs and other buildings decorated with tilework of the Tatta 
type. The following is selected as an illustration : — 

"I. Tomb of Ghuldm Shah Kalhora {d. 1772), at the northern end ot the 
upper plateau on which the city of Haidarabad now stands. Prince or 
Governor of Sind: Kalhora dynasty. Built between 1765 and 1768 A.D. 
This structure, resembling earlier examples, consists entirely of burnt brick 
with external and internal decoration of glazed tiles. The bricks were made 
in Haidarabad, and the coloured tiles at Nasarpur, sixteen miles N.E. of 
Haidarabad. (Nasarpur was once a town of great importance, when the River 
Indus ran at its base.) 

" Karachi, Sind. — Karachi has several tombs of the Tatta type. 

" I. Tomb of Yar Muhammad Kalhora {d. 1719), near Burdani, in the 
Karachi district. Prince or Governor of Sind : Kalhora dynasty ; sometimes 
known as 'Khuda Yar Khan,' the title bestowed on him by the Mogul 
Emperor Aurangzib. Built about 171 5 A.D. 

" Concluding note. — An interesting form of mural decoration, sometimes used 
in India, is the composite of 'marble-inlaid-work' and 'tile-mosaic-work.' 
Persian craftsmen were probably the first to execute architectural patterns in 
this intermixture of various coloured marbles and glazed or enamelled tiles. 
The results yielded are remarkably pleasing. (The Persian Pottery Court, 
V. and A. M., possesses several fine slabs of this material, taken from the Great 



126 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Muhammadan College, at Ispahan, the 'Madrasa Madari Shah Sultan 
Hussain ' (viz., ' The College of the Mother of Shah Sultan Hussain), built in 
1710 A.D." (Signed) C. Stanley Clarke." 



When we reflect that nearly the whole of these numerous and beautiful 
examples of decorative tilework were completed two centuries before Minton 
had even thought of making tiles, we feel disposed to assent to the dictum 
of the Earl of Kimberley, Secretary of State for India in 1885, who said, 
respecting India, "We have much more to learn from than to teach them." 

With special reference to Sind, H. M. Birdwood, Esq., C.S.I., M.A., kindly 
writes : — " The three places where old tiles are to be seen on buildings or 
tombs in greatest profusion are : — 

"I. Tatta, in Karachi Collectorate, where the prin- 
cipal mosques are simply glorious with colour and 
reflected light on the inner walls, the prevailing tone 
being a deep rich blue. 

" 2. Sehwan, on the Indus, where the tombs of 
many saints are decorated with tiles. 

"3. Hyderabad, where the tombs of the Kalhara 
kings are similarly decorated. 

"Tiles are mostly manufactured now, and I believe 
have always been manufactured, at Hala in the 
Hyderabad Collectorate.'' 

From Sir George Bird wood's Industrial Arts of 
India we learn that the chief centres of glazed pottery 
manufacture in Sindh are Hala, Hyderabad, Tatta, 
and Jerruck ; and the chief places for the manufacture 
of encaustic tiles in Sindh are Bulri and Saidpur. He 
mentions tiles, pinnacles for the tops of domes, pierced 
windows, and other architectural accessories, glazed 
more or less in turquoise of the most perfect trans- 
parency, or in a rich dark purple, dark green, or golden brown, sometimes 
diapered all over by the pAte-sur-pdte method. 

Mr. Drury Fortnum, in his report on the pottery of Sindh shown in the 
International Exhibition of 1871, observed : — " The turquoise blue painted on 
a paste beneath a glaze, which might have been unearthed in Egypt or 
Phoenicia .... is of the same blood and bone as the ancient ware of Thebes 
. . . but the tiles are very important — they are in general character similar 
to, although not so carefully made as, ,the Oriental tiles known as Persian, 

which adorn the old mo.sques of Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and Persia The 

colours used upon them are rich copper green or golden brown and dark and 
turquoise blue.'' {Industrial Arts of India, p. 140.) Sind appears to be 




tixosmpi 



Fig. 76. — Sind lattice window, 
3 ft. by 2 ft, 2 ins. Glazed 
tilework, cobalt and copper 
blues on white slip over red 
earthenware, four sections. 
Made in Hala, Sind, 
eighteenth century. India 
Section, V. and A. M. (^By 
permission. ) 



DETAIL-TYPES OF INDIAN DECORATIVE TILEWORK. 



Selected by C. Stanley Clarke, Esq. Indian Section. Victoria and Albert Museum. 



PL. xm. 



s^Mi'^Ct 









ANDRE & SLEIOH. LTD,, BOaHEV, HeflTS 

1. Tile mosaic border from old Delhi. Late Pathan type. 15th century. 

2. Tile boarders from Tombs at Delhi. Mogul type. i6th century. 

3. Tiles from tombs of Asof Khiin at Lahore. Mogul type. 17th century. 

4. Tilework from a tomb on the Makli plateau. Sind. Tatta type. 17th century. 

5. Detail from a tomb in Multan. Multan " blue and white " type. l8th century. 

6. Detail from a tilework frieze. Sind. Hala type. 19th century. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Indian 127 

specially remarkable for embossed tiles and faience of red body, slip painted 
with white, and then the whole glazed with a dark green glaze. 

Respecting these, C. Stanley Clarke, Esq., kindly writes as follows : — " The 
ordinary coloured glazes of Tatta and Hala, in Sind, are : — 

" I- Turquoise -| siliceous ('leadless) glazes coloured f J°PP^''- „ 

" 2. Cobalt blue I ^.^^ ^^\^^^ ^^>^ j M^^r^n^.C.ir^-^ 

" 3. Purple } '^ fewsftit.H.cL^-^eu^t-a.*^ 

" 4. Amber yellow "i , j , 1 j -.i ( Lead. 

„ „ ( Lead glazes coloured with \ ^ , , 

"5. Green r -^ f <' Lead + copper. 

"6. Chocolate brown ' V Lead + manganese. 

" Both towns still produce a moderate quantity of coloured-glazed, slip- 
decorated pottery and tilework, not only in green (No. 5), as remarked by 
Sir George Birdwood, but also in the clear amber yellow (No. 4)." 

Referring again to Panjab (i.e., five rivers), the district around the five great 
tributaries of the Indus, annexed by the British A.D. 1849, to which also the 
district around Delhi was added subsequently, here during the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries the art of glazing and of ceramic decoration attained a 
high level of excellence. 

Mflltan, or Mooltan (captured by the British a.d. 1849), had been a 
historic city from the time of Alexander the Great; and even long before 
that the Greeks are said to have travelled to Northern India in search of know- 
ledge, and the country was, at that early period, populous, well-cultivated, and 
yielded valuable productions of nature and art. {Jour. Soc. Arts, 29.4.03, 
and Cassell's History of India, p. 3,) 

Lahore, situated two hundred miles N.E. of Mooltan, was a great city a 
thousand years ago ; it is much less now, and the great mosque there is said to 
be deserted. But, as already shown, its former splendour, now departed, has 
left many vouchers in the magnificence of the tilework and other architectural 
remains on its ruined monuments. Amritsar, near Lahore, where we approach 
the " savage desolation and appalling sublimity of the Himalayas," still also 
cherishes a gem of Sikh-Muhammadan art in its " Golden Temple," to which 
further reference will be made in another chapter, because of its beautiful mosaics. 

At Delhi, "the Rome of Asia for three thousand years" — on the River 
Jumna, one thousand miles from Calcutta — there is the great Friday Mosque 
(Juma Masjid), built of red sandstone and white marble, having three graceful 
marble domes, with spires of copper, gilt. The mosque is said to be paved 
with nine hundred immense slabs of marble; but neither in this building, nor 
yet in the equally wonderful Kut'b Minar, near by, can we learn of any glazed 
tilework. 

The decorative tilework of the North- West Provinces is perhaps most 
effectively illustrated and explained in the late Edmund W. Smith's Moghul 



128 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Colour Decoration of Agra, constituting vol. xxx. of The Archtsological 
Survey of India (Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, & Co.), several of the 
illustrations in which we are graciously permitted, by the Government of 
the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, and with the consent of J. H. 
Marshall, Esq., Director-General of Archaeology of India, to reprint in this 
volume. Mr. Edmund W. Smith writes as follows : — 

" The Moghul style of architecture, which sprang up about the year A.D. 

1556, under Akbar the Great, terminated about the year A.D. 1658 

Majestic edifices erected by Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan .... to this 
day excite the admiration of the world. Between Akbar's buildings and 
those of his son Jahangir there is, as a rule, but slight difference .... but 
between their buildings and those of Shah Jahtn there is a most marked 
and decided difference, which even the uninitiated cannot but observe. 
Akbar's and Jahangir's works are strongly infused with Hindu architecture. 
Timber is almost unused, and the arch sparingly so ; but under Shah Jah&n 
the Hindu element becomes less and less prominent, until it gradually fades 
away. The Hindu bracket and flat architrave used over the aperture of door- 
ways and windows makes way for the Muhammadan arch, and the beautiful 
carved geometrical decoration in red sandstone, as found at Fathpur Sikrt, 
and the Jahingtr Mah^l in the fort at Agra, gives place to mosaic in pietra- 

dura, as exemplified in Itimid-ad-daula's tomb and the Tij 

"Besides marble mosaic a.nd pietra-dura inlaid ornamentation, the Moghuls 
relied to some extent, as did the Pathins before them, on enamelled tiling 
for the enrichment of their buildings. It had been employed from an early 
period by the Persians upon their structures, and came into use in India 
about Sher Shah's time. Akbar used encaustic tiling upon the stately 
palaces at Fathpflr Sikrt for roofing purposes, and for enriching architraves 
and borders round doorways, etc. ; and Jahangir also used it for covering 
the domed kiosks round the third story of his father's mausoleum at Sikandra, 
and in the Kanch Mahal. In these and other buildings it was sparingly 
used, but in the mosque erected at Labor by Jahinglr's vizir, and the 
Chini-Ka-Rauza, Agri, built, it is supposed, in Aurangzib's reign, we find the 
walls, as in many Persian buildings, covered throughout with encaustic 
tiling. This style of decoration is called Kash^ni, after Ktshin in Persia, 

one of the chief seats of earthenware manufacture 

"Few Moghul buildings appear to have been entirely covered with 
enamelled tiling, and about the only one in Northern India is the Chini-Ka- 

Rauza at Agra The difficulties connected with the manufacture 

of enamelled tiles probably accounts for their being so sparingly used. Red 
sandstone was easily procurable, and could be obtained in any quantity from 
quarries just outside Fathpflr Sikri, whilst marble could be imported from 
the neighbourhood of Jaypur. The manufacture of glazed tiles was no 



INDIAN ENAMELLED TILEWORK. 



PI. XIV. 



h^M^ 



V^A\ 




;0OESEB5O0 



hi 



Agra. CHfNi-KA-RAUZA. 
Tiled Panel, East Facade. Reproduced from PI. XVII, of " Moghul Colour Decoration of Agra, 

(By Permission of the Govern^nent of the United Provinces.) 




HISTORICAL REVIEW— Indian 129 

doubt introduced into India from Persia ; it was not indigenous to the 
country, and the art has almost died out 

" The Chinl-Ka-Rauza (fig. •jj), or the tomb covered with ' china ' 

(enamelled tiles), stands in what was a large garden, but is now a field 

Being a mausoleum, it is built facing north and south, as all such in India 
are. At the north-west corner of the enclosure, commanding a fine view of 
the river, is a picturesque tower crowned by a cupola, which, like the kiosks 
round Akbar's tomb at Sikandra, was originally coated on the outside with 

enamelled tiles There is nothing striking about the design of the 

fa5ades to call for special comment The faces of the abutments upon 

the sides of the arches .... are enriched with quotations from the Qu'rin 
in Arabic, in Tughrah characters. The characters are in blue upon a ground 
of white tiles, enclosed by narrow floral borders in blue, yellow, and green 
tiling. : On the outer sides the abutments are bordered by slender perpen- 
dicularl shafts which extend from the ground to some distance above the 
roof They are covered with crimson, orange, and white tiles laid in a 

zigzag pattern At the four angles of the building are similar shafts 

or guldistas, and these are veneered with tiles in royal blue interspersed with 
narrow trefoil-shaped bands running in parallel rows horizontally across the 
shaft. . Although so simple, the effect is pleasing, and far more so than much 
of the tiled ornamentation upon other parts of the mausoleum. 

" . . . . But to revert again to the large archways in front of the vestibules 
in the pentre of the fa9ades. The spandrils above the arches were overlaid 
with glazed tiling wrought into rich and beautiful scrolls, mainly in blue 

upon a:n orange ground Generally speaking, one facade is like the 

other in design, but the tiled patterns with which they are covered vary 
considerably 

" Exteriorly the tomb is covered from top to bottom with mosaic, in 
tiling in a variety of colours, worked up into numerous patterns, so as to form 
one unbroken flat surface. The interior is floated with stucco, painted with 
rich and bright floral designs 

" The crypt, it is to be deplored, has been used for years as a cattle-shed 
.... and the result is that very little vestige is left ql^ the dadoes, which were 
of coloured tiling. 

" The glazed patterns are made up of thousands of small pieces of tiles 
carefully embedded like mosaic into the face of the plaster covering the 
brickwork. Where portionsj, of the tiling have fallen, the original position 
of eacri separate piece of tiling as it was embedded into the plaster can be 

distinctly traced The joints between the different pieces of tiles are 

distinctly traceable, and are not mere shallow lines of demarcation between 

the coloured patterns, as has been asserted by a former explorer One 

cannot say definitely of what substance the tiles are composed, but it is 

9 



.30 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 







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HISTORICAL REVIEW— Indian 131 

evident they are caustic, or tiles which have been subjected to an almost 
incandescent heat. The glazed surface is only the thickness of the blade of 
a knife. They have certainly been subjected to heat, and are not merely 
'made of mortar or cement enamelled over,' as has been asserted by some 

people 

"The principal colours employed are blues, greens, oranges, vermilions, 

lakes, etc It is impossible to describe the full effect of the tiling ; there 

is that about it which baffles description, and to be fully appreciated it must 

be seen " 

Referring to one particular detail, the pattern of a lattice, Mr. Edmund W. 
Smith writes : — " Similar designs are met with in Chinese work, and it is not 
impossible that some of the workmen employed on the decoration of the 
Chtni-Ki-Rauza came from China or Japan, or more probably the designs 
travelled from China into Persia, and from thence to India.'' In conclusion, 
Mr. Smith says : — " It is impossible to say by whom the chamber was decorated. 
It is evident the artists were of no mean order, and although most of the 
d.ecp«ation may have been done by Indian artists, it is not improbable, judging 
from various indications, that Chinese decorators assisted in the work. It is 
deeply to be regretted that more care was not taken in years past to preserve 
the mausoleum, which is certainly one of the most interesting in Northern 
India. Time has, no doubt, had much to do with the present condition of the 
building, but what time has not done, man has. The tiling on the exterior 
has been wantonly hacked off by visitors without taste, wishing to carry away 
to distant homes souvenirs of the place. 

" For whom the tomb was built we do not know. It bears no inscription, 
but is traditionally ascribed to 'Afzal Khan, a poet, who died at Labor in 
A.D. 1639. In all likelihood it was built during 'Aurangzib's time." 

In chapter iii. of the same work Mr. Smith writes : — " Similar tiling to 
that used for decorating the exterior of the Chini-Ka-rauza was .... em- 
ployed for covering the outside of the kiosques round the third floor of Akbar's 
tomb at Sikandra, commenced by Akbar himself, but completed by his son 
Jah^ngir between A.D. 1605-1615. The illustration (plate xvi.) represents 
the cupola of one of the kiosques, showing the manner in which the tiles are 
laid, and the remaining plates show the designs in detail. In most cases star 
patterns, surrounded. or combined with hexagonal or other geometrical figures, 
have been used. In some places portions of these patterns have fallen, and 
have been replaced by tiles of a different design." {Moghul Colour Decn.) 

In chapter iv. Mr. Smith describes the KANCH MAHAL at Sikandra. 
He says : — " A little way to the east of the main entrance to Akbar's tomb at 
Sikandra, within a walled garden, presented some thirty years ago by Govern- 
ment to the Church Missionary Society, is a very fine specimen of early 
seventeenth-century domestic architecture. The house was probably built by 



132 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



the Emperor Jahingir for his Queen Jodh Bai, as it is sometimes called Jodh 

Bai's Mahal The residence stands on the right-hand side of the main 

road leading from Agri to Sikandri, but as it is hidden among the trees of 

the garden it can hardly be seen by passers-by The top of the window 

is roofed by a half-dome in cement, covered on the exterior with parallel 
rows of star-shaped encaustic tiles in blue and green, embedded in hexagonal 
borders of an orange colour. At the springing of the roof is a battlemented 
fascia in red sandstone, inlaid with orange and blue tiles. The general 

effect of the tiling, combined with 
the dark red sandstone traceried 
windows, is most effective. 

" Extending all along the top 
of the facade is a series of panels. 
.... Above the panels is a string 
moulding inlaid with green 
enamelled tiling, and over it a red 

sandstone parapet The 

merlons are engrailed and inlaid 
with blue and the embrasures with 
orange-coloured tiles. 

" The spandrils above the arch 
ere enriched with raised floral 
scrolls in red sandstone, the in- 
terstices between the scrolls being 
veneered with white marble. .... 
In earlier Moghul work .... we 
find the spandrils almost plain, 
a boss only being carved in the 
centre. Flowing tracery was not 
in general use .... till the seven- 
teenth century. 
" It is seldom one sees a house so profusely and elaborately carved as the 
Kaflch Mahal, and yet not in bad taste. The Turkish Sultana's and Bir Bal's 
houses at Fathpflr Slkrt, erected during the latter part of the sixteenth century, 
are considered to be among the most minareted carved buildings in India, but 
the north facade of the Kanch Mahal vies with even if it does not excel them." 
{Moghul Colour Decoration of Agra, p. 26, Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, & Co.) 
Respecting the nature and mode of manufacture of this Moghul Indian 
tilework, Mr. Smith expresses the opinion that, as most of the colours used in 
the manufacture of the Sind and Panjab tiles are found upon the walls of the 
Chini-Ka-rauza, and as far as one can judge the enamelling was prepared'in 
the same way, the manufacture ot Indian encaustic tiles and pottery, as 




r"iG. 78. —Kanch Mahal gateway. 






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HISTORICAL REVIEW— Indian 133 

described by Sir George Birdwood, K.C I.E., in his Industrial Arts of India, 
may be looked upon a.s furnishing a probable explanation. This information 
will be mostly found in \he Journal of the Society of Arts, 28th February 1879, 
where the recipes for the glazes are minutely described. 

With regard to Burma, Taw Sein-Ko, in his monograph on the pottery and 
glassware of Burma, mentions that, long before ceramic art achieved any public 
recognition in Europe, the pottery of Burma had become famous. He tells 
of huge jars — Martabans — mentioned by an Arabian traveller in the fourteenth 
century. These things and other beautiful products in porcelain and glazed 
earthenware were highly prized among the Moors who traded with the Far 
East. But the things that appear to possess most interest from an antiquarian 
point of view are peculiar glazed terracotta tablets, modelled in very high 
relief, and enamelled or glazed with bright green and red enamels, and some 
opaque white. Taw Sein-Ko tells us they are found mostly at Tagaung, 
Pagan, Prome, and Pegu, the ancient capitals of Burma. Specimens are to 
be seen in the Phayre Museum, Rangoon, and in the Indian Section, Victoria 
and Albert Museum, London. The designs partake rather of the grotesque 
than the decorative, and probably had some religious or allegorical signification. 

Chinese. — It is customary to attribute great historical antiquity and con- 
tinuity to the Chinese. Rev. John Ross asserts that the Chinese attained a 
high degree of civilization at a period when every other existing nationality 
was still in the grossest barbarism, and from earliest recorded times they 
were surrounded by people who were their mental and social inferiors. (^Sunday 
at Home, 1 889, p. 87.) 

On the other hand, E. H. Parker, Esq., Reader of Chinese in the University 
of Liverpool, who was for many years resident in China, has kindly written 
to me, saying : — " As to the records question, I see no reason to disbelieve 
Chinese traditions, but there is nothing of value in them, even if true ; no 
dates, no financial, social, or other definite facts. Most of the literature was 
destroyed in B.C. 213, and what has been recovered is all barren ' philosophy' — 
no science or ' sound stuff' of any kind, at least older than B.C. 700." (See 
also p. 16 of China : her History, etc., Murray.) 

When the average Briton essays to study the history of China, he finds that 
it is not so much a single country as a vast continent teeming with populations 
of more or less mixed origin, much as other continents are ; and that, so far 
from China having had one long-continued peaceful and perfectly secluded 
growth, it has been the battle-ground of Manchu, Mongol, Kitan, Tartar, and 
Turk ; and its coasts have been the scene of intense activity and commerce 
by Hindu and Arab, long before Vasco de Gama doubled the Cape of Good 
Hope (A.D. 1497) with his Portuguese ships, to be soon followed by Dutch, 
French, and British. China, like other continents, has been ruffled again and 
again by the passage of troops, has suffered many changes of dynasty, and 



134 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

for half its historical period has been divided nationally north from south. 
(See China: her History, Diplomacy, and Commerce, pp. 25, 26, 30, 182-188, 
Murray.) 

We must therefore leave ancient traditions alone, and seek our facts about 
Chinese faience in the existing or only recently destroyed examples. Much 
has been wrritten in European about Chinese porcelain, and something about 
their stonewares, but very little, apparently, about their decorative faience, 

or whatever the material really is of 
which their coloured glazed tiles are 
composed. 

Marryat certainly mentions the 
once famous tower of Nanking, and 
tells of several eccentricities of the 
emperors of China. It seems that 
they had a special weakness for com- 
manding the manufacture of articles 
of an almost impracticable nature, 
under threats of severe penalties. 
Marryat tells of one who ordered 
plaques or tablets to be made for a 
porch, each tablet to be the equivalent 
of 3 feet high, 2\ feet broad, and 
\ foot thick. After many attempts it 
was found they could not be made, 
and the mandarins petitioned the 
emperor that the work be discon- 
tinued. Still certain plaques were 
made, and used for overlaying the 
walls of palaces and temples, their 
brilliant glaze and varied colours giv- 
ing an air of magnificence. (^History 
of Pottery and Porcelain, p. 224, 
Murray.) 

In a particularly interesting and 
instructive paper on Peking, read 
before the Society of Arts by Thomas Child on 30th January 1895, expressing 
the results of an experience of twenty years' residence in China, he refers to 
the wonderful Peking Observatory — "the oldest in the world, and perhaps 
the most dilapidated." It was erected in 1275 A.D. by the Mongol Emperor 
Kublai Khan. On the north side there are, it seems, some buildings covered 
with yellow porcelain (?) tiles, with which also all the palace buildings are roofed. 
Notwithstanding the fierceness of the winds during the winter, he tells us there 




Fig. 79. — Porcelain Tower of Nanking (destroyed 
l^53)- {From Marryat's " History of 
Pottery and Porcelain." By permission of 
Mr. John Murray. ) 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Chinese 135 

are no fireplaces, as we understand them, in Chinese houses; they protect 
themselves by wadded clothing and only use fire for cooking purposes. This, 
then, easily accounts for the absence of anything like stove tiles or faience fire- 
places in China. 

Mr. Child also mentions a magnificent porcelain (?) arch, covered with 
yellow tiles, in the Hall of Classics near the Confucian temple ; and if we 
understand him correctly, the wall of the inner. Imperial, city, which extends 
for seven miles, is roofed on the top throughout its whole length with yellow 
porcelain tiles, and Mr. Child remarks that " This i.s a characteristic of Peking. 
All the public buildings are covered with these glazed, tiles, every dynasty having 
its own colour, some green, some yellow. The present dynasty, which is the 
'Ch'ing' or 'pure,' has adopted yellow. All the palace buildings are covered 
with tiles of this colour." (Jour. Soc. Arts, February 1895, p. 217.) 

Speculations upon the possibility of the art of enamelling having been 
communicated, one way or the other, between China and Babylonia and 
Egypt at a remote period, or between Persia and China in more recent times, 
will not serve any very useful purpose here ; even the date of the invention of 
porcelain, probably a much more recent matter, is placed at very different 
periods by those who have attempted to fix it. Thus, in the Handbook to the 
British Pottery and Porcelain in the Museum, of Practical Geology, London, 
1893, we read :— " It is certain that porcelain was manufactured in China at a 
very early date. According to the researches of M. Stanilas Julien, the manu- 
facture was commenced .... at some time between B.C. 185 and A.D. 87. 
Dr. Hirth, however, believes that the use of Kaolin was not introduced until 
some time after A.D. 536 . . . . while M. du Sartel also refers the origin of 
porcelain to ... . 618 to 906. According to Mr. Hippisley, 'No specimens 
manufactured prior to the advent of the Sung dynasty have survived to the 
present day': this dynasty extended from 960 to 1259. Mr. Franks remarks 
that 'it was under the great native dynasty of the Mings (1368 to 1644) that 
the manufacture of porcelain received its greatest development' " {Handbk. 
M. P. Geol, 1893, p. 10.) 

Early in the sixteenth century there must have been many ceramists of 
considerable ability in Korea, for the late Mr. Ernest Hart, in his paper on 
" Japanese Pottery and Porcelain," read before the Society of Arts in February 
1892, describes how an expert from Korea was taken over to Japan to search 
for natural materials for the manufacture. And several instances are related 
of Japanese chieftains having crossed over the seas to raid Korea for loot 
and for artisan captives, among whom were potters, who greatly assisted in 
originating whatever of pottery and porcelain there is now in Japan. 

But the foregoing is " by the way " ; for after much rather fruitless searching 
for accurate information about Chinese decorative wares, the author at last 
ventured to appeal to that prince of writers on Oriental ceramics, Dr. Stephen 



136 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

W. Bushell, C.M.G., M.D., who for over thirty years was the distinguished 
resident physician to the British Embassy at Peking. The appeal was met 
with utmost courtesy, promptness, and candour. The learned doctor most 
willingly furnished an essay on the subject, which is appended in full, and . 
which we believe to be unique so far as this particular feature of Chinese art 
and architecture is concerned. 

"NOTES ON THE DECORATIVE AND ARCHITECTURAL USE OF 

" GLAZED TILES AND FAIENCE IN CHINA. 

" By Dr. Stephen W. Bushell, C.M.G., M.D. 

"The Chinese employ glazed pottery very extensively for the facing of 
buildings, for roof-tiles, and as architectural ornaments. The framework of 
the skeleton of their palaces, temples, and other large buildings being always 
constructed of wood, and supported upon strong cylindrical wooden pillars, 
the outline is generally filled in with bricks, supplemented usually by moulded 
panels of terracotta. The bricks and moulded panels used in the construction 
and external facing of the walls are occasionally covered with coloured glazes, 
while the tiles which cover the roof, the most prominent and characteristic 
feature in Chinese architecture, are always glazed in bright colours, so as to 
distinguish the palaces of the emperor, the residence of a prince of the blood, 
or one of the many State temples. Glaze is called liu-li in Chinese. The 
exact period of its introduction is unknown, but it was certainly in use during 
the Han dynasty, which flourished from B.C. 202 to A.D. 220. The centre of 
fabrication of coloured glazes in the present day is Po-skan-hien, in the 
province of Shantung, where some three-fourths of the population are 
engaged in the manufacture. The whole region outside the city walls is said, 
in a recent account {North China Herald, 27^ January 1903), to be dotted 
with kilns, where coloured glass of fair quality is made from materials pro- 
duced in the vicinity, the place being renowned for the finish of its glasswares 
and for its articles of imitation jade, glazed tiles, etc. In addition to these 
things, rods of coloured glass, about thirty inches long, are moulded here, and . 
tied in bundles for exportation to other localities, to be used there for the deco- 
ration of porcelain and faience in enamel colours, and for the fabrication of 
painted and cloisunni enamels in copper, as well as for coating tiles and 
bricks of architectural faience. These last are made locally wherever suitable 
deposits of fine clay occur. There is an imperial manufactory near Peking, 
in the Western Hills, about twenty-five miles from the city. The principal 
glazes used in these kilns, previously prepared with a lead flux, are a deep 
yellow from antimony and iron peroxide, a dark green from copper persilicate, 
and a purplish blue from the native cobaltiferous manganese mineral. Among 
other colours less frequently used are a beautiful turquoise blue composed of 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Chinese 137 

copper with nitre flux, and a brilliant ruby red which owes its tint to the 
same protean metal. White porcelain is occasionally used in architectural 
decoration as an effective contrast to panels of coloured faience. We owe 
the earliest record of the famous kilns of Chingtechen in the historical annals 
to the entry that in the year 583 A.D. the last emperor of the short-lived 
Ch'en dynasty ordered a supply of porcelain plinths to be made there for the 
palaces he was building at Chien-K'ang (now Nanking). The celebrated 
porcelain tower which was built in this city on the site of an older pagoda in 
the reign of the Emperor Yung-lo (A.D. 1404-24), and formed a conspicuous 
ornament of the ancient capital till it was destroyed by the Taiping rebels in 
1853, was cased with l_-shaped bricks of white porcelain, coated with a lustrous 
white glaze, together with faience bricks moulded with Buddhist emblems and 
enamelled in colours. A scroll-picture of this pagoda, which was 260 feet 
high, with eight sides and nine stories, is in the British Museum, as well as 
actual specimens of the bricks, panels, and antefixal ornaments from the roof 
One of the descriptions may be quoted here from the catalogue by Sir 
Wollaston Franks: — 'Architectural Panel. — Chinese pottery, moulded in 
relief, and glazed with white, red, green, and yellow; on it a yellow throne, on 
which are three bud-like objects, one white, another red, and the third green, 
symbolizing the San-tih, or three moral excellences of Buddha ; behind are 
wavy rays of the four colours mentioned. From the Porcelain Tower at 
Nanking, commenced by the Emperor Yung-lo, and terminated in 1430 ; 
destroyed 1853. Height 13' inches, width 6 inches. 921.' 

" The Emperor "Hsuan-te was reigning in 1430, when the porcelain of the 
period was remarkable for the brilliancy of a ruby-red monochrome glaze 
produced from copper, the identical colour which distinguishes some of the 
rays of the halo on this panel, and makes it of special interest to the student 
of Oriental ceramic art. 

" There are several porcelain or rather glazed faience pagodas of the same 
kind, but of less imposing proportions, in the grounds of the summer palaces 
near Peking, which were built in the reign of the Emperor Chien-lung. The 
temple of the same period, at the top of the Wan-Shon Hill (in the photo- 
graph) [fig. 80], is built of large bricks, each one of which is moulded with a 
niche in which a figure of Buddha is enshrined, picked out with green on a 
yellow background ; the roof-tiles are glazed in the same two colours, as well 
as the three dagabas and the dragons on the crest of the roof, and the 
grotesque antifixal animals on the eaves. 

"The picture (photo No. 2) of the three-arched gateway [Plate XVH.] or 
Pai-lou, at the entrance of the Buddhist temple, Wo Fo Ssu, will give a general 
idea of the decorative effect of enamelled faience. The foundation and arches, 
built of carved slabs of white marble, support a framework of wood which 
is entirely overlaid with plaques of faience, moulded with varied ornamental 



138 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 










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HISTORICAL REVIEW— Chinese 139 

designs and coloured yellow. The intervals are filled in with brickwork 
coated with red plaster. The central tablet displays four Chinese characters 
cut in white marble and filled in with vermilion, an imperial inscription 
in honour of Buddhism. This is flanked by two large oblong slabs of 
faience carved in open-work relief, with a pair of five-clawed imperial 
dragons in the midst of scrolled clouds, guarding the jewel of the law, which 
projects in the centre of each slab. 

" The symbolism of colour is all important in China. The triple-roofed 
Temple of Heaven in Peking shines out gorgeously with its purple tiles, 
surmounted by a huge purple ball ; the sacrificial vases of porcelain are all 
Mazarin blue, and a subdued blue light is given to the interior by hanging 
Venetians over the window, made of rods of blue glass closely strung 
together. In the Temple of the Earth, on the contrary, everything is yellow, 
its typical elemental colour. The roofs of the palaces and the open-work 
panelled railings of their verandahs are yellow, approaching in tint the deep 
colour of the yolk of an egg; the princes live in an atmosphere of green. 
Among Buddhist temples, those of the Lama, the State church, are roofed 
with yellow ; the others under imperial protection are usually green. A 
general view of Peking from the top of the city wall, which is sixty feet high, 
shows the picturesque effect of brightly enamelled colours when lit up by 
the setting sun, the massive roofs of the taller buildings projecting above a 
thick setting of green trees. S. W. B. 

" 28 May '03." 

In a subsequent communication Dr. Bushell explains that " The yellow 
tiles are always of faience coated with a plain yellow-coloured glaze ' ; also, 
that " most of the tiles are plain ; but the lowest in each row is flanged, 
and the flanges are moulded with panels in relief , of five-clawed imperial 
dragons, coated with the same glaze, as in the following diagram : — 

"AAA representing three rows of nearly 
cylindrical tiles overlapping, the lowest cylinder 
closed with a round medallion panel. 

" B B B B — four rows of flat tiles, the lowest 
tile flanged with a semicircular panel. 

" A glance at the roofing of the archway in 
the photo will show the method better than the 
rough diagram.'' 

In reply to an inquiry as to the mode of ^ is "5 ^ 
manufacture of the Chinese red glaze. Dr. Bushell pj^ gj. —Chinese roof-tiles, 
explains : — 

" The Chinese copper - red glaze of the grand feu is made from 
metallic copper. The molten metal, generally derived from the cupellation 




I40 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

of silver, is granulated by being thrown into water, then pulverized, 
and nnixed with a glaze composed of felspar and carbonate of lime, to 
which amethystine quartz or carnelian is occasionally added. This highly 
siliceous glaze must be fired in a reducing atmosphere. The firing is said to 
be a most delicate operation, and must be stopped at the critical moment to 
attain a bright, uniform ruby-red colour ; if it be pushed too high, the metal 
will be dissipated and the vase will come out wholly or partially colourless ; 
if it is insufficient, the piece will be dull or liver-coloured. . . ; . The ruby 
glaze comes out well on Canton stoneware as well as on ordinary Chinese 

faience, although rarely used The ruby red is the red of the grand 

feu, fired within saggars in the open kiln. The reducing atmosphere is gained, 
I believe, by selecting the smoky part ol the kiln ; but the method often 
fails, and patches of apple green appear from superoxidation, or occasionally 
the whole vase comes out marbled with flashed tones of darker green. The 
Chinese reds of the muffled stove are the coral red of iron oxide and the 

crimsons and pinks derived from gold The Chinese work by rule of 

thumb, not by your scientific principles, and it is marvellous how they some- 
times succeed so well." 

A very interesting example of Chinese porcelain tiles exists in the Public 
Museum, Pall Mall, Hanley, in the form of a screen composed of tiles fixed 
in a wooden frame, as shown in the illustration, kindly permitted by the 
Museum Committee (Plate XVIII.). 

The screen is said to have been purchased by the Museum Authorities on 
6th March 1896, but had been exhibited there on loan some years before. 
It is said to have formerly belonged to a Mr. John Walley. 

The tiles are for the most part most carefully and elaborately painted in 
brilliant colours and gold enrichments, the border tiles being in cobalt-blue 
colour only. A copy of the photograph was submitted to Dr. Stephen W. 
Bushell, C.M.G., M.D., who very generously wrote of it as follows : — " It is a 
good example of the decorative value of porcelain tiles. But the Chinese 
characters are too small in the photograph to be read distinctly, although I 
can make out some of them with a lens. The upper panels represent a series 
of Taoist stories and legends, accompanied by inscriptions in rhyming 
stanzas, with seven characters in each line. The fourth from the right, for 
example (above the Taoist immortal Chung-li Ch'uan), represents a visit of 
Chih Nil, ^ -^^ the 'Spinning Damsel,' and Lyra, on the seventh day of the 
seventh month, -^ ^, to the celebrated Tzu-yi, ^ ^. Kuo Tzii-yi, A.D. 
697-781, was one of the most renowned among Chinese generals, and greatly 
distinguished by his services to four successive emperors of the T'ang dynasty. 
He was blessed with a numerous progeny, the offspring of eight sons and 
seven sons-in-law, all of whom occupied high official posts. The blessings 
which he enjoyed, namely, honours, riches, and longevity, were attributed by a 



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HISTORICAL REVIEW— Chinese 141 

popular legend to the interposition of the star-maiden Chih Nii, who is said to 
have appeared to him once on the day specially consecrated as her festival, 
and promised him these rewards. (See Mayer's Chinese Reader's Manual, 
p. 96.) 

" Notice the attendant offering peaches, the fruit of immortality, in a 
salver ; and the pine, the Taoist tree of long life, in the background of most 
of the pictures. 

"The lowest panels present the eight Taoist genii, Pa Hsien, recognised 
by their emblems, with commemorative couplets of two lines of five characters 
attached to each. They are, counting from right to left : — 

" I. Han Hsiang Tzu, with a flute. 
" 2. Lii Tung-pin, with a sword. 
" 3. Chang Kuo Lao, with musical rods. 
" 4. Chung-li Ch'uan, with a feather fan. 
"5. Li T'ieh-Kuai, with iron crutch and gourd. 
"6. Ts'ao Kuo-ch'iu, with castanets. 
" 7. Ho Hsien Ku, with a lotus. 
"8. Lan Ts'ai-ho, with a basket of peaches. 
" Your very truly, 

(Signed) " S. W. BusHELL." 

Dr. Bushell further kindly informs me that Canton stoneware is largely 
used architecturally in South China, and so is the Kochi faience in its native 
country of Kochi. 

Herbert W. L. Way, Esq., of Great Yelkham, in reply to inquiry as to the 
use of glazed tiles in China at the present time, replied : — " In answer to your 
question re glazed tiles, I may say that I have never seen them used except for 
roofing and for ornamental designs on roofs .... never on walls or floors. 
I copied several designs in China, used in mats and woven bamboo, which 
are purely Chinese, and which often struck me as eminently suited for tile 
flooring, but found they were conventional designs in this country." 

The Rev. G. A. Schneider, M.A., in a brief sketch of the history of Chinese 
porcelain published in Mr. F. W. Phillips' catalogue, says :— " Marble and stone 
are not much used for decorative purposes ; it is pottery which serves as an 
embellishment of the house. Enamelled tiles are worked into columns and 
galleries and balustrades ; painted plaques enrich the walls of the interior. 
Every gentleman has his reception-room ; and here the furniture consists 
solely of etageres laden with vases of flowers and with dishes of fruit. So, too, 
there is in every house a shrine for private worship : an altar-table is placed 

before a religious picture, and this is furnished with articles of porcelain 

It must also be remembered that in China rigid social laws determine many a 
thing which with us is left to the taste and fancy of the individual. No one 



142 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

in China would dare to select arbitrarily the colour of the tiles on his roof or of 
the decorations in his house ; these matters are fixed according to his station 
in life. The various dynasties, too, have adopted peculiar colours : the 
Ming dynasty took green as their livery, the present dynasty yellow, and no 
one but the emperor has a right to possess yellow vases or table services." 
The same author tells us that Chinese design, too, is greatly influenced by 
social custom and religious belief, many of their designs being in reality 
representations of mythical and fantastic animals, largely emblematic. The 
dragon, which is supposed to show itself only on extraordinary occasions, such 
as the birth of an emperor, is represented with five claws on pieces of ware 
destined for imperial use, with four claws on ware for princes, and with only 
three claws for wares made and decorated for ordinary commerce. The dog 
of Fo (Kylin), the defender of temples and altars, has a grinning face with 
sharp teeth, and its feet are armed with claws. 

Yuan Chen, of the Chinese Embassy, London, very kindly informs me 
that " the use of decorative tiles in covering the roof of a building is only 
allowed to certain princes and ecclesiastical bodies," and that "decorative 
tiles, yellow or green, are greatl}'' used by privileged persons in covering 
roofs of their buildings. The use of such tiles in other ways than the 
one mentioned is not restricted, but there is no occasion for it. No residential 
house is furnished with fireplaces as it is in this country ; and that being so, 
its use must be more limited in China than it is here. 

Japanese. — According to E. H. Parker, Esq., Japan appears to have been 
a terra incognita even to their near neighbours, the Chinese, about B.C. 222 ; 
and western Europeans would know little of Japan until the seventeenth 
century A.D. 

A careful perusal of the several lectures before the Society of Arts, by 
Ernest Hart, D.C.L., in 1892 and 1895, shows that, although coarse pottery 
of a useful kind was made in Japan from A.D. 998, or probably earlier, porce- 
lain and art pottery were not manufactured until early in the sixteenth 
century, when Shonzin went from Japan to China to learn the secrets of the 
Foochow kiln.s. 

In the later sixteenth and in the seventeenth century various chiefs of 
Japan invaded Korea from time to time, and either induced or compelled 
Korean artisans to return with them to Japan. Among these artisans were 
several skilful potters. From such beginnings arose an industry for which 
even Mr. Ernest Hart seems scarcely able to find language in which to 
adequately express his admiration. Yet, in the whole course of his exhaustive 
lectures, including many quotations from Captain Brinkley's work, not a word 
about decorative tiles past or present is to be found. 

Professor R. W. Atkinson, B.Sc, F.I.C., F.C.S., of Cardiff, who for several 
years resided in Tokio, has very courteously written as follows : — " The 



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HISTORICAL REVIEW— English Medieval 143 

Japanese in their native buildings do not use glazed tiles or other architectural 
faience, as practically all their buildings are of wood ornamented with lacquer 
of different colours. The roofs of their temples are of copper, and all orna- 
ments are of metal or lacquer. The only cases in which anything of the 
nature of pottery is used (excluding newly erected foreign buildings) are in 
the walls surrounding the ancient nobles' yashikis (domains), where round 
cylindrical tiles are used bearing the owner's crest on the ends." The fore- 
going, of course, applies only to decorative tiles and architectural faience ; so 
far as ordinary pottery and porcelain are concerned, the Japanese are very 
clever, and Professor Atkinson remarks : — " There is hardly a province in which 
better or worse ware is not produced." 

English Mediaeval. — During the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth 
centuries ornamental tiles, variously known as " monastic," " encaustic," or 
" Gothic " tiles, were extensively used for pavements in the intedor of English 
abbeys and churches. As to their first appearance. Dr. Frank Renaud, F.S.A., 
in his paper on " The Uses and Teachings of Ancient Encaustic Tiles," 
remarks : — " My own observations, founded on nearly five hundred collected 
tracings, incline me to think the earliest specimens of monastic tiles cannot 
be traced further back than towards the close of the twelfth century, and that 
endeavours to link them with classical pavements would prove abortive." 
(Trans. Lane, and Ches. Antiq. Soc, vol. ix. 1891.) 

According to Spon's Encyclopedia, some of the best examples of these 
tiles were found at Salisbury, Winchester, Exeter, Bristol, Chichester, Oxford, 
and Gloucester, one of the most perfect pavements being the floor of the 
Chapter House at Westminster Abbey. Specimens are also said to have 
been found at Meaux Abbey, Salley Abbey, Fountains Abbey, Bylands 
Abbey, Little Marlow Priory, Lewes Priory, Chertsey, and many other 
places. 

"Whether the art was indigenous to England," says Dr. Renaud, "or 
introduced from France, cannot be determined in the absence of written 
testimony ; but as early examples have been found in Normandy, and early 
English architecture followed in the wake of Archbishop Lan franc's coming 
into England^ the balance is in favour of a foreign origin." (Trans. L. and C. 
Antiq. Soc, 1891.) 

Dr. Renaud classifies these tiles under five groups : — Armorial, Pictorial, 
Symbolical, Moral, and Educational ; and shows where examples have been 
found, and illustrates the tiles themselves by numerous coloured plates. 

Other notices of these tiles have appeared in the transactions of various 
archa;ological and antiquarian societies, and in journals such as the 
Gentleman's Magazine. 

Of special works on the subject there are several ; for instance, a large 
and beautiful collection of coloured drawings in three volumes is to be 



144 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

found at the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, London, illustrating 
tiles of mediaeval age, of many localities in England. 

Then there is a work published by J. G. Nicholls in 1845, for whose 
fidelity in illustration of these things Dr. Renaud personally vouches. 

The work by H. Shaw, published 1858, contains illustrations on a reduced 
scale, but in chronological order ; and another by Oldham relates more 
particularly to a series of tiles found in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. 

With respect to Shaw's work (which may be seen in Birmingham Reference 
Library), it is quite a revelation to any who think two colours without 
blending are incapable of effective use for ornamental purposes, and that 
monastic tiles were originally but sorry products. Someone has facetiously 
observed, however, that possibly Shaw has done these tiles more than 
justice, but there may be some justification in trying to represent them as 
they were. A plate of excellent illustrations of these tiles appears in 
Lacroix's Art in the Middle Ages, of which Messrs. Chapman & Hall publish 
an English translation. 

Dr. Forrer, in his Geschichte der europdischen Fliesen-Keramik voni 
Mittelalter, reproduces on his plate v. Shaw's drawing for English inlaid 
tiles of thirteenth century from Chertsey Abbey (Surrey), and these appear 
in brilliant contrast to the German tiles of a like age. 

In the Guildhall Museum, London, a very large number of specimens are 
preserved. They are classed as tiles of red earth of the twelfth to the 
seventeenth centuries, and are described as being, with very few exceptions, 
of square form, 4^ to 5 inches square and about |-inch thick. The 
ornamentation is very varied and typical of the period, full of allegory, 
heraldry, and symbol. This is most usually effected by inlaid clay, sometimes 
glazed ; sometimes level, at others, recessed, or, again, in relief. Representa- 
tions of arms, shields of arms, fleur-de-lis, interlaced triangles, five-petalled 
flowers, trefoils, quatrefoils, cinquefoils, multifoils, segments of circles, cross 
and chevrons, lozenges, pellets, scrolls, seem to be the most common elements 
of ornament. 

Considerable numbers of those in Guildhall Museum were derived from 
St. Matthew's Church, Friday Street ; Brook's Wharf ; Royal Exchange ; City 
of London ; and St. Andrew's Church, Chinnon, Oxfordshire. 

Malvern claims to have an exceptionally fine collection of monastic 
encaustic tiles, both conventional and heraldic, of the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries, now on the walls and pillars of the Priory Church. They are 
supposed to have formed the original pavement of the church when it was 
erected in the fifteenth century ; and its richness and beauty must have been 
remarkable, for at least one hundred different designs have been noted, including 
the armorial bearings of various important families who were associated with 
Malvern in mediaeval times. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— English Medi/eval 



145 



The illustration is a view of some of these tiles as now seen in the Priory 
Church. Many such 
tiles are supposed to have 
been made in a monastic 
establishment here dur- 
ing the fifteenth century, 
and it is said that in 
1833 a kiln for burning 
encaustic tiles was dis- 
covered within 200 yards 
of the church. 

At Bristol, the 
Cathedral authorities — 
thanks mostly to Robert 
HallWarren,Esq.,F.S.A. 
— now have a fine col- 
lection of mediaeval tiles, 
which have been figured 
and described in the 
Proceedings of the Clifton 
Antiquarian Club, vol. v. 
p. 122. Mr. Warren 
states that the various 
alterations since the dis- 
solution of the abbey 
have resulted in the utter 
breaking up of the pave- 
ments and the dispersion 
of the tiles. The illus- 
trations, which we are 
generously permitted to 
make use of, were origin- 
ally traced, reduced, and 
drawn by Miss Warren, 
daughter of Robert Hall 
Warren, Esq., of Clifton. 
They represent speci- 
mens from several col- 
lections, in addition to 
those m the Cathedral, 
and drawings of other tiles, of which the originals cannot now be traced. 

No. I has a shield of the 'Berkeley arms, with a sprig of thirteenth-century 

10 




Photo by Norman May b' Co.} [Malvern. 

Fig. 82. — Mediaeval tile work in Malvern Priory Church. 



146 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

stiff leaf-foliage springing from the top and on either side. The tile is 5 inches 
square by ^-inch thick. Six similar tiles were found in Harrington Church, 
Northamptonshire. 

No. 2 is one of the many varieties of the bird and foliage type, traced from 
a tile now in the north aisle of the choir. 

Nos. 3 and 4 are of thirteenth-century character, and of similar design to 
some in Salisbury Cathedral and in Merton College, Oxford. 

Nos. 7 to 10 are all assigned to the thirteenth century. 

Nos. II to 24 Mr. Warren says are apparently* of fourteenth-century 
character, and are all decorative. 

Nos. 25 to 33 Mr. Warren attributes to the fifteenth century, and supposes 
they were made at Malvern for Abbat John Newland and his successor Robert 
Elyot. 

As may be anticipated, several of the tiles are in a mutilated condition, and 
their sequence is often only traceable by finding other members of the sets in 
other localities. Where this has been done, the legend usually proves to be 
scriptural. 

Iri the Bristol Museum there are similar tiles from the site of the destroyed 
Keynsham Abbey, but they , are not shown in the museum at present for 
want of room, aiid have not been figured. Mr. Warren, at a meeting of the 
Clifton Antiquarian Club, stated, that " The thirty-eight which I have here 
illustrated compare very favourably with the twenty-four varieties which 
Mr. Loftus Brock exhibited from Keynsham Abbey .... and are good 
examples of every type from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, from 
the time when this form of pavement first prevailed in England to the time 
when the church-building age was over, and what few tiles were required 
were imported from Flanders, to be succeeded by plain stones or squares of 
black and white marble.'' {Proceedings of Clifton Antiquarian Club, vol. v. 
p. 122.) 

Then there are also in the possession of the Corporation of Bristol 
specimens of tiles which originally belonged to what is called the " Mayor's 
Chapel" at Bristol; this was originally the college chapel of a monastic 
institution known as The Gaunt's Hospital, dating from 1230. Alderman 
W. R. Barker, J.P., Chairman of the Bristol Museum Committee, to whom the 
writer, with greatest pleasure, acknowledges his indebtedness for the whole 
of this interesting information about these mediaeval tiles of Bristol, has 
written a book about this interesting thirteenth-century foundation, from 
which we learn that " on removing the rough ground immediately outside the 
line of the transept arch a number of decorative tiles were found .... near 
the surface, and which consequently had suffered to the full extent from 

violence and exposure Some of them were fortunately whole and their 

devices more or less preserved, though bearing the marks of great age. Many 



MEDI^.VAL TILES FROM BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. 



PI. XIX 




ITN BROAD y BRISTOL 



From Drawings by Miss Warren, of Clifton. Reprinted by kind permission of 
RorT- Hall Warren, Esq., F.S.A., and AlfD- E. Hudd, Esq.. F.S.A, of the Clifton Antiquarian Club. 



ri 

A 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— English Medieval 



147 



others were broken to fragments and past all identification. . One is a 

broken specimen with the royal arms, and may be referred to Henry III., 
in whose reign the hospital was founded, and whose eldest son Edward was 
himself one of its benefactors. 

" There are two whole specimens with the arms of the Berkeleys, besides 

many fragments on which their crosslets appear Another specimen 

has the well-known arms of de Clare, Earl of Gloster. Another, those of 

William the Marshall, Earl of Pembroke In addition to the tiles with 

armorial devices, there are others with representations of various animals, 
others with birds and trees, and others again with the geometrical patterns 
appertaining to an ecclesiastical building. In addition to the tiles, there was 
a large quantity of narrow tile-bordering ; the quantity being quite out ol 
proportion to the number of tiles remaining, 
many tiles must, therefore, at some time have 
been removed." (St. Mark's, or The Mayor's 
Chapel, pp. 126, 127.) 

In York Museum a fine series is ex- 
hibited, mostly tiles about 4 or 5 inches 
square, some of which are believed to have 
been made at Malvern, and others at Repton. 
Tiles made at Repton (Derbyshire) are said 
to have been used in the pavements of both 
York Minster and St. Mary's Abbey, York. 

In the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, sixty- 
one such tiles are shown. 

In Hanley Public Museum there are 
fourteen or more specimens of monastic 
tiles, which were dug up from the ruins of 
Hulton Abbey. This abbey was founded 

A.D. 1223, and for three hundred years held social and spiritual power in 
the locality. It was closed about three hundred and fifty years ago, and 
now scarcely a stone is left above-ground in its original position, the site being 
mostly occupied by farm buildings. 

In Lichfield Cathedral the corner of the consistory court is paved with 
mediaeval tiles, said to have originally formed part of the Cathedral floor, prior 
to the restoration in A.D. 1661-70. The floor of the Cathedral library, too, is 
paved with old encaustic tiles, supposed to have been laid about 1673. Of some 
of these the red body is much worn away, leaving the buff-coloured encaustic- 
inlaid pattern raised. 

In the Lady Chapel, also on the floor of one of the small chapels, may be 
seen some of the old encaustic tiles. 

At one time part of the CathedraL floor was paved with cannel coal 




Fig. 83.— Hulton Abbey tiles. Hanley 
County Borough Museum. 



148 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

and alabaster. (See Harradine's Hand Guide to Lichfield Cathedral, p. 58, 
Lomax.) 

From Sir W. B. Richmond we learn that in mediaeval times art was not 
lavished on the floors alone, for he says : — " Two thousand churches in England 
now- . . . retain vestiges of mediaeval painting." {Builder, 14th March 1903, 
p. 284.) 

Monastic tiles were most usually made of red burning clay for a main 
body, having the ornament of yellow burning clay ; these two primary colours 
thus forming a strong contrast. The yellow clay was inlaid probably in a 
slip state in the tile while in a soft plastic state, an impression of the pattern 
being first made. Some were glazed over the whole surface, others only on 
the pattern or figure. A few were in relief. 

Langenbeck has facetiously remarked : — " The tiles for the old English 
cathedrals were burned in little beehive ovens but 5 feet or 6 feet in diameter 
and 3 feet high. The tiler had to crawl in on his hands and knees to set the 
ware, and the great floors were laid With practically all the product without 
sizing or shading. As we look at them to-day they are still satisfying. The 
jointing, large enough to take up the inequalities in size, gives a texture to 
the floor ; the variations in shade a liveliness of colour." (British Clayworker, 
July 1899.) 

Italian Mediasval and Renaissance. — Many of the examples of Italian 
ceramics to be seen in British museums consist of portable articles, such as 
were produced in great quantity during the Renaissance period — vases, drug- 
pots, plates, dishes, tazzas, and the like. 

The want of mobility, and more limited production of large decorative 
pieces, render their appearance, out of Italy, less frequent ; yet, along with the 
general movement in the direction of more lavish embellishment of European 
churches during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Italy took her part ; 
not so much perhaps in the use of tiles after the manner of Mohammadans, 
as in more pretentious allegorical and historical representations, often of 
religious signification, in some measure recalling the works of Assyria and 
Susiana, except for the difference of motif. 

According to Passeri, the fa9ades of the Churches of St. Agostino, Duomo, 
and San Francesco, presumably at Pesaro, were adorned with coloured plates 
of glazed pottery of native manufacture about the thirteenth century (see 
Marryat's History of Pottery and Porcelain, p. 13) ; and churches in Bologna, 
Pisa, Ancona, and Tolentino are also reputed to have been similarly em- 
bellished. 

The manufacture of glazed ware seems to have begun in Italy as early as 
A.D. iioo; and some time between iioo and 1300 mezza-majolica was made. 
This, W. De Morgan says, was not engobed with tin-oxide enamel, but with a 
clay-slip prepared from a very white earth obtained from Siena, the whole 



HISTORICAL REVIEW — Italian Medieval and Renaissance 149 

being afterwards covered with glaze called marza-cotta, containing compounds 
of lead and alkali. The use of such a clay-slip lends plausibility to the idea 
that any ultra-Italian influence in operation at this period was Syrian rather 
than Moorish.^ And as the maritime supremacy of Venice made Italy the 
channel of vast commerce from the East, Eastern influence was certain 
to be felt. 

Undoubtedly Moorish influence eventually shared in building up the art 
in Italy, partly resulting from crusades by the Pisans against the Moors of 
the Balearic Isles, A.D. 1113-1115, and partly by ordinary commercial inter- 
course. Thus, in his History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, Prescott 
has the following : — " Silk furnished the principal staple of a traffic that was 
carried on through the ports of Almeria and Malaga. The Italian cities, then 
rising into opulence, derived their principal skill in this elegant manufacture 
from the Spanish Arabs. Florence, in particular, imported large quantities of 
the raw material from them as late as the fifteenth century. The Genoese 
are mentioned as having, mercantile establishments in Granada." (Spanish 
Pictures, p. 135, R.T.S.) 

If, then, between a.d. 1300 and 1500 Florence and Genoa were thus 
intimately associated with Moorish Spain, what more natural than they 
should import and emulate their ceramic products as they did their silken 
fabrics ? Indeed, Fortnum especially asserts that " these wares were largely 
imported into Italy, where they were known as maiolica di Valencia." 
{Catalogue of the Maiolica, Ashmolean Museum, p. 1 2.) Further, he remarks : — 
" The introduction of the stanniferous enamel was a great advance upon the 
ruder process of the white clay -slip. This method, probably introduced by or 
learnt from Moorish potters, is proved to have been known at Faenza in the 
later years of the fourteenth century. It was practised in Tuscany by Luca 

della Robbia as early as the first quarter of the fifteenth century 

That he was its inventor is a myth long supported by many writers, but for 

which there is no solid foundation From the researches of Prof 

Argnani, we learn that at Faenza it was in use as early as 1393 The 

application of metallic lustre in Italy seems also to have been derived from 

Saracenic or Moorish potters It is not unreasonable to suppose that 

Pesaro, a sea-coast town having established potteries, might have been 
reached by some Oriental potters, fugitives from Sicily or Spain, fleeing from 
persecution or seeking employ, who, after working some few years at Pesaro, 
may have passed on, some to Gubbio, others to Diruta, at each of which 
places their art may have been imparted, and subsequently practised by Italian 
potters." (Catalogue, Maiolica, Ashmolean Museum, pp. 13, 14, and 19.) 

Had it not been that the tin-oxide enamel, as W. De Morgan informs us, 

• An Italian majolica dish, illustrated by Prof. Binns on p. 71, Story of the Potter, is distinctly Syrian 
or Cairene in motif ox style of ornamentation. 



ISO LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

was not used by the Italians exactly as the Moors used it, but simply as a 
whiter substitute for the white slip, upon which improved substitute the 
Italians continued to superimpose the marza-cotta glaze, precisely as they had 
hitherto done on the old ground, we might have considered the probability of 
direct Moorish teaching very great. 

It is not in the least unlikely that the makers in the several different 
glazed-ware-making districts worked concurrently by different methods, 
precisely as is done in Great Britain and other countries to-day, either by 
reason of the habit of the operatives, the nature of the available niiaterials, or 
the kind of appliances. Thus these varied products would readily resemble 
Persian or Moorish products according to the practice of the artists. " But if 
Italian potters took the idea from foreigners,'^ wrote Marryat, " they soon 

surpassed their instructors, 
as is clearly proved by a 
comparison of the coarse 
paste and rude arabesque 
patterns of the one with 
the fine paste and finished 
compositions of the other." 
(Pottery and Porcelain, 
p. IS.) 

The most illustrious per- 
sonage in this department 
of Italian mediaeval art is, 
of course, Luca della 
Robbia of Firenze. Our 
hero, if we may venture 
the term, was born about 
A.D. 1400, and had the ad- 
vantage of beginning his 
career in one of the most palatial cities of Italy. The precise nature of his 
early training is not clearly traceable. Some have supposed he began his work- 
ing life as a goldsmith, but Miss Maud Cruttwell, in her very instructive and 
entertaining book about the Delia Robbias, expresses the opinion that the 
balance of probabilities is in favour of believing that Luca's early artistic 
training began under Lorenzo Ghiberti, and that Luca della Robbia took a 
share in the work this noted sculptor was engaged upon about A.D. 1420. 

Luca was a sculptor as much as a ceramist, and his whole life's labour 
seems to have had a religious motif, and was largely spent in the service of the 
Church. Apparently he made no attempt at manufacture as we understand 
the term, and rarely repeated a work. 

He prepared certain specific decorative works, either in marble, in bronze, 




A linari, photo. ] 



[Firenze, 



Fig, 84. — The Duomo, Florence. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Italian Mediaeval and Renaissance 151 



: \V ''NV'nNv'^'^Sr:^!'-'^!'. 'Si':,i \: 



-..--^y.-^.^j.^-^-^.. ^y.^^,. |, 



mmtiiiiiiiilyiiiiLyiiiiii 







Alinari, phnia^ [Firenze. 

Fig. 85. — Portion of frieze in the Chapelle de Madonna, Impruneta. 




Alinarl, fhol':] [Firenze. 

Fig. 86.— Portion oi coffered roof in the Chapelle de Madonna, Impruneta. 



152 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



or in enamelled terracotta, according as he was commissioned by the author- 
ities. His eminence can well be imagined from the fact that the high digni- 
taries of the cathedral should associate him with that prince of sculptors, 
Donatello, in the adornment of the Duomo, when the cities of Italy were 
vying which should possess the most beautiful church. Miss Cruttwell 

pictures Luca della 
Robbia as a refined 
idealist, severe for his 
times, never swerving 
from all that is true, 
simple, and direct in art. 
On the best authority 
she leads us to infer that 
Luca permitted no repeti- 
tions of his work, and no 
collaboration in his de- 
signs, although he care- 
fully taught his nephew 
Andrea the art, and fre- 
quently allowed him to 
share the labour of actual 
production. Luca's fame, 
although arising mostly 
from his ceramic products, 
rests largely also upon his 
bronzes and his marble 
sculptures ; as, for in- 
stance, the cathedral doors 
of bronze and the cantoria 
in marble ; these seem to 
have been his really 
greatest achievements. 
So far as his enamels 
are concerned. Miss 
Cruttwell asserts that 
whatever secret there was 
about them, lay in his infinite capacity for taking pains. 

Of his work in the Pazzi Chapel, S. Croce (Firenze), she writes :— " For the 
first time we see Luca the sculptor working in close collaboration with the 
architect, for the decorations form an integral part of the building, not only 
in the atrium, where the small cupola is entirely encrusted with enamelled 
ornaments, but within the chapel itself, where the medallions are rather a part 




A linariy photo. ] 



Fig. 87.— Luca della Robbia. 



\Firenze. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW — Italian Medieval and Renaissance 153 




Fig. 88. — Stemma of Ren6 d'Anjou, eleven feet diameter. South Kensington Museum. 



IS4 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

of the architectural design than independent sculptures In the Pazzi 

Chapel, the building seems but a splendid setting or framework for Luca's 
medallions. As we enter the cloister, and walk slowly towards the entrance 
of the chapel, the beautiful decoration of the little dome reveals itself gradually 
like the unfolding of some exquisite flower, the pure brilliant colours gaining 
full value by contrast with the grey of the pietra serena" {Luca and Andrea 
Delia Robbia, p. 73, Dent & Co.) 

In the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, there are said to 
be more than fifty examples of enamelled terracotta known as Delia Robbia 
ware, one of the finest being a medallion, eleven feet diameter, bearing the 
arms and emblems of King Ren6 d'Anjou, surrounded by a massive border 
of fruit and foliage (fig. 88). It is made up of sections, as will be observed 
upon closely scrutinizing the illustration. The prevailing enamels are pale blue, 
and the white for which Luca was so famed. The date of manufacture is 
supposed to have been about 1453 ; it was originally fixed in an exterior wall 
of a villa in Firenze in memory of a visit of the king. In that situation it 
had remained exposed to the action of the atmosphere for more than four 
hundred years. A few years ago it was obtained for the South Kensington 
Museum, where it may now be seen. ( V. and A. M. Catalogue, p. 26.) 

Miss Cruttwell is eloquent in her praise of Luca's works of this class. She 
writes : — " We now come to a group of works in which Luca, abandoning for 
the moment the nobler form of sculpture, lent his genius to heraldic decora- 
tion The largest and in every respect the finest of these stemmi is the 

medallion in South Kensington Museum with the arms of Rene d'Anjou. 
Never was mere decoration endowed with such vivid, flaming life. The great 
wings of the helmet strike out on either side, spinous and strong like the 
pinions of an eagle ; the tongues of flame shoot up from the braziers, darting 
their points and scattering their sparks like wind-shaken embers. The whole 
work is as vivid with flash and flicker as the fire-music of the Gotterddmmerung, 
and around all this scintillating movement flows rhythmically and tranquilly 
the beautiful garland of leaves and fruits." {Luca and Andrea Delia Robbia, 
p. loi. Dent & Co.) 

An equally eloquent analysis of the garland follows, "without comparison 
the finest of the garlands." For this our readers must please refer to the 
original. 

Respecting the tabernacle (fig. 89), Miss Cruttwell explains that it is 
entirely of enamelled terracotta of various hues, and that the groups of pine- 
cones painted in the base of the frame is the only flat-surface painting we 
have from Luca's brush which is not conventional and only decorative. On 
either side stand St. John the Baptist and St. Augustine ; one of these she 
supposes to have been the work of Andrea della Robbia. " The Predella 
below is by Luca himself, and is one of his most beautiful reliefs This 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Italian Medieval and Renaissance 155 




Ali«ari,J,hoto.\ {Firenze. 

Fig. 89.— Tabernacle in the Chapel of the Holy Cross, Impruneta._ By Luca and 
Andrea della RobMa, 



156 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Predella with its shrine was the principal part and focus of the tabernacle, 
the receptacle of the Holy Sacrament which the whole altar-piece was 
executed to enclose." {Ibid., p. 114.) 

Of the lost works of Luca della Robbia, Miss Cruttwell writes :— " Most 
important of all the perished works must have been the decoration of the 
cabinet of Cosimo de Medici in the Palazzo now called the Riccardi, of which 
also no trace remains. Vasari's description of the chamber is worth quoting :— 
' Piero de Medici commissioned Luca to cover all the roof of a study, built by 
his father Cosimo, with enamelled terracotta in relief, with numerous fantasies, 
and likewise the pavement, a rare thing and very useful for summer-time. 
And it is certainly marvellous ' The decoration must have been com- 
pleted before 1464, for Filante, in his treatise on architecture dedicated in that 
year to Piero, alludes to it in these words:— 'The small, highly decorated 
study of Cosimo, both pavement and roof of glazed work, done with most 
excellent pictures, so that everyone who entered marvelled greatly. The 
artist was Luca della Robbia .... a most excellent master in this art as 
well as in sculpture.' These are the sole records we have of the only piece 
of domestic architectural decoration executed by Luca, and no fragments 
have been discovered that might have belonged to it." {Luca and Andrea 
Della Robbia and their .Successors, p. 130, Dent & Co.) 

For information about the ceramic productions of Andrea della Robbia, 
Luca's nephew and successor, we look again to the volume so patiently and 
so thoroughly compiled by Miss Cruttwell. Until the death of Luca in A.D. 
1482, Andrea apparently was his constant pupil, companion, and helpmate. 
Not naturally possessed of the stately genius of his uncle, Andrea yet acquired 
a grace and sweetness of expression peculiarly his own ; and Miss Cruttwell 
admits that Andrea's popularity in our day even exceeds that of Luca 
himself. 

Halsey Ricardo has even asserted that " Andrea's work qud pottery is 
everywhere superior to Luca's." 

" For children Andrea has special sympathy," writes Miss Cruttwell, '' and 
represents them with greater charm than any other artist of the Renaissance, 
standing alone among contemporary sculptors and painters as the special 
interpreter of child-life." {Luca and Andrea Delia Robbia, p. 141, Dent.) 

And what more natural, seeing that Andrea was himself the father of a 
large family, and would, week in and week out, experience the delights of the 
winning ways and prattle of his offspring. According to Miss Cruttwell, 
Andrea was born A.D. 1435, was married 1465, and by 1470 was the happy 
owner of three sons, the third being Giovanni. After that came four more 
sons, the last being Girolamo, born 1488. 

With regard to Giovanni della Robbia, who was Andrea's third son, and 
practically his successor in the ceramic art in Italy, Miss Cruttwell certainly 



HISTORICAL REVIEW — Italian Medieval and Renaissance 157 



seems a trifle severe and vindictive. In criticising his works she writes thus : — 
" Giovanni was the most protean of artists, and changed his style as readily 

as a man of fashion changes his coat Giovanni, with all his talent and 

occasional flashes of genius, sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and to 
him is chiefly due the degradation of the Robbia art from its high level to 
the position of mere potter's work. In the few productions on which he has 
bestowed care, and thought, we find him to have inherited no small share of 
the artistic gifts of his race, and to be possessed of much individual character 

and strength In his haste to produce, he either allowed himself no 

time for the development of his own personality, or strove to suppress it as 
unproductive and superfluous. It was simpler to adopt a ready-made style, 
already proved popular .... than to cultivate the expression of personal 
thoughts." {Luca and Andrea Delia Robbia, p. 205, Dent, London.) 

In a very interesting closing chapter. Miss Cruttwell describes and dis- 
cusses the life-incidents and work of Andrea's youngest son Girolamo, who 
earned distinction by setting forth bravely from 
his native land to ply his art in France ; of this, 
more shortly. 

A natural sequence of Luca's eminence, and 
partly an ordinary coincidence, was the use of 
the same Christian name in succeeding generations 
of Delia Robbias. To one of these namesakes, a 
later Luca, is attributed the manufacture of a 
pavement in the Loggia of the Vatican. 

But any account of Italian mediaeval ceramics 
would be grievously incomplete without special 
mention of another notable artist whose genius 
has left examples of historical portent, viz., Giorgio Andreoli, of Gubbio. 
This artist, it seems, went from Pavia to Gubbio about 1485. He too was a 
sculptor as well as a painter, and executed several bas-reliefs in the Delia 
Robbia style ; but his reputation chiefly depends upon his majolica plates, 
which were remarkable for brilliant colouring, in which ruby-red and golden- 
yellow iridescent effects are most conspicuous. His products are dated from 
A.D. 1518 to 1537. {Hist. Pottery and Porcelain, Marryat.) 

W. De Morgan says that Maestro Giorgio's red was a deep transparent 
crimson, which did not interfere with the painting under the glaze, but was 
like running a transparent crimson over a monochrome drawing. 

It is not necessary to suppose Giorgio invented ruby and yellow lustres. 
Fortnum thinks it quite likely that the information was imported into Pesaro 
by Moorish ceramists, who subsequently passed on to Gubbio, and that it 
was practised there by some expert artist prior to the arrival of Giorgio in 
Gubbio; and that Giorgio Andreoli had not used the process before he went 




Fig. 90.— Gubbio tile. S.K.M. 



iS8 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

there. When, however, he adopted this method of enriching his products, he 
developed, improved, and made a speciality of it. {Catalogue of Maiolica in 
Ashmolean Museum, p.. 19.) 

Fortnum makes mention also of several pavements of tiles in Italy, which 
he refers to mediaeval times. At Siena he says tiles were found in the chapel 
of Sta. Caterina, and in the Petrucci Palace, bearing dates 1504 and 1509. 
(Ibid., p. 16). 

Of Urbino, he says : — " A pavement of tiles in the Vescovado at Padua, 
ordered in 1491, was executed by Giovanni Antonio and Francesco da 
Urbino." {Cat., Ashmolean, p. 24.) 

Of Faenza, he writes : — " One of the most important monuments of 
Faentine ceramic art is the pavement of the Chapel of St. Sebastian, in 
S. Petronio at Bologna, the painted and inscribed tiles of which are admirable 

in design and colouring It was made in 1487 by the Bettini of Faenza, 

Petrus Andreas de Faventia being the artist painter. It is accurately 
described by Signor L. Frate in his Di un Pavimento in Maiolica, etc. 
(Bologna, 1853), who also described a pavement of similar origin in the 
Bentivoglis Chapel at S. Giacomo Maggiori in that city. {Cat. Maiolica, 
Ashmolean, p. 31.) 

Of Forli, Fortnum refers to several tiles in the South Kensington 
Museum forming part of a series of examples of Forli wares. 

No. 2591 is "a tile on which is the armorial shield of the Ordelaffi Lords 
of Forli, probably of about 1480-1490." Another is a tile .... painted in 
blue on the white ground .... purchased by the writer (Dr. Fortnum) at 
Forli, i860. No. 30 — 166 is "all that remains of a pavement of tiles formerly 
in a villa at Piere, near Forli ; some of the more valuable of which, bear 
inscription, portrait heads, and the date 15 13, are also to be attributed to 
the same botega, and are perhaps by the same hand. Some of those are of 
yellow and orange colouring painted in giallo sopra giallo." {Cat. Ash. 
Museum, p. 34.) 

Of Ferrara tiles, he mentions archives of the Ferrarese duke that " inform 
us that in 1436 and 1472 potters are recorded by name; that in 1443 glazed 
and painted wares are mentioned ; in 1474 the Capella del Cortile had a 
pavement of painted tiles ; and Fortnum says ' some tiles from a pavement, 
formerly in "La Grotta," are in the South Kensington Museum.'" {Cat. 
Maiolica, Ashmolean Museum, p. 35.) 

Of Venice, he tells us : — Glazed architectural ornaments have been found 
amongst some fragments in foundations ; also a pavement of tiles, formerly 
in the Church of Sta. Elena, is mentioned. {Cat. Maiolica, Ashmolean, p. 36.) 

Of Naples, he says : — " Of the fifteenth century are the tiles of a pavement 
in the Church of San Giovanni a Carbonari, which probably are of local 
production." {Ibid., p. 39.) 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Italian Medieval and Renaissance 159 



Stil! another name deserves men- 
tion in connection with Italian 
ceramics, viz., that of Piccolpasso, who 
has laid posterity under some little 
obligation by describing to the best 
of his knowledge the processes ot 
manufacture of Italian mediaeval 
maiolica. And although the docu- 
ment may have shortcomings — for 
W. De Morgan thinks Giorgio's son 
Cencia hoaxed Piccolpasso in respect 
of the lustre process — the descriptions 
and illustrations of the manuscript are 
interesting. We understand that this 
original manuscript is in the library 
of the Victoria and Albert Museum, 
South Kensington. According to 
Fortnum, Cipriano Piccolpasso com- 
pleted his manuscript of the Arte del 
Vasaio in 1550. {Cat. Mai., Ash- 
molean, p. 22.) 

By the courtesy of Dr. Forrer, we 
are able to reprint an illustration 
from his Geschichte der europdischen 
Fliesen- Keramik (fig. 91) of three 
majolica tiles from S. Petronio at 
Bologna, attributed to a period about 
1489 to 1495 A.D. The writer under- 
stands the learned doctor to say that 
these faience tiles were manufactured 
at Faenza, and were used for pave- 
ment purposes in the Marsili Chapel 
of the Church of Saint Petronio at 
Bologna, at the end of the fifteenth 
century. 

Two other majolica tiles (figs. 92, 
93), after Molinier, are from the Church 
of San Pietro, at Perugia, and of the 
date 1563. 

The tile-pavement of the Petrucchi 
Palace, Siena, an illustration of which 
we are permitted to reproduce from 




Fig. 91. — Three majolica tiles from S. Petronio, 
Bologna. {After Meurer. ) {By permission 
of Dr. R. Forrer.) 



i6o LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

the article upon "Decorative Tiles" by Mr. F. W. Phillips {Connoisseur, 
vol. vii. p. 1 66), is also mentioned and illustrated by Dr. Forrer, who 





Fig. 92. — Tile from Perugia. {By permission 
of Dr. Forrer.) 



Fig. 93. — Tile from Perugia. {By permission 
of Dr. Forrer. ) 



attributes its manufacture to Messieurs Benedetto, and dates its manu- 
facture A.D. 1509. 
.^"^ After an existence of 

about three hundred years 
the majolica manufacture 
decayed in Italy. This 
was attributed, among 
other things, to the caprice 
of fashion, which, upon the 
introduction of Oriental 
porcelain into Italy in 
the sixteenth century, de- 
nounced majolica as vulgar, 
and porcelain became the 
rage. Thus, as Passed 
regretfully remarked, 
majolica, which had served 
the table of kings, embel- 
lished temples and spread 
the honourable fame of 
Italian fabrics far and 
wide, was now shorn of 
renown, and remained only 
an object of curiosity to 

collectors of Italian antiquities. {History of Pottery and Porcelain.) 

German Mediaeval and Renaissance. — The ornamental tilework of 

Germany and Austria between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries appears 




Fig. 94. — Portion of tile-pavement from the Petrucchi Palace, 
Siena. {From a print. By pel-mission of the proprietors 
of" The Connoisseur.") 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— German Medieval and Renaissance i6i 



to have consisted mostly of square unglazed monochrome tiles in which the 
surface designs were formed by simple line indentations. These are illustrated 
on plates vi. to xi. of Dr. Forrer's Geschichte der europdischen Fliesen-Keramik 
vom Mittelalter, from which fig. 95 is taken by his permission. \^ery few 
appear to have been glazed, and even more rarely, 
if ever, are they encaustic-inlaid like those of 
France and England, although possibly the in- 
dentations may in some cases have been coloured 
to accentuate the effect. 

The designs are very elementary, but evidently 
had symbolic or heraldic significance, which would 
impart interest in their age and locality. Some 
designs are distributed over four tiles, or possibly 
more, and, when complete, yield a pleasing pattern. 
On plates ii. and iii. he figures several glazed relief 
tiles of this period, of coarse Romanesque design, 
mostly octagonal or rhomboidal shapes, with 
monochrome glaze of yellow -brown tint, from 
St. Fides' Church, Schlettstadt (Alsace) ; also a 
square tile with pattern composed of two con- 
centric circles, having twelve smaller circles with 
star centres equally placed around the annular 
space, and conventional lions in the centre. This 
is glazed with yellowish-green glaze, and is from 
St. Odilien's Abbey, Odilienberg, where Dr. Forrer, 
during the excavations, had the honour of receiv- 
ing the German Emperor. These early German 
tiles, however, present a singular contrast to the wonderful delicacy of the tiles 
from Chertsey Abbey (Surrey) of the thirteenth century, as figured by Shaw. 

With regard to enamelled faience, Brongniart dates its introduction into 
German industry about the year a.d. 1520, locating its earliest centre at 
Nuremberg (Nuernberg), thus giving it precedence over that of Bernard 
Palissy in France, which is said to resemble this early German enamelled 
faience. 

The rapidity with which the art appears to have passed from Italy to 
Germany is accounted for by Marryat in the following circumstantial manner : 
" Hirschvogel, an artisan of that city (Nuernberg), travelled into Italy in 1503, 
and went to Urbino, where he learned the art of enamelling pottery. He 
returned in 1507 and established the first manufactory of majolica; but 
sculpture and carving being more congenial to his taste than painting, the 
works he produced are ornamented in relief." {Hist. Pottery and Porcelain, 
p. IIS.) 




Fig. 95. — Two early German 
impressed tiles. {By per- 
mission of Dr. Forrer.) 



II 



i62 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



This intercourse with Italy is not in the least remarkable, for we learn from 
a very interesting description of Niirnberg in the Leisure Hour, 1885, that 
until the discovery of the new passage to the East (presumably by the Cape 
of Good Hope, A.D. 1498), Nuremberg was the greatest of German marts, had 
a vast foreign trade, and was the storehouse of the precious Indian wares 
poured into it from Italy for the north. 

According to Marryat, the potters of Nuremberg were especially celebrated 
for very large glazed tiles for covering and ornamenting stoves, of which he 

states many fine specimens exist. 
The large ornamental stoves in 
the remarkable collection in the 
castle — or Schloss — of Nuremberg 
are said to be composed of slabs 
27 inches by 25, enriched with 
ornaments and figures in bas- 
relief of a fine character, the 
prevailing colours being brown, 
yellow, and deep copper-green. 
They bear the date 1657. 

Linda Villari, in the descrip- 
tion of Niirnberg already referred 
to, says that in the castle the 
great saloon is lined with .... 
pictures of the early German 
school, and has a colossal stove 
decorated in Renaissance style. 
There is a great fascination about 
these Nuremberg stoves. No 
two are alike ; each has its own 
individuality, but all are im- 
mense structures of coloured tiles, 
covered with designs and bas- 
reliefs and all sorts of fantastic 
ornamentation. 

The writer adds \ — " With these temples of heat rising from floor to ceiling, 
it must be easy enough to defy a northern winter." {Leisure Hour, 1885, 
p.83i,R.T.S.) 

With regard to the ceramic collection in the German National Museum at 
Nuernberg, Baron C. Bezold, Director, states that there is no special catalogue 
of these things ; but Mr, W. Jackson, A.R.C.Sc, instructor in pottery and 
porcelain to the Staffordshire County Council, tells me that there is a large 
collection of German tiles in the Nuernberg Museum, ranging in age from the 




Fig. 96.— German stove-tile. S.K.M. 



HISTORICAL REVIEW — German Medieval and Renaissance 163, 




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O 
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2 




S 
3 ^^ 



OS I 

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C S 

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"J3 a 
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1 64 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



thirteenth century. In addition, many specimens are to be found in the 
Rhenish provinces, and in the museums ot Stuttgart, Munich, Darmstadt, etc. 
The thirteenth-century work, he states, is represented by a large unglazed 
tile 1 6 inches by 24 inches, bearing a design which includes the double eagle 
and the griffin. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries heraldic motives are 
seen in the designs of tiles which are executed in green, yellow, and white ; 
while in the later period leaves, flowers, acorns, and geometric figures are 
found in the designs, which are carried out in polychrome. 

The stove-tiles {Kacheln) are a natural development of the wall-tiles, and 
are decorated in a similar manner, with impressed or relief designs repre- 
senting heraldic or mythological subjects in polychrome. Eighty-two stove- 
tiles from Wurzburg, dating from the fifteenth century, and a particularly fine 
specimen from Kislegg, now in the National Museum, Nuernberg, are said to 
be of special importance. 

The stove-tiles often differ in shape from wall-tiles ; instead of having a 
plane surface, they are often hollowed into semi-cylindrical form, so that each 
tile forms a small recess. Hence these hollow-shaped tiles, Mr Jackson states, 
came to be known as " Schussel- Kacheln',' i.e., dish-shaped. These are 
generally small, about six inches or so square, and may have been developed 
by imitation of the Italian majolica dishes which were used architecturally, 
fixed ill the plaster of walls. 

Nuernberg (Nuremberg) was the centre of this manufacture, and the best- 
known makers are the Hirschvogels, 
Leopolds, Hans Kraut, and the 
Klingensch midts. 

In 1885, in the windows ot St. 
Sebald's Church at Nijrnberg, paint- 
ings executed by Hirschvogel were 
still to be seen. It is also interesting 
to note that from Niirnberg, in A.D. 
1690, the now world-famed Elers Bros. 
came to Staffordshire, and found at 
Burslem clays which enabled them to 
imitate the bright-red wares of Japan. 
{Hist. Pottery and Porcelain, p. 15 1, 
Marryat.) 

The Nuernberg stove-tile (fig. 96) 
is supposed to have been made shortly 
before 1561 A.D. 

The complete stoves illustrated (figs. 97 arid 98) are two of three in the 
Ceramic Gallery, V. and A. Museum. 

Dr. Forrer exemplifies German tilework of the Renaissance period — 




Fig. 99, — Enamelled tile. Niirnberg. 

, (Forrer Coll.) 

if 



HISTORICAL REVIEW — Gekman Medieval and Renaissance 165 




Fig. 100." 



-Green-glazed relief tile. Koln. 
(ForrerCoU.) 



sixteenth century — :by several interesting plates. Illustration No. 5 of 
plate Hi. (fig. 99) represents a relief 
specimen from Niiraberg ; it is en- 
amelled with blue, white, and yellow 
coloured enamels. By the query- 
note attached {Hirschvogel ?) there 
seems some possibility that this is 
a specimen of that famous pioneer's 
work. 

Fig. 100 represents a specimen 
of green-glazed relief tilework from 
Koln a. Rh. (Cologne), and fig. 10 1 
a yellow-glazed relief tile, also from 
Koln; in each case several tiles are 
required to complete the figure or 
pattern. 

Tiles used during the second half 
of the sixteenth century are shown 
by Dr. Forrer, mostly as relief tiles 
with heraldic designs, glazed with 
green glaze only. One tile from Koln, 
however, has a brown glaze. 

Tiles of the early seventeenth 
century he shows as having been 
principally blue -glazed relief tiles 
of a yellow-brown body, with geo- 
metrical patterns enclosing figures of 
animals, such as appear in heraldry. 

Coming to the eighteenth century, 
Forrer illustrates German and Bavarian 
crude imitations of Delft tiles, such 
as were at this period being largely 
imported into Germany and also being 
imitated there. 

French Mediaeval and Renaissance. — Lacroix states that " From the 
eleventh and twelfth centuries there existed in France a kind of ceramic art 
employed especially in the manufacture of varnished pottery tiles." These, 
probably, are the counterpart, if not indeed the origin, of the monastic pave- 
ment tiles already noticed in the English section. 

Marryat mentions specimens of such tiles in the Sevres Museum from the 
Abbey of Vaulton near Provins, which abbey was founded by Queen Blanche 
in the thirteenth century. The ground of these tiles is red with ornaments in 




Fig. ioi.- 



-Yellow-glazed tile. Koln, 
(Forrer Coll.) 



i66 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



yellow, some having a lion, others a cross, represented, and a fleur-de-lis in 

each angle. Similar tiles are said to have been found in taking up the floor 

of one of the rooms at Fontainebleau. 

Jacquemart writes : — " Until the twelfth century, stones of various colours 

combined in mosaic had satisfied the requirements of architecture. From this 

moment a new idea applies it- 
self everywhere at once : bricks 
of red earth, of varied forms, 
are substituted for stones, their 
surface is covered with a thin 
layer of white clay, in which 
are incrusted patterns of darker 
earth, or vice vers A ; these 
glazed bricks are thus able to 
resist the effects of the reiter- 





FlG. 102. — Caen tiles. Society of Antiquaries, London. 
{After Marryat, by permission of Mr. J, Murray.) 



ated steps of the faithful, and replace at little expense the costly mosaics." 
{Hist. Cer. Art, p. 232.) 

At Caen, in Normandy, a pavement was found, the separate tiles of which 
were emblazoned with heraldic bearings. This pavement is supposed to have 
belonged to a building or convent by William of Normandy, and to have 
covered a floor measuring 1 50 feet by 90 feet. The tiles were about 5 inches 
square, made of baked earth. Eight rows of the tiles running from east to 





Fig. 103. — Incrusted tile from Paris. 
(Ferrer Coll.) 



Fig. 104.— Incrusted tile from Paris. 
(Forrer Coll.) 



west bore the arms of William's followers, and between these were orna- 
mental compartments of tiles formed into a maze. Of the state of this 
pavement at the time of the French Revolution, Dr. Ducavel said :— " Not- 
withstanding these rooms have been used as granaries upwards of four hundred 
years, neither the damp of the wheat, the turning and shifting of the grain, nor 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— French Medieval and Renaissance 167 



the wooden shoes and spades of the peasants, constantly employed in bringing 
in and cleansing the wheat, have in the least damaged the floor or worn off the 
painting from the tiles." {Pict. Gall. Arts, p. 183.) 

Part of this Caen floor eventually was purchased by Lord Henniker, and 
presented to the Society of Antiquaries of London. The secretary, W. H. 
St. John Hope, Esq., F.S.A., tells me that the tiles now only number sixteen, 
and are only Norman in the sense that they were found in Normandy, their 
actual date, at the earliest, being the thirteenth century. They have a ground 
of yellow slip on a body of red clay, and this is irrespective of the field of 
the shields, which is some- 

times yellow and some- au!*^aisys»^B«si5« 
times red. 

Dr. Forrer has kindly 
consented to the reprinting 
of illustrations of two red 
and yellow incrusted tiles 
of the thirteenth or four- 
teenth century, from Paris, 
but now in his collection, 
one a monogram tile and 
the other ornamental (figs. 
103 and 104). He also 
permits the reproduction 
of his illustration (after 
Vacquer) of the very pretty 
tiled floor of thirteenth century in the Cathedral of St. Omer (fig. 105). 

Three other tiles of the incrusted class now in Dijon Museum are illustrated 
by Dr. Forrer, and described as French white on red incrusted tiles of the 
fifteenth century. Two of these he kindly permits to be reprinted here (see 
figs. 106 and 107). 

Respecting decorative faience, or enamelled terracotta, its beginning in 
France may be attributed to Girolamo della Robbia of Firenze, the youngest 
son of Andrea della Robbia. Born A.D. 1488, in an atmosphere, so to speak, 
of decorative art, he naturally became a worker in marble, bronze, and clay. 
Miss Cruttwell assumes that he arrived in Paris about A.D. 1527, and King 
Francis I. employed him to decorate the famous Chateau de Madrid in the 
Bois de Boulogne. 

" It thus follows," continues Miss Cruttwell, " directly after the decorations 
of the Ospedale del Ceppo, on which Girolamo was most likely employed, and 
it is probable that from them he conceived the further development of a 
building entirely encrusted with brilliant enamelled earthenware. The palace, 
unique in the history of architecture .... was built at the command of 




Fig. 105. — Tiled floor of St. Omer. Thirteenth century. 
[After Forrer. ) 



i68 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 




Fig. io6. — Incrusted tiles. Dijon. 



Francis I., who, set at liberty in 1526, after the treaty of Madrid, returned 
to his own country full of projects for a life of luxury and pleasure. First, 

the Palace of Fontainebleau was to be 
entirely reconstructed, and, not content 
with that, in the neighbourhood of Paris 
was to be erected a kind of fairy castle 
.... a palace of faience, encrusted inside 
and out with glazed ornaments of brilliant 
hues and elaborate design. This was the 
Chateau de Madrid, situated close to the 
river in the Bois de Boulogne, to which 
nearly forty years of Girolamo's life were 
dedicated, and of which now no vestige 
remains save a few small fragments of 
ornament — a curious destiny for the largest 
of all the Robbia works, a fabric built of 
a material whose great merit, according 
to Vasari, was its resistance to time and 
weather, a durability, as he expresses it, 
well-nigh eternal." {Luca and Andrea 
Delia Robbia, p. , Dent.) 

Gasnault and Gamier account for this 
absence of remains by the fact that the 
Italian faience ornaments and the terra- 
cotta, upon its destruction in 1792, were 
sold to a pavior and crushed and turned 
into cement. {French Pottery, p. .) 

Two distinct and more or less indigen- 
ous developments of the art followed, and in 
order of time overlapped this manufacture 
Fig. 107. -incmsted tiles. Dijon. ^^ decorative faience by Girolamo della 

Robbia in France, namely, that of Abaquesne at Rouen, and that of the more 
renowned Bernard Palissy of Saintes. 

Of the former, Gasnault and Gamier tell us that "As early as 1542 there 
was at Rouen a manufactory of enamelled tiles, in whose production Italian 
influence is so conspicuous that no doubt remains as to its origin. From this 
manufactory originally came the fragments of tiles now in the Museum (South 
Kensington), and numbered 8490, 8491, 8492 — 63, 8533 — 63. These beautiful 
tiles, evidently made by the process peculiar to the Italian ceramic artists, but 
essentially French by the style and composition of the ornaments, were formerly 
in the Chateau d'Ecouen." {French Pottery, p. .) 

A certain Masseot Abaquesne is credited with the honour of the first 




HISTORICAL REVIEW— French MEDiiEVAL and Renaissance 169 






Fig. 108.- 



-Tile-panel from Ecouen, 1542. 
(Forrer Coll.) 



introduction of this art to Rouen, but after his death the trade in tiles evidently 
ceased for a long time, and is not mentioned again until the year 1644. With 
art-potterie^ busy at Surennes — Girolamo's 
atelier — from A.D. 1530-1566, no stretch of 
imagination is needed to account for this 
art-industry at Rouen in 1542 A.D. 

Marryat refers to two remarkable 
pictures, formed of Rouen tiles, in the 
possession of H.R.H. Due d'Aumale, at 
Orleans House, Twickenham. They are 
each 5 feet 3 inches by 6 feet 4 inches, and 
consist of two hundred and thirty-eight 
tiles enclosed in a frame and fixed to the 
wall — one representing Mutius Scavola, the 
other Curtius jumping into the gulf; the 
colours used are blue, yellow, green, and 
white — one piece being marked in front ci 
Rouen 154.2. These picture-panels of tiles 
are said to have come originally from the 
Chateau d'Ecouen, and formed part of the 
Lenoir Museum. 

Dr. Forrer very kindly permits the re- 
printing in this volume of two tile-panels 
from Ecouen in his collection (see figs. 108 
and 109) ; also of a number of faience tiles 
(figs, no. III, 112, 113). 

But, after all, whatever Girolamo did, 
and whatever Abaquesne did, the greatest 
name in French mediaeval ceramics un- 
doubtedly is that of Bernard Palissy. 
According to Marryat, he was born at La 
Chapelle Biron about A.D. 15 10, and would 
thus be seventeen years of age when Giro- 
lamo came to Paris. Palissy, it seems, first learned the art of glass-making, 
including the painting of window glass and its fixing in church windows ; 
and being naturally studious and observant, he acquired considerable know- 
ledge as he went from place to place. In 1539 he married, and then 
established himself at Saintes, and, becoming possessed of an uncontrollable 
desire to make enamelled pottery, he worried through a prolonged series of 
experiments and researches until rewarded with success. 

Immediately technical skill had been acquired, his artistic proclivities and 
his thorough acquaintance with natural history were turned to such good 




Fig. 109. 



-Tile-panel from Ecouen, 
(Forrer Coll.) 



:542. 



170 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 




Fig. no. — Faience tiles of M. Abaquesne from Ecouen. (Forrer Coll.) 



account that, according to Marryat, Henry II. and the nobles of his court 
eventually ordered wares of Palissy, and Constable Montmorenci engaged 

him to decorate his 
chiteau at Ecouen. 

From this the 
inference may be 
drawn, we presume, 
that both Abaquesne 
and Palissy were at 
different times con- 
cerned in the ceramic 
embellishment of this 
historic dwelling. 

Palissy, however, 
having embraced the 
principles of the 
Reformation, suffered 
persecution, and ulti- 
mately was arrested, 
and his workshop at 
S.aintes destroyed, in 
the name of religion. 
With the object of 
saving him, Catherine 
de Medici called him 
to Paris, arid gave 
him a site for a work- 
shop on ground now 
occupied by the 
palace of the Tuil- 
eries. Here he is 
said to have produced 
some of his finest 
pieces. Marryat 
pathetically records 
that in 1588, when 
nearly eighty years 
of age, Palissy was 
again arrested and 
confined in the 
Bastille and threatened with death. Henry III. visited him, and, desiring 
to liberate him, implored Palissy to recant ; to these royal entreaties the aged 




Fig. 1 1 1. — Faience tiles of M. Abaquesne from Ecouen. (Forrer Coll.) 




Fig. 112. — Faience tile of M. 
Abaquesne from Ecouen. 
(Forrer Coll.) 



Fig. 113.— Faience tile of M. 
Abaquesne from Ecouen. 
(Forrer Coll.) 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— French Medi^,val and Renaissance • 171 

potter made his famous response, concluding with the French equivalent 
for " I know how to die." After all, the king would not give up Pahssy to 
his clamouring persecutors, but suffered him to linger in the dungeons of 
the Bastille, until in 1589 his illustrious life ebbed away. 

In describing the peculiarities of Palissy's wares, Marryat remarks that it is 
characterized by figures, ornaments, and historical or allegorical subjects, repre- 
sented in relief and coloured, the colours being usually bright, and consisting 
mostly of yellows, blues, and greys, with occasional use of green, brown, and 
violet. The white enamel is said to have been not so white as Luca della 
Robbia's, or even as good as the Nevers enamel, but the enamel was hard. 

Another very important characteristic of Palissy's ceramic products is 
revealed by the chemical analyses published in ^rongniart' s Trazte des Arts 
Ceramiques, tom. ii. p. 23, and in Ceramic Technology, pp. 17 and 18, namely, 
the comparative absence of lime-carbonate from the paste or " body.'' This 
accounts for his being able to burn upon his ware a harder enamel than is 
found on Italian and Delft wares, and brings Palissy's productions into much 
closer relationship with Staffordshire earthenwares of the nineteenth century 
than appears to be the case with any of Palissy's contemporaries who pro- 
duced coloured glazed faience. 

The following comparison- of chemical analyses of the respective bodies 
or pastes will make this clearer : — 





Silica. 


Alumina. 


Lime. 


Iron Oxide. 


Carbonic Acid. 


Italian maiolica, 


49 '65 


15-50 


22-40 


370 


8-58 


Palissy ware. 


67-50 


28-51 


1-52 


2-05 




English white earthenware, 


76'io 


20-45 


0-75 


I -00 




Delft faience, . 


49-07 


16-19 


18-01 


2-82 


13-09 


Persian faience, . 


48-54 


12-05 


19-25 


3'H 


16-72 


Rouen faience, . 


47-96 


15-02 


20-24 


4-07 


12-27 



(Ceramic Technology, pp. 17 and 18, Scott, Greenwood, & Co.) 

Palissy's ceramic productions were varied and numerous, consisting of 
elaborate ewers, basins, dishes, cups, salt-cellars, vases, inkstands, candlesticks, 
incense-burners, baskets, statuettes, etc., teeming with representations of life 
and nature ; and as many of these articles have been handed down to posterity 
they give Bernard Palissy, historically, considerable advantage over Girolamo 
della Robbia of Surennes and Abaquesne of Rouen, whose works have 
mostly perished by the hand of man and the assaults of time. 



172 • LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



With regard to tiles and decorative faience, Marryat writes : — " Tiles for 
the overlaying of the walls, stoves, and floors of houses [^carreaux de revite- 

ment] were also made in great perfection by this celebrated artist 

The Montmorenci Ch&teau at Ecouen .... was ornamented with these 
painted tiles. A great portion of these still exist at Ecouen, where one 
large room is entirely paved with them, and a considerable number may 

also be seen in the chapel They bear much resemblance to Spanish 

tiles, but the design is wholly French." {Hist. Pottery and Porcelain, pp. 
98-100, Murray.) 

Referring again to the ceramic products of Rouen, Gasnault and Gamier 
write : — " Faience, properly so called, coated with opaque white stanniferous 
enamel, known to the Italians as early as the end of the fifteenth century, 
and turned by them to such good account, was not known and regularly 
manufactured in France until the beginning of the seventeenth century." 
{French Pottery, p. .) 

Poterat may have had something to do with its introduction at Rouen, 
although, according to records, there were manufacturers already at work 
in Rouen before he obtained his patent, and they appear to have opposed 
his claims. 

In A.D. 1789 there are said to have been one hundred and sixty-five manu- 
factories of faience and porcelain in P'rance ; of these, sixteen were located at 
Rouen. That the people of Rouen were skilful and enterprising is well known, 
for, in addition to earning fame in ceramics, they can claim great distinction in 
the manufacture of clocks and watches and elaborate and costly cabinet-work, 

their products realising fabulous 

twentieth 




realising 
sales in this 



prices at 
century. 

The composition of the body of 
Rouen ware, as revealed by chemical 
analysis, has already been given j 
the composition of the enamels, 
which resemble those of Delft, M. 
Deck gives as under: — 



Calcine, 44 parts 
Sand , 44 , 
Sea-salt, 8 , 
Soda, 8 , 
Minium, 2 , 



Mixed together 
and fused. 



Fig. 114. — Rouen French wall-tiles. Eighteenth 
century. (Forrer Coll.) 



The calcine, according to Deck, 
varied between 3 to i and 4 to i of 
lead and tin. 

Of these eighteenth -century 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Delft Tiles 173 

French wall-tiles, many of them seem to be almost indistinguishable from 
Delft tiles. Dr. Forrer kindly permits the reprinting of several of his 
illustrations of these, which, as with Delft tiles, were sometimes painted 
with blue and sometimes with manganese-violet colour. 

Delft Tiles. — The term " Delft-ware " has unfortunately frequently been 
used in a general sense to denote all those Wares of the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries which were covered with a stanniferous enamel, whether 
made in Delft or elsewhere. In that sense of the term " Delft-ware " has 
been made at hundreds of factories in the Netherlands, Germany, France, 
and England. 

Genuine Delft-ware, however, originally was made only in the town of 
Delft in Holland. It has been asserted that pottery was manufactured there 
as early as A.D. 13 10, but M. Havard, in his Histoire de la Faience de Delft, 
fixes the date of its earliest manufacture there as being some time between 
1596 and 161 1. To confirm this supposition, he cites a list of trades permitted 
to be carried on in the town about the year A.D. 1 596, wherein potters are 
not mentioned, while in a guild-book of 1613 the names of eight potters are 
given. 

Whether the Dutch learned the art of enamelling pottery from their near 
neighbours in Germany, from some peripatetic or sea-roving Italian, or from 
Spain, is uncertain. The likelihood of Spanish origination arises from the 
political relations of Spain and the Netherlands at this time. For, on account 
of a revolt of the Netherlands from Phillip II., A.D. 1566, the Duke of Alva 
was sent from Spain in 1567 to suppress it, and in 1573 Haarlem was taken 
by the Spaniards ; great numbers of Spaniards would thus be introduced 
into Holland. 

In the course of the struggle Delft earned the unenviable distinction of 
being the scene of the assassination of William I., Prince of Orange. 

A more circumstantial account of the rise of the ceramic art in Delft, how- 
ever, has been given in the Windsor Magazine (June 1901), in which its origin 
is attributed to the fact that an Italian potter first settled in Haarlem, and 
followed his occupation there with success. From Haarlem, early in the 
seventeenth century, one Hermann Pieters, who possibly had learned the 
art as an assistant to the Italian, came to Delft and started the manufacture 
there. By 1620 there were eight factories in Delft, and half a century later 
there were twenty-eight factories. 

Dr. J. W. Glaisher, in a paper read before the Society of Arts on 27th 
April 1897, said that "vast numbers of tiles were made at Delft, and, as in the 
case of the other wares, they were of every degree of merit. In most of them 
the decoration is in blue, but it is often in violet brown. Polychrome tiles are 
much less common. As a rule, the painting is rough, and in many cases, 
where the subject is religious, the treatment is somewhat grotesque 



174 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 




The large plaques made of tiles are characteristic, and date from a very 

early period Many of these plaques are 

exhibited in the Amsterdam Museum." {Jour. 
Soc. Arts, nth June 1897.) 

Dr. Glaisher described the process by which 
Delft- ware was made as follows, and from this we 
can infer the method of making Delft tiles: — 
" The clay was thrown or moulded in the ordinary 
way and submitted to a first firing. The article 
was then dipped in a white liquid, the dense 
matter in which formed a white coating to the 
body of the earthenware. The painting was 
effected on this white porous substance. The 
article was then covered with a transparent glaze 
and fired again. In the second firing the white 
coating and the glaze were both fused, the former 
becoming a white enamel, generally of a milky 
hue, and the latter a thin layer of glass. Both 
firings took place in the same kiln, but a higher 
temperature was re- 
quired in the second 
firing to fuse the enamel. 
.... The clay, in its 
biscuit state, after the 

first firing, is very absorbent, and when dipped 

into the liquid rapidly drinks in, so to speak, 

the water, leaving behind upon the surface a 

white coating of solid matter. In order to paint 

upon this spongy substance, which may be com- 
pared to blotting - paper, very great dexterity 

.... of the hand is required .... the least 

delay or hesitation on any spot causes too much 

of the colour to be absorbed there, and spoils the 

piece. The sharpness of the contours depends 

upon the limpidity of the colours and the rapidity 

of execution It is clear that painting exe- 
cuted upon so uncongenial a substance cannot be 

very accurate .... but the boldness and vigour 

imposed by the conditions give to the finished 

work a special character and charm which is quite 

its own In the case of Delft, the colours 

are part of the actual ware itself, incorporating with the enamel, and 



Fig. 115.— Delft tiles. Eigh- 
teenth century. (Forrer 
Coll.) 




Fig. 116.— Delft tile. Eigh- 
teenth century. Blue mono- 
chrome. (Forrer Coll.) 



PL. XX. 




Delft tile. Painted in manganese violet. 
(W.N.F. Coll.) 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Delft Tiles 175 

modified and brightened by their contact with the glaze through which they 
are seen. The body, enamel, colours, and glaze are all fired together at the 
same high temperature, and form a single work of art, complete in itself, 
unproducible by any other method, defiant of the attacks of time." 

Dr. Glaisher continues : — " The distinguishing point between the wares of 
Delft and the French stanniferous faience. — This consists in the fact that the 
former was covered by a transparent glaze, which is absent in the latter. At 
first sight it would seem difficult to understand how the glazing was effected 
without a third firing, as the dipping the painted enamel into a liquid glaze 
would cause the colours to run. The method is described by Gerrit Paape in 
his work of 1794, which has been reproduced in French by M. Havard. The 
workman dips a short rough-haired brush into the liquid, and shakes it 
violently to get rid of the excess. He then sprinkles the object to be glazed, 
which he holds in his hand, until it is as white as snow. This process, accord- 
ing to M. Deck, was not followed by the French makers of faience. The 
glaze not only has the effect of heightening the colours, but it also protects 
them from evaporation, and, indeed, to me it seems that it is just this glaze 
that gives to the best wares of Delft their superiority over those of Rouen and 

Nevers It is known that the Italian majolica was covered by a glaze 

of somewhat similar composition to that used at Delft, and it is almost im- 
possible to resist the conviction that the process must have passed from Italy 

to Holland The general superiority of the wares of Delft over those 

manufactured elsewhere, even by Dutch workmen, must, however, be attributed 
to the excellence of the mixtures of clays adopted there, which gave to the 
body of the ware just the right porosity to deposit the proper thickness of 
enamel, and produced a contraction during firing that was in perfect sympathy 
with the enamel, so that there were no cracks or other signs of crazing. 
Gerrit Paape states that, the clay employed at Delft was obtained by the 
mixture of three different clays, viz., the Tournai clay, the Rhine clay, and the 
Delft clay, combined in the proportions of six, three, and two. He mentions 
that the Tournai clay was often replaced by that of Brabant, and that the 
Rhine clay came from the neighbourhood of Leyden, and even of Delft 
itself . . . ." {Jour. Soc. Arts, 11.6.1897, p. .) 

The chemical composition of the body or paste of Delft faience is given by 
Brongniart as follows : — 

Silice ... . . 49'07 

Alumine . . i6"i9 

Chaux i8-oi 

Magnes . o"82 

Fer. f 282 

Acide carbon, et perte I3'°9 

And he comments upon it thus : — " Fait effervescence, fond comme le No. lo." 
(Traite des Arts Ceramiques, tom. ii. p. 23.) 



176 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Respecting the composition of tlie stanniferous enamel and the glaze, 
minute details of these and of the mode of preparation are given in the 
Jour. Soc. Arts, 1 1.6. 1897, from which the following abbreviated formulae 
have been extracted : — 



(A) Stanniferous Enamel. 

Calcine. 
3 metallic lead 
I ,, tin 

Mastic. 
500 sand 



[■ oxidized together in a special furnace. 



iOO sand "i 

60 sea-salt J- These were melted together, producing a fragile kind of frit. 

30 soda ) 

Enamel or " Wit" (White). 
50 parts of calcine (tin-ash), as above. 
65 ,, ,, mastic (silicate of soda frit), as above. 

4 ,, ,, smalt. 
Small quantity of copper filings. 

(B) The Glaze or" Kwaart." 

36 parts mastic, as above \ 

42 ,, litharge I well mixed and fused, then finely ground. 

4 ,, potash 
7 ,. salt ) 

With regard to the colours used in decorating these Delft-wares, Glaisher in- 
forms us that Gerrit Paape gives the following two formulae for the blue, viz. : — 

Zaffer, 8 ; smalt, J ; mastic, 4. 
Zaffer, 50 ; sand, 25 ; potash, 25. 

Similarly, for the violet there were two formula, one with mastic, another 
without, namely : — 

(a) Brownstone, I ; mastic, i. 

[b) Brownstone, i ; sand, 2 ; potash, 2. 

The brownstone (Braunstein) being one of the ores of manganese. (See 
Jour. Soc. Art, nth June 1897.) 

In a remarkably well-illustrated article by Georg Brochner upon the 
notable collection of Delft-ware belonging to J. W. Frohne, Esq., of Copen- 
hagen, in The Connoisseur, vol. iii. pp. 209-215, three little technicalities are 
mentioned that deserve repetition, and may serve to explain the reason 
of the superior gloss and quality of the best wares: — (i) Contrary to 
Dr. Glaisher, Brochner states that "the first burning was the strongest," 
the ware then being of a pale yellow colour and having a decided ring. 

(2) Brochner says, " As a rule a colourless glass powder was dropped 
on to the decorations, which tended to improve the glaze in the last burning." 

(3) He writes, " On the more common ware the outlines of the decorations 



HISTORICAL REVIEW— Delft Tiles 



177 



were generally transferred by rubbing a blacking substance on a pattern with 
perforated lines. The more artistic decoration was entirely hand-painted." 

He adds that " Toward the end of the seventeenth century polychrome 
decoration came into favour, and was used along with blue, until the whole 
Delft industry became a 
thing of the past. The 
best decoration is red, 
blue, and gold (after 
Harvard) — Delft dore." 
(^Connoisseur, vol. iii. p. 
210.) 

By the courtesy of the 
editor of The Connoisseur, 
we are able to illustrate 
a fine polychrome Delft- 
tiled stove. In The Con- 
noisseur of April 1903 
this stove is explained as 
follows : — " The Canton 
Schwyz is undoubtedly 
the most interesting 
corner of Switzerland, as 
here are still to be found 
associations and relics 
from bygone centuries 
when the old Swiss 
nobility sent its sons to 
serve under the flag of France, forming that royal bodyguard which will be 
remembered with undying honour in the pages of history. The family of 
Reding is one of the oldest of the Swiss nobility, and their beautiful country 
house — plain Maison Reding, as it is called, in true republican fashion — has 
remained practically untouched since the time it was built in 1640. As can 
be imagined, it is a perfect treasure-house of rare and beautiful things, and we 
hope on some future occasion to be able to deal more fully with the subject. 
The stove, a photograph of which accompanies these notes, bears the date 
1640, along with an inscription in Flemish, with the name of the Baron Reding 
for whom it was expressly made. It is entirely of finely glazed polychrome 
Delft tiles,; representing Biblical subjects and landscapes, no two pictures 
being alike. As will be seen from the photograph, the shape and design are 
very fine, in true Renaissance style. A curious feature is the flight of steps 
at the side, which forms part of it, and terminates in an armchair, large 
enough to seat one person comfortably. The house contains another stove of 

12 




Fig. 117.— Delft dish. {Connoisseur, vol. iii. p. 212. By per- 
mission of the proprietors of" The Connoisseur") 



178 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



similar make and date, but it is less ornate in character." (The Connoisseur, 

April 1903, p. 270.) 

The seventeenth century was "high-water mark" of Dutch ascendancy. 

Having shaken off the yoke of Spain, their released vigour expended itself in 

various ways, and, like many 
who are born in adversity and 
inured to hardships, the Dutch 
proved themselves sturdy in 
after-growth. Following and 
often usurping the Portuguese 
in the Far East, they made 
a great effort at colonization in 
India, Java, and South Africa ; 
their maritime eminence and 
energy, and their resource- 
fulness and activity at home, 
enabled them to export their 
manufactures to many foreign 
countries. Among these, large 
quantities, both of artistic 
pottery wares and tiles, were 
sent out from the plucky little 
Dutch town, Delft, to Germany, 
England, and America ; indeed, 
for a time Delft-ware, made in 
the town of Delft, Holland, 
was the chief European rival of 
Chinese ceramists. 

Glazed ornamental Delft 
tiles were very extensively 
used for lining fireplaces and 
walls in the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries, and great 
rariosa circles and museums. 




Fig. 118. — Delft-tiled stove. (See Connoisseur, April 
1903. By permission of the proprietors.) 



numbers are still to be found in English 
particularly in the Guildhall Museum, London. 

With the rise of the ceramic industry in Staffordshire, however, the industry 
in Delft declined, until in 1850 the last factory is said to have closed. At this 
juncture, according to the Windsor Magazine of June 1901, some time in the 
seventies, De Heer JooSt Thooft, who had retired from active business, and 
had a taste for Delft-ware, bought "The Porcelain Bottle" pottery (for that 
was its name), lock, stock, and barrel. He had an idea that a revival of 
interest in the wares was probable, and in this, events subsequently confirmed 



PL. XXI. 




Delft tiles. Painted in blue. 
(W.N.F. Coll.) 



HISTORICAL review—Delft Tiles 179 

his foresight. The manufacture was reorganized on more modern lines under 
the direction of M. Adolf Lecomte. At the death of Mynheer Thooft the 
control of the business passed into the hands of M. Abel Labouchere. And 
although increasing business has necessitated many extensions, the old house, 
to outward appearance, remains the same as when two hundred years ago the 
founder hung out the sign " De Porceleyne Fles " where it hangs to-day. 



CHAPTER III. 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY IN DECORATIVE TILES. 

Contents. — Revival of the use of tiles — English Delft tiles — Herbert Minton — G. Maw— Prosser & 
Blashfield — Michael Daintry HoUins — L. Arnoux — Coloured glazes— Dust encaustics — British 
manufacturers — Continental— Persian^ — Indian — American — Australian — Chinese — Japanese. 

Although Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, Susiana, Persia, 
India, Spain, and Italy have yielded remarkable examples 
of the architectural use of enamelled bricks and tiles, 
yet at no period in the past, so far as we know, has 
there ever been a time when the use of decorative tiles 
and faience for interior service and embellishment was 
really so widespread as at present. These pleasing and 
hygienic architectural accessories are not now exclusively 
reserved for the enrichment of palaces and mosques, but 
are found in some form or other in almost every recently 
erected public or private building, worthy of the name, 
in Europe or the United States of America. 

This great revival of the use of tiles seems to have 
originated in England, and there to have created a large 
special industry, which subsequently extended to many 
other countries. 

In attempting to trace some of the chief incidents of 
its evolution and development, it seemed advisable to 
preface these with a short notice of English Delft tiles 
as a link with the past, notwithstanding that they are in 
reality, perhaps, unconnected with the present phase of the 
tile trade. 

English Delft Tiles.— The closing of monastic estab- 




FiG. 119.— Tile panel, 
by MslW & Co. 



lishments, A.D. 1540-1560, after the fierce contests of Reformation times, 
coincided remarkably with a cessation of the manufacture of ornamental 
tiles in Great Britain, where for the succeeding two hundred years the art 
became practically lost. 



180 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— English Delft Tiles i8r 



In the seventeenth century, however, notwithstanding civil wars, war with 
the Dutch, the Great Plague, and the Great Fire, a few Dutch potters 
established themselves in Lambeth. Examples of their products, dating from 
1647, or even earlier, are said to be still in existence. On 27th October 1676 
letters-patent were granted to a certain Van Hamme, relating to the " Art of 
makeinge tiles and porcelane and other earthenware after the way practised 
in Holland." 

From Lambeth the industry spread to Fulham, Bristol, and Liverpool ; 
and, according to Mr. W. P. Rix's recent report on the clay industries of 
Ireland, " Delft "-ware, so called, was made in Belfast two hundred years ago, 
and in Dublin one hundred and iifty years ago. {Brick and Pottery Trades 
Journal, May 1903.) 

Respecting Bristol, in the Museum of Practical Geology, London, there 
were formerly sixteen " Delft-ware " tiles, painted in blue, with views of 
Redcliffe Church, said to have been made by Richard Frank at a factory 
in Redcliffe Backs between 1738 and 1750. (They are now probably in the 
Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington.) 
In 1777 Frank's business was removed to premises 
in Water Lane, Bristol, where for many years 
afterwards it was conducted by Pountney & Co., 
and was known as Bristol Pottery. 

Mr. F. W. Phillips, of Hitchin, very kindly per- 
mits the illustration of two polychrome hand- 
painted tiles in his collection, which are believed 
to be of Bristol manufacture. The body of these 
tiles is buff-coloured, and is covered with an opaque 
bluish-white enamel, more glossy, perhaps, than 
Liverpool Delft tiles. _ They measure 4I inches by 
4| inches, are J-inch thick, and have chamfered 
edges. 

Of one of these Bristol Delft tiles the floral 
designs at each corner are painted in blue, the 
border in green, upon which are dots and circles in 
black, the centre being occupied by a representation 
of a lady in blue and yellow attire, in a suppliant 
attitude. 

But Liverpool seems to have been the principal 
British centre of tile manufacture during the latter 
half of the eighteenth century. Many stanniferous earthenware tiles, in 
imitation of Delft tiles, must have been made in or near Liverpool about 
1756 ; for on 2nd August 1756, Sadler & Green made an affidavit in connec- 
tion with their claim to priority in the invention of pottery-printing, in which 




Fig. 120.— Bristol Delft tiles. 
(F. W. Phillips' Coll.) 



i82 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



they assert that on Tuesday, the 27th July 1756, they printed twelve hundred 
earthenware tiles. 

Coupled with this there is a collateral statement, by Alderman Thomas 
Shaw and Samuel Gilbody, clay potters, to the effect that they had since 
burnt these tiles, and that they were considerably neater, and so forth, than 
hand-painted tiles. No statement is vouchsafed as to who made the tiles, or 
where they were made. Mr. J. Mayer, in his History of the Art of Pottery — 
chiefly that of Liverpool — certainly refers to Sadler & Green's premises in 
Harrington Street as 2^ pottery, but this seems to be a slight error. Sadler & 
Green's establishment was an engraving and printing works ; if not, and if 
it were anything more, why did they get Alderman Shaw and Samuel Gilbody 

to burn the tiles after they had been printed, as 
per affidavit? Why not burn them at their own 
works ? 

Then, again, twelve hundred tiles are rather 
a large number, and indicate considerable manu- 
facture somewhere, and it would be interesting to 
inquire where and by whom. 

Mayer mentions a potter, named Zachariah 
Barnes, who had a pottery in the Old Haymarket, 
and who made a great number of tiles similar to 
Delft tiles ; and relates that " when these tiles were 
required to be printed, that part of the work was 
done by Messrs. Sadler & Green." {Hist, of Pottery, 
p. 80.) But this does not account for the tiles 
printed by Sadler & Green in 1756, for Mayer 
further explains that Zachariah Barnes was born in 
1743, in which case it is improbable he would be a 
tile manufacturer in 1756. 

Unless the twelve hundred tiles in question 
were obtained in an unfinished state from Lambeth, 
Bristol, or Belfast — which is unlikely — the natural 
inference is that Alderman Shaw, who had been a Liverpool Delft-ware 
manufacturer since about 1716, or Samuel Gilbody aforenamed, had made the 
tiles and supplied them to Sadler & Green for the purpose of printing, and, 
when printed, took them away to burn at their own pottery, and to sell. 

The name of Josiah Wedgwood will probably occur to most people, at 
this juncture, as likely to have supplied the twelve hundred tiles, but we are 
not cognisant of any evidence that he made decorative tiles ; at any rate, his 
historians do not appear to mention such products, and Mr. Cecil Wedgwood 
assures me he can give no information upon this point. 

Josiah Wedgwood certainly sent ware from Burslem to Liverpool, to be 




Fig. 121. — Liverpool Delft tiles. 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— English Delft Tiles 



183 



printed by Sadler & Green, between 1762 and 1769 ; and continued to do so 
for a considerable time even after the removal to Etruria. (See Jewitt's Life 
of Wedgwood, p. 1 50.) 

But in 1756 Josiah Wedgwood was at Fenton, with Wheildon, and pre- 
sumably had not then invented, certainly had not perfected, the Queensware 
body; for it was not until 1762 that he presented the now famous caudle 
service to Queen Charlotte, which gave rise to the name. Black basaltes 
ware high-relief plaques of large size were made by Josiah Wedgwood, or 
by Wedgwood & Bentley, of which a 
valuable specimen, some 15 inches 
by 10 inches, is in the Museum at 
Stoke - upon - Trent ; but this, too, 
would probably be long after 1756. 

The only references to tiles by 
Josiah Wedgwood that the writer can 
find are: — (i) A letter from Wedg- 
wood to Bentley, on 23rd November 
1772, in which Josiah Wedgwood 
writes : — " I have a mind to try at 
some plain tiles, but our people can- 
not make them cheap enough to sell 
in any quantities.'' (Vol. ii. p. 2.) 

(2) In 1774 he wrote: — "We do 
make tablets, etc., for chimney-pieces, 

but not in imitation of marble 

They are painted in a new species of 
enamel, upon coloured grounds, from 
gems, etc." 

(3) Tiles are mentioned in one of 
Flaxman's bills, but not as being 
manufactured. 

Whatever may have been done 
in the way of tiles, either by Josiah 
Wedgwood or his Staffordshire contemporaries, it would appear that nothing 
was known of it by Arnoux in 1877, when he wrote: — "Majolica and Delft 
tiles, chiefly the last, have been almost exclusively used during the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries, and it is only within the last forty years 
that we began to make them in earthenware." {British Manufacturing 
Industries, p. 54, Stanford.) 

Thus we are driven back to the first hypothesis, that either Alderman 
Shaw or Samuel Gilbody made tiles of the nature of " Delft " tiles in Liverpool 
about A.D. 1756. 




Fig. 122. — .Six Liverpool Delft tiles. 
(F. W. Phillips' Coll.) 



1 84 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Liverpool Delft tiles are rather thinner and of harder body perhaps than 
Dutch Delft tiles, and the colour of the body is of a deeper buff tint, having the 
appearance of a compound of slender fireclay, plastic clay, and sand. They 
usually measure about 5 inches square, and are from ;J to f of an inch thick, 
and have chamfered or bevelled edges, either to facilitate manufacture or fitting. 
The face only is covered with a white opaque enamel; upon which designs are 
painted or printed according to the period of manufacture ; the colours 
mostly are black, green, and brownish red. 

Mr. F. W. Phillips, of Hitchin, who has about fifty of these tiles, has 
generously supplied several photographs for illustration here. ' He mentions 
that the bevel edge tapering from front to back is one of the characteristics of 
Liverpool tiles. 

They are not often marked or signed; indeed, Mr. Phillips writes that he 
has never seen a signature or mark of any kind on a Liverpool tile. But one 
of those formerly in the Museum of Practical Geology (London) is signed 
"J. Sadler, Liverpool." {Handbook to M. P. GeoL, p. 157.) 

Modern British — Coming to the nineteenth century : when we contem- 
plate the present extent of the industry it seems incredible that so little of it 
existed in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Jewitt states that " in 
1828 Herbert Minton first turned his attention to the subject, but was pre- 
vented by circumstances from fully developing his plans." {Cer. Art of Great 
Britain, vol. ii. p. 195.) Except for that, all appears to date from 1830, when 
Samuel Wright, of Shelton, Staffordshire, became possessed of the idea of 
imitating mediaeval encaustic tiles, and eventually secured letters-patent for an 
invention for making them. The abridgment of the patent reads : — " A manu- 
facture of ornamental tiles, bricks,- and quarries for floors, pavements, and other 
purposes. First, making these articles of fine clays, and firing them until ' semi- 
vitrified.' Second, ornamenting them in various colours and with various 
patterns similar to the patterns on carpets, etc., by impressing them with the 
patterns and filling up the impressions with clay, etc., coloured with metallic 
oxides. The patterns are impressed by moulding them in moulds of plaster 
of Paris in metal frames. The articles are reduced to the same thickness 
by a cutting instrument worked upon a machine, which keeps the article at 
a true level." 

Wright seems to have put his process into practical operation himself first, 
and to have made some pavements ; but the venture was not a commercial 
success, and, wearying of it, he ultimately disposed of his patent right in part 
to Herbert Minton, or Minton & Boyle, of Stoke-on-Trent, and in part 
to George Barr, of Worcester, on certain conditions. Minton pursued this 
branch of ceramics with indomitable perseverance, resulting, in course of time, 
in distinguished success, and in the establishment of a world-renowned 
manufacturing business. 



PL. XXII. 




U^^u-i^ 



/ / 



\.^,^_._ r.4'i^^:.f^'^^^ 



' / 't'-y'/ /^^^ /<.^>7^ 



Herbert Minton (rf. 1858). 

{^From a print in tlie Museum y Sioke- 
ufion-Trent, by pertnission oj the 
Curator^ A . J. Caddie^ Esg^ 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Modern British 185 

Jewitt relates that " Mr. Minton Commenced the manufacture in a single 
room . . . at the earthenware works, and only three men were at first 
employed. He was much aided in his task by the late Mr. George Leason, a 
practical potter, who had been brought up under him. . . . Difficulties had 
to be encountered, chiefly arising from the irregular contraction of the clays. 
Sometimes the inlaid parts would at a slight tap at the back of the tile fall 
out, or the tiles would become stained in the firing ; and, in short, all sorts of 

ill-luck and misadventures were the weekly result Repeated failures, 

however, were only followed by further experiments. Mr. Minton was ever 

confident that skill and perseverance would in the end prove a success 

In April 1836 Mr. Minton sent to Mr. Josiah Booker, of Liverpool, a plan for 

tiling his hall, and this gentleman adopted Mr. Minton's suggestions 

In 1837 a hall-pavement was laid in the mansion of Sir John P. Orde, Bart, 

at Kilmoray Tiles were extensively introduced at Trentham Hal), 

and some of the finest of the early specimens are to be found there." (Ceramic 
Art of Great Britain, p. 198, Virtue & Co.) 

The first work of great importance, Jewitt tells us, was the floor of the 
Temple Church, London. For this, it seems that in 1841 examples of 
mediaival tiles were procured from the Chapter House, Westminster, and 
Minton undertook to reproduce the various designs of this ancient pavement 
in tiles for Temple Church. By great labour he finally completed the work 
to the satisfaction of those interested. 

The only colours made use of about this period, i.e., between 1837 and 1841, 
appear to have been buff", red, and chocolate ; and Minton's highest ambition 
then was, apparently, to make tiles as good as those of fourteenth and fifteenth 
century workmanship. What a compliment to mediaeval craftsmen ! 

Thus the pursuit of Wright's invention led Minton on to all that followed 
in decorative ceramics, and was the beginning of the industry as it now exists. 

Mr. George Barr, of Worcester, in conjunction with Mr. Fleming St. John, 
under the style of F. St. John, G. Barr, & Co., of Palace Row, Worcester, also 
commenced the manufacture of encaustic tiles by Wright's method, presum- 
ably under some agreement with Wright, upon premises that had formerly 
been occupied by Flight & Barr for the manufacture of porcelain. They 
issued a catalogue illustrating seventy-seven specimens or designs of their 
products, which are said to have been excellent patterns and of good colour 
and material. (See advt.. Gentleman's Magazine, 1844, and Jewitt's Ceramic 
Art of Great Britain, vol. i. p. 258.) 

About 1850 Messrs. George and Arthur Maw purchased this business of 
St. John, Barr, & Co., and in 1852 they removed the moulds and plant to 
Benthall, near Broseley, Shropshire, a district noted for the excellence of its 
potting clays from the time of the Romans, and having the additional advan- 
tage of being upon a coalfield. Here Messrs. Maw slowly developed a very 



1 86 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

extensive business in the manufacture of high-class ornamental tiles, of which 
more presently. 

Returning a little, chronologically, to pick up another important thread of 
hist( ry, it appears that in 1836 (according to Spon's Encyclopedia of Manu- 
factures) a certain Mr. Blashfield made ornamental pavements by combining 
marble and stone with coloured cements. About this time, too, Messrs. 
Copeland & Garrett, of Stoke-on-Trent, made ceramic tiles for Blashfield, 
chiefly of red and black colours. In 1839 Blashfield made an elaborate mosaic 
floor at Deepdene, by combining several styles of pavement in one design, 
the mosaic elements being placed face downward on a bench, and then backed 
by red tiles and cement, forming large slabs that were then reversed, conveyed 
to the building, and laid in position on the prepared concrete foundations. 

The same year Singer, of Vauxhall, made ceramic tesserse for copying 
Moorish and Roman work, by squeezing soft clay of various colours from a 
machine, in thin sheets about 6 inches by ^-inch, and cutting off" lengths of 
about 3 inches of this ; these lengths were partly dried and then placed in 
heaps and cross-cut into small tesserae, ingenious mechanical contrivances 
being employed to form curved tessera. 

On 17th June 1840 Richard Prosser, of Birmingham, obtained a patent for 
the manufacture of buttons by reducing the material of porcelain to a dry 
powder and subjecting it to strong pressure between steel dies. The abridgment 
of the patent specification reads as follows : — " Certain improvements in manu- 
facturing buttons from certain materials, which improvements in manufacturing 
are applicable in whole or in part to the production of knobs, rings, and other 
articles from the same materials. These are, first, making the above articles, 
in which are included bricks and tiles of a clay or clayey earth alone, or partly 
of clay or a clayey earth and partly flint or feldspar, etc., in a state of powder, 
by pressure between hard surfaces, either plain or figured, into solid articles, 
without any water being used, etc., etc." 

Prosser sold part of his interest in this patent to the firm of Minton & 
Boyle, of Stoke-on-Trent, and arrangements were promptly made for putting 
the matter in operation. Jewitt tells us that " Two workrooms were given up 
to Mr. John Turley, engineer, who at first placed six button-presses in one, 
and a large tile-press in the other, and commenced making white glazed tiles 
(6-inch) and buttons in these works in August 1840." (Ceramic Art of Great 
Britain, vol. ii. p. 202.) About 1841 Blashfield, who, as we have already 
noticed, had made many experiments and done some practical work in 
ornamental pavements, saw this process of making buttons at Minton's works, 
and conceived the idea of extending its application to the manufacture of 
small tiles and tesserae. 

By " sth September 1842 sixty -two presses were at work"; and Mr. 
Turley, in his communication to Jewitt, further states that " the demand for 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Modern British 187 

white glazed tiles was soon very great On 8th March [1843] the 

process of making tesserae was exhibited by Mr. Turley at the Society ol 
Arts, London. March nth, 1843, the same press and process was exhibited 
by Mr. Turley at the Marquess of Northampton's soiree as President of the 
British Association, at which were present Prince Albert, the Duke of 
Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, a number of bishops, and about thirty foreign 
princes. The late Prince Consort took so much interest in the process that 
Mr. Prosser and Mr. Minton decided that a description of the process and a 
drawing of the press, as then seen at work, should be prepared forthwith and 
presented to his Highness, which was done, and presented on the 15th of 
March 1843. After this introduction to the Society of Arts and the British 
Association, Mr. J. M. Blashfield, Digby Wyatt, and Owen Jones, by their 
designs and favourable influences, brought the geometrical floor-tile with its 
many colours, in combination with the encaustic floor-tile, into extensive use 
in the rebuilding of churches, noblemen's mansions, and other public build- 
ings." {Ceramic Art of Great Britain, vol. ii. p. 202.) 

Blashfield seems to have been very energetic and influential in securing 
this public recognition of the work, and devoted money and great personal 
effort to furthering the use of tessellated pavements ; but was obliged for some 
reason, not particularized, to surrender all interest in the business. Sub- 
sequently he established a famous terracotta works at Stamford, where were 
made the terracotta panels for the Wedgwood Institution at Burslem, the 
Dulwich College, and other prominent works. Other of Minton's coadjutors 
who shared the arduous pioneer work were Mr. Michael Daintry Hollins, who 
joined Mr. Minton in partnership in August 1845 ! ^"d Mr. Joseph Francois 
Leon Arnoux, who appears on the scene about 1849. 

From the year 1849 Monsieur Arnoux seems to have been exceedingly 
persevering in the matter of glaze decoration of tiles and wares of a decorative 
character, after the manner of the Moors and Italians. 

Under his guidance, about 1850 a.d., Messrs. Minton perfected and intro- 
duced a new series of opaque enamels, said to be stanniferous, and by them 
designated majolica. These constituted a striking feature of Minton's 
exhibits at South Kensington in 1851 ; and when the permanent South 
Kensington Museum buildings were erected, between 1857 and 1868, tiles of 
this character were employed in part for the decoration of the walls. (See 
Plate XXIII.) 

The four pillars, decorated with Minton tiles, in the refreshment-room, 
S.K.M., of which two are illustrated on Plate XXIII., are typical of the period 
when they were constructed, viz., 1863 and 1868. Baldry states that "The 
refreshment-room professes to be entirely a piece of ceramic construction. 
The lining of the walls, the pillars, and the mouldings and soffits of the arches 
are made of this material throughout The tiles with which the pillars 



1 88 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

and parts of the walls are covered are modelled with patterns in low relief, 
and bands with compositions of figures and inscriptions are added with good 
effect. The colour is rich but not garish, and it is lightened by the introduc- 
tion of masses of pure white." (^Modern Mural Decoration, p. Ii8, Newnes.) 

In the Keramic Gallery (Plate XXXIV.) there are ten somewhat similar 
columns overlaid with glazed embossed tiles of Minton's manufacture (1868). 
The staircase leading to the gallery is also decorated with ceramic products. 

Writing in 1876 or 1877, M. Arnoux explains that he had "given the 
name of majolica to that class of ornament whose surface is covered with 
opaque enamels of a great variety of colours. It is only connected with the 
Italian or Moorish in this respect, that the opacity of the enamels is produced 
by the oxide of tin ; but as we have not in England the calcareous clay for 
making the real article, we have been obliged to adapt as well as we could 
the old processes to the materials at our disposal. At present English majolica 
is very popular, and without a rival for garden decoration, as it stands ex- 
posure to the weather better than ordinary earthenware, besides the impossi- 
bility of the latter receiving the opaque enamels without crazing or chipping. 
Majolica was produced for the first time by Messrs. Minton in 1850, and they 
have- been for many years the only producers of this article." {British 
Manufacturing Industries, p. 51, Stanford.) Whether from difficulties arising 
out of the nature of fine earthenware bodies, or from want of lasting attractive- 
ness in the earlier opaque majolica enamels used by Messrs. Minton, or yet 
again for want of adequate interest in the new — or shall we say revived ? — 
material by architects, somehow a quarter of a century elapsed between the 
modern reintroduction of this style of interior decoration and its recent vast 
expansion of application. Whatever eulogies are due to the opaque majolicas 
and to M. Arnoux, let us freely and liberally give ; yet they certainly have 
been almost completely displaced by the more beautiful transparent coloured 
glazes or art-enamels of the Palis.sy type, which are now experiencing such 
world-wide appreciation. 

Nevertheless, the decorative tile and faience industry is greatly indebted 
to M. Arnoux for the perseverance and ability exercised in introducing 
opaque " majolica " decorative wares, for undoubtedly these opened the way 
for tiles embellished with transparent coloured glazes, much in the same way 
that the discoveries of the Astburys, Wheildon, Cookworthy, Chaffers, and 
Wedgwood contributed to the present state of the general earthenware trade. 
Nor do we know precisely to what extent we are indebted to M. Arnoux in 
respect of the use of transparent coloured glazes. Jewitt tells us that it was 
"in 1851 Delia Robbia and Palissy ware were also here commenced " ; and 
M. Solon informs the writer that " transparent glazes were used at Minton's 
long before the opaque majolica enamels were abandoned," and that he 
remembers "having seen at Minton's tiles glazed with transparent enamels. 



PL. XXIII. 




Tiled pillars in the refreshment-room, 

South Kensington Museum. 

{By permission of the Board of Education.') 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Modern British 189 

certainly dating from the same period as those glazed with stanniferous 
enamels." 

Whether the discoveries in Japan, in respect of glazes, about 1800 A.D. 
to 1827 A.D., had any reflex influence on Staffordshire products, is, of course, 
uncertain, but these should not be overlooked as points of historical import- 
ance in the matter of glazes. (See Jour. Soc. Arts, 26th February 1892, 
p. 326 ; and the paragraph on Japanese tiles at the close of this chapter.) 

Information, too, may with equal probability have sifted through from 
India, which about this period was coming more and more under British 
control, Mooltan being captured in 1849, ^"d the Punjab — one of the 
principal Indian districts wherein decorative ceramic art is practised — 
annexed the same year. 

Who first recommenced the use of transparent coloured glazes of the 
Palissy type upon decorative faience in Staffordshire during the last half 
of the nineteenth century is apparently uncertain. Shaw attributes the 
introduction of glaze enamelling to Thomas Daniel, but as far as we know he 
gives no indication of its application to any other than ordinary wares. 

Such glazes certainly were in use for other purposes in the eighteenth 
century, for in 1754 we find that Josiah Wedgwood, after many patient trials, 
succeeded in producing an admirable green glaze, which contributed largely 
to the success of Wheildon, with whom he was then in partnership. Indeed, 
green lead-glazed ware, dated 1691, is known. (See p. loi of Handbook to 
Jermyn Street Museum.) 

About 1780 the so-called "Rockingham" ware was manufactured at 
Swinton, near Rotherham, Yorkshire, on the estate of the Marquis of 
Rockingham, the glaze of this ware being coloured by means of the oxides 
of manganese and iron. (See Handbook of British Pottery in the Museum of 
Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London, p. 141.) 

Again, recipes for coloured glazes, such as jet glaze, green glaze, yellow 
glaze, appear in the manuscript books of the writer's grandfather, James 
Furnival, of Hanley; these recipes would probably be in use about A.D. 18 17 
to 1840, during part of which period he was a manager for Ridgways, potters, 
Hanley. And recipes for " Rockingham " glaze, blue glaze, yellow glaze, 
green glaze, and mazzerine glaze, occur in my father's manuscript books, 
William Furnival, of Hanley ; these recipes would be used at Wilkinson's 
Pottery, Whitehaven, Cumberland, about 1848-1850, and subsequently at 
Messrs. Brownfield's, of Cobridge, about 1852, and at Messrs. Copeland's, of 
Stoke-upon-Trent, about i860. 

Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood & Sons, of Etruria, also revived the manufacture 
of so-called majolica glazed wares in i860, and in this material produced 
dessert and toilet services, and numerous useful and ornamental articles. In 
1865 they too were making teapots, coffee-pots, and services including cups, 



igo LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC, 

white inside, of what is known as " Rockingham '' ware. (Jewitt's Life of 
Wedgwood, pp. 389-391.) 

In 1 862 Mr. George Maw, F.G. S., of Bcnthall, near Broseley, is said " to have 
first attempted the manufacture of majolica tiles for architectural purposes." 
{British C/ayworker, August 1898, p. 136.) By 1871 he had made such 
advances in the manufacture as to be able to present a fine series of speci- 
mens of modern majolica ware, consisting of vases, columns, panels, friezes, 
medallions, bosses, and many ornamental tiles, to the Museum of Practical 
Geology, Jermyn Street, London. 

These specimens have recently been removed to the Bethnal Green 
Museum, together with nearly the whole of the pottery and porcelain 
exhibits formerly shown at Jermyn Street, specimens of exceptional 
interest going to the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

The curator of the Bethnal Green Museum informs me that the glazes of 
most of these specimens of Maw's early productions in majolica wares are 
semi-transparent and translucent, but that on some of the tiles the glaze is 
opaque. 

In 1863 another fundamental improvement was patented conjointly by 
William Boulton and Joseph Worthington, of Burslem. (See patent No. 2176, 
3rd September 1863, completed 3rd March 1864.) This was an invention for 
making figured encaustic tiles by the dust-clay process, and is substantially 
the method now in vogue. The inlay or figure was formed in perforated 
plates on the flat surface of the bottom ram or plunger of the dust-tile press, 
after which operation the plate was removed, and an annular metallic mould 
raised to form a cavity or mould in which the dust-tile itself was then made 
upon the already formed design, and all again pressed together. 

Omitting minor and secondary matters, this brings us to the contemporary 
state of the manufacture. The art of the ornamental tilemaker has now 
spread over the whole of the glazed-pottery-making districts of Europe and 
America, and has enlisted in its , service almost every material, process, and 
device known to ceramists. 

It is due perhaps to all the leading contemporary manufacturers to record 
here briefly the most noteworthy incidents of their history, and as far as 
information has been obtainable and at the writer's service for publication 
this has been attempted ; but the notes are unavoidably incomplete, because 
some manufacturing firms object to publicity in these pages. 

Messrs. Minton, Rollins, & Co., of Stoke-upon-Trent, must be granted the 
premier place as pioneers of the present great revival of the use of ornamental 
tiles. The leading incidents of the evolution of this branch of ceramic 
industry by the far-seeing Herbert Minton have already been touched upon, 
and it has been shown that Minton, Hollins, & Co. are successors to the business 
he established. Looking once more to Jewitt, we learn that Michael Daintry 



PL. XXIV. 




Joseph Fran9ois Leon Arnoux (d, 1902). 

{JRrom a pliotograph khtdly lent hy 
M. Solon, 0/ Stoke-upon-Trent.') 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Modern British, 191 

HoUins, nephew of Mrs. Minton, who had been educated for the medical 
profession, joined Herbert Minton in partnership in August 1845, when, it 
would appear, the tilemaking department was formed into a distinct concern 
under the style of Minton, HoUins, & Co., the china and earthenware works 
continuing under the old style of Herbert Minton & Co., as before. 

In 1846 Samuel Barlow Wright, son of the original patentee, was admitted 
to a share in the tileworks business, which was thereafter styled Minton, 
Hollins, & Wright. So far the tile business is said to have been conducted 
at a loss, and only a small amount of business done, Minton, wc are told, 
had sacrificed many thousands of pounds in perfecting the manufacture, and 
had been extraordinarily liberal in his gifts of tiles. {Ceramic Art of Great 
Britain, vol. ii. p. 203.) 

In 1849 Mr. Colin Minton Campbell joined the firm ; in 1858 Herbert 
Minton died, and in 186S a rearrangement of partnership was effected, by 
which Michael Daintry Hollins acquired the sole proprietorship of the tile- 
works, which he continued under the style of Minton, Hollins, & Co. Shortly 
afterwards Hollins erected an entirely new factory in Stoke-upon-Trent, 
specially designed for tile manufacture, and here the firm have since conducted 
their world-renowned business ; national and international exhibitions having 
long been successive scenes of peaceful victory and honour for Messrs. Minton, 
Hollins, & Co. 

Their exhibit for the approaching World's Fair at St. Louis (Mo.), U.S.A., 
is thus described in the Staffordshire Sentinel oi 30th March 1904: — 

" The principal feature of the exhibit is a large drinking-fountain carried out 
in faience in a Byzantine style of architecture. The character of the fine piece of 
potting will be best understood when it is stated that it will stand 7 feet 6 inches 
in height, has a length of 9 feet 6 inches, and will weigh a couple of tons. It 
will stand on a rich jasper encaustic floor, made on the original Minton method. 
The well of the fountain will be laid with turquoise glazed mosaics, the water 
flowing from a couple of modelled masks set in a wall ebony coloured. The 
corner pillars, base, and top are treated in greens. A striking feature of the 
exhibit will assuredly be a framed panel, designed and executed by Mr. Gordon 
Forsyth, the art director of the firm. The piece of ware, when erected, will 
occupy a wall-space of 8 feet by 4 feet. The main feature of the decoration 
is a life-size figure of St. Louis, accoutred for the Crusades, carried out 
in cloisonne glazes standing in a modern faience frame. The colours are 
very attractive, charming peacock blues and leather brown and white pre- 
dominating. .... 

" Another exhibit which arrests attention is an encaustic flooring for a room 

of moderate proportions The floor is in blue and gold, made up of 

8-inch tiles, the ornamentation being a free treatment of the Acantha. The 
brilliant vitreous colours are surpassed by no other firm, and equalled by few. 



192 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

There are also a number of examples of mosaic-work for walls and floors, and 
schemes for wall-decoration in enamel tiles. The exhibit will be taken in 
charge by the British Commission." {Staffordshire Sentinel, 30th March 1904.) 

Messrs. Maw & Co., of jackfield, Shropshire, may justly claim the second 
place for reasons already noted. Upon removing the business from Worcester 
to Benthall, about 1852, "their first effort was," according to Jewitt,-"to 
thoroughly investigate and experiment upon the clays of the Shrbpshi-i-e coal- 
field, as well as the plastic material found throughout the kingdom, many of 

which no one had before attempted to turn to economic account " 

" Messrs. Maw," Jewitt declares, " have from the first laid themselves out for 
applying the very highest art and architectural talents to their manufac- 
tures. ... In 1 86 1 they commenced the manufacture of very small tesserae 
for ... . pictorial mosaics, and produced for the exhibition of 1862 their 
well-known mosaic of ' The Seasons ' . . . . now in the South Kensington 

Museum Coloured enamels for the surface decoration of majolica tiles 

next occupied their attention, and after years of experimenting all the colours 
employed in the ancient tiles of Spain or Italy were successfully reproduced. 
.... A stone chimney-piece enriched with tiles, executed for the Inter- 
national Exhibition of 1862, was their first attempt in the application of 
enamels and majolica in architectural work. Shortly afterwards the successful 
decoration of ceilings was carried out in the corridors of the India Ofifice. 
.... Of their works in enamelled terracotta may be mentioned the beautiful 
staircase executed for Sir D. Marjoribanks, a portion of which was exhibited 
in the International Exhibition of 1871, and the chimney-pieces manufactured 
for the board-room of the South Kensington Museum, and the Museum of 
Science and Art at Edinburgh." {Ceramic Art of Great Britain, vol. i. 
pp. 31 1-3 1 5.) 

At length their business increased, until larger works were needed, and 
about 1883 new works were erected at Jackfield, a few miles from Benthall. 

At Chicago, in the great exhibition of 1893, Messrs. Maw & Co.'s exhibit 
consisted of a most imposing structure of constructional and decorative faience, 
about 38 feet by 15 feet and some 20 feet high, in the form of a colonnade 
supporting an entablature. The shafts of the columns were 12 feet high ; each 
contained one painted panel and three modelled panels. The lunettes and 
spandrils of the entablature were hand-painted in underglaze — a method 
adopted in all the painted work throughout their Chicago exhibit. The floor- 
space within was divided by a central screen and side-wings into different 
sections, which were utilized so as to show specimen pavements, and wall- 
coverings of tiles, mosaic, and faience, as adapted to the several requirements 
of churches and public and private buildings. So greatly was this exhibit 
appreciated in the United States of America that it ultimately found a 
permanent home in the Columbian Museum, Chicago. 




Fig. 123.— View of Maw & Co.'s exhibit at Chic^o World's Fair, 1893. 




Fig. 124.— View of Maw & Co.'s exhibit at Chicago World's Fair, 1893. 



13 







o 

■a 



a 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Modern British 195 

Messrs. W, T. Copeland & Sons, of Stoke-upon-Trent, should also be 
mentioned in this connection, although they do not now give much attention 
to this branch of ceramic art. 

As early as 1836 their predecessors, Messrs. Copeland & Garrett, as we 
have seen, made red and black tiles for Blashfield, who at that time was 
attempting the construction of ceramic ornamental floors. 

Writing in 1878, Jewitt says : — " Messrs. Copeland & Son are large producers 
of plain and painted and enamelled tiles for internal decoration, and these, 
from the excellence they have attained in the ' body,' and the skill displayed 

in design and in ornamentation, have become a speciality of the firm 

One of the most striking and attractive novelties in this kind of mural decora- 
tion is that of a continuous design for a whole room, as first attempted by 
them for Mr. Macfarlane. Of this speciality," Jewitt continues, " I gave the 
following notice in the Art Journal for December 1875 '■ — 

" . . . . The lining of entire rooms with wall-tiles is, of course, no new thing 
.... but it has been left to Messrs. Copeland to strike out an entirely new 
idea in the mode of treatment. Mr. Macfarlane, whose art-productions in metal 
we have often commended in the pages of the Art Journal, has recently erected 

in Glasgow a magnificent mansion In several apartments of this mansion 

.... Mr. Macfarlane desired to introduce some new feature He there- 
fore wisely consulted Messrs. Copeland, who .... prepared a series of 

designs The general design is a terracotta dado of full Indian-red tone 

of colour, walls of pale celadon tint, and a frieze painted in monochrome, in 
continuous subjects apposite to the uses of the various rooms, which are thus 
covered with tiles, in one grand design, from floor to ceiling. The walls be- 
tween the dado and frieze are covered, as just stated, with celadon tiles placed 
diagonally, with the joints made just sufficiently apparent to give a geometrical 
break to the surface, and so remove what otherwise might be a sameness in 
appearance ; while those of the frieze (which are of a pale yellow ground- 
colour, well adapted for throwing out the figures, and which, when the room 
is lit up, disappears and gives the effect of a luminous sky to the pictures) are 
placed horizontally, and their edges fitted with such mathematical precision 
and nicety that their joints are invisible. The whole of the tiles have a dead 
or purely fresco surface, and are most perfect for the purpose for which they 
are intended The frieze (3 feet in height) of the billiard-room repre- 
sents, in four separate groupings on the four sides of the apartment, the sports 
of the British race : one side being devoted to ' Health ' . . . . another to 
'Strength' .... a third to 'Courage' .... and the fourth to 'Fortitude,' 
in which the central group surrounding the allegorical figure is composed of 
lifelike portraits of such men as Livingstone, Burton, M'Clintock, Layard, 

and others The frieze of the heating-room of the Turkish baths, which 

is lined in a precisely similar style to the other, is entirely composed of tropical 



196 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

plants and flowers, arranged in a masterly and effective manner, and painted, 

even to the most minute detail, with consummate skill " {Ceramic Art 

of Great Britain, vol. ii. p. 178, 179.) 

Messrs. Copeland & Sons' showroom still has an arched doorway orna- 
mented with decorated panels or slabs throughout its whole circuit, painted 
by John Cartlidge. 

Messrs. T. & R. Boote, of Burslem, have very courteously supplied the 
following particulars relative to their establishment : — The firm was founded 
early in 1842 by Messrs. Thomas Latham Boote and Richard Boote, who 
commenced business at the Central Pottery, Burslem, their original manufac- 
ture being Parian statuary and vases, of which a display was made in the 
first International Exhibition of 1851, and a prize medal awarded. The exhibit 
attracted, amongst others, the Prince Frederick William of Prussia (afterwards 
the Emperor Frederick of Germany), who made a purchase. After a few 
years the Central Pottery was found too small, and the Kilncroft Works was 
occupied. Ultimately, about the year 1850, the various works on the site of 
what is now called Waterloo Potteries were purchased and occupied by 
Messrs. T. & R. Boote. About the same time the manufacture of tiles, which 
had then been revived by Messrs. Minton, Hollins, & Co., of Stoke-on-Trent, 
attracted the attention of Messrs. Boote, and they secured the premises on the 
west side of Waterloo Road, Burslem, and there commenced a business which 
has since grown to its present dimensions. From time to time changes were 
made, and between the years 1850 and i860 the manufacture of white earthen- 
ware (called white granite) was undertaken for the American market, the firm 
suffering very considerably, along with many others, during the American 
Civil War. 

In September 1879 Mr. T. L. Boote retired from the firm, which passed 
solely into the hands of Mr. Richard Boote, who at that time, and until his 
death in 189 1, was ably assisted in the management by his son Mr. Albert 
J. T. Boote, and later by his second son Mr. Richard Latham Boote, who, in 
conjunction with his brother Mr. Charles Edmund Boote, still controls the 
business, which since 1894 has been conducted as a private limited liability 
concern. Prize medals were awarded at the London Exhibition of 1861 and 
the Calcutta Exhibition of 1883, besides awards in connection with several 
minor displays. The Blackwall Tunnel is one of the public works that have 
been tiled throughout by this firm. 

Messrs. Carter & Co., of Poole, Dorsetshire, also claim to rank among the 
largest tile and faience manufacturers in England. This firm, Mr. Charles 
Carter very kindly states, was established in the year 1873, at Poole, in the 
county of Dorset, by Mr. Jesse Carter. A small works was acquired on the 
East Quay, which had been built some twelve years previously for the manu- 
facture of tiles, but closed after working a short time, in consequence of the 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Modern British 



197 



owner not having sufficient capital. Mr. Jesse Carter had had no previous 
experience in the business of tilemaking, and consequently many were the 
mistakes made in the early days of this firm's existence, the needful experience 
having to be bought, as usual in such cases, at heavy cost. However, by dint 
of perseverance all difficulties were overcome, and to-day the firm probably 
make as many tiles as any other firm in the country, besides doing a con- 
siderable trade in constructional faience and terracotta. 

Mr. Jesse Carter took his sons Charles and Owen into the business in 1881, 




*.~<22S 



Fig. 127. — Encaustic tileworks, Toole. 



and they are now the sole proprietors, Mr. Jesse Carter having retired from 
partnership about twelve months since (namely, about November 1901).- 

In 1895 Messrs. Carter purchased the works known as the Architectural 
Pottery, at Hamworthy, Dorsetshire, where the manufacture of tiles had been 
commenced in the year 1854 by a Mr. Sanders. This was a very extensive 
works, but has been considerably enlarged, and further additions are now under 
consideration. The works at East Quay, Poole, are principally occupied in 
the manufacture of glazed tiles, terracotta, and faience, whilst those at Ham- 
worthy chiefly produce plain floor-tiles. Messrs. Carter have their own clay- 
beds at Corfe Mullen, where the clay is procured from which their world- 
famed red tiles are made. Poole is in the centre of the most celebrated clay- 
fields of the world, and, being a port within easy distance of London and 



igS LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Southampton, it possesses exceptional facilities for shipment of goods to all 
parts of the world. Messrs. Carter & Co. employ a large staff of talented 
designers and modellers. The utility, variety, and excellence of their products 
will be readily appreciated by reference to the specimen illustrations they 
have so kindly permitted to appear in this volume ; these, of course, merely 
represent in a meagre way, the fertility of design and product this firm are 
capable of. To really learn what they can supply, their own illustrated sheets 
must be studied, or a visit paid to both of their works. 



1^^^ 






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Fig. 128. — Hamworthy Works, Poole, Dorset. 



The Montreal Daily Witness, of 27th November 1901, made some very 
complimentary comments upon Messrs. Carter & Co.'s work in connection 
with the embellishment of the " Grand Trunk " general offices. Mr. Waite, 
the architect, they say, desired to produce, not so much a building with a roof 
on it, as a creation at once useful and beautiful. " To-day Mr. Waite was 
expressing his satisfaction over the perfect realization, by the firm of Carter 

& Co., Poole, Dorset, England, of his designs for the vestibule Then 

there are panels and friezes for the walls, and the whole work, which occupied 
Mr. Waite for a long time, was sent to the firm mentioned, with the result 
that modelling, colouring, and general effects are simply, from an art point of 
view, entrancing Every piece is perfect. The figures have life, not a 



TL. XXV. 



MSSSS~== 



;^yt!VJ^Hga^»H >W^W.Wium»wtt - 








Design for treatment of a staircase 

by Messrs. Carter & Co., Tile Works, Poole. 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Modern British 



199 



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200 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

line is missing. And the marvel is— first, that the modelling in the dry should 
have been so perfect ; second, that the colouring, which has all to be done by 
hand, should be so delicate in every piece .... which comprise the design. 
The shine of the color is splendid. Pale yellows and greens— the aesthetic 
effects will be perfect. This faience will be one of the features of the new 
offices." {Montreal Daily Witness) 

Messrs. Doulton & Co., Ltd., of Lambeth.— This great firm date their 
foundation from the year A.D. 1815, when Mr. John Doulton, after serving his 
apprenticeship at Fulham Potteries, came to Lambeth, and in conjunction 
with Mr. J. Watts commenced a small pottery works in Vauxhall Walk. In 
A.D. 1826 they removed to High Street, Lambeth, the establishment then ' 
consisting of no more than about a dozen persons working but one kiln 
a week. The steadily increasing business, however, ultimately caused the 
proprietors to extend the works. Little by little the manufacturing premises 
absorbed the residence, together with its fish-pond, fruit-trees, etc., and now 
the great factories and studios cover some seven or eight acres of ground. 
Several of Mr. John Doulton's sons became engaged in the business, Mr. 
Frederick Doulton and Mr. James D. Doulton giving their.attention mainly to 
the office, while Mr. Henry Doulton entered the rhanufacturing department. 

At the age of fifteen years he commenced work at the potter's wheel. He 
quickly became very proficient, and doubtless to these early experiences 
may be attributed his readiness to apply steam driving-power to the wheels, 
which he did so many years earlier than similar appliances were adopted 
in other works. 

In 1846 Mr. H. Doulton commenced the manufacture of stoneware sewage 
pipes. The old-fashioned flat-bottom brick drains with gaping joints gave 
way to the impervious circular ceramic tube, and the demand extended so 
rapidly that Mr. Doulton found himself compelled to erect larger works. Even 
these were soon supplemented by branch works at St. Helen's and Rowley 
Regis ; other large works for the same purpose, at Smethwick, Paisley, and 
Paris, being eventually erected, the present output of drain-pipes from these 
various works aggregating to about thirty miles of pipes weekly. 

About 1867 and onward to 1873 efforts were made to produce artistic 
wares, and several novel features in the products seem to have hit the public 
fancy, exhibits at Philadelphia in 1876 causing great interest. 

In 1877 Messrs. Doulton & Co. acquired the business and works formerly 
carried on by Pinder, Bourne, & Co. at Burslem ; and, availing themselves of the 
services of talented designers and artists, greatly enhanced the wares and 
extended the manufacture, until now some twelve to thirteen hundred opera- 
tives are employed there. Not a little of the credit for this success, no doubt, 
should be attributed to the sterling business qualities and ability of their 
resident manager, J. C. Bailey, Esq., J. P. 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Modern British 201 

It goes without saying that Messrs. Doulton & Co. were carrying off 
medals and honours for their useful and artistic products at international 
exhibitions throughout the world. After the Paris Exhibition of 1878 
Mr. Henry Doulton received from the French Government the distinction of 
a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. In 1884 the awards gained at the 
International Health Exhibition alone comprised eleven gold medals, fifteen 
silver medals, and five bronze medals. In the following year Mr. Henry 
Doulton was awarded the Albert Medal of the Society of Arts, this medal 
being presented to Mr. Henry Doulton by H.R.H, the Prince of Wales — 
now His Imperial Majesty King Edward VII. — on the occasion of a visit to 
Lambeth Pottery on 21st December 1885. 

The height of an operative potter's ambition surely was reached in 1887, 
when Mr. Henry Doulton was knighted by H.M. the late Queen Victoria. 

Upon Sir Henry Doulton's death on 17th November 1897, the business 
was continued by his son Mr. Henry Lewis Doulton, and on ist January 
1899 the concern was converted into a limited company. 

The manufacture of decorative and constructional faience is now chiefly 
conducted in the High Street and Broad Street Works at Lambeth, and 
includes fireclay stoves, ornamental glazed ware, mantelpieces, and tiles. 

Their " Carrara " stoneware, too, is now used more largely for architectural 
purposes. The body of this ware is coated and hidden by an opaque crystal- 
line enamel that fires with a slight gloss or " egg-shell " surface ; and this 
absence of a high glaze, combined with a certain delicacy and quietness of 
colour, commend the material for use in architectural work where glitter is 
not considered desirable. 

The " Carrara " enamel is frequently applied to large works of modelling 
or sculpture. Presenting a surface which, having been fired at the same 
intense heat as the substance of the model, is an integral part of the whole 
mass, the effects of colour are quite permanent, and the sculpture is easily 
cleansed from the impurities deposited in a town atmosphere. 

The same prepared clay that is used for Doulton ware is often fired without 
a glaze in the terracotta kilns. In the latter case there is naturally no glossy 
surface, the pieces being protected from the flames and not subjected to the 

salting process Many important statues and groups of figures have 

been carried out in this material. 

For the processes of Lambeth Faience, Crown Lambeth, and Impasto three 
or more firings for different stages are necessary. The painting, being com- 
pleted, is first hardened on, and then carefully dipped in a liquid glaze, to be 
finally fired at a high temperature in the glaze kiln. 

Bearing some relation to Impasto faience, in which the decorations are 
covered by a glaze, is the method known as Dry Impasto, or Vitreous Fresco, 
a very suitable medium for large decorative schemes in churches and public 



LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 




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PL. XXVI. 



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Sir Henry Doulton (if. 1897), 

Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. 

{By permission of Messrs. Doulton <Sr* Cf., Ltd.) 



U'luto. 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Modern British 203 

buildings. The colours are painted on specially prepared terracotta slabs, 
and are fired with practically no gloss at all, the effect being not unlike 
fresco painting. 

White Vitreous Fresco is suitable more for interior decoration, and the 
development of majolica painting known as stoneware polychrome, invented 
and first used in 1898, offers facilities for permanent exterior decoration. In 
this method the decorations are fired at the same stoneware fire as the slabs 
or blocks on which they have been painted, and are thus absolutely 
permanent. (See A Description of their Works and Manufactures, Doulton & 
Co., Limited, London, 1900.) 

J. C. Edwards, of Ruabon, is another well-known firm of ceramic manufac- 
turers, who, amongst their very wide range of products, include tiles, mosaic, 
faience, glazed, plain, decorated, majolica, encaustic, and embossed, for walls, 
floors, fireplaces, and the like. " The history of the firm," writes a correspon- 
dent of the British Clayworker, " indeed reads like a romance. Mr. Edwards 
came to the work as a novice, and his productions at the onset did not necessi- 
tate a bigger staff than a man and two boys. What pluck, perseverance, and 
untiring energy he must have brought to his business is best evidenced by the 
fact that at the present time nearly a thousand men are employed, and some- 
thing like 2,000,000 various articles are turned out per month In 

1892 he was made High Sheriff of the County of Denbigh, of which he had 
for long been a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant." Mr. J. C. Edwards died in 
March i8g6, the business being subsequently continued by his sons E. Lloyd 
Edwards and J. Coster Edwards. (See British Clayworker, April 1896.) 

It would have been a congenial task to have inserted notices of the history 
of other large manufacturers, such as Messrs. 

Craven, Dunnill, & Co., of Jackfield, Shropshire ; 

The Campbell Tile Co., of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire ; 

G. Woolliscroft & Sons, Ltd., Hanley, Staffordshire ; 

The Malkin Tile Works Co., Burslem, Staffordshire ; 

The Porcelain Tile Co., Hanley, Staffordshire ; 

Gibbs & Canning, Glasscote, near Tamworth ; 

Leeds Fireclay Co., Burmantofts Works, Leeds ; 

Delia Robbia Pottery Co., Birkenhead ; 

Geo. Swift, Ltd., Binns Road, Liverpool ; 

Pilkington's Tile and Potter)' Co., Clifton Junction, Lancashire ; 

J. & M. Craig, Kilmarnock, N.B. ; 

Robert Brown & Sons, Paisley, N.B. ; 

and several others, but these firms have not supplied the necessary particulars. 

Modern Continental. — Only a few of the leading Continental firms having 

supplied the necessary facts for the purpose of this notice, the following can 



204 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



only be considered a fragmentary reference to contemporary manufacture in 
the several countries to be mentioned. 

In France the firm of H. Boulenger & Co., of Choisy-le-Roi, stand in the 
front rank of manufacturers of decorative faience. So far back as 1864 the 
name of Boulenger appears upon our own British list of patentees in connec- 
tion with practical potting. Their pro- 
ducts cover a wide range in ceramics ; 
for, in addition to manufactures of 
decorative and architectural elements, 
the original work of making useful 
table and toilet earthenwares, and 
sanitary and electrical wares, is still 
pursued. 

In 1878 they were awarded a gold 
medal, and the honour of Chevalier of 
the Legion of Honour was conferred. 
Again, in 1889 they were chosen 
members of the jury of the exhibition. 
At the Paris Exhibition of 1900 
their display was considered one of 
the marvels of that marvellous con- 
glomeration of the best manufactures 
of the world. 

The employees of the firm number 
some eleven hundred and sixty per- 
sons, who are encouraged to associate 
themselves into various mutually 
beneficial societies and institutions. 
The capital is stated to be 3,000,000 
francs, and the annual output of 
decorative tiles alone is said to be 
100,000 metres carr^s. 

Another large French firm is that 
of Messrs. Emile Muller & Co., of 
Ivry-port, near Paris. This was 
founded in I854, under the title of the Grande Tuilerie d'lvry, by Emile 
Muller, President of the Society of Civil Engineers and Officer of the Legion 
of Honour, etc. Emile Muller died in 1 889, and his son succeeded him in the 
control of the business. Their well-known replicas of the ancient mural 
decorations of Susa, recalling the art of the Chaldean Persians, viz., " The 
Warriors " and " The Lions," which were exhibited at Chicago, Paris, Lyons, 
and Bruxelles, stand as monuments to the capability of this great firm. The 




Fig. 131. — Cheminde made by H. Boulanger & 
Co., exhibited at the Paris Exhibition, 1900. 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Modern Continental 205 

body and enamels of their monochrome and polychrome stoneware taking a 
fire of very high temperature, the products are considered specially durable. 

Enamelled bricks of all colours, and architectural faience, together with 
vases, statues, and fireplaces, are comprised in their field of operations. 

E. Muller & Co.'s exhibits at the Paris Exhibition of 1900 were distributed 
over nine distinct classes, in addition to a large share of the constructional and 
decorative faience used in the exhibition buildings themselves. Their products 
in class 72 comprised enamelled bricks, monochrome and polychrome 
enamelled terracotta for constructional purposes ; and in class 74, faience 
fireplaces, stove-tiles, and the like. In 1855, 1867, and 1878 they were awarded 
medals, and at Paris in 1889 they won two Grands Prix, four medailles d'or, 
and one bronze medal. Again, in 1900 their exhibition awards included 
nomination to the grade of Legion d'Honneur, two Grands Prix, four gold 
medals, and eleven medals to their artists. 

Boch Freres, of La Louviere, Belgium, in 1861 established a branch works 
at Maubeuge, in the extreme north of France, principally for the manufacture 
of floor-tiles ; and here they introduced, in France, the use of dust-tilemaking 
machines. In 1868 one of their managers, named Simons, is said to have 
relinquished his position at Maubeuge works, and to have founded a factory 
on his own behalf at Cateau, which is now, or was until recently, under the 
management of his sons. 

Two other managers of the Boch firm — Sand and Charnoz — commenced 
works at Feignes and Paroy le Monial respectively. 

In 1882 M. Van Overstraten de Smet is said to have established his now 
famous factory at Canteleu Lille. 

Utzschneider & Co., of Digoin and Vitry-le-Francois, France, who also 
have extensive works in Germany, produce excellent tiles and faience of all 
the usual varieties. 

A. Bigot & Co., of Paris, appear to pay special attention to stoneware 
polychrome products, or gres flamme. 

The Compagnie General des C^ramique de Marseille advertise themselves 
as manufacturers of glazed decorative tiles and mosaics, together with numerous 
other builders' ceramic requirements. The works seem to be an old founda- 
tion, for by 1874 they secured a gold medal at Marseille, and claim quite a 
list of medals and honours since. 

Fourmaintraux-Courquin & Fils, of Desvres (Pas-de-Calais), also advertise 
themselves as manufacturers of artistic tin-enamelled faience, decorative tiles 
and panels, and friezes for interior and exterior purposes. 

Then there is the Golfe Juan Pottery near Cannes, in the south of France, 
where a speciality in form of lustred ware is made. It seems that M. 
Massier, the proprietor of this works, devoted years of labour and considerable 
treasure in endeavouring to rival the old Persian lustred products, and 



2o6 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

ultimately achieved such success that he ventured to present specimens of 
his wares to Her late Majesty Queen Victoria. The. designs and colour-tones 
are said to be mostly done by M. Lucien Levy, the principal tones of colour 

being blends of purple, green, 
gold, and red. (See British 
Clayworker, Supplement, 
April 1896.) 

Other French manu- 
facturers that may be men- 
tioned are Messrs 

Polakowski & Cie., of Rou- 
mazieres (Charente), 
makers of architectural 
enamelled faience and 
Palissy ware ; 

Huart Freres, of Longwy 
(Meurthe et Moselle), who, 
in addition to table wares, 
manufacture revetements 
ceramiques ; 

Soc. Froduits Ceramique, of 
Maubeuge (Nord), who 
confine their manufacture 
to plain and incrusted 
floor-tiles ; 

Groze, Ailland, & Cie., 
Viviers (Ardeche) ; 

Pierre Ferret, Vallauris 
(Alpes Maritimes) ; 

Fenal Freres, Feronne 

(Meurthe et Moselle); 

^ ^ Geoffroy & Cie., Faiencerie 

Fig. 132.— Victor Boch. ■' 

de Gien (Loiret) ; 

and many works in Marseille, Aubagne (Bouches du Rhone), in Oise, and in 
Fas-de-Calais. 

In Belgium one of the most important manufacturing firms are Boch 
Freres, of Keramis, La Louviere (Hainaut). This large establishment was 
founded in 1841 by MM. Eugene and Victor Boch and Baron J. B. Nothomb. 
The site of the works was purchased on iSth March 1841, the first stone laid 
1st August 1841, and the first kiln set in on ist August 1844, the erection 
and subsequent direction of the works devolving principally on M. Victor 




RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Modern Continental 207 

Boch. In 1 88 1 he retired from the active management, and was succeeded 
by M. Charles Toch, civil engineer. The principal products of the firm are 
earthenwares, similar to those so largely made in North Staffordshire for table 
and toilet purposes ; but they have also developed a special business in imita- 
tion of Persian, Rhodian, and Delft wares. 

Lastly, during the last fifteen or twenty years decorative tiles and faience, 
in multitudinous variety of form, design, and colour, have been added to their 
manufactures. They have a branch works at Maubeuge, just over the frontier. 




Fig. 133. —Boch Freres' works. La Louviere, Belgium. 

in the north of France, principally engaged in making pavement-tiles ; also 
depdts at Bruxelles and Paris. They have showrooms at Lille, Hamburg, 
and Leipzig; and claim a long line of medals and honours at numerous 
international exhibitions from 1847 onward, including a Grand Prix at Paris 
in 1889. 

In Holland. — As we have already seen, one pottery in Delft escaped 
absolute extinction, and the industry was revived in the latter part of the 
nineteenth century by Joost Thooft and Abel Labouchere. On 2Sth May 
1890 the former died and left the works entirely in the hands of Labouchere, 
who, with skilful artist-collaborateurs, including Le Comte, has again earned 
high distinction in ceramics for the little Dutch town of Delft. But we 



2o8 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

understand that the old stanniferous enamelling process is not now pursued 
to any great extent, the work being now done, by English processes and 
largely with English materials. One interesting introduction has been the 
manufacture of hard-fired polychrome stoneware (under the direction of 
the technical manager, H. W. Mauser), of which decorative panels are com- 
posed by means of sections cut and formed separately to suit the outlines 
of the design, after the manner of medieeval Indian tile-mosaic, but so as to 
resemble in some degree the effect of stained glass. (See Brick, July 1903.) 




Fig. 134.— New Town Hall, Copenhagen. 

Of Other firms engaged in the manufacture of glazed tiles in Holland, two 
who merit special mention, here are La Societe Ceramic, of Wijck, near 
Maestricht, and The Fayence and Tegel Fabrik, of Helling, near Utrecht. 

Denmark furnishes few old associations of which we are cognisant in 
connection with ornamental tiles and architectural faience. The ancient 
Cathedral of Roskilde (the former capital of Denmark, about twenty miles 
from Copenhagen), consecrated 1084, holding the dust of many Danish kings 
and queens, including, it is said. King Canute's father and grandfather, 
appears to have no mediaeval tiles. Neither have the castles of Kronborg, 
Rosenborg, or Fredericksborg any historically interesting faience in their 
construction as far as we can ascertain ; although of Fredericksborg it is said 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Modern Continental 209 



" many of the rooms are elaborately beautiful, and contain a wealth of works 
of art and costly furniture, the castle having now been transformed into a 
national museum " ; and of Rosenborg, " a chateau of smaller dimensions, but 
possessed of great beauty; within whose red walls is harboured a unique col- 
lection of objets dart, 
jewellery, furniture, 
etc., which has come 
down from the Danish 
kings and queens of 
the last four cen- 
turies." {Danish Life 
in Town and Country, 
pp. 64, 65, Newnes.) 

Even at the pre- 
sent day only one 
tile factory of the 
artistic class is, we 
understand, in opera- 
tion in Denmark, 
namely, that of Her- 
mann A. Koehler in 
Nastred (South Zea- 
land). Here, how- 
ever, some most 
beautiful architectural 
decorations in glazed 
tiles have been manu- 
factured for modern 
erections; for in- 
stance, in the new 
Town Hall, Copen- 
hagen. 

About twenty-five 
years ago the Fay- 
ance Fabriken, at Aluminia, Copenhagen, executed some work in this style, 
but subsequently discontinued. 

The Royal Porcelain Works, Copenhagen, was originally started in 1775 
by a private firm. Shortly afterwards it was taken over by the State, but in 
1867 it again passed into private hands; and in 1882 it was purchased by the 
Aluminia Co., who have, since that date, carried on the two establishments 
side by side. And it is to the kindness of the managing director, Dalgas, I 
am indebted for most of the few notes on Danish work. 

14 




Fig. 135. — Interior, Town Hall, Copenhagen. 



2IO LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 




There are potteries on the island of Bornholm, where china clay is found ; 
but, so far, tile manufacture does not seem to have been attempted there. 

In Germany the most eminent makers of decorative 
tiles and faience probably are the versatile firm Villeroy 
& Boch, of Mettlach, Merzig, Wallerfangen, Dresden, 
and Schramberg. Their first works at Septfontaines 
(Luxembourg) was founded in 1767 ; and one by one, 
in the course of a .century, have the other factories 
been built or acquired, until now they are undoubtedly 
among the leading ceramists of the world. 

The Mettlach, Dresden, and Merzig works appear to 
be those devoted to the production of ornamental tiles, 
mosaics, fireplaces, and architectural faience and stone- 
wares. Their several works being within easy reach of 
the famous clayfields of Westerwald, Rhine provinces, and 
the Rhenish Palatinate, they have many facilities and ad- 
vantages that greatly contribute to their variety of product. 
Dr. Forrer, in his Geschichte der europdischen Fliesen- 
Keraniik, pays great attention to the manufactures of 
Villeroy & Boch. From Forrer we see that their wares 
comprise not only the whole range of products ordinarily 
met with, but also replicas of Renaissance, Persian, 
and Delft tiles in great profusion. 
Utzschneider & Cie., of Sarreguemines, a very old-established and extensive 
works, largely engaged in the manufacture of earthenware, chinaware, and 
porcelain, have also in recent times interested themselves to some extent in 
the manufacture of architectural ceramic requirements. Some very excellent 
examples of their product are given in Forrer's work, plates cv., c, iic, xciii. 

Wessels' Wandplatten Fabrik, of Bonn, also is largely occupied in the 
manufacture of glazed decorative tiles; and of this firm also Dr. Forrer 
illustrates some excellent products. 

Other German makers who should be named are : — 

Jacobi, Adler, & Co., of Griinstadt (Rheinpfalz). 
Etchings & Lohne, Lufflerhain (Elsass), 
Professor Lenga, Karlsruhe. 
Gebr. Meinhold, Schweinsturg (Saxe). 
Norddeutsche Steingutfabrik, Grohn (Hanover). 

And the Austrian manufacturers : — • 

Josef Stenach, Turn Teplitz (Bohemia). 
Aug. Rath, Krummnussbaum. 
Raschka & Co., Nesselsdorf (Mahren). 



Fig. 136.— Detail of in 
terior, Town Hall, 
Copenhagen. 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Modern Continental 211 

In Spain flooring quarries have been made in considerable quantity in 
Catalonia for a long period, and it is quite possible that the ceramic manu- 
factures of Spain have been more or less continuously exercised from the time 
of the Romans. In a report issued about fourteen years ago, the United 
States Consul of Barcelona remarked upon the importance of the ceramic 
industry in Catalonia, on account of the large exportation to Cuba and the 
Philippines. How the changed circumstances of these dependencies have 
affected the industry we have not ascertained. Still, a few excerpts from his 
comments may be interesting. He remarks : — " Besides the common type of 
bricks, others are occasionally made and baked in the same oven, especially 
those called Roman tiles. These, which were formerly used throughout the 
country, are now everywhere discarded, on account of the cheapness and 
lighter weight of the mosaic tiles which have taken their place. A short time 
ago the manufacture of floor-bricks constituted a very important industry in 
Catalonia ; and although now, on account of greater exactions of style and 
luxury, it has somewhat lost ground, it still holds a high place among the 
Catalan industries. The bricks, which are 5^ inches square, are of two kinds, 
white and red. .... The floor-bricks which have acquired the most fame 
abroad are those manufactured at La Brisba, a small town near the city of 
Gerona, where the clay is of a particularly excellent quality. The manufacture 
of machine-made tiles is considerably developed in the province of Barcelona, 
where two important factories turn out a large amount of work. . . . 
Formerly the clay used came exclusively from the mines of the towns of San 

Saturnino de Noya and Gelida, about thirty miles from Barcelona An 

important industry, not so much on account of the number of usages to which 
they are dedicated, as for the great number manufactured, is the making of 
glazed bricks for kitchens, the shape and condition of which in Spanish cities 
is well known to consist in a number of small iron furnaces or grates, at a 
certain height from the floor, set in masonry, to cover which the above- 
mentioned bricks are used. These, the manufacture of which is almost 
exclusively confined to Catalonia, are used throughout Spain, the Philippine 
Islands, and the Spanish colonies in America. In mosaics there are two 
distinct kinds, both used as flooring — one of which, the older, is obtained by 
the juxtaposition of numerous pieces of geometrical shape, and each of a 

different colour The difficulties already mentioned, and the restrictions 

which the geometrical shapes of the pieces imposed upon the general design, 
have given rise to the manufacture, in modern times, of incrustated mosaics. 

In this, as in its sister industry, natural clays are used The colours 

are produced by various metallic oxides mixed in proper proportions 

In the manufacture of incrustated mosaics all kinds of designs are obtained 
with the same clays used in simple mosaics, the difference consisting in the 
moulding The shape is always square, with sides of 2\ inches or 



212 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

more. The designs are obtained by placing slips of tin within the stamp 
matrices, and each one of the intermediate spaces formed being filled with 
the different clays previously coloured. The designs thus obtained, the slips 
of tin are removed, and the whole rendered compact by pressure." {Jour. 
Soc. Arts, 7th June 1889, p. 634.) 

Among the principal makers of glazed tiles in Spain the following may 
be mentioned by name :— 

Escofet Jereja y Cia., of Harcelona. 

Fortuny y Angarill, „ 

Pujol y Bansio, „ 

Romen Escofet, „ 

Josd Gartner, 86 Calle Granada, Malaga. 

Pastor y Cia., Reding, Malaga. 

Francisco Viana Cardenas, Malaga. 

Catala & Co., Manises. 

Gomez Devis, „ 

Juan Mouleon, Valencia. 

Pedro Llorca, Orfila, Sevilla. 

Jose Regas, Rivamontan Al-Mar, Santander. 

In Italy the manufacture of majolica is reviving ; forty-three firms are 
mentioned in Rousset's Directory, but it is not stated which of these devote 
themselves entirely to the making of tiles and decorative wares. The 
Secretary of the Italian Chamber of Commerce of London has, however, 
kindly supplied the following list of makers : — 

Societa Ceramica Richard-Ginori, Miiano, 
Societa Ceramica Ferrari, Cremona. 
Societa Canavese, F. Stella & Co., Torino. 
Stablimento Ceramico, G. Appiani, Treviso. 
Candiani Dott Napoleon, Venezia. 
Cacciapuotti Ettore, Napoli. 
Patriarca, M., Catania. 

And among other firms mentioned elsewhere are : — 

Fabbrica di Ligna (Bonda). 
Sperando Bros., Vietrie. 
Salvini, Via Vitt. Emanuele, Firenze. 
Guglielmo Cocchi e Figli, „ 

Cantagalli, ^^ 

In Russia the position of the decorative tile industry appears to be 
relatively insignificant as a home industry at present. Rousse't gives no 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Persian 213 

Russian names in the list of faience-tile manufacturers, and only mentions 
fifteen firms in the list of unglazed-tile makers. 

The British Consul-General at St. Petersburg courteously writes that 
glazed decorative tiles are not manufactured in that consular district, but 
are imported into the country mostly from Germany, Great Britain, and 
Finland. 

And H. Montgomery Grove, British Consul at Moscow, states that 
decorative glazed tiles are in considerable use in Russia for grates, 
stoves, etc., and are also manufactured in the country, to the best of his 
belief. 

In Turkey, Rousset mentions only two names of tilemakers in 
Constantinople, and these do not appear in the glazed-tile class. Mr. 
Hamson, of the British Consulate, kindly informs the writer that, as far as 
his knowledge goes, glazed tiles are not now being made in Constantinople, 
but that they may be made in Kutahia, an ancient town near Brussa, 
celebrated for its beautiful glazed tiles. 

Persian. — In Persia, unless considerable improvement has taken place 
recently, what has been done in the way of art-ceramics has not earned much 
praise. In Persian Arts, Sir R. Murdoch Smith expresses himself unreservedly 
thus : — " The art of pottery gradually degenerated in Persia after the time of 
Shah Abbas, since whose reign nothing of much value has been produced. 
The earthenware of the present day, as regards both workmanship and 
material, is of the commonest description." {Persian Arts, p. 11, Chapman 
& Hall.) 

And Mr. W. Simpson, in 1892, said : — " The part of Persia through which I 
passed had been so utterly devastated by the Turcoman raids, scarce a vestige 
of anything ancient remained. At Meshed only I saw a gateway built with 
sun-dried bricks and covered with ornamental glazed tiles, but it was a very 
poor specimen of art ; yet it told me what might be done in this style if the 
work could be put into the hands of real artists." {Jour. Soc. Arts, 3rd June 
1892, p. 207.) 

The British Consul-General at Ispahan very courteously writes saying 
that " glazed blue tiles are made and used now in Ispahan." And in Rousset' s 
Directory the names of two art potters at Teheran appear. It is highly 
probable that at Koom and Kashan also ceramic art still survives. 

Some years ago Sir C. Purdon Clarke, CLE., the present Director of 
the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, while superintending 
the building of the new British Embassy at Teheran, had a glazed faience 
fountain made there. This was brought over to England and erected in the 
Victoria and Albert Museum ; and he takes pride in the fact that, although 
water has been running over it for twenty years, it is good yet. In the 
photograph of the fountain which we have been kindly allowed to reprint, it 



214 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

may be noticed that it is in a glassed recess, to facilitate the work of students ; 
the ivy or creeper on the right is out of focus, unfortunately. 




Fig. 137. — Sir C. Purdon Clarke's Fountain, Victoria and Albert Museum. 

By the courtesy of C. Stanley Clarke, Esq., of the Indian Section, V. and 
A. M., the writer has had the opportunity of copying a monograph, by a 
Persian, upon Modern Kashi Earthenware Tiles and Vases. Whatever may 
be its intrinsic practical value, it is certainly interesting, and as it is appar- 
ently out of print, and entirely forgotten even at the Museum of Science and 
Art, Edinburgh, where it was originally published, the writer ventures to 
hope its reprinting in full will be excused by the utilitarian, and welcomed by 
the archaeologist. This is done with the consent of both D. J. Vallance, Esq., 
of Edinburgh, and C. Stanley Clarke, Esq., London. 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Persian 



ON THE MANUFACTURE OF 

MODERN KASHI EARTHENWARE TILES 

AND VASES 

IN IMITATION OF THE ANCIENT. 

Written at the request of Major-General Sir R. MURDOCH SMITH, K.C.M.G., 
By USTAD ALI MOHAMED OF TEHERAN, 

and translated from the PERSIAN MS. BY JOHN FARQUES, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT, 
ENGLISH TELEGRAPH STAFF IN PERSIA, MEMBER OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF PARIS, ETC., ETC. 

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND ART, EDINBURGH, 1888. 



ON THE MANUFACTURE OF 

kAshi earthenware. 

The master, Ustad Ali Mohamad, the inventor of that process, son of 
Ustad Mahdi, architect, native of Ispahan, and at this date, A.H. 1305, a 
celebrity in Islam, has allowed the humble scribe, Mirza Ali Mohamed, to 
write a pamphlet displaying the secret and describing the process of the art ; 
and as the best deeds are those which award most profit to the doer, the 
writer has wished to explain how to procure the ingredients and requisites of 
that beautiful art, in order to acquire a good name amongst those who 
pursue it. 

By order of the master, the writer has divided the subject in five chapters. 

CHAPTER I. 
How to procure the ingredients with which the coating (La'ab) is made. 

You gather glasswort (shoora-i-brabani), and burn it till it turns to ashes. 
Its alkali (kela) collects among the ashes. Take this alkali. 

In the quarries is found a white stone which the Persians call seng-i- 
chekhmaq (a kind of flint). At Ispahan, in the river Zeyeudeh-rood, it is 
found in great quantity, the water carrying it down from the hills. In Nayin 
and Ardastan, two villages of Ispahan district, a very good quality of that 
stone and of shoora is found — in fact, this is the best of all places. The stone 
is to be found also at Koom, and in the neighbourhood of Tehran, in a hill 
called Bibi-shahrbanoo. 

Anyhow, procure the stone whencesoever you can, pound it fine with an 
iron hammer, then mix one part of it with an equal part of kela (alkali), 



2i6 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

place it in the kiln, which heat. Keep on making fire, and with an iron poker 
keep stirring the compound, till the stone and kela melt and flow into a 
basin which you have made under the kiln. On cooling, it will be found to 
resemble hard glass. It is called alkali-paint (rang-i-kolai). We must send 
you a sample. 

Now, with an iron hammer pound fine this alkali-paint glass (shisha-i-rang- 
i-kolai), and pass it through a fine sieve. Then procure two quarry stones, 
called " shahdanej," so hard as to resist calcination. Set up one of these stones, 
and with an iron bore make a round hole in the middle of the other, fit a wooden 
handle to its edge, place it upon the first, and pour gradually the sifted glass 
into the hole, twirling all the time the top stone, until the glass-paint has 
become as fine as collyrium (surma). We will send a sample of this also as a 
criterion of the degree of fineness. Set aside this fine paint. 

Melt in the kiln one maund of lead (surb) and one quarter maund of tin 
(gal). But I must explain how to do this. Take an earthen vessel, on its 
sides make two holes opposite to each other, place it in the kiln, throw in the 
lead and tin, stop up the mouth of the vessel, and heat the kiln so that the 
flame enters from the back hole of the vessel and comes out from the front 
hole, in such a way that the fire clasps the lead and tin from above and below. 
Thus you keep on heating till the lead and tin melt. After melting, you 
decrease the fire gradually, till the melted lead and tin give forth a froth 
(kurk); then you remove the lid of the vessel, and remove to one side the 
froth ; again decrease the fire, froth is again formed, which you remove as 
before, and so on, gradually reducing the fire and taking off the froth until 
the whole of the lead and tin has turned into froth. 

You take it and bray it fine on" a stone. Then take four parts of the 
previously mentioned refined paint, and one part of this lead and tin turned 
into froth and brayed, and mix them for a coating or varnish (la'ab). Keep 
this kind. 

CHAPTER II. 
How to make another coating (La'ab) \yhich is especially used for work of a superior quality. 

You must take some of the above-mentioned alkali (kela), put it in a kettle 
(fatilcheh), place it on the fire and boil -it (adding the necessary water). After 
boiling, pour it into an earthen bowl and leave it all night. Next morning 
you will find at the top the essence of the alkali or kela, crystallised in forms 
of ramifications like sugar-candy (nabat) or winter ice — the refuse sinking to 
the bottom. 

Take this essence (janher), which the master of our art calls " essence of 
alkali." Take one part of this, mix it with one part and a half of flintstone 
(chekhmaq), very, very finely pounded— finer even than the former fine flint ; 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Persian 217 

pour as much as you like of this mixture in ten to fifteen earthenware vessels, 
and place them all round the kiln, thus filling up all the space round the kiln. 
Then you heat the kiln. At first it will smoke a little ; after two hours the 
smoke will cease and the colour of the fire will turn red ; heat again, and 
after another two hours the fire will become white. Then look : you will see 
the contents of the vessels melted and shrunk. Let the kiln cool, then remove 
the vessels, break them, and preserve the contents, which is a kind of paint 
(la'ab), looking like hard glass. Pound it fine with an iron hammer, and 
then pass it through a sieve. Take four parts of this substance and one part 
of the froth of lead and tin prepared as before described, mix them, and again 
place the mixture in earthenware vessels, and, as before, set them all round 
the kiln. Heat the kiln till at first the fire smokes, then turns red, then white, 
at which the contents of the vessels melt. You again let the kiln cool, remove 
the vessels, break them, and preserve the contents. This you pound with an 
iron hammer, pass through a sieve, and bray — the finer the better. This paint 
or drug (la'ab or deva) is especially required for work of superior quality. 



CHAPTER III. 

How to make the paste of the bricks or vessels ; with what difficulty the workman procures 
the ingredients, and works them up, etc. 

Pound with an iron hammer some of the before-mentioned flintstone 
(chekhmaq) and pass it through a sieve, then bruise it well in the millstone, 
which I have before described, till it becomes fine — the finer the better. 

We have a kind of clay of a white colour, the mine of which is at the village 
of Vartoon in the Ispahan district. The master of our art calls it fireclay 
(gil-i-bootah, literally crucible clay). It is to be found at Tehran also, but not 
of such good quality. Put some of this clay in water, so as to form a sort of 
whey-water (doogh-ab), and pass it through a rag. 

Now take eight parts of powdered flintstone (chekhmaq), one part of dry 
fireclay (gil-i-bootah), and one part of that stone and alkali which you had first 
burnt with the refuse. (This refers to the first la'ab, in first chapter, i.e., the 
kela and chekhmaq stone, well bruised.) Mix the three together, and with the 
doogh-ab make a paste — owing to the presence of the gil-i-bootah they will 
stick together. Take a handful of this paste, roll it out on a flat hard 
surface, and with a mould, made of plaster, shape your bricks until all the 
paste is used up: let the bricks dry. If you wish to make figures or flowers 
in relief on the bricks, you must, while they are still a little damp, smooth the 
surface with a special tool (abzar-i-makhsooseh), and with a plasterer's engraving 
tool (qualam-i-gaehbur) make your designs. When dry, and before applying 
the colours (neqqashi), the bricks require a costing (la'.ab), which is made as 



2i8 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

follows : — Bray some very white chekhmaq stone in the manner before 
mentioned, take one part of it and one-eighth of gil-i-bootah, mix them 
together with water in an earthenware vessel till they form a solution (doogh- 
ab), wash with a damp rag the surfaces of any bricks which have dried up, and 
then spread the above solution over the bricks to the thickness of a tin-plate ; 
keep the bricks inclined to let the excess drain off", and then set them to dry. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Different colours applied to and various designs made upon bricks and vessels. How to 
procure and mix the ingredients of the different colours, etc. 

First, procure a stone which men of the craft call " siah-qalam-i-ma'dani," 
and also another stone called " maghn.'' To as much as you like of the former 
you add one-tenth of the quantity of the latter ; add water and bruise on a soft 
flat stone until the mixture becomes like syrup of grapes. With this you 
paint (using a hair-pencil) on the bricks prepared as above described any 
figure or design your wish or taste may suggest. 

Now let us go back to the various colours which you require for your 
flower, figure, or whatever you have designed. Now, my friend, listen atten- 
tively, by order of the master of this craft I will give you a receipt with which 
you can do anything j-ou like. 

Put half a miscal of gold in aqua-fortis (tizab), dissolve a quarter of a 
miscal of tin (gal) in about a bowl (kasseh) of aqua-fortis, then pour the two 
solutions into an earthenware vessel containing 5 maunds of water ; the water 
will turn red (qermez), verging to black ; mix with it 32 miscals of crystal 
glass, well pounded to the fineness of collyrium (surma) ; it will then throw 
up a red froth, which will subside ; pour away the water which is at the top, 
put 4 miscals of dross of gold (murdeh sang-i-tela) with the deposit — (to 
melt gold one uses lead and water; when the melted gold is removed, the 
refuse, lead, water, and dross of gold, is the murdeh sang-i-tela meant here)— 
add also 2 miscals of " tanagar " (a dissolvent similar to borax), bray the 
whole well, and with a hair-pencil you may paint with this '' deva " any part of 
your sketch which you wish to come out red. 

Now for what you wish to colour in cerulean (lajverdi). In the environs 
of Kashan is a hill with a mine of this lapis-lazuli (lajverd-khak) — (not the 
real lapis-lazuli, but a cobalt ore)— this lapis breaks out of the hill like blossoms. 
Every few years the inhabitants of Kashan collect some of this blossomed 
earth and make it into bud-shaped balls. Men of the craft buy these lapis- 
lazuli buds, pound them, and add half the quantity of Yezd borax (booreh-i- 
yezd), such as goldsmiths use, and half the quantity of essence of " tanagar," 
which blacksmiths use, and which comes from Khorasan. The three mixed 
together you put in an earthenware vessel, place it in the kiln, heating till, as 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Persian 219 

in previous cases, the compound melts. Let the kiln cool, remove the vessel, 
and break it ; break open also the contents, which will be found to enclose a 
white substance like silver. Keep this and throw away the rest. Take now 
one part of this silver-like substance, one part of these raw lapis-lazuli balls, 
and one part of chekhmaq stone, finely pounded, mix and bray all these very 
fine. This is the cerulean colour, as men pf the craft like it. If the colour 
is too deep, add some finely bruised chekhmaq stone — the more of which you 
add the paler will be the colour. 

If you want a turquoise colour (rang-i-firoza), know that when copper is 
heated and hammered it gives off a dross (risesh). Mix one part of this dross, 
well pounded, with half a part of pounded chekhmaq stone, and you obtain 
turquoise colour, any place you paint with it coming out of the fire turquoise 
colour. 

If you want violet colour, take one part of the red colour above described, 
and mix it with one-third part of cerulean, bray the mixture, and you have 
violet colour. 

If you pound the " maghn " stone raw and paint with it, you will have 
iris-violet (benefeh-i-zanbaki). 

For yellow colour, men of the craft procure from Khorasan a kind 
of clay called ukhra (ochre) ; they extract the essence of the refined part 
of it, which, when pounded, becomes yellow paint. Another kind of yellow 
colour is procurable at the alchemists (meshshaq). Green colour is also 
procured, if necessary, from the alchemists. 



CHAPTER V. 
Varnish (La',ab) after applying the colours. 

Now we must write a chapter about the varnish (Ia',ab) which is put on the 
bricks after the colours have been applied. Take a little of those two kinds 
of varnish which we have made, cooked, and put aside in chapters I. and II., 
place it in an earthenware vessel, take some gum-arabic (kativa), infuse it, 
clear it, and add it to the varnish, mix, adding water until the compound 
becomes as fluid as doogh water. Then spread this varnish over the bricks, 
keeping them inclined so that the excess may run off; then lay the bricks 
horizontal to dry; when dry, set them round the kiln, as you would set 
looking-glasses, and apply the fire. 

The master of the craft says, first for two hours make a light fire till the 
surface of the bricks gets black, then increase it a little for two hours, when 
the black changes to red, then for three hours make a moderate fire, that is 
not too strong so as to produce smoke, and not too light, lest the colours dry 
up again ; this fire must be kept on till the varnish becomes clear. At this 



220 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

point stop the opening of the kiln, and let it cool down for two or three days, 
when the bricks may be removed. 

This first process is finished. It is the work of our master, and is known 
as drawing under varnish (nagsh-zir-la',ab). The fuel you burn in the kiln 
must be white and dry wood, in order to avoid too much smoke. 

END OF PART I. 



PART II. 
SEVEN-COLOURS PROCESS. 



From the master of the craft we have learned another process which is known 
as the " seven-colours process " (haft-rang-sazi). It is of two kinds : one con- 
sists in making each brick of one uniform colour, the other in making one 
brick of seven colours. 

Should you wish to make vases, the paste must be of the chekhmaq stone, 
before mentioned ; and if you wish to make bricks of seven colours, or of one 
uniform colour, you may make them with potters' clay (khak-i-russ), provided 
that in order to decrease the strength of the potters' clay you mix with it a 
little sand, which Persians call " masseh," or even a little ashes. 

Aye, my friend, to make vases you must pound the stone as before, but 
if for easiness' sake you make bricks of potters' clay, mixed with ashes, you 
may do so, there is no harm. ' If you want to make vases you take chekhmaq 
stone, well pounded, fireclay (gil-i-bootah), and the stone and alkali (kela) 
previously mentioned, mix them together as we have before taught you so 
as to form a paste, and on the potter's wheel turn it into the shape of a vase. 

To make a brick, the master takes a wooden mould, fills it with potters' 
clay, well handled, and mixed with ashes or sand, then with a wire he cuts 
off the excess paste ; he then turns the mould over on the ground and so 
leaves it for twenty-four hours. Next day he removes the mould, beats and 
presses the brick on a flat stone to smooth its surface, then places it upright 
against the wall, so as to dry without warping. When dry he rubs the surface 
with a damp rag and begins colouring. 

CHAPTER I. 
How to make colours special to the "seven-colours process" for bricks or vases. 

Bray as before 3 parts of lead and i of tin, add to them 6 parts of that 
glass-like paint before mentioned, put all in a vessel of water with a little 
clear gum-arabic. With this, paint the brick uniformly, place it in the kiln, 
using only half the previous degree of heat for this the " seven-colour process." 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Persian 221 

On removing the brick from the kiln it will be found to be white — the effect 
of the above drug. 

If you want a turquoise colour, add to that colour which has come white 
out of the kiln one-sixteenth of copper dross (tufalisnes — the pieces which 
chip off when copper is hammered) — place it in the kiln, and heat. It will 
come out of a turquoise colour. 

If you want a yellow colour, take 16 parts of lead and i of tin, melt 
them together, take the froth (kurk) and heat it ; when it begins to melt, add 
a quarter of its quantity of well-brayed stone and mix thoroughly. Bricks 
or vases painted with this preparation and heated will come out of the kiln 
a yellow colour — like a servant who has acted perfidiously, and who, as is 
well known, turns yellow. 

With an iron ladle (sikh), skimmer-like, you must take out that yellow 
colour when melting, bray it, mix it with a solution of gum-arabic (la',ab-i- 
kativa), and apply it to bricks or vases. This requires only half the heat of 
other colours. 

If you want black colour (meshki), mix and bray together 3 parts of 
crystal glass, 4 parts of the glass-like paint, and i part of " maghn " stone ; 
add some liquid gum-arabic, and 8 miscals of essence of alkali well bruised. 
This requires the same degree of heat as the white colour, and comes black 
out of the kiln. 

If you want a cerulean colour, this is the process. Take 5 seers or i part 
of lapis-lazuli raw, 1 5 seers or 3 parts of crystal glass, 4 parts of the glass-like 
paint, I miscal of essence of lapis-lazuli, and 8 miscals of essence of alkali ; 
bray the whole, adding clear liquid gum-arabic and water. Apply this to 
bricks or vases, place them in the kiln with full heat. They will come out a 
cerulean colour. 

If you want a green colour, bray and mix i part of copper dross, 3 parts 
of vermilion (surenj), 6 parts of crystal glass, 6 parts of chekhmaq stone, and 
6 parts of the glass-like paint ; add water. Apply to bricks or vases, heat them 
in the kiln, and they will come out green. 

If you wish to have a red colour (qermez), take half a miscal of gold in a 
vessel containing aqua-fortis (tizab), dissolve 6 nukhuds of tin in aqua-fortis 
in a separate vessel, fill an earthenware vessel with water, add the gold solution 
and stir briskly ; now add the tin solution. It will turn the water red, verging 
to black ; add 30 seers, Tabriz weight, of pounded crystal glass. The water 
will give forth a froth and make a sediment ; throw away the water, add to the 
sediments about 30 seers of the glass-like paint, mix all well. Bricks or vases 
painted with this compound (deva) will, when heated in the kiln, come out 
red. If you mix i part of this red paint with 4 parts of cerulean colour you 
get a violet paint (benefsh). 

Again, put iron filings (suvaleh-i-ahen) in aqua-fortis, and let them stand 



222 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

for some days ; they will have a chemical action on each other (eat each other) 
and become the iron saffron (zaferan-ul-hadid — burnt-green vitriol) ; mix with 
water, and use as paint ; it will give an orange or jujube colour ( naranji or 
annabi). 

CHAPTER II. 
Seven colours on one brick. 

But if you want one brick to come out with seven colours (this does not 
mean superposed colours, as in the " Reflet," but seven designs each with a 
different colour), you must first prepare the seven colours and test them, 
counterbalancing the moisture and dryness of the ingredients so as to obtain 
equilibrium. Then you begin, following the direction of the master I have 
written it all down. 

Know, first, that a brick which comes out of the kiln white is fit to receive the 
seven colours. Now let us make anew the colours, so as to get colours special 
to the seven-coloured bricks. First, take 2 miscals of essence of lapis-lazuli, 
4 miscals of budlike balls of raw lapis-lazuli, 30 miscals of pounded crystal 
glass, 30 miscals of pounded chekhmaq stone, 30 miscals of tanagar, 30 miscals 
of essence of alkali : bray all together, put in an earthenware vessel, and place 
it in the kiln ; heat up, take out, break the vessel, bray the contents, and add 
water. This is the cerulean of the seven-coloured process. 

When you want a green colour, take 4 miscals of copper, 4 miscals of 
lapis-luzuli, 30 miscals of crystal glass, 30 miscals of flintstone, 30 miscals of 
essence of alkali, 30 miscals of saltpetre (shoora-i-qalam) ; mix all in a vessel, 
put in the kiln, take out, break the earthenware vessel, bray the contents, apply 
it to a white brick, and it will come out green. 

For turquoise, you must take 4 miscals of copper, 4 of lapis-lazuli, 30 of 
crystal glass, 30 of flintstone, 30 of essence of alkali, and 30 of saltpetre ; put 
in a vessel and bake. It will come out turquoise paint. 

For black, take 4 miscals of " maghn," 30 of crystal glass, 50 of chekhmaq 
stone, 30 of essence of alkali, 30 of saltpetre ; mix in a vessel, bake, bray, and 
you will have black paint. 

For red take half a miscal of gold in aqua-fortis, also 6 nukhuds of tin (gal) 
in other aqua-fortis, fill a bowl with water, and add the gold solution, stirring 
briskly ; next add the tin solution, stirring it with your hand, the froth will set, 
pour away the water; add half a Tabriz maund or 320 miscals of crystal glass, 
and 1 10 miscals of "tanagar," and bake in an earthenware vessel. The com- 
pound will be red paint. 

For violet (benefsh), mix 4 parts of this red colour and i part of cerulean 
(lajverd), and you will. get violet paint. 

The method of testing is this : paint those seven colours (separately) on a 
piece of brick, and place it in a portable kiln, which you heat. Taking the 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Persian 223 

brick out, examine it; any colour which is dry, unclear, dull, must be increased 
in moisture according to the degree which each requires. 

After thus regulating the strength of the colours (raising what is too low, 
lowering what is too high), apply all the seven colours separately, by making 
a design with each on a brick or vase, and cook it in the kiln in the way 
before described. 

These seven-colour bricks want only half the degree of heat required for 
the previous process. Let the kiln cool down for twenty-four hours, then 
draw out. 

This is called the seven-colour process (haft-rang-sazi) and supercoloration 
or kar-rooi-rang. The pamphlet is finished. To him who ordered it, and to 
the master of the craft. Hail ! 

Tehran, 1888. 



N.B. — I maund Tabriz weight = 40 seers. 

1 seer ,, ,, = 16 miscals. 

I miscal „ ,, = 24 nukhuds. 

c 

C. Stanley Clarke, Esq., appends a note that i seer = about i kilo. 

It should also be noted that " lapis-lazuli " is apparently used to designate 
cobalt bloom ; that " aqua-fortis " is frequently used where clearly " aqua- 
regia" is intended ; and that the term moisture is used for fluidity in a vitreous 
state or for glassiness. Words such as " maghn," " ukhra," " kela " have a 
peculiarly familiar sound. 

Indian. — In India, as far as the writer has been able to learn, the decorative 
tile industry is now in a state of decline rather than of progress ; a flickering 
out of an ancestral art, the fashion and glory of which came and departed 
with Muhammadan and Moghul supremacy ; " other times, other manners" 

The late Edmund W. Smith wrote, " The art has almost died out " ; and 
Sir George Birdwood, K.C.I.E., states that in mediaeval times there was a far 
larger output of tilework than at present. 

What of it is left seems to be linked hereditarily wiih that of mediaeval 
times ; the types of design, and even the particular shades of colouring, 
wherever of indigenous origin in Sind and Panjab, partake of the old styles. 
In Panjab, in particular, Sir George Birdwood says yellow was largely used in 
painting the tiles, and occasionally red, but dark and light blues were, and 
are now, the predominating colours used in the Panjab. In Scinde a tawny 
yellow, almost brown, is still used, also green and a dull purple. 

The Indian Section of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, 
contains remarkable examples of glazed and enamelled terracotta and tile- 
work made for and at the instance of Sir C. Purdon Clarke, CLE., some years 
ago, at Tatta (Lower Sind) and at Mooltan and Lahore ; also specimens of 



224 



LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



the glaze frits as actually prepared by kashigars in India. By the kind 
permission and assistance of C. Stanley Clarke, Esq., of the Indian Section, 
V. and A. M., examples of Indian work (fig. 138 and fig. 139) are illustrated in 
this volume. 

The Mttltan tomb (fig. 1 38) is of glazed tiles, decorated with conventional 
plant forms, floral and leaf ornament, and inscriptions in two shades of blue 
and white. It is a copy of a tiled tomb near the Mosque of Yusuf Shah 
Gadez at Mlaltan. Made at Mtiltan ; nineteenth century. 

The wall-panel and niche (fig. 139) is of glazed tiles, decorated with geo- 




Fig. 138. — Tomb of glazed tiles. Made at Multan. Nineteenth century. Now in Indian 
Section, Victoria and Albert Museum. (Illustrated by permission of C. Stanley Clarke, 
Esq. , Indian Section. ) 

metrical and conventional floral patterns and an inscription in two shades of 
blue on a white ground. It is a copy ot part of the exterior of the tiled wall 
of the Mosque of Yusuf Shah Gadez at Mfiltan, which is of eighteenth-century 
work. Made at Mliltan ; nineteenth century. 

By the kindness of Mr. C. W. Tawney, Librarian of the India Office, 
Whitehall, the writer has had an opportunity of perusing several special 
monographs relating to pottery-making in Bombay Presidency and in the 
Panjab. From these sources principally the following notes have been 
compiled : — 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Indian 



225 



The common red-ware potters, of whom there are many — called kumbhars,. 
from kumb, a water-pot — are mostly of one or other of the castes of Hindoos. 

The glazed-ware potters, who, according to Mr. Maconochie, are few, are 
called kashigars, and trace their descent from some prehistoric chinaman 

who was induced by one of the 

Amirs to settle in Sind. 

Mr. Maconochie says : — " Glazed 
pottery is manufactured at Hala 
and Nasarpur of Hyderabad, Sind, 
and in the Nanshahro Taluka of 
the same district, at the J.J. 
School of Art and the Perozeshaw 
Pottery Works in Bombay, and 
at Pattan and Ahmedabad in 
Gujarat" — the Hala ware holding 
pre-eminence for beauty of design 
and richness of colour. 

He tells us that " at Hala the 
work is carried on separately by 
two families, that of Nur Mahomed, 
and that of Usif, son of Kabil. 
The earth is obtained from the 
local tank, and the colours come 
from the Panjab. The favourite 
articles of manufacture are tiles, 
which are used largely as head- 
stones for graves and ornamenting 
mosques, as well as for floors and 
ceilings. The method of preparing 
the tiles is as follows : — The tile is cut into shape in the rough clay by means 
of a standard tile, and is then sun-dried. A coating of fine white clay is then 
spread over the tile, and on this the pattern is painted. Metallic pigments 
of manganese, cobalt, and copper are used. Over the painted pattern the 
glaze is placed in a pulverised state, and the whole is then fired. The glaze 
is of three kinds : colourless, green, and brown. In the process of firing the 
body of the tile becomes earthenware, the finer clay porcelain, the patterns 
take their proper colours of purplish black, azure, and green, and the glaze 
becomes transparent glass. The glaze is composed of the base of sand and 
litharge, 6 of the former to 20 of the latter. The green colour is obtained 
by the use of oxide of copper, brown by karmaji, or oxide of iron, mixed 
with a little cobalt (auria). The sand used for the glaze comes from Sehwan,. 
and the flint for the porcelain clay from Mount Anjar." 

15 




Fig. 139. — Muhammadan wall-panel and niche. Ini 
the Victoria and Albert Museum, Indian Section. 
(^By permission. ) 



226 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Of Nanshahro ware Mr. Maconochie writes : — " A class for instruction in 
pottery is held at Kandidro in connection with the industrial schools of that 
taluka founded by Kh^n Bahadur Kddirddd Khdn some eight years ago. 
There are about twelve pupils, and they are chiefly occupied in manufacturing 
tiles of different sorts, plain or coloured, glazed or unglazed, according to 
requirements, these being the only articles for which there is any local demand. 
.... Several thousand tiles have been supplied to Government for the 
construction of the new Mukhtyarkarates of Nansharo and Kandid.ro, the 
Central Jail at Hyderabad ; and in 1894, when the repairs of the Juma Masjid 
at Tatta, in the Karachi district, were undertaken, the services of the pottery 
class were .... utilized in replacing missing or damaged tiles. The orna- 
mental tiles find a ready market amongst the wealthy inhabitants of the sub- 
division." 

The work at Bombay School of Art, or somehow connected with it, under 
Mr. Terry, is referred to. This seems chiefly pottery, with a body composed of 
clays from Cutch, Malvan, and Bombay, and quartz from Bhor Ghat, and 
glazes made by a kashigar from Mooltan. (A Monograph on Pottery and 
Glass of Bombay Pres., Maconochie.) 

With regard to the Panjab, from the monograph by C. J. Hallifax, C.S., it 
seems that the art-pottery industries were in 1 890-1 891 in a rather small 
way — only five workshops, employing fifteen workmen, in Mooltan ; five makers 
in Peshawar ; twenty-three workshops, employing forty workmen, at Rawal 
Pindi ; and a number, not stated, at Delhi. 

Mr. Hallifax writes : — " A trade in art-pottery exists only in Mooltan and 
Peshawar. Attempts have been made to introduce ' kashigari ' into Amritsar 
.... but they have failed. The introduction of a sort of porcelain manu- 
facture into Delhi has, however, been more successful, and Delhi is now noted 
for its white pottery. Vessels are occasionally glazed and coloured elsewhere 
than at Mooltan and Peshawar, but there is no regular manufacture as in those 
towns. A few potters, such as Muhammad Shanf of Jullundur, are still able 
to make first-class painted and glazed tiles, but the manufacture of glazed tiles, 
which was once so extensive, has practically died out in the Punjab." 

Specimen tiles, about S|- by 5|, of the Delhi white porcelain are shown in 
the Indian Section, Victoria and Albert Museum. They appear to be made 
of perfectly white siliceous sand or powdered quartz and gum, with a very 
little alkaline cement, and are decorated with floral designs in blues. 

In a monograph on the Pottery and Glass Industries of the North- Western 
Provinces and Oudh, by H. R. C. Dobbs, C.S., published at Allahabad, 1895, 
and kindly placed at my service by W, G. Wood, Esq., Under-Secretary to 
the Government of the United Provinces, it is stated that " the art of glazing 
is known in sixteen districts, though in many of them it is practised on a very 
small scale. Metallic glaze is applied in Benares, Lucknow, Meerut, Mirzapur, 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Indian 227 

Farukhabad, and Fyzabad. Vitreous glaze is applied in Agra, Allahabad, 
Aligarh, Budaun, Bareilly, Benares, Bulandshahr, Farukhabad, Fyzabad, 
Lucknow, Meerut, Moradabad, Mirzapur, Muzaffarnagar, Pilibhit, and 
Rdmpur. The trade is in most districts in the hands of kasgars, but is 
carried on in Budaun by manihars, in Muzaffarnagar and Rdmpur and 
Meerut by Multani kumhars, and in Chunar by Katris. In Allahabad 
glazed pottery is made in the Central Jail, but no account has been received of 
the process of its manufacture. 

" Metallic glaze is made in three colours — yellow, green, and red. (i) The- 
yellow glaze is made as follows : — Lead and zinc, in the proportion of one to 
eight, are put in an earthen pot, which is set over a clay hearth and plastered 
round with mud. They are melted up for two days, and the white scum 
containing the oxide of the two metals combined, which is called phiil, is 
continually skimmed off with a large flat ladle called kalchul or kareha ; one- 
eighth part of borax and one-eighth part of powdered red-stone are then added, 
and the compound is again melted up for about seven hours. At the end of 
this time the molten mass is poured slowly into a wooden trough full of 
water, and coagulates at the bottom of the trough into separate pieces, which 
are at once taken out and ground to powder in a common stone handmill. 
This powder is mixed with very thin wheat-flour paste, and is then ready for 
application to the vessel. 

"(2) Green metallic glaze is produced by the addition of one-eighth part of 
copper dust to the ingredients of the yellow glaze. Green and yellow metallic 
glaze are made in all the above districts. 

"(3) Red metallic glaze \s made only in Fyzabad and Chunar (Mirzapur). 
In Fyzabad it results from the addition of a small quantity of red oxide of 
mercury to the yellow glaze ; and in Chunar, as far as could be discovered, 
from an admixture of quicksilver with the same. 

" Metallic glaze, unlike vitreous glaze, is applied to the ware after the latter 
has undergone a baking of about seven hours. It is either applied with a 
brush, or the whole article is dipped into the basin of glaze. It is allowed to 
stand for about three hours, and then put back into the kiln and baked for 
six hours. Metallic glaze is never used for delicate ornamentation, and is only 
applied to pipe-bowls, the spikes, knobs, and classic vases with which native 
houses .... are adorned, and the pierced screens through which secluded 
ladies are allowed their only glimpses of the world. 

" Vitreous glaze, its ingredients and application : the main ingredient in 
vitreous glaze is the native glass or Kinch. This is usually obtained in the 

form of broken glass bangles from the bangle-sellers The bangles are 

ground up into a powder in a handmill and mixed with wheat-flour or rice 
paste. The glaze thus obtained is of a greenish white, and is spread over 
whatever colour the article to be glazed has received before baking. The 



2 28 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

only colouring matter which is ever mixed up with the glaze before its 
application to the vessel is powdered copper, which turns blue when baked. 
In the case of all other hues the colouring material is first applied, and the 
colourless glaze spread over that to fix and protect it. The colours usually 
obtained are as follows : — 

" White from chalk and gum, except in Rimpur, Budaun, Bulandshahr, 
and Meerut, where powdered white-stone and paste are applied. 

" Red is obtained in most districts by merely spreading the transparent 
glaze over the uncoloured red surface of the common ware. But in Bareilly 
borax and red-lead are applied, and in R^mpur a red earth called bamri. 

" Dark green from powdered copper and borax. 

" Light green in Lucknow from powdered iron refuse. 

" Yellow from red-stone, zinc, and lead melted together and then 
powdered. 

" Orange at Bareilly and Benares from hirmanji earth. 

"Blue from indigo at Rampur, from j^«/a-stone at Meerut, oxide of 
manganese and borax at Budaun, calcined copper and chalk at Lucknow. 
All the coatings which a vessel receives from the glazer, including the 
colourless glaze itself, are technically known as nishasta. . . 

" After the vessel has been painted, either by the potter himself, or, in the 
case of fine pottery, by a professional painter, the glaze is allowed to dribble 
over it from a cup or saucer, or is splashed over it by the potter with his 
hands. The vessel is then dried for one day, and baked in the kiln specially 

used for glazed pottery Vitreous glaze is applied to pipe-bowls, the 

saucers, cups, basins used by Musalmdns, and to all ornamental glazed wares." 
{Pottery and Glass Industries of the North- Western Provinces and Oudk, by 
H. R. C. Dobbs, C.S., p. 14.) 

The practical ceramist will not have failed to observe one or two points, 
such as red from red-lead and blue from indigo, that appear to be erroneous; 
but, upon the whole, this little description of the ways of our fellow-crafts- 
men of India is not without interest. 

Respecting glazed tiles, Mr. Dobbs writes in the same' monograph, p. 18, 
" a glazed ornamental ware, decorated with heavy gilding and glazed tiles, 
were until recently manufactured at Sahdranpur " ; and on p. 23, " Rdmpur 
ornamental pottery closely resembles that of Khurja and of Bahadurgarh, and 
is said, like them, to have been originally introduced from Multdn. It seems 
until lately to have been confined to the manufacture of tiles, slabs, etc., 
intended to be built into mosques and tombs." 

With reference to Bengal, Taw Sein-ko, in his monograph on the Pottery 
and Glassware of Burma, 18^^-^^, makes the brief but significant remark : " It 
is a notable fact that the art of glazing is unknown in Bengal" (p. 11). 

Respecting Burma, for several reasons given, he shows how it is that at 



X 

X 



^^^hm. 















' V'S 'I "> 




P s^ 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— United States of America 229 

present ceramic art is in a low condition in Burma, and "does not now 
possess any pottery comparable with that of Sindh and Delhi." 

As to the ability of natives of India nowadays, Sir C. Purdon Clarke, 
CLE., in a paper on " Modern Indian Art," read at the Society of Arts, 15th 
April 1890, while deploring the results of attempts to graft European designs 
upon Indian art-products, observed : — " All travellers in India know the 
wonders of the past, the temples at Abu, Akbar's dream in stone at Fathipur 
Sikri, and the Taj Mahal ; but if they doubt that it is possible to emulate 
these works, it is only necessary to visit the modern cities of Khorja and 
Bulanshah to see that natives, working for themselves, can still design and do 
all the work they produced in the old time. Then the college buildings at 
Ajmere, Colonel Jacob's People's Palace at Jeypore, Mant and Chisholm's 
royal buildings at Baroda, and Chisholm's Government buildings at Madras, 
show how much can be done where Indian and European work together." 
{Jour. Soc. Arts, i8th April 1890, p. 519.) 

The Muir Central College buildings of the University of Allahabad, 
which we are kindly permitted to illustrate (Plate XXVII.), are not perhaps 
representative of native art, but show the effect of British influence inter- 
twined therewith. H. G. Boyce, Esq., M.I.C.E., F.C.H., Superintending 
Engineer, III. Circle, Provincial Works, has kindly explained that the two 
domes are covered with porcelain glazed tiles, six inches square, and that 
these tiles were obtained from the Minton works in England. The floors of 
the lecture-room are laid with Shurajpur and Agra red sandstone, and the 
floors of the library and Vizianagram Hall are of marble and mosaic-work. 

United States of America. — Among the now rather numerous manu- 
facturing companies in the States who produce ornamental tiles, we must, 
in common justice, refer, in the first place, to The Star Encaustic Tile Co., of 
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania ; for the founder of this establishment, Mr. Samuel 
Keys, claims to be the father of the tile industry in the United States of 
America, so far as ornamental floor-tiles are concerned. Like many of the 
successful pottery manufacturers in the States, he hailed from the old country. 
Mr. Keys, we understand, was born at Derby, in England, in the year 1832, 
and went to America in 1862. Before leaving England he had acquired 
some knowledge of the manufacture of pottery, but had no practical acquaint- 
ance with tile manufacture ; although one of his uncles — also named Samuel 
Keys — once upon a time was in the employment of Herbert Minton at Stoke- 
on-Trent. 

In 1867, while managing a brickworks at Pittsburg, Mr. Samuel Keys 
conceived the idea of making tile, and began experiments with that object, 
denying himself rest and leisure, until in 1871 he demonstrated that he could 
produce all kinds of tints and clays for the purpose of manufacturing first-class 
tile. In the same year — thirty-three years ago — he exhibited tiles at an inter- 



230 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



-state fair and gained a diploma of merit, of which he has kindly sent a photo- 
graph. Shortly afterwards he formed a business partnership with Mr. David 
Hutchinson, a brick manufacturer of Pittsburg, for the purpose of manufacturing 
tile, and a small plant was erected and tiles manufactured. At the end of 
two years this business association was concluded ; after which the present 
company was formed, with Mr. Alrich as the business head and Mr. Keys in 

control of the production. 
The plant has been in 
continuous operation 
since 1876. It is situated 
in Bluff Street, Pittsburg, 
and comprises several 
ovens and kilns, every 
one of them fired by 
natural gas. 

The present plant and 
facilities of The Star 
Encaustic Tile Co. are 
capable of a product of 
about 400,000 square feet 
per annum, comprising 
all colours in vitreous 
goods and plain tile. 

Mr. Samuel Keys has 

and reports himself still 

service. The firm 




Fig. 140. — Inter-state Fair certificate, 1871. 



now reached the mature age of seventy- two years, 
hale and hearty and good for twenty years' further activ! 
state that they have not used a pound of coal for 
many years. They commenced to use natural 
gas about 1884, and have ever since employed 
natural gas in making and burning the tiles, 
namely, in all the kilns, for all the boilers, and for 
all lighting and heating purposes. 

On 15th August 1903 a new company was 
incorporated at Trenton, N.J., under the title 
of The Colonial Tile Co., with a capital of 
;£'i, 000,000. This company is intended to absorb 
The Star Encaustic Tile Co., of Pittsburg, and 
The Beaver Falls Art Tile Co., of Beaver Falls, 
Pa., and to erect large new works at Tiffin, Ohio. 
When this new plant is complete, it is to be one 
of the largest and most complete in the world 
natural gas and most modern appliances. 




Fig. 141. — One of Mr. Keys' 
trial vitreous tiles made in 1867. 

everything to be run by 



PL. XXVIII. 




Samuel Keys, Esq., Pittsburg, Pa. 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— United States of America 231 

The New York Vitrified Tileworks, of Brooklyn (N. Y.), manufacturers 
of vitreous floor-tiles, ceramic and cut mosaics, etc., was established in 
A.D. 1891 by Mr. A. H. Bonneil. This factory, it appears, is on the site of the 
old International Tile Co., which was established about 1882, and was one of 
the very few pioneer factories making glazed, printed, decorated, and enamel 
tiles, as well as encaustic and plain tiles. The raw materials are all from the 
states either east or south of New York State. The fuel used is coal of 
bituminous nature from Maryland. The New York Vitrified Tileworks Co. 
claim to be the first in America to make a speciality of vitreous floors and 
ceramic mosaics. Their yearly capacity in vitreous and ceramic flooring-tile 
is said to be about 400,000 square feet. 

The United States Encaustic Tileworks, of Indianapolis {Ind.) and Chicago 
{III.). — This works was established in 1877 by Messrs. Douglas and Hall. 




Fig. 142. — Star'Encaustic Tileworks, Pittsburg. Erected 1876. 

The yearly capacity is estimated to be — of glazed and decorated tile, 1,250,000 
square feet ; of encaustic and plain tile, 700,000 square feet ; of vitreous and 
ceramic tile, 800,000 square feet ; burned with natural gas, which was adopted 
about twelve years ago. 

The Old Bridge Enamelled Brick and Tile Co., of Old Bridge {N.J), were 
established in 1889 by Messrs. W. E. Rivers and G. W. Harrison. Their 
yearly capacity is stated to be of glazed and decorated tiles 625,000 square 
feet, and of vitreous tiles 200,000 square feet, the fuel used being coal. 

The Maywood Art Tile Co., Maywood, New Jersey, are the successors of The 
Elterich Art Tile Stove Works, which were founded in 1889 by Gustav L. 
Jaeger and Henry Lindenmeyer for the manufacture of a tile stove, which, 
however, did not meet with the desired success. 

In December 1892 that company was reorganized as a tile factory under 
the name of Maywood Art Tile Co. by the same people, and Ernst Bilhuber 



232 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

as active partner and manager. The plant is situated along the N.Y.S. 
and W.R. Railway, whose anthracite coal, egg size, is used as fuel for 
the kilns. This firm have a capacity for producing 200,000 square feet 
annually of enamelled tiles, and about 50,000 square feet annually of vitreous 
floor-tiles. 

The Cambridge Tile Manufacturing Co., of Covington {Ky.), state that their 
plant was established in the year 1887 by A. W. Kock, Heinrich Binz, and 
F. W. Braunstein. For fuel they use coal, and their yearly capacity in 
enamelled white wall-tile and decorated tile is about 900,000 square feet, and 
in vitreous and ceramic tile about 600,000 square feet. 

The American Encaustic Tiling Co., Ltd., of Zanesville, Ohio : President, 
B. Fischer ; Vice-President, John Hoge ; Treasurer, E. Kohler ; Secretary, 
W. H. Fischer ; Superintendent, Geo. A. Stanbery. — This firm apparently have 
a very extensive works, covering about forty acres, for the manufacture of art, 
wall, and floor tiles; and have secured gold medals both at Paris in 1900 and 
at the Pan-American Exposition, 1901. Their New York office is 1123 
Broadway. They are said to use local clays mostly, except white clay, which 
is got from Kentucky. They are reported to have adopted natural gas for 
fuel only last year. 

The Low Art Tile Co., of 2, A Portland Street, Boston {Mass.). — These works 
were originally established in Chelsea (Mass.) in 1879 by John G. Low, Esq., 
father of one of the present proprietors. The ground area of the present works 
covers about one and a half acres, and usually about fifty persons are employed. 
The products are more especially tiles for bathrooms, fireplaces, walls, stoves, 
and soda-fountains ; in addition to these, a novel kind of pottery ware is also 
manufactured at these works, rather after the style of Japanese ware, which 
they have named " Low Chelsea ware." The elegant and costly catalogue of 
copyright aesthetic designs issued by this firm is quite a delight to look 
through : fancy-shaped tiles first attract the eye, and seem to strike a new 
vein of decorative wealth ; then the profuse variety of low-relief embossed 
and hand-modelled hearth and wall tiles furnish an even greater selection. 
Professor C. F. Binns paid this firm an undoubted compliment in the 
course of the paper, " The Elements of Beauty in Ceramics," read at the 
Society of Arts, London, 4th April 1894. He said: — "The colours 
of Bernard Palissy are little more than tinted glazes, and much of their 
beauty is owing to the fact that they were melted upon a reticulated surface, 
producing by their flow subtle gradation of light and shade. In modern 
days this flow of glaze is utilised most successfully by many makers of 

embossed tiles Some perfect examples of this style of work have 

been produced in America by the Low Tile Company, where the effect of 
skilful modelling is developed by soft tints in glaze." {four. Soc. Arts, 6th 
April 1894.) 



Star Encaustic Tile Company, . . Pittsburg, Pa., U.S.A. 
^ Plate XXIX. 





J. FLEMING A CO. UTH. LEICESTER 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Canadian 233 

The Beaver Falls Art Tile Co., Ltd., of Beaver Falls {Pa.), was established 
in 1887 by Mr. F. W. Walker. This firm appears to devote its attention 
entirely to glazed and decorated tiles, of which their yearly capacity is about 
300,000 square feet. The fuel used is coal. 

The Robertson Art Tile Co., of Morrisville {Pa.), is of more recent date, 
being established in 1890 by Messrs. G. W. Robertson, A. W. Ford, R. K. 
Bowman, and W. J. J. Bowman. Their plant is said to have a capacity of 
about 800,000 square feet per annum of glazed and decorated tiles. The fuel 
used is coal. 

The Columbia Encaustic Tile Co., of Anderson {Ind.), U.S.A.: B. O. Haugh 
(Pres.), G. Lilly (Treas.), H. Haugh (Secy.). — This works was established 
about thirteen years ago by the present owners, and has a large trade, 
manufacturing both floor and enamelled tiles. They are .'^aid to use 
mostly local clays, except the white, which is derived from Kentucky. The 
fuel used is said to be natural gas, which they adopted about twelve 
years ago.- 

Other manufacturers in the States, but of which no particulars have been 
obtained, are : — 

The Trent Tile Co., Trenton, N.J. 

New Jersey Mosaic Tile Co., Matawan, N.J. 

Providential Tileworks Co., Trenton, N.J. 

Mosaic Tile Co., Zanesville, Ohio. 

H. L. Swift, Riverside, la. 

Canadian. — The Forsyth Granite and Marble Co.. of Montreal (Que.), writ- 
ing on 22nd May 1903, state that "There are no manufacturers of ceramic or 
glazed decorative tiles in Canada." The honours, therefore, of the pioneer 
to this industry in Canada remain open, and his history to some future 
author. In an attractively illustrated brochure, published by The Globe 
Newspaper Co., of Toronto, "it is said that Canada has more substantial 
public and private buildings in proportion to its population and develop- 
ment than any other country in the world " ; and in the report of the 
Dominion Department of Trade and Commerce statistics are produced 
showing that for increase in business Canada " leads the procession " of 
nations. 

The natural sequence of a continuation of this progress will probably be 
greater extravagance in building decoration, and this will ultimately lead to 
either some already established brick or terracotta works, or some enter- 
prising company or individual, attempting the production of decorative ceramics 
in Canada. 

In Europe, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, comparatively little 
was known of the tile trade, yet at the beginning of the twentieth century it 



234 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

had become a widespread industry. Similarly with Canada, at the beginning 
of the nineteenth century little was known of it, and the outside world gained 
their knowledge of it through the flights of fancy of story-writers and artists, 
who unconsciously created the impression that Canada was a land of almost 
perpetual winter — an immense wilderness inhabited by Indians and wolves. 
At the beginning of the twentieth century we have put into our hands this 
beautiful little booklet, entitled The Growing Time in Canada, published at the 
office of The Globe, Toronto, crammed with facts and figures and beautiful 
photographic illustrations. May not history repeat itself in relation to Canadian 
ceramics ? 

One cannot imagine any lack of materials in such a vast domain as 
Canada, notwithstanding the fact that at present both the Belleville Pottery 
Co., of Belleville (Ont), and The Richelieu Pottery Co., of St. John's 
(Que.), use imported materials. Wood, coal, oil, natural gas, fireclay, ochre, 
manganese, zinc, ferrous chromite, gypsuni, and felspar already figure in 
Canadian export returns. And there are plenty of clays such as are being 
used for all kinds of bricks, terracotta, drain-pipes, cement, and common 
pottery. 

In Ontario the "Erie" clay is sometimes sixty feet thick, but is said to 
contain a considerable quantity of carbonate of lime. The Leda clay, a marine 
clay overlying boulder clay, found in parts of Ontario and Quebec, burns to 
a pretty red colour. In Prince Edward Island triassic or upper carboniferous 
clays and alluvial deposits from these rocks are found ; both are said to be 
red-burning. 

These resources and others yet to be discovered, together with the clays 
associated with the coal-bearing measures of Nova Scotia and British Columbia, 
may eventually be turned to good use by an enterprising decorative-tile maker 
some day. 

Australian. — With reference to Victoria, the acting secretary to the Acting 
Agent-General has very kindly communicated a few facts collected under the 
direction of the Secretary of the Department of Mines and Water Supply, 
Melbourne, and by the assistance of Professor J. D. Gregory. 

The firms making decorative tiles are stated to be The Australian Tessel- 
lated Tile Co., Ltd., of Mitcham, near Melbourne ; and The Brunswick Brick, 
Tile and Pottery Co., Brunswick. 

Several other firms at Brunswick and at Bendigo are engaged in other 
branches of ceramics ; but it is reported that " no faience is made in Victoria." 
As to materials, kaolin and plastic clays are reported to be widely distributed 
in Victoria. Strata near Bulla Creek, near Melbourne, and that of a locality 
near Gordon, are each referred to as containing kaolin. 



Star Encaustic Tile Company, . . Pittsburg., Pa., U.S.A. 

^ Plate XXX. 




2 
































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d. PLEMINQ A CO. LITH. LEICESTER 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Australian 



235 



The following are analyses given of some of the clays found and 
examined : — 



Locality. 


SiO^. 


Al,03. 


Fe^Oa. 


CaO. 


MgO. 


K2O. 


Na^O. 


Combd. 
HjO. 


Hygro- 
scopic 
H2O. 


Authority. 


Leorgattia day, 


67-58 


'778 


2-58 


trace 


I -21 


1-60 


0-28 


5-45 


2-80 


Department 
laboratory 


Horsham white clay, 


60-91 


25-60 


trace 


nil 


nil 


0-13 0-45 


8-11 


I '43 


,, 


Bacchus Marsh clay, 


40-11 


37-43 


9-29 


nil 


nil 


trace 0-35 


13-57 


0-40 


,, 


Murtoa grey-white clav, . 


«3-l^ 


7-96 


I "90 


nil 


trace 


0-2I 0-62 


5-01 


0*90 


,, 


Traralgon clay, 


58-78 


29-52 


nil 


trace 


trace 


I -40 0-63 


8-81 


1-02 


,, 


Stawell white clay, . 


62-43 


26-01 


trace 


nil 


trace 


0-61 0-17 


6 90 


2-IO 


,, 


Colac clay, 


68-07 


23-87 


0-28 


nil 


trace 


trace I "33 


6-39 




" 



The Stawell clay, upon testing at white heat, yielded a hard white porcelain, 
and is said to be the best sample of clay submitted. 

In , New .South Wales there are a number of pottery works around 
Camperdown, Enfield, Petersham, Auburn, and Chatswood. The only firm, 
however, who, as far as I can ascertain, attempt the manufacture of decorative 
tiles are Bakewell Bros., of Erskineville, near Sydney. A pottery and brick 
works has recently been started also at Kuring-gai, near Sydney, where they 
have shale, red-clay, and pipeclay. (See Brick and Pottery Trades Journal, 
July 1903.) 

In the Annual Report of the Department of Mines and Agriculture of New 
South Wales, i8gi, pp. 277, 279, Mr. J. C. H. Mingaye, F.C.S., etc., gives 
analyses of three samples of clay, one of which he pronounces "porcelain 
clay," and opines that it could be utilized for the manufacture of tiles, orna- 
ments, cups, saucers, etc. The experiments described, however, both on this 
and the other clays he examined, were evidently conducted in a manner not 
likely to reveal the real capabilities of the clays. A practical ceramist would 
probably have produced better results. He adds : — " A large number of fireclays 
which have come under my notice during the last few years have proved 
themselves, from experiments made, to be of an excellent quality for the 
manufacture of firebricks, and some of the clays .... proved themselves 
to be of a very superior quality." 

In Queensland, according to Pugh's Queensland Almanac, there were in 
1902 sixteen pottery works, but no special mention of decorative-tile works 
appears. 

In South Australia the Agent-General kindly gives the names and addresses 
of ten works, mostly around Maghill, Norwood, Carrondown, Maylands, 
Woodville, and Tea Tree Gully, but there are none, apparently, devoted to the 
decorative-tile trade. 



236 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

In Western Australia large quantities of pipeclay are said to be found 
distributed all over the colony. In the catalogue of the Colonial and Indian 
Exhibition of 1886, the local committee for Vasse showed a collection of 
clays from the neighbourhood of Vasse; also a tile made from clay, presumably 
local clay, taken from a verandah laid thirty years previously. 

At the same exhibition George Whitfield, of Toodyay, showed specimens 
of pipeclay from Guildford Road, yellow pipeclay from two miles S.E. of 
Newcastle, and red-clay found in an isolated mass of ironstone three miles 
from Avon River. Clays were also shown from Phillips' River and from 
Albany. 

To what extent these materials are being economically exploited has not 
been ascertained. 

New Zealand.^ — ^New Zealand having been discovered so recently 
(A.D. 1769), much cannot be expected. However, there are about fourteen 
pottery works in New Zealand, located mostly in Wellington, Auckland, 
Avondale, and Sydenham; but the only firm making ornamental floor-tiles 
and decorative tiles is said to be the New Zealand Potteries Co., at Milton, in 
the South Island. Messrs. Carder Bros. & Co., of Ponsonby, Auckland, to 
whom I am indebted for this little piece of news, add that they have had a 
number of inquiries for these tiles lately. 

China. — Ivan Chen, of the Chinese Embassy, London, kindly writes that 
there is a decorative-tile works in Peking, but that tiles are not much used in 
China for decorative purposes ; and that the use of decorative tiles in covering 
the roof of a building is only albwed to certain princes and ecclesiastical 
bodies. The Peking tilework is absolutely a native one, and under the 
superintendence of the Government. Decorative tiles of yellow or green 
colour are greatly used by privileged persons in covering roofs of their 
buildings ; the use of such tiles in other ways is not restricted, but there 
is no occasion for it, because of the absence of fireplaces, and other different 
modes of construction and habits of life render the opportunities for the use 
of decorative tiles in interiors very limited. 

Japan. — Although there are about one hundred and twenty glazed pottery 
and porcelain works in Japan, and they have at times succeeded in producing 
wares surpassing in merit those of the Chinese and Koreans, from whom they 
learned, glazed decorative tiles appear to have been uncalled for, and therefore 
not much manufactured, in Japan. 

Messrs. Mitsui & Co., of London, writing on 27th May 1903, say, " Glazed 
ornamental tiles are not made in Japan, as there is very little demand for 
them " ; and Messrs. Priest, Marians, & Co., of London, writing on 22nd May 
1903, state that " Decorative tiles are not much used in Japan ; neither do we 
think they export these to any great extent." 

The latter firm, however, were able to supply the author with four Japanese 



RISE OF THE MODERN INDUSTRY— Japanese 



237 



tiles of recent production, of Awari make. These each measure about 
6| inches by 6\ inches, or 6^ inches by 6^ inches, by |-inch thick. Their 
form and appearance are those of plastic-made tiles; slightly inexact in shape, 
the body apparently siliceous and of a drab-white colour. Two of these 
tiles are glazed with a transparent colourless glaze, which has crazed ; upon 
this a ground decoration is stippled and 
comb-worked ; superimposed on this is a 
floral pattern of imitative style, effected in 
raised paste enamel of pink and white 
colours. 

Two others are glazed with orange- 
coloured glaze, comb-stippled, and with 
some brilliant scarlet enamel colour and 
raised paste decoration, evidently expensive 
to make, tawdry in effect, and below the 
requisite standard of accuracy. 

No doubt, when the Japanese want to 
use tiles as Europeans and Americans do, 
they will very quickly learn to improve 
their methods and products. Their ability 
in ceramics is indisputable ; and if there is 
little to record in the particular branch of 
the art we are considering, the story of their 
ordinary manufactures of bricks, pottery, 
and porcelain is highly interesting. 

Mr. Ernest Hart, who visited Japan 
some years ago, gave several instructive 
lectures on the subject at the Society of 
Arts, London. From one of these we learn 
that very early in the nineteenth century 
great progress had been made in the com- 
position of coloured glazes. It seems that 
about A.D. 1820 a potter named Zengoro-Hozen, also called Eiraku, developed 
remarkable skill in this direction, in imitation of the old Cochin-Chinese 
faiences. " Before long, Zengoro's fame attracted the attention of Harunori, 
Lord of Kishu. He invited the potter [a.d. 1827] to his province, and there 
set up for him, within the precincts of the castle park, a kiln, at which was 
produced the celebrated Oniwa-yaki or Kariaku ware. . . Like Luca 
della Robbia, Zengoro made the composition and application of glazes an 
especial study. . . His Aubergine porcelain, and the rich combinations 

of turquoise blue, purple, and yellow, shown in the glazes of his faience, 
amply justify the immense popularity attained by the Yeiraku ware. 




Fig. 143. — Two Japanese tiles. 
(W.N.F. Coll.) 



238 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

In fact, his coral-red glaze, lustrous and, at the same time, exquisitely soft, 
with its wealth of golden decoration and reserved medallions in brilliant 
cobalt, must be classed among the keramic masterpieces, not of Japan alone, 

but of the whole world He had mastered the processes required to 

produce the purple, yellow, turquoise, and green faience of Cochin-China, the 
blue and white, coral-red, and enamelled porcelain of China." {Jour. Soc. 
Arts, 26th February 1892, pp. 325, 326.) 

Mr. Hart's lecture is a highly instructive and complete resume of the 
ceramic wares of Japan, worthy of close study by all students of ceramics. 
He refers also to a work by Captain Brinkley, of Tokio, from whom he most 
candidly confesses he derived many of the facts. This large work has since 
been published by Captain Brinkley. 

Japanese ornamental brickwork of the nature of architectural terracotta is 
referred to by a correspondent of The Brick and Pottery Trades Journal, April 
1904, p. 131 ; but there are no references to glazed tiles. 



CHAPTER IV. 




SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF THE CLAYS, MATERIALS, 

AND COLOURANTS. 

Contents.— Choice of clays— Subsidiary ingredients— Chemical analysis— Saggar marls— Bufif marls- 
Red marls —Ball-clay-Siliceous clay— Kaolin— China-stone— Felspar— Quartz— Flint- Whitening 
—Barytes— Alumina— Boracic acid— Borax— Soda— Nitre— Pearlash— Zinc oxide— Tin oxide- 
Compounds of iron, manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper, chromium, etc. 

Of the many materials required in the manu- 
facture of decorative tilework, clays, forming, 
as they do, so large a part of the composition 
of every piece, appropriately occupy first 
attention. 

Notwithstanding the abundant variety of 
natural clays, the choice of the manufacturer 
is limited, his selection being circumscribed 
by many purely commercial considerations. 
Modern facilities of conveyance enable a few fortunate centres, possessing 
cheap fuel, suitable clays, and skilful artisans, to maintain an enormous output 
of finished products, and to transport them to any part of the civilized world ; 
and the far-reaching nature of this competition renders it imperative for all 
makers to attain a fair standard of excellence and attractiveness, to accom- 
plish vi^hich the use of superior clays is indispensable. 

Recognizing this fundamental principle many years ago, Mr. George 
Maw, F.G.S., paid special attention to the study of clays, and eventually 
generously presented to the nation an instructive technical exhibit, which was 
placed in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London. 

This exhibit comprised a series of trials of clays, together with a valuable 
commentary thereon. Altogether there were some seven hundred specimens, 
representing over one hundred and twenty diiferent kinds of clay. These 
were arranged in geological sequence, and in such a manner that each clay 
was represented by six specimens, thus: — (i) The native clay ; (2) the same 



Fig. 144. — Clay-mine, N. Devon. 



240 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

burnt ; (3) a slab of unburnt clay, 4 inches by 4 inches, made of the clay after 
lawning through a loo'-mesh wire lawn ; (4) the coarse matter so removed ; 
i.e., the lawn "knockings"; (5) a burnt slab of native or unrefined clay, 
originally moulded, 4 inches by 4 inches ; (6) a burnt slab of the refined clay, 
also originally moulded, 4 inches by 4 inches. 

Mr. Maw observed that some of these clays are" semi-indurated, and had 
to be mined by blasting and brought to the surface in hard rock-like masses, 
whilst others are soft and plastic when first raised. He also found a great 
difference in the state of mechanical subdivision of the clays, which is of 
considerable importance in their applicability to ceramic manufacture ; some 
being almost impalpable, whilst others contain from 10 to 20 per cent, of their 
weight of coarse refuse. He pointed out four distinct sources of loss and 
causes of contraction on burning, namely: — {a) Water of combination, 
(b') carbonic acid of any carbonates present, {c) vegetable and carbonaceous 
impurities, {d) shrinkage arising in the production of vitreous silicates. 

He observed, however, that " the amount of contraction is not less due to 
the state of mechanical subdivision of the constituent particles. Clays in a 
coarse state .... invariably contract less in burning than those of smooth, 
fine texture." Other interesting information appears in Mr. Maw's report. 
(^Handbook, Museum Practical Geology, 1893, p. 20.) 

The auxiliary materials used to vary the quality or colour of tile-bodies 
are principally silica, felspar, china-stone, kaolin, barytes, lime carbonate, 
and a few mineral and chemical colourants; while glaze ingredients — 
omitting compounds of lead, arsenic, and antimony — comprise silica in 
several commercial forms, Cornish china-stone, Jersey china-stone, felspar, 
kaolin, lime carbonate, barium carbonate, fluor-spar, cryolite, alumina, 
boracic acid, borax, borate of lime, common salt, soda-ash, soda crystals, 
nitre, pearlash, magnesia, zinc oxide, white oxide of tin, and many com- 
pounds of manganese, iron, copper, cobalt, nickel, chromium, uranium, 
titanium, platinum, silver, and gold. 

The sources and preparation of these different substances will be described, 
as far as the writer's information and space permit, with the hope that it may 
save students of ceramics some of the long searches he himself has often 
experienced in acquiring knowledge of these substances, so often handled by 
practical potters, yet obtained in such divense manner. 

Before setting out upon the allotted task, however, a few comments upon 
the value of chemical analysis in connection with these matters may not be 
out of place, for it has been claimed that, hundreds of years before even the 
most elementary facts of chemistry were known, certain branches of pottery 
manufacture had reached a degree of excellence as high as that of to-day. 
{British Clayworker, September 1902, p. 187.) 

Brongniart, the world-renowned French ceramist, is said to have recom- 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS 241 

mended the exclusive employment of a certain sand, in preference to another 
sand, for the preparation of certain fluxes, yet he remarked that the most 
delicate chemical analysis fails to show any appreciable difference. {Pottery 
Gazette, March 1902, p. 280.) 

Geo. F. Harris, F.G.S., has written: — "Two clays of the same chemical 
composition often behave in a very different manner in the kiln." {Science of 
Brickmaking, p. 36.) 

Karl Langenbeck, a most accomplished American ceramist, has written : — 
" The chemical analysis of clay should be as accurate as possible ; yet the 
very considerable number of slovenly analyses published yearly would seem 

to make it necessary to insist upon this point In spite of the various 

and detailed descriptions of the treatment of the residue of the acidified fusion 
of a clay with alkali carbonates, it seems practically impossible to accurately 

separate silica from the alumina group The writer therefore thinks 

it indispensable to finally obtain the proportion of silica by difference 

It must further be borne in mind that the common impurities of analytical 
reagents are the normal constituents of clays, and may frequently throw out 
an accurately manipulated analysis several per cent. . . . An accurate 
separation of the clay into its various component minerals is in the present 
state of analytical knowledge out of the question." {Chemistry of Pottery, 
pp. 3-7, Chem. Pub. Co., Easton, Pa.) 

Thus, what with " slovenly analyses" estimating " by difference" "' common 
impurities in reagents" inability to diagnose the ^^ component minerals" and 
acknowledged necessity for final recourse to "physical tests" there would 
appear to be far too much groping in so-called scientific methods at present 
to warrant the neglect of the time-honoured, less pretentious practical experi- 
ment. And while granting chemistry many brilliant triumphs in its own 
proper field of usefulness, we venture to say that chemical analyses should 
not be relied upon exclusively, to the neglect of other means . of controlling 
processes of manufacture. 

In the study of minerals Rutley observes that " at times a penknife will 
be more useful than a blowpipe, and a blowpipe than a microscope ; at 
other times a microscope will tell more than a complete chemical analysis." 
{Study of Rocks, p. 5, Longmans.) 

Practical ceramists relate similar experience : — " In spite of the time and 
money spent on countless experiments extending over the past fifty years, 
clay workers have to reluctantly admit that there is no known method whereby 
alkalies may be introduced into a refractory clay in definite quantities, so as 
to give the same properties as are found in connection with clays that may 
possess the same amount of alkalies, but occurring naturally." {British Clay- 
worker, April 1899, p. 14.) 

So that, no matter how intensely a manufacturer may wish to know the 

16 



242 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

deeper truths about his materials, finite understandings and capacity enable 
us for the present to see these truths but dimly. 

Mr. W. Jackson, A.R.C.S., Instructor in Pottery and Porcelain to the 
Staffordshire County Council, has written : — " The physical properties of ... . 
clay are very different, and cannot be predicted with certainty from chemical 
analysis, and particularly from the old-time ultimate analysis. By this method 
of investigation one learns the percentages of silica, alumjna, lime, etc., in the 
clay, but nothing of the manner in which these exist. But it is not immaterial 
how these oxides are present. They may be free or in chemical combination. 
A high percentage of free silica will endow a clay with very different properties 
than the same percentage in combination as felspar or as clay substance. It 
is only when chemical analysis tells us the amounts of the mineral constituents 
present in the clay that it is of most or often much value. This is the aim of 
the ' rational ' or ' proximate ' method of clay analysis, in which it is sought 
to express the composition in terms of clay substance, quartz, and felspar. 
Although it cannot be claimed for the method that a high degree of accuracy 
is attainable, the results are nevertheless of considerable value. A greater 
insight is afforded into the actual constitution of the clay, and hence prophecy 
regarding its fusibility, colour, and, to some extent, contraction and plasticity, 
can be more safely made. Still it is not in this respect that its results are of 
most value, for all these properties of a clay can be most easily and surely 
examined in the actual sample by what may be called ad hoc methods. It is 
when one seeks to substitute clay for clay, or to imitate an unknown pottery 
body, that the results are most useful. By a simple calculation, if one has the 
rational analyses of the clays, it is possible to substitute the one for the other, 
and obtain, by simultaneous alterations in the felspathic and siliceous contents 
of the body, identically the same mixture from the chemical standpoint. The 
new body shall contain exactly the same amount of clay substance, free silica, 
and felspar as the old. In the same way, having before us the rational analysis 
of a body it is desired to imitate, and of our raw materials, it is easy to make 
up a chemically identical mixture. Unfortunately, however, it does not follow 
that the same physical properties would be reproduced by these methods. . . 
The necessary alterations to accommodate the new raw materials can only be 
found by actual trial" {Pottery Gazette, April 1903, pp. 401, 402.) 

Even the apparently simple phenomena of plasticity, colour, and fineness 
admittedly elude strictly scientific demonstration. Mr. W. Jackson confesses 
" a most remarkable example of the failure of chemical analysis to reveal 
physical properties .... in the case of the plasticity of clays." {Pottery 
Gazette, April 1903, p. 402.) Yet the difference of plasticity developed merely 
by different treatment (semi-dry v. plastic) has proved so great in brick- 
making practice as to cause valuable clay-manufacturing plants to be put 
out of use ; and it is said that even " on the plastic system those goods are 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS 243 

infinitely superior where the intricate processes are correctly understood, and 
the material allowed proper time to accommodate itself to its altered conditions 
during the transformation from raw material to finished article " Con- 
tinuing the quotation, we read further that " . . . . Nottingham marls were at 

one time made by the semi-dry process Now there is not a semi-dry 

installation to be found. In France a great wave of semi-dry tilemaking 
spread through the country ; the roofs of France speedily assumed a dilapi- 
dated and leaky condition, and now a semi-dry-made tile will not be accepted 

by anyone At Accrington all terracotta work is done on the plastic 

system, and the results are superb." {^British Clayworker, July 1903, p. 139.) 

This and much more may be said of plasticity, yet chemical analysis fails 
to reveal the secret. 

Again, when referring to the colourant effect of oxide of iron in native 
clays, Mr. Jackson observes : — ■' It will be expected that with increasing 
contents of the staining oxide there will be a continually increasing depth 

of colour. . . . This expectation will not be fulfilled Not all the 

peculiar changes of colour which are met with in red clays are produced by the 

reducing action of oven gases These variations are more likely the 

result of other not yet clearly defined causes." {Pottery Gazette, April 1903, 
p. 406 ; see also Trans. American Ceramic Society, vol. v. pp. 382, 383.) 

Then as to th.e fineness of potters' ground materials : when discussing the 
causes of dissatisfaction with " wet-cylinder " grinding of calcined flint, and 
the much greater success of " wet-pan " grinding of the same material, Mr. 
Jackson trenchantly remarks : — " The difference in behaviour between flint 
ground on the pan and in the cylinder must be due to physical causes. There 
can be no chemical reason, because the material is identically the same." 
Yet, in publishing results of a most searching microscopic examination of the 
product of these two methods of grinding, he writes : — " No difference of shape 
[of separate particles] could be detected. In fact, unless the photographs 
were carefully labelled, it were impossible to recognise the one from the 

other There appears to be some subtle difference between the 

ground material from the pan and that from the cylinder, which so far appears 
to have escaped detection. It is contended that the cylinder-ground material 
is lacking in the ' buttery ' touch of the pan-ground ; it has more tendency 
to settle out of suspension and form a hard deposit, and the properties 
of the body compounded from it are such as to lead to excessive loss." 
{Pottery Gazette, May 1903, p. 502 ; see also Trans. Am. Cer. Soc, vol. v. 
p. 289.) 

In like manner, in connection with other ceramic researches. Professor 
Edward Orton, jun., of Ohio State University, Colombus, frequently admits 
unanticipated results in the course of his scientific series of tests, and 
tells of "complete surprise" (p. 309), "nothing conclusive" (p. 313), "wholly 



244 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

unsatisfactory" (p. 313), " many coritradictions" (p. 322), "analytical results 
.... at fault" (p. 336). (Trans. Am. Cer. Soc, vol. v.) 

On the other hand, upon another occasion Mr. Jackson goes so far as to 
say " the potter's ' rules of thumb ' are intensely scientific." {Staff. Sentinel, 
4th April 1902.) 

Dr. S. W. Bushell, C.M.G., M.D., remarks upon the marvellous success of 
Chinese porcelain manufacture and decoration by " rule of thumb " methods. 
And Sir C. Purdon Clarke, CLE., after speaking of the disastrous results of 
the introduction of European designs and the British School of Art system in 
India, comments upon " the great value of workshop lore and rule of thumb 
trade secrets." (Jour. Soc. Arts, i8th April 1890.) 

Having hea,rd so much in the past of the stupidity and ignorance of 
practical potters who work by " rule of thumb," this refreshing draught of 
compliments is really enjoyable. Indeed, one begins to wonder what " rule of 
thumb" includes ! Personally, the writer prefers the term empirical, that is to 
say, a method based upon, and built upon, the results of actual experiment 
and observation, and comprising all the study and science and art the 
individual is capable of This reasonably accounts for the useful, beautiful, 
and appropriate ceramic wares now being manufactured throughout the 
civilized world ; the finely proportioned and adapted, and the dexterously 
compounded bodies, glazes, and colours ; the skilful processes ; and the 
thousand and one minor contributory matters. It is not haphazard work ; 
it is work guided by experience heaped upon experience, concentrated and 
handed down from generation to generation, absorbing and assimilating 
multitudinous useful innovations as they flow in from all sides, scientific or 
adventitious, like perennial tributaries of a great river of highly specialized 
hereditary skill ; precisely as in the case of every other highly organized and 
venerable industry. 

Nevertheless, just as the plant will not say to the sunshine, " I have no 
need of thee," neither will the intelligent potter say to the scientist, " I have no 
need of thee " : only, while fully conscious of the limitations of an individual, 
the practical ceramist realizes his right, if not his necessity, to rely upon 
empirical tests. 

Saggar Marls. — The fireclays, used for firebricks, blocks, and quarries of 
which decorative-tile makers' kilns are built, and for a variety of oven and 
kiln appliances, such as bats, setters, cranks, tile-boxes, props, saggars, and the 
like, are, by British manufacturers, most generally obtained from the upper 
and middle coal-measures. 

In North Staffordshire outcropping strata of the upper coal series and of 
the upper portion of the middle coal series provide the requisite materials 
conveniently accessible and near the surface. These fireclays are locally 
known as " marls," yet the comparative absence of calcium oxide really places 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Saggar Marls 245 

them among the fireclays. Similar strata in other districts are usually called 
" slender " fireclays, or fireclays of a second class. 

The Memoir of the Geological Survey recently published under the title 
The Geology of the Country around Stoke-upon-Trent" contains a detailed 
and instructive description of the strata in question, and, among other things, 
includes measured sections of two typical marl-pits, which we reprint below. 
The first, representing the Cobridge measures, appears to refer to the deepest 
strata worked for the purpose, those of Hanley being assigned a much higher 
place in geological sequence. 



MARL-PIT NEAR COBRIDGE RAILWAY STATION. 



Character of Strata. 


Thickness. 


Black Band 
Series. 

Upper 

Portion of 

Middle 

Coal-Measures. 


' White clay. 

Limestone 

Nodular grey marls, . 

Grey marl, . 

Dark shale, 

Grey marl, 

Ironstone, Bassey Mine (Anthracomya Phillipsi), 
^Coal, Bassey Mine, .... 
■ Grey marls, ... 

Coal, Littlerow, . . . . . 

Black shale, 

Grey marl, 

Black shale (Anthracotnya Phillipsi), 

Grey marl, .... 

Grey grit, ... 

Grey marl, . 
^ Peacock coal, just seen. 


Ft. ins. 
5 

1 2 
15 

5 

6 
22 

6 

2 

M 

1 6 
I 6 

9 

4 
10 

1 
17 




(No. 123. Memoirs of Geological Sm-vey, p. 42.) 



246 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

In thfe abstract of the boring at Newstead, near Trentham, given on 
pp. 75-81 of the Geological Memoir, thin seams of bass and of coal and beds 
of fireclay were penetrated at a depth of 557 feet, and again at a depth of 
728 feet to 807 feet; but Bassymine ironstone was only met with at a depth of 
1946 feet 4 inches, below which the section shows thick beds of fireclay and 
comparatively thin seams of coal down to a depth of 2180 feet. 

At George Street, Newcastle-under-Lyme (Staffordshire), the Bassymine 
coal is said to be about 1300 feet below the surface, and to remain at that 
level to somewhere near Hanford. 

These facts explain why so many potteries are situated as they are, and 
how it is that fireclay " marl "-pits form an almost continuous line between 
Longton and Goldenhill, a distance of seven or eight miles, along the line of 
upheaval and denudation of the coal-measures, on which are found the six 
large towns — Longton, Fenton, Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Burslem, and 
Tunstall — constituting " The Potteries" district. 

In Shropshire, around Broseley, Jackfield, Coalport, and Madeley Market, 
somewhat similar fireclays from the coal-measures are used for saggar-making, 
the upper coal-measures being apparently well developed in the Coalbrook- 
dale coalfield. 

In Derbyshire and Leicestershire the potters of Woodville, Church Gresley, 
Swadlincote, and Ashby-de-la-Zouche make use of local fireclays for saggars. 
These strata, according to Hull's remarks upon the Leicestershire coalfield, 
appear to belong to the middle and lower coal-measures. 

In Chesterfield District, what is called the " Sida " fireclay, from beneath 
the gannister, together with the very siliceous Brampton brownware clay, 
from under the coals, are used for saggar-making. 

In Yorkshire the far-famed fireclays of the Leeds and Huddersfield portion 
of the great Notts, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire coalfield furnish abundant 
saggar-making material. 

In Northumberland and Durham the coal-measures furnish the fireclays 
for saggar-making in the three chief centres of Newcastle-on-Tyne, Gateshead, 
and Sunderland. 

North British potters also make considerable use of clays from the coal- 
measures and gannister beds for saggar-making. The Glenboig Union 
Fireclay Co., of Coatbridge, Cumbernauld, and Gartcosh, whose works were 
originally commenced in 1836, claim to be the largest manufacturers of 
fireclay in the world, and exhibit a long array of medals for excellence. 

Their beds of fireclay are said to be in the millstone-grit formation, and 
to occur geologically on a horizon 60 fathoms below the Drumgray 'coal, 
and 240 fathoms above the Kilsyth coking coal. When used for making 
saggars, the Glenboig fireclay needs long weathering or exposure, and some 
admixture of softer clay from more directly under a coal-seam. 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS-Saggar Marls 247 

Another firm raising excellent saggar clay is that of Messrs. P. & M. 
Hurll, of Gartlison and Garnqueen, who appear to have secured wide 
appreciation among stoneware potters, whose requirements must be par- 
ticularly exacting. 

Further north the eminent firm of J. Dougall & Son, of Bonnybridge, raise 
very serviceable fireclays, from beds below the millstone, for firebricks and 
saggars. In Kirkcaldy district fireclay from local coal-pits is used for saggars. 

Hence it appears that throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain 
the carboniferous formations are most generally looked to for saggar clays. 

In Ireland the only county entered in the Mines and Quarries Report^ 
Part III., "Output" statistics for 1901, as raising fireclay is Tyrone; but 
probably other coalfields of Ireland are capable of yielding clays amenable to 
treatment for saggar-making. 

In a section of " Castlecomer " coal basin. Peacock coal, i foot 10 inches 
thick, is entered, with 12 feet of beds above it. And in the " Kilronan " 
section, 10 to 15 feet of grey soft clay with a roof of coal is shown, and 
above this clay 24 to 45 feet of white sandstone. (Hull's Coalfields of Great 
Britain, etc., p. 332.) 

In France very different material appears to be used. Brongniart, in his 
list of saggar clays used at Sevres, mentions refractory clays from Abondant 
near Dreux, Conde, Forges-les-Eaux, Moret, Montereau, Le Bretelle, Montigny, 
Retourneloup, and Provins ; and gives elaborate tabulated results indicating 
the behaviour of .these clays in various combinations under fire. The 
ordinary mixture for saggars was forty parts of clay with sixty parts of 
crushed old saggars coarsely sieved. With regard to Limoges, Brongniart 
remarked that the saggar clay used there was obtained from Malaise, near 
Limoges. {Traite des Arts C^ramiques.) 

At the present time the writer is given to understand that Limoges 
porcelain- makers obtain saggar clay largely from Poitiers and Berry. In 
other localities French ceramists obtain refractory clays for saggars from 
Beaujard near Provins (Seine-et-Marne), Longueville, Montereau, Tavers, 
Villenauxe, Beaubec-la-Roziere, Moret-sur-Loing, Sully (Oise), Bbulogne- 
sur-Mer, Mussidan (Dordogne), Neuvic-sur-l'Isle (Dordogne), etc. 

Nearly all French saggar clays appear to be of tertiary character when 
not kaolins, and are thus of an entirely different kind from the Staffordshire 
and other saggar clays of Great Britain, partaking rather of the nature of 
Devon, Dorset, and Hants clays, except, perhaps, those of Abondant, which, 
from Brongniart's description, appear to be related to mountain limestone 
pocket clays. 

Hull shows that the upper coal-measures are practically absent in France^ 
but middle coal-mea.sures occur at Alais and St. Etienne, and lower coals at 
Auchy-au-Bois. There are coalfields also at Therounne, a few miles N.E. 



248 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

of Boulogne ; and anthracite at Ishre. From these one would expect fireclays 
of serviceable quality; although it does not follow that all clays of coal- 
measures are fireclays. 

In Belgium refractory clays — apparently tertiary — occur in the neigh- 
bourhood of Andenne, and from this source some of the saggar clays are 
derived. 

Hull mentions a long, narrow coal formation in Belgium, extending from 
Aix-la-Chapelle westward by Li^ge, Namur, Mons, and Valenciennes into 
France. 

The writer, however, has not ascertained in what manner and to what 
extent the clays associated therewith are exploited for the use of ceramists. 

In Holland, Messrs. Petrus Regout & Co., of Maestricht, courteously 
inform the writer that German clays from the Eifel and the Palatinate, 
and Belgian clays from Andenne, are generally used for saggars ; and that 
the aforenamed clays from Germany are not from coal - pits, but are of 
tertiary origin. 

In Denmark comparatively inferior kaolin, from the island of Bornholm, 
is said to be used for saggars ; and this clay is exported in large quantities 
to Germany for fireclay purposes. 

The Fajancefabrik at Aluminia use the Bornholm clays mixed with 
English and German fireclays for saggars. 

In Germany, Mr. W. Jackson, A.R.C.S., informs me that " the clays used 
for making saggers in Germany are of three kinds : — 

" a. Raw china-clays (Roh-kaolinen). 

" b. Fireclays of shaley character (Steinkohlen-thone). 

" c. Plastic refractory clays (Braunkohlen-thone). 

" The raw china-clays are the naturally occurring heterogeneous mixtures 
of clay, quartz, and felspathic detritus which constitute china-clay deposits. 
This material is used in admixture with 'grog' {chamotte) and variable 
quantities of the plastic clays for the sake of tenacity. These mixtures 
form the saggars for the porcelain industry. The raw china-clays are 
found in Prussia (near Sennewiz, Saaran, etc.), in Saxony (near Meissen, 
Aue, etc.), and in Bavaria (near Aschafifenburg), and in many other districts. 
The shaley fireclays are similar to the clays used for saggers in English 
factories, and occur in the carboniferous strata of Saarbrucken, in Silesia, 
Saxony, and Bohemia. The plastic clays are found in strata corresponding 
with the English miocene beds, and are similar to the Devonshire ball-clays. 
They occur largely developed on the Rhine near Coblenz, and in many other 
localities." 

Bischop mentions that a certain clay found at Lothain (Saxony) is 
highly refractory, and particularly prized on that account. He also tells of 
many other localities where refractory clays are found, mostly of tertiary 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Saggar Marls 249 

origin, such as those of Dunkeritz, Groplitz, Koitsch, Bulsnitz, Waldenburg, 
Leisnig, Ragowitz, Colditz, Borna, Mehren, Bantzen, Kummersberg, Bornstadt, 
Lieskan, Riinthal, etc. 

In the United States of America the clays used for saggars appear to be 
partly from cretaceous and tertiary formations of New Jersey and West 
Tennessee, and partly from coal-measures and upper carboniferous rocks of 
Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, etc. 

Referring to the vast carboniferous formations of North America, aggre- 
gating to 229,059 square miles, Hull asserts that its vegetation is at least 
generically identical with that of Europe, and that the coal-measures, as in 
England, rest upon a floor of carboniferous limestones, with, in some places, 
millstone grit intervening. He assumes, therefore, that the age of the coal- 
fields in both countries is identical. Hence it is reasonable to expect in some 
localities saggar clays of every grade common to Great Britain. 

Langenbeck writes :— " The clays used for yellow-ware belong to the class 
commercially known as second-class fireclays ; the same from which common 
firebrick and such terracotta articles as stove and flue linings, chimney-pots, 
garden vases, etc., are made. They are generally the common buff or blue 
clays of the coal-measures, and are widely distributed in all our carboniferous 
exposures." {Ckem. of Pottery, p. 66, Chem. Pub. Co., Easton, Pa.) 

Professor Orton, of Ohio State University, writes that the clays of the coal- 
measures are used in the States for firebrick saggars, tiling, and yellow-ware. 
The fireclays are found in connection with coal veins, usually directly under 
coal stratum, though sometimes above it, and sometimes coal replaces it. 
The buff clays of the Beaver Valley, the flint-clays of Mount Savage and Bolivar 
are coal-measure clays. 

Still, in many cases there seems to be an appreciable difference between 
our Staffordshire saggar marls and the coal-measure fireclays of the States, 
for an American manufacturing potter of great experience, who also knows 
Staffordshire well, assures the writer there are no clays in the States that 
exactly correspond to what are known as Staffordshire " marls." 

What is called the " plastic fireclay " of Mount Savage, Maryland, is an 
indurated clay of light-grey tint and slightly gritty grain, possessing the hard- 
ness and outward appearance of the best siliceous fireclays of Scotland ; but a 
friend, who is intimately acquainted with both classes of fireclay, writes : — " Our 
plastic clay is similar in appearance to the Lanarkshire clays, but there is a 

wide difference when burnt The plastic fireclays from the coal-measures 

of this country are all very poor fireclays, and none are in use for the manu- 
facture of the best qualities of firebrick, as they will not stand the fire 

Our plastic clays, however, make excellent building brick, and our enamelled 
brick are close and dense, absorbing less than 5 per cent, of moisture." 

The " flint "-clay of Mount Savage is a highly indurated clay of dark- 



250 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

drab tint, slate-like hardness, fracturing into sharply angular fragments with 
keen edges, in some measure resertibling the conchoidal fracture of flints. Its 
general appearance is that of an excessively indurated cane marl. 

Langenbeck says that "flint-clay" eagerly absorbs water, yielding a 
mass of shell-like splinters, but that "a year's exposure to weather, while 
reducing it to a fine sand, fails to produce a workable clay." {Chem. of 
Pottery, p. 69.) 

That is to say, it is wanting in plasticity for pot-making purposes. But 
he points out that these flint-clays are more refractory than the plastic clays 
which are used as bonds in making fireclay products, and that, as a conse- 
quence, firebrick are usually graded into first and second qualities, according 
to the proportion of flint-clay they contain. {Ibid., p. 170.) 

The same author notes that the common idea that all " flint-clays " are 
highly refractory is nevertheless a mistaken one, for not a few are of low 
quality. 

Mr. Shriver, Mining Superintendent of the Union Mining Company's 
works at Mount Savage (Md.), informs the writer that their " flint "-clay shows 
considerable difference in colour in its native state, due to the different 
amounts of organic matter, the blacker pieces being higher in carbon. He 
further states that in a heat test the darker pieces show the greatest 
refractory power, not vitrifying below Seger Cone No. 34. 

Another expert in Mount Savage "flint "-clay expresses a belief that 
it is as refractory as Glenboig clay, but to what extent this has been put to 
satisfactory and impartial test the writer is not informed. 

The two most important states producing fireclays are Pennsylvania 
and Ohio ; for although Maryland took precedence in the discovery of 
"flint "-clay, Pennsylvania followed soon after by the discovery of similar 
clay at Bolivar, the industry beginning there about 1838. It has since 
progressed so fast that Pittsburg now claims the distinction of being one 
of the leading markets of the world for highly refractory products. 
According to Brick, July 1903, Pennsylvania leads every other state in 
the union in the matter of firebrick-making. 

As to Ohio, Dr. Ries says : — " The fireclays are obtained entirely from 
the carboniferous, especially the coal-measures. In the lower carboniferous, 
an important flint-clay is worked at Sciotoville and Portsmouth. In the 
conglomerate measures, the Tionesta, Upper and Lower Mercer, Sharon, 
and Quakertown coals are underlain by a seam of fireclay which is 
worked at Massillon, the Lower Mercer being worked in Stark, Tuscara- 
was, Hocking, and Muskingum counties. In the lower coal-measures clay 
underlies the Upper and Lower Freeport, Middle and Lower Kittanning, 
and Brookville coals. That from the Kittanning far exceeds all the 
others in value, and is extensively worked" {Clays of the U.S. East of the 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Saggar Marls 251 



In the Geological Survey Report on the Mineral 
Ohio ranks first as a clay-producing and clay- 



Mississippi River, p. 66.) 
Resources of U.S., ipoi, 
manufacturing state. 

Large quantities of saggar clays and other fireclays are also raised in 
New Jersey State, notwithstanding that, according to Mr. J. C. Smock, 
Acting State Geologist, there are no coal-measures in New Jersey. Dr. Ries 
tells us New Jersey now ranks fifth among the clay-producing states, but he 




Fig. 145.— Shale-pit near Belleville (111.). {By permission of U.S. Geological Survey.) 

shows by his tabulated list that in 1901 it ranked third. (See p. 166, Clays 
of U.S. East of the M. R.) And in the Geological Survey Report on the 
Mineral Resources of the United States, ipoi. New Jersey State is ranked 
third in this respect. 

The principal locality of clay-mining in this state is near Woodbridge, 
Perth Amboy, and South Amboy, at the mouth of the Raritan River. Owing 
partly to the quality of the product and partly to the very convenient and 
easily accessible situation, and its proximity to populous centres, a great 
industry has been developed. 



252 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE/AND MOSAIC 

New Jersey clays, Dr. Ries tells us, not only form the basis of an 
important local industry, but " large quantities of them are also shipped 
to neighbouring states, including New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Ohio." 

Dr. Geo. H. Cook, who devoted great attention to these clays, noted some 
two hundred different kinds, and published in 1878 a most exhaustive report 
upon them. 

For saggar-making it seems that usually the inferior qualities of New 
Jersey plastic siliceous fireclays are mixed with rather more than equal 
weight of indurated clays from the carboniferous strata of Maryland, Ohio, 
or Pennsylvania, such as those of Mount Savage (Md.) and Akron (O.); or 
with the kaolinique crude clays from Hollisdayburg (Pa.). 

Dr. Ries states that the light-grey clay from Mr. Mandle's mines, three 
miles from Currier, in Western Tennessee, also is shipped to East Liverpool, 
Ohio, for saggars. 

There are also several kinds of clay found within a few miles of Trenton 
(N.J.), which are said to be used for saggars. 

Respecting Illinois, Dr. Ries writes : — " The coal-measure section embraces 
sixteen seams of coal. No. i being the lowest, which are interbedded with a 
great series of shales, clays, and sandstones. The under-clays are often of a 
refractory character. Owing to the nearly horizontal position of the beds, 
mining is usually carried on by shaft, although at several localities, as Gales- 
burg and Belleville [fig. 145], great outcrops of shales occur. The best beds 
of potter's and fireclays in the state are associated with the lower or No. i 
coal-seam." {Prof. Paper 11, p. 95.) 

Saggar and Setter Marl Mixtures.— In the actual use of these clays 
and "marls" in Staff"ordshire, employers and operatives acquire individual 
preferences both as to quality of " marl " or clay, and proportion of " sherds," 
" gfog," pitchers, or sandstone to be intermixed ; hence no hard and fast rule 
can be laid down. Indeed, one firm of marl-getters state that they have 
twenty different ways of preparing such compositions to enable them to 
satisfy their clients. In the first place, the mixture must possess special 
suitability for the appliance to be formed of it ; for instance, firebricks, 
fireclay-quarries, saggars, boxes, setters, each need specially compounded 
mixtures. 

In Simeon Shaw's time (1837) the compound for potter's saggars was 
usually 

50 parts of grey marl, 
25 ,, ,, black marl, 
25 , , , , ground saggars, 

and by careful selection of the "marls" or slender fireclays in question it is 
probable that such a compound would answer the purpose to-day ; but ideal 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Saggar iMarls 253 

mixtures for the preparation of saggars, of greatest practicable wearing power, 
would, we are informed, be approximately as under : — 



For Saggar Sides. For Saggar Bottoms. 
4 barrowfuls 4 barrowfuls. 



Marl Mixtures. 

" Peacock " marl or fireclay, 

"Littlerow" „ „ . . 

■' Bassy mine " cane marl, . ■ i> i 

Broken biscuit-oven saggars, . • • 3 ., 6 ,, 

the above ground together through perforated grids in the pan of a powerful 
edge-runner mill, the holes ranging from one-eighth of an inch to three-eighths 
of an inch, and the grids being frequently replaced as the mesh wears larger ; 
the ground compound then well tempered with water, soaked, and pugged. 

But ideal mixtures are not always convenient ; the necessary proportion of 
siliceous marl, such as Peacock marl, may not be available, or the operative 
saggar-maker may prefer more plastic marls; consequently, more repre- 
sentative mixtures of what is now in use are as under: — 



Side Marl Mixture for Saggars. 

2 barrowfuls " Peacock" marl or fireclay \ 

i, T -Hi " or similar marls 

3 „ "Littlerow' ,, „ r ^^ (, ^^ 

4 ,, "Bassymine" or cane marl ) ' 
6 , , broken saggars 

Bottom Marl Mixture for Saggars. 
2 barrowfuls " Peacock " marl or fireclay 



or similar marls. 

" Bassymine " or cane marl J " 

broken saggars 



ground through perforated grids in an edge-runner mill |^-inch to -|-inch 
mesh, then tempered, soaked, and pugged. 

Mixture for Fire Quarries and Setters. 

18 barrowfiils Peacock marl or fireclay. 
6 ,, broken biscuit pitchers. 

I ,, sandstone (preferably calcined). 

Where Peacock marl is not available, a rather coarsely siliceous marl may 
take its place, if refractory. 

The mixture' being formed as above, it is all ground together, well tempered, 
Icngsoaked, and pugged. But the proportion of pitchers and sandstone must 
be varied according to the condition and quality of the marl. A strong fire- 
resisting marl, needing less of both pitchers and sandstone, or possibly no 
sandstone, may be desirable. On the other hand, if a more plastic or cane 
marl is used, then considerably more of pitchers and of sandstone may have 
to be introduced to secure good results. 



2 54 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Mixture for Cranks or Boxes. 

7 barrowfuls cleanest weathered " Peacock marl " (fireclay). 
3 „ pulverized biscuit white earthenware pitchers. 
I ,, gijound sandstone (millstone grit or gannister). 

To be ground together in a solid-bottomed pan, edge-runner mill, and 
screened through sieves ^j-inch mesh; then soaked fourteen days, during 
which it is turned over a number of times, and then pugged through a slow- 
working pug-mill with small orifice. 

Another Setter-Clay Mixture. 

2 parts ball-clay. 

2 „ saggar clay (fireclay). 

2 ,, fine grog, i.e., crushed saggars. 

I „ sand (preferably calcined). 

In selecting marls or fireclays for any of the foregoing mixtures, it is 
desirable to avoid as far as practicable contamination by fragments of the 
shales and ironstone occurring in contiguous strata ; also the nodular con- 
cretions often found in the marl itself; because such impurities may boil up, 
blister, blacken, or fly off and strike upon the wares during burning. Some 
of the Staffordshire slender fireclays are impregnated by very deleterious 
concretionary substances of this character, and these must be carefully 
picked out. 

Respecting the influence of grog in saggar-marl mixtures, a very interest- 
ing series of experiments and observations are recorded in Trans. N.S. 
Ceramic Society, vol. ii, pp. 14-25. 

Researches were made as to the comparative effect of proportion of 
mixtures of 5 parts marl with i part grog, and 5 parts marl with 3 parts grog ; 
also as to the comparative effect of using grog of different degrees of coarse- 
ness, namely : — {a) Grog that passed through a 4" sieve, but was retained by a 
lo' sieve ; {b') passed through 10" sieve, but retained by 16" sieve ; {c) passed 
16' sieve, retained by 40* sieve; {d) passed through 40* sieve. 

Results of these researches were carefully tabulated, and the ascertained 
relative contraction, porosity, tensile strength, and behaviour upon heating 
and cooling systematically recorded, both after ''earthenware" firing and 
"china" firing. 

Summing up results, Messrs. H. W. Edwards and A. Leese, who con- 
ducted these experiments under the supervision of Mr. W. Jackson, A.R.C.S., 
at Sutherland Institute, Longton, state their conclusions thus : — 

" Effects of increasing the size of grog. 
" ( I ) No regular effect on contraction. 
"(2) Decreases strength both in the green and fired states. 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Saggar Marls 255 

" (3) The largest grog greatly increases resistance to fracture by sudden 

temperature changes. 
"(4) Increases porosity. 

"Effects of an increasing proportion of grog. 
"(i) Decreases contraction. 

"(2) Decreases strength both in the green and fired states. 
"(3) No effect on resistance to temperature changes. 
" (4) Increases porosity. 
" From' a practical point of view, we see that the two principal properties 
of saggars, viz., tensile strength and resistance to temperature changes, 
would be inversely altered by using larger or smaller grog — leaving out the 
fine dust — and THE BEST mixture for all purposes can only be 

ASCERTAINED BY PRACTICAL EXPERIMENT ON A LARGE SCALE." 

From the interesting discussion that followed upon the reading of the 
aforenamed record of researches, it is possible to glean some useful matter. 
For instance, Mr. A. Heath related a personal experience in the matter of 
losses of " setters '' or " cranks " in the manufacture of chinaware, and explained 
that the loss had been brought down from twenty dozens per oven to not more 
than one and a half dozens per oven, by substituting crushed " china " pitchers for 
grog in the mixture of which the " setters " or " cranks " were made. In-grinding 
the china pitchers all sizes greater than would pass through a & sieve were 
discarded. Thus the composition became one of marl (fireclay) and china 
pitchers, instead of marl (fireclay) and grog (burnt saggars). 

Commenting upon the above incident, the chairman, Mr. Henry Watkin, 
observed that " The results were the same as some obtained by himself some 
years ago, when he found a mixture of china-clay and best white earthenware 
biscuit pitchers gave a body capable of withstanding a temperature sufficient to 
fuse china, and excessively rapid temperature change. There was an enormous 
waste of best white pitchers, while the common broken saggars were utilised. 

It appeared to him that the wrong material was being wasted It was 

his opinion that for the improvement of our saggars we must look more and 
more to the biscuit pitchers and less and less to grog." {Trans. North Staff. 
Ceramic Soc, vol. ii. p. 29.) 

The wearing power or " life " of saggars and fireclay appliances in general 
is an item of considerable importance economically on a decorative-tile works. 
The burning question of the firebrick trade, as to the comparative values 
of machine-made semi-dry and of hand-made or "slop" firebrick, finds a 
counterpart in the diversity of opinion respecting fireclay apparatus of the 
more varied kind used by potters. Scientific tests for refractoriness do not 
of themselves take into account all the practical considerations depending 
upon relative cohesion during incandescence and when cold ; consequently, 



256 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

ordinary industrial and empirical tests are necessary : for, as Langenbeck 
aptly expresses it, " The loss the potter fears in his saggars is not from 
fusing, but from cracking. Their walls, compared with brick, are comparatively 
thin, and, being filled with ware and piled in ' bungs ' to the height of 1 5 feet 
and more, often have to bear considerable weight. While a brick, forming 
part of a solid wall .... presents but one front to the fire, saggars are 
surrounded with the fire gases, and, upon cessation of the fire, with the strong 

draught of the cooling air A saggar made of clay burning dense at 

the heat of the kiln will not remain intact under such conditions." {Chemistry 
of Pottery, p. 164.) 

Considering the fluxing tendencies of alkalies, alkaline earths, and oxides 
of iron, when brought into intimate contact with silica or silicates and 
subjected to high temperatures, one would have expected chemical analysis 
to have been of greater value than it actually proves to be. According to 
James Dunnachie, of Glenboig, a most experienced and successful North 
British fireclay goods manufacturer, " Chemical analysis does not reveal all 
that is necessary to enable us to form a correct estimate of the characteristics 
of a firebrick and its suitability for certain kinds of furnaces ; much depends 
on the physical structure and arrangement of the particles composing it, as 
well as upon other peculiarities consequent upon the mode of manufacture. 
We often find that two kinds of firebricks, made from clays apparently 
identical in chemical composition, differ widely in their refractory qualities." 
(From the Engineering Magazine, reprinted in British Claytvorker, February 
1899, p. 321.) 

Similar opinion, expressed at much greater length, and arising from a 
wholly distinct set of experiences with fireclays worked in the United States 
of America, is recorded in the British Clayworker, December 1896, p. 213. 
This observer ventured to say : — " We can take the very best clay .... and by 
improper manufacture produce an inferior brick to one made out of poorer 
clay, but treated to make the best out of it. This does not say, of course, 
that a brick of the highest class can be made out of bad clay." {B.C. W., 
December 1896.) 

Again, Langenbeck asserts, even more positively, that "to value a clay 
directly and solely by its 'oxygen ratio' calculated from the analysis, so 
commonly taught the public by chemists .... is, to say the least, misleading. 
All that this ratio is supposed to teach— the relative fusibilities of clays— is 
more expeditiously and accurately determined by direct fusion .... for the 
structure of a clay plays quite as important a part in its fusibility as its 
chemical composition." {Chemistry of Pottery, p. 164.) 

To attempt to specify chemical desiderata where requirements differ so 
much, and where long practical experience so strongly emphasises the fact 
that physical condition exercises such a potent influence, would appear 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Saggar Marls 257 

superfluous; nevertheless, for what they are worth, a number of chemical 
analyses of representative fireclays, saggar marls, and the like are appended. 



TABLE OF ANALYSES OF FIRECLAYS AND SAGGAR MARLS. 



Material. 


SiO^. 


A1203. 


FeO 

and 

Fe^Oj. 


TiO. 


CaO. 


MgO. 


Ca. 
Phos. 


Alk. 


»• 


1^ 


t 

■1 

S 


Analyst or 
Authority. 


"Peacock" fireclay, 


6383 


25-75 


I -35 


0-93 




056 








7-99 




Bowes & Sims, 1904. 


"Bassymine" marl, . 


63-38 


21-01 


3-16 


0-24 


0-52 


0-95 


trace 


3"22 




8-01 




J. Lones, 1904. 


Sneyd marl, 


76-29 


16-32 


1-85 




trace 




trace 




^67 ~ 




T. Blackshaw, 1885. 


Hanley saggar marl, . 


62 'lO 


28-72 


3-28 




085 


0-21 






4-84 






A. Catchu, 1887. 


„ quarry marl, . 


57-25 


36-15 


I -95 




1-34 


0-21 


... 


... 






3-10 


A. Catchu, 1 887. 


Stourbridge fireclay, . 


72-51 
63-40 


20-26 

3170 


3-30 
3-00 




0-89 


1-48 


I -S3 










Prof. Abel. 




1-90 




., . . 


65-10 


22-22 


1-92 




0-14 


0-18 


{^i) 


0-18 


0-58 


7-10 


2-18 


Mus. Pract. Geol. 


Leeds fireclay, . 


70-55 


20-27 


1-45 




0-75 


0-24 


... 




0-22 


6-52 




Ansell. 


„ tender fireclay, 


64-92 


25-53 


2-14 




0-33 






0-50 


^ 


71 




Ansell. 


Shibden (Halifax) fireclay, 
Blaydon Burn fireclay. 


79-60 
69-25 


i8-2i 

17-90 


0-52 
2-97 




OM 


0-43 




0-69 


■_■■ 




Ansell. 


1-30 




7-50 


Glenboig fireclay. 


62-50 


34-00 


2-70 










0-80 






Prof. Abel. 


Star Glenboig fireclay, cal- 
























cined, .... 


65-41 


30-55 


1-70 


1-33 


0-69 


0-64 




0-65 








E. Riley, 1875. 


Gartcosh fireclay, calcined. 


61-90 


32-34 


3-02 


2-09 


0-37 


0-20 




0-36 








W. Wallace. 


Gartlison or Gamqueen, . 


56-70 


38-52 


2-15 


0-76 


0-80 


0-19 




0-88 








Tatlock & Co. 


Bonnyside white gannister. 


























calcined, 


9550 


3-38 


0-05 


0-36 


0-45 


trace 




0-26 








Tatlock & Co. 


Bonnyside fireclay, cal- 


























cined 


55-70 


39-62 


2 00 


0-92 


0-61 


0-45 




0-70 








Tatlock & Co. 


Bonnyside firebrick, 


66-20 


29-09 


3'2' 




0-54 


0-40 




0-56 








W. R. Hutton. 


Abondant (France), . 


50-60 


35-20 


0-40 














13-10 


... 


Brongniart. 


Retourneloup (France), 


42-00 


38-96 


0-85 


... 


1-04 


0-I7 




trace 




16-96 


2-27 


Brongniart. 


Neuvic (France), 


47-80 


36-90 


1-70 






trace 








13-10 




Russey. 


Palatina X firebrick (Ger- 
man-), .... 


54-22 


42-90 


1-67 




0-36 


o-ii 




I -13 








Pfalzische Co. 


Bomholm clay (Denmark), 


72-50 


19-50 


I -00 




0-18 


0-50 








5-92 


0-27 


Brongniart. 


Delaware saggar clay. 


72-33 


16-75 


1-29 




2-00 


0-07 








6-84 


I-I4 




Bolivar (Pa.) clay, average, 


52-23 


26-03 


1-29 


0-49 


0-33 


0-13 




062 




ii-iS 




Reese Hammond. 


„ "flint "-clay. 


50-84 


30-74 


3-21 


1-26 


0-16 


0-28 




0-54 




13-5 


... 




it 11 )> 


43-46 


26-39 


1-03 




o-o8 


0-24 








13-29 






„ plastic clay, . 


59-83 


24-58 


1-65 


i"i7 


0-28 


0-87 




3-11 




783 




S. S. Hartranft. 
Dr. G. H. Cook. 


Mt. Savage (Md.) clay, . 


44-40 
56-80 


38-56 
30-80 


1-08 
1-12 






o-n 




0-2,5 

o-8o 




14-57 
10-50 




Woodbridge (N.J. ) clay, . 
„ sandy clay, . 


■44-90 
71-80 


38-24 

18-92 


0-96 
0-88 


1-80 


trace 


o-ii 




0-15 
048 




14-10 
6-70 


0-70 
0-50 


Dr. G. H. Cook. 
Dr. G. H. Cook. 


Beaver Valley (Pai)= (bufif 


























clay), .... 


61-97 


22-94 


I -81 


1-97 


0-44 


0-52 




1-75 




7-37 


1-48 




New Brighton (Pa.), 


60-14 


26-64 


2-64 




0-51 


0-29 






9-66 


•" 


... 





■7 



258 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Buff or Cane Marls.— The term " can " marl often appears in quaint old 
Staffordshire recipes, and local custom must again excuse us for referring to 
these slender fireclays as marls, though the percentage of calcium compounds 
is practically only a mere trace. Staffordshire cane marls are the selected, 
cleanest, finest, most plastic grey marls or slender fireclays of the upper coal- 
measures, mostly of the Black Band series, and preferably perhaps the 
lower Bassymine marl ; but the Littlerow seam and the Upper Peacock marl 
may occasionally yield useful cane marls for certain purposes. In the 
numerous seams above the Bassymine, comprising the Black Band series, 
a great variety occur ; each seam having its own peculiarities only to be 
learned by experiment or by manufacturing practice. They are raised at 
Tunstall, Cobridge, Hanley, and Fenton in North Staffordshire, and some- 
-what similar marls are raised in South Staffordshire, and in parts of the 
Derbyshire, Shropshire, and Yorkshire coalfields. 

In every instance only special seams are taken, and great care exercised 
in selection, for there are bad sections in most seams that must be avoided. 
The very dark-grey or black marls often prove sticky rather than plastic, 
and preference should be given to the light-grey marls where these possess 
the necessary qualities of colour, fineness, and freedom from specks. For the 
purposes of the decorative-tile maker such " marls " should not be milled 
in any way, but should be taken direct from the marl-pit to weathering 
grounds, and there spread out in shallow heaps and exposed to weather for 
some months ; during this time they must be occasionally turned over, and 
any nodules or detritus of a foreign nature carefully picked off. When exten- 
sive weathering yards are not available, the slipmakers should skim off only 
the upper layers of the marl-heaps as required from time to time. 

In certain districts in Germany similar clays from the coal-measures are 
•said to be used for tiles and architectural terracotta. Mr. Jackson states 
that they closely resemble English carboniferous fireclays applied to similar 
purposes, and burn to many shades of colour from almost white. 

In Belgium a clay burning to a remarkably pretty cane colour or light- 
yellowish buff colour is raised near Andenne. 

In the United States excellent buff-burning clays are obtained in Beaver 
Valley district, Pennsylvania, and near East Liverpool, Ohio. And the 
eminent American ceramist Langenbeck observes that some of the " flint "- 
clays, if specially prepared, are serviceable for such purposes as are under 
consideration, but that they have been barred by physical characteristics. 
(See Chemistry of Pottery, pp. 68-70.) 

In the choice of these clays, preference should be given to such as retain 
a good and even colour when burned, are as free as practicable from specks, 
<lo not " cut " or crack, are not excessively refractory, and are of fine smooth 
grain. This bouquet of desiderata may not always be attainable; yet 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Buff Marls 259 

remarkably excellent cane " marls " or slender fireclays exist, and only need 
seeking out and proper selection and treatment. 

But the rich cane-yellow colour of a " marl " may sometimes be much 
impaired by a tendency to become variously tinted when burned ; possibly 
this arises from the presence of a soluble colourant which is drawn to the 
surface during drying or burning. 

At other times it is not improbable that the defect is induced by careless 
or unsuitable burning. Professor E. Orton, of Ohio State University, in his 
paper on " The R61e of Iron in Clay-burning," remarks upon flashing thus : — " It 
has been shown that where a clay is frequently subjected to alternate 
oxidizing and reducing conditions, that it shows a change in colour, which is 
superficial if the ware is vitrified and dense, and entire when the ware is porous. 
This colour is that produced by ferric oxide, only darker and stronger. In a 
buff clay it is golden, russet, or brown. In a red clay it is chocolate or 
almost black. It has b6en shown that this colour cannot be developed by a 
continuously oxidizing burn. It requires reduction, followed by oxidation, 
to develop it. The more times this change occurs, the more brilliant the 
colour, and the easier it is to develop. It also requires that the reoxidation 
shall be as well marked as the reduction." (Trans. Am. C.S., vol. v. p. 425.) 

In the course of the same interesting paper. Professor Orton further 
observed that " Buff-burning clays do not burn buff because, of the exact 
amount of iron they contain. Often they might either burn red or white, 
so far as the iron content is concerned. Obviously, quantity alone is. a less 

perfect explanation for this group than for either of the others Suffice 

it to say that there are certainly two sorts of buff-burnjng clays with different 
histories, and whose colour proceeds from different causes. In both, the 
colour is thought to be due to the chemical influence of other elem.ents on the 
iron oxide." {Trans. Am. Cer. Soc, vol. v. p. 38 j.) 

In England, however, three varieties of buff-burning clays present them- 
selves in nature, viz., clays of the coal-measures, which burn to a cane-tinted 
buff; clays of the tertiary formations of Devon and Dorset; which burn to a 
rather dull buff; and clays of the calcareous ferruginous class, whose tint 
when burned may be very irregular and uncertain. 

It is unnecessary to discuss these individually in this paragraph, but it 
may be well just to record the impression . that titanic acid in some chemical 
association with iron may have to do with the colour of best cane clays. 

Red Marls and Clays. — Clays that assume a lively red colour upon 
suitable preparation and suitable burning, although often of a red colour in 
their native state, are not necessarily so; they may, indeed, be either red, 
dull purple-red, red-brown, yellow, or grey. Such clays are widely distributed 
geologically, and extensively used for making bricks, terracotta, and common 
red pottery. 



26o LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

But only a comparatively limited number of these will answer the purpose 
of ornamental floor-tile makers. By reason of the high standard of quality, 
colour, grain, and durability now ruling, the choice is circumscribed, not so 
much perhaps to particular strata, as to particular results, which are found to 
be most economically and satisfactorily attained by the use of certain strata. 

The red clays— often, incorrectly perhaps, called red marls— used for the 
purpose in Staffordshire are specially selected beds found in rather promiscuous 
positions among the upper coal-measures. Until recently many of the local 
red clays or marls of North Staffordshire were classed by geologists as 
" Permian" (see Hull's Coalfields of Great Britain, p. 182) ; but this view has 
been relinquished, and an explanation of the reasons for the change of 
classification is given in the Memoir of the Geological Survey of the Country 
around Stoke-on-Trent, recently published. 

They are now known as the " Etruria Marl Series" of the upper coal- 
measures ; but the Memoir does not clearly indicate the geological character 
of those superior portions used by ornamental floor-tile makers, therefore 
sections are not repeated here. 

In North Staffordshire red clays or " marls " for commoner purposes are 
raised around Madeley Heath, Bradwell Wood, Newcastle-under-Lyme, 
Hartshill, Penkhull, Stoke-on-Trent, Fenton, Trent Vale, Hanford, Blurton, 
Cocknage, and Cophurst ; and from among these the very best only are used 
by ornamental floor-tile makers, supplemented by other clays found around 
Wetley Moor, Wetley Rocks, Thornyedge, Cellarhead, Froghall, and Mow 
Cop. Perhaps the most highly esteemed red floor-tile clay in North Stafford- 
shire is a comparatively small bed laying near the junction of the trias sand- 
stone with the Etruria marls at Cophurst, near Longton. In Shropshire and 
in North Wales suitable clay is found around Broseley, Jackfield, Ironbridge, 
Madeley Wood, Sweeney, Penybont, Hafod, Afongoch, Ruabon, and Wrexham. 
In the south of England red tile-clay is found at Corfe Mullen and at 
Fareham, but of unascertained geological- position. In Lancashire the 
Accrington red-burning shale appears susceptible of treatment for tilemaking, 
but the writer is not cognisant of it being so utilized. In Ireland, according 
to the report by Mr. Rix, red clays are found in Co. Cork, Co. Limerick, 
Co. Antrim, Co. Down, Co. Leitrim, Co. Wicklow, Co. Meath, Co. Tipperary, 
and Co. Wejiford. Possibly some of these would furnish suitable clays. 

In France, good red tile-clay is found at St. Andr6, near Marseilles, and 
probably there are many other sources. 

In Spain red clays occur at La Brisba near Gerona, Barcelona, Tarragona, 
San Saturnine de Noya, and Valence. 

In the United States excellent red floor-tile clay is found at Pittsburg, Pa., and 
probably also at Zanesville, Ohio, the locale of the American Encaustic Tiling 
Co. Mr. W. G. Worcester, of Parkersburg (W. Va.), highly commends the 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Red Marls 261 

Bedford shale found at Cleveland (Ohio) for the manufacture of red flooring- 
tiles. He claims that it produces on burning one of the most magnificent red 
colours known, probably the finest red colour of any clay in the United States ; 
and that it possesses the property of vitrifying at a low and safe rate, because 
its point of vitrification and its melting-point are separated by a wide interval. 
Further, it retains its fine red colour even when vitrified. This red colour 
owes its source to the presence of finely divided ferric oxide, already indicated 
by the chocolate colour of the shale. It is, he says, extremely fine grained, 
and is readily made up to a plastic body. It has, however, a large shrinkage, 
and must be burned slowly. It is found at South Park, Elyria, Brownhelm, 
Cleveland ; also at several places in Crawford County and Delaware County, 
and from the latter has been traced uninterruptedly for fifteen miles south- 
ward. (Trans. A.C.S., vol. v. p. 296.) 

Preparation. — The first essential in every case is to exercise utmost 
vigilance over the selection, so that only those particular portions of the 
seams or deposits are made use of which, when, burned, are of a sufficiently 
red colour and sufficiently cohesive and durable. 

Many red marls of the "Etruria" and other series are of too poor colour 
when burnt; others too porous and weak; others, again, contain particles 
which develop into black or white or cane-coloured specks in the finished 
tile. A few red clays have excessively vitreous and plastic qualities, and 
have to be used discreetly in association with less vitreous ones, or with 
kaolin ; hence, the importance of care in primary selection and separation 
from contiguous strata. Then, many of these red clays or marls are . of an 
indurated nature, rock-like, almost stony, in the native state ; and these have 
to be laid in low heaps on extensive weathering grounds and exposed to 
the elements, the effect being accelerated by occasional turning over of the 
heaps by spade, in the course of which foreign detritus should be rigorously 
picked out. 

Properties. — Good clays for red floor-tiles and tesserae, when burned at 
a temperature and under conditions that ensure soundness of the product, 
should develop a full red colour inclining toward a crimson shade, free from 
scum, specks, and blisters, and with the least possible twisting, buckling, 
cutting, or cracking. 

Clays, experimentally found to possess most of the required qualities, but 
yielding tiles too large or too small in size, may be brought into use by inter- 
mixing with clays of opposite quality that will compensate the defects. And 
as most red bodies for ornamental floor-tiles are prepared by refining in the 
" slip '' state, the additional expense of intimate intermixing of several clays 
is small. 

It does not follow, however,, that clays - capable 6F producing pretty terra- 
cotta will answer the purpose of floor-tiles, for terracotta clays may, in some 



262 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

cases, mature in colour at so low a heat as to leave the product too weak 
for tiles. ' 

The essential cblourant is sesqui-oxide of iron — Fe^Og — which under certain 
conditions acquires and imparts to the ware a tolerably bright shade of red. 
But to attain a good red tint other things are essential; for instance, the 
almost total absence of other colourant oxides, and, in a measure, also of 
alkalies and alkaline earths. 

Maw found that 5 per cent, of caustic magnesia, when added to and 
intimately mixed with some red-burning clays, destroyed the red colour on 
calcination ; and it is well known that excess of alkali, by promoting chemical 
combination and easy fusibility of the mass, influences the colour very 
detrimentally. 

With regard to colour-development, Professor E. Orton states that" The red 

colour of red-burning clays is not in proportion to the iron contents 

Many clay containing 4 or 5 per cent, of ferric oxide burns as fine a 

red colour as others containing 7 or 8 The distribution seems 

more important than the amount. While we do not find clays burning red 
without some considerable iron in their make-up, we do not find all clays 
burning red which contain this amount of iron." {Trans. Am. Cer. Soc, 
vol. V. p. 381.) 

Further, Professor E. Orton remarks that "A red-burning clay which has been 
properly treated in the burn up to 900° C. has acquired by that time a yellowish- 
red or pale-red coloUr, which is called salmon. As the temperature continues 
to rise, this colour deepens and brightens, until by 1 100° C. in most clays it 
attains its maximum brilliance and power. This red colour is said to be that 
of free ferric oxide, which covers the grains of the other minerals with a film,, 
and creates almost as much colour and as bright a tint as if the mass were 

ferric oxide throughout The evidence that proves this to be the ferric 

oxide and not a ferric silicate or aluminate is more negative than positive, 

however The question now arises, why is it that ferric oxide can 

remain so long out of combination, when surrounded by clay silica and other 
fluxing minerals, which are one by one breaking down and entering into 
bonds with one another? The question must remain unanswered. But 
experience proves that, whatever the red colour is, it remains intact for a 
long time as the heat rises, suffering no change, except a gradual brightening 
and deepening of tint, up to a certain maximum. This maximum is not a 
fixed point for all clays. It varies with the composition of each. Those 
clays which keep it the longest are those containing least clay substance and 
most pure sand. A very sandy clay from Wisconsin was fired by the writer 
to Cone 8, in a not very oxidizing burn, and remained a fine strong red, 
bordering on purple; at this temperature. An ordinary red clay containing 
50 per cent, clay substance cannot be fired above Cone i without beginning 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS-Red Marls 263 

to show a decline. Soft fluxes like lead or alkalies, which promote silicate 
formation, tend to bring the iron into combination also, and destroy the red 
colour of ferric oxide. 

" As a rule, the retention of the red colour in its perfection, and the develop- 
ment of a close, dense, glass-like vitrification, seem to be mutually antipathetic 
condition.^. That is, in most red-burning clays their behaviour seems clearly 
to bear out the contention that the colour is due to free iron ; for as fast as 
the vitrification becomes visibly more perfect, the colour darkens and the 
body seems to approach to its point of breaking down. 

" But occasionally, or rarely, a clay is met which contradicts this impression. 
Such clays have, in the writer's experience, attained a vitrification almost like 
glass, preserving the while a red as bright and beautiful as sealing-wax. Ink 
placed on the fracture will dry and scale off without leaving a mark. 

" It is truly hard to see how iron can be wholly free and unattached in a 
silicate mass of such perfection. But when such a clay is heated past this 
culminating point, it follows the general law, and blackens as it breaks down, 
thus seeming to show that combination of the iron means loss of its ferric 

character A resume of the evidence, then, seems to indicate that 

clays are coloured red by free ferric oxide, and that combination of iron with 
clay or silica involves blackening and formation of the ferrous silicate." 
{Trans. American Ceramic Society, vol. v. pp. 413-415.) 

ANALYSES OF RED CLAYS AND MARLS. 



Source, 


SiOj. 


AI2O3. 


FeO. 


Fe^Os. 


CaO. 


MgO. 

traces 

0-97 
2-42 
0-85 
2-13 


TiO. 

\Si0j 


AlK. 


[S 

la 
0I 


|l' 


t 

."2 
'0 


Analyst or 
Authority. 


Longport, ■ . 

Cophurst,* . 
Ruabon, 
Watcombe, . 

Accrington, . 

American, . 
American(Bedford, 
Ohio), 


54-50 

85-35 
630 

57-83 
61-46 

74-75 
57-28 


1 6 'SO 
7-80 

20-10 

20-35 

24-84 
12-55 

21-13 


i-'s'i 

5-59 


13-50 

5-20 
4-84 
7-75 

1-30 
5-28 


3-37 
0-35 
1-68 

1-28 

5 79 




io-6o 

3-54 
4-39 

3-84 

3-23 

5-22 


1-40 

1-20 
••54 
2-13 


Salvetat. 

J. Baynes, F.LC. 
G. F. Harris, F.G.S. 
J. W. Ward 
(.g.C.J*'.,Dec.i895). 
Grace, Calvert, & 

Thomson. 
Langenbeck. 

D. H. Ries. 


I- 
5-47 
4-43 

0-32 
2-27 


30 


8-52 

1 



This, perhaps, may be considered the most typical clay for the purpose. 



Blue Ball-CIay. — The white-burning naturally plastic clays known to 
Staffordshire potters as blue ball-clays occur in Tertiary strata. The deposits 
have been variously classified by geologists as of Miocene and of Eocene age. 

In Great Britain three distinct yet correlated districts form the com- 



264 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

mercial sources of these clays, namely:— (i) Around Wareham, Norden, 
Goathorn, Creech Grange, and Corfe Castle, in the northern part of the Isle 
of Purbeck, Dorsetshire; (2) around Kingsteignton, Teigngrace, Homers, 
Decoy, and Newton Abbot, in South Devonshire; (3) around Marland and 
Merton, near Torrington, in North Devonshire ; their respective shipping 
ports being Poole (Dorset), Teignmouth, Bideford, and Exmouth (Devon). 

_ In the year 1862 Messrs. 

" Watts and Blake, of Newton 

Abbot, made a search for 
similar clay at Ballymac- 
adam, near Clonmel (Ire- 
land), and furnished a report 
of the search to the Clonmel 
Corporation. As only a 
small quantity of best 
quality of clay was struck 
by the borings, they re- 
linquished the lease ; but 
a local man, J. K. Fahie, 
affirmed that he had raised 
good clay from the ground, 
and also from another 
similar deposit at Cashel 
(Ireland). 

Respecting the " Corfe 
Castle" (Dorsetshire) clay- 
field, Mr. G. F. Harris com- 
municated some interesting 
particulars to the British 
Clayworker of September 
1902. From this article we 
are kindly permitted to 
reprint some illustrations 
which help to explain the 
nature of the deposits. 
Fig. 146 is a sketch- 










. LOWER 
BAGSHOT 



LONDON 
CLAY 



READING 
BeO£ 



CHALK 



a • # - " • 

O • •>» i' 
t ' • H t '" 



"/^"i-". 



&KEEN5AND 



weAUOEN 



PUIRBE.CK 
BEOS 



Fig. 146. — Sketch-map, Corfe Castle district. (By permission 
of H. G. Montgomery, Esq.) 



map of the district, indicating the disposition of the various strata. 

Fig. 147 is a section across the district showing that the Lower Bagshot 
beds under Bushey and neighbourhood, as well as the other Tertiary beds 
resting on the chalk, are much inclined to the north, and that the whole of the 
beds, to the Purbeck inclusive, partake of this dip. 

Fig. 148 is a vertical section of the beds as exposed at the Matcham clay- 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Blue Ball-Clay 265 



works; here Mr. Harris explains that the beds dip nearly due south at an 
angle of 15 degrees, being 

c ^ , . „„ . " 



Ciyifr.Ca.UU: 



^UJkuf 




-Section along line C D in fig. 146. 
of H. G. Montgomery, Esq.) 



( By pejy/iission 



exactly the reverse of what 
the average inclination of 
the Lower Bagshot beds is 
in this region. 

Particulars of the sec- 
tion at Matcham clayworks 
are as follows (fig. 148) : — 
Black earth and surface 
material with flints, 
(a) Loose white sands with ironstone bands at base, 20-40 feet. 
{b) Stiff yellowish or variegated clay — " pipeclay," 30 feet. 
{c) Pure " potter's clay " with leaves, etc., 8 feet. 
{d) Lignite with clay at base, several feet. 

The loose sands are said to be very full of water and exceedingly trouble- 
some. The yellow or variegated clay is taken off in large oblong spits and 

left in the workings. The pure " potter's 
clay" is the article so much sought 
after; it is a soft, white, and somewhat 
unctuous clay. {British Clayworker, 
September 1902, pp. 189, 190.) 

Very extensive deposits of soft, 
unctuous plastic clays, associated more 
or less with sandy clays, loams, and 
gravel beds, are found also to the north 
of the River Frome in the Poole trough, 
and for many miles around Poole, 
Parkstone, and Bournemouth; but as 
comparatively few of these maintain a 
sufficiently white colour when burnt in 
a whiteware potter's kiln, they are not 
classed as blue ball-clays by Stafford- 
shire potters, but come under the 
category of ivory ball-clays, siliceous 
buff clays, and drain-pipe clays. The 
two former will be referred to in another 
paragraph shortly. 

In South Devon the principal mines 
for whiteware potter's clays are situated at Kingsteignton, Knighton, and 
Newton Abbot, all comprised in the Bovey Basin. In February 1862 J. H. 
Key, Esq., of Newton Abbot, communicated a highly instructive paper. 




Fig. 148. — Section of Lower Bagshot beds at 
the Matcham clayworks. {By permission of 
H. G. Montgomery, Esq.) 



w, 



266 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

relating to these clay deposits, to the Quarterly Journal of the Geological 
Society, from which the following interesting excerpt is by permission 
drawn : — " The Bovey Basin is a depression beneath the level of the 
surrounding country ; its length from Bovey Tracey to about two miles 
south of Kingskerswell is about ten miles ; its breadth at the upper end 
about two and a half miles, becoming much narrower towards its southern 
extremity. Two rivers, the Teign and the Bovey, both having their sources 
in the granite of Dartmoor, run into this basin, meet above Storer, and fall 
into the sea at Teignmouth. The Teign, the larger and morii circuitous, 
for about thirteen or fourteen miles before entering the Bovey Basin, 
flows through the slate; and the Bovey River, rising near the centre of 
the moor, crosses for a short distance the slate, and runs into the basin 

at its upper end For more than a hundred years the Bovey 

Basin has been worked for pipe and potter's clay, sending off annually 

large quantities from its shipping port, Teignmouth In the 

northern part of the basin, near Bovey Tracey, an extensive pottery has 
been established, excavating the greater part of its fuel for many years 

from the adjoining beds of brown-coal or lignite Commencing on 

Knighton Heath, and running down the eastern side of the basin, are 
three principal parallel beds of clay (used in commerce), resting on, 
separated, and covered by other parallel beds of muddy clay, silt, sand, 
and gravel, all having a western inclination or dip. On the plan of the 
Bovey Basin presented to the Society (not published) the bed to the east, 
marked red, is the pipeclay (called locally the ' white body ') ; the two 
western beds, marked green, potter's clay (or the ' black body ') ; and the 

parallel beds of coarse clay, sand, etc., marked brown South of the 

Newton Railway Station the beds of fine clay thin out to a mere trace, but 
occur again at the Decoy as a well-defined and regular deposit, but here 
the dip is changed from west to east, the pipeclay now being found to 
the west, and the potter's clay, accompanied by seams of lignite, to the 
east. Further south, the beds of fine clay thin out again, still keeping 
their eastern inclination ; become again well defined at Aller, especially as 
regards the potter's clay and lignite (the pipeclay having here lost its 
distinctive qualities, being mixed up with sand and stained with ochreous 
matters) 



Fig. 149.— Section of the clay-beds near New Cross. Scale, ^-inch to a fathom. 




rs o ■Ti' ■?/ ii 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Blue Ball-Clay 267 



"in '5 

O 



«. ' Head ' of gravel. 
/ 1. Sand and gravel. 

2. Clay. 

3. Fine clay. 
S4. Silt. 

5. Muddy clay. 

6. Brown clay, with seams of lignite. 

7. Fine brown clay. 

8-12. Beds of coarse clay, sand, and gravel. 
(The space occupied by these beds is 
shortened.) 



/1 3. Brown clay. 

14. Stiff white clay. 

15. Pipeclay. 
J 16. Hard stiff clay. 

17 and 18. Muddy clay. 
19. Stiff w'.iite clay. 
20 and 2 1 . Pipeclay. 
"22. Muddy clay. 

The beds dip to the west. 



" Fig. 149 is a section across the beds of pipe and potter's clay, on the 
eastern side of the basin, near New Cross. It is constructed on data obtained 
from the inspection of deep and shallow pits from Knighton to Newton 
Marsh, from reports of the workmen, from borings, and from the super- 
intendence of the Newton Marsh clayworks. This section will nearly 
represent the stratification of the continuous clay deposit from near Knighton 
on the north to the Newton Railway Station ; with the difference that at 
the commencement of the deposit the seams of fine clay are thin, somewhat 
irregular, and to some degree mixed with quartz gravel. The dip is also 
greater than in the section ; and in several places the clay-beds show the 
action apparently of running water, portions of the fine material having 
been evidently washed away, so that the fine clay runs down to a con- 
siderable depth almost perpendicularly. From Knighton southwards the 
beds of fine clay increase in thickness, purity, and regularity, to below New 
Cross, where they begin to diminish in thickness, until lost south of Newton 
Railway Station. In two or three places narrow bands of coarser cla.y, 
generally stained, run across the finer clay ; and in several places the pipeclay 
forms two beds 



Fig. 150. — Section of the clay-beds at the Decoy. Scale, ^^j-inch to a fathom 




27 Ze" JS" Z^zs Z^ 21 20 



a. ' Head ' of gravel. 
fi and 2. Muddy clay. 

3. Fine brown clay. 

4. Small seams of lignite 
C u separated by thin beds 
o of clay. 

5-1 1. Beds of muddy clay 
and sand. 



12. Dark clay. 

13. Stiff clay. 

14. Pipeclay. 

15. Sand, fine and coarse. 

16. Muddy clay. 

17. Fine dark sand, with 

leaves and §eeds. 

18. Brown clay. 






19. Stiff white clay. 

20. Pipeclay. 

21. Rough muddy clay. 

22. Fine dark sand, with leaves, 

seeds, etc. 

23. Stiff clay. 

24. Pipeclay. 

25-28. Fine clay, with pink stains. 



268 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES,. FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

" Fig. 1 50 represents a section of the beds of clay, etc., at Decoy, and has 
been constructed from numerous observations made at the spot and in its 
vicinity during ten years. All the seams of clay shown in the section have 
been worked for considerable distances longitudinally, from 60 to 100 
feet transversely, and to depths of from 30 to 90 feet. The inclination 
of the strata here is much greater generally than, and in the opposite 
direction to, that in the section, fig. 149 It will be observed, however, that 
the superposition of the beds is almost identical with that in the last-named 

section, taken in the upper part of the basin Here and there a 

smooth water-worn stone, generally of quartz, but sometimes slate, is found 
embedded in the clay. Nodules of iron pyrites, of all sizes, from that of 
small shot to that of an egg, are in some places abundant. Detached pieces 
of lignite, too, are very common — sometimes with the surface changed into 
mundic. The clay and accompanying beds at Decoy rest against the 
Greensand Hills surrounding this portion of the basin ; and the strike of the 
beds forms a segment of a circle, somewhat conformable in direction to the 
shape of the hills. 

Fig. 151. — Section of clays and lignites at AUer. Scale, {"j-inch to a fathom. 




1. ' Head ' of gravel. 

2. Sand. 

3. Muddy clay. 

4. Lignite. 

5. Clay. 

6. Lignite. 

7. Clay. 



8. Three seams of lignite, separated by fine clay. 

9. Fine clay. 

10. Rough clay. 

11. Fine clay. 

12. Rough clay, with gravel. 

13. Rough sand and muddy clay. 



The beds dip to the east. 



"Fig. 151 shows a section (constructed from numerous observations whilst 
superintending the works during several years) of the potter's clay and 
lignite beds at Aller. Here the lignite, separated by beds of clay, is more 
developed than at the Decoy. No fine pipeclay has been found at Aller ; 
but underlying the beds shown in the section, and occupying the position 
of the pipeclay, are rough clays, highly stained with ochre, all having an 
eastern dip 

" The clay-beds throughout the deposit show no signs of disturbance by 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Blue Ball-Clay 269 



slips or faults ; they seem perfectly unaffected by any other power than that 
of water. . . . ." {Proceedings of the Geological Society, 'K.e.y,"^ov^y'De^s\t" 
February 1862.) 

Mr. J. H. Key then adds some interesting comments upon the nature of 
the gravel "head" which lays uncomformably upon the upturned edges of the 
clay-beds, and becomes deeper at the centre of the basin ; concluding by 
observing that, amid proofs of teeming vegetation, it is strange not a frag- 
ment of bone or shell should indicate the existence of animal life around 
the old lake. 

In North Devon, Marland Moor, Merton Moor, Greenings Moor, Clay 
Moor, and Bury Moor, on the banks of the River Muir, near Torrington, 
are the centres of the clay-workings. They are practically on the northern 
slopes of Dartmoor, and Mr. Key says that the " deposit resembles that of 
the Bovey Basin, both in regard to the quality of the clay and the manner 

in which it lies The Merton clays are deposited in beds sloping at 

angles similar to those of Bovey. The deposit is entirely surrounded by 
hills, except at one point, where a chasm of but short width has been worn 
away, affording a passage to the drainage of the basin into the Torridge. 
It is plain that a fresh-water lake existed here, in which clays, brought by 
streams from the northern 
slopes of Dartmoor, be- 
came deposited ; and that 
by the wearing down of 
the chasm the lake has 
drained itself, and the clays 
have become exposed in 
the same manner as are 
those of Bovey Basin." 
(J'roceedings of the Geo- 
logical Society, Key, "Bovey 
Deposit," February 1862.) 

Further interesting par- 
ticulars relating to this 
deposit appeared in the 
British Clayworker, April 
1898, from which we learn 
that it is practically the 
only clayfield of any extent in North Devon, except local brickmaking clays 
and the red clay of Framington. How far the deposit extends towards 
Dartmoor, which is eighteen or twenty miles distant, has not yet been definitely 
proved, the workings being chiefly at the northern extremity of the basin. 
North Devon clay has been worked a very long time. The use of Devon- 




FiG. 152.- 



-Marland clay-pit, N. Devon. 
E. Holwill, Esq.) 



(By permission of 



270 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

shire ball-clay for pottery is said to have been discovered by Astbury (about 
171 5), and by its means he vastly improved upon the old compositions and 
prepared the way for Josiah Wedgwood. 

Until Astbury 's time Devonshire clay had been solely used for making 
pipes (presumably tobacco-pipes). {Hist, of the Art of Pottery, p. 41.) 

Josiah Wedgwood is said to have used North Devon clay, which at that 
time was conveyed to Bideford on pack-horses, and thence shipped to Thames 
and Mersey ports and other centres. The pack-horse gave way to a system 
of carting to Torrington, whence it was sent by canal to Bideford, this canal 
in turn yielding to the steel rail which now connects the clayworks with 
Torrington Railway Station. 

The mines are now principally worked by the North Devon Clay Co., Ltd., 
who raise blue ball-clays, ivory ball-cla)'s, stoneware clays, and tobacco-pipe 

clays. The illustration 
■ shows an open-pit working 

which runs some 10 or 12 
feet into the clay. It 
shows, too, how such clay 
is cut into cubical shape 
for certain uses, the longi- 
tudinal and cross - cutting 
giving the working a chess- 
board appearance. The 
method of hoisting the 
clay out of the pits into 
railway trucks alongside 
the working will also be 
noticed. Here the solid 
body of white clay has an 
overburden consisting of 
red clay about 6 or 8 feet 
deep, below which the white clay extends to so great a depth that in some 
pfeces the bottom has not yet been reached. {British Clayworker, April 1898.) 
The method of getting ball-clay in Devonshire is very well described in the 
British Clayworker for October 1903 thus : — " The method of working is very 
much the same in each district. When the vein is near the surface, or is under 
other marketable veins, it is got by means of open workings. The heading 
or overburden having been removed, as well as any top or waste clay, a level 
face of clay is laid bare. This is cut or scored by means of spades into 
squares of about 8 inches, one set of men working across the pit (' long 
scoring') and another cutting at right angles ('thwarting'). The digger 
follows, and, by digging under at a depth of about 8 inches with a wide, heavy 




Fig. 153. — Open-pit working, N. Devon. 
E. Holwill, Esq.) 



{By permission of 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Blue Ball-Clay 271 

two-bill, cuts out the clay in 8-inch balls or cubes. These balls are selected 
according to the quality of the veins, and raised to the surface by means of 

hand or steam power, and then carted or trammed to the storing depots 

When the vein lies too deep for open working, or is under waste or unsaleable 

veins, it must be mined A shaft is sunk into the vein .... and from 

the bottom of this shaft headings are driven into the clay — the miner using a 
short two-bill with a blade about 6 inches wide, and lubricating it by now and 
again dipping the blade in water. These headings are about 6 feet high and 
proportionately wide, and timbered as the excavation proceeds, the clay being 
wheeled to the bottom of the shaft and raised by cranes to the surface. When 
a heading has been driven the required distance, the timber is taken out and 
the ground allowed to drop, and the next heading driven. When the vein 
is of sufificient thickness, another heading or level may be driven into the clay 
which has come down on the removal of timber from the first levels. In this 
way the clay is removed for a certain distance around the shaft, which is then 
abandoned and another sunk. In North Devon the veins lie at a very con- 
siderable incline, and rather a different practice is followed. 

"The vein is traced by boring to the shallowest point or 'outcrop.' A 
shaft, either vertical or inclined, as the ca^e may be, is sunk to the bottom of 
the vein, and an inclined heading driven into the vein — the heading being 
about 6 feet square. When the shaft is sunk to the bottom of the vein, and 
the heading commenced, a raised platform is erected at the mouth of the 
shaft, and from this a tramway is fixed to the face of the heading ; on this a 
bucket or trolley is worked to bring the clay to the surface, being wound up 
by a steel-wire rope, and running back empty by its own weight. The top 
heading is driven, and the tramway continued as it goes, following the run 
of the vein, sometimes very steep, sometimes almost level, as far as the vein 
continues workable — that is, of good quality and of sufficient thickness. 
This incline is very closely timbered with baulks of about 10 inches diameter. 
.... On reaching the end of the vein, generally 300 to 400 feet from the 
shaft, levels about 8 feet wide are driven out at right angles, two men working 
on each side, and wheeling the clay to the trolley at the foot of the incline. 
These levels are timbered with small prjops .... and when they have 
reached the distance at which in practice it is found safe to work them 
(generally about 40 feet), the timber is drawn and the roof falls. Another 
8 feet of the incline is then taken, and levels driven parallel to and in the 
same way as the first, and so the process is continued, until the clay for the 
width of about 80 to 85 feet is cleared back to the foot of the shaft, which is 
then abandoned, and another made some 85 feet further on. 

" As the trolley of clay comes to the surface platform it automatically tips 
its load, and is allowed to run back to be refilled. The bankman examines 
the clay, and wheels it out on to a prepared stacking ground, where it lies 



2 72 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 







SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Blue Ball-Clay 275 

'to weather' until required for sale." {British Clayworker, October 1903,. 
pp. 243, 244.) 

From the foregoing it will be seen that a great variety of clays occurs in 
these districts, other than the blue ball-clays under consideration here. Some 
of these will be subsequently referred to under their respective terms, " black, 
ball-clay," " ivory ball-clay," " siliceous buff clay " ; others are only of use in 
other industries. 

Respecting blue ball-clay— using the term in the sense it is understood 
by Staffordshire white earthenware potters — this is not now usually cut into- 
cubes or balls from surface openings as formerly (and as done even now ia 
the case of stoneware clays), but is mostly mined by underground workings- 
from vertical shafts. 

Blue ball-clays are the finest, most impalpable, most plastic, and purest 
clays of the series. When brought to the surface in native state they are of 
drab or bluish-drab colour, and after exposure do not " rust," or only very 
-slightly, but become of more creamy-drab hue. When cut with a sharp knife,. 
in a leather-hard condition, they expose a smooth, finely polished, even 
surface, which, on drying, is not easily marked by a black-lead pencil. The 
tint may at times be somewhat irregular or mottled. Lignite is rarely 
found in this clay, but pyrites in large and small nodules is very common,, 
and, unless extracted by picking out or careful lawning, may give rise to 
objectionable speckiness. 

Trial pieces of such clay, when burned under the conditions of a white- 
ware potter's biscuit oven, lose their plasticity finally, and assume an ashy- 
white colour, at the same time shrinking and becoming semi-vitreous, and 
having a conchoidal fracture. 

With rare exceptions, no process of washirig or preparation of any sort i& 
pursued at the clay-mines ; the clay is merely got in the native state, carefully 
selected seams only being taken, and the product laid out and exposed to 
weather until required for sale. 

Blue ball-clay, as commercially bought and sold, contains from 18 
to 25 per cent, of moisture, in addition to its water of combination ; and 
as this is about 10 per cent., the total loss on calcination may be 28 to 
35 per cent. 

Freedom from colourant properties, extreme fineness of natural sub- 
division of the clay particles, great plasticity, and comparative absence of 
foreign detritus, moderate refractoriness and strength when burnt, constitute 
the most necessary and serviceable characteristics of what is called by 
whiteware potters " blue ball-clay." 

The plasticity and moderate vitrescence enable them to bind into a body^ 

before and after burning, other desirable ingredients, such as ground calcined 

flint and kaolin, and thus facilitate the manufacture. 

18 



.2 74 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

In France clays known as " terres refractaires" " terre brum" " terre alumi- 
neuse" and the like, having similar properties, are found mostly in the districts 
■of Montereau, Montpothier, Sully (Oise), Forges-les-Eaux, Victor de Oules, 
Villenauve, Rimont, Marignac, etc. 

In Belgium this class of clay is found around Andenne, and possibly also 
near Tournai. 

In Germany there are extensive deposits of such clays. They are usually 
assigned to " Braunkohlen " formation, which is equivalent to our " Miocene." 
The deposits are met with mostly in the lower valleys of the Rhine and the 
Elbe, and on the Rhine Plateau near Griinstadt (Rheinpfalz). 

Around Coblenz and Vallendar in the Rhine Provinces, and in the 
Westerwalder (Hessen Nassau), a considerable industry in these and 
kindred clays is carried on, one firm alone claiming to raise five hundred tons 
a day. And some of these clays so closely resemble those of Devon and 
Dorset, that individual samples, either raw or burned, would be quite 
indistinguishable unless marked. They possess the necessary plasticity and 
fineness and the usual variety of refractoriness. The clays are applied to 
the manufacture of white earthenware and tiles, as English clays are, and, in 
addition, are used by glassmakers. Large quantities also are exported to 
Holland, Belgium, and France. The principal deposits in the Elbe valley 
are understood to be those at Borna, Lothair, Bautzen, etc. 

In several cases the same districts appear to yield clays much whiter in 
the native state than the Devon and Dorset ball-clays. These have the colour 
of deposited kaolins ; some of them do not burn white, while others burn as 
white as china-clay. 

Around Klingenberg and Mechenhard, in Bavaria, remarkably fat plastic 
•clays are found, and are used in graphite crucible manufacture, and for 
stoneware and terracotta ; but they are so very plastic they always need 
admixture of weaker clays. 

In Canada, so far as the writer can ascertain, at present no such clay has 
been discovered and identified, except perhaps in almost inaccessible regions 
on the Missanabie River. 

In the United States of America the states yielding ball-clay, or what 
passes for such, are Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, New Jersey, Florida, and 
South Carolina. 

The returns issued by the U.S. Geological Survey Department for the 
year 1901 indicate that Kentucky yielded 8900 tons, and "other states" 
together 12,108 tons. 

In the map published by Dr. Heinrich Ries, in his professional paper on 
Clays of the U.S. East of the Mississippi River (p. 284), ball-clay deposits are 
indicated by " X " in blue ink. By this means deposits are shown to exist 
at Mayfield (Ky.), Paris (Tenn.), Amboy (N.J.), and Edgar (Fla.). As to the 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Blue Ball-Clay 275 

last-named locality, for reasons given elsewhere, the writer thinks this is 
an error. 

Dr. Ries' map demonstrates forcibly the close relationship between Paris 
(Tenn.) and Mayfield (Ky.) ; they appear to be only some fifty miles apart, in 
a direct line, and are in the same river-basin — a tributary of the Ohio River, 
near its junction with the Mississippi. The clay deposits of these districts, in 
all probability, have a kindred origin somewhere on the western slopes of the 
Appalachian Range. 

In Kentucky Dr. Ries has shown that a very great variety of clays 
occurs. The eastern portion of the state being, we understand, largely com- 
posed of carboniferous strata, numerous fireclays of the coal-measures are 
found there ; of these many analyses are given on p. 1 22 of Clays of U. S. East 
of the Mississippi. The "ball-clays," however, are apparently only found in 
Westei-n Kentucky, in a district known as the Jackson Purchase Region, 
laying between the Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee Rivers. It will strike 
a Devon or Dorset man as very significant, when he reads Dr. Ries' 
observations, and finds him frequently mentioning gravel, brown loam, silt, 
sand, lignite, greenish claystone, ochre, ochreous clays, and chalk bluffs, as 
being associated with or in proximity to the deposits of white pipeclay, and 
black and brown and drab and bluish clays, of Western Kentucky. 

Dr. Ries, quoting from a report on the Jackson Purchase Region, gives 
the geologic section of the Tertiary strata thus : — 

" Lagrange : stiff plastic clays, variegated in color and interstratified 

with whitish sand, and carrying leaf-impressions. 
" Lignitic : black arenaceous clay and claystone. 
" Porter's Creek : massive and jointed clay, locally called soapstone. 
" Hickman : siliceous claystone over a thick bed of buff-colored clays." 

Dr. Ries continues : — " Most of the clays in this part of the state, which 
we found in all the counties, appear highly refractory before the blowpipe. 
The classes recognized are : — 

" I. Drab clays of Hickman bluffs. 

" 2. Siliceous clays from Columbus bluffs, which face the Mississippi River 
at Columbus, and at the chalk banks below. These rise more than 100 feet 
above the town. The upper portion is made of 30 feet each of gray silt or 
loess and gravel. Under the gravel is variegated- colored plastic clay, 1 5 feet 
thick ; under this, 85 feet siliceous clays. These clays burn hard to a light- 
creamy color. They are finely siliceous These were supposed to 

belong to the lignitic (Tertiary) group, and are found farther east associated 
with the belt of dark clay in M'Cracken and Graves Counties. 

" 3. White or light-colored plastic clays. These form beds of greater or 
less size in each of the counties, and are put in what is known as the Lagrange 
group of the Tertiary. The clay has been deposited since the deposition of 



276 LEADLESS. DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

the black clays. It usually is white or light purple in color, fine grained, and 
varies in thickness from a few inches to many feet. 

"4. Black and bluish-black clays. These are confined to the cretaceous 
and the lignitic or lowef Tertiary belt that passes through Calloway, Marshall, 
M'Cracken, and Ballard Counties, and to the Port Hudson group of the 
Pleistocene, which occurs in the valley and bottom land of the three bordering 
rivers. The dark color is due to vegetable matter. These clays are said to 
be refractory." {Clays of U.S. East of the Mississippi River, p. 125.) 

Dr. Ries then gives chemical analyses of a large number of these clays. 
(See pp. 126, 127, ibid?) 

Proceeding, he observes : — " Clays which are easily fusible are found in a 
number of the counties, but are said to be confined chiefly to those on the 
eastern side of the Jackson Purchase Region, namely, in M'Cracken, Graves, 
Marshall, and Calloway Counties. They vary in color from nearly white to 
black. Some are highly gypseous, while others are sprinkled with vivianite. 
They are pre-Pieistocene, and are overlain by gravel, sand, and brown loam 
of that period. They include some of the white varieties belonging to the 
period intermediate between the Tertiary and Pleistocene and the black clays 
of the next higher or Port Hudson group." 

On account of the commercial importance of the clays found in Western 
Kentucky, Dr. Ries, devotes some space to more detailed description of the 
deposits of the several counties separately. Referring to Calloway County, he 
writes: — "A great variety of clays occurs within the county. These are 
both refractory and non-refractory, and many are well situated for workings. 
The black joint clays occupy a belt from the Tennessee line northward 
through Murray and Wadesboro into Marshall County, being exposed at a 
number of points along the west side of Clark's River. They are exposed 
in the southern part of the county west of New Providence. A prominent 
exposure is at the Paris bridge one mile south of Murray. Other exposures 
are seen in the bluffs of creeks north of Murray, and in the' ravines that 
border the road north to Wadesboro. They are from 10 to 20 feet 
thick. 

" White pipeclays are abundant, and found chiefly on the east and west of 
the black joint clay-belt. A highly plastic white variety is found near May- 
field The same clay appears in the branch south of this place, and 

also in the bluffs east of the river, at Backusburg, to the east of Murray. On 
a line passing through it north and south are several beds of white clays, 
notably at Russell's. Pottery. They burn to a good color, but difficulty was 
experienced with the crazing. Another locality of white clay is in the river 
east of New Providence." {Clays of the U.S. East of the Mississippi .River, 
P- I3I-) 

One of the firms raising ball-clay at Mayfield (Ky.), the writer understands, 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Blue BallClay 277 

is The Kentucky Improvement and Construction Company, and their pro- 
duct is known in the States as " Mayfield " ball-clay. Another quality is 
known as the "Excelsior" ball-clay; this, it seems, is raised in the vicinity of 
Covington (Ky.), and is an approved quality. Professor Binns selected it as a 
typical clay for use in a series of investigations which are described in Trans. 
Am. Cer. Soc, vol. v. p. 281. 

He gives its rational analysis thus : — 

Clay substance, . . ..... 63 '26 

Quartz . . . 35'oo 

Felspathic matter, . . . . 1 74 

This analysis, however, would seem to indicate a clay of too siliceous 
character to be properly classed as whiteware potter's ball-clay, although it 
might be a stoneware potter's clay. 

In the State of Tennessee ball-clay is mined near Whitlock, and also 
near Paris, both in Henry County (Tenn.). These mines have been operated 
by Mr. Mandle since 1898, and yield about fifteen thousand tons a year. The 
clays are marketed in native state without washing. 

The Whitlock ball-clay, also known as Tennessee ball-clay No. i, is said 
to mix well with water, and quickly screen, and when washed through a 
120-mesh sieve it leaves hardly any residue. 

The rational analysis of this claj' is as under : — 

Clay substance, ... . . 86 "20 

Feldspar, . . . ..... 270 

Flint, . .... . . irio 

which apparently is somewhat siliceous ; however, its plasticity is claimed to 
be equal to that of English ball-clay, tests indicating no difference between 
this ball-clay and the English. Tests were carried as high as 60 per cent, non- 
plastic material to the mixture. When moulded and dry this ball-clay is said 
to be capable of bearing a great deal of handling, and in strength to be on an 
equal with English ball-clay. The total fire-shrinkage is 1 5 per cent, at the 
m.p. of Cone 8, which is the average temperature of potter's biscuit kilns. 
At this heat it burns to a dense body with a creamy-white colour. Its 
behaviour under glaze evinced no material difference when tested under 
similar conditions against English ball-clay. 

A small sample of this ball-clay kindly sent over to England by Mr. I. 
Mandle, the proprietor of the mine, was inspected by the writer. The colour 
of the clay in its native state was found to vary between creamy-white and 
light-drab, and had the general appearance, texture, fineness, and density of 
superior Devonshire whiteware potter's ball-clay, very like the quality known 
in Staffordshire as " china-ball." 

The light-drab-coloured specimen, when burned in a Staffordshire potter's 



278 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

kiln, was particularly white and free from specks or stains for a ball-clay; 
exhibiting in this respect the characteristics of best white Devonshire 
ball-clay. 

The creamy-white clay burned to a very good white, but just a little more 
creamy shade than the: drab. This also is a characteristic often observed in 
English ball-clays. 

The Paris (Tenn.) ball-clay, or Tennessee ball-clay No. 3, has a brown 
colour in its dry state, mixes well with water, and may then be screened 
through a 120-mesh sieve without any residue. By screening through a 
i7S-mesh sieve, which would be equal to washing clays on a commercial 
scale, it leaves 10 per cent, residue, which consists mainly of fine-grained sand. 

The rational analysis of the clay is as follows : — 

Clay substance, 9' '53 

Feldspar, . . ... 270 
Flint, . . S'9S 

When mixed with water to a plastic body it has a fatty feeling, and will 
shine when polished with a knife. It will carry as high as 72 per cent, of 
non-plastic material such as flint, feldspar, or whitening. 

The shrinkage of the clay is at Cone i heat I2'5 per cent., and at Cone 8 
heat 18 per cent. The clay burns white at a Cone 010 heat; at Cone i its 
colour is still white, the body is much closer ; at Cone 8 heat it is a vitrified 
grey body. 

Tested against English ball-clay it is claimed to be of equal plasticity, 
but of better colour, and that 4 per cent, more Tennessee ball-clay could be 
used in standard American semi-porcelain and whiteware bodies without 
injury as to their colour. This clay is classed as a very good plastic clay 
suitable for all purposes where the use of a ball-clay is necessary in order to 
obtain pottery bodies which will be fit to be jiggered and pressed. 

A sample examined, cursorily by the writer exhibited in its native 
condition a brownish-drab colour, very brown indeed when moist ; possessed 
a fine mellow texture ; yielded a polished surface when cut with a sharp 
knife ; was unctudns to feel ; and generally " right " as a good ball-clay of 
the Devonshire : type. 

When burned in a Staffordshire potter's kiln the sample was a pretty 
creamy-white, not quite as vitreous as desirable, but good ; far better, 
indeed, than plenty of South of England clays, and remarkably free from 
specks or stains. There was, however, some disposition to split in the 
particular piece tested. Whether this defect would be found in all parts 
is uncertain, but it is perhaps not difficult to control in actually using 
such clays. . 

Dr. Ries mentions these deposits of ball-clay in the State of Tennessee. 
Along with several others, he writes, under the classification Tertiary, as 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Blue Ball-Clay 2 79> 

follows : — " In Western Tennessee the plastic clcty immediately underlying 
the Lafayette formation serves as the basis of a rather active stoneware and 
firebrick industry. The section usually seen in the clay-pits involves red 
Lafayette sands, which seem to overlie unconformably the beds of stoneware 

clay and white sands In the pits of the Irwin Clay and Sand Co., 

one and a quarter miles east of the station (Grand Junction) .... the sectioa 
given by E. C. Eckel is : — 

Red sand, . . . 

White sand, 8 feet. 

White clay, . . 8 feet. 

Gray lignitic clay, . 8 feet lo inches. 

White clay, . . 20 feet. 

White sand, . . . 

" The clay deposits are very irregular, sometimes running together to form 

overlapping lenses in the white and yellow sand The clay at Hico,, 

three miles south of Mackenzie, is shipped to the potteries at Akron and East 
Liverpool, Ohio, and Louisville, Ky. The clays from Hollow Rock are shipped 
to Nashville 

" Three miles east of Currier are the pits of I. Mandle, where an area of 
60 by 50 feet has been opened up. The section is as follows : — • 

East Side. West Side. 

2 feet clay. Reddish sand. 

4 feet clay. 15 feet light gray clay. 
I foot black clay (lignitic). I foot black clay. 

5 feet brown clay (ball clay). 5 feet ball clay. 

.... The light-gray clay is shipped to East Liverpool, Ohio, for saggars. 
The ball-clay is known as Tennessee ball-clay No. 3." (Clays of U.S. East 
of Mississippi River, p. 245.) 

Then follow remarks upon results of chemical analyses of both of the 
principal ball-clays already referred to, such as have already been given above. 

Dr.. Ries explains that the Tennessee No. 3 ball-clay is located five miles 
from Paris (Tenn.), and is shipped from Currier, which is three miles from 
the mine. 

In the State of Missouri ball-clay is mined at Regnia, Jefferson County, 
about forty miles south-west of St. Louis (Mo.). These mines have been 
operated since 1878 by Mr. I. Mandle, and the output is said to be some 
five thousand tons per armum. Missouri ball-clay is marketed in its crude 
native state, and does not require washing. When dry, it is of light-grey 
colour, and has a smooth fatty feeling. It mixes well with water and is 
remarkably free from grit. On account of its great binding power, it does 
not screen very readily through a 1 20-mesh sieve, but leaves a small residue, 
which consists of very plastic clay, free from sand. 



28o leadless decorative tiles, faience, and mosaic 

The rational analysis of this clay is : — 

Clay substance, ... ... 95*38 

Feldspar, ... 3 '42 

Flint (? silica), i '20 

Missouri ball-clay will carry 73 per cent, non-plastic material, and is said 
to possess greater binding power than English ball-clay. The total fire- 
shrinkage at Cone 8 heat is 18 per cent, and the clay at that temperature 
burns to a grey-white, dense vitrified body. It was substituted on white- 
ware bodies for English ball-clay with satisfactory results in regard to colour 
■of the finished product. It is also recommended for encaustic tiles, sanitary 
ware, etc. 

Mentioning this clay, by the way. Dr. Ries, among other things, notes 
that its average tensile strength per square inch is 99 lbs. ; the point of 
incipient fusion, 1800° F. ; and the total fluxes, S'lJ per cent. 

A sample, kindly sent by Mr. Mandle, of St. Louis, was examined by the 
■writer. In its native condition it has a greyish-white colour, smooth and 
somewhat talcose appearance, saponaceous feel, is extraordinarily tough, yields 
a polished surface when cut with a sharp knife, and is in its raw state very 
much whiter than any British ball-clay with which the writer is acquainted. 
When burned in a Staffordshire potter's kiln it assumes a greyish or creamy- 
white colour, free from specks or stains, dense and highly vitreous; very 
similar to the very best Dorsetshire whiteware potter's blue ball-clay. 

Undoubtedly this Missouri ball-clay, when used with suitable proportions 
of Tennessee ball-clays, and compounded into a whiteware body with flint, 
■china-stone, and china-clay, should be capable of producing any of the 
■ordinary white earthenware bodii?s. 

In New Jersey State a large variety of more or less plastic clays are 
found, and these have been exhaustively described by Dr. G. H. Cook, 
formerly State Geologist, in a voluminous report issued in 1878, which, 
although confined chiefly to notes on fireclays, potter's clays, and paper-clays, 
•disregarding the large number of clays used for making common bricks and 
red earthenware, extends over three hundred and fifty pages. 

From Dr. Cook's report it seems that the only locality in New Jersey 
Tvhere clays at all comparable with English ball-clays are raised is near 
Woodbridge and South Amboy, at the mouth of the Raritan River. The 
•district comprises about sixty-eight acres, and is intersected by very numerous 
navigable natural waterways ; so much that all the mines are within a few 
miles of shipping facilities. 

Judging by geological sections given by Dr. Cook, this Raritan plastic- 
clay formation is assigned to cretaceous age. This is confirmed by Mr. J. C. 
Smock, Acting State Geologist at the present time ; and is supported by the 
researches of Dr. Morton and Mr. Conrad in 1834, and Sir C. Lyell in 1841. 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Blue Ball-Clay 281 

The latter found fossils on the whole agreeing most nearly with European 
upper cretaceous fossils ; but it should be noted that Sir Charles Lyell 
significantly remarks upon this series of sandy and argillaceous beds as 
" wholly unlike our upper cretaceous system" 

Dr. Ries, too, retains this classification apparently in his new publication, 
except that he calls it lower cretaceous, as Cook did. 

But as Devon and Dorset clay-beds, and also Kentucky and Tennessee 




Fig. 155. — Clay-pil at Woodbridge, N.J., U.S.A. (By permission of the United States 

Geological Survey. ) 

clay-beds, containing lignite interstratified with sands and silts and plastic 
clays, are assigned to Miocene or Eocene groups of Tertiary strata, the lay 
observer, who cannot very well fail to remark the fact that these same 
phenomena appear to exist at the mouth of the Raritan River in New Jersey, 
may with some reason ask if it is not possible that the Woodbridge and 
South Amboy clays should also be grouped along with the Tertiary. 

Sir Charles Lyell said : — " From New Jersey the cretaceous rocks 
extend southwards to North Carolina and Georgia, cropping out at intervals 
from beneath the tertiary strata, between the Appalachian Mountains and 



282 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

the Atlantic. They then sweep round the southern extremity of that chain, 
in Alabama and Mississippi, and stretch northwards again to Tennessee and 
Kentucky. They have also been traced far up the valley of the Missouri;" 
{Elements of Geology, p. 337.) This seems to establish the possibility of 
relationship between New Jersey and Tennessee and Kentucky clay 
deposits. 

Of the very numerous seams of clays mined in the locality of Woodbridge, 
the one known as the "ware" clay or "whiteware" clay most nearly 
approaches English ball-clays ; nevertheless it is different, being more friable, 
less plastic, crumbles easily on exposure, has a conchoidal fracture when dry, 
and is decidedly less vitrescent when burnt. Langenbeck refers to its 
binding power as being very low, and observes that for this reason, and on 
account of its deficiency of alkalies, not inconsiderable quantities of English 
plastic clay are imported. It is, however, of very fine quality, and burns 
remarkably white, presenting qualities approaching those of china-clay or 
kaolin. 

In the State of Florida several clays have been found and raised for white- 
ware potters' use, some of which have sometimes been designated " plastic 
kaolin," and sometimes Florida ball-clay. 

Upon inquiry for specimens of the raw clay in its natural condition, it 
transpired that this contained about 65 to 75 per cent, of coarse quartz sand, 
and necessitated a process of washing and sedimentation to separate the fine 
clay from the sand before the clay could be used by whiteware potters, very 
much in the manner china-clays are prepared. For this reason and others, 
the consideration of these clays has been relegated to the paragraph on 
china-clays. 

Long personal experience of Devon and Dorset ball-clays renders this 
course unavoidable and indisputable, notwithstanding the concensus of expert 
American opinion, as expressed by Langenbeck, Ries, Binns, and others, in 
favour of the classification of Florida clays as ball-clays. 

Only in very exceptional instances are blue ball-clays washed in England, 
and then for a reason totally different from that necessitating such treatment 
of Florida clay. 

Chemical analysis also indicates that this clay is of the nature of china- 
clay, and Langenbeck has himself remarked upon the fact that " a much larger 
proportion of the American ball-clays approach the composition of kaolinite 
than do those of Europe." {Chemistry of Pottery, p. 100.) 

Granted that it is not as easy to clearly differentiate between ball-clay and 
china-clay as may appear upon superficial consideration, yet it does seem 
reasonable to imagine that, while a deposited kaolin may be detritus from 
feldspathic rocks which had previously become kaolinized in situ before 
denudation, a blue ball-clay (in the sense understood in Staffordshire) may 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Blue Ball-Clay 283 

with equal propriety be assumed to be a result of slow denudation of feld- 
spathic rocks in their pristine chemical state, the kaolinization, which is often 
only partial, being frictional rather than chemical. {Trans. Am. Cer. Soc, 
vol. V. p. 292 and p. 379.) 

In South Carolina something approximating ball-clay seems to have been 
found, for in the Pottery Gazette of November 1903, Mr. Gotham, of East 
Liverpool, is reported to have said that " one-third of the ball-clay used in 
the state [presumably in Ohio State] to-day comes from South Carolina." 

Mr. Mandle further informs me that Mr. Sant, an experienced clay merchant 
of East Liverpool, has examined many samples of so-called china-clay from 
South Carolina, all of which he found to be very plastic and free from grit, 
but none of which were good in colour when fired to Cone 8. These clays 
are said to be used mostly for wall-paper and linoleum. Mr. Sant is said to 
hold the opinion that these clays might more properly be classed as ball-clays 
than those of Florida. 

If we now recall the observations of Sir Charles Lyell upon the general 
trend of the strata around the Appalachian Range, it will be evident 
that South Carolina is not at all an unlikely district in which to find 
ball-clays. 

In New South Wales, Australia : the annual report of the Department of 
Mines and Agriculture of New South Wales for 1891 has an appendix in the 
form of a series of sections of strata passed through in the course of boring 
artesian wells. These reveal some intensely interesting facts ; among others, 
that at the one hundred and twenty-first milepost on the road from Milparinka 
to Wanaaring, about 80 feet from surface, a bed of pipeclay exists 9 feet thick ; 
and at the one hundred and sixth milepost, i.e., in County Ularara, a bed of 
pipeclay 25 feet thick, with another of blue clay 109 feet thick some distance 
below. Then at twenty-sixth milepost on Louth- Wanaaring Road, a bed of 
white pipeclay 47 feet thick. White pipeclay is also found in County Lands- 
borough, and at Yancannia in County Yantara. At Salisbury Downs, Co. 
Yantara, the clays of various kinds, including a bed of 513 feet of soft blue 
clay, total 909 feet thick. And at Belalie, Co. Irrara, the clays of various 
sorts are over 700 feet thick. Presumably, therefore, potting-clays are 
accessible in New South Wales. 

Commenting upon the origin of white-burning natural clays, Professor 
Edward Orton, jun., of Columbus, Ohio, aptly observes that " Without 
going fully into the conditions which have brought these things about, we may 
say that the white-burning clays represent those rare conditions where a rock 
low in iron has weathered and broken down into a clay, without the intrusion 
of iron-bearing water or sediments from neighbouring rocks. Such a combina- 
tion of events does sometimes happen, and hence we sometimes find clays 
which burn white. But since they can only grow by the weathering of igneous 



284 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

rocks, they come almost wholly from the mountain districts, where granites 
and similar feldspathic rocks occur. Since transportation of clays in streams 
is almost certain to result in the blending of iron-bearing sediments with them, 
it follows that white-burning clays in the vast number of cases are primary, 
viz., found on the site where they have first been formed by weathering. But 
in some few instances, as in the Florida kaolins, white clays have actually 
been transported over long distances and redeposited as secondary beds, 
without collecting enough iron to throw them out of the white-burning class. 
The rarity of the conditions producing white-burning clays naturally makes 
them a very small item compared with the vast bulk of other clays." {Trans. 
Am. C.S., vol. V. p. 379.) 

Black Bail-Clay. — This term is applied to certain white-burning, fine 
impalpable plastic clays of Tertiary strata, very closely allied to whiteware 
potter's blue-ball clays, but deeply stained with dark-brown carbonaceous 
stain from lignite or brown-coal beds, and often also impregnated with 
pieces of lignite itself 

Seams of lignite, as the foregoing sections have shown, very often occur 
interbedded in the series of clay-seams, and interchange of natural water 
causes the stain to pass from the one to the other. The stain is of vegetal 
or organic nature, and is consumed on ignition ; thus some of these naturally 
very dark-brown clays, particularly dark when damp, assume an intense 
whiteness after calcination in a whiteware biscuit oven, sometimes whiter 
than blue ball-clay. 

The whitest-burning black ball-clays are found in South Devon, those 
of Dorsetshire usually burning rather less white; but even there, there are 
different qualities, some burning very much whiter than others. They are 
usually rather less plastic, and perhaps more sticky than blue ball-clays. 
They are generally mined from underground workings, as this enables the 
best parts only to be got out, and saves the expense of handling a great 
bulk of promiscuous and often unsaleable loam, silt, brown-coal, and 
inferior clay. 

Black ball-clays are found also at Neuvic-sur-l'Isle (France), Andenne 
(Belgium), and near Vallendar and several other localities in Germany. 

Langenbeck mentions similar clays in America, and tells us that he has 
often chemically examined such clays yielding as much as 4 per cent, of 
organic impurity of a flocculent nature — his method being to dissolve the 
clay in hydrofluoric and hydrochloric acids on a water-bath, and filter off 
the organic flocks on a tared paper, where, after drying, it is weighed. 

As to the presence of iron in white-burning clays. Professor E. Orton 
observes :— " White-burning clays carry from a few hundredths of a per cent, 
of iron to considerably over one per cent. The more ferruginous contain 
much more iron than the purer grades of the buff-burning clays, whence it 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Ivory B all-Clay 285 

Ls evident that quantity alone is not a sufficient explanation of the colour." 
(Trans. A.C.S., vol. v. p. 380.) 



TABLE OF ANALYSES OF WHITEWARE BLUE AND BLACK BALL-CLAYS, ETC. 


Material or Source. 


SiOj. 


AI2O3. 


FeO, 
Fe,0,. 


TiO. 


CaO. 

0-43 

1-20 
0-50 
0-80 

o-io 

2 60 
048 

o''i5 

0-40 
traces 
0-42 

I -01 

0-51 


MgO. 

0-22 
0-48 

trace 
0-58 

0-44 

024 

trace 

O'll 

0-35 
1-47 
0-29 


Ca. 
Phos. 


Alk. 




■0 
U 


6 
In 


Analyst or 
Authority. 


Ball-clay (Dorset), . 
Black clay (Dorset), . 

Best blue clay, . 
South Devon ball-clay, 
J) 11 

North Devon clay, 

Longueville (brun) clay, . 
Montereau clay, 

Mechenhard (Bav.), . 
■Vallendar (dark - brown), 

calcined, 
Feuerstein clay, calcined, . 
Calloway Co. (Ky.), . 
Excelsior, Covington (Ky.), 

Mayfield (Ky.), . 
"Ware"-clay, Woodbridge, 
New Jersey cla> , 
Jefferson Co. (Mo.), . 
Florida plastic kaolin. 


4899 
52-89 

46-38 
45-50 
48-20 

49-50 

46-89 
65-90 

49-86 

6068 
57-06 
59 ■»3 
55-58 

56-40 

44-94 
46-18 
48-51 
45-39 


32- n 
3 '■89 

38-04 

35-30 
33-20 

33-60 

27 00 
31-30 

33-68 

3684 

39'54 
27-80 
32-29 

30-00 
38-81 
39-08 
35-18 
39-19 


234 
0-87 

1-04 
1-90 
1-90 

0-80 

1 -10 
1-05 

1-90 

I 22 
083 
0-31 

1-14 
i-ii 
092 
0-45 


0-46 
1-30 




3-31 
z-50 


9-63 
II-IO 


2*33 


Weston. 

Bowes & Sims, 1904. 

Ansted. 
Pottery Gazette, 
February 1904. 

B.C. IV., Oct 1903. 

Cocardon. 

Vallendar Co. 
Vallendar Co. 
Langenbeck. 
Prof. C. F. Binns, 

M.Sc. 
Dr. H. Ries. 
Dr. Cook. 
Langenbeck. 
Langenbeck. 
Langenbeck. 


5-60 
5-60 

T-i8 

I -81 

0-82 

2-24 

5-27 
0-17 
0-51 
2-30 
0-83 


It's 
100 


13- 


57 

... 

1-23 


14-24 

22-38 
... 1 ... 


11-63 

10-42 
10 07 

7'93 
... 12-97 
... i 13-04 
... ; 10-72 
... ; 14-01 



Ivory Bali-Clay. — In Dorsetshire, on the north of Poole Trough, around 
Beacon Hill, Hamvvorthy, Longfleet, Newtown, Kinson Park, Branksome, 
Parkstone, and formerly on Branksea Island, and in North Devon at 
Marland clay-pits, near Torrington, are found, along with many other 
clays, certain special seams of plastic and almost impalpable clay, usually 
of creamy, drab, or blue-grey colour, very similar in many respects to blue 
ball-clay, except that, owing to the presence of intimately diffused salts of 
iron, they are evenly discoloured throughout, and burn to a yellowish-buff 
colour. Hence they are quite unsuitable for the manufacture of best white- 
ware. These clays, however, are thereby rendered peculiarly suitable for 
the preparation of bodies which are required to burn a creamy-ivory tint ; 
and this is often a desirable tint for tiles. 

When made into " slips ' with water, or often when newly cut, these ivory 
ball-clays evolve a characteristic sulphurous odour. It is highly probable, 
therefore, that the diffused salt of iron is either a sulphide or sulphate. And, 
indeed, pyrites is frequently met with in such clays, and sometimes exists in 



286 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

such a granular or nodular condition as to render the clay unserviceable, 
because of the speckiness of ware so produced. 

In selecting the seams, the degree of fineness and plasticity, absence of 
concretionary pyrites, of gravel, and sand, must influence the choice, in 
addition to the tones of colour when burnt, which vary considerably in 
different seams, and must be carefully tested from time to time in all cases 
where uniformity of tint is a sine qud non. 

A characteristic of these ivory ball-clays, differentiating them from the 
blue ball-clays, is that they almost always "rust" or "purge" on exposure, 
a thin yellowish ferruginous film quickly forming on exposed faces, similar 
to that often seen on stoneware clays. 

An analysis of a typical clay of this class, especially determined for 
publication in this treatise, by Messrs. Bowes & Sims, analytical chemists, 
Radford Street, Blackley, Manchester, yielded the following results : — 

Silica, . . . . 55 '05 

Alumina, . . 33 '09 

Ferric oxide, . 0*44 

Ferrous oxide, . . 0*39 

Lime, , . 0'l6 

Magnesia, . . 079 

All<alies, . . o'gg 

Combined water, . 8 '2 1 

Titanium dioxide, . • ■ ' '55 

In France similar clays are found near Montpothier, Longueville, 
Montereau, Sully par Songons, etc. 

In Belgium, at Andenne, what is called "blanche" clay answers to the 
above description. 

In Germany the "weiss" clay of Vallendar and the Westerwald, and 
some of the Hettenleidelheim clays, appear to be equivalent to ivory ball-clay. 

In the United States undoubtedly similar clay will be found associated 
with the indigenous ball-clays of Tertiary strata. Clay found at Redwing, 
Minnesota, although physically different, possesses remarkably similar 
characteristics when burned. 

Siliceous Buff Clays. — The two chief sources of these in England are the 
Tertiary deposits of Devon and Dorset, and the clay-pockets of mountain- 
limestone hills in Derbyshire, East Staffordshire, and North Wales. 

Weathering may generally be dispensed with, but great care must be 
exercised in selection, especial attention being devoted to the degree of 
siliceousness, of fineness, of solidity and regularity, and of freedom from 
iron pin, mundic, and all pyritous concretions, also from tendency to cut. 
Siliceous clays of moderately fine grain, but not too fine, and holding together 
with moderate firmness when damp, will be found most serviceable; the 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS-Siliceous Clays 287 

Dorset daymen call them "mild" clays, i.e., not tough. When quite dry 
such clays may be written upon easily with ordinary lead-pencil, and this is 
a characteristic very clearly distinguishing them from ivory ball-clays, which 
often occur in the same pits. Such clays are largely used for deep cream- 
coloured and light-buff glazing tiles, and yield warm, agreeable, cheerful tones 
of colour in the finished wares. 

The shrinkage of such clays during burning is considerably less than that 
of blue ball-clays and ivory ball-clays, and sometimes less than body-z\s.Y. 
This feature must be kept in mind when compounding bodies, and must be 
specially tested for in each supply from time to time. 

The chemical analysis of a typical clay of this sort is as under : — 

Silica ... 7770 

Alumina, . . 1 5 '59 

Oxide of iron, . . 048 

Lime, . . . 0-56 

Magnesia, . 0-28 

Alkalies, . . I'I4 

Water and loss, . . 4*25 



1 00 -00 



This seems a very small percentage of iron oxide for the colour-effect, 
but possibly it acts as a coating on the silica grains, as in red clays. 

Siliceous, more or less plastic buff-burning clays occur in France at 
Poitiers, Montereau, Boulogne, etc. ; in Belgium at Andenne, and, the writer 
believes, also at Tournai. 

In Germany clays of this class, almost indistinguishable from those 
of Devonshire and Dorsetshire, occur in the Rhine Provinces and the 
Westerwald ; while at Veltin, near Berlin, a plastic calcareous clay is found, 
which burns to a cane colour and is used for making buff tiles. 

In the United States finely siliceous buff-burning clays, possessing the 
requisite qualities, apparently exist at Redwing, Minnesota ; also in Western 
Tennessee, Western Kentucky, Alabama, Maryland, and New Jersey. Indeed, 
South Amboy, N.J., has been one of the principal sources of this class of 
clay on the U.S. Atlantic coast for many years; so long ago as 1874 about 
twenty thousand tons a year of stoneware-making clays were raised in New 
Jersey, and this is very similar. In New Jersey the clay is sometimes raised 
by mining, and sometimes by open workings, all of which is minutely 
described in Dr Cook's 1878 report on New Jersey clays. 

Respecting siliceous clays of mountain-limestone pockets, these usually 
are somewhat irregular deposits, and the clays are often of coarser grain than 
the Tertiary clays of Devon and Dorset. George Maw, Esq., F.G.S., has 
written a very instructive monograph on the nature and origin of such 
deposits. (See Geological Magazine, June 1867.) 



288 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Brongniart's comments upon the clays of Abondant, near Dreux, France, 
lead to the inference that they may be mountain-limestone pockets, such as 
occur in England in E. Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and N. Wales. 

China-Clay or Kaolin. — Native or " virgin " china-clay — sometimes called 
carclazyte, after the name of one of the oldest mines near St. Austell, the 
Carclaze mine — is generally supposed to be a form of decomposed or meta- 
morphosed pegmatite, haplite, granite, or giant-granite ; but this apparently 
plausible theory of its occurrence is, by some writers, considered merely 
provisional. Its natural appearance is that of a crumbling yellowish-white 
mass, containing many translucent crystals of quartz, associated with a 
yellowish-white or greenish-white flour-like substance (kaolinite), together 
with particles or laminae of mica promiscuously and sparsely distributed 
throughout the mass. The colour, coarseness, and other physical qualities 
vary with the locality, and sometimes even in the same quarry or sett. 

In England china-clay rock is found on the sides and in depressions of 
Plutonic hills, and is said to be sometimes as much as sixty fathoms deep. 
From these formations it is raised in considerable quantities in the counties 
of Devon and Cornwall. The principal localities are Leemoor, Cornwood, 
Bickleigh, and Broomage in South Devon ; and St. Stephen, St. Dennis, 
St. Columb, St. Burian, and Germo in Cornwall. 

There are reported to be indications of kindred geological formations in 
County Wicklow, Ireland, but the product does not appear , to have been 
placed on the market commercially. 

Kaolinique rocks also occur in China, Japan, India, France, Germany, and 
the United States of America : the term kaolin itself being derived from the 
Chinese, Kau-ling (high ridge), referring to a mountainous region to the 
east of King-te-tchin, from whence the Chinese are said to obtain porce- 
lain clay. 

So far as its use in porcelain manufacture is concerned, the discovery of 
kaolin in China seems to have taken precedence of all other countries ; but 
there is considerable difference of opinion as to the precise date of the 
discovery. (See Handbook, Museum of Practical Geology, 1893 ed.) Dr. Hirth 
is accredited with the belief that the use of kaolin was not introduced until 
some time after A.D. 536; and Dr. Bushell states that porcelain wares were 
historically mentioned for the first time in respect of the King-te-tchin 
potteries in the year A.D. 583. 

But whatever may be the true date of the Chinese discovery of kaolin, 
it was certainly emulation of Chinese porcelain products that eventually led 
to the manufacture of porcelain in other countries, and formed the chief 
incentive to the discoveries of china-clay in Japan, Europe, and America. 

Respecting Japan, Mr. Ernest Hart states that the rock from which 
Japanese porcelain was first made was discovered about A.D. 1599, as the 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Kaolin 289 

result of a special search in Japan by a Korean expert named Risampei, who 
had been brought over to Japan for this purpose. After some years of labour, 
it is said he found an indurated kind of kaolinique rock on the slopes of 
Idzumiyama. (Jour. Soc. Arts, 26th February 1892, p. 318.) 

Professor R. W. Atkinson, B.Sc, in his Notes on the Porcelain Industry of 
Japan, refers to the results of Professor Wurtz's analyses as indicating that many 
of the materials used in Japan were not kaolins : " Out of eight specimens 
of the material used at Arita, one only, that from Kudaruyama, contained less 
than 74'5 per cent, of silica." Wurtz therefore concluded that " the egg-shell 
porcelain ware is made without kaolin, being compounded, as to its body,, 
solely of petuntze-like or petro-siliceous minerals." But analyses by Professor 
Atkinson, who resided in Tokio several years, of clays from other districts, do 
not altogether support Professor Wurtz's conclusions. Some of the clays used 
in the preparation of Awata ware, and some of the Satsuma clays, evidently 
approach kaolin in composition, due allowances being made for differences in 
washing. For analyses, see list at end of this paragraph. 

In Continental Europe, the first recorded discovery of kaolin is that of 
Schnorr, an ironmaster of Aue (Saxony), who in A.D. 1709 accidentally found 
a white earth which he caused to be used in the preparation of hair-powders. 
Eventually Bottgher became cognisant of it, and acutely surmised that it con- 
tained the necessary material for the manufacture of the coveted white porcelain. 
He soon succeeded in the manufacture, and, lest his secrets should become 
known, his king and patron practically imprisoned him at the Meissen works. 
Nevertheless, other discoveries rapidly followed ; for, according to Hermann, 
a porcelain factory was set up in Vienna in 17 10, and works started at Berlin 
in 1756, at Drankenthal in 1757, and in Thuringia 1758. {Painting on Glass 
and Porcelain, p. 15.) 

In 1857 extensive china-clay works were established in Seilitz, about six 
kilometres from Meissen. These works are now owned by Carl Krister, of 
Waldenburg, Silesia, and, with the exception of the kaolin-pits of the Meissen 
Royal Porcelain Factory, whose mines are also at Seilitz, on the River Elbe, 
and Sornzig, near Miigeln, are the oldest in the kingdom of Saxony. The 
mining is done in proper mining fashion by shafts and galleries. The raw 
kaolin is in a thickness of 9 to 12 metres at a depth of 30 to 35 metres 
below the surface. The washing of the china-clay and grinding of the sand is 
done in Seilitz, and the produce is classed amongst the best existing kaolins. 

The rational analysis is given as 80-93 clay substance, I5'85 quartz, 
3'22 felspathic detritus; which is a higher proportion of quartz than that 
of washed Cornish china-clays, and possibly on that account it may be more 
economical to use in the manufacture of hard porcelain. 

There are kaolin works also at Aue (Saxony), at Hohburg near Wurzen, 

at Rasephas near Altenburg, and Zettlitz near Carlsbad. 

19 



290 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Seger gives analyses of kaolins from Ledez, Kottifen, Tremosna, Zettlitz, 
Lettin, Kaschfan, Sennewitz. 

And Brongniart mentions Rana in Bavaria, Sosa in Bohemia, Zettlitz near 
Carlsbad in Bohemia, also Grisboch, Averbach, Dierndorf, and Prinzdorf, as 
localities where kaolin occurs. 

Very recently — (July 1903) — Messrs. H. Flemming & Co., of Stettin, write 
that china-clay (kaolin) is found plentifully in Saxonia at Meissen, Miigeln, 
Bautzen, Eisenberg, etc., but not so fine and white as English. 

In Bohemia, near Carlsbad, however, they say " the best kaolin for porcelain 
is found, and preferred to English, which is not so fat." 

Some of the Rheinpfalz clays from the locality of Griinstadt have the 
appearance of kaolins, and burn beautifully white. And certain specimens 
of Westerwalder clays are very white in the native state, resembling deposited 
kaolin, but do not burn white. 

In France, Comte de Brancas-Lauragnais, about 1758, discovered an 
inferior kaolinique rock near Alengon, and shortly afterwards visited England 
and applied for a patent for his porcelain ; but as he gave no specification its 
exact composition is unknown. The real discovery of china-clay in France, 
however, was accidental ; it is attributed to a surgeon of St. Yrieix, near Limoges 
and the date of this occurrence is given by Brongniart as A.D. 1765. The 
material is said to have been first used for laundry purposes. In 1768 it 
came under the notice of Macqueer, then director of a soft-porcelain works 
near Paris. Excellent results were obtained, and shortly afterwards Macqueer 
became associated with Sevres, and from about A.D. 1769 hard porcelain was 
made there. From such accidental beginnings, and on account of the purity 
of the clays, a large and prosperous business has sprung up; and in many 
places round Limoges china-clay is obtained for use in the now numerous 
porcelain works that have been erected there. 

Messrs. Jean Nadaud & Cie., of Limoges, inform me that the most 
important localities for kaolin in France at the present time are Coussac- 
Bonneval, Haute Vienne, and St. Yrieix. Roussefs Directory mentions, in 
addition, Daumail, Bouilly, Jouchere, Solignac, Marcognac, Eyzies, Meudon, 
Tain, Mehun-sur-Y^vre, Vierzon, etc. 

Brongniart explains that the kaolins of the environs of St. Yrieix are 
generally of a fine milk-white, and friable. They are distinguished into three 
different qualities : — The Caillouteux, which is granular and friable, some of 
the grains being quartz-like and hard, others clay-like and tender. The 
Sablonneux, which is friable, very meagre to touch, and in which the quartz 
is in the state of very fine sand, but visible. The Argileux, which is less 
friable, soft to the touch, of a milk-white colour, more uniform, and capable 
of being made directly into a supple paste by means of water. ( Traitd des 
Arts Ceramiques, vol. i. p. 45.) Brongniart also mentions kaolin of Louhossoa, 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Kaolin 291 

in the Pyrenees near Bayonne, and that of Pieux, near Cherbourg, which he 
observes is very argillaceous. 

Seger seems to consider Limoges kaolin superior in every respect to 
English. He gives the rational analysis of Limoges kaolin as : — Clay substance, 
96-91 per cent. ; quartz, 2-32 per cent. ; feldspar, 077 per cent. {Collected 
Writings, p. 894.) 

In the United States of America china-clay was discovered prior to 
A.D. 1745 ; for there is on record a letter written by William Cook worthy, of 
Plymouth (England), to a Mr. Kingston, of Penryn (Cornwall), dated 30th May 
1745, in which the following passage occyrs : — " I had lately with me a person 
who has discovered the china-earth ; he had with him several samples of 
chinaware, which I think were equal to the Asiatic. It was found on the 
back of Virginia, where he was in quest of mines ; and, having read Du Halde, 
he discovered both petunze and kaolin." {Handbook, Mus. Pract. Geol., 
London, i8gj, p. 128.) 

Then, again, in the letters-patent No. 610, A.D. 1744, of Edward Heylyn 
and Thomas Frye, a substance called "unaker" is mentioned, and is described 
as " the produce of the Cherokee nation in America." 

The Cherokis, it seems, were a branch of Iroquois Indians inhabiting 
Virginia and the Carolinas. (See Living Races of Mankind, p. 538.) And 
Professor C. F. Binns, when commenting on the nature of the " unaker," 
observes : — " This seems to have been practically identical with the kaolin used 
by the Chinese and by Bottcher at Meissen." {Story of the Potter, p. 166.) 

In Josiah Wedgwood's letters to Bentley in A.D. 1766, clay from Cherokee 
and South Carolina is mentioned, 

Mr. J. A. Holmes, in a paper read before the American Institute of 
Mining Engineers, October 1895, referred to kaolin "in the Unaka or Smoky 
Mountains," and he stated that it is said " to have been mined by the Indians, 
packed across the country to the sea-board, and shipped to England, as early 
as the seventeenth century." 

That would seem a very early date, but it should be remembered that 
Virginia was discovered by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584; and in 1676 Carolina 
was planted by the British. It is, however, just possible that Mr. Holmes 
intended to say eighteenth century, which would better accord with the 
evidence already mentioned. 

In the course of his paper (" Notes on the Kaolin and Clay Deposits of 
North Carolina") Mr. Holmes explains that " As the Appalachian Mountains 
reach their maximum development in Western North Carolina, we find .... 

indications of extensive dynamic disturbances Among the minor results 

of these changes have been the formation of numerous dikes or veins of 
exceedingly coarse granitic material, which in some places are mined for the 
mica which they contain, and in other places are quarried for kaolin. These 



292 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

dikes are filled with quartz, feldspar, and mica, in varying proportions, very 

coarsely crystallized This feldspar of the dikes undergoes, through 

the weathering action of the atmosphere, certain chemical changes, resulting 
in its alteration from feldspar to kaolinite — the kaolin of commerce. These 
dikes vary considerably in size, ranging from a few inches to several hundred 
feet in thickness, and up to many hundred yards in length. They are 
generally parallel to the schistosity of the crystalline rocks, which, however, 
in some cases they cross at varying angles. The kaolin in those dikes which 
occur in the Unaka or Smoky Mountains is said to have been mined by the 
Indians, packed across the country to the sea-board, and shipped to England, 
as early as the seventeenth century. From one of them, near Webster, in 
Jackson County, kaolin is now mined [by the Harris Clay Co.], and shipped 
to Trenton, N.J., and other centres of the manufacture of fine pottery." 
(Trans. Am. Inst. M.E., vol. xxv. 1896, p. 929.) 

Thus the discovery and identification of china-clay, as such, in the United 
States of America takes precedence over that of England. 

Whether the American-Indian, the Cornish smelter, or possibly the 
Phoenician tin-miner was the real pioneer in its discovery for other purposes 
must ever remain a subject of uncertainty. 

Other evidence of the shipment of American kaolin to England in the 
eighteenth century is found in the record that " Mr. Caleb Lloyd, residing in 
Charlestown, South Carolina, in November 1765, sent a box of kaolin to 
Bristol, to be forwarded to Lord Hyndford, who was a relative of both 
Champion and Lloyd. The result of the experiments on it was related by 
Champion to Lord Hyndford under date 28th February 1767." {Handbook, 
Mus. Pract. GeoL, p. 131.) 

Kaolin evidently had been discovered in Wilmington (Del.) considerably 
before 1854, for Brongniart mentions the kaolin of Wilmington, and describes 
it as " Blanc, caillouteux, friable, maigre au toucher." ( Traitd des 
Arts Ceramiques.) 

More recently, along with the growth of the white pottery industry in 
the States, there has been a development of American kaolin deposits. 
At Dillsboro in North Carolina, for example, the Harris Clay Co. have a 
large mine. C. J, Harris, Esq., president of this company, informs the writer 
that their kaolin lies in veins more or less vertical, and situated in a geological 
formation which he believes to be azoic, viz., one of the oldest in North 
America ; the china-clay in some other parts of the United States being 
only secondary deposits, mostly sedimentary and in horizontal beds. 

In some places the vein of clay worked by the Harris Clay Co. is 
300 feet wide ; this is exceptional, even in Carolina, where the veins seldom 
exceed 20 feet wide, and many veins are too small to pay to work. The 
veins become harder at a depth of about 100 feet, and assume the character, 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Kaolin 



293 



we understand, of a rock of flint and felspar only partly decomposed. The 
Harris Co. started working about thirteen years ago. It is claimed that the 
output of this particular grade of clay in the States is confined to North 
Carolina, and that it will not exceed about ten thousand tons a year. The 
following is an analysis of the product: — Silica, 46*47; alumina, 38'I4; ferric 
oxide, 036 ; lime, 0-50; magnesia, 009; alkalies, 0'64; combined water, I3"6i. 
Dr. Heinrich Ries, in his recent work on Clays of the United States East 




Fig. 156. — Kaolin-mine, Dillsboro, N.C. 

of the Mississippi River (p. 38), states that Harris Clay Co.'s clay from 
Webster, N.C., " works up with 42 per cent, of water to a lean mass. Air- 
shrinkage, 6 per cent. ; fire-shrinkage, 4 per cent incipient fusion, 

2300° F. ; vitrification at 2500° ; viscosity above 2700°. Burns white." 

Dr. Ries also mentions kaolin at Thayer, Davidson County, N.C, which 
" works up with 23 per cent, of water to a lean mass, whose air-shrinkage 

is 3-2 per cent, and fire-shrinkage 3-3 per cent Incipient fusion at 

2300° R, complete fusion at 26cx3° Fluxes, 2-36." 

The fluxes mentioned by Dr. Ries seem rather excessive for kaolin, and 



294 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

the Thayer clay would possibly be of a denser and more vitreous nature than 
many china-clays are. 

In the State of Georgia, at Macon or near, a deposit of kaolin is being 
worked, which apparently is of sedimentary nature. The Irwin Clay and 
Sand Co. of Chicago (111.), who, the writer understands, are agents for certain 
Georgia clays, report that their mines are located at Dry Branch, Georgia, 
on the Macon, Dublin, and Savannah R.R. The deposit there is very thick 
and of even quality, and at least one hundred thousand carloads are said to 
be in sight. 

A report upon the physical properties of this clay, by Dr. Heinrich Ries, 
of the Department of Economic Geology, Cornell University, Ithaca, N,Y., 
dated 3rd February 1902, reads as follows : — " The material is a soft, very 
fine-grained clay, which is nearly white in colour in its green condition, and 
remarkably free from grit. 

" When worked up into a plastic mass it takes 21 per cent, of water, and 
develops a plasticity which in feel is very nearly equal to that of Florida 
ball-clay. The air-dried briquettes made from this mixture have a tensile 
strength of 50 to 55 lbs. per square inch, which is higher than that of 
many Jersey ball-clays, and nearly equal to that of the Florida ball-clay. 
The air-shrinkage of the material was 5 per cent. When burned up to Cone 5, 
the colour of the material is white, and the total shrinkage 10 per cent. 
If heated still higher, or up to Cone 10, which is higher temperature than that 
attained by most white earthenware manufacturers, the total shrinkage is 
15 per cent., and the colour white with but the merest tinge of yellow, in 
fact so small as to be almost imperceptible. The clay burned up as high as 
Cone 8 without showing any yellowish tint. In burning the clay by itself 
it shows a tendency to develop some small cracks, but these are much less 
numerous if the clay is lawned before molding. The material is highly 
refractory, for when heated to a temperature of 3100" F., in other words, a 
dazzling white heat, it shows no sign of fusing." 

The Georgia Kaolin Co., of Macon (Ga.), appear to work mines in the 
same district, and Mr. I. Mandle, of St. Louis (Mo.), has very kindly sent the 
writer some notes relating to " Sant's No. i Georgia china-clay." This also 
appears to have been examined by Dr. Heinrich Ries with equally favourable 
results. The rational analysis is given as follows : — 

Clay substance, 99 '00 per cent. 

Quartz and feldspar, . . . . i -qo 

Hence, although apparently a sedimentary deposit, the product must be 
of excellent quality. 

Results of physical tests are: — Tensile strength, 55 lbs. per square inch. 
Slakes rather readily in water. The entire amount passes through a screen of 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Kaolin 295 

1 50 meshes to the inch (presumably when in intimate suspension in water). 
The most plastic kaolin in existence (which is certainly saying a lot, consider- 
ing the plastic kaolins of Germany). Air-shrinkage, 6 per cent. ; on burning 
up to Cone 5 an additional 5 per cent, and at Cone 8 a little more. 

In addition to the Georgia Kaolin Co. there are several other companies who 
are working mines in the same district, but their product is said to be sold 
principally to paper mills ; except I. Mandle & Co., who sell their entire out- 
put to the pottery and encaustic tile trades. Georgia china-clay is reported 
to be equal to French clay, and an experienced American manufacturer assures 
the writer that he considers Georgia kaolin the best of its kind in the country 
for pottery or tiles. 

Referring again to Mr. J. A. Holmes' interesting and instructive paper, he 
states that "At various points in the Piedmont Plateau, which extends east of 
the Blue Ridge for from one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles, there 
are to be found deposits of this kaolin which have doubtless originated in 
much the same way as those west of the Blue Ridge ; but none of those 
are now worked to any considerable extent. The age of the crystalline rocks 
in the Piedmont Plateau and the mountain counties, and the exact time at 
which the disturbance took place which resulted in the formation of these 
massive granite dikes, is, as yet, a matter of doubt. 

" So numerous are these dikes in certain places, and so long have their 
feldspars been undergoing surface-transformation to residual kaolin or clay, 
that one might expect to find in this region, as in some other countries, 
sedimentary deposits of this material which had been transported for greater 
or lesser distances ; but when we bear in mind the general elevation of the 
mountain region, and the consequent rapidity of its streams, we can readily 
understand that this product of decay and denudation would scarcely be 
deposited until it had been carried so great a distance from the original source 
as to be lost by commingling in the lowlands with larger portions of other 

and different materials Along the borders of Piedmont Plateau region 

there are occasionally found deposits of this kaolin material, which has 
evidently been carried but a short distance. Such occurrences are more 
extensively known on the western border of the coastal-plain region, mainly 
in the Potomac formation, as in the neighbourhood of Aiken, S.C, and 
Augusta, Ga., and in many other places where considerable deposits of this 
kaolin material occur, both in the form of arkose (where the kaolin is still 
mixed with the quartz and mica of the original granitic formation), and in the 
clay-beds where it has been more completely sorted, and the kaolin has been 
separated from the coarser materials, so as to form extensive beds of what is 
locally termed 'china' or 'potter's' clay. In some cases, in the arkose 
material just referred to, the partially decayed crystals of feldspar are 
frequently found with kaolinization incomplete ; and mingled with these are 



296 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

fragments of other minerals, transported from the ddbris of the crystalline 
rocks occurring along the borders of the Piedmont Plateau, not many miles 

away Through many places, in both the mountain and the Piedmont 

Plateau regions, there are deposits of clay resulting from the decay of the 
granites, gneisses, and crystalline schists. Many of these have a structure 
which would indicate that the materials have been transported .... but in 
perhaps many other cases the materials have evidently decayed in place, 
since the gradations can be traced from the clay down into the partly altered 
rocks below." (Trans. A.I.M.E., vol. xxv. p. 936.) 

For a typical native American kaolin. Professor Binns takes that of 
Hockessin Valley, Delaware, of which he gives the rational analysis thus : — 

Clay substance, 90-42 

Quartz, 6'o8 

Feldspathic matter, 3 '5° 

(See Transactions, American Ceramic Soc, vol. v. p. 281.) 

The writer is informed that the largest and oldest clay-miners in Delaware 
are Golding & Sons, whose mines are situated at Hockessin (Del.). This clay 
is known to the trade as " Golding china-clay." It is washed before being 
marketed, and both in its crude and its washed condition possesses a yellowish 
tint ; yet when fired up to Cone 8 it becomes fairly white, and is, in fact, one 
of the most popular United States china-clays on the market for pottery 
purposes. 

The entire output of Delaware is estimated by Mr. Mandle to be fifteen 
thousand tons per annum, Dr. H. Ries mentions both Hockessin and Newark 
(Del.) as localities where china-clay is found, and he gives some interesting 
photographs of one of the kaolin-pits, and of a washing-plant at Hockessin, 
operated by Mr. J. T. Burgess. 

With regard to the kaolins of Florida, Dr. H. Ries, under the classification 
of " Ball-clay" tells us that " It occurs at several points in the north-central 

portion of Florida It is undoubtedly of sedimentary origin, and the 

occurrence of such an extensive deposit so free in most places from impurities 
is remarkable. The mass is made up of a mixture of white clay and quartz 
pebbles, the latter forming 65 to 75 per cent, of the entire mass, so that for, 
every ton of washed clay about four tons of the crude material have to be 
mined. The quartz pebbles vary in size from that of a pinhead to a diameter 
of three-quarters of an inch. The largest ones seem to occur chiefly at the 
northern end of the area in which the kaolin is found 

" The largest pit which was being worked at the time of the writer's visit 
[Dr. H. Ries] was that at Edgar, Fla., which is about fifty miles south-west 

of Jacksonville Another but more extensive area of this clay occurs 

along the Palatlakaha River, south of Leesberg, Lake County. This large 




Fig. 157. — Kaolin-pit neat Hockessin, Del., U.S.A., showing drift over kaolin and the starting, 
of a circular shaft. (^By permission of the United States Geological Survey. ) 




Fig. 158.— Kaolin- washing plant of J. T. Burgess, Hockessin, Del., U.S.A. {By permission of 
the United States Geological Survey.) 



298 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

tract begins one mile south of Lake Harris, into which the Palatlakaha River 
flows, and extends along both sides of the river nearly to Villa City. 

" Throughout this belt there is an overburden of 3 feet of loose sand, uuder 

which lies the white ball-clay, of a, depth varying from 10 to 30 feet 

This deposit has been opened up at a point four miles south of Leesburg, 
where it is said to be 25 to 30 feet thick. Another area of this same clay 
occurs at Barton Junction, Polk County, about forty-five miles north-east of 




Fig. 159.— Clay-pit at Edgar, Fla. (By permission of U.S. Geological Survey.) 

Tampa. The sandy character of the raw clay permits it being worked by a 
method somewhat different from that usually practised at most kaolin-mines. 
At Edgar the pit is filled with water, and on this there is a float carrying a 
scraper and pump. The former loosens up the clay in the bottom of the pit, 
and the latter draws it up to the surface and discharges the water, with 
suspended clay and sand, into the washing-troughs. Owing to the fact that 
this Florida clay is very plastic, it is put on the market under the name of ball- 
clay. It is very refractory and burns white. In the table below are given 
chemical analyses of the clay from different points. It differs from the 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Kaolin 299 

E|?glish ball-clay chiefly in its greater refractoriness, and also somewhat in 
its plasticity 



Analyses of Florida Ball-clay. 



Silica, 
Alumina, 
Ferric oxide, . 
Lime, 
Magnesia, 
Alkalies, 
Water, . 
Sulphur trioxide. 



(■) 


(2) 


46-11 


45 '39 


39-50 


39"i9 


•35 


•45 




•51 


•13 


•29 




•83 


1378 


i4"oi 


•07 





99 "94 100-67 



(1) Washed clg.y from Palatlakaha River. 

(2) Washed clay from Edgar. 

{Clays of the U.S. East of the Mississippi River, pp. 82, 83.) 

Langenbeck also refers to these Florida clays as " native ball-clays." (See 
Chemistry of Pottery, p. 100.) And Professor Orton, jun., of Columbus, 
describes them as white clays which have been transported over long distances 
and redeposited as secondary beds. (See Trans. Am.. Ceramic Soc, vol. v. 

P- 379-) 

Even Professor Binns refers to Florida clay as a type of washed ball-clay 
containing over 98 per cent, of clay substance. 

Against the mature opinion of such a group of distinguished American 
scientists, it will appear presumptuous on the part of an Englishman to 
venture a contrary opinion ; yet the writer feels constrained to do so, being 
convinced that these Florida clays, as described in American literature, do 
not exhibit the natural characteristics of whiteware potter's " ball-clay," 
using the term in the sense it is understood in Great Britain, nor even in 
the sense it is used by stoneware potters. 

English " bfill-clays " are rarely washed, and, when they are, it is for a 
very different reason than applies in the case of Florida clays. The fact 
that, in their native state, Florida clays contain 65 to 75 per cent, of coarse 
quartz is a phenomenon immediately differentiating it from ball-clay. 

On the other hand, virgin china-clay rock or carclazite of Cornish origin 
contains from three to seven tons of sandy quartz to every ton of fine clay 
(Jour. Soc. Arts, 5th May 1876); and that very closely corresponds with the 
proportions of quartz in native Florida clay previous to washing. 

Comparison of specimens of native English blue ball-clay (rarely a 
washed product), washed Cornish china-clay, washed Florida plastic kaolin 
before burning, and of these same series of clays after burning in a potter's 
kiln, at once, in the opinion of the writer, assigns the Florida product to 



300 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

the "china-clays" rather than to the '' ball-clays" using these terms in the 
sense generally accepted in Staffordshire, 

Chemical analysis likewise indicates the same classification, by reason 
of the low percentage of alkalies in the Florida washed clay, viz., 0-83 
per cent. 

Someone may point out that, on p. 38 of Clays of U.S. East of the 
Mississippi River, Dr. Heinrich Ries gives the total fluxes of Edgar (Fla.) 
clay as 5-15 per cent. But, although Dr. Ries cites Langenbeck {Chem. of 
Pottery, p. loi) in support of this, I find nothing in Langenbeck, at the 
page given, of the nature assumed. Indeed, on p. 100, C. of P., Langenbeck 
gives the alkalies 0-83, and iron, lime, and magnesia together 1-25. A 
mistake has apparently been made by the learned doctor, which will be 
evident to anyone comparing his remarks a few lines higher on p. 38, and 
his analyses on p. 39. 

For these reasons the writer cannot concur in classifying the Florida 
clays as ball-clays, but agrees with the proprietors of the Florida mines, who 
apply a peculiarly appropriate and correct denomination to their product, 
viz., "plastic kaolin!' 

Hence it has been included in this notice of American china-clays. 

The foregoing remarks must not be assumed to be in the slightest 
degree derogatory to the Florida clays ; for undoubtedly they are remark- 
ably useful clays, only awaiting greater enterprise, skill, and opportunity to 
enable their use to be vastly extended, if supplies hold out. Indeed, many 
British potters would be glad if similar clays were at their service. 

In the State of Missouri a material termed china-clay is mined near Glen 
Allen. This is washed and put on the market in washed condition. The 
colour is white, the clay mixes well with water, and when screened through 
a 120-mesh sieve leaves no residue. 

The rational analysis is given by the proprietor, I. Handle, Esq., of St. 
Louis (Mo.), as under: — 

Clay substance, 53"I0 

Feldspar, . 3-65 

Flint, 43-25 

It is said to possess the average plasticity of kaolins, but it cannot be 
practically used without the addition of ball-clay. When moulded and dry 
it does not bear any handling, while in mixture with ball-clay it is not 
sensible as to this point. The total shrinkage of this china-clay at a Cone 8 
heat is 1 1 per cent. At this temperature it burns to a white open body. 

In testing with pottery bodies it was found that this china-clay can be 
used to a higher percentage in mixtures than the average kaolins, without 
injuring the colour and quality of the ware. It can be used to advantage 
in making bodies for many pottery purposes, when due allowance is made, 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Kaolin 301 

in accordance with its composition as per rational analysis. It is thus 
classed as a good white kaolin of a highly siliceous type. And although 
its analysis is very different from that of average kaolin, any well-trained 
ceramist will see in it very useful qualities. 

In New Jersey State there are very persistent beds of what seems to be 
sedimentary kaolin, in the clay-beds at the mouth of Raritan River. Dr. 
Cook has described them and given chemical analyses ; but either from 
impurity or from high siliceousness, or yet, again, possibly from want of 
enterprise, these clays do not seem to be washed as china-clay for white- 
ware potters. 

A white clay, dug within about three miles of Trenton, is mentioned on 
p. 235 of Dr. Cook's 1878 report, but he adds : " All of these clays are carted 
to Trenton, and used principally in the potteries in making saggars." Dr. 
Cook mentions that in a narrow valley one and a half miles south-west 
of Bethlehem, Hunterdon County, Northern New Jersey, a kaolin in situ 
was discovered about 1872. Some of it was washed and tested at Trenton, 
but was found to burn of too dark colour for use as porcelain clay. 

In Pennsylvania kaolinique rocks of siliceous white clays, possessing 
valuable and peculiar vitreous qualities, and containing appreciable percen- 
tages of magnesia, occur in the south mountains of Cumberland and York 
Counties. At Mount Holly Springs, about twenty-eight miles south of 
Harrisburg (Pa.), an estate was opened up in 1897, and a company organized 
for the purpose of refining the clay for use in the manufacture of wall-papers 
and white vitrified bricks. The refining process adopted was what is known 
as the floating process, by which the slip is allowed to run through long 
troughs into settling-vats, where the fine sand is allowed to settle and the 
clay then pumped into filter-presses, from whence it is taken to the dryer, and, 
after being dried, is ready for shipment. 

Large quantities are said to be used by floor-tile and wall-tile manu- 
facturers. The chemical analysis of the refined clay is given thus : — 

Silica, . 63-17 

Alumina, ........ 22 '20 

Oxide of iron, . . o'3i 

Lime, . . . . 0*05 

Magnesia, ...... . 3'°^ 

Water of combination, 4 '97 

9378 

The unaccounted-for percentage possibly may be water of hydration. 

The crude clays, just as taken from the clay-bank, are manufactured into 
white vitrified impervious bricks that are finding great favour with prominent 
architects, some twenty thousand bricks daily being put on the market. 

Of very similar nature, it would appear, is the material operated by The 



302 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Chesnut Ridge White Brick Co., of Chesnut Ridge (Pa.). This company, about 
three years ago, purchased mineral rights on nine hundred and thirty-seven 
acres of land in the Blue Ridge Valley, Monroe County. This deposit of 
clay varies in colour from white to buff, producing chiefly a vitrified brick of 
marble whiteness, of which, it is said, some two millions were used in the 
Ansonia Apartment Hotel, Upper Broadway, New York City. 

The clay is raised from open workings, and loaded into the buckets of a 
conveyor. These buckets run on a stationary cable, and are drawn by an 
endless wire-rope; there is a down-grade from mine to works, where storage 
capacity is provided for ten thousand tons. 

At Ore Hill, near Hollisdayburg(Pa.), a sandy kaollnique rock is, quarried, 
and sold for use in making saggars, stilts, tiles, and the like. Apparently 
this material has not been very scientifically or technically examined at 
present ; but, judging by inspection of sample, there are the elements of good 
kaolin in it, only awaiting suitable treatment by sedimentation processes, and 
subsequent skilful use in a technical sense. In one instance, where this clay 
is in use for tilemaking, the writer is given to understand that the clay is 
washed at the tileworks before use. 

As to Virginia, Langenbeck mentions kaolin from Nelson County which 
yields on analysis : — 

Silica, ... 50*02 

Alumina, . 35'i8 

Ferric oxide, . . . . . o"36 

Lime 9-12 

Magnesia, o'o'j 

Alkalies, 3 '39 

Combined water, 10 '5 7 

9971 

This refers to a kaolin which is found native in such a naturally fine 
state of division as not to require separation of portions by floating and sedi- 
mentation, but may be used directly in a whiteware body. {Chemistry of 
Pottery, p. 94.) 

Some compensations would clearly have to be made for the high 
percentage of alkalies, which seem to indicate the presence of feldspathic 
substances in a finely divided state. 

Mr. Mandle kindly writes that " Although there is little doubt that Josiah 
Wedgwood used china-clay from Virginia in the first whiteware made by him, 
the deposits in that state have never been worked until July 1902. The 
Blue Ridge Kaolin Co. commenced mining operations at Oak Level, Henry 
County (Va.), putting up a washing-plant of a capacity of three hundred tons 
a month, which is now in full operation, with a ready demand for its output. 
This deposit is located in a spur of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the crude 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Kaolin 303 

ore is exactly similar to that of Dills boro (N.C.), though the form of the 
deposit is different, being found in a blanket vein extending over many acres. 
Other large deposits of a similar character are known to exist in the State of 
Virginia, but at present this is the only one in operation." 

More recently kaolin is said to have been discovered at Jonca, near 
St. Genevieve (Mo.), but only experimental quantities seem to have been 
raised and tested at present ; and the results of its commercial exploitation 
must necessarily be awaited with some degree of anxiety by those concerned 
in the adventure. 

As to Wisconsin, Dr. Ries mentions white-burning sedimentary clays 
occurring at Hersey, St. Croix County, also in the valley of the Eau Claire 
River. Large quantities are said to be washed annually and sold to paper- 
makers in Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

South Carolina yields plastic clays, called china-clays, which are marketed 
without washing, and are used, it is said, mostly for wall-paper and linoleum. 

In Texas, too, clays of good quality are reported to exist, but their com- 
mercial inaccessibility renders them for the present uninteresting. 

Connecticut, Vermont, Wisconsin, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Penn- 
sylvania are also mentioned by Dr. Ries as sources of clays of the nature 
of china-clays. 

In the map, p. 284 of Clays of the U.S. East of the Mississippi River, 
Dr. Ries marks two localities near Roanoke in Alabama as possessing kaolin 
deposits ; also one locality near Shoals in Indiana. But Dr. Ries (p. 48) 
refers to Indiana clays as occurring in pockets in carboniferous limestone ; this 
raises a doubt as to their being genuine kaolins. 

In Canada, so far as the matter has yet been officially reported, kaolin 
deposits or formations appear to be very limited, the only notice of such 
apparently referring to an almost inaccessible region on the Hudson Bay 
slope ; and of this Dr. Robert Bell, Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, 
states that, although the light-coloured clay found upon the Missinabie River 
was thought to be kaolin, it proved to be only a good quality of ordinary 
clay. 

In England the first discovery and identification of this coveted rock is, 
by general consent, attributed to William Cookworthy, a native of Kingsbridge, 
in Devon, about A.D. 1750 to 1754. The discovery in this instance cannot be 
justly characterized as chance or accident ; for, as a chemist, Cookworthy 
had evidently become deeply interested in the subject of the manufacture 
of porcelain. Probably he had heard of the report by Pere d'Entrecolles, 
who in 171 2 resided at King-te-tchin, and made known the nature 
of the materials used in the manufacture of Chinese porcelain, and sent 
samples to Paris in A.D. 1727- 1729. {Handbook, Mus. Pract. Geol., 1893.) No 
doubt he had learned also that suitable clay had been found in Saxony in 



304 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

1709, and that Bottgher had succeeded in making porcelain at Meissen. He 
would possibly know, too, that works had been established at Vienna, Hochst, 
Berlin, and Bavaria ; and that a certain sort of porcelain was made at Chelsea, 
Dr. Wall's success at Worcester afterwards coming to his knowledge would be 
another incentive. 

His engrossment in the subject was apparently well known, for as early as 
174s he refers to a visit of someone from America, with specimens of ware 
purporting to be made of American kaolin ; indeed, Collins says that his 
works was first established at Plymouth in 1733. {Jour. Soc. Arts, 5th 
May 1876.) 

A detailed description of Cookworthy's search for kaolinique rocks 
(from his own pen) may be found in Jewitt's Life of Wedgwood, p. 227, etc., 
whence we learn that he had for years been beset with a yearning for its 
discovery in England, and that he doggedly persevered until first at Tregonnin 
Hill, then in the parish of St. Stephen's, and afterwards in Boconnoc, the object 
of his quest was found. 

British whiteware manufacturers of to-day, who, week in and week out, are 
dunned for orders for china-clay, may find it hard to appreciate the intensity 
of desire that burned in the thoughts of ceramists of the eighteenth century 
for the discovery of a material to enable them to rival the productions of the 
Chinese. But Cookworthy did more than merely find the materials ; he 
promptly applied himself to the difficult task of manufacturing the newly 
found materials into porcelain wares, for Staffordshire potters knew nothing 
of this at that period, and could give him little help. By dint of dauntless 
perseverance he eventually succeeded ; and has explained that for the body 
of the ware he " generally mixed about equal parts of the washed caulin and 
petunse," and for the glaze " the stone .... for glazing are those with the 
green spots of Tregonnin Hill. These, barely ground fine, make a good glaze." 
In 1768 he secured a patent for the use of Cornish clay and stone, and 
manufactured it into porcelain at Plymouth, availing himself of the services 
of a talented artist to decorate his wares ; but the venture was not a financial 
success, and in 1773 William Cookworthy sold the patent rights to Richard 
Champion, of Bristol. Nevertheless, his discovery has been a gigantic 
financial success to the British nation, and demands of us a passing tribute 
of respect to Cookworthy's genius and persistence. 

Another name deserves remembrance in connection with the practical 
introduction of Cornish clay, namely, that of Richard Chaffers, of Liverpool. 
Born 1 73 1, this gentleman, Mr. Mayer, the accomplished historian of Liverpool 
pottery ware, tells us, served his apprenticeship with Alderman Shaw ; after 
which, about 1752, he commenced business on his own account at a works near 
the bottom of the Brow, Liverpool. At first he made the usual blue and 
white "Delft" earthenware ; but,subsequently hearing of the great improvements 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Kaolin 305 

by Wedgwood, Mr. Chaffers determined to make a higher class of ware, and 
set about seeking materials for the production of china. About this time he 
became acquainted with a person named Podmore, formerly an employee of 
J. Wedgwood, and induced him to become his manager. Finding that the 
lands upon which Cookworthy had discovered china-clay, or, as Mayer calls 
it, "soapstone," had been lea^sed to other persons, Chaffers decided to set 
out for Cornwall in the hope of discovering some for himself. He obtained 
letters of introduction to several of the leading landowners of Cornwall, then 
in London, and then set out on his journey, which in those days, when there 
were neither mail-coaches nor railways (see Art of Pottery, p. 68), was a task 
of horsemanship of no mean order. After great expense and disheartening 
disappointments, his first efforts proved unsuccessful, and he paid his men 
and turned again dispirited towards home. One of the men, however, was 
not present, and Mr. Chaffers was told he had gone up the mountain to try 
another place. After journeying some distance homeward, Mr. Chaffers heard 
a faint cry, and, turning to inquire its cause, observed the preconcerted signal 
of discovery flying from a lofty peak. Mr. Chaffers then returned again, 
re-engaged the workmen, and thenceforward obtained an ample supply of 
the long-sought clay, which was ultimately shipped to Liverpool. 

On his return journey from Cornwall, Chaffers was struck down by a 
dangerous fever while in London ; but he recovered, and upon arriving again 
in Liverpool he set to work with his new materials, and soon produced ware 
of such excellence that even Josiah Wedgwood is said to have frankly 
acknowledged its superiority. 

The pathetic termination of Chaffers' promising life is briefly told by 
Mayer as follows : — " Podmore, his favourite foreman, was seized, some years 
after the events narrated, with a malignant fever, without hope of recovery. 
The unfortunate sufferer sent a message declaring his wish to see his 
dear master once more before their final separation. Mr. Chaffers .... 
imprudently complied, and shortly after took the fever to which he fell a 
victim. He was interred in the old churchyard of St. Nicolas, near the grave 

of his faithful servant This unfortunate event, by taking away both 

master and faithful assistant, put an end to the prosecution of the trade." 
{History of the Art of Pottery, p. 70.) 

The discovery of some of the deposits around St. Austell is usually 
accredited to Robert Robins Geach; in 1820 he is said to have sold clay 
at ;^5, los. a ton, and in 1821 at £/^, los., the quantity in the latter year 
being two hundred and twelve tons. 

Thomas Minton, founder of the great firm of MiNTONS, china and- 
earthenware makers, Stoke-on-Trent, also had a little experience in mining 
china-clay in Cornwall about A.D. 1800 to 1820. Jewitt relates the incidents 
of this attempt to conduct clay-mining at Hendra Common, about three miles 

20 



3o6 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

from St. Austell, by Minton and some associates. (See Ceramic Art of Great 
Britain, p. 190.) 

The Cornish output of china-clay for all purposes gradually increased, 
until in 1901 it reached the aggregate of 463,504 tons, supplemented by an 
output of 54,064 tons from Devonshire. But it should be remarked that by 
far the greater portion of this output of china-clay is used in other industries, 
such as the linen, cotton, and paper manufactures ; probably not more than 
a tenth part of the whole being used by potters. 

In Denmark kaolin occurs on the island of Bornholm, near the port of 
Ronne, but the quality is reported to be not fine enough for the production 
of china or porcelain. This Bornholm clay product is used mostly for paper- 
making, and for refractory products, including potters' saggars. Messrs. H. 
Flemming & Co., of Stettin, inform the writer that about four to five thousand 
tons are annually shipped from Bornholm to Germany for " Chamotte " (burnt 
fireclay) purposes. 

Ronne is the capital town and port of Bornholm, and there are numerous 
pottery works on the island. 

In Portugal valuable deposits or formations of kaolin are said to exist in the 
neighbourhood of Oporto. (See British Clayworker, September 1903, p. 221.) 
In Persia, at Vartoon, near Ispahan, something of the nature of kaolin 
appears to be found. 

In India china-clay is said to be found not far from Delhi, and is used 
by gold and silver smiths for crucibles ; but Delhi whiteware potters, it is said, 
do not use it, preferring to use almost pure sand. 

Mr. C. J. Hallifax, C.S., the authority for the foregoing, adds that kaolin 
is also found in the Himalayas, particularly in the Mandi state. 

Dr. Alex. Hunter, M.D., F.R.C.S.E., in a report upon his attempts at 
improving Indian pottery manufactures, tells us that, on looking over a large 
collection of minerals and clays found in various parts of the Madras Presidency, 
he was struck with the great abundance of the white granites, felspars, kaolins, 
or porcelain earths and siliceous or flinty rocks, many of them procurable in 
exhaustless profusion. 

In New South Wales kaolin is reported to have been raised, during the 
year 1902, in quantity from deposits at Ulladulla, Tichborne, and Gosford. 
{Ann. Kept. Dept Mines N.S.W., igo2, p. 59.) 

In Queensland, Brisbane district and Rockhampton are reported to have 
been the subjects of a good deal of prospecting for clay some years ago. 

In Victoria kaolin is said to be mentioned in the Annual Report relating 
to Mines and Water as being raised in the colony. 

Preparation. — Unlike other clays already noticed, china-clay, as it appears 
in commerce, is a product resulting from most careful and elaborate treatment 
of the native rock. The process varies slightly according to the particular 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Kaolin 307 

situation and surroundings of the mine or " sett " ; the degree of purity and 
excellence of quality to be attained ; and the volume or quantity it is desired 
to raise and prepare for sale. 

Four principal operations are necessary, namely : — 

(i) Breaking down the rock or native clay from the stopes. 

(2) Separation of the coarse quartz crystals or sand. 

(3) Refining from coarse clay and micaceous scales. 

(4) Settling, decanting the water, drying the clay. 

With regard to preliminaries, David Cock writes :■ — " When the general 
aspect of the locality is sufficient to produce confidence in the mind of the 
explorer that there is a bed of clay beneath the surface, he immediately takes 
steps to test it. For this purpose he sinks a pit through the soil until it 
reaches the suspected clay. This pit, of course, is of no certain depth, as the 
overburden is sometimes only a few feet thick, while at others it is five or six 

fathoms in thickness When the pit has reached the clay, the object 

of testing its existence is answered, but the pit is still continued to ascertain 
the thickness of the bed and the depth of the clay. A sample of the clay 

is then taken, in order to test its quality If the test turns out to be 

satisfactory, several other pits are sunk to ascertain the area of the deposit ; 
and if the depth, quality, and area of the clay are sufficient to warrant its 
being worked, preparations are immediately made to open up the ground and 
to get the mine in working order." (A Treatise on China-Clay, by David Cock, 
p. 29, Simpkin Marshall & Co.) 

Kaolin or kaolinique rocks do not always yield products saleable as china- 
clay. Brongniart names several localities in France where this has happened ; 
among others, that of Alencon, the first of the kaolin discoveries in France ; 
and similar instances arise at Neuvic-sur-l'Isle and Westerwald. Hence, as 
David Cock very wisely proceeds to say : — " When the clay is taken out of 
the trial pit, the first care of the miner is to test its quality. The methods 
adopted for testing are various, and depend much on the purposes to which 
the clay is intended to be applied. If it is tested with a view of ascertaining 
its value for the manufacture of porcelain or pottery, it is first carefully washed 
in the following manner. The virgin clay having been pulverised, and 
thoroughly mixed with water, the gravel and grit are allowed to settle .... 
whilst the clay is left in suspension. The combined clay and water are now 
poured into another vessel and allowed to remain till the clay is precipitated, 
and the water is again poured off, so that nothing but the clay remains. The 
clay is then dried at a gentle heat, and afterwards submitted to a severe test 
by fire. Strength and whiteness are the most important desiderata in this case." 
{Ibid., pp. 29, 30.) 

The mode of working in 1807 has been described by Dr. Fitton ; and as 



3o8 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

this may be of service in cases where it is not at first desired to erect 
expensive engines and machinery, it is repeated here : — " The overburden 
being removed to a considerable extent, the clay itself is dug progressively 
in steps, the discoloured portions being picked put and thrown away. The 
selected clay is then wheeled to the washing-place or ' strake,' and washed 
with a stream of water. A large quantity of ' sand ' is at once separated, and 
this is shovelled away continually. The clay and finer mica is carried on by 
the flowing stream to ' pits ' and ' ponds,' which are rectangular receptacles 
built of rough stone, cemented by lime ; the pits 5 and 6 feet in the side and 
4 feet deep, the ponds 20 feet by 12 feet and the same depth. The first pit 
receives the fine sand and coarser mica ; the second and perhaps the third the 
fine mica, while the fine clay settles in the last or passes on to the ponds. 
When the ponds are full, their contents are transferred to shallow ' pans' lined 
with granite, about 40 feet by 12 feet and 14 feet^ deep. In these pans it 
remains from four to eight months, often from September to the following 
May. It is by that time stiff enough to cut up into square blocks, which are 
further dried by exposure to the sun, scraped, and rammed into casks. The 
scrapings and waste are wheeled back to the strake and rewashed '' 

Mr. Henwood's account adds to the above .... that when, during rainy 
weather or from any other cause, the clay does not settle, it is watered with a 
solution of alum from a common watering-pot. {Jour. Soc.Arts, 5th May 1 876.) 

By the old method, i.e., without pumping machinery, when the situation of 
the clay is on a hill, an adit-level is driven through the hillside, starting from 
a place convenient for sand-pits and waste-tipping, and terminating in the 
clay-sett at the level of the bottom of the intended workings, sufficient over- 
burden having been removed to prevent contamination. 

The decomposed rock or virgin clay is carefully broken down from the 
"stopes" or quarry-sides, and separated from any intrusive veins of schorl 
or of tin-ore ; and sometimes selected into several qualities, if these occur in 
the sett naturally. These are separately broken down, and deposited some 
distance from the sand-pits or trenches, and there subjected to the action of 
a strong force of water, being occasionally dug and turned about while the 
stream flows through its mass. This stream of water extracts and conveys 
the clay in suspension into a trench-like structure about 10 feet by 4 feet by 
4j feet, arranged so as to obstruct and detain by deposition or subsidence all 
coarse quartz-crystals or fragments of rock of any kind, the exit from the 
trench being an opening at the base protected by a grid, through which the 
water with the fine suspended clay exudes. Two or more of these sand-pits 
or troughs may be arranged abreast, so that the stream may be turned and 
operations continued whilst the accumulation of sand and detritus is removed 
from the one already full. 

^ Query — inches. 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Kaolin 



3°9 



The exuding clay and water stream, now containing probably 2^ per cent. 
of clay substance, flows by means of channels or pipes towards the refining 
apparatus — i.e., the mica-drags, shell-traps, depositing pits and ponds, and 
drying-sheds. These should be erected at some convenient place adjoining a 
road, railway, or seaport. 

The mica-drags or " shell "-traps are long, flat, low-sided wooden troughs, 
measuring about 20 feet by 12 inches by 8 inches, arranged in series side by side, 
each trough or channel having an inverted sluice, acting upward in sections 
at the outlet, which can be raised little by little as the deposit accumulates. 
Upon approaching the drags or catches, the speed of the clay-stream is 



.'/t-Ji-^-^' 




J 



/ 




BUTTON HOLE 
LfSUN D e R 



Si/CT/)4rV'^<^P'CHINA CLAV OUKRP.V OR SETT 
' AFTER DAVID COCK - BV PER MisilO N . 

Fig. 160. — China-clay sett. {After David Cock.) 

reduced, and its area enlarged, so as to divide the stream and permit of it 
passing simultaneously over several drags abreast. Distinct groups of drags 
are arranged in succession — the first to stop the coarsest mica, the sluices being 
at times assisted by sieves ; while succeeding groups detain the finer particles 
of micaceous clay, and relatively coarse particles of the clay itself The 
speed of the stream must be regulated accurately, so that only such velocity 
is attained as will allow of the subsidence of the several impurities on the 
drags assigned for their treatment. When these drags are full of accumu- 
lated deposits, the stream is either diverted to another system of drags, or 
temporarily stopped, while the mica and micaceous clay is cleaned out. 

But to follow the clay-stream itself On emerging from the mica- 
catches it is conducted into pits, often 30 feet diameter and 7 to 10 feet 



310 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

deep, lined with granite or suitable walling-stone, and allowed to rest for 
several weeks. When the clay has subsided, the upper water is decanted 
by removing plugs from a frame of plugs inserted in the side of the pit. 
When most of the easily decantable water has run off, the cream-like clay 
is caused to flow into shallow tanks, 60 feet by 30 feet by 6 feet deep, where it 
is allowed to thicken still more until of the consistency of cream-cheese. 



StitW 




CLPiY TANK 






CLA>< TANK ; 



CLAV TANK 



K V P I T 



<JLA^ 

vsertuiNC/ 

PIT 



clAV 

, sErriiA 

t>(T 



^^^^^^^^^^^ 






QRoyNO PLftN OF CHINA CL^Y WORKS 
t.AFT£R iiAviS Cocw). 13^ (jeim i Jsi'o-M. 




Figs. 161 and 162. — Ground-plan and elevation-section of china-clay works. (^After D. Cock. 
By permission of Mrs. David Cock, Liberty Hall, Roche.') 



Afterwards the clay, containing about half its weight of water, is conveyed 
to the drying-floors in hand-barrows, or by mechanical arrangements. The 
drying-floors may be either such as rely solely upon the drying action of 
wind and sunshine, or they may be extensive fireclay quarried floors, heated 
underneath by artificial heat, the latter now being almost exclusively used. 

When stiff" enough the clay on the drying-floors is cut across each way, 
so as to convert it approximately into cubical masses of 20 or 30 lbs. 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Kaolin 311 

weight each; and when partially dry, i.e., when the clay has attained a 
cheese-like consistency containing about 20 per cent, of moisture, the cubical 
lumps are removed from the drying-floor, and stacked in large sheds called 
" linhays," through which wind has moderately free passage, and the drying 
thus finally completed by air. 

China-clay is considered ready for market when it contains about 10 per 
cent, of sensible or hygroscopic moisture. If much overdried, or if burnt upon 
the drying-hearths, it may, for some purposes, be irretrievably damaged. 

Modern methods effect precisely similar operations, but are at every 
stage assisted by mechanical contrivances, wagons, tramways, overhead 
hauling, pumps, machinery, etc. ; and in certain cases expenses of cartage, 
which were formerly very considerable, are being economized by conducting 
the clay-stream in a liquid condition through long pipe-lines from the mines 
to drying-works specially erected in proximity to the seaport or railway 
station. The St. Neots Clay Co. are reported to be just now (1903) com- 
pleting such a pipe-line of some nine miles. (See B.C. W., September 1902.) 

With regard to more modern methods of opening a new work, David 
Cock writes : — " When all the testing and other preliminary matters have 
turned out to be satisfactory, steps are immediately taken to work the clay 
on as large a scale as may be thought necessary. The method of opening 
the work will depend much on the position of the clay relative to the 
surrounding country. The chief ends to be obtained are, of course, the 
most economical way of obtaining and manipulating the kaolin, and the 
ready means of conveying it to the railway or shipping ports. If the clay 
discovered is in the side of a hill, much of the machinery otherwise necessary 
is dispensed with. In the following description of a china-clay work, how- 
ever, we will suppose the discovered clay to be in a piece of low, flat 
ground. The extent of the clay-beds is ascertained by the 'pitting' which 
we have before described. As near as possible to the edge of the area, in 
the most convenient position, we sink a permanent perpendicular shaft 
through the hard granite rock, or where the rock is only partially decom- 
posed. The size of the shaft may be assumed as 6 feet by 6 feet 

From the bottom of this shaft, which we will suppose to be 30 yards deep, 
a horizontal drift or level is driven into the clay-ground, from 15 to 20 
yards in length. From the inner extremity of this drift, a hole or ' rise ' is 
worked up through the clay to the surface. .... While these operations 
are being prosecuted, men are employed in clearing away the overburden 

which rests on the clay-ground In this manner the virgin-clay 

ground is exposed to view and rendered ready for working An 

engine-house is built near the permanent shaft, as this is the place to which 
the clay will afterwards be brought from underground, and where the 
remainder of the machinery is fixed." {A Treatise on China-Clay, p. 32.) 



312 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Continuing, he explains that pumps, usually lo or 12 inches in diameter, 
are fixed in the permanent shaft ; and " the rise is fitted with a wooden 
pipe or launder, called the button-hole launder, which is about 9 inches 
square, and is perforated by a number of holes about 4 inches in diameter, 

which occur at distances of i foot These holes are fitted with 

stoppers called buttons." 

The button-hole launder having been placed in position in the "rise,'' 
the space around it is filled up as closely as possible, so that all water passing 
from the clay-stopes to the drift, and so to the pump-shaft, shall pass through 
this launder. 

Cock next considers that all-important feature, the " water supply," which 
is naturally a source of anxiety, because it is so essential to the process. 

Water having been obtained of sufficient purity and quantity, it is con- 
ducted to the stopes and allowed to fall on the clay at some point higher 
than the button-hole of the launder then in use, and in that way clay is 
washed into the stream and passes along to the pump. As the working of 
the pit deepens, successively lower buttons are removed from the launder, 
until, when the bottom of the rise is reached, the button-hole launder is no 
longer required, but the stream runs along the bottom of the workings into 
the drift, and so to the pump. 

The subsequent handling of the clay-stream is substantially as already 
described, except that mechanical contrivances are introduced to facilitate, 
cheapen, and improve production. 

Properties. — In considering these it must be premised that we are referring 
to kaolin or china-clay as a finished product, washed, separated, and dried 
as already described ; not pure kaolinite, nor indeed kaolin as the term is 
sometimes used by geologists. The following notes must be assumed to 
apply only to the material represented by what is commercially known as 
Cornish china-clay, and similar products from other countries. 

Usual chemical symbol, Al203,2Si02,2H20. Chemical composition after 
drying off the moisture, approximately, 48-0 per cent, silica, 38-6 per cent, 
alumina, lO'S per cent, combined water, together with traces of lime, iron, 
and alkalies. Specific gravity, 2-2 to 2-4. Loss on drying an ordinary 
commercial sample, from 10 to 12 per cent. Loss on calcination of an 
ordinary commercial sample, from 22 to 23 per cent, or more. 

It should not effervesce to dilute hydrochloric acid, but is decomposable 
by successive treatment with boiling concentrated solutions of carbonate of 
soda and sulphuric acid. 

China-clay reacts for alumina when moistened with solution of cobalt 
nitrate and subjected to blowpipe test on charcoal. 

China-clay is highly refractory, leaving an intensely white residue ; but its 
contraction, whiteness, porosity after ignition, etc., vary in different samples, 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Kaolin 313 

and, together with fineness, plasticity, natural colour, and physical properties, 
constitute the means of estimating the relative value and most appropriate 
uses of individual qualities. 

China-clays differ in tint of whiteness very perceptibly in their humid 
unburnt state, and this is rendered more evident and distinctive when a lump 
is dipped in water, some then assuming a grey or bluish tint, others a very 
marked yellow tint ; but these differences do not necessarily indicate what 
the colour will be when burnt. 

Only special empirical tests by burning trial pieces in the same kiln, and 
under the identical conditions they are intended to be used in, will reveal the 
exact tint they will assume, a great difference, to the practised eye, being 
often noticeable in the same quality when burned at different temperatures 
and under different conditions. Hence it will never do for a maker of wares 
which are to be burned at a relatively low temperature to purchase clay by 
sample burned at a higher temperature, or under any other conditions what- 
ever than those pertaining to his own particular manufacture. 

China-clays also differ sensibly in unctuousness, some having a smooth 
soapy touch, others feeling meagre, or, as an experienced clay proprietor once 
observed of a meagre clay, " it feels like ashes." 

China-clays, even when well washed and quite free from sand or mica, 
differ, too, in plasticity, and in this respect it is claimed that china-clays found 
in some parts of Germany are decidedly more plastic and " fat " than Cornish 
china-clays. 

The main influence of china-clay, in a decorative-tile body — or perhaps a 
more correct term would be in a "faience-fine " body — is to modify the tint 
and size, to give mellowness and fineness of grain, to impart refractoriness, 
and sometimes to cheapen. For when sufficient china-clay is introduced into 
a "faience-fine" body, it is more easily reduced to slip state with water, dries 
better on the drying kiln or hearth, grinds to dust more freely and with less 
expenditure of power, and within certain limits presses better in the dust- 
tile presses. 

The burnt body, or biscuit, is thereby rendered more or less porous, and 
thus receives prints of underglaze colours quickly, and can be more rapidly 
dipped by immersion in liquid glaze. 

On the other hand, an excessive use of this material in glazed-tile bodies 
is detrimental, because it induces excessive porosity, tendency to crazing of 
the glazes, and deficiency in tensile strength, with sequelae in the shape of 
readiness to absorb offensive humid emanations whenever they arise, easy 
destruction by frost, etc., and thus may render the glazed tile less hygienic, 
and soon discoloured. A few of the more fundamental reactions observed in 
respect of kaolin may usefully be enumerated. 

(i) Albert V. Bleininger, B.Sc, found that "In the presence of clay 



314 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



substance, evolution of carbon dioxide from amorphous calcium carbonate 
commences slightly at about 650° C. ; a drop in the rate of evolution is reached 
at 800°, but resumed at 850°. At 1000° C. the evolution of carbon dioxide is 
completed. The lime begins to react with clay substance soon after the 
evolution of carbonic acid begins, the clay being completely decomposed at 
about 850° C." (Trans. A.C.S., vol. v. pp. 93, 94.) 

(2) Adolph E. Hottinger, of Chicago, following up the investigations of 
Dr. Mackler, found that " Kaolin with magnesia gives dense bodies at com- 
paratively low temperatures, in distinction from lime, which has but little 
action at the same temperature.'' {Trans. A.C.S., vol. v. p. 130.) 

(3) Professor H. Reis, Ph.D., has experimentally demonstrated that " The 
effect of the size of the grain on the fusibility of the clay " is perceptible. A 
mixture of kaolin and calcite that had been passed through 150-mesh fused 
at Cone 10, while a similar mixture in which the calcite passed 80-mesh, and 
was retained by lOO-mesh, was unaffected. {Trans. A.C.S., vol. v. p. 363.) 

(3) Professor C. F. Binns has shown that fine grinding of flint and 
feldspar, when mixed into a body with clay, has a marked influence in the 
compactness and vitrescent character of the body, as evidenced by the ink 
test. {Trans. A.C.S., vol. v. p. 290.) 



TABLE OF CHEMICAL ANALYSES OF KAOLINS OR CHINA-CLAYS. 


Material 
or Locality. 


SiOa. 


AljOj. 


FeO 

and 

Fe^Og. 


TiO. 


CaO, 


MgO. 
0-80 


Ca. 
Phos. 


Alk. 


0I 




-3 


Analyst or 
Authority. 


Tong-kang (China), . 


50-50 


33-70 


1-80 




1-90 




11-20 




Brongniart. 


Sy-kang (China), 


55-30 


30-30 


2-00 






0-40 






3-80 




8-20 




Brongniart. 


Kudaru-yama (Japan), 
6mi (Japan), . 


49'93 


38-73 


1-58 






0-20 






2-88 




7-60 




Prof. H. Wurtz. 


52-13 


27-98 


1-85 




0-90 


0-42 






3-09 




7-55 


4-13 


Prof. R. W. Atkinson. 


Seilitz-Meissen (Saxony), . 


56-49 


30-75 


0-48 




0-25 


0-30 






0-96 




10-84 




C. Krister. 


Zettlitr (Bohemia), . 


46-82 


38-49 


I -00 












1-40 




12-86 




Dr. Seger. 
Pfelzisch Ch. 


Grunstadt (Rheinpfalz), . 


53'i7 


33-72 


0-86 




0-07 


0-22 






0-36 




12-03 




», ,, 


47 'Si 


38-15 


0-77 




0-21 








1-26 




11-28 




Pfalzisch Ch. 


Risen (Bohemia), 


59-42 


27-15 


1-77 






0-52 






1-50 




985 




Dr. H. Ries. 


St. Yrieix (France), . 


48-00 


37-00 






... 








2-50 




13-10 




Berthier. 


Coussac-Bonneval (France), 


47-71 


36-78 














2-58 




13-03 




Dr. H. Ries. 


Neuvic-sur-1'Isle (France), . 


55-10 


31-00 


2-44 






trace 










11-20 




Russy. 


,, ,, ,, 


47-80 


36-90 


1-70 






trace 










13-10 




Russy. 

Dr. H. Ries. 


Edgar (Florida), 


46-11 


39-55 


0-35 


I -20 


... 


0-13 










13-78 




Dry Branch (Georgia), 


45-35 


39-75 


trace 




0-25 


o-i8 






0-38 




13-68 




T. D. Young. 
N. P. Pratt Laby. 
Harris Clay Co. 
Dr. H. Ries. 


Macon (Georgia), 


43-71 


40-64 


0-09 


... 














13-38 


1 60 


Dillsboro (N. Carolina), . 


46-47 


38-14 


0-36 




050 


1-09 






64 




13-61 




Webster (N. Carolina), . 


45-70 


40-61 


1-39 




0-45 


0-09 






2-82 




12-49 




Hockessin (Delaware), 


48-40 


3762 


052 












I 22 




12-66 




Prof, Binns. 


Mt. Holly (Peimsylvania), . 


63-17 


22-20 






0-05 


3-08 










4-97 




(?) 

Dr H Ries. 


Brandywine Summit (Pa.), 


46-27 


36-25 


1-64 




0-19 


0-32 






2-53 






Cornwall (England), . 


48-26 


37-64 


0-46 




0-06 


trace 






1-56 




3 DJ 
1203 




Dr. H. Ries. 


;, ,, * • 


45-52 


4076 




2-17 








1-90 




9-61 




Lord Playfair, 


Staweil (Victoria), . '. 


46-38 
62-4 


38-60 

26-01 traces 




3-47 








1-77 
0-78 




9-08 

6 -go 


2-10 


Lord Playfair, 
Dept. Laby. 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Cornish Stone 315 

Cornish China-Stone. — To William Cookworthy, the discoverer of Cornish 
china-clay, belongs whatever honour is due to the discoverer of Cornish 
china-stone, of which the annual output is now nearly sixty thousand tons. 
He discovered it first on Tregonnin Hill, and subsequently found other 
deposits in the parish of St. Stephen's ; and he very clearly reveals his keenness 
of research by the fact that he observed that the more recently found quality 
from St. Stephen's was more suitable for use in bodies than that of Tregonnin 
Hill. The writer having been over both the districts named, and having 
practical acquaintance with the products of each, can confirm this experience 
of Cookworthy's. 

There are two distinct qualities of china-stone found and formerly worked 
near Tregonnin Hill — one having a peculiar snow-like appearance, like partly 
decomposed haplite, and one of a very coarse-grained yellowish-buff kind, 
like decomposing giant-granite, each quite easily distinguishable from the 
sorts quarried so extensively in the locality around St. Stephen's. 

This rock was originally called by Cookworthy moor-stone or growan. 
The reason for this does not seem apparent, unless possibly to denote some 
locality of its occurrence. Geologically, its incidence is almost identical with 
that of Cornish china-clay, from which it differs by being in a less advanced 
condition of decomposition Its felspathic nature not being completely 
destroyed, it vitrifies when sufficiently burned, and the rock is generally still 
tough to break and too coherent to permit of it being washed for china-clay ; 
indeed, it is at times used locally for building-stone. As a rule, it is found 
under an overburden consisting of about i foot of loose earth, and then from 
6 to 20 feet deep of discoloured gravel and small stone, the bed of china- 
stone itself being from 12 feet to 16 feet thick, underlaid with a harder 
purple variety of china-stone, or a granite. 

It is generally quarried from extensive surface openings by means of drills 
and explosives. Intrusive veins of schorl and of tin-stone are sometimes met 
with, and these, together with inferior parts of the stone itself, must be most 
carefully separated and removed. Only great experience and care will 
ensure satisfactory selection, because, to an ordinary observer, inferior stone is 
almost indistinguishable from the good quality. 

Cornish china-stone is referred to in the Handbook to the Collection of 
Pottery and Porcelain in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, 
London, 1893, on p. 28, and the following excerpts therefrom may be service- 
able:— "The china-stone of Cornwall .... is a disintegrated granite rock, 
consisting usually of a mixture of quartz, partially decomposed felspar, and 
scales of a greenish-yellow micaceous mineral called gilbertite. The extent 
to which the felspathic constituent has suffered alteration varies materially 
in different varieties of china-stone, but the felspar always retains more or less 
of its alkaline silicate, which thus renders the rock fusible. It is often associated 



3i6 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

with fluor-spar, which materially increases its fusibility. It is generally assumed 
that china-stone represents the disintegrated granite rock, which, in a more 
advanced state of decomposition, furnishes kaolin ; but the relation between 
the china-stone and china-clay is still somewhat obscure. The stone seems 
in many cases to occur as patches and bands in the granite. The china-stone 
is quarried chiefly from the granite of St. Stephen's, in Cornwall, which furnishes 
also some of the best kaolin. In quarrying the stone those parts should be 
avoided in which it becomes intermixed with schorl, or black tourmaline, a 
mineral somewhat common in the granite of which the china-stone forms a 
portion." (^Handbook, p. 28.) 

We learn from the same article that J. H. Collins, F.G.S., in his work on 
The Hensbarrow Granite District, 1878, proposes the term " Petuntzyte" for 
china-stone, in distinction from the term " Carclazyte" for native china-clay 
rock ; and that Mr, J. B. Hannay, of Glasgow, analyzed three samples of the 
St. Stephen's china-stone, with the following results : — 

I. II. III. 

Silica, 7339 69-50 71 66 

Alumina . 16-50 17-85 18-79 

Lime, . . 0-50 2-66 i -70 

Magnesia, 0-3( 012 0-35 

Potash (with a little soda), . . .7-66 7-98 6-60 

Iron, ... ... trace trace trace 

Manganese ... trace trace 

Fluoriije, ... . 0-74 0.71 0-14 

Water, . . 1-25 1-30 0-91 

100-35 100-I2 100-15 

Preparation. — The fundamental essential is efficient selection under ex- 
perienced supervision ; failing this, all else is of little avail, no subsequent 
treatment can repair inferiority arising from bad selection. 

Then, again, there are decided differences in the qualities of Cornish china- 
stone from different quarries ; one may be preferable for one purpose, and 
another for another. This, of course, must remain subject to the discretion and 
preference of the individual buyer. 

The stone, when carefully selected and dressed by axing off" the stains, is 
in irregular-shaped lumps of from i lb. to lOO lbs. weight, or even occasionally 
rather more. It is then ready for sale to potters' millers, who make it their 
business to grind potters' materials. Sometimes this is done by the proprietors 
of the quarries, or by the proprietors of the potteries or tilework, when they 
have the requisite machinery. 

Most generally the ordinary potter's wet-grinding flint-mill is employed 
(Benson's Patent — see Flint) ; but when the stone is required for glaze- frits 
or glazes that are afterwards ground, some of the dry-grinding mills present 
the ingredient in a very eligible condition for such purposes. But in these 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Cornish Stone 317 

cases the ground material should be frequently tested for metallic steel or 
iron, which may become abraded from any metallic parts exposed by the 
wearing away of the porcelain or wooden lining of the cylinders or crushers. 

Properties. — Specific gravity, about 2-6. Loss on drying an ordinary 
commercial sample of dried ground Cornish china-stone, about 3 to 6 per 
cent. Loss on drying and calcining ground stone, 4 to 8 per cent. The 
native stone should not effervesce with HCl., but ground stone may do so 
.slightly, because of the slight quantity of carbonate of lime, wearing into 
the material during grinding, off the mill-stones, which are or were often 
chert from Derbyshire limestone formations. 

When burned in a Staffordshire whiteware potter's biscuit oven, the ground 
china-stone assumes a semi-vitreous, opaque white state ; at higher temperature 
this becomes more and more completely fused or melted, and at the heat of 
the bone-china biscuit ovens it melts down out of form into a vesicular glassy 
mass of creamy-white colour. 

Inferior qualities are recognized sometimes by their want of vitrescence, 
which may still be accompanied by very white colour, and sometimes by 
dark colour, or specky characteristics. Cornish stone is, however, decidedly 
less fusible than orthoclase felspar, and does not become transparent at any 
heats usually attained by earthenware or decorative-tile works. 

It is used in small quantity in glazing tile-bodies ; and in large proportion, 
associated with felspar, in the vitreous tile-bodies. It is also an almost 
constant ingredient of glazes and glaze-frits. 

The chemical composition of the ground stone varies according to the 
source of supply, the stage of decomposition, the depth of the quarry, and the 
nature of the mill-stones. 

A fairly reliable average chemical analysis is that of the average of seven 
analyses quoted by Binns in Ceramic Technology, namely : — 



Silica, 
Alumina, . 
Lime, 
Magnesia, 
Iron oxide. 
Fluorine, . 
Alkalies, . 
Water, . 



7277 
17-23 
I "40 
0-30 
0-13 
0"22 

6-49 
I -64 



Mr. W. Jackson, A.R.C.S., instructor in pottery to the Staffordshire County 
Council, observes that there is considerable difference in the composition 
of the undecomposed and the partly decomposed Cornish stone (the former 
being of a purplish-grey colour and called " blue," the latter "yellow"). He 
says : — " The difference of most importance between these varieties is in their 
alkaline contents, which may vary from about 7 per cent, in the blue to 3 per 
cent, in the yellow." {Pottery Gazette, May 1903, p. 501.) 



3i8 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Langenbeck carries the inquiry into the chemical composition of this 
ingredient a stage farther by separately calculating the three component 
minerals. He writes : — " Cornwall stone, a partly decomposed granite, mined 
in Cornwall, England, is used by English potters as their principal pottery 
flux, and also finds considerable application in the United States. All that 
is used here is imported, no material resembling it having as yet been 
commercially developed within our borders. 

" An average sample of a good quality of this material has the following 
composition : — 





The Entire Material. 


The Portion Insoluble in 
H2SO4 and NaaCOa. 




Per cent. 


Per cent. 


Silica, 


73'S7 


57-69 


Alumina, . 


16-47 


470 


Ferric oxid, 


0'27 


0-30 


Lime, 


1-17 


o-io 


Magnesia, . 


0-21 


0-12 


Alkalies, . 


5-84 


350 


Combined water. 


2-45 


o-oo 




99-98 


66-41 








Combining weights of the alkalies, . 44 '6 


38-4 




Rational Analysis. 


Per cent. 


Clay substance and mica, 


33-57 


Feldspar, 


. 


25-31 


Quartz, . 




41-10 


Percentage Composition of the 






Clay Substance and Mica 


Feldspar. 




Per cent. 


Per cent. 


Silica, 


• 47 '27 


65-55 


Alumina, . 


• 35 '04 


18-57 


Ferric oxid, 


o-oo 


I -18 


Lime, 


. 3-18 


0-40 


Magnesia, . 


0-26 


0-47 


Alkalies, . 


6-96 


13-83 


Combined water, 


729 


O'OO 




100-00 


lOO'OO 



. "The figures show that the kaolinizing decomposition of the rock has 
proceeded to but a limited extent, the 'clay substance,' as in this sample, 
consisting in the main of mica. This is further proven by the constant 
presence of fluorine, which, though it has been ignored as a separate 
element in the above analysis, has been found present to the extent of 
I '(^ per cent. 

" It may be justified, in the case of this material, in which mica plays 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Cornish Stone 319 



nearly as important a part as the feldspar as fluxing constituent, to give 
it a separate place in the rational analysis, for the better guidance of 
the potter. 

" Cornish stone is by no means as uniform in character and composition as 
potters generally believe. The portion insoluble in sulfuric acid and sodium 
carbonate solution is in many cases markedly greater in alumina than in that 
of which the analysis has been given, and not infrequently the silica is either 
largely soluble in the sodium carbonate solution, or is more readily made so 
by the action of the sulfuric acid than quartz commonly is. 

" A sample showing both of these peculiarities analysed as follows : — 





The Entire Material. 


The Portion Insoluble in 
H2S04andNa2C03. 




Per cent. 


Per cent. 


Silica, 


. 72-99 


4272 


Alumina, . 


. 17-58 


7-83 


Ferric oxid, 


0-I5 


o-io 


Lime, 


I-2S 


071 


Magnesia, . 


0-37 


o'i9 


AlkaUes, . 


6-20 


4-31 


Combined water. 


1-77 


000 



ioo'3i 



55-86 



Rational Analysis. 

Clay substance, mica, and soluble silica, . 

Feldspar, 

Quartz, ....... 



Per cent. 

44 '45 
40-68 
15-18 

100-31 



Silica, 

Alumina, , 
Ferric oxid. 
Lime, 

Magnesia, . 
Alkalies, . 
Combined water. 



Percentage Composition of the 

Clay Substance, etc. Feldspar. 

Per cent. Per cent, 

68- 10 67-68 

21-94 19-24 

o-ii 0-25 

I -21 1-75 

0-41 0-47 

4-25 10-61 

3-98 O'OO 



" The sum of the alkali and combined water in this ' clay substance ' falls 
far short of what would be demanded by a mixture of mica and pure clay ; 
while on subtracting the excess of silica, assuming it as uncombined, but 
soluble in sodium carbonate solution, and recalculating the residue on a 
percentage basis, they assume the proper proportion 

" But more important than the difference in character of the contained 
minerals, or a variation in the apportionment of the elements to the different 



320 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

mineral groups, is the variation in ultimate chemical composition of Cornish 
stone, particularly in the proportion of alkalies, as in the following : — 





Per cent. 


Per cen 


Silica, 


74-55 


7377 


Alumina, . 


. i7'37 


1 6 -OS 


Ferric oxid, 


0'26 


0-23 


Lime, 


1-68 


I-I4 


Magnesia, . 


o'S4 


0-22 


Alkalies, . 


3-68 


7-52 


Combined water. 


2-04 


178 




I0O-I2 


IOO71 



{Chemistry of Pottery, 110-114, Chemical Publishing Co., Easton, Pa.) 

For commercial reasons it is sometimes desirable to prepare substitutes for 
Cornish china-stone. The readiest way of calculating this, so as to enable a 
mixture of flint, felspar, and kaolin to be used instead, is by accepting 
Professor Binns' method (see p. 25, Ceramic Technology), where he points out 
that Cornish china-stone may be considered approximately one equivalent of 
alkali, two of alumina, and eighteen of silica. If, therefore, we take — 

I eq. felspar ( = I eq. alkali, i eq. AljOg, 6 eq, SiOg), 

I eq. kaolin ( = , i eq. AljOj, 2 eq. SiOs), 

10 eq. flint ( = , , lo eq. SiOg), 

that will yield the desired composition. 
Converting these figures, we get — 

10 eq. flint =iox 6o=6oo flint =42 '43 per cent. 
I eq. kaolin = i x 258 = 258 kaolin =i8'24 ,, 
leq. felspar= i x 556 = 556 felspar = 39-32 ,, 

This, however, upon comparison with the average of six analyses of china-stone 
(see p. 33, Researches on Leadless Glaze), seems to give too high a proportion of 
silica. A mixture as under would appear to be more in accordance with 
average analyses, perhaps: — 

Flint 40 per cent. 



Kaolin, 



19 



Felspar, 41 

100 



Jersey China-Stone. — This is a harder and somewhat finer-grained rock 
than most of the Cornish china-stones, and is much less kaolinized. It is 
rather like the purple Cornish china-stone, though of finer grain, and also, to 
some extent, approximates Meldon granulite and Tregonin Hill stone. 

Apparently it consists almost entirely of finely grained quartz and 
felspar; mica being conspicuously absent, but here and there a careful 
examination under the magnifying glass may reveal specks of what seems to 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Jersey Stone 



321 



be pyrites, although the analysts have not mentioned sulphur in their 
certificates. It therefore answers fairly well to the description of the rock 
called by mineralogists haplite or granulite. 

Jersey china-stone is of comparatively recent introduction to the ceramic 
industry, the rock having been discovered about the year 1866 A.D., in the 
parish of St. Laurence, Jersey, by the late Mr. Henry Vatcher. At that time 
an association, called the Cornwall China-Stone Company, were maintaining 
prices for Cornish china-stone at 24s. and 22s. per ton at Cornish ports. Jersey 
china-stone was put on the market at lis. per ton, and made its way so well 
that in a few years the Cornish association disbanded, and the price of Cornish 
stone fell to 14s. per ton or less. That occurred late in the year 1874. In 



r:^^^^ 








Fig. 163. — Rosemount china-stone quarry, Jersey, 1903. 

a circular issued on loth July 1877, Mr. Vatcher complained bitterly of 
misrepresentation and enmity on the part of his Cornish competitors ; and 
claimed that during the two and a half years then terminating he had been 
the means of reducing the cost of china-stone to millers at the rate of £/ip to 
;£'50 on every hundred tons consumed, which, he said, was equivalent to about 
£^^0,000 during the two and a half years. As a matter of fact, however, the 
millers gained little by the change — some, indeed, lost heavily, having large 
stocks bought at the old prices ; for when china-stone was reduced, the millers, 
in competition with each other, immediately reduced the price for ground 
Cornish stone, and those who had large stocks lost the difference. 

Jersey china-stone in its native state, when properly selected, possesses 
a steel-grey or silver-grey colour, with occasional slight brownish-yellow 
streaks ; a granular but rather compact texture, not particularly translucent 

21 



322 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

in the lump, and so much resembling some common road macadam as to 
cause hesitation in its use. It is only upon proof by burning and testing 
in actual practice that fears are completely dispelled. When burned in a 
potter's kiln at a high temperature, properly selected and properly trimmed, 
Jersey china-stone becomes white, translucent, and vitrescent, according to 
the heat to which it has been subjected ; often more translucent than Cornish 
china-stone after burning, because of the lower degree of kaolinization. It 
is naturally hard to crush and to grind, but when incipiently calcined it 
becomes more amenable to grinding. 

Preparation. — After having been blasted from the quarry by means of gun- 
powder and dynamite, the stone is selected and trimmed, and then is crushed 
by powerful steel crushing-mills, erected at the quarries. It is mostly shipped 
in this crushed state to potters' millers, and by them ground either alone or 
as a compound with Cornish china-stone. Like felspar, Jersey stone has a 
tendency to "set" on the grinding-pans, and for that reason some admixture 
with Cornish stone is preferred by the miller. On the other hand, the 
tendency of Jersey stone to settle, and its weaker affinity for water, enable a 
heavier pint weight of slop-ground china-stone to be obtained by its means 
than by ordinary Cornish china-stone. In comparison, however, with blue or 
purple Cornish stone this tendency is less marked. 

Jersey china-stone is not infrequently specified for use in certain cases for 
glazes, because it is supposed to fuse more easily than Cornish. 

Properties. — The chemical composition is shown by the following analyses, 
very recently made from a carefully averaged specimen of Jersey china-stone, 
taken direct from the stocks of stone at the quarry by the present proprietress. 



Silica, . 

Alumina, 

Iron oxide, 

Lime, . 

Magnesia, 

Potash, 

Soda, . 

Fluorine, 

Water of hydration, 



iVm. Foulkes Lowe, 

F.LC, etc.. Assay 

Office, Chester. 


Hugh Hughes, 
Connah's Quay. 


78-15 
1 3 '46 
0-38 


78180 
14-820 
0-080 


0-S5 
o-i8 


0'33o 

Q-IOO 


374 
3 -80 


- 5780 




0-016 




0-640 



100-26 99-946 



It does not follow, however, that Jersey china-stone diifers to that extent 
in alkaline contents, for both analyses were made from the same most care- 
fully averaged crushed sample. 

Upon comparing these analyses with those of Cornish china-stones, the 
most noticeable differences are a larger percentage of silica and a lower 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Felspar 323 

percentage of alumina in the Jersey stone. Comparison with pegmatite of 
Haute Vienne (France) shows a similar difference, but of smaller degree — that 
is to say, Jersey china-stone approximates more nearly to French pegmatite 
than Cornish china-stone; the same approximation being noticeable when 
the analysis is compared with Limoges glaze analysis. (See Seger's Collected 
Writings, p. 553.) 

Experts may also immediately note a much lower percentage of calcium 
oxide than is usually found in commercial samples of ground china-stone, in 
which a percentage of from 1-95 to 4'20 of CaO is found. This may be 
explained by the fact that in averaging the Jersey stone sample, and preparing 
it for analysis, exceptional care was exercised to avoid the least contamina- 
tion. Hence, possibly if Jersey china-stone were ground upon an ordinary 
potter's mill-pan by the wet method between chert runners and pavers, lime, 
abraded from the grinding-stones, might then show in analysis. Possibly, too, 
if proper precautions were exercised in preparing samples of Cornish china- 
stone for analysis prior to placing them in the hands of the chemist, Cornish 
china-stone might then appear to yield a lower percentage of lime. 

Felspar or Feldspar. — The felspars are a group of crystalline minerals, 
often of lamellar form, composed of silica and alumina chemically associated 
with alkalies and alkaline earths. The bases frequently replace each other, 
and thus, in conjunction with physical causes, numerous varieties result. 

The colour of felspars in their native state is sometimes almost white, and 
sometimes pale grey, drab, or light red ; always more or less translucent and 
lustrous. The streak or powder is white or greyish-white. Cleavage is 
particularly well developed in some kinds, the broken pieces often exposing 
definite rectilinear planes. 

Felspars are very widely distributed in the form of crystals commingled 
with quartz, mica, and hornblende, together constituting rocks such as 
granite, gneiss, syenite, granulite, haplite, quartz-porphyry, felspar-porphyry, 
and the like. 

Obsidian, pitchstone, and certain lava products also contain felspathic 
substance in an amorphous or vitreous condition. 

Less frequently, perhaps, felspars occur in isolated masses or dykes in 
Plutonic rocks, in a condition of comparative purity ; when so found, they 
become of great service to ceramic art. 

The varieties preferred by ceramists are the potash and soda felspars, 
orthoclase, microcline, oligoclase, and albite. 

These may be briefly described as follows : — 

Orthoclase : a potash-felspar, the crystals of which dispose themselves in 
lamels or flakes of the monoclinic system, so as to be easily cleavable into 
thin flat plates, the planes of which are lustrous. The colour is usually either 
translucent light red, translucent drab, or translucent creamy-white. The 



324 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

surface can just be scratched with the point of a sharp knife. Sp. gr., 2'39 to 
2-62 (Rutley). 

Microdine : a potash-felspar, differing from orthoclase only in microscopic 
structure ; and, according to Rutley, having a greenish-blue play of colour. 
The light-red or pink felspar of Bedford Township, near Kingston, Ontario, 
Canada, is said to be microcline. 

Oligoclase: a felspar in which soda is usually the predominant alkali, but 
by some considered to be a mixture of albite with orthoclase ; of somewhat 
imperfect cleavage ; crystallizing in the triclinic system ; colour, greyish, 
greenish, or slightly yellow. Sp. gr., 2'58 to 27 (Rutley). Said to fuse more 
readily than either orthoclase or albite. Occurs near Stockholm (Sweden) and 
Arendal (Norway). 

Albite: a soda-felspar, triclinic ; may be massive, granular, or lamellar ; the 
cleavage faces generally having a pearly lustre. Colour, white or only slightly 
tinted. Hardness, 6-7. Sp. gr., 2-59 to 2-65 (Rutley). 

Lime-felspars, such as labradorite, although constituting rock-masses of 
considerable extent, are not much used by ceramists. Why this should be in 
cases where gypsum is used as an ingredient in bodies and glazes is not quite 
clear. But the greater resistance to decomposition offered by potash-felspar 
probably accounts for its preference for porcelain, particularly for the glazes. 

Several composite rocks, containing quartz-crystals associated with crystals 
of felspars, when found of requisite purity and in sufficient abundance, are 
also extensively used in the porcelain industry. The following are the most 
common of these : — 

Quartzose-felspar, in which the two constituents are quite plainly distinct, 
the one in colourless angular crystals, the other usually light red, more or 
less lamellar. Found in quarries near Stockholm (Sweden), Arendal (Norway), 
and Verona (Canada) ; possibly also as vein-stuff in many other felspar 
formations. 

Haplite or Aplite, a granular crystalline rock composed of felspar and 
quartz, referred to by F. W. Rudler, F.G.S., as micaless granite, appears to be 
commercially represented by Tregonnin Hill stone, Jersey china-stone, and 
Meldon granulite. 

Pegmatite ox Cailloux: a semi-kaolinized porphyritic variety of haphte, in 
which the felspar often has a yellowish colour ; this occurs in the granite hills 
of Limousin (France), and is largely used in ceramic works at Limoges. 
Brongniart states that it is felspar and quartz, with sometimes a little mica 
and talc. Cornish china-stone is also not infrequently called pegmatite. 

Quartz-felsite or Quartz-porphyry finds a useful industrial representative in 
the " elvan," " growan-stone," or " china-stone " of Cornwall, although this is 
often in a partially kaolinized condition. It is in this latter form very 
extensively used by manufacturers of white earthenware and bone chinaware. 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Felspar 325 

Petuntze, or Pe-tun-tse (white-paste-bricks) of the Chinese, proved to be a 
rock of kindred nature to the foregoing, which has been levigated or in some 
way prepared and formed into brick-shaped pieces. 

Commercial Sources of Potters Felspars. — A very considerable portion of 
the purest felspar used in Europe for the manufacture of hard-porcelain and 
other wares is obtained from Sweden and Norway, the total Scandinavian 
output being about thirty thousand tons per annum, of which rather over half 
is of Swedish origin. 

Mr. Robert Almstrom, of Rorstrands, Stockholm, has very kindly supplied 
the following particulars : — The principal quarries in Sweden are Ytterby, 
Svinninge, and Magretslund in the neighbourhood of Stockholm ; Lunden 
and ToUas on the Swedish west coast ; Bro-Kolswa, Sala, in the middle part 
of the country ; and several other places where smaller quantities are raised. 
The oldest and most renowned quarry is that of Ytterby, which has been 
worked more than a century, and where the rare minerals gadolinite, fer- 
gusonite, yttrotantal have been found. In these minerals the new chemical 
elements yttrium, erbium, ytterbium, skandium, etc., were discovered. 

Ytterby, Svinninge, and Sala belong to the Rorstrands Limited Company. 
The output from these quarries was in 1890 about three thousand eight 
hundred tons. The output from Bro is three thousand six hundred tons, and 
from Magretslund two thousand tons. 

In Norway the quarries are situated chiefly in the neighbourhood of the 
towns Arendal and Christiansand, on the south coast of the country; both 
towns are on the west of the Christiania Fjord. 

Messrs. H. Flemming & Co., of Stettin (Germany), writing in July 1903, 
say that felspar is still found at Aue (Saxony), but only sporadically, and 
the quarrying of it does not leave a margin of profit, and therefore does not 
take place. 

In Bohemia there are some large deposits of felspar, and also in Bavaria, 
in the neighbourhood of Wunsiedel; but all these Bohemian and Bavarian 
felspars are, as regards purity, much behind the Scandinavian felspars, which 
are now principally used in the pottery works (of Germany). The import 
is yearly about thirteen thousand to fifteen thousand tons of Scandinavian 
felspar. 

Brongniart quotes analyses of felspars from Russia, Finland, France, 
Bavaria, Saxony, the Pyrenees, and America. And C. F. Binns, in Ceramic 
Technology, gives analyses of felspars from Germany, Scotland, France, and 
Spain. Thus it appears that when judiciously sought the commercial sources 
of felspar are comparatively numerous and widely dispersed. 

Brongniart, if we understand him correctly, stated that "The felspars 
used in porcelain are never pure. They are rocks of mixed minerals 
belonging to the species called pegmatite, and which are essentially com- 



326 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

posed of felspar and quartz in distinct particles." This in a great measure 
correctly applies to the use of felspar at Limoges and Sevres, and originally 
in Germany too ; also to the English use of Cornish china-stone ; but 
scarcely applies to some of the very pure felspars now obtainable from 
Sweden and Canada. 

For some time, Brongniart tells us, the pegmatite or quartzose-felspar of 
St. Yrieix was not distinguished from the surrounding granite, because of its 
variegated irregular appearance and porphyritic or granitic character ; but 
that since A.D. 1780 this local cailloux or pegmatite has been used by 
itself for the glazes almost exclusively, and mixed with kaolin, etc., for the 
bodies of Limoges porcelain. On p. 272, vol. ii., he gives five analyses of 
this at different periods, which we repeat in the list of analyses at end of this 
paragraph. 

In America veins of felspar are worked in the States of New York, 
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, and Maine ; the total production during 
1901 amounting to 34,741 tons, of which 71*3 per cent, was ground by the 
producers. 

Judging by small specimens and copies of analyses, it seems that Maine 
felspar is usually a yellowish-white, slightly micaceous potash-felspar ; that of 
New York State a somewhat dull, compact white variety with mica scales 
here and there ; that of Pomeroy (Pa.) a yellowish translucent sort like 
Limoges felspar. 

Within the last few months a felspar formation has been found at Jonca, 
a few miles west of the Mississippi River, near St. Genevieve, about sixty 
miles south of St. Louis (Mo.). Several large veins, 10 to 15 feet wide, are 
reported ; and as a new railway runs near by, the prospects of development 
are favourable. 

But the supply of felspar for American ceramists has been most in- 
fluentially augmented by the discovery of felspar-bearing rocks in Canada. 
These, according to the Mineral Statistics Report, kindly supplied by Dr. 
Robert Bell, Director of the Geological Survey, are mostly found in the pro- 
vinces of Quebec and Ontario. It is stated that the crystals of felspar are 
found in veins or masses of pegmatite all through the Laurentian rocks of 
Canada. 

From Hull Township, Wright County, Quebec, and from Carleton County, 
Lanark County, and Frontenac County, Ontario, large quantities of felspar 
are said to be shipped to the United States, the output increasing from 
about fourteen hundred tons in 1897 to over seven thousand tons in 1902. 

The most energetic and successful development is said to be that of the 
Kingston Felspar Mining Co., at mines in Bedford Township, Frontenac 
County, Ontario. The mines are situated within about two miles of Glen- 
dower Station on the Kingston and Pembroke Railroad. 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Felspar 327 

The proximity to Kingston, on the north-west coast of Lake Ontario, with 
the United States just across the lake, and the great pottery and tile making 
districts of New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania all within favour- 
able commercial range, is very fortunate, and this apparently is being taken 
advantage of. 

Analysis and inspection indicate good quality, and — what is far more to 
the point, practically — extensive use confirms its superiority. 

Messrs. James Richardson & Sons, of Kingston (Ont), writing on the ist 
June 1903, inform me that all previous figures are now being greatly exceeded. 
They say : — '■ The quantity of feldspar that we are shipping to the United 
States this year is sixteen thousand five hundred tons, and there is probably 
three thousand five hundred going from other people, making a total of about 
twenty thousand." 

This felspar is rich light-red colour, remarkably well formed, with well- 
developed cleavage, lustrous, translucent, and is pronounced to be microcline ; 
that is, a variety of orthoclase with peculiar microscopical structure. For 
analyses, see list. 

In the Report of the Ontario Bureau of Mines for igoj, kindly sent by 
T. W. Gibson, Esq., Director, these feldspar mines are referred to in detail 
seriatim. Of the Richardson Feldspar Mine it is stated that "With the 
exception of four months in the spring, when all operations were suspended, 
last year witnessed a fairly heavy production, which frequently went as high 

as two hundred tons of feldspar per day The mine-workings or 

quarries are confined to an area of about 150 feet by 200 feet, all of which, 
with the exception of a small central portion, has been stripped of several 
feet of clay-covering to allow of raising rock from every available point. 
The main working extends as an open -cut from end to end of the 
west side, 175 feet long by 50 feet wide by 35 feet deep at the west 
face, the floor rising in three benches of 5 feet each from the south end. 
The pit next in size lies at the east side, 50 feet long by 50 feet wide 

by 20 feet deep Numerous other working-places are scattered at 

various points. 

" Feldspar covers the floor of this whole mine-area, practically all of it clean 
and pure ; but on the west side, in the wall of the main cut, the good spar runs 
flatly under a capping of granite, which, on account of the rising surface of 
the hill, has gradually increased in thickness to 12 feet at this distance in. 
This capping has had to be blasted off first and removed separately, to avoid 
contaminating the feldspar beneath. On the floors of the workings any 
cobbing and sorting that may be necessary are carried out, so that the clean 

spar may not be again handled on the surface The power-plant 

includes a 30-h.p. locomotive-type boiler, and a double-drum duplex-cylinder 
hoist-engine." 



328 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

In the same report the mines of the Pennsylvania Feldspar Co. are 
mentioned. These are also situated in Frontenac County, and, though the 
properties were only leased last year but one, they have, since the month 
of November 1902, produced several thousands of tons of spar, which has 
been immediately shipped away to the company's works in the United 
States. 

Mr. W. E. H. Carter, who inspected these and other mines in Eastern 
Ontario, on behalf of the Bureau of Mines, states that the Border Mine is 
situated in Portland Township, near the south shore of Long Lake, about two 
miles from Verona, on the K. & P. Railway. The mining work is confined 
to one open pit or quarry, 40 feet long by 30 feet wide by 6 to 12 feet deep. 
The band of feldspar runs in a north-easterly to south-westerly direction through 
a formation of gneiss. It is said to be traceable for about 1000 feet in length, 
with a width at the pit of 40 feet. The feldspar is pink microcline with cleavage 
planes well developed, one of which lies flat and gives the whole a bedded 
appearance. Intermixed are occasional stringers of clear quartz, together with 
some plagioclase feldspar near the gneiss and black mica schist waifs. The 
blasts shatter the spar into small material, this allowing of fairly close and 
rapid hand-sorting. The Freeman Mine of the same company is partly in 
Portland Township and partly in Loughborough Township, on Fourteen Island 
Lake, about five miles east from Verona. Mining here has been confined to 
one open-cut or quarry, 10 feet by 40 feet in plan by 30 feet deep at the face, 
following into a band of white feldspar, which is said to cut through a hill 
over a traceable length of 500 feet. The feldspar contains a rather large 
quantity of quartz in small disseminated stringers, and also some black 

mica Its use is said to give equal satisfaction to that of the pink 

variety. 

Of the Walker Mine, in Portland Township, five miles north-east of 
Hartington, or the same east of Verona, two pits or quarries were opened 
out, each about 20 feet by 20 feet in plan by 20 feet deep at the face in the 
hill. The feldspar here is also white, but more glassy than at the Freeman 
Mine, on account of better-defined planes of cleavage. 

Of the Harris Feldspar Mine (owned by Chas. Jenkins, of Petrolea) 
the report states : — This is located in Bedford Township, Frontenac County, 
four miles by road east of Bedford Station on the K. & P. Ry., and com- 
prises kn area of about two hundred acres. The mine-workings are on the 
top of a high hill at the north-east end of Thirteen Island Lake. The 
feldspar is quite similar to that of the Richardson Mine, as far as revealed in 
the two pits, which are the only uncovered places. It is a pink microcline 
with well-defined cleavage planes, and traverses a formation of grey to pink 
gneiss. But very little quartz or rock-matter is to be found, giving a feldspar 
of first-class quality. 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Felspar 329 

Preparation. — The most essential preliminary is scrupulously careful 
selection at the quarry, so as to eliminate all inferior parts ; for no subsequent 
treatment can appreciably improve bad or badly selected felspar. 

Langenbeck says : — " Often the quartz-veins of a spar-bed may be difficult 
to remove, or the workmen are careless in picking over the mineral, causing 
more or less variation of the commercial product, against which the customer 
must be on his guard. Again, it may occur that the more quartzose portion 
of a soda-lime spar are ground separately and sold as hard or potash spar, as 
was the case with a lot of which the following is an analysis : — Silica, 68'82 ; 
alumina, 1975 ; ferric oxide, o'i6; lime, i"64; magnesia, O'ly ; alkalies, 915. 
It is of about the same fusibility as the true potash-spar." (Chemistry of 
Pottery, p. 109, Chem. Pub. Co., Easton, Pa.) 

The selected felspar is separated into different grades, namely, first 
quality, second quality, and quartzose-felspar, and other special designations. 
After arriving at the mill, felspar should be inspected and sampled, and small 
portions from various parts tested by burning, prior to allowing any large 
lot to be ground. Also, the fine "smalls" should be perfectly well sieved 
out and discarded, and the remaining lumps washed in grided barrows. 
It may then be ground on ordinary potters' mills, special precautions being 
taken to guard against accidents arising from the tendency of felspar, 
when in a half-ground condition in wet-grinding mills, to set on the mill- 
pan. Sometimes certain proportions of Cornish china-stone or china-clay 
are added to minimize the risks to the machinery during grinding. 
And sometimes, for various reasons, the felspar may be calcined before 
grinding. 

When used as a component of a body, it should be ground with some 
little suitable addition, by the wet method, like slop flint, and washed and 
prepared in that manner ; but for use in frits or enamels or glazes, it may be 
ground by any of the dry-grinding mills where it is found possible to do so, 
without fear of contamination by iron or steel. 

Mr. Robert Almstrom kindly explains their method as follows : — " We 
assort the feldspar in three classes, first, second, and third, the third containing 
some small quantities of quartz. 

" We prepare the feldspar in the following way : — Crush it, without previous 
calcining, with edge-runners, and pass it through a metal or steel sieve with 
about forty-two holes on the square inch. 

"Then grind it wet in Alsing cylinders, lined with oak (not stoneware 
bricks), using small boulders or flint pebbles in the cylinders. The 
feldspar will, when the mill is not in rotation, settle to the walls (sides), 
and will cause breakage of stoneware bricks, if not removed with great 
caution. 

" It is rather risky to grind feldspar on the common wet mills, because it 



330 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

settles very strongly to the bottom of the pan, and can, if not broken up 
before the mill is put in movement, cause breakage of the machinery. If you 
cannot avoid grinding in this way, it is advisable to add some lo to 25 per 
cent, of flint or china-clay or china-stone to the feldspar to prevent it 
settling. 

" Then wash the fine-ground parts from the coarser particles. 

" If you calcine the feldspar (that is, before grinding), great care must be 
taken that the temperature does not exceed 1200° Centigrade, the point when 
it commences to be fusible. If you go too far, the lumps will melt together 
and form an intractable mass. If calcined at about 1100° C, the cohesion of 
the structure will be broken and the lumps dissolved (disintegrated) into thin 
lamels, that can be ground without preliminary cru.shing. The loss in 
calcination must be calculated 4 to 5 per cent." 

Properties.— 'S,'^. gr., 2-4 to 2'6. Chemical symbol, (KNa)20,Al203,6Si02 ; 
or K20,Al203,6Si02. 

Felspars are fusible minerals, within the range of heat employed in the 
ceramic art ; the melting or fusing point of felspar is said to correspond with 
that of Seger Cone 9 ; and as we have already seen that Mr. Robert 
Almstrom places the temperature of commencement of fusion of felspar at 
1200° C, while that of Seger Cone 9 is variously placed at 1310° C. to 
1380 C, some differences in observations apparently exist. Again, different 
felspars may melt at different temperatures ; for instance, Rutley states that 
oligoclase fuses more readily than orthoclase. 

The best qualities of felspar melt into an almost transparent glass-like 
mass, free from any indication of colour, at the heat of an English china 
biscuit oven, which, by Watkin's table, is equivalent to from 1190° C. to 
1390° C. Any tendency toward opacity or colour, or any want of vitrescence 
in a properly burnt trial, should be regarded as inferiority. 

Mr. Almstrom kindly explains that " The fusibility of feldspar seems to 
depend not only on the greater or lesser quantity of potash or soda it contains. 
There are feldspars that contain a smaller per cent, of these matters, and still 
melt at a somewhat lower temperature ; for instance, the soda-feldspar. Feld- 
spar seldom will melt to a quite transparent glass. It generally becomes 
milky, sometimes with streams of colourless transparent glass. The opality 
does not influence upon the quality of it." 

By reason of its comparative insolubility in water under ordinary con- 
ditions, it forms a manageable source of alkali in any compositions where 
silica and alumina are also admissible. But D.iubree has shown that long- 
continued grinding of felspar in distilled water will bring about partial 
decomposition with the formation of clay and an alkaline silicate ; and this is 
supposed to account for its tendency to sett on pan during wet grinding. 
(See Trans. A.C.S., vol. v. p. 292.) 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Felspar 



331 



Sopie interesting experimental results with felspar are recorded in Trans. 
A.C.S.,vo\. V. pp. 159, 285. 



ANALYSES OF FELSPARS AND PEGMATITES 


. 






















(L» 

co,.,-|j 


3 


Analyst 


Locality, etc. 


SiOa. 


AI2O3. 


FeaOj. 


CaO. 


MgO. 


IC2O. 


Na^O. 


.ffl 


or 























Authority. 


Orthoclase or potash- 
























felspar, . 


64-2 


18-4 








16-75 












Albite or soda-felspar, 


68-6 


19-6 










11-8 










Oligoclase or soda- 
























lime felspar, . 


637 


23-9 




2-0 




1-20 


8-1 








Geikie. 


Ytterby (Sweden) 
























orthoclase, . 


64-57 


19-73 


0-20 


0-18 




12-25 


3-06 








Almstrom. 


Svinninge (Sweden) 
























orthoclase, . 


64-40 


19-30 


0-30 


0-40 




12-55 


2-58 








Almstrom. 


Sala (Sweden) ortho- 
























clase, . 


65-30 


19-71 


0*64 


0-68 


o-iS 


8-81 


7-32 






... 


Almstrom. 


Ytterby oligoclase, . 


63-00 


23-0 


0-30 


262 


0-03 


0-38 


10-82 






... 


Almstrom. 


Limoges pegmatite, 
























1826, 


73 'o 


16-21 








8-4 




... 


0-6 




Berthier. 


,. 1839. 


74-0 


i8-6 




0-4 . 


0-3 


6-6 


... 








Laurent. 


„ 1839. 


73 4 


15-7 




19 


03 


7-4 






1-4 




Malaguti. 


„ 1841, 


74-6 


i6-o 




1-2 




8-1 


... 


... 






Marignac. 


„ 1842, 


74-3 


18-3 




0-4 


0'2 


6-S 






0-3 




Salvetat. 


Chanteloube (France) 
























orthoclase, . 


64-00 


20-56 




0-38 




14-99 










Malaguti. 


Chanteloube (France) 
























albite, . 


67-63 


20-48 




0-65 


... 




10-26 








Malaguti. 


Scottish felspar, 


65-40 


19-04 


trace 


0-22 




11-26 


3-63 




0-20 




C. F. Binns. 


Maine, 


68-30 


18-69 








12-34 


0-80 










Litchfield (Maine), . 


6514 


18-19 


0-2S 


0-33 


016 


1414 


1-68 






... 


U.S.G.S. 


New York State, . 


65-95 


19-84 








10-30 


320 










Pomeroy (Pa.), 


70-10 


i6-5 






0-37 


10-48 


i-ii 




















V 1 










Jonca (Missouri), 
Canadian microcline. 


64-8 


180 


0-6 

1 




15-9 




0-7 


























Kingston, 


65-40 


i8-8o 


trace 


none 


none 


13-90 


1-95 


o-6o 




Dr. H. Reis. 


Canadian microcline. 
























Kingston, 
Canadian albite, 
Villeneuve, . 


66-23 


18-77 


trace 


0-31 


none 


12-09 


3-" 


... 






Cochran. 


63-96 


18-4 


trace 


... 


trace 


16-88 








Min. Stat. 



Quartz, Silica, Silver-Sand.— According to Sir Henry Roscoe, silicon, 
next after oxygen, is the most abundant element known. But it does not 
occur in a free state ; it is almost always combined with oxygen in the form 
of silica. 

One of the commonest natural forms of silica is quartz. This, when 
sufficiently pure, may assume a transparent colourless condition, and is then 
known as rock-crystal or crystal quartz. More frequently, however, it is 
either slightly opaline or tinted. Rose quartz, amethyst, aventurine, and 
cairngorm are all comparatively pure forms of silica ; but when quartz is in 



332 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES,. FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

large masses it is often impregnated with mica, and sometimes with appreciable 
quantities of gold, the yellow particles being sometimes plainly visible to the 
naked eye. 

Superior qualities of crystal quartz for high-class ceramic purposes in 
Europe are principally obtained from Norway and Sweden, where quartz is 
largely quarried for use in local iron furnaces. Quartz of a somewhat less 
degree of purity is found on the Malew Reef in Isle of Man ; also in parts 
of France. 

Enormous deposits of granular quartz constitute the gritstone and 
gannister rocks and the beds of loose silver-sand. Immense quantities of 
such sand, from numerous localities in Belgium and Germany, find their 
centre for exportation at Antwerp. And Kamenz and Hohenbocka (Saxony) 
are well known for their excellent quartz-sand. 

The beautiful quartz-sands of Fontainebleau, whence is obtained even the 
bulk of that used at Whitefriars Glass Works, London, is quite historic now ; 
but many other localities in France, such as Bonnevault, Nemours, Rpuen, 
Montebras, Nogent I'Artand, Montereau, and Etampes, yield good sands. 

In Italy the quartz-sand on the shores of Murano, near Venice, from which 
the famous Venetian glass is made, is especially retained for glassmakers' 
use, its use for other purposes, or its exportation, being legally prohibited. 
(Jour. Soc. Arts, 7th June 1886, p. 631.) 

In England such sands exist at Lynn (Norfolk), Leighton-Buzzard (Beds.), 
Mayfield (Sussex), and in the Isle of Wight ; while Staffordshire and Derby- 
shire furnish useful gritstones, crushable into sand ; such as those of Wetley 
Moor, Stockton Brook, Brownedge, Biddulph, Mow Cop, and Normacott, and 
amongst the limestone pockets of the Weaver Hills and Wirksworth. 

North and South Wales, Yorkshire, and Stirlingshire also yield serviceable 
quartz-sands ; and it has been asserted that excellent quality of glassmakers' 
sand exists at Gweedore. {Jour. Soc. Arts, 7.6.89, p. 631.) 

Looking somewhat further afield, it is stated in the Story of Extinct 
Civilizations (Newnes), p. 89, that Sidon, as of old, is still capable of 
supplying excellent sand for glassmaking. And John Ward, Esq., F.S.A., 
of Belfast, writes that in the Sildan " there are mountains full of great veins 
of quartz They run across the strata for miles, white as snow." 

For the preparation of specially excellent enamels Hermann recommends 
the use of infusorial earth, which is supposed to consist of the siliceous 
envelopes of diatoms, and, though almost pure silica, is easily rubbed by the 
fingers into an impalpable powder. It is found in Germany and known as 
Kieselguhr. 

In the United States of America quartz is raised in Connecticut and 
Maryland mostly ; but, in addition, remarkably pure silica-sands, showing, on 
analysis, 99-5 per cent, silica, are found both in Pennsylvania and Illinois. 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Quartz 333 

The latter is mined at Chicago Heights (111.), about twenty-seven miles from 
Chicago, and ground between French burr-stones by the Irwin Clay and 
Sand Co. 

Quartz-sand from Millington (111.) is also said to be ground for use in 
pottery bodies at East Liverpool, Ohio. 

Langenbeck mentions quartz-sand of high degree of purity mined in La 
Salle County, Illinois, and used for pottery purposes ; also highly siliceous 
clay along Cumberland River, Tennessee. {Chemistry of Pottery, pp. 105-106.) 

The sand washed out of Florida kaolin also proves to be particularly pure 
and beautiful quartz-sand ; and, no doubt, there are many other sources of 
pure silica in the States, otherwise the immense glassworks could hardly be 
economically operated. The felspar quarries of Canada also yield superior 
quartz-rock. 

Unfortunately, among suppliers of potters' requirements in the States, and 
still more unfortunately in the Government Reports of Mineral Resources, a 
misleading nomenclature is coming into use, namely, that of using the terms 
"flint" and "quarts" as synonymous; for example, on p. 939 of Mineral 
Resources, ipoi, "flint " is used as a heading for statistics oi quartz ; and in trade, 
ground quartz is called ground rock-flint \ and ground silica-sand is called 
ground sz.n&-flint. This necessitates qualification when we want to speak of 
flints from chalk-pits, or rolled flints, and is, in the writer's opinion, an 
unnecessary and misleading confusion of terms. 

Preparation. — With regard to quartz, preparation necessarily varies 
according to the purpose for which it is to be used. Hermann advises that 
for the finest white and coloured enamels the most colourless quartz should 
be selected ; this, he states, is preferable to any attempts at dissolving out 
impurities by acid solutions. For less important purposes select quartz that 
does not become reddish after ignition and cooling. 

As to pulverizing, Hermann writes : — " In the case of a mineral of the 
seventh degree of hardness, such as quartz, the comminution of large 
quantities would require the exertion of truly gigantic power. In order to 
obtain disintegration by the employment of very little force, the material is 
first subjected to heat followed by rapid cooling." That is to. say, the quartz 
is heated to redness and then immediately thrown into water. " This process 
.... is known in practice as quenching. If quenched quartz be struck with 
a hammer, it will break into small fragments, which can easily become 
converted into a fine powder." {Painting on Glass and Porcelain, p. 87, 
Scott, Greenwood, & Co.) 

Very large quantities of Norwegian and Swedish crystal quartz are ground 
by North German millers in several degrees of fineness. 

The preparation of quartz-sand depends not only upon the purpose for 
which it is to be used, but also upon the nature of the sand itself 



334 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Muspratt describes the purification of glassmakers' sand as follows : — 
" The sand, being always more or less impure when brought to the glass- 
works, is conveyed to an upper room, and thrown into a trough of water, where 
it is carefully washed. It is then placed in a trough over an oven, and, when 
partially dried, passes through holes into the oven. When quite dry it 
leaves the oven in the state of fine, glittering white particles, like powdered 
quartz." (P. 202, Muspratfs Chemistry?) 

Hermann describes the process thus : — " Washing by sedimentation is a 
very suitable method of freeing quartz-sand from foreign adrhixtures, and it 
is particularly advisable when, as not infrequently happens, the chief impurity 
present consists of clay. It should be remarked that the silicates of alumina 
form glasses of unusually high fusing-point, and, therefore, they require to be 
got rid of, especially in the case of sand intended for the production of enamels. 
Sedimental washing is performed in a very simple apparatus, consisting of a 
wooden vat with tap-holes at different heights in the side. The vat being 
filled about two-thirds full with clean water, the latter is stirred to keep it in 
continual motion, and the sand is run in. When all the sand is in, the stirring 
is discontinued, and after waiting a few minutes, until the sand is judged to 
have somewhat subsided, the upper tap is opened. If clay is present in the 
sand, its particles will float longer than those of the quartz, and the water will 
run off very turbid. In this event the taps are opened successively until all 
the water is drawn off from the vat .... the operation being repeated until 

the water runs off quite clear To prevent the washed sand from 

contamination, it is shovelled up with wooden shovels out of the vat, packed in 
strong linen cloths, and left to dry in the air, to be afterwards stored away in 
well-closed wooden cases until required for use. Iron shovels should not be 
employed, for the reason that the very hard quartz-sand wears away the 
iron, and even the small amount of iron thus introduced into the sand will 
impart a considerable degree of coloration to the glass prepared therefrom." 
{Painting on Glass and Porcelain, p. 86.) 

The preparation of the gritstones of Staffordshire is simply the selection 
of the most suitable veins, breaking away all discoloured parts, chipping ofT 
all stains and vein-marks, and crushing to sand the selected portions in 
pans or rnills. Softer formations, such as those of North Wales, East 
Staffordshire, and Derbyshire mountain-limestone pocket contents, may be 
reduced merely by drying slightly, and afterwards beating down with wooden 
mallets. 

Properties. — Sp. gr., 2-5 to 2-65. Chemical symbol, SiOa- Chemical com- 
position, 98 to 99 or 99^ per cent, silica. Although chemically inactive at 
ordinary atmospheric temperature, silica is capable of performing the part of a 
powerful acid when intimate mixtures of it with basic oxides or minerals are 
brought under the influence of heat ; in some cases reaction commences at 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Quartz 335 

red-heat, in others only at high temperatures, varying according to the affinity 
of the components of the mixture. 

Professor Rutley states that quartz is infusible before the blowpipe, and 
insoluble in all acids except fluoric acid. It is, however, more or less acted 
upon by a hot solution of potash. {Study of Rocks, p. 150.) 

Professor Rutley also observes that " Quartz is seen frequently to contain 
inclosures of other substances, sometimes as crystals, sometimes in the form 
of lacunae filled with liquids, etc. These inclosures are often visible to the 
naked eye, but the microscope commonly reveals their presence in vast 
number. The crystals of most frequent occurrence are those of rutile and 
chlorite." (Study of Rocks, ■^. 151.) 

On the mineralogical scale of hardness, quartz is of the seventh degree, the 
point of a steel penknife producing no effect upon it. This hardness, coupled 
with the refractory nature of quartz-sand, renders it particularly serviceable to 
the decorative-tile maker as a means of keeping tiles separate during the 
firing. 

The rational analysis of shales, marls, and clays shows the presence of 
quartz-sand, often in very fine state of division ; and, in proportion, sometimes 
52 per cent, or more. 

Langenbeck specially comments upon two red-ware materials — one a shale, 
containing, by a rational analysis, S2'S4 per cent, quartz ; the other a clay, 
containing 2 1"57 per cent, quartz : the former a practical and useful material 
for pottery work ; the latter shrinking, twisting, and cracking at the red-ware 
fire, and unable to take glaze without crazing. {Chem. of Pottery, pp. 59-61.) 

But it must not be inferred from the foregoing that a standard proportion 
of quartz-sand is always necessary, for Langenbeck shows (p. 6"], ibid.) that 
with yellow-ware clays good practical results accrue from the use of clays 
containing, by rational analysis, only I9'54 per cent, of quartz-sand. 

In whiteware and white tile-bodies, quartz-sand has, in England, been 
almost entirely superseded by ground calcined flint. This, however, is not the 
case in the states of North America, where quartz and quartz-sand are used 
under the objectionable tefrms Rock-Flint and Sand-Flint. 

In glazes, quartz-sand is useful by reason of its greater freedom and 
facility in mixing with other ingredients than wet-ground flint in its usual form. 

Many years ago Profes.sor Boys (Professor of Physics at South Ken- 
sington) demonstrated before the Royal Society that quartz could be melted 
by aid of the oxy-hydrogen flame, and spun into thread-like filaments, so fine 
as to be almost invisible even under a microscope. These quartz-threads 
proved themselves to be practically free from what is known as fatigue of 
elasticity, and found a use in instruments of precision and in the eye-pieces of 
astronomical telescopes. (See Leisure Hour, 1 887, p. 568.) 

Subsequently other experimenters entered the field, and eventually the 



336 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

melting of quartz became a commercially practicable operation, which, during 
the last few years, has been developed at Hanau, near Frankfort, where 
quartz-glass apparatus is now manufactured for sale. (See Pottery Gazette, 
May 1903, p. 479.) 

To enable crystalline quartz to bear the sudden attack of the oxy- 
hydrogen flame without danger of bursting, the pieces must first of all be 
slowly heated to a temperature of 1000° C. and then thrown into water. After 
this preliminary treatment quartz may be brought under the influence of the 
oxy-hydrogen flame, and raised to its melting-point at above 1700° C. (the 
melting-point of platinum). 

The working of molten quartz is said to present no difficulties, apart from 
the fact that the material melts only at a very high temperature. Quartz- 
glass is said to be no longer sensitive to great and sudden temperature 
changes, even when not annealed. And it has other advantages over ordinary 
glass ; for instance, (i) greater infusibility ; (2) shows no after-effects of heating 
to temperatures up to 1000° C. ; (3) its co-efficient of linear expansion is about 
one-seventeenth that of ordinary glass at temperatures from 0° to 1000° C; 
(4) even in moist air quartz is an electric non-conductor; (5) it is not 
sensitive to the action of ordinary acids ; (6) it is said to possess greater 
transparency than glass. (See Thonindustrie Zeitung, No. 129, i90i,p. 1931 ; 
and La Nature, i6th May 1901.) 

These are portentous facts for ceramists and glassmakers. The practical 
bearing of the matter may be deduced from the news that the manufacture 
of utensils of quartz-glass is now being effected at Hanau, near Frankfort, and 
that such apparatus is already on the market commercially. 

Flint. — To antiquarians the term " flint " brings up thoughts of remote 
past times when human needs and fancies were crudely ministered to by aid 
of skilfully fashioned flint implements. 

To ceramists the term merely suggests one of the commonplace materials 
of every-day use, namely, the substance resulting when selected black flints 
are calcined and afterwards finely ground. Strange to say, the blacker the 
flints appear before burning, the whiter they usually are afterwards ; conse- 
quently the ingredient known as " ground flint " is intensely white. 

Prof C. F. Binns, in his Story of the Potter, accredits Dwight, of Fulham, 
A.D. 1689, with being the first to use calcined flint in the manufacture of pottery. 
It is not stated how he became acquainted with this material, nor is the 
material mentioned in either of D wight's patents — 1 671-1684; but there are 
many chalk-pits in the South of England where flints might easily be 
accidentally passed into the chalk-lime kilns and become burnt ; and it is not 
improbable that, in the course of his searches for clays, calcined flints were 
brought under Dwight's notice, and as a potter he could hardly fail to be 
interested by their whiteness and refractoriness. 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Flint 337 

The material was subsequently introduced into Staffordshire by Astbury 
the younger, about A.D. 1720. It is said that "While travelling to London on 
horseback, in the year 1720, Astbury had occasion, at Dunstable, to seek a 
remedy for a disorder in his horse's eyes, when the ostler of the inn, by 
burning a flint, reduced it to a fine powder, which he blew into them. The 
potter, observing the beautiful white colour of the flint after calcination, 
instantly conceived the use to which it might be employed in his art." (Parke's 
Chemical Catechism.) Whether correct or otherwise, this pretty little tale 
savours strongly of the romantic. Possibly Astbury the younger inherited 
the astuteness that earned for his father unenviable fame in connection 
with Elers Brothers, for flints are not so easily calcined to intense whiteness, 
nor so easily reduced to a fine powder, as the Dunstable tradition pre- 
supposes ; and if they were, flint-particles would surely be a desperate 
remedy for inflammation of the eye, animal or human ; if one may judge 
by personal experience, we should say flint-particles are painfully wounding 
rather than curative. 

Astbury the younger, be it observed, was journeying to London, which 
circumstance renders it probable that he would visit Fulham, and it is more 
likely he learned the use of calcined flint at Fulham than at Dunstable. Be 
that as it may, Astbury the younger introduced the material into Stafford- 
shire, and it is perhaps ungrateful for an old flint-grinder to criticise the 
report of its discovery too severely. 

Several varieties of flints are met with in nature : chalk-flints, beach or 
shore flints, and gravel-flints. Flints may be black, opaline, or browri tinted, 
according to circumstances, but they are always more or less translucent, 
particularly when observed as a thin flake in a moistened condition. They 
have all, most probably, a common parentage in the flints of chalk formations ; 
certain chalk-cliffs reveal well-defined horizontal successive courses of black 
flints, three or four feet apart, recurring regularly and persistently. 

The inquiry as to how the flints came to be in such a situation is, of course, 
one for geologists, and must indeed be a most fascinating study. 

Sir Charles Lyell,F.R.S., remarks : — " The origin of the layers of flint .... 
has always been found more difficult to account for than that of the white 
chalk. In modern coral-reefs no such siliceous masses are known to be 
forming. But here again the late deep-sea soundings have suggested a very 
probable source of such mineral matter. During the cruise of the ' Bulldog ' 
.... it was ascertained that while the calcareous Globigerince had almost 
exclusive possession of certain tracts of the sea-bottom, they were wholly 

wanting in others In several of the spaces where the calcareous 

Rhizopods are wanting, the microscopic plants called Diatomacea .... the 
solid parts of which are siliceous, monopolize the ground at a depth of nearly 

400 fathoms When such Diatomacea decompose, the alkaline waters 

22 



338 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

of the ocean can take up and hold in solution only a minute portion of the 
silica set free, so that an opportunity would be given for the remainder to 
form concretionary nodules." {Elements of Geology, p. 319, Murray.) 

Albert V. Bleininger, B.Sc, has stated that quartz, when treated with 
milk of lime, is converted into the colloid variety, and thereby greatly increased 
in volume; and it is by some authorities assumed that the hardening of 
Portland cement is due to the formation of gelatinous silicic acid ; for 
" on letting a large quantity of water act on Portland cement, the volume of 
the latter is changed to a colloid mass occupying thirty-three times the 
original volume." {Trans. Am. Cer. Soc, vol. v. p. 81.) 

In England chalk-cliffs occur on some of the coasts and river-banks of 
Kent, Essex, Sussex, Berkshire, Norfolk, and Yorkshire ; and in Ireland on 
the north coasts of Antrim. At Grays (Essex) there are very large works 
manufacturing whiting or whitening from chalk ; and the flints falling from 
time to time, as quarrying proceeds, are placed aside and selected into 
different grades, those having the blackest fracture often going to potteries. 

But in the manufacture of white earthenware and tiles the flints most 
largely used are specially selected beach or shore flints known as Boulder- 
Flints. These are found on sea-beaches on the coasts of the English 
Channel, and probably originate from the debris of chalk-cliffs worn down 
from time to time by tidal action ; the chalky flints getting washed out to 
sea, rolled about in the Channel, and eventually beached. The rolling denudes 
them of their chalky coating, removes angularity and irregularity of shape, 
and reduces them to the rounded form of large pebbles. A very noticeable 
selective action simultaneously occurs, resulting in the beaching of ap- 
proximately similar sizes and forms at different parts of the coast, in so 
much that experienced flint merchants can often recognize at sight boulder- 
flints from certain localities ; distinct characteristics of size and shape almost 
always predominating in the case of boulder-flints from the locality of Rye 
(Sussex), Newhaven (Sussex), Dieppe (France), Le Treport (France), large 
heaps of each of these being easily distinguished one from another. 

Pickers go out from certain Channel ports in small boats to the grounds 
or beaches where flints are cast upon the shore, and, under experienced 
supervision, select the best boulder-flints and convey them home to port 
The ports where this traffic is usually carried on are Newhaven, Shoreham, 
Rye, Ramsgate, Margate, Cromer, etc., on the English coast ; and Dieppe, 
Fdcamp, St. Valery, and Le Treport, on the French coast. At these centres 
the flints are accumulated, and from thence are shipped to the ports of the 
principal pottery-making centres, such as Runcorn, Glasgow, Newcastle-on- 
Tyne, Stockton-on-Tees, and certain other ports throughout the world. 

Arrived at the potters' mills, the flints are washed with water in grid- 
barrows, and then calcined in conical kilns, much in the same manner as 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Flint 339 

limestone is calcined, i.e., by means of thin layers of fuel alternating with 
layers of flints, the process of calcination taking place slowly and occupying 
several days to complete. There are, however, some slight variations in the 
manner of burning at different mills. When calcined, the flints are drawn 
from the bottom of the kiln, riddled free from dust, chippings, and cinder, and 
subsequently crushed and ground. 

The grinding is usually effected in machines known as potter's flint-mills, 
specially designed to grind finely materials of great hardness with the least 
practicable degree of contamination, and with the least risk to the health of 
the workmen. 

When the use of calcined flints was first attempted in Staffordshire 
potteries, they were ground dry or pulverized finely ; it quickly became 
evident that the reputed cure for horses' eyes was a positive curse for human 
lungs. 

Thomas Benson, who in 1732 obtained letters-patent for a wet-grinding 
mill, particularly mentions in his specification that "The common method 
hitherto used .... breaking and pounding the stones dry, and afterwards 
sifting the powder through fine lawns .... proved very destructive to 
mankind .... the dust ... . fixes so closely upon the lungs that nothing 

can remove it It is very difficult to find persons to engage in the said 

manufacture." 

He had invented his wet- grinding mill in 1726, but its practical suc- 
cess was at first delayed, because he made the mistake of attempting to 
grind by means of iron balls. Subsequently, by the use of heavy siliceous 
stones for the grinding-surfaces, the mills became a success, and in principle 
Benson's mills remain in use to this day. 

By the kindness of Messrs. W. Boulton, Ltd., of Burslem, we are able to 
illustrate in fig. 164 the form and construction of the Benson potter's mill 
as now in general use. These mills or "flint-pans" usually measure from 

9 feet to 16 feet diameter. 

They are worked continuously day and night, a charge being cast on 
the pan morning and evening with the proportionate quantity of water, 
which is supplemented by further addition of water as the grinding 
proceeds. 

For a lo-foot pan the charge is about 15 cwts. morning and evening, 
larger pans taking larger quantities according to their grinding area, which 
may be calculated roughly as two-thirds of the square of the diameter, thus : — 

10 X 10 = 100 .-. 66, 14 X 14 = 196 .-. 130; hence by calculation a 14-foot 
pan would take 30 cwts. But this varies according to the condition of the 
pan and the weight of "runners" (mill-stones), and the fineness to which 
the material is to be ground. 

Upon completion of the grinding, the charge in a semi-fluid state is 



34° LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 









'C(fr^^MP"ffS 




11 _: jLLJiin IL Ll-,-__^ 



F h\ 



1 




W^ ^' 






•^\^ 





Fig. 164.— Wet-grinding flint-mill pan. {_By permission of Messrs. Wm. Boulton, Lta., 

Engineers, Btirslem. ) 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Flint 



341 








Fig. 165. — Ground-flint wash-tub. {By permission oj Messrs. Wm. Boulton, Ltd., 
Engineers, Burslem.) 



342 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

allowed to flow into an apparatus called a wash-tub (fig. 165). Here the 
material is mixed with a considerable volume of water, agitated, settled for 
a few minutes ; the insufficiently ground particles are thus free to settle down 
to the bottom. The finely ground upper portion is then allowed to flow off 
into large underground " arks," where it thickens by sedimentation, the excess 
water being decanted by opening plugs fixed at different heights for this 
purpose. 

But to return to the wash-tub, which is one of the most useful devices for 
separating the fine from the coarse. After the upper portions have been run 
off" into the arks, the plugs are fastened in again ; the apparatus again 
agitated until the coarse portion is stirred up into a creamy state ; then a 




Fig. 166.— Duplex dry-grinding cylinders, 20-inch {lined with hickoy 01 porcelain blocks). 
{Made by the Crossley Mfg. Co., Trenton, N.J., U.S.A.) 

lower plug is opened and the coarse semi-fluid " knockings " or " trailings " are 
allowed to flow out of the wash-tub into a "knockings" or "knottings" tub, 
and this is hoisted up to the mill-pans, and thus the unground portion is 
again run on the pans along with a fresh charge of flints to be reground. 
Thus extreme fineness is attained without dust, loss, or sieving, 
Other kinds of mills or grinding-machines are also used for reducing to a 
condition of extreme fineness calcined flints, felspar, and other hard potters' 
materials. Of these the Alsing cylinder type, in which grinding is effected by 
means of flint pebbles or porcelain balls, rolling within cylinders, is perhaps 
most usual. The cylinders are of iron lined with either porcelain bricks or 
wooden blocks. By means of these cylinders or ball-mills, the materials may 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Flint 343 

be ground wet or dry at the option of the user, suitable provision being made 
for charging and emptying accordingly. 

In the United States of America these mills have found great favour, and 
are the rule rather than the exception. Professor C. F. Binns, M.Sc, of the 
Alfred University, kindly informs me that the pebbles for the larger-sized 
mills are simply raw flints, and for the smaller sizes porcelain balls about 
I -inch diameter. The charge of pebbles is a little more than half the capacity 
of the mill, and the charge of material about the same weight as the pebbles. 
Time of grinding from a half to two hours. He further states that for a wet 
charge the mill must not be more than three-quarters full, and for a dry charge 
less. The apparent unconformability of this note with the charge-weights 
previously given is accounted for by the fact that the interstices between the 
pebbles become partially occupied by material. A heavy mill will deal with 
material in ^-inch fragments, but for small sizes he would sift the material 
through a ^ sieve prior to charging it into the ball-mill for grinding. 

The Crossley Manufacturing Co., of Trenton, N.J., who kindly lend a block 
for illustrating this kind of mill, arranged as a twin mill (see fig. 166), advise 
two hundred pebbles about 2-inch diameter in a 20-inch mill ; and about forty 
pebbles of i^-inch diameter in a lo-inch mill ; the charge for a 20-inch mill 
being about 150 lbs., and for a 10-inch mill about 25 lbs. And they advise 
that the mills be filled to nine-tenths of their capacity. 

The Abb^ Engineering Co., of 220 Broadway, New York, also supply 
grinding-mills of this type; their No. S pebble-mill is illustrated on p. 345, 
open, and also encased in galvanized-iron cover. 

By a special construction their mill can be separated into two halves for 
convenience when relining the interior (fig. 169). They claim that no other 
mill than a pebble-mill presents such an enormous grinding-surface within 
such limited space, and that no parts require dressing or sharpening. Also 
that porcelain presents the best possible grinding-surface, and will neither 
contaminate nor discolour the material being pulverized. 

Moreover, that these machines will pulverize either wet or dry material, 
delivering a perfectly uniform product without bolting. 

Their directions for operating the mills are as follows: — "When the 
cylinder is mounted .... and encased in such a manner that the bearings 
are outside the casing, a certain amount of pebbles (sufficient to nearly half 
fill the cylinder) is put in. A charge of material (equal to about the bulk 
of the pebbles) is then fed into the cylinder, and the opening , closed with 
the tight cover. The mill is then revolved at the proper speed until the 
material is pulverized fine enough. The tight cover is then removed, and 
after the grate- discharge cover has been put in its place, the cylinder is started 
running, by which operation the pulverized material will pass through the 
openings in the grate, and the pebbles or balls be retained in the cylinder. It 



344 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

will take from two to five minutes to discharge, after which the grate is taken 
off and the cylinder is ready for another charge." 

If the cylinder is used for wet grinding, for instance, on paints, enamels, 
glazes, etc., the operation is the same as the above, except that, when dis- 
charging, a tight cover provided with a valve is used instead of the grate 
discharge cover. The cylinder is turned with valve downward, and the latter 
opened so as to allow the material to run into any receptacle. 

With regard to the nature of the pebbles, the Abbe Co. remark that soft 
or brittle pebbles not only wear out very rapidly in the machine, but also 
deteriorate the quality of the material being pulverized. Pebbles of uniform 
round or oval shape are preferable ; and selected Greenland flint pebbles are 
claimed to be the hardest, toughest, and most durable. 

The following particulars of pebble-mills from the Abbd Engineering 
Co.'s Catalogue may be useful for reference and comparison : — 



No. 


Outside 
Dimen- 
sions of 
Cylinder. 


Charge, 
taking 

Sand as 
Unit. 


Weight of 
Cylinder. 


Floor- 
space 
Required. 


Pebbles 
Furnished. 


Approx. 

Power 

Required. 


I 


6' xs' 


2800 lbs. 


8000 lbs. 


11' X 12' 


4200 lbs. 


12 H.P. 


2 


5' X4' 


1500 „ 


6000 „ 


7' x8' 


2450 „ 


8 „ 


3 


4i' X 3i' 


800 „ 


5000 ,, 


6i' X 74' 


1400 „ 


S ,. 


4 


34' X 3i' 


500 ,, 


4000 ,, 


6' X74' 


1050 „ 


4 ,, 


S 


3' X3i;, 


300 „ 


2CO0 ,, 


5' X7' 


700 ., 


2 „ 


6 


30" X30' 


200 ,, 


1200 ,, 


4 x5' 


350 „ 


14 „ 


7 


30" X18" 


120 ,, 


800 „ 


4' X4 


3SO „ 


1 11 



Size of 
Pulleys. 



Speed of 

Cylinder, 

Revolutions 

per Minute. 



30" 


X 


10" 


28" 


X 


S" 


24" 


X 


6" 


4S" 


X 


6" 


36" 


X 


6" 


24" 


X 


4" 


24" 


X 


4" 



18 
25 
30 

35 
40 

44 
44 



Somewhat similar mills are made by English engineers also, and are 
well illustrated in the Catalogue of Messrs. W. Boulton's, Ltd., of Burslem, 
Staffordshire. 

Several years ago a pneumatic machine, invented by an American, was 
put into operation at Burslem by Mr. Anthony Shaw, afterwards by the 
North Staffordshire Pneumatic Pulverizer Co. ; and millers of the " old order," 
working with " Benson " mills, were given to understand that their method 
was doomed, and would quickly be a thing of the past. However, events 
were not so cruel ; the stern reality of actual working ended in the aban- 
donment of the " pneumatic " machines. The old wet-grinding flint-pans, 
originally invented by Benson nearly two hundred years ago, still retain the 
confidence of the trade in North Staffordshire. 

Recent scientific investigations, conducted by Professor C. F. Binns, of 
Alfred University, New York, into the evidence and causes of the superiority 
of wet-ground ceramic materials, are recorded at considerable length in vol. v. 
of Trans. Am. Cer. Soc, pp. 281, 292. 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Flint 345 




Fig. 167. — Abbe Engineering Co.'s No. 5 pebble-mill. 




Fig. 168. — Abbi Engineering Co.'s pebble-mill encased with galvanized-iron covers. 



346 B LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 



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SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATER FALS— Flint 



347 



Four series of bodies were prepared, and test-pieces made up of them 
were burnt ; with the results indicated by the condensed tabulated statement 
below, which is from Professor Binns' paper, but arranged in a more concise 
form : — 



Series. 


No. 

I 

2 

3 


Kaolin. 


Ball- 
clay. 


Flint. 


Spar. 


Results of Body Tests. 


Sifted. 


Ground. 


Normal. Ground. 


Texture. 


Colour. Ink Test. 


I. 


20 
20 
20 


3° 
30 
30 


40 

30 
20 




10 
20 
30 




Granular. 
Do. 
Do. 


Cream. 

Stony. 
Stony. 

Cream. 
Stony. 
Stony. 

Cream, 

Stony. 
Stony. 


Slowly absorbed. 

Slightly retained. 

Do. 


II. 


I 

2 

3 


20 
20 
20 


30 
30 
30 




40 
30 
20 


10 
20 

30 




Dense. 

Porcellaneous. 

Do. 


Slightly absorbed. 
No absorption. 
Do. 


III. 
IV. 


I 

2 

3 


20 
20 
20 


30 
30 
30 


40 

30 
20 


... 




10 
20 
30 


Granular. 
Do. 
Do. 


Slightly absorbed. 

Slightly retained. 

Do. 


I 

2 

3 


20 
20 
20 


30 
30 
30 




40 
30 
20 • 


... 


10 
20 
30 


Dense. 

Porcellaneous. 

Do. 


Cream. 

Stony. 
Stony. 


Slight absorption. 
No absorption. 
Do. 



With regard to Series II. and IV., Professer Binns, among many other 
instructive things, significantly observes that " The granular fracture is lost, 
and in its place there is a fine porcelain texture upon which the ink has no 
effect whatever." {Trans. Am. Cer. Soc, vol. v. p. 290.) 

" The Effect of Varying Fineness of Particles of Non-plastic Materials in 
Pottery Bodies '' has been the subject of careful investigation by Mr. Arthur 
Heath, who read a paper describing his researches and results before the 
N.S. Ceramic Society at Victoria Institute, Tunstall, 13th December 1902. 
(See Trans. N.S.C.S., vol. ii. p. 31.) 

Mr. Heath apparently overlooked the fact that even as far back as the 
time of Josiah Wedgwood the effect of fineness of grinding potters' materials 
had been a subject of concern, inquiry, and experiment. (See/oszah Wedg- 
woocfs Letters to Bentley, vol. ii. p. 165.) 

But without attempting to discuss such an excellent* paper, it may be 
noted that, while demonstrating that defects such as " eggshelly " surface of 
the. glazed ware and crazing may result from coarseness of the flint, he also 
demonstrates defects arising from excessive grinding ; and goes so far as to 
recommend that the excessively fine portions should be separated out and 
put to some use other than for bodies. 



348 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

The conclusions arrived at from the investigation were : — 

1. The flint in an earthenware body causes the contraction to vary- 
inversely as the diameter of its grains. 

2. The porosity varies directly with the diameter to -05 mm. ; below that 
it varies inversely as the diameter. 

3. The effect on the glaze is that the tendency to craze increases with the 
size of the grains of flint ! 

4. The stone in an earthenware body causes the contraction to vary 
inversely as the diameter of its grains. 

5. The porosity varies directly as the size of grain. 

6. The effect on the glaze does not tend to crazing, but the eggshelly 
effect diminishes with the siie of grain ; but when the stone is less than '029 
mm. diameter, it causes a blistering of the body when glazed. 

7. The size of grain in the body does not produce "spit-out" ware. 
{Trans. N.S.C.S., vol. ii. p. 45.) 

The comparative ease with which calcined flints may be reduced to an 
almost impalpable powder, and without any considerable degree of contamina- 
tion, by means of these special contrivances and mills, in conjunction with 
its intense whiteness and purity, and its rigidity, refractoriness, and absence of 
shrinkage under fire, cause this material to be used in very large quantities 
in the preparation of bodies for white earthenware and tiles ; so much so that 
ceramic wares of this class are now frequently designated flint- wares. 

Properties. — Sp. gr., 2'5. Chemical symbol, SiOg. Chemical composition, 
97 to 98 per cent, silica, small quantities of lime carbonate and moisture 
making up the difference. It has been observed in practice that often the 
bleached whitish-coloured boulders fly off in chippings during the process of 
calcination more readily than the solid, round, blacker boulder-flints, and that 
they register a lower sp. gr. It has been surmised that both these phenomena 
arise from partial hydration taking place while the flint is exposed on the 
beaches, but researches have not been carried far enough to establish this. 

The loss on drying an ordinary commercial sample of ground calcined 
flint, i.e., ground bj' the wet process and subsequently dried on a kiln, is 
usually about 3 per cent, and there is practically no further loss on calcination. 

The material frequently yields slight effervescence when tested with dilute 
hydrochloric acid, on account of the small quantity of lime carbonate abraded 
from the chert mill-stones or "runners" during grinding. If, however, more 
than I per cent, of lime carbonate is found, the material should be regarded 
with suspicion and further tests and inquiry made. 

Calcined flint of the usual standard quality is highly refractory, and of 
most intense whiteness, When heated in intimate contact with alkalies or 
lime or lead oxide, fusion takes place and silicates are formed ; hence its 
service in compounding glazes. On the other hand, when fusible ingredients 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Whitening 349 

are largely absent, and the temperature does not exceed the limits customary 
in whiteware potters' kilns, it is not vitrified ; hence its service in white 
earthenware bodies, and as a parting wash for saggars and cranks. 

Some interesting notes upon the behaviour of flint when subjected to 
successive burnings are to be found in the Pottery Gazette, May 1903, 
p. 502, being excerpts from lectures by Mr. W. Jackson, A.R.C.S., instructor 
in pottery to the Staffordshire County Council. 

'By certain diagrams it is demonstrated, first, on the authority of Cramer, 
(of Charlottenburg), that sp. gr^_.falls continuously from 2'66 in the raw flint 
to 2'398 after the tenth firing, and that this coincides with an increase in 
volume ; and second, on the authority of Le Chatelier, that the change of volume 
in the case of amorphous silica is much less in degree, and far more regular 
in progression, than that of crystalline silica. From these investigations it is 
assumed that amorphous silica is best for potters' use. The advantages there- 
fore of calcination of flint are twofold, viz., reducing the difficulty of grinding, 
and reducing the risks of fracture in the ware. It is therefore reasonable 
to infer that, whenever either flint or quartz is used in ceramic bodies, pre- 
liminary calcination is advantageous. 

Whitening, Paris White, Lime Carbonate.— For the purposes of the 
potter, these may be considered synonymous terms indicating only slightly 
different commercial forms of carbonate of lime, some of the preparations 
being obtained from chalk and some from mountain limestone. Only the 
purest should be made use of in ceramics. 

In Peak Forest district, near Buxton, a certain seam of very white lime- 
stone is found at a considerable depth from the surface, and this is separated 
from contiguous strata of less pure limestone, and placed aside for chemical 
uses, as distinguished from blast-furnace limestone. This quality yields on 
analysis 98-87 per cent, of carbonate of lime. 

From pure white limestone such as this, whitening for potters is pre- 
pared by simply grinding the stone finely on wet-grinding mills like the 
flint-mills already described, and subsequently drying the product. Some- 
times it may be ground or finely pulverized in a dry state, if the mills 
are such as eiifect this without colourant contamination. An even purer 
limestone, showing 99-8 of CaCO.,, is found at Ash Grove, near Kansas City, 
Mo., U.S.A. 

Properties. — Sp. gr., 2-6 to 27. Chemical symbol, CaCOg. Chemical com- 
position, 55-5 lime, 43 '5 COg. Loss by calcination or fusion with other 
ingredients, 47 per cent. Soluble in dilute hydrochloric acid, with very 
violent effervescence. When more than 2 per cent, resists solution in dilute 
acids, the parcel concerned should not be used until further tests and inquiries 
have been made. 

Free calcium oxide alone is highly refractory; it follows then that the 



350 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

proportion of whitening introduced in a glaze-frit must be carefully regulated 
according to the silicic and boric acids present, and its relation to any other 
bases forming part of the composition. 

Dolomite, i.e., calcium-magnesian limestone, has been tested, in comparison 
with whitening, by several American ceramists (see Pottery Gazette, November 
1901); but their results warrant no changes in that direction by ceramists so 
long as a pure quality of whitening from pure limestone is obtainable. The 
use of whitening in glazes burned at high temperatures, such as those used 
for hard porcelain, enamelled bricks, and fireclay wares, and what is called 
Bristol glazed stoneware, wherein the compounds of lead and of boric acid 
are generally absent, proves whitening to be a powerful flux for silica at 
high heats. 

Plaster of Paris. — Potter's plaster is a variety of plaster of Paris ; that is 
to say, a prepared product of mineral gypsum. 

Gypsum is a native hydrous sulphate of calcium. In the British Isles 
its occurrence usually coincides with that of red marls of the Keuper beds 
of triassic rocks. It is sometimes associated with rock-salt, as at Droitwich, 
where gypsum is said to form the roof of the brine reservoir. {Geol. England 
and Wales, p. 296, Kelly.) 

In England gypsum is now principally derived from the following counties : 
Nottinghamshire, Cumberland, Staffordshire, Sussex, and Derbyshire, smaller 
quantities being raised in Somerset and Westmorland. The total output for 
I go I was stated to be 200,766 tons. 

Gypsum also occurs in Eocene or Purbeck formations, as at Montmartre, 
near Paris, whence our appellation plaster of Paris ; and near Netherfield, 
Sussex, where the gypsum is 35 feet thick. 

Fine semi-crystalline forms of gypsum are called alabaster ; this is found 
in the province of Pisa (Italy), and extensively used for making ornaments. 
" The purest white alabaster is worked by underground excavations in the Val 
di Marmolaio, near CasteHina, twenty-five miles from Volterra in Tuscany." 
(^Handbook, Mus. Pract. Geol., i8q6, p. 28.) 

In Canada very considerable quantities of gypsum have been found, chiefly 
in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the export for 1902 aggregating 268,480 
tons, chiefly to the United States. 

" The largest deposits of gypsum known in Canada at present are those of 
Hillsborough, in Albert County (New Brunswick), where extensive quarries 
have been opened, and whence great quantities have been and still are being 
removed for calcination and exportation. The mineral is usually met with in 
very irregular masses, associated with red marls, sandstones, and limestones, 
at or near the summit of the series, and varies much in character. Thus 
at Hillsborough, in the quarries now being worked, there is exposed a total 
head of rock of from 90 to 100 feet, of which about 70 feet, forming the 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Plaster of Paris 351 

upper portion, consists for the most part of ' soft plaster ' or true gypsum, 

which rests on beds of ' hard plaster ' or anhydrite of unknown thickness 

At Petitcodiac, where the deposit has a breadth of about 40 rods and a 
total length of about one mile, the whole is fibrous and highly crystalline, 
and is traversed through its entire extent by a vein of nearly pure selenite, 
8 feet wide. 

" Gypsum occurs in Nova Scotia in very extensive deposits, varying in 
thickness from a few inches to 120 feet. These deposits are found in the 
carboniferous system." (Economic Minerals of Canada, pp. 214, 215, Canadian 
Comr., Glasgow Exh., 1901.) 

In the United States the output of gypsum reached the enormous figure 
of 659,659 short tons (2000 lbs. each) in 1901, and of the value of 

S 1. 577,493 • 

The states yielding the greater portion were thus : — 

Iowa, Kansas, Texas, . . 213,419 short tons. 

Michigan, . . ... 185,150 „ 

New York, . . . . 119,565 „ 

Other states making up the balance in very much smaller quantities. 

In the report on the Mineral Resources of the United States, ipoi, there 
are statistics of the world's production of gypsum from 189 s to 1900, from 
which we learn that the comparative output in 1900 was as under: — 



United States of America, 


594,462 ; 


short tons. 


Great. Britain, . 


233,002 




Canada, . 


252,081 




France, 


• 1,761,835 




Algeria, 


41,446 




German Empire, 


39,103 




India, 


4,865 





Preparation. — The mining or quarrying is variously effected according to 
circumstances, either by open workings or by driving levels from vertical 
shafts. The gypsum-masses are shattered by blasting, and when raised to 
the surface the rock is scrupulously examined and selected, usually into four 
qualities. The purest, whitest, sugar-like portions of the stone, i.e., the " Best 
Fine White" is not generally sold to potters, but a slightly stained and veiny 
quality, rather harder and somewhat discoloured, is placed aside as the 
" Pottef's Plaster Stone'.' In each case the mineral is freed from adhering 
marl, etc., and washed with hot water. The gypsum is then broken into 
smaller lumps and passed through stampers and crackers ; afterwards this 
is " kibbled " in a mill of the type of a flour-mill (at least, this used to be so), 
preparatory to being passed into a self-feeding mill, where it is ground " fine," 



352 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

or finished in a manner similar to the old-fashioned method of grinding flour 
between flat mill-stones. The ground gypsum is then conducted on to 
a heated kiln-floor of fireclay quarries, and " boiled," i.e., heated carefully 
to a temperature of about I20° C. (248° F.), to drive out the water of 
crystallization. It is of greatest importance not to overheat the material 
at this stage ; for, if allowed to attain a temperature of 200 C, it becomes 
'• dead-burnt," and would set too slowly. When the kiln process has been 
completed, the ''Boiled Plaster" resulting is carefully placed in convenient 
bags ready for delivery, and should be very judiciously warehoused, free from 
damp, to keep it in good condition. The products of some mines yield a 
plaster too soft when set for potters' use, and these sources must be avoided. 
In the Handbook to the Museum of Practical Geology, London, it is stated that 
" To ensure rapid consolidation it is desirable to so perform the calcination 
that about s per cent, of water is left in the plaster. Good plaster of Paris is 
ar from being an anhydrous sulphate." {Handbook, p. 30.) 

Usually it is said that white plaster casts better than pink plaster, but 
hat pink plaster makes the hardest moulds. Tendency toward producing a 
linholey surface, and differences in comparative contraction and expansion 
)f plaster of Paris, are also matters for consideration. 

''Baked" Plaster is the term applied to plaster of Paris prepared by heating 

elected and washed lump gypsum-stone in kilns for about five hours prior 

o grinding. This method used to be largely adopted at a works at Newark-on- 

Trent, where some four' hundred tons a week were made ; and under this 

system it was claimed that out of two and a quarter million sacks not one 

sack had been returned as deficient in quality. 

Keen^s Cement.— According to the Handbook to the Mus. Pract. GeoL, 
Keene's cement is prepared thus: — "Dissolve I lb. of alum in a gallon of 
water ; this solution is used for soaking 84 lbs. of gypsum calcined in small 
lumps. These lumps are then exposed for eight days to the air, and after- 
wards calcined at a dull red-heat, and then ground and sifted." 

Parian Cement is prepared by soaking the plaster in a solution of borax 
instead of one of alum. {Handbook, Mus. Pract. GeoL, i8p6, p. 41.) 

Properties. — Sp. gr. of gypsum, 2-28 to 2-33 (Hurst). A chemical analysis 
of gypsum from the Trent district in Derbyshire has been given as under : — 

Calcium sulphate, ... 67 '66 per cent. 

Water, . . . 20"I0 ,, 

Silica, . . . . 273 ,, 

MgO, . . . . 0-66 „ 

FeaOs, . . ... slight ,, 

Another analysis of gypsum-stone largly used by potters is : — 

-Sulphate of lime, . . . 78-99 per cent. 

Water of combination, . . . 2 1 'o 1 , 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Plaster of Paris 353 

Analysis of a quality of plaster of Paris supposed to be specially suitable 
for potters' use : — 

Calcium sulphate, . . 92-05 

Water, ... . 7-05 

Magnesia, 076 

Silica, . o'o5 

Alumina, . . . . o'og 

When carefully prepared it acquires the valuable property of taking up a 
considerg.ble volume of water, and solidifying with it in a very short time 
into a compact, white, porous, firm mass, taking any form into which it has been 
directed by its surroundings. When once set it also has the further property, 
arising from its porous character, of remaining comparatively hard and 
insoluble and unaffected, even when moist substances or much water are 
subsequently allowed to act upon it. But to secure this the plaster must, 
after wetting and setting, be allowed to become almost perfectly dry before 
being used in the manner indicated. When this is attended to, moist clay 
may be applied to the resulting forms of the plaster — i.e., to the plaster-moulds 
— water is absorbed from the plastic moist clay, and when the clay-ware is 
removed from the mould the plaster will part with the ab.sorbed water and 
become dry again, ready for repeated use. In a sense this absorption and 
evaporation may be likened to the action of a sponge. 

In practice it has been observed that, in the process of setting, when the 
water and ground plaster of Paris have been mixed together a short time, a 
certain amount of heat is evolved by some action associated with the setting 
together of the plaster and the water ; and that, unless this heating rises to a 
certain temperature (not definitely specified by the observer), the resulting 
plaster-mould is not firm and durable. 

Again, experience shows that some plaster of Paris swells more than 
others when setting, and that different plasters yield different sizes of moulds, 
even when cast from the same model. Whenever moulds are required to fit 
rigid receptacles, such as jigger-heads, etc., this feature has to be taken into 
consideration. 

For potters' use, plaster of Paris, of a slightly pink shade of whiteness, is 
generally preferred, and usually sets harder, and will bear knocking out of the 
frames better than the very white plasters. 

Fineness, freeness, freedom from lumps of congealed plaster, dryness, are 
all points to look for in examining plaster; and when set the resulting moulds 
should be rather hard to cut, and should have a good fine surface which will 
yield smooth clay-wares and will wear well. 

When an intimate mixture of anhydrous calcium sulphate with anhydrous 
potassium sulphate is stirred up with less than their weight of water, the mass 
becomes so suddenly solid that it cannot be poured out of the vessel. If four 

23 



354 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

or five parts of water are employed, then the compound sets more slowly, yet 
still quicker, than plaster of Paris. 

Plaster of Paris is sometimes used both as a constituent of, glazes, 
particularly those used for enamelled bricks and fireclay wares, and in the 
engobes or enamel bodies for these wares. 

Also it appears as a useful ingredient in some of the whitest " Barbotine " 
slips for underglaze decoration. 

Barytas. — In the British Isles heavy spar, or barytes, is chiefly found in 
the lead-mines of Shropshire (Snailbeach and Wotherton) ; smaller quantities 
being raised in Durham, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland ; 
impure varieties, known as cawkstone, being comparatively common in 
Derbyshire. 

The only treatment barytes undergoes for use in tilemaking is careful 
selection and grinding ; although for some purposes a quality called bleached 
barytes, which has been treated with acid to dissolve out impurities, is available. 

Properties. — ^Sp. gr., 4-0 to 47. Chemical symbol, BaS04. Chemical 
composition, 65 per cent, barium oxide, 34 per cent, sulphuric anhydride. 
Loss on calcination of commercial sample, about 2 or 3 per cent. When 
calcined with charcoal at a white heat, it is decomposed, and barium sulphide 
formed. Alone, it may with difficulty be fused into a hard white enamel, 
which is said to be practically insoluble in acids at ordinary temperatures. 

The introduction of this material is attributed to Josiah Wedgwood, who 
by its aid prepared his world-renowned Jasper wares. 

Barium Carbonate.— Witherite, the native carbonate, in England is 
chiefly found in Northumberland, at Fallowfield near Hexham, and at 
Settlingstones near Fourstones, these sources yielding seven thousand tons 
in 1901. But, as a rule, the chemically prepared precipitated form of 
carbonate of barium is probably most generally used, where necessary, for 
ceramic purposes. 

This is a very elegant preparation in condition and appearance, and 
contains from 96 to 98 per cent, of barium carbonate ; the difference consists 
mostly of sulphates, sulphites, and hyposulphites. The loss on calcination or 
fusion in a frit-compound is about 25 per cent. 

It is a heavy white powder, sparingly soluble in water, but dissolves with 
effervescence in dilute hydrochloric or nitric acid, the solution yielding dense 
white precipitate with sulphuric acid. 

The poisonous character of several of the salts of barium, however, renders 
this an undesirable ingredient, and its use should be avoided and discouraged 
as much as possible„ 

Apart from this, the practical results of its use are not always satisfactory. 
In my own experience I cannot remember ever using it in glazes or enamels 
with any success unattainable by other means ; and in the report of a long 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Fluor-Spar 355 

series of carefully conducted experiments by American ceramists they say : — 
" In all combinations in which we used it the glazes were scummy and worth- 
less No single glaze in which BaO was used in any proportion was 

workable." {Pottery Gazette, November 1901.) 

Fluor-Spar. — In the Mines and Quarries Report for ipoi, Part III., the 
only counties mentioned as raising fluor-spar in Great Britain are Durham 
and Derbyshire, the former county being by far the greater contributor to the 
total output of 4214 tons ; the Weardale Lead Co., of Stanhope, Durham, 
raising from their two mines an aggregate of 3206 tons. 

It is not stated whether Derbyshire " Blue John" is any better for ceramic 
purposes than the Durham quality ; and as far as the writer knows the only 
preparation is grinding either by the wet or dry methods. 

Propertiesr — Sp. gr., yo to 3 '2 5. Chemical symbol, CaFj. Chemical com- 
position, when pure, 5r3 calcium and 487 fluorine. 

On charcoal by blowpipe test it fuses to a clear bead, which becomes 
opaque on cooling. 

In many experiments with this ingredient as an assistant to fusion, my 
results have been very disappointing ; but for some more or less occult reason 
it is a serviceable ingredient in connection with pink and crimson colours and 
glazes. When whitening is used in a compound, oxide of calcium — lime — is 
probably the ultimate state in which union must be effected with the other 
ingredients. On the contrary, when fluor-spar is introduced, whatever becomes 
of the fluorine, if the mineral is chemically decomposed at all, it is quite 
possible that calcium may act in a nascent condition, and results may not 
always be identical with those of lime. 

Cryolite. — Cryolite is found native at Evigtok, in West Greenland, where 
it forms a vein in the gneiss-rock. According to the report by the United 
States Geological Survey, it occurs in great snow-white masses which are 
partially transparent. " It constitutes a large bed in a granitic vein in gray 
gneiss. The cryolite is limited to the granite, and the richer portion is about 
500 to 1000 feet 'irirarea. Associated with the cryolite in small amounts are 
quartz, beautiful crystals of siderite and galena, smaller amounts of sphalerite, 
pyrite, chalcopyrite, and wolframite, which are irregularly scattered through 
the cryolite. Surrounding this richer portion there is a zone where the chief 
minerals are quartz, feldspar, and avigtite, a variety of muscovite-mica. 
Besides these there are fluorite, cassiterite, and arsenopyrite, all of which are 
in a kind of basic ground-mass of cryolite. Between this outer zone and the 
main mass of the cryolite, the contact is rather sharply defined ; but there is 
no distinct boundary between the outer zone and the surrounding granite 
into which it passes. The mineral is mined by open-cuts, and forms a quarry 
that is about 600 feet in length by 200 in width and 100 feet or more in 
depth. Whole cargoes of mineral that were 99-5 per cent, pure cryolite have 



356 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

been obtained from the inner and deeper portions of the quarry." (^Mineral 
Resources of the United States, ipoi, p. 883.) 

For ceramic purposes, careful selection and grinding in manner that will 
leave the product free from contamination is all that is required in the way 
of preliminary preparation for use as cryolite. When, however, it is desired 
to make it a base from which to prepare alumina, the preparation will be as 
described in the following paragraph on alumina. 

Properties. — Sp. gr., 2*9 to 3'0. Chemical symbol, 3NaF + AIF3. Chemical 
composition, i3'o Al, 32-8 Na, 54^2 F. 

It is a fluoride of sodium and aluminium, which in appearance somewhat 
resembles snow or finely grained lump-sugar. 

Fuses before the blowpipe, and reacts for alumina when tested on charcoal* 
with nitrate of cobalt. 

In ceramic, glazes it is occasionally useful to overcome opalinity, in the 
way alumina does, when alumina itself is -too refractory ; but is less effective 
and induces crazing when in excess. 

From the report above mentioned, we learn that " Cryolite is also used to 
a limited extent in the manufacture of an opalescent glass which resembles 
French porcelain. This glass is made from a mixture composed of two parts 
of powdered cryolite and one of sand (silica), with one-half an equivalent 
portion of zinc oxide. The resulting opalescent glass is extremely hard and 
Tough." {Mineral Resources, p. 884.) 

Whatever purposes cryolite is used for.care should be taken to suitably 
provide for the fluorine evolved during chemical reaction. It will be observed 
that cryolite contains about 54 per cent, fluorine, a large portion of which may 
be disengaged upon fusion with other ingredients. 

Alumina. — Free alumina is not of very frequent occurrence in nature ; 
its most common forms are corundum, ruby, sapphire, and diaspore. But in 
association with silica as kaolinite, it is a component of abundant and widely 
distributed rocks ; and its hydrate, in association with hydrate of iron, is 
largely mined in France, Ireland, and America. Clays, brick-earths, granites, 
felspars, cryolite, corundum, bauxite, alunite, and alunogene all contain 
alumina. The alumina that is used in the ceramic industry, however, is not 
any. natural form of this substance, but is a very elegant preparation obtained 
from one or other of the above-named rocks by more or less direct chemical 
processes. The older process was a somewhat tedious one, consisting of 
careful calcination and washing of a mixture of potash alum and ammonia 
alum ; the product being a very light form of alumina of rather inconvenient 
bulk, this was mostly used by ceramic colour-makers. 

Owing to the recent invention of a method of electrical extraction of 
metallic aluminium — or, as the Americans say, aluminum, from alumina — 
more economical commercial means for the preparation of alumina on the large 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Alumina 357 

scale have been devised ; and alumina has thus become an ordinary article of 
commerce, more easily obtainable and in denser and more manageable condi- 
tion than formerly, and possibly of a higher degree of purity. 

The processes of alum manufacture from pyritous shales and from clays 
in the old way is fully described in many technical manuals, and therefore 
need not be repeated here. 

When prepared from cryolite, " The mineral is first dried and then reduced 
to a fine powder, and intimately mixed with powdered limestone. This 
■ mixture is then calcined, in which process the fluorine unites with calcium 
to form calcium fluoride, which is insoluble in water, while the sodium and 
aluminum are oxidized and form probably a soluble aluminate of sodium 
and a carbonate of sodium. By leaching with hot water, the aluminate of 
sodium and the carbonate of sodium are removed. Carbon dioxide gas is 
forced into the tanks containing these solutions .... and the aluminum is 
precipitated as aluminum hydroxide, and the sodium forms sodium carbonate. 
.... The aluminum hydroxide precipitate is washed to free it from traces 
of sodium carbonate, and, after drying, it is either sold in this rough form, or 
it is manufactured into sulphate of aluminum or alum." (^Mineral Resources 
of U.S.A., 190J, p. 884.) 

But probably the greater quantity of alumina is prepared from bauxite, a 
natural compound of the hydrates of alumina and iron, more or less impure. 
The principal sources of this rock or mineral are : Beaux near Aries, in the 
south of France, where some 50,000 to 60,000 tons per year are raised ; 
Georgia, Alabama, and Arkansas, in the United States, where over 20,000 tons 
are raised; and County Antrim, in the north of Ireland, where, according to 
T/ie Mines and Quarries Report, 10,191 tons of bauxite were raised in the 
year 1901. 

The bauxite or alum-clay of Co. Antrim, Ulster, occurs in seams laying 
between sheets of Tertiary basalt. It is conveyed from the mines to Larne 
Harbour, and there the pure alumina is prepared from the mineral, at the 
works of the British Aluminium Co., who ship the alumina thence to Foyers 
in Inverness-shire, for electrical extraction of the metal. 

Messrs. Bowes & Sims, analytical chemists, of Blackley, Manchester, have 
very kindly described the manufacture of hydrate of alumina at Lame as 
follows : — " The process now in work at Larne Harbour for the production of 
hydrate of alumina was invented by C. J. Bayer. E.P. 10,093, 1887, and 
E.P. 5296, 1892. The raw material is bauxite, from County Antrim, with an 
average of 56 per cent, alumina, 3 per cent, ferric oxide, 12 per cent, silica, 
3 per cent, titanic acid, and 26 per cent, of water. 

" The ore is crushed to ^-inch cubes, and then" calcined to burn off" the 
organic matter. 

" It is then cooled and re-crushed, so that it will pass through a 30- mesh 



358 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

sieve. The finely crushed ore is then treated in pressure kiers with caustic 
soda solution of 1-45 sp. gr. at a pressure of 70 to 80 lbs., for two or three hours, 
until decomposition is complete. 

" The liquid is then run off, water added to reduce the sp. gr. to 1-23, and 
the solution of aluminate of soda so obtained freed from precipitated oxide 
of iron by filter-presses, and precipitated by hydrate of alumina, in the cold, 
whilst constantly agitating the liquid, this precipitation continues until the 
ratio between the molecules of alumina and soda is one to six, when 
it stops. 

" The hydrate of alumina is then allowed to settle, and filter-pressed by 
means of compressed air. The weak liquor from the pressed cake of hydrate 
of alumina is concentrated in multiple evaporators to the sp. gr. of r45, and 
then used to attack fresh quantities of bauxite." 

Properties. — Sp. gr., 3'9 (Roscoe), 4'2 (Shaw). Chemical symbol, AlgOg. 
Commercially two distinct forms of alumina are offered, viz. : alumina 
hydrate, containing 50 per cent. Al^Og ; and calcined alumina, practically 
100 per cent. AlgOg. It is therefore of greatest importance to ceramists to be 
quite clear as to which form is specified in the recipes, and which is used. 

This ingredient has proved of greatest possible service in the satisfactory 
preparation of leadless glazes for maturing at low temperatures, by reason of 
its peculiar property of preventing or retarding opaline tendencies. 

Professor Binns — referring indeed to all glazes whether containing lead- 
compounds or not, and in respect of alumina in the form of silicate rather 
than pure — has remarked that " In addition to the bases and acids, it has 
been found necessary to introduce certain components which occupy a neutral 
position, but which nevertheless exercise an important influence upon the 
glaze. Foremost amongst these stands alumina, without which it seems 
impossible to construct a satisfactory glaze, and it has been found that 
ferric oxide exerts a similar power. The office of these substances is that 
they prevent injury to the glaze by prolonged and repeated firing, and 
greatly assist the perfect adjustment of glaze to body." {Ceramic Technology, 
pp. 72, 73.) 

For further notes on the properties of alumina, see Chapter XI. 

Boracic Acid. — Two terms are in use in connection with this ingredient, 
viz., boracic acid and boric acid. It will be well to make some distinction 
between them at the outset, perhaps, so as to avoid misunderstanding. Boracic 
acid, a derivative from borax, should properly be applied to the commercial 
article with its usual impurities ; while the term boric acid may be more 
properly confined to the acid in a state of chemical purity. 

From Roscoe we learn that, in 1774, " Hofer, a Florentine apothecary, 
observed the occurrence of this compound in the water of the lagoons of Monte 
Rotondo in Tuscany, and in 181 5 a manufactory was erected on the spot for 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Boracic Acid 359 

the purpose of obtaining boric acid from the water." {Treatise on Chemistry, 
vol. i. p. 543, Macmillan.) 

For many years the principal sources of boracic acid were the volcanic 
districts of Tuscany and the Lipari Islands, one of which — Stromboli — is still 
an active volcano. To these sources must now be added numerous districts 
upon the Pacific coast of America, and several inland lacustrine deposits of 
minerals containing borates. 

In Tuscany water is embasined round natural jets of hot vapour, which 
rise up from small fissures in the earth's surface. The water is supposed to 
percolate to strata containing borates, and to be subsequently ejected by the 
upward movement of the intermittent vaporous jets, in a condition more or 
less impregnated with boron compounds. Series of these receptacles are 
formed, and saturation is effected by conducting the impregnated water from 
one to another of the embasined jets: when the waters are sufficiently 
saturated with salts of boron, they are run into tanks and evaporated until 
crystallization takes place. (See Roscoe and Schorlemmer's Treatise on 
Chemistry. ) 

These crystals are conveyed to the port of Leghorn, and thence exported 
in the form of yellowish-white, glistening, scale-like crystals, containing about 
82 per cent, boric acid, 2^ per cent, moisture, and 15 per cent, of impurities, 
such as sulphates of ammonia and magnesia, with traces of lime, soda, potash, 
silica, and iron. According to Muspratt, from A.D. 1818 to A.D. 1828 
1,500,000 lbs. of this boracic acid were exported from Italy ; and after A.D. 
1828 the export was 2,600,000 lbs. per annum, thanks to Count Larderel's 
resource and enterprise. 

Preparation. — The United States report for 1901 describes the treatment 
of the marsh deposits of sodium borate in Harney County, Oregon, thus : — 
" The ground is level and treeless, and is incrusted with a layer of sodium 
borate several inches in thickness, which contains also sodium carbonate, 
sodium sulphate, sodium chloride, and other salts. During the summer the 
loose surface deposit is shoveled into small heaps and is replaced by a second 

incrustation within a comparatively short time The crude mineral, 

containing from 5 to 20 per cent, of boric acid, is shoveled into tanks of boiling 
water, and chlorine or sulphuric acid is added to decompose the alkali salts, 
and thus free the boric acid. After twenty-four hours the clear supernatant 
liquor is drawn off into crystallizing tanks and cooled, yielding white pearly 
scales of high-grade boric acid and a mother-liquor." {Mineral Resources, 
U.S.A., igoi, p. 871.) 

Refined boracic acid may be prepared either by recrystallizing the crude 
Italian or American acid, or by precipitating boracic acid crystals from 
solutions of borax by chemical means ; the precipitated crystals being col- 
lected, washed with water, redissolved by boiling in water, and then allowed 



36o LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

to crystallize out. These highly refined crystals are then collected and dried. 
(See Pottery Gazette, May 1899, p. 569.) 

Properties.— Z^. gr., 1-43 to 1-48. Chemical symbol of boric acid crystals, 
B203,3H20, or HBO2H2O, or HgBO^. Chemical composition, 56-5 BjOg, 
43-S H26. 

Loss on fusion in a frit-composition of the crude Italian boracic acid, 
about 52I per cent., and of the refined boracic acid, 45 per cent; but this loss 
is independent of any that may under certain conditions take place by 
volatilization of the boric anhydride itself 

Boric acid is soluble in hot alcohol, forming a rather volatile ethyl borate. 
Glassy boric oxide is almost non-volatile, and requires very high temperatures 
to dissipate it in vapour. {Pottery Gazette, May 1899.) 

Respecting the physiological action of boric acid, much conflicting evidence 
has been published on account of its use as a food-preservative. Dr. Alfred 
Hill referred to it in an address to the Sanitary Congress, 1898 ; and a letter 
appeared in the Birmingham Daily Post of 14th October 1898, from the 
Federated Grocers' Association, controverting Dr. Hill's assertions. 

A long article upon this matter also appeared in the Lancet on 7th 
January 1899. 

For an extended consideration of the use and influence of boric acid in 
ceramic glazes, see Chapter XI. of this volume. 

Borax ; Tincal. — Borax or borech, according to Rutley, is a term of Persian 
origin, whilst tincal is supposed to be the Indian or Dutch term. Tincal, 
formerly, was almost exclusively obtained from Thibet, where incrustations 
on the borders of certain lakes were periodically dug up, and thence trans- 
ported to Calcutta, whence it was exported to Europe. At some point in its 
course it was covered by a protective film of saponaceous character, to retard 
the escape of water of crystallization, and consequent effervescence and loss. 
From a remote period, Muspratt tells us, borax has been refined in the 
seaport towns, more particularly in Venice ; whence the appellation Venetian 
borax applied to the purified salt. At a later period the purification was 
also conducted in Holland, whence for some time England derived supplies. 
Dr. Ure, whose Dictionary of Chemistry was published in 1820, states that 
"Borax was for a long time unknown in Europe. In 1772 a certain Mr. 
Abrahamson sent some to Sweden, just as it was dug out in Thibet, where it 
was known as pounnxa, mypoun, and honipoun. 

Shaw, in his Chemistry of Pottery, published in 1837, writes: — "This 
compound, found native in different parts of the East Indies and South 
America, has long been an article of commerce as tincal, and considerable 
quantities are consumed weekly for glazes " ; but in his list of inventors of 
ingredients that have proved specially influential in the advancement of 
ceramics, he omits to mention who introduced borax. 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Borax 361 

We find no mention of boracic acid or borates either in the Delft or the 
Rouen recipes ; nor do they appear in Frye's patents for glazes used at Bow 
A.D. 1744 and 1749 ; nor yet in Cookworthy's glazes patented 1768, or 
Champion's of 1775. Neither do these ingredients appear in recipes purport- 
ing to be old Worcester formula;, during the second period, i.e., 1776 to 1783. 
It is worth noting that Josiah Wedgwood died in 1795, yet no reference to 
tincal or borax occurs in any memoirs of his remarkable life with which we 
are acquainted ; and Mr. Cecil Wedgwood confesses his absence of definite 
information as to whether his renowned ancestor ever used these substances 
or not. 

Dr. Aitken's description of the manufacture of earthenware in Staffordshire 
in 1 795-1 796 gives the composition of the glaze then in use as 60 lbs. white- 
lead, 10 lbs. flint, 20 lbs. Cornwall stone, and this corresponds to recipes 
attributed to Josiah Wedgwood. {Pottinge in ye Oldene Tymes, p. I9> 
Harper.) 

By a patent, dated 3rd October 1796, granted to Ralph Wedgwood, in 
respect of a " newly discovered and invented composition for making glass 
upon new principles," we learn that borax formed part of the claim. And in 
Hickling's patent, 28th February 1799, for vitreous enamels for lining iron 
culinary vessels, borax is again mentioned. These are the earliest notices of 
its use in connection with our subject we have been able to trace. 

It is a matter of history that Nantgarw pottery was founded in 1813, and 
was partially pulled down and the manufacture completely changed in 1823. 
Now, it is noteworthy that borax appears in recipes purporting to be those 
of Nantgarw. Then, again, we find borax an important ingredient in the 
leadless glaze invented by Mr. John Rose, of Coalport, and for which the 
Society of Arts gold medal was awarded in 1820. Borax is also frequently 
mentioned in the manuscript recipes of James Furnival, which would be in 
practical use in Staffordshire from about 18 17 to 1840. 

Brongniart was probably correct in dating its practical introduction in 
English glazes A.D. 1800; but, according to Muspratt, the price of borax 
made from tincal was three shillings to four shillings per lb. in France in the 
year 181 5 ; so that not until a later date would it be very largely used. 

Count Larderel's ingenious improvements and economies in the treatment 
of the products of Tuscany were effected in 1 828, and from this date borax 
was more largely used ; but, at first, borax made in England from Tuscany 
boracic acid and soda was not well received by British potters — they didn't 
like its appearance ; and, according to the Pottery Gazette of May 1899, p. 568, 
the borax was sent from England to Amsterdam, and from thence to France 
and England as Dutch borax, before it could be sold. 

By 1854 Brongniart assumed that of the estimated total of 1500 tons 
of borax used annually throughout the entire world, 1000 tons were used in 



362 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Great Britain, Staffordshire alone taking 666 tons per annum. (Trait/ 
des Arts C/ramiques, torn. i. p. 608.) But tiiis apparently did not include 
the supply of tincal obtained direct from India. 

The modern sources of borax are perhaps most concisely shown by the 
tabulated statistics of the world's production of borates during recent years, as 
given in metric tons in the report of the United States Geological Survey on 
the Mineral Resources of the United States for ipoi, p. 872, thus : — 



Year. 



United States. 
Calcium Borate. 



1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
igoo 



12,310 
17,600 

13.911 
21,834 

23.456 



Chile. 

Calcium Borate. 

Exports. 



7,486 

3,. 68 

7,034 

14.951 

13.177 



India. 


Germany. 


Italy. 


Borax. 

Exports 


Boracite. 


Boric Acid, 
Crude. 


340 


184 


2,616 


280 


198 


2,704 


184 


230 


2,650 


not re- 
ported 


183 


2,674 


.) 


232 


2,491 



Peru. 

Calcium Borate. 

Exports. 



I|i79 
11,850 

7,178 
7.638 
7,080 



Turkey. 

Pandermite. 

Exports. 



12,626 

",375 
not reported 
not reported 
not reported 



" There was a slight decrease in the production of borax in the United 
States during 1901, the output being 17,887 short tons of crude borax, valued 

at $314,811, and 5344 short tons of refined borax, valued at $697,307 

Of the output in 1901, California produced 16,887 short tons of crude borax 
valued at $297,198, and the total quantity of refined borax. The production 
of borax in the United States continues to be derived mainly from the 
colemanite deposits of California, although a small quantity is produced from 
the marsh deposits of California, Nevada, and Oregon." 

After giving some details of the operations in California and Oregon, the 
report continues with notes on the production of other countries, as follows : — 

"Argentina. — The International Borax Co. operated the Tres Moros 
Mines during 1901, employing five hundred laborers, and produced on the 
average 700 tons per month. The shipments from the province of Salta to 
Europe during the year exceeded 16,000 tons. 

" Chile.— Bora.yL and boracite are fouijd principally in the districts of 
Aocotan and Carcota, province of Antofagasta, although other deposits 
occur in the department of Copaipo, province of Antacama. The deposits 
of Ascotan and Carcota, which were worked for a long time by a Chilean 
company, are now under the control of a Californian company. During 1900 
these mines produced 13,176 metric tons of calcined boracite and 26 metric 
tons of borax 

" Russia.— BorB.^ is found in the Kertch and Taman Peninsulas of Southern 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Borax 



363 



Russia, where it occurs in connection with mud volcanoes. Soon after eruption 
the mud becomes incrusted with various salts, including borax, soda, and salt, 
which are recovered by dissolving in water and subsequent evaporation. 

" Turkey. — The mineral borocalcite, a calcium borate, in Asia Minor, 
furnishes the base for the manufacture of the greater part of the borax supply 
of Europe." lyMin. Res. U.S., ipoi.) 

Bulletin No. 55 of the U.S. Geological Survey contains the following 
chemical analyses, which we have tabulated and condensed for ready 
reference : — 

a. Coleinanite, from Death Valley, California ; large transparent crystal, perfectly clear. 

b. Do., but in form of a deposit implanted on gangue, consisting of small blade-like 
crystals, almost white, in some lights of a greenish cast. 

c. Pricite, from Curry County, Oregon ; white and chalky. 

d. Pandermite, from the Island of Panderma, in the Black Sea ; hard and compact, somewhat 

resembling marble. 

e. Ulexite, from Rhodes' Marsh, Esmeralda County, Nevada. 

f. Ludwigite, from Morawitza, Banat, Hungary. 

g. Datolite, from Bergen Hill, New Jersey ; transparent white crystals. 

h. Dauburite, from Russell, St. Lawrence County, New York ; pink, lustrous. 

i. Axinite, from Cornwall ; clove-brown colour, translucent, implanted on quartz. 

/. Axinite, from Bourg d'Oisans, Dauphiny, France ; pearl-gray color, and in some smaller 

crystals almost colourless and quite transparent. 
k. Tourmaline, massive black, easily fusible ; from Auburn (Me.). 





a. 


b. 


c. 


d. 


"■ 


/ 


g- 


h. 


'■- 


J- 


k. 


H,0, . 


21-87 


22-66 


22-75 


19-40 


29-46 


3 62 


6-14 




i-8o 


2-16 


4-18 


B,p„ . . 


5070 


49-56 


47-04 


48-63 


43-20 


1 2 04 


22-60 


25-80 


464 


4-62 


10-55 


CaO, . 


27-31 


27-36 


29-96 


32 16 


14-52 




35'I4 


23-26 


2053 


21-66 


049 


MgO, • • 


o-io 


0-25 








3057 






0-66 


0-74 


0-04 


SiO^, . . 




0-44 






0-04 


3574 


49-70 


42-10 41-53 


37-85 


NaCl, . 






11 

^ 0-25- 




... 1 ... 












Ke,03, . . 








- 37-93 




1 r 


3'o6 


3-90 


0-42 


FeO, . 








... 1 1578 


0-31 


r ''"^ 1 


5-84 


4-02 


3-88 


AI2O3, . . 














J I 


17-40 


17-90 


3773 


NajO, 










10-20 










2-i6| 


K3O, . 










0-44 












062 


CI, 










2-38 














SO3, . 










0-28 














MnO, . 










• •• 


0-16 






463 


379 


0-51 


PaOs, . . 






















trace 


Li,0, . . 










••■ i 










1-34 


F, . . 
















... 






0-62 



Bulletin No. 200 of the United States Geological Survey, entitled Recon- 
naissance of the Borax Deposits of Death Valley and Mohave Desert, by M. R. 
Campbell, supplies the following interesting facts : — " Originally borax was 
obtained by evaporating the waters of Clear Lake, about eighty miles north 
of San Francisco, where it was first produced on a commercial scale in 1864. 



364 _ LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

.... The industry flourished at this and other lakes in California, until in the 
early seventies borax in large quantity, and in a very pure condition, was 
discovered on many of the alkaline marshes of Western Nevada and Eastern 
California. Refining plants were established in the vicinity of Columbus, 
Nev., and at several points in California, the most important of the latter 
being in San Bernardino County, at Searles's Marsh, west of the Slate Range, 
in Inyo County, near Resting Springs, and at the mouth of Furnace Creek, 
in Death Valley. These plants flourished for a time .... but the increased 
production of borax in this country, together with the importation of large 
amounts from Italy, so reduced the price that in a few years most of the 
plants were abandoned. 

" About 1890 it was found that the borax crust on most of the marshes is 
a secondary deposit, being derived from the leaching of beds of borate of 
lime in the Tertiary lake-sedfments that abound in the region. This discovery 
revolutionized the borax industry, for the bedded deposits are much more 
extensive, are more easily accessible, and are in a purer condition than the 
marsh-crusts. The marshes were abandoned, and a mine was established on 
a bedded deposit at Borate, twelve miles north-east of Daggett, San Bernardino 
County, Cal. At the present time this plant, owned by the Pacific Coast 
Borax Company, is the chief producer of borax and boracic acid in this 
country. The value of this deposit led to extensive prospecting in various 
parts of the territory, and to the discovery in Death Valley of enormous 
deposits that far excel those now being worked near Daggett. The borax of 
Death Valley, as well as that near Daggett, occurs in a regular stratum, inter- 
bedded with semi-indurated sands and clays that make up the bulk of the 
strata. These beds are generally regarded as of Tertiary age, and they are 
supposed to have been deposited in inclosed bodies of water. Since the 
bedded deposits of borax always occur in association with strata of this 
character, it is probable that careful study and search will reveal deposits of 
this nature in localities other than Death Valley and Daggett." 

Death Valley is said to be fifty miles long by about five or ten miles wide, 
and the lowest point of its floor is supposed to be about 480 feet below sea- 
level. It is not only the lowest point in the surface of the United States, but 
is also regarded as the hottest place in the country. The summer temperature 
is reported to reach 137° in the shade. Its sinister name is said to have arisen 
from the fact that in 1849 ^ band of emigrants wandered into the valley, and 
most of them perished from thirst before an avenue of escape was discovered. 
Mohave Desert and the Death Valley region are desolate in the extreme. 
The mineral found is borate of lime or colemanite, and occurs in a bedded 
deposit from 5 to 30 feet thick ; but although the colemanite is interbedded 
with the sand and clay, it is not co-extensive with these strata. As a trace- 
able bed it probably extends for a distance of a mile and a half, but beyond 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Borax 365 

this limit it is very thin, and in many places it is wanting in the section. At 
the Borate Mine there are two outcrops of colemanite. 

Respecting Furnace Creek, the Bulletin proceeds : — " By far the greatest 
exposure of lake-beds, and also the largest deposits of borax that are known, 
occur in Funeral Mountain, or, as they are more generally described, on 
Furnace Creek in Death Valley. These sediments lie diagonally across 
Funeral Mountain, in a belt whose reported width is twelve or fifteen miles. 
On the north they are limited by an abrupt mountain wall of paleozoic lime- 
stones, shales, and quartzites, which stand from 3000 to 4000 feet above the 
general level of the Tertiary hills on the south. . . . 

" The lake-sediments of this region are similar to those previously 

described Interbedded with the rocks of this series is a bed of 

colemanite (borate of lime), which, though probably not continuous, shows 
in outcrop in a number of places across the mountain, a distance of at least 
twenty-five miles. This constitutes the largest deposit known in this 
country, and presumably the largest in the world. The bed has been opened 
low in the foothills on the east side of the mountain, four or five miles south 
of the Ash Meadows Road. At this point the bed is visible for several 
hundred yards, and in the prospect pits it has a thickness of from 4 to 10 

feet The bed is composed of a mass of crystalline colemanite, which 

mines readily and with little waste According to Superintendent 

Roach, of the Pacific Coast Borax Company, the largest mineral deposit 
occurs about nine miles up Furnace Creek, on a nearly direct line between 
the outcrops just described. At this point he reports a bed of boracite 
60 feet in thickness." (Bulletin 200, U.S. Geol. Survey.) 

Another interesting description of the Borate districts of California 
appears in vol. v. of Trans. Am. Cer. Soc. in the form of a photographically 
illustrated lecture by Dr. Edward Hart, of Easton (Pa.), entitled " Death Valley, 
California, and its Borax Industry." In the course of this he refers to the 
forest of petrified tree-trunks at Adamana, about one thousand acres in extent, 
of which he humorously remarked that, " While silica is one of the materials 
of the potter, it does not seem likely that we will ever be making commercial 
ware out of petrified trees." 

He also mentioned immense deposits, containing nitrate of soda, on hills 
surrounding Morrison's Ranch, Willow Creek, on Amaragosa River. 

He notes that out of the eighteen thousand tons of borax used in the 
United States in igor, seventeen thousand tons came from Daggett. 

Preparation. — Dr. Hart explains that " At Marion the Pacific Borax Co. has 
built a mill for roasting the colemanite. Colemanite is a borate of lime, 
containing water. On roasting, it loses the water and falls to a fine powder, 
which can be sifted out. The valueless mud mixed with some of the 
colemanite does not fall to a powder when heated, and in this way the 



366 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

colemanite is purified. The fine powder is put in sacks and sent to Bayonne 
(N.J.), where it is treated with sulfuric acid, which combines with the lime. 
The boric acid goes into solution in the hot water, which is poured off, 
and as this cools the boric acid crystallizes out. The boric acid is then 
sold as such for enamelling iron, for pottery, for glassmaking, etc. ; or it 
is boiled with carbonate of soda, and so converted into borax. The cole- 
manite treated at Marion comes from Borate, twelve miles to the north-west 
of Daggett." 

With regard to that treated at Daggett, Dr. Hart writes : — " This country 
is full of boric acid, which seems to have accumulated in the ancient lake which 
once covered all this country, and has since completely dried up. At one place, 
seven miles north-west of Daggett, an old lake-deposit, 60 to 90 feet thick, 
is found standing now almost vertically. It is a hardened mud, and was 
originally deposited as such on the old lake-floor. It contains 10 per cent, of 
boric acid, and is worked at Daggett, where it is mixed with water, treated 
with sulfur dioxid, made by burning sulfur, and the solution allowed to 
evaporate in shallow tanks. No artificial heat is needed ; the sun does the 
evaporating at a tremendous rate. This is easily understood. The temperature 
reaches 1 1 8 in the shade, and there are frequent winds with a velocity of forty 
miles and more an hour." {Trans. Am. Cer. Soc, vol. v. p. 68.) 

The United States report already mentioned describes the treatment of 
the mineral borocalcite of Asia Minor, which is said to furnish the base for 
the manufacture of the greater part of the borax supply of Europe, as 
follows : — 

"The crude mineral is treated with caustic soda, forming borax and 
calcium carbonate, although the best results are obtained by using a mixture 
of caustic soda and sodium bicarbonate. The ore is finely crushed in a mill, 
and fifteen parts of mineral are placed in a steam-heated boiler with sixty 
parts water, eight parts sodium bicarbonate, and two parts caustic soda, the 
whole being boiled for about three hours. The resultant liquor is filtered, and 
the hot filtrate yields at the end of several days crystals of borax, which are 
steam-dried, assorted, and barrelled. The cake of calcium carbonate remaining 
in the filter-press is washed with water until the borax content is completely 
extracted, and is then sold to glass, paper, and cement works. It is estimated 
that 100 lbs. of borocalcite will yield from lOO to 105 lbs. of borax crystals." 
{Mineral Resources of the United States, igoi, p. 872.) 

English refined borax, i.e., the prismatic form of borax containing ten 
molecules of water of crystallization, is, according to the Pottery Gazette of 
1st May 1899, p. 567, prepared as follows: — "A solution of crystallised 
carbonate of soda is made in a lead-lined vat, which is heated by steam from 
a boiler, the quantity of steam required being regulated by a valve. The pipe 
conveying the steam into the vat is pierced with a multitude of small holes, 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Borax 367 

through which the steam escapes into the solution When the carbonate 

of soda is dissolved and the temperature has reached 2 1 2° Fahr., boracic acid 
is added in small proportions at a time, so that the effervescence which occurs 
may not cause the liquid to overflow the sides of the dissolving vat. When 
all the acid which is required has been added, the vat is covered up, and the 
temperature raised to 219° to 221" Fahr., and a gravity of 32° to 33° of 
Twaddell's hydrometer (attained). If the solution be too weak, a sufficient 
quantity of crude borax is generally added ; if the reverse, boiling water is 
added. The liquid is now allowed to stand twelve hours, during which time 
the heat is kept up by using a closed coil {i.e., not pierced), through which 
steam is passed. The clear solution is then drawn off into wooden lead-lined 
crystallisers. When the crystallisation is complete, the mother-liquors are 
drawn into a cast-iron receiver. . . . The crystals are removed and drained 

on an inclined plane The usual charge is 26 cwts. of carbonate of soda, 

dissolved in about 330 gallons of water. To saturate this 24 cwts. of crude 
boracic acid are required. The crystallisation generally requires from two to 

three days The crude borax of the first operation is redissolved 

in a large lead-lined vat, which has a capacity of 18,000 lbs. of borax, with 
the water required for its solution. The heat required is obtained by steam 
from a boiler, which is conveyed through an open steam-coil. The borax is 
placed in an iron basket, which is suspended by a chain, and allowed to sink 

just below the surface of the liquid in the vat The basket is refilled 

as fast as the borax dissolves, until the whole charge has been added. To 
each cwt. of borax i7'63 lbs. of crystallised carbonate of soda are added, to 
saturate any excess of boracic acid, after which the solution is brought up to 
a temperature of 2 1 2° Fahr. At this heat the solution should have a density 
of 34° Twaddell (sp. gr., ri6g); if not, it must be brought up by the addition 
of more crude borax, or reduced with boiling water, as the case may be. The 
solution is then drawn off into the crystalliser, which has the capacity to 
receive the entire contents of the boiling-vat. The crystallisation must be 
slow, to insure large and perfect crystals of borax. To this end the crystal- 
lising-vat must be kept warm by covering closely, and sometimes by 
surrounding it with spent tan-bark or straw mats. In twenty-five to thirty 
days the temperature has become reduced to yf to 86° Fahr., when the mother- 
liquor is drawn off, the crystals broken down, and removed by the aid of 
hammer and chisel. The result is the ordinary prismatic borax of commerce." 
{Pottery Gazette, ist May 1899, p. 568.) 

But special methods are sometimes adopted, according to the materials 
employed ; for instance, under certain circumstances sulphate of soda is used 
in place of carbonate. 

Properties. — Sp. gr., 171. Chem. symbol, NagB^O^-l-ioHaO, or it may be 
written Na20,2B20g-|- loHgO. Chemical composition : boric acid, 36'6s ; 



368 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

soda, i6'23 ; water, 47' 12 ^Royle). Loss on calcination or fusion in a frit- 
composition about 47 per cent. When heated the crystals swell up, losing their 
water of crystallization, and forming a snow-like spongy mass, called calcined 
borax. This, upon continuing the heat to fusion-point, collapses and melts 
into a transparent mass, called glass of borax, which possesses a sp. gr. 
2-367 (Rojcoe). This glassy borax is readily soluble in water, but insoluble 
in alcohol (Roscoe) ; it is liable to become opalescent, and to effloresce upon 
exposure to air. As a, general rule, when borax is used in ceramic glazes 
or enamels a preliminary fusion of the borax with a portion of the other 
ingredients is effected ; and in case of large quantities this is accomplished in 
a special reverberatory furnace called a frit kiln. By this means the com- 
position, called " frit," is brought into an approximately homogeneous con- 
dition. When melted, the frit is allowed to flow out of the furnace into a tank 
of water, where it cools, solidifies, and becomes more or less shattered into 
pulverizable fragments. 

The power of borax in dissolving colourant metallic oxides is well known, 
and its delightful facility of fusion renders it one of the most elementary 
reagents of a chemical laboratory. These properties all show themselves 
when borax is used in glazes, and in addition it imparts brilliance and 
a water-white transparency unattainable by any other ordinary ceramic 
materials. To this remarkable transparency and whiteness must be attri- ' 
buted its rapid success as a competitor with lead compounds for use in glazes. 
For further notes on borax, see Chapter XI. 

Physiologically, its action, as observed by Royle, is referred to thus : — 
" Borax has no specific action on the system ; it is eliminated by the 
kidneys unchanged ; it is antacid, detergent, and destructive of fungi." 
{Materia, Medica, p. 158.) 

Now, silk being an animal product, may justly be brought into discussion 
here. Of this, Mr. G. H. Hurst, in his work on Silk Dyeing, informs us that 
hydrochloric acid solutions dissolve silk in the cold ; that alkalies dissolve 
silk, and even limewater attacks silk ; but he says " Borax has no action 
on silk." {Silk Dyeing, p. 9.) 

On the other hand, a long article appeared in the Lancet of 7th January 
1899, in which ill effects resulting from its internal administration are 
mentioned. 

Whenever soda sulphate has been used in any way in the manufacture, 
there is the possibility of extremely minute contamination by arsenic ; how 
near or how remote we are quite unable to indicate. 

Common Salt. — In Great Britain common salt is principally obtained 
from thick beds of rock-salt in the Keuper marls of the triassic series ; 
Cheshire, Staffordshire, Durham, Lancashire, Worcestershire, and Yorkshire 
being the counties where it is raised, the two former supplying the greater 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Common Salt 369 

portion of the total output. During the year 1901 Cheshire and Stafford- 
shire together raised 1,169,755 tons, out of an aggregate of 1,783,056 tons. 

The Cheshire deposit consists of two beds — the first, at a depth at 
Northwich of 120 feet below the surface, is about 75 feet thick ; it was 
discovered in 1670 during boring for coal: the second or lower bed is about 
225 feet below the surface, and from 90 to 120 feet thick; these two vast 
deposits being separated vertically by about 30 feet of marl, and the whole 
covering an area of about sixteen miles by ten miles. (See Roscoe, 
W. J. Harrison, etc.) 

And with regard to the Droitwich salt-beds, the mines there are said to 
have yielded revenues to Worcester Cathedral for a thousand years. (See 
Geology of the Counties, p. 296.) 

In the United States of America many bore-holes have been put down, 
and rock-salt discovered at a depth in some cases of as much as 2500 feet. 
At Tully, in New York State, a bed of rock-salt has been discovered at a 
spot some 400 feet above the level of the saltworks at Syracuse (N;Y.). 
Higher still several lakes exist, and water from these lakes is conducted to 
the rock-salt beds at Tully, which are some 1800 feet below the surface, and 
the head of water is sufficient to lift tlie brine to reservoirs on the surface, 
whence it flows by gravitation to the works at Syracuse (N.Y.). (See 
lecture by T. Ward, 14th December 1894, Jour. Soc. Arts.) 

One salt-field is said to exist in the middle of the Colorado Desert, a 
little to the north of the Mexican border, and 264 feet below the level of 
the sea. This has been described as " a field of crystallised salt, more than 
a thousand acres in extent, presenting a surface as white as snow; and 
beneath the noonday glare of the sun so dazzling that the naked eye cannot 
stand its radiance, it stretches away for miles about Salton (Col.), an ocean 
of blazing, blistering white." (Stone Weekly News, 26th September 1902.) 

Salt is produced in a number of the states, the most important being 
New York, Michigan, Kansas, and Ohio, which together yield 85 per cent, 
of the whole output of the United States. 

In Canada there are very extensive deposits of common salt, and brine- 
springs are met with around the shores of Lake Winnipegosis in Manitoba ; 
in the Mackenzie River basin, north of Athabasca Lake ; and brine is raised 
at Wingham and Exeter, Huron Co., and at Windsor, Essex Co., Ontario. 
From the catalogues of Canadian Mineral Exhibits at Glasgow (Scotland), 
1901, and at Buffalo, N.Y. (U.S.A.), 1901, we glean the following: — 

"The real salt industry of Canada is located in Ontario, some ten or 
fifteen firms operating at various points in the counties bordering the south- 
eastern shores of Lake Huron, and along the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers, 
from Kincardine to Windsor. The mineral is produced by pan-evaporation 
of brines, pumped from wells drilled to the underlying salt-beds of the 

24 



370 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Onondaga rocks, which are of Upper Silurian age. From a boring made 
by Mr. Attrill at Goderich in 1876, to the depth of 1517 feet, with a 
diamond-drill, the existence of six beds of rock-salt has been ascertained 
as follows: — (i) 30 feet thick, 1027 feet from surface; (2) 25 feet thick, 
1085 feet from surface; (3) 34 feet thick, 1127 feet from surface; (4) 15 feet 
thick, 1223 feet from surface; (5) 12 feet thick, 1243 feet from surface; 
(6) 6 feet thick, and 1385 feet from surface. 

" These salts are not all alike in purity. The first is scarcely suitable for 
mining, while the second is remarkably pure ; the third approaches it in this 
respect. The latter two beds, which together measure over 60 feet, are 
separated from each other by a layer of less than 7 feet of rock, and for 
practical purposes may be regarded as one great workable mass. 

" Dr. Hunt, who analysed the salt, calculated that the yield from the 
best white layer, which is io| feet thick, would be 880,000 bushels to 
the acre. 

"The Windsor Salt Co. is the largest salt-producer in Canada. The 

first well was sunk in 1892 In 1896 another boring was sunk, which 

reached a depth of 1672 feet, proving the existence of four salt-beds, which 
aggregate a thickness of 392 feet, the lowest, which is the thickest, being 
alone 250 feet." 

A very interesting description of a visit to an Austrian salt-mine, by 
Mrs. E. Brewer, appeared in the Leisure Hour of 1886, p. 560. After 
describing the preparatory changes of dress for the descent, she continues : — 
" I followed close behind ; then came the second and younger guide, 
and my husband brought up the rear. In this order we walked till my 
guide paused before a low iron door in the side of the mountain, when, 
before unlocking it, he lighted his lantern, the others doing the same, and 
bade us observe strictly any orders he gave while in the mine. He unlocked 
the door, and, as soon as we had passed through, relocked it behind us. 
Outside the heat had been intense ; inside the air seemed actually frozen, so 
great was the contrast. We found ourselves in a long passage lined with 
planks. .... Along this we went without a word till we had left the 
planking behind us, and the passage seemed hewn out of solid black rock, 
interspersed here and there with white marble. . . . It was all mineral 
salt, and the taste of it was salt, but not at all bitter. 

"The silent walk through this low, narrow passage .... lasted about 

twenty minutes The end of it, however, brought us to the first shaft, 

a word which until now had had no meaning for me. It was a deep, black 
hole ; how deep it was impossible to guess. From the platform where we 
stood there ran two sliding-poles, evidently running from the top to the 
bottom, wherever that might be. On the right of these poles a strong rope 
was attached, and running the whole length from top to bottom The 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Common Salt 371 

directions to us were clear and imperative. The conductor placed himself 
outside the two poles, and put his right foot under the rope, grasping it also 
with his right hand. I came next, doing exactly as he had done, except that 
instead of grasping the rope I put both my hands on his shoulder ; behind 
me came the second guide, and lastly my husband. When we had fallen into 
position, my guide began to move, at first slowly, down into this dark abyss, 

lighted only by the three candles carried by my companions As soon 

as he saw we were obeying instructions, and had our nerves under control, 
he increased the rapidity of the movement till we went like the wind. The 
descent may not have lasted above a couple of minutes, I cannot say ; it is 
impossible to reckon time or, indeed, think of anything at such moments. 
.... We went down four or five such shafts, till at length I felt an intense 
pleasure in the performance. At the bottom of the second shaft we came to 
a chamber containing many instruments or tools, which had been dug up at 
various times by the miners, and which, as our guide said, proved beyond a 

doubt that salt had been dug out there before the Christian era As 

we were descending the last shaft, a deep rumbling noise disturbed the death- 
like silence, and as the door was closed behind us we were deafened and 
surrounded by the noise of rushing waters. Courageous as I thought myself, 
I felt a choking sensation in my throat which only tears could have removed. 
'Tell me,' I said to the guide in a quiet voice, 'are we in danger ; has some 
accident occurred in the mine ?'.... ' No, lady,' said my giant kindly, 
' nothing is wrong. It is the rushing of a large body of water through the 
mine, but it is held in strong bounds.' .... To give me time to recover, he 
told us that we were 1380 feet below the point at which we entered the mine. 
We again moved onward through the passage to the tune of the rushing 
waters, until a door impeded our further progress. This our guide unfastened 
with one of the many keys on his girdle, and we found ourselves in a square 
space, just large enough to permit our standing. Fastening the door through 
which we had passed, he unlocked another which stood opposite. How can 
I tell you what we saw ? — a sight so unexpected, so different to anything we 

ever had seen We found ourselves standing on the shores of a black 

lake, a silence as of death pervading the whole. At the landing beneath 
our feet was moored a large barge, in which sat an old man silently awaiting 
us. Around the lake, which was very large, hundreds of little oil-lamps of 
every hue were sending out their bright lights. We were breathless. Surely 
we were at the Stygian Lake, and there sat Charon, awaiting the golden 
bough from Sibyl before ferrying us over. In a silence which might be felt 
we stepped into the boat one by one, and the guide stamping twice with his 
foot, the boat glided to the opposite shore, where we got out and passed 
through a door, which was locked behind us. Here we paused to give 
expression to our delight, and our thanks for the way in which we were 



372 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

being made acquainted with the wonderful scenes of this lower world 

We had not yet done with the shafts, but went down two or three more, till 
we found ourselves 660 feet below the lake over which we had been lerried. 
" Here another surprise awaited us. We were in a very narrow, low- 
vaulted passage, laid with rails In the far distance a single star shone 

upon us. How could it be shining under the earth, we did not pause to 

consider : there it certainly was A sign was given, and we went at 

a quick pace for some few minutes, when the whole conveyance made a 
sudden pause. 'Look,' said the guide, 'and see how we are drawing near to 
the star.' Doing so, we found it to be daylight peeping in and no star at 
all. We were off again in the same rapid style, and there were no more 
stoppages until we found ourselves at the bottom of the Diirnberg, not five 
minutes' walk from the town. Here in a chamber we found attendants with 
our dresses, and after distributing a few coins to all who had been instru- 
mental in giving us so much pleasure, we bade them good-bye, and in a 
short time found ourselves out in the warm sunshine making our way back 

to the inn At the end of the meal my guide appeared to say that 

the superintendent would gladly show us over the saltworks if we desired 
it. We went at once, and had the satisfaction of seeing the whole process 
of purifying, evaporating, and drying. We learned also the way in which 
the factory was supplied with dissolved salt from those lakes across one of 
which we had been ferried. On our return to Salzburg we had one of the 
most glorious sunsets .... and thus ended a day which had been full of 

interest "—EMMA Brewer. {Leisure Hour, t886, p. 561, R.T.S.) 

Along the shores of the Mediterranean, the Atlantic shores of Spain, 
Portugal, and France, and shores of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, Mr. 
Ward states there are many places where " solar " salt is made ; that is, salt 
prepared by the heat of the sun's rays. Mr. Ward continues : — " The numerous 
salt lakes on the Russian steppes produce immense quantities of solar salt, as 
also does Lake Sambhur in Central India. In the Dead Sea and along the 
eastern shores of the Caspian Sea, where there are both heat and dryness, 

salt is deposited very largely One of the most interesting deposits 

of solar salt is that in the Kara Roghaz Gulf, on the east coast of the Caspian 

Sea So great is the evaporation over this extensive body of water 

that it is estimated by the best authorities that at least three hundred and 
fifty thousand tons of salt are being deposited daily, and an enormous bed of 
rock-salt is being formed on the bottom of the gulf" {Jour. Soc. Arts, 14th 
December 1894.) 

E. H. Parker, Esq., of Liverpool, devotes a chapter to the question of salt- 
producing and salt revenue collecting in China in his book on China. He 
writes : — " We have the valley of the Canton River, the old region of the 
northern Yiieh kingdoms, the old kingdoms of Wu and Ch'u, all supplied with 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Common Salt 373 

sea-salt extracted and prepared in different ways, according to the natural 

facilities at hand Then we have the various kinds of well-salt, which 

supply the western and mountainous parts of China, broadly corresponding to 
the ancient kingdoms of Shuh, Tien, and K'ien. The lake-salt of the desert 
competes with the pond-salt of Shan-Si for the service of what may roughly 
be styled the mixed Tartar-Chinese regions. Finally, there are the primi- 
tive reed-flats of the North, which serve the needs of the greater part of old 
China." {China : her History, Diplomacy, and Conwierce, p. 209, Murray.) 

Preparation. — Rock-salt is often more or less impure ; only about 1 5 feet 
in thickness of the lower bed at Northwich is mined, the other being more 
economically raised in the state of brine — a solution of salt in water from 
3 to 26 per cent, strong. Where no natural springs exist, and insufficient 
rainfall to supply the water to the rock-salt beds, fresh water is introduced 
by means of bore-holes, and after dissolving its quota of salt is pumped up 
as brine. Hence preparation is partly a process of purification which takes 
place often at considerable depths below the surface. The subsequent treat- 
ment of the brine is merely a question of economical and carefully regulated 
evaporation and crystallization. 

The processes are varied according to the particular circumstances of the 
deposit or source, and the particular kind of crystal of salt required. Mr. 
Ward even mentions that in cold regions salt is obtained by freezing the 
brine, with the disadvantage of producing three tons of ice at the same time 
for every ton of salt. 

But the common method is evaporation by heat and dry air, or occasionally, 
recently, assisted by vacuum. The heat may, of course, be either natural or 
artificial — solar heat being cheapest; but as the latter cannot be controlled 
effectively, it is necessary to use artificial heat for the production of particular 
qualities. Any fuel may be used ; wood was formerly used even in England, 
but now mostly the finest and worst of slack (coal-dust) is used, being 
generally the cheapest artificial heating substance obtainable. 

Mr. Ward states that until brine contains about 26 per cent, salt, no 
crystalline salt is formed, because ''salt in brine is'irot held in suspension, but 
in solution," and " however long the brine is allowed to remain, say in a closed 
vessel, no salt will deposit." {Jour. Soc. Arts, 14th December 1894.) 

Mr. Ward continues : — " Hence, before any salt can be made, the water 
must be reduced so as to leave the proportion of set>enty-six water to twenty- 
four salt In artificial brines, or such natural ones as are found on beds 

of rock-salt, the proportion of water to salt is usually three to one, to commence 
with ; so that it does not take long before there is sufficient evaporation to 
cause the salt to form or crystallise out of the brine. Brine boils at 226° 
Fahr. ; but it is not necessary to heat it to this point before evaporation 
commences and salt forms. The whole business of saltmaking consists 



374 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

.... in using the proper amount of heat to produce the kind of salt wanted. 
The greater the heat, the more rapid the evaporation, and the finer the grain 
of the salt. The lesser the heat, the slower the evaporation, and the coarser 
the grain of the salt. The fine or boiled salt is taken frequently out of the 
pan, the coarse less frequently, according to the degree of coarseness wanted." 
{Jour. Soc. Arts, 14th December 1894.) 

Mr, Ward describes the preparation of solar salt on the sea-shore, and on 
the shores of the great Russian and Indian salt lakes ; and concludes with a 
minute description of the manufacture of the several kinds of white salt pro- 
duced in England, viz., butter salt, common (or broad) salt, fishery salt, bay salt, 
handed squares stoved salt (lump-salt, such as is seen on hawkers' carts), etc. 

For salt-glazing purposes the only kinds we need refer to are common or 
broad salt and fishery or curing salt; the former made at from 170° Fahr. 
to 190° Fahr., in long pans and with a most economical use of fuel. As much 
as two and a quarter tons of salt is obtained from saturated brine at the 
expense of one ton of fuel. 

When common salt is required fine it is taken out of the pans every 
twenty-four hours ; if coarser, as ordinary common salt, every two days ; and 
if specially coarse, at intervals of three days. Fishery salt is a coarse solid- 
grained salt, nearly approaching solar salt, produced at a lower temperature 
than common salt, and allowed to remain longer in the pan, so that the crystals 
may grow larger or " feed." Sometimes a little alum is put in the pans, to 
cause more solid grains to form, the salt being taken out of the pans about 
every five or seven days, best fishery or best Scotch fishery salt being taken 
out at intervals of fourteen days or even more. (" The Manufacture of Salt," 
by Thomas 'SNdird,Jour. Soc. Arts, 14th December 1894.) 

Properties. — Sp. gr., 2'i6. Chemical symbol, NaCl. Common commercial 
impurities, sulphate of lime, sulphate of soda, and chloride of magnesia, all 
usually, in small proportion. 

Roscoe and Schorlemmer, in their Treatise on Chemistry, state that 
"Sodium chloride melts at 776° (Carnelley) and crystallizes on cooling. It 
begins to volatilize at temperatures not far removed from its melting-point, 
and hence cannot be fused without loss (Stas). When heated with silicic or 
boric acid, sodium chloride is decomposed, with liberation of hydrochloric 
acid and formation of a silicate or borate." (Treatise on Chemistry, vol. ii 
part i. p. 113.) 

Its behaviour in salt-glazing will be referred to in Chapter XI. 

In the discussion following Mr. Ward's paper, Mr. F. W. Price inquired 
what was the effect of salt-working upon the health of the men engaged in 
it. In reply, the lecturer stated that " The trade was extremely healthy. The 
men lived long, and seemed to enjoy their lives very much. Certainly it had 
not been perceived that their health was affected in the least, whether they 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Soda-Ash 375 

were engaged down below or in the works above-ground, though they no 
doubt were in a damp atmosphere." {Jour. Soc. Arts, 14th December 1894.) 

Soda-Ash. — The old method of making soda-ash was to decompose 
common salt by means of sulphuric acid, in large iron pans, covered so that 
the vast volumes of gaseous hydrochloric acid evolved could be collected 
and dissolved in water. The residual cake of soda sulphate was afterwards 
withdrawn, crushed, mixed with finely pulverized limestone and coal, and 
the mixture heated in a slowly revolving drum-shaped furnace for two hours, 
then drawn out and cooled. 

This crude product, called " black ash," was then broken up and lixiviated, 
soluble soda carbonate being washed out. The solution was next treated so 
as to carbonate any caustic soda there might be, and was afterwards boiled 
down to crystallization point, the crystals allowed to form, then withdrawn 
and drained and calcined, the product being the Leblanc soda-ash of com- 
merce, invented a;d. 1792. 

More recently, however, the foregoing process has been largely superseded 
by Solvay's ammonia method, worked by Messrs. Brunner, Mond, & Co., of 
Northwich. The process is described by Roscoe and Schorlemmer thus : — 
" It is termed the ammonia soda process, and is now being carried out on the 
large scale, both in England and on the Continent. It depends on the well- 
known fact that when carbon dioxide is passed into a solution of common salt 
in aqueous ammonia a double decomposition occurs, and the slightly soluble 
bicarbonate of soda is precipitated — 

NH34-C02-t-NaCl + H20 = HNaC03-f-NH,Cl. 

The mother-liquors, containing sal ammoniac, are heated with lime or mag- 
nesia, and thus the ammonia is regained for subsequent use." {Treatise on 
Chemistry, vol. ii. p. 152, Macmillan.) 

From this precipitated bicarbonate of soda the soda-ash of commerce is 
prepared thus : — The damp bicarbonate of soda is heated in an iron pan to 
recover the carbonic acid and any remaining ammonia, decomposition taking 
place according to the equation — 

2NaHC03=Na2C03^-C02-^-H20. 

There are two kinds of 58 per cent, soda-ash, light and heavy. The 
heavy quality is prepared by refurnacing and partially fusing the light, the 
preparation of which has just been described. 

Properties. — Chemical symbol, Na2C03. Chemical composition, 58-5 per 
cent. Na^O, 41-5 per cent. CO2 ; an average chemical analyses of Brunner, 
Mond, & Co.'s pure alkali showing 99-22 per cent, carbonate of soda. The 
loss on calcination in combination with silica, etc., in a frit kiln is probably 
42 per cent. 

Soda-ash is soluble in water, and effervesces violently with acids, CO2 being 



376 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

evolved. It forms an easily fusible silicate, and will dissolve flints if boiled 
together in water and under pressure, in this manner forming water-glass or 
soluble silicate of soda. When the proportion of silica is high and fusion 
effected by heat in a furnace, a less soluble compound results, but still easily 
attacked by COg gas. 

Soda was an important ingredient in Egyptian, Roman, and Venetian 
glass, and is still in French and English crown, window, and plate glass. 
But in the hard Bohemian glass its place is taken by potash. 

It is used by ceramists chiefly in the preparation of glaze-frits, sometimes 
in conjunction with boracic acid, and sometimes in lesser quaiitities in con- 
junction with borax, its effect being in the latter case to cheapen the cost 
of glaze and to modify the effect of the glazes upon underglaze colours. 

Soda Crystals. — In the preparation of soda crystals, the soda-ash of 
commerce is taken and dissolved in water, and carefully recrystallized under 
conditions that induce the formation of large masses of crystals, containing 
ten molecules of water. 

Properties. — Sp. gr., i'45. Chemical symbol, NagCOg-l- loHgO. Chemical 
composition, 21 '6 NagO, 15 "3 COg, 62'9 HgO. 

Upon analysis, Brunner, Mond, & Co.'s soda crystals yield : — 

Carbonate of soda, . . . . . . . 37'i 

Sulphate of soda, . . o'4 

Chloride of soda, . . o"3 

Water, ... . . . 622 

The loss upon simple heating, then, may be about 63 per cent, and the loss 
upon calcination and fusion with silica, etc., in a frit is about 78 per cent. 
For this reason this ingredient is not very satisfactory for making frits, 
except as a means of promoting amalgamation ; the evolution of 62 per cent, 
water and 15 per cent, carbonic acid would probably make an appreciable 
difference in time of fritting and cost of fuel. These crystals are soluble 
in water, effervesce violently with acids, and are liable to effloresce in the 
atmosphere, forming monohydrated carbonate of soda. 

Phosphate of Soda. — Mr. G. H. Hurst has very kindly described the 
commercial method of preparation of this ingredient for me thus : — " Bone- 
ash is finely ground and treated with strong sulphuric acid. This converts 
the calcium phosphate in the ash into soluble acid phosphate. The acid 
liquor is drawn off from the insoluble calcium sulphate, diluted with water, 
and then soda added until the liquor is neutralised and effervescence ceases. 
The precipitated carbonate of lime is allowed to settle, the clear liquor boiled 
down, and the phosphate of soda allowed to crystallize out." 

Royle states that when heated to 302° the salt is obtained in the an- 
hydrous condition (NagHPO^), a hard white mass. 

Properties.— ^^. gr., i -58. Chem. symbol, HNa2P04, 1 2H2O. Chem. comp., 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Nitre 377 

17-32 Na.fi, 19-84 PjOj;, 62-84 HjO (Hurst). Hence the loss on fusion in a 
frit is probably about 64 per cent. 

This compound is occasionally used by ceramists as an ingredient of 
turquoise, and in blue enamels from cobalt ; but its physiological action 
being definite, and as some pyrophosphates, when introduced directly into the 
blood, are found to be very powerful poisons (Gamgee), this substance is 
perhaps better avoided as far as possible. 

Further, in his investigations into the presence of arsenic in beer and food, 
William Thomson, F.R.S. Edin., F.I.C., found three grains of arsenic per lb. 
in a sample of phosphate of soda. (Jour. Soc. Arts, 15.2.1901, p. 203.) This 
most likely got in by means of the sulphuric acid used in its manufacture ; it is, 
nevertheless, a point to remember. 

Nitre. — Rdscoe and Schorlemmer, in their Treatise on Chemistry, give an 
interesting description of the sources of nitre, from which the following 
particulars are mostly obtained : — " Saltpetre occurs together with other 
nitrates as an efflorescence on the soil in various hot countries, especially in 
Bengal. The formation of nitre, whether found in the soil or in porous fel- 
spathic rocks, is due to the gradual oxidation by the air of nitrogenous organic 
matter in contact with an alkali. In the decay of such bodies, ammonia is 
first formed, and the nitric acid subsequently produced." This, combining 
with the potash salts, forms an efflorescence of nitre. This is collected, and, 
by repeated solution and recrystallization, is converted ii^to purified nitre. 

But " since the discovery of potassium chloride at Stassfurt, this salt has 
been largely used for the artificial manufacture of saltpetre. This manu- 
facture depends upon the fact that, under certain conditions of temperature 
and pressure, solutions of Chili saltpetre (sodium nitrate) and of potassium 
chloride undergo, when mixed, a double decomposition, chloride of sodium 

being deposited, and potassium nitrate remaining in solution The 

clear solution on cooling and on agitation deposits the saltpetre in the form 
of flour." 

Properties. — Sp. gr., 2-07. Chem. symbol, KNOg. Chemical composition, 
46-54 KgO, 53"46 NgOg. The loss on fusion in a frit or flux, when the whole 
of the nitric anhydride is dispersed, will be about 54 per cent. ; but. if by any 
means the nitre is simply converted into potassium nitrite, then the loss will 
be comparatively small. Its use by spotters for oxidizing purposes arises from 
the fact that, upon heating, nitre parts with a portion of its oxygen, forming 
potassium nitrite, KNO^ Respecting the physiological action of nitre, Royle 
observes that "In poisonous doses (r to \\ oz. retained and only slightly 
diluted) nitre causes violent gastric and intestinal inflammation, attended by 
pain, vomiting, and purging, followed by collapse. It is therefore an irritant. 
In medicinal doses it is readily absorbed into the blood, and, according to 
Dr. Stevens, when given freely it renders the venous blood, even in the last 



378 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

stage of fever, scarlet, and retards or prevents its coagulation It has 

been largely employed in rheumatic fever, and with good effects." {Materia 
Medica.) 

Pearlash. — Potash compounds are widely distributed in nature among 
the felspars, the granitic rocks, nearly all soils, and in sea water. It may 
even be extracted from sheeps'-wool washings ; but the chief commercial 
source of potash, until recently, was and possibly still is vegetation.. Potash 
salts are found in nearly every living plant. Disintegration of felspathic rocks 
causes soils to be impregnated with potash salts in a more or less soluble 
condition, and these are taken up by plants during growth. Hence, when 
wood, bark, stems, seeds, or stubble are burnt, the ashes are found to contain 
impure potash carbonate. 

By lixiviation the soluble salts are washed out of the ashes, and the solution 
on evaporation yields a residue of crude potashes. This crude product is 
heated in a reverberatory furnace and gaseous and carbonaceous impurities 
driven off, the remaining salt forming the pearlash of commerce. 

Properties. — American pearlash may contain 66 per cent. KgO, 26 per cent. 
CO2, 7 per cent. K2SO4, with traces of KCl and insoluble matter ; but Royle 
remarks : — " For commercial purposes it is extremely necessary to ascertain 
the quantity of alkali contained in any specimen of commercial potash." 

As sulphates are sometimes deleterious in ceramic compositions, the 
presence of 7 per cent. KjSOj should be remembered by users. The loss 
on fusion in a siliceous mixture will probably be 31 per cent. Prior to 
the general introduction of borax about 1830, pearlash was a much more 
essential ingredient to ceramists, and more often found in their recipes. 
Its ceramic uses now are perhaps chiefly confined to the making of smalts, 
flint-glass, Bohemian glass, parian frits, enamel fluxes, and Persian glazes 
stained by manganese, together with occasional use in the making of some 
of the green and pink colours. 

Magnesia. — The principal commercial source of magnesia now is dolo- 
mite or magnesian limestone. From this, sulphate of magnesia is first pre- 
pared by one of two methods : — (a) By simply saturating dilute sulphuric 
acid with the powdered stone, and separating the soluble magnesia sulphate 
from the insoluble calcic sulphate. Or {b) the dolomite is roasted to expel 
carbonic acid gas, then slaked and largely washed with water to remove part 
of the lime, then mixed with sulphuric acid, and the mixed calcic and magnesia 
sulphates separated by crystallization. 

From the sulphates thus obtained, carbonate of magnesia is prepared by 
dissolving ten parts of sulphate of magnesia and twelve parts of carbonate of 
soda in water, and evaporating the mixture to dryness; then digesting the 
residue in water, decanting the fluid, and collecting the insoluble matter on a 
calico filter ; this residue being afterwards repeatedly washed with water : the 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Zinc Oxide 379 

dried residue being qarbonate of magnesia, a pure white impalpable powder, 
nearly insoluble in water. 

Calcined magnesia (MgO) may be prepared from the carbonate by ex- 
posing it to a low red heat in a loosely covered crucible until the COj has 
been driven off and the powder causes no effervescence with sulphuric acid. 
(See Royle's Materia Medica.) 

Zinc Oxide. — The sources of zinc are the ores blende and calamine, the 
former a native sulphide, the latter a native but impure carbonate of zinc. 
These are found mostly in Great Britain, Belgium, and America. From mines 
situated in the British Isles, during the year 1901, there were raised 23,752 
tons, equivalent to 8418 tons of zinc-metal: the chief contributories being 
Cumberland, 7350 tons of zinc-ore ; Northumberland, 2816 tons ; Wales, 10,549 
tons; Isle of Man, 1897 tons. The single mines raising over 2000 tons of ore 
during 1901 were Nenthead, Alston, Cumberland, 6722 tons; Carshields, West 
Allendale, Northumberland, 2816 tons; Minera, Wrexham, Denbighshire, 
3490 tons. 

From these ores zinc-metal is first prepared. Owing to its volatile nature 
it is estimated that 15 to 24 per cent, of the metal present is lost in the 
process of smelting. 

White oxide of zinc may be prepared by the combustion of metallic zinc, 
or by the action of heat on the carbonate or the hydroxide of zinc. 

The combustion process is described by G. H. Hurst in his work on 
Painters' Colours, and from that source the following summary is taken : — 
Retorts are placed in suitable furnaces, and therein are raised to a white heat, 
then ingots of zinc-metal are thrown into the retorts : all apertures are now 
closed, excepting those leading from the air to the combustion-chamber, and 
into the collecting-chamber. The zinc soon begins to volatilize, and, on issuing 
from the mouth of the retort, burns. The zinc-white formed by the com- 
bustion of the vapour is of two kinds, light and heavy : the former passes into 
the chambers, and is there collected ; the latter drops down the combustion- 
chamber, being rather heavy, into a barrel placed for its reception, and, being 
usually of poor colour, may be returned to the retorts with the next batch, 
along with a small quantity of carbon in some form or other. The zinc-white 
made by this process is very white. 

Properties. — Sp. gr., 5 "6. Chemical symbol, ZnO. Chemical composition, 
8o'25 Zn, 197s O. From its chemical composition no loss would be antici- 
pated upon calcination in a frit or colour, but personal experience casts doubt 
upon this notion, for sometimes loss of weight apparently takes place. White 
oxide of zinc is a gritty bluish-white powder, which, when heated alone, turns 
yellow while hot, becoming white again on cooling. It is reputed to be 
insoluble in water, oil, alcohol, or turpentine, but soluble in most acids with- 
out effervescence. Common adulterants are barytes, china-clay, whitening. 



38o LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

and possibly terra alba; these should be tested for when sueh a course 
seems desirable. In glazes, zinc oxide is disposed to cause opalinity, and 
should therefore be used very cautiously for that purpose. Physiologically, 
its effect is possibly injurious, because chloride of zinc is such a powerful 
caustic. 

White Oxide of Tin. — Without considering the somewhat numerous 
foreign localities whence tin-ores are now derived, it will suffice to say that 
tin-ores have been raised from Cornish mines almost continuously since the 
time of the Phoenicians, 1440 B.C. In A.D. 1872 no less than £i,4^^,ggo 
value of tin was raised in Devon and Cornwall alone, but since then the 
output has shrunk, until in igoi the value was £458,55^, almost all from 
Cornwall. 

Preparation. — Block-tin is first obtained by smelting the tin-ores ; this 
block-tin is then heated in an iron ladle, and poured into cold water, so as 
to form grain-tin ; that is, metallic tin in a granular condition. Or block-tin 
may be melted and then stirred up with whitening, which after a time effects 
the fine subdivision of the metal. From this granulated or grain tin the 
white oxide may be prepared by one of the following methods : — 

(i) By carefully treating the tin with nitric acid, when violent oxidation 
occurs, a hydrated white powder resulting, which yields the dioxide upon 
washing and ignition. (Roscoe.) 

(2) By mixing 2 lbs. of grain-tin with \ lb. nitric acid and 10 ozs. of 
water, and calcining in a potter's glost oven, allowing free access of air 
during calcination. 

(3) By mixing 2| lbs. granulated tin with 4 oz. nitre, and firing on 
biscuit plates in the glost oven. 

(4) By spreading granulated tin about 2 inches thick on dishes, and 
upon the tin spread one-fifth its weight of nitre, then cover up, but so as to 
admit air ; calcine in a potter's oven ; wash and dry. 

Properties. — Sp. gr., 671. Chem. symbol, SnOg. Chem. composition, 
78"38 Sn., 2r62 O. The loss on calcination in a frit or flux when' an 
oxidizing atmosphere is maintained, practically nil ; but in a reducing atmo- 
sphere, or in association with reductive elements, a loss may take place. 

Insoluble in water. No effervescence with dilute acids. When melted 
in fluxes, usually remains as an opaque, yellowish-white, uncombined com- 
ponent. Possesses the remarkable property of yielding pink or crimson 
colours when calcined in mixtures with whitening, and a trace of chrome 
oxide. And not less remarkable, possibly, is it that many enamels con- 
taining a high percentage of tin oxide, when applied directly upon ceramic 
bodies, will curl off in the burning, unless the body contains a very 
considerable proportion of lime carbonate, as in the case of Delft ware, 
Rouen ware, and Italian mediaeval faience. 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Iron Compounds 381 



Iron Compounds. — Those principally used in the decorative-tile trade 
are ochre, hematite, carbonate of iron, calcined ironstone, "bull-dog," iron 
scales. Crocus Martis, red oxide of iron, and Japanese red. 

Ochre is the native hydrated oxide of iron, of various shades of yellow 
and yellow-brown, often more or less associated with clay and sand. In 
England it occurs in beds, mostly about one foot thick ; principally in Somer- 
setshire, Gloucestershire, Devonshire, Wales, and Derbyshire. Formerly 
ochre was raised in Oxfordshire, but apparently little is got there now. 
A not inconsiderable quantity of ochre is got from deposits of ochreous 
streams in or exuding from mines. Large quantities of ochre are also 
obtained from Avoca in Ireland, and from France and Spain. 

Hematite, or red ironstone, is the native ferric oxide in an anhydrous 
condition, sometimes associated with carbonate of lime. It has been largely 
mined in Cumberland, Lancashire, and near Froghall, in Staffordshire ; the 
two former counties raising over two million tons during 1897. Small 
quantities of special colourant power are found in the Forest of Dean 
(Gloucestershire), and enormous deposits are said to occur in the Isle of Elba. 

Dr Angus Smith's analysis of Froghall hematite was as under: — 

68-fii 

5 '49 
18-17 

• 372 



Peroxide of iron. 
Silica, . 

Carbonate of lime, 
Carbonate of magnesia, . 



4'0o 



Doke, 


Esq. 

. 


, of the Cleveland 


Steel Works 


roNE. 


L • 


Calcined Cleveland Iron-Ore. 


35-64 




Peroxide of iron. 


. 58-80 


3-O0 




Peroxide of manganese. 


I 00 


073 




Alumina, . 


I07S 


7-85 




Lime, 


8-03 


5-50 




Magnesia, 


. 6-66 


4-50 




Silica, 


. i3"09 


9 53 




Sulphur, . 


o-i8 


103 




Phosphoric acid, 


. 1-41 


21 00 




013 






9992 


2 00 








9-00 









for 



Manganese, alumina, and moisture. 

Red hematite is one of the principal iron-ores of the United States. 
In 1 90 1 it contributed over twenty-four million tons, or 83 per cent, of the 
total output, the greater part being supplied from Lake Superior region. 

Carbonate of Iron. — Impure carbonate of iron occurs in great quantities 
in the lias formations of North Yorkshire, known as the Cleveland district, 
some five million tons a year being raised 

I am indebted to E. H. Cooke, Esq 
the following analyses of this mineral 

Cleveland Clay-Band Ironstone 
Protoxide of iron, 
Peroxide of iron, 
Protox. manganese. 
Alumina, 
Lime, 

Magnesia, . 
Silica, 

Phosphoric acid, 
Carbonic acid, . 
Sulphur, . 
Organic matter, . 
Moisture, . 

99-91 



382 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Occasionally, particularly in glazes, a much purer carbonate of iron is 
used, either artificially prepared, or the native chalybite or siderite. This 
latter occurs in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Cumberland, and, according 
to Rutley, contains 60 per cent, iron, 36 per cent, carbonic acid, and a little 
manganese, lime, and magnesia. 

Calcined Ironstone. — The ground material sold under the name of common 
ground ironstone is probably " mine riddlings " from the ironstone heaps so 
frequently seen in Staffordshire. This ironstone, a carbonaceous earthy car- 
bonate of iron, known as Black Band stone, occurs in the coal-measures. 

By the courtesy of Messrs. Robert Heath & Son, I am able to append an 
analysis of the "mine" or calcined ironstone at their Burslem Grange Mines : — 

Oxide of iron, . . ...... 82 7S 

Silica, . .... 3 '55 

Lime, . . 3 '45 

Magnesia, . . . . I "49 

Alumina, . . O'Sg 

Phosphoric acid . . . i'6s 

Sulphuric acid, . . . . . 075 

Oxide of manganese, 3 '50 

The riddlings probably would not be quite so pure. 

Calcined iron oxide may also be obtained from acid works, where gasworks 
sulphurated bog-iron oxide from the purifiers has been roasted. 

"Bull-Dog' is a waste product from iron puddling furnaces; it is black in 
colour, or almost so, and extremely dense and hard. It is supposed to be 
an impure silicate of iron. It is serviceable in compounding bodies for black 
and silver-grey flooring tiles, and will maintain its black colour very persist- 
ently ; hence, when finely ground, it becomes a useful ingredient. 

Iron Scales. — These are the shingles from iron forge mills which flake 
off the iron during rolling. The only preparation consists of washing and 
grinding. It is occasionally used in glazes, and in U.G. and enamel colours. 

Crocus Martis. — This is an old-fashioned term, probably derived from the 
alchymists, who denominated iron. Mars. Hence ferrous sulphate or green 
vitriol was called Sal Martis ; tartrate of iron, tartrated tincture of Mars ; and 
magnetic or black oxide of iron, ^thiops Martialis. (See lire's Dictionary 
of Chemistry, p. 55^, and Royle's Materia Medica, pp. 199-209.) Crocus 
essentially denotes the saffron colour of the hydrated peroxide of iron. Ure 
states that the yellow or saffron coloured oxides of iron and copper were 
formerly called Crocus Martis and Crocus Veneris, and that that of iron is 
still called crocus simply by the workers in metal. 

But the article now usually found in commerce under the name of " Crocus 
Martis " is not yellow or saffron coloured, but purplish red, such as the writer 
believes was formerly called "colcothar." Probably this has arisen from the 
preparation and use of calcined hydrated oxide of iron, i.e., calcined Crocus 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Iron Compounds 383 

Martis, and the prefix gradually falling out of use, as in the case of flint; 
hence the " Crocus Martis " or red crocus-powder of to-day, both of which 
are apparently inappropriate or self-contradictory terms for the substances 
to which they are now applied. Red crocus-powder has been defined as 
follows : — " A polishing powder prepared from crystals of sulphate of iron, 
calcined in crucibles. It is really the calcined powder taken from the bottom 
of the crucible, where the heat is most intense. The powder in the upper part 
is called 'jewellers' rouge,' but the crocus-powder is of a purple-red colour, is 
harder, and is used for ordinary work ; whereas the rouge is of a scarlet colour, 
and is only used for gold and silver work." (Law's Grocers Manual, p. 593.) 

Royle uses " Crocus Martis " as a synonym for ferric oxide or red oxide 
of iron, and in all probability the best qualities of what is now commercially 
known as Crocus Martis are, in fact, particularly pure and elegant forms of 
ferric oxide. Nevertheless, Crocus Martis is a somewhat indefinite term,^ and 
may be applied to either hydrated ferric oxide, ochres, calcined ochres, calcined 
wastes or bye-products from copper extraction works, acid works, or gasworks, 
or to the pure and beautiful product above described, resulting from the calcina- 
tion of ferrous sulphate (green vitriol ; copperas). 

Red Oxide of Iron. — In addition to the native red oxide (hematite), there 
are several chemically prepared varieties. These are mostly obtained by 
calcining sulphate of iron, or some salt of iron that happens to be a bye- 
product of some other manufacture, until it assumes the brightest attainable 
shade of red. The purest qualities of these artificially prepared red oxides 
of iron are very reliable, and useful staining oxides for making coloured 
glazes where accuracy of effect is important. 

Japanese Red is probably only a commercial name for the ochreous stone, 
otherwise known as " Gres de Tkiviers," although of this the writer is not 
absolutely certain. From the Pottery Gazette, June 1901, we learn that the 
chemical analysis of gres de Tkiviers is as follows : — Silica, 87'3 ; ferric oxide, 
8-5; moisture, 1-9; lime, O'S/ ; undetermined, i'43. But analysis does not 
yet appear to have revealed the whole secret of the pretty shade of salmon- 
pink obtainable by means of the material commercially known as Japanese 
red or Persian red. Its behaviour rather suggests the presence of some 
subtle force similar to that exercised by the minute trace of chromium in the 
pink colours ; and observation leads to the conclusion that it contains some 
element that is inclined to cause crazing. 'Yhs. " undetermined" m.2X\.e,r xm.y 
contain this often-sought yet still unrecognized element. 

Blue from Iron. — From Muspratt we learn that " Gmelin has proved by 
chemical experiments that it is not only possible to give glass and enamel a 
blue colour by means of iron, but that several of the antiquities, upon which 

^ Langenbeck mentions inferior " Crocus Martis" which was found to contain ferric oxid, 4yi4 ; 
alumina, 2-31 ; silica, 13-65 ; barium sulfate, 37-41. 



384 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

so much stress has been laid, afford not the slightest indication of cobalt 

He mentioned .... several articles on which a blue color is produced 
by the vitrification of iron .... in particular, those slags found near the 
smelting mines in the Hartz Forest, some of which are of a beautiful blue 
colour " (Muspratt's Chemistry, p. 481, vol. i.) 

Manganese Compounds. — The ores and oxides of manganese form 
another important series of tile-colourants. Comparatively inferior manganese 
ores occur in Great Britain in the counties of Derby, Cornwall, Devon, 
Warwick, and Merioneth ; but richer ores are now imported in large quantities 
from Germany, Chili, India, Turkey, Russia, Spain, France, Portugal, Greece, 
Japan, and Brazil. The insignificance of the home product will be better 
understood by reference to the Mines Statistics. In 1897 only 599 tons were 
raised in the United Kingdom, whereas 156,324 tons were imported. 

Umbers are somewhat variable, impure, hydrated native oxides of iron and 
manganese, usually clove-brown colour and dull, earthy, meagre feel. When 
calcined they should be brownish black. Sometimes these are used in brown, 
black, and chocolate coloured bodies. 

Wad, another ore of manganese, is a soft disintegrated kind, very like soot in 
appearance, and usually composed of 30 per cent, protoxide and 60 per cent, ses- 
quioxide of manganese. It probably results from the decomposition of harder 
ore. This is a valuable ore, and perhaps rather extensively used by tilemakers. 

Pyrolusite, the native binoxide of manganese, contains from 80 to 95 
per cent, of MnOj associated with other oxides of manganese and variable 
quantities of iron oxide, alumina, lime, and silica. Its colour is iron-black or 
steel-grey, often very hard. When this is used it is usually finely levigated in 
wet-grinding potters' mills. 

Carbonate of Manganese. — Sometimes this is obtained as a native ore 
(dialogite) from mines near Oswestry and Barmouth : but most of the carbon- 
ate of manganese now used by ceramists probably is the bye-product from 
bleaching-powder works. It serves a useful purpose for glaze-staining. 

Black Oxide of Manganese, or recovered manganese, is a chemically prepared, 
very elegant product of manganese, recovered as a bye-product from the 
manufacture of bleach by the Weldon process ; the carbonate so formed, and 
referred to above, is simply roasted until all carbonic acid is expelled. It 
comes into the market in such a fine state of division and degree of purity 
that have secured for it a very wide application for staining glazes. 

At times it may contain an excessive proportion of calcium compounds, 
and these must be guarded against. 

Manganese has long been used as a ceramic material ; the violet of the ancient 
Egyptian and the mediaeval Persian tilemakers probably contained manganese. 
To attain this tint it seems that purity is not by any means the only essential 
condition, and it is remarkable that the treatment that yields celeste tints 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Cobalt 385 

with copper oxide as a colourant, yield violet when manganese forms the 
colourant. Boracic acid appears to be injurious to this tint, hence the best 
results are obtained by use of special glazes. 

Cobalt. — The ores of cobalt are : — Arsenical cobalt, containing about 74 per 
cent, arsenic, 20 per cent, cobalt, and from 3 to 6 per cent, of iron and copper. 
Coiall glance, contcLining about 4g per cent, arsenic, 35 per cent, cobalt, 7 to 
20 per cent, sulphur, and 3 to 6 per cent. iron. Cobalt pyrites, containing 
about 43 per cent, cobalt, 38 per cent, sulphur, 5 to 14 per cent, copper, and 
3 to s per cent. iron. 

For many years only small and tentative supplies appear to have been ob- 
tained from British mines in Cornwall, Flintshire, Cumberland, and Scotland ; 
and since 1890 the output, according to statistics, has been nil. The Chinese 
mines, also, are understood to be now either exhausted or little worked. 

The principal commercial sources at the present time are, apparently, 
Schneeberg (Saxony), the Erzgebirge (Bohemia), Modum (Norway), Tunaberg 
(Sweden), Missouri (U.S.A.), New Caledonia, and the Transvaal. 

In the United States a high-grade cobalt-ore deposit is being developed, it 
is said, in the eastern part of Oregon ; otherwise the only nickel and cobalt 
produced in the United States during 1901 were as bye-products from the 
smelting of lead-ores at Mine la Motte, Missouri. The matte, containing the 
nickel and cobalt, was refined at Constable Hook and Camden (N.J.), and there 
were obtained 6700 lbs. of nickel and 13,360 lbs. of cobalt oxide. This is the 
highest production of cobalt oxide in the United States since 1897, when 19,520 
lbs. were reported. But beside this home product of 13,360 lbs. of cobalt oxide 
in the year 1 901, the United States imported 71,969 lbs. in the same year. 
These figures are also the highest recorded import, far in excess of former 
years ; and thus denote an increasing consumption of this oxide in the States. 

Considerable quantities of cobalt oxide are obtained by extraction of 
small percentages found in the residues remaining after treatment of ores of 
nickel and copper. When its use and the means of its extraction were first 
discovered, it is said that one firm of Birmingham nickel refiners found itself 
the fortunate possessor of waste slags worth ;^7QOO on account of its 
cobalt contents. In 185 1 Henry Hussey Vivian, who had found cobalt 
and nickel present in slags and inferior metals separated out during the 
process of smelting copper-ores, patented an improved method for separating 
nickel and cobalt, or either of them, in the form of arsenides from ores, slags, 
or regulus, and other combinations or alloys of copper. For full description 
of this process, see Muspratt's Chemistry, p. 490. 

Zaffre, or Saffre. — Judging by the writings of the various authors con- 
sulted, this substance may be of uncertain composition. Roscoe refers to it 
as an impure cobalt arsenate resulting from the calcination in air of cobalt 
ores ; Cunynghame says it contains about half its bulk of black oxide ; 

25 



386 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

Muspratt seems to confuse it with certain qualities of smalts ; whilst 
Hermann gives the following circumstantial description of its preparation : — 
" The ores are first freed from gangue, and, in case they contain bismuth, must 
be refined to get rid of the latter. They are then stamped in the dry state 
and roasted in a calcining furnace, where they are stirred continually with 
iron poles. In this process arsenic escapes as white oxide, and is collected in 
the arsenic chimney in connection with the furnace. On removal from the 
furnace the ore is sifted and the large lumps returned to the stamping-mill. 
This oxide is, by reason of the arsenic and iron present, either reddish or 
bluish green in colour, and is known as zafifre. It is now mixed with fine 
sand or crushed quartz (two or three parts), moistened a little, and packed in 
barrels for sale under the above-mentioned name." {Painting on Glass and 
Porcelain, p. 53, Scott, Greenwood, & Co.) 

Smalts. — This is a double silicate of cobalt and potash ; and though ' 
probably not much used by ceramists of our time, an outline of the process 
of manufacture may not be without interest. Hermann describes it some- 
what as follows : — " Cobalt ore is roasted in such a manner that the cobalt is 
mainly in the condition of protoxide ; the other metals not being oxidised, 
but chiefly separable as arsenides in the subsequent smelting process. The 
roasted ore is then fused with potash and silica, producing a cobaltous oxide 
potash glass. By pouring this glass into cold water it is obtained as a 
brittle mass, which is then stamped to a fine powder, and subjected to a very 
tedious process of sedimentation." The proportions given by Muspratt are, 
for some qualities, 2\ cwts. of ordinary roasted ore, 2 cwts. of roasted mixed 
ore and cobaltiferous quartz, 20 cwts. of sand, 3^ cwts. of eschel (a faintly 
coloured glass produced by washing the smalts), and 10 cwts. of potash. 
For smalts marked ME, MC, FC, the mixture given is 2 cwts. of best 
roasted ore, 5 cwts. sand, 2 cwts. eschel, 4 cwts. potassa. 

The purity of the sand is of great importance, for any colourant oxides 
such as iron, manganese, copper, or nickel would injure the tint of the smalts. 

It is also found desirable to exclude lime and soda, and to exercise great 
vigilance regarding the purity of the potash used. 

It is interesting to note that, although the ancients knew how to colour 
glass blue with slags containing cobalt, and even modern colour-makers also 
from 1540 A.D., when smalt was invented in Saxony, yet not until 1733-173S 
was it discovered (by Brandt) that the blue colour did not depend on the 
iron and arsenic in the slags as was supposed, but upon some peculiar metal 
hithef to unisolated to which he gave the name of Kobalt-rex. 

Refined Cobalt. — An old StaiTordshire method of refining cobalt was as 
follows :— 60 lbs. cobalt ore, 50 lbs. potash, 25 lbs. sand, 10 lbs. charcoal are 
pounded and intimately mixed together, then put into small crucibles, about 
i\ lbs. in each, and fired for about eight or ten hours; commencing with a 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Cobalt 387 

slow fire, and then increasing until the whole is melted. Obtain the inter- 
mediate regulus as in the zaffre process, then to every 50 lbs. of regulus 
add 6 lbs. potash ; pound and thoroughly mix them, then put it into bottles 
(earthenware), each containing about i lb. of the mixture ; recalcine as before, 
and repeat this process until the scoria is of a bluish hue and bright (generally 
necessary to do so three or four times). The next process of " roasting " the 
refined regulus is to separate the arsenic from the oxide of cobalt. Spread a 
layer of the pounded refined regulus, half an inch thick, upon a flinted biscuit 
dish, apply a gentle heat for a few hours, not enough to fuse the regulus, but 
just to drive off the arsenic. 

Blue Calx is then prepared in the following manner : — 30 lbs. of refined 
regulus of cobalt from the foregoing process is pounded and intimately mixed 
with I lb. of plaster of Paris and \ lb. borax, and the mixture placed in 
earthenware biscuit cups (ij inch high, 3 inches diameter, J-inch thick), each 
cup being filled almost full. These are then fired in a kiln with as brisk a fire 
as possible until the mixture is in a melting state ; continue the heat for about 
six hours, and then cool the kiln quickly. This process occupies twelve or 
thirteen hours ; the blue will then be found at the top of the cups, and the 
nickel at the bottom. The nickel can be recalcined to recover any more cobalt 
it may contain. 

According to Llewellyn Jewitt, W. Cookworthy, the discoverer of Cornish 
china-clay, was the first chemist in England who succeeded in making a good 
cobalt blue direct from the ore ; before his time the colour was prepared by 
grinding imported foreign zaffres. (Life of Wedgwood, p. 232.) 

Black Gxide of Cobalt. — According to Muspratt, "In the preparation of the 
oxide on a large scale, the ores are smelted, and the regulus or speiss which 
they yield calcined. The resulting product is then dissolved in strong 
hydrochloric acid, and the iron and arsenic precipitated by the gradual 
addition of milk of lime. When the oxides have subsided, the clear super- 
natant liquor is run off, and subjected in vats to a stream of sulphide of 

hydrogen When the sulphides have completely settled, the supernatant 

liquor is siphoned off, and the cobalt precipitated from it by bleaching-powder. 
The hydrated oxide thus obtained, heated to redness, constitutes the blue 
oxide ; and to whiteness, the prepared oxide of commerce." (Muspratt's 
Chemistry, vol. i. p. 483.) 

Brongniart's description of Evans and Askin's process fills up a few 
little details that are wanting in Muspratt's. If I understand him correctly, 
Brongniart writes as follows : — " The mineral consists principally of metallic 
arsenides and sulphides, and contains usually 6 per cent, nickel and 3 per 
cent, cobalt, although these proportions are somewhat variable. The mineral 
is mixed with a small quantity of carbonate of lime and fluor-spar, and 
heated in a reverberatory furnace to bright red heat ; the mass melts at this 



388 LEAULESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

high temperature, and we obtain a fluid mass of metalHc appearance, also a 
floating scoria which is removed by aid of a fire-iron. The fluid mass is 
caused to run out by a special aperture in the furnace, and is sprinkled with 
water to facilitate crushing, and so broken to pieces. Experience has proved 
that if the scoria is of a dull colour, it contains iron ; if, on the contrary, the 
surface is black and brilliant, it does not contain iron. The metallic mass is 
broken to a very fine powder, which is afterwards calcined to a bright red in a 
furnace ; it is heated gradually to avoid fusion, and stirred or worked continually. 
A large quantity of arsenic is volatilised. The air has free access to the mass, 
and the weight of oxide is diminished ; the calcination, which lasts about twelve 
hours, is continued until no more white fumes are disengaged. The residue 
after calcination is treated with hydrochloric acid, which dissolves it almost 
entirely; the solution is diluted with water, then is added a milk of lime and 
lime hypochlorite solution or mixture, and it forms a precipitate of iron and 
arsenic which is rejected after it has been washed .... then a current of 
washed sulphuretted hydrogen gas is passed into the solution . . . the gas 
being passed to saturation. The current of gas is arrested when ammonia 
solution added to a small quantity of the filtered liquid yields a black 
precipitate ; if excess of HjS gas has not been passed, the precipitate pro- 
duced by the ammonia will be green. The HgS gas determines in the 
solution the formation of a precipitate that is washed, and as it is a little 
soluble, pass a new current of HgS through the wash-water ; the precipitate 
is rejected. Afterwards the cobalt is precipitated by means of a solution of 
hypochlorite of lime ; the precipitate washed, dried, then calcined to a red 
heat; this is considered sesquioxide of cobalt, and is passed into commerce in 
that form. Another part is heated to a white-red heat. Oxide so treated loses 

weight and increases in density, and is sold as protoxide of cobalt 

Oxide of cobalt obtained by this method is of remarkable purity, and con- 
tains no nickel." {Traiti des Arts Ceramiques, tom. ii. pp. 723, 724.) 

Sir Henry Roscoe's description of the process is as follows : — " The roasted 
ore is fused with a flux of carbonate of lime or sand, when the iron slag flows 
on to the surface, whilst the cobalt remains below as a heavy speiss or stone. 
.... The speiss is then dissolved in strong hydrochloric acid, any arsenate 
of iron which may be present being precipitated by the careful addition of 
bleaching-powder solution and a small quantity of milk of lime. The clear 
supernatant liquid is drawn off", treated with sulphuretted hydrogen for the 
purpose of separating copper, bismuth, etc., and then the oxide of cobalt is 
precipitated from the clarified solution by bleaching-powder. The oxide 
thus obtained is washed and ignited, and this is largely used for colouring 
glass and porcelain. This oxide usually contains iron, and almost always 
nickel and other impurities." (Roscoe and Schorlemmer's Treatise on 
Chemistry, vol. ii. part ii. p. 127.) 



SOURCES AND PREPARATION OF MATERIALS— Cobalt 389 

Hermann describes a method of obtaining the oxide from metallic cobalt 
by dissolving the metal in nitric acid (the solution being of a rose-red colour) ; 
then concentrating and evaporating the solution until it yields the nitrate of 
cobalt, in small prismatic crystals, which liquefy on exposure to air, and are 
soluble in alcohol. When the crystals are heated in a retort, and the nitric 
acid fumes are driven off, black oxide of cobalt remains. {Painting on Glass 
and Porcelain, p. 52, Scott, Greenwood, & Co.) 

Properties. — Sp. gr., 6'o (Roscoe), 5T (Jackson). Chemical symbol, C03O4 
(Roscoe), CogOg (Jackson). Chemical composition of the ordinary article of 
commerce, judging entirely by chemical analysis, is 97'5 per cent, of oxides of 
cobalt, and 2'S per cent, lime, iron oxide, copper oxide, zinc oxide, and nickel 
oxide taken together. 

Langenbeck states that the Saxon brands RKO and FKO contain from 
S to 6 per cent, of nickel oxide, the GKO from 2 to 3 per cent., whilst FFKO 
brand only has \ per cent. 

Black oxide of cobalt commercially conies into the market in the form of 
a black gritty powder, neutral to test-paper, and yielding a blue bead with 
borax. Its solution in hydrochloric acid is green or blue, becoming pink when 
diluted ; if the green colour persists on dilution, this indicates the presence of 
nickel. When calcined, with excess of alumina it gives a blue colour ; with 
oxide of zinc, a green colour ; and with magnesia, pale pink. When used as 
a blue body-stain, it must be wet-ground to an impalpable degree of fine- 
ness ; otherwise, being an extraordinarily powerful ceramic colourant, dark blue 
specks will appear on the tiles or wares produced. This oxide is the base of 
nearly all the other preparations of cobalt now used in the trade. 

Prepared Oxide of Cobalt. — This should be simply the black oxide of cobalt 
reheated to whiteness. In some instances, however, when sold in a finely 
ground condition, the prepared oxide may be slightly fluxed or adulterated ; 
this, therefore, should be carefully inquired into. Hermann observes that 
" Cobalt " (referring to the metal) " does not undergo any important alteration 
at ordinary temperatures, either in air or in contact with water, but on pro- 
longed exposure to red heat, or when roasted with access of air, it oxidises 
without fusion. The resulting oxide is dark blue (somewhat reddish when 
accompanied by arsenic), passing into a dark-blue glass — cobalt protoxide — 
at a strong smelting heat. This consists of cobalt, 83-5 ; oxygen, 165. On 
prolonged heating to faint redness it takes up more oxygen, assumes a 
perfectly black colour, and becomes cobalt oxide (black oxide), consisting of 
cobalt, 80 ; oxygen, 20. Heated to moderate redness, it reverts to the con- 
dition of protoxide, and regains its blue colour." (^Painting on Glass and 
Porcelain, p. 52.) 

Cobalt Blue. — This term apparently signifies one thing to the practical 
ceramist, and quite another to the artist in oil or water colours. For the 



390 LEADLESS DECORATIVE TILES, FAIENCE, AND MOSAIC 

latter Hurst describes it as essentially a compound of the oxides of cobalt 
and alutnina ; some makers also adding phosphoric acid. It is prepared either 
by mixing solutions of alum and cobalt in the proportion of i lb. of cobalt 
nitrate to 12 lbs. alum, and precipitating with carbonate of soda, and calcining 
the precipitate at a red heat ; or by mixing eight parts of alumina with one part 
of cobalt phosphate, and heating in a crucible for from half to three-quarters of 
an hour at a bright red heat, then grinding the calcined mass in water. But 
neither of the foregoing answers to the description and characteristics of the 
article commercially known as cobalt blue in the ceramic industry ; this latter 
is of a rich violet or bluish-pink colour, very like the compound resulting 
from a mixture of cobalt oxide and Cornish stone calcined and ground. 
Upon analysis by Joseph Lones, Esq., F.I.C., F.C.S., Smethwick, a sample 
of cobalt blue, as used by ceramists, yielded : — 

Silica, . . ..... 39 '63 

Cobalt oxide S6'63 

Lime, . . .... I 'go 

Phosphoric acid, . . . . o'i2 

Organic matter, 0'35 

Moisture, . . . . . . . . i "oi 

Carbonate of Cobalt may be prepared by heating chloride of cobalt to 
140° with a solution of sodium bicarbonate saturated with carbon dioxide. 
This is the normal salt C0CO3, a red powder. The hydrated carbonate 
C0CO3+6H2O may be obtained by "allowing mixed solutions of cobalt 
nitrate and sodium bicarbonate, saturated with carbon dioxide, to stand 
exposed to a low temperature until the amorphous precipitate which is first 
formed becomes crystalline ; the dry salt is converted into the anhydrous 
salt on warming." (Roscoe's and Schorlemmer's Treatise on Chemistry, 
vol. ii. part ii. p. 133, Macmillan.) 

Roscoe further remarks that " When a cold or hot solution of a cobalt salt 
is precipitated with normal or acid sodium carbonate, bluish or violet basic 
cobalt carbonates of varying composition are thrown down." {Ibid., p. 133.) 

Hence in purchasing and using this preparation some care should be 
exercised in specifying the particular carbonate of cobalt dealt with. 

Cobalt Chloride, CoClg. — For staining purposes the use of solutions of 
cobalt is sometimes advocated as a means of avoiding speckiness in the ware. 
For this purpose a solution of the chloride is used, and by previously assuring 
the presence of sufficient sodium carbonate in the body or glaze slip, the 
cobalt is assumed to be, when intimately mixed therewith, p