Sara Ware Bassett

“ A delicate piece of ware is in peril every second. It may be dropped and broken; chipped in handling; its clay body may crack when exposed to the heat; the colors in the decoration may fire out unsatisfactorily; or at the very end there may be a defect in the glaze."
"Great Scott!" gasped Theo. "Why, I never should expect to get a single perfect piece of porcelain."
"On the contrary, we get a great many," smiled Mr. Marwood. "They are almost all perfect. The imperfect piece is the exception. But each piece represents untold care. ”

“ Croyden, "about 1518 Portuguese traders brought Chinese porcelains into Europe; and following their lead the Dutch imported the same goods in even greater quantities. Everywhere people marveled at the beauty of these wares just as you would have done if up to that time you had never seen anything but crude clay dishes. The whiteness of the porcelain seemed a miracle, and on every hand people were eager to make such china themselves. ”

“ Aside from a few arts-and-crafts potters who of necessity must work on a very limited scale we are training no pottery-makers. We should establish schools for such things if we wish to keep abreast of the time, and compete with other nations."
"Theo can attend to that, too," laughed Mrs. Croyden.
"We have cut out quite a program for you to work out in the future, haven't we, lad?" said Mr. Croyden, relapsing into jest. "On the strength of it I suggest that you trot along to bed to get rested up so to be ready to undertake it." ”

“ Croyden stopped a second.
"When I tell you these facts you must not think I am crying down the English wares," he said. "I could show you beautiful varieties of English porcelain. I merely wish you to understand that it has not the qualities of the Chinese, Japanese, Sèvres, Dresden, or even the more modern Limoges ware. But what it loses in delicacy and translucence it makes up in strength, and perhaps after all strength is as desirable as any other quality."
"Didn't the English ever make any real hard paste china?" asked Theo. ”

“ Did I not believe that I was doing something more than just the humdrum task of making dishes I should speedily become discouraged and decide my labor was not worth the strength I am constantly putting into it. But every honorable industry is far more than that. It is a monument to the men who conceived it and to those who little by little developed the wonderful machinery that makes it possible. Each perfect product it turns out voices the skill, patience, and faithfulness of scores of workmen. ”

“ But aside from the Majolica pottery, and Delia Robbia's terra-cottas, Italy has not made any distinctive contribution to the china-making art. Still she has done so much in almost every other art that she should rest content. One cannot excel in everything."
"Some of us never excel in anything," laughed Theo.
"Some of us excel in falling off roofs and breaking our legs," chuckled Mr. Croyden teasingly. ”

“ Croyden stopped.
"For example, Canton ware, commonly known as Canton china, is not really china at all, but is instead a fine quality of stone, or earthenware, coated over with a slip or glaze containing porcelain. Nor is the exquisite Satsuma ware china; that too is a pottery."
Theo listened intently.
"Now all this time the Chinese kept the secret of how they made their wares to themselves, not sharing their knowledge with any outside peoples. Many a nation would have given almost anything to know from what materials the beautiful bowls, vases, and dishes were made. ”

“ Mr. Marwood replied. "How else are we to learn? The man who is ashamed to ask questions and confess he does not know is worth little in the world. When I spoke of questions, however, I meant questions about china-making."
"Oh!" exclaimed Theo. "No, I don't think I have any more questions about porcelain except to ask you how the glaze is put on the biscuit ware."
"That certainly is an intelligent question, and one I shall be only too happy to answer," Mr. Marwood said. "We could go down into the dipping sheds if we had more time. ”

“ A factory that turns out a completed product is like a watch. You know that unless every wheel of the watch turns; unless every minute rivet and screw is in its place and doing its part we get no perfect result. It is just as important a service to be a wee screw in that organism as to be something larger and more conspicuous. So it is with each workman in a factory. He performs his part—often, alas, a small and dull one too, I am afraid; but viewed from the standpoint of the completed product that man with his humdrum task is as worthy our respect as is any other member of the working staff. ”

“ Croyden, "there are extensive pottery and porcelain factories throughout Germany and Austria-Hungary, and much of our finest ware comes from these countries. Were you to study history you would find that many of these factories sprang up from small beginnings, and that amid the turmoil of European strife they had a stiff fight for existence."
"I think I never considered before the effect of war upon anything but persons," remarked Theo musingly.
"Alas, the destruction war wages against human life is bad enough," answered Mr. Croyden. ”

“ Perhaps this very Bernard, the librarian, who may have become interested in the art as a recreation, and done the work in his idle hours."
"What a funny thing to do as a pastime!" exclaimed Theo.
"No stranger than that now many persons take up metal work, wood-carving, or other of the so-called arts and crafts for diversion."
"I suppose not," admitted Theo thoughtfully.
"It certainly is possible such a thing might have happened even so long ago as the time when the Henri Deux ware was made. History offers us no aid in solving the puzzle, so we can only find an answer as best we may. ”

“ Then followed a long stretch of years when, because of various wars between China and Japan, the art of producing glazed pottery and porcelain was lost. All those workmen who possessed any knowledge of their manufacture perished. This was the period when the Greeks and Romans were making their red and black ware which, you recall, they did not know how to glaze, and therefore had no means of preventing liquids from leaking through it."
"I wish they had had the secrets of the Chinese and Japanese!" Theo said.
"I wish so too," echoed Mr. Croyden. ”

“ We make them ourselves here in the mills. In fact, there is an entire section in the clay-shop devoted to nothing but sagger making. Special machinery grinds and mixes the clay; special men fashion by hand the great containers; while other men do nothing but work in the wad-mills where rolls of clay to cover the top of the saggers and protect the unfired ware from smoke are made."
"Don't the clay saggers ever break?" questioned Theo.
"Sometimes, alas!" admitted Mr. Marwood. "When they do the china in them must be rescued from the kilns and put into new saggers. ”

“ Theo's face fell.
"He must take it," he said, "even if I walk to Trenton myself."
But there was room, plenty of it, in the big touring car.
Mr. Croyden did, to be sure, comment teasingly about the lad's extended wardrobe, and ask how many dozen suits of clothes he had brought with him; but he made no objection to taking either the bundle or the suit-case.
And when that night just before dinner Theo slipped into the dining-room and placed the shelves beside Mr. Croyden's chair no boy could have been happier. The only person happier than Theo himself was the man who received them. ”

“ Much of the other French china, however—dainty, exquisite, and artistic as it is, is pâte tendre. It is of course sold in quantities, but it is very perishable. There is also a so-called porcelain made from a mixture of clays and phosphates—a ware known to the trade as bone china. But of course this variety is not real porcelain. You see that much of what we call porcelain is not porcelain at all when you judge it by this strict standard. It is nevertheless very useful, and a hungry boy like you can manage nicely to eat his breakfast off it and be quite as happy. ”

“ Sometime, however, Theo, you should go to one of our museums and see some Samian ware, the finest of Roman clay work. The red in it is almost as vivid as sealing-wax, and it has a wonderful polish not unlike that on modern Egyptian ware. No one has ever been able to discover from what clay this marvelous pottery was made. Some historians think the ware was first made by wandering Greek artisans. The Romans also made a very beautiful black ware now known as Upchurch pottery because of the location in England in which it was found. ”

“ Croyden. "I don't see how you can. The middle of July? That settles it. There must be no more kidnapping Theo for golf or tennis, Madeline. From now on he is to be my guest. Understand that."
Mrs. Croyden bowed her head with amusing meekness.
"It shall be as you say, my lord," she answered. "But are you expecting to take Theo to the factory every moment of every day?"
"I don't know," was the grim reply. "That will all depend on how rapidly he learns the business." ”

“ Swift," he exclaimed heartily, putting out his hand. "So you are back to the fishing grounds once more!"
"I certainly am, Mr. Croyden, and thankful enough to be here. I've brought my boy, Theodore, with me this time; Theo, we call him."
Mr. Croyden took the lad's hand cordially.
"I'm glad to see you, youngster," he said. "If you prove half as good a fisherman as your father the two of you won't leave a trout or salmon in these waters."
"But I'm not a fisherman at all," Theo confessed. "I never cast a fly in my life." ”

“ Here in America where fuel has always been plenty we have stuck to our old-fashioned brick ovens in spite of their expense. I am afraid we are not a saving nation."
"Father says that after this war is over we shall have to be more saving," said Theo.
"I believe that too," confessed Mr. Marwood. "We never have learned to figure things down to the lowest cent. We shall have to do it; and it won't hurt us, either. On the contrary, it will be a good lesson. If each of us would use the least possible material in the home, the factory, and the office we should save an amazing amount in a year." ”

“ See all you can of the beautiful things the past has given us; you never will be sorry," declared Mr. Croyden. "Now you can imagine with a background of such progress at china-making, what a furore and transformation followed when kaolin was discovered. Pâte dure was far more desirable than pâte tendre, for it was much less breakable. The works at Vincennes where Sèvres china really had its birth were now moved to Sèvres itself, where the art of porcelain-making was gradually perfected. ”

“ This porcelain was not only very hard but was semi-translucent; by that I mean that if it was held to the light one could see the glow through it. It was not, of course, transparent like glass. These two qualities of hardness and translucence help us to distinguish porcelain from pottery. ”

“ Yet if you were to examine the details of other industries you would find that few of them are entirely free from undesirable results. Almost every line of manufacture has its peculiar risks," returned Mr. Croyden. "I do not mean for a moment that for that reason we are justified in closing our eyes to the dangers. I merely mean it is a fact. What we are trying earnestly to do is to find a substitute for lead glaze. Could we succeed we should eliminate a great proportion of the trouble."
"I suppose that would mean finding a different kind of enamel," mused Theo. ”

“ The girls who paint china become very skilful in estimating the changes in colors. These who are working beside us are doing the finest sort of porcelain decoration—faces, figures, and flowers. Those across the aisle are doing a vastly different type of work. They are putting coarse, sketchy flowers on the cheaper ware. Some of them, you will observe, are filling in designs that have either first been printed, or transferred by the decalcomania process, and must afterward be finished by hand. The girls supply the dabs of color that are needed to complete the pattern. ”

“ We have all the necessary clays here in our own soil; the only one we need to import is black clay. What is now most necessary in all our industries is intelligent, trained, ambitious, and appreciative workers. It is a great reproach to us that here in the United States we have so few schools to educate workmen for their craft. Before the war Austria had eight schools to teach pottery-making and Germany twenty-two. Even England had several. And in the meantime what are we doing here in America? ”

“ In fact, all the mineral colors used to decorate glass, pottery, and porcelain look very different when they are put on from what they do after they have been subjected to the heat. That is the wonderful part of working in oxides and metallic colors. The beautiful hues we see on china or glass are the result of years of experiment. Never forget that. All china decorators have constantly to bear in mind the effect of a high temperature upon their colors. What would be attractive on the unfired clay might emerge from the kiln a very ugly product indeed. ”

“ How sad it is that at a later period in history the work of the Greeks became less fine because the ideals of the race degenerated. Pottery makers, sculptors, and builders began to produce cheap, gaudy things which were lavishly decorated, and reflected the luxury and extravagance that had crept into the nation. ”

“ Marwood's grave reply. "Each of these details is an important factor in the making of high grade porcelain, and should any of them be omitted we should get no flawless ware. It was this infinite care in preparing clay that gave to China, Japan, France, and Germany their perfect results in porcelain-making. If we would equal what has been done in the past we must be just as painstaking, and neglect no detail. As a nation we Americans are far too prone to dash ahead and expect results all in a minute. We do not like to mount a stairway step by step; we wish to shoot to the top in an elevator. ”