Potteries

“ The town is in the Potteries district, and in the neighbourhood of coal and iron mines. It was governed by a mayor, 10 aldermen and 30 councillors until under the “Potteries Federation” scheme (1908) it became part of the borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910. ”

“ The establishment of large engine works by the Great Western railway has aided the development of local industries, and there is a considerable shipping trade, fine china clay and pipeclay being worked near the towns and exported to the Potteries. Large fairs are held for the sale of agricultural produce and livestock. The portion of Newton Abbot in the parish of Highweek was formerly a separate town, known as Newton Bushel. ”

“ There are a theological college for Redemptorists, and a Benedictine convent, dedicated to St Scholastica. The entrance to the harbour has been improved by dredging, and the two quays accommodate vessels drawing 13 ft. at neap tides. Pipeclay and china clay, from Kingsteignton, are shipped for the Staffordshire potteries, while coal and general goods are imported. Pilchard, herrings, whiting and mackerel are taken, and salmon in the Teign. Malting, brewing and boatbuilding are also carried on. East Teignmouth was formerly called Teignmouth Regis, and West Teignmouth, Teignmouth Episcopi. ”

“ Minton’s, ii. 185 et seq. Poole, i. 411 Stephan’s, i. 305 St. John’s, i. 258; ii. 144–150 Webb’s, i. 258 Encaustic vases, ii. 357 Essex pottery, i. 53 Etruria works, ii. 345–385 Euston Road terra-cotta, i. 219 Ewell pottery, i. 166 Exeter pipes, ii. 457 pottery, i. 343 Fairy pipes, i. 296 Feeding bottles, i. 52, 53 Fenton, potteries at, ii. 409–422 Ferrars, Earls of Derby, i. 79, 80 pitcher, i. 79 Ferrybridge pottery, i. 495 Fireplaces, i. 315 Flaxman’s works, ii. 364 et seq. Florence Court pottery, ii. 485 Foley, potteries at, ii. 408–422 Food vessels, i. 18–21; ii. ”

“ The pottery of Egypt, the faience of Assyria and Persia, the Greek and Etruscan vases, the famous red ware from the Isle of Samoa, and its counterpart the Roman Samian ware, the beautiful maiolica of Spain and Italy, the pottery of Rouen, St. Porchaire, Delft, and most of our English pottery are earthenwares; the paste or body consists of natural clays selected for their plasticity, their hardening qualities, their fusibility or their colour, and when burnt have a porous opaque body, usually dull in colour. ”

“ Having given this sketch of the natural history of the materials, ’tis needless to say much about the composition. Pottery being at present in great perfection in England, our potters’-mills prepare the Petunse much better than stamping mills, and excuse one from the trouble of washing it off, it being fit to be used as it comes from the mill. I would further observe that the mills should be made of the Petunse granite, it being obvious that, in grinding, some of the mill-stones must wear off and mix with the Petunse. ”

“ It is impossible to determine when the manufacture of pottery was invented. Clay is a material so generally diffused, and its plastic nature is so easily discovered, that the art of working it does not exceed the intelligence of the rudest savage. Even the most primitive graves of Europe and Western Asia contain specimens of pottery, rude and elementary indeed, but in sufficient quantities to show that it was at all times reckoned among the indispensable adjuncts of daily life. ”

“ Inside the great brick chamber, workmen are stacking the saggers filled with pieces of pottery, some of which, not yet packed, are standing on tables near at hand. They look wan and pale, faint grayish-green, or leaden gray. Not until they have felt the fierce heat of the kiln will they glow with living green or will the beauty of their blues appear. Yellow that is almost orange seems to be only a deep cream colour before it is fired. Then there are pieces of green, or unbaked clay, to be fired in the biscuit—that is, without the glaze. ”

“ The body is firm and good, and the glaze of the usual quality. The old glory of the works has, however, long departed, and nothing artistic or beautiful is now to be seen in the place [489] where once so many choice articles might be found. There is in connection with the pottery a flint mill, where flint, stone, glaze and colour are ground, and the clay is prepared by hydraulic pressure. ”

“ Individual work of merit is being produced every year in this country, and it will not be long before the solitary potter of to-day, moulding his pieces and testing his glazes in some little workshop, like a brown chrysalis, will perfect his ware; so that the tiny workshop will expand into a great building, and another beautiful ware will be added to modern American pottery. ”

“ For the more expeditious preparation of the wares, it was necessary that each workman should devote the whole of his time to a special branch of his art. For this reason we have several classes of potters, called according to their avocation: throwers, turners, handlers, hollow and flat ware pressers, figure and ornament makers, tile makers, modellers, mould and sagger makers, besides those who are employed in the decoration of the goods. ”

“ Fayence, terraglia, as distinct from Porcelain, is formed of potter’s clay (hence its English name Pottery) mixed with marl and sand, and is soft or hard according to the nature of the composition, and the degree of heat under which it is fired in the kiln. English earthenware is soft, while stone-ware, Queen’s ware, &c., are hard. Soft wares are either unglazed, or lustrous, or glazed, or enamelled. The Italian lustrous ware is properly, and the glazed ware improperly, but generally called Majolica. ”

“ These are the best for pottery which is to be beautiful as well as useful. It is possible, of course, to use the flower-pot clay, and, perhaps, if one can easily obtain this clay, and is near enough to a pottery where the red ware is fired—so that one’s pieces can conveniently be sent there—it might be wiser to use it than to buy finer clays that come from a great distance, and then be obliged to send one’s pottery to a far-away kiln for firing. ”

“ The decorative element disappears, and pottery becomes, as in its earliest days, a mere utilitarian industry, the secrets of its former technical achievements irrevocably lost, its ornamentation reduced to the simplest and roughest kinds of decoration, and its status among the products of human industry once more limited to the mere supplying of one of the humblest of men’s needs. ”

“ Why they should want a hundred pieces of this work one may well be at a loss to know, unless it is true that to own what nobody else has is always a pleasure.
Throughout the southern countries of Europe, in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, this kind of pottery is made and used, and in some cases it has much merit in its forms; when decorated, it often reaches a naïve and fascinating kind of art. ”

“ The four principal kinds of pottery manufactured by Messrs. Stiff and Sons are: 1. Brown salt-glazed stoneware, in which the [142] tubular socket drain-pipes so extensively made here are produced; water-filters, jugs, bottles, jars, and all kinds of chemical apparatus are also made in this class of ware. 2. White stoneware or “double-glazed” ware, or “Bristol ware,” in which salt is not used, but the glazing is obtained by the application of a liquid glaze to the interior and exterior of each article before it is placed in the kiln. ”

“ From the next step in the progress of the manufacture—namely, that of modelling in clay the forms of the physical world—arose the plastic art. Delicate as is the touch of the finger, which the clay seems to obey, almost as if comprehending the intention of the potter’s mind, yet certain forms and ornaments which require a finer point than the nail gave rise to the use of pieces of horn, wood, and metal, and thus contributed to the invention of tools. ”

“ Apart from the not inconsiderable number of general works on the potter’s art in French, German, and English, there is scarcely to be found a kiln where pottery of one kind or another has been manufactured which has not been made the subject of a separate study. And yet, as far as I know, the very definite subdivision of ceramics, which includes the porcelain of the Far East and of Europe, has never been made the basis of an independent work in England. ”

“ THE KILN
Pottery, until it is fired, has little or no practical value. One who owns a piece of Gay Head ware, made in Martha’s Vineyard, and called by the name of the bluffs of whose clay it is made, will appreciate this. Though charming in colour, a terra-cotta background with swirling lines of pale yellow, black and white, it can only be put in one spot—on the highest shelf, out of reach of children and others who like to “look with their hands.” If it were baked, the colour which is its chief charm would be lost, and it is therefore so fragile that a rude touch will break or deface it. ”

“ I have already alluded to the skill with which, with their fingers only, and without a wheel, they make large pieces of pottery. The following is their method of work: After having collected a quantity of the proper kind of earth, and having cleaned it thoroughly, they take shells which they break up and reduce to a very fine, loose powder; they mix this fine dust with the earth which they have collected, and, moistening the whole with a little water, work it with their hands and feet into a paste, from which they make rolls six or seven feet long and as thick as they may desire. ”

“ Without attempting a history of pottery which, however brief, would be somewhat out of place in a Craft Book, a short summary of its evolution, emphasizing those periods in which it was most beautifully developed, seems essential to help the beginner in the selection and appreciation of good form, colour, and decoration. These are very vital matters and easily overlooked in the struggle to acquire a craft that is full of fascination from the first fumbled shape upon the wheel to the finished product of time and art and craft. ”

“ Pottery is so closely associated with flowers and growing things, with the decoration of fine rooms, with choice spots of color, and with those receptacles and utensils which belong to the household, that it makes a strong appeal to the feminine mind. Here is a craft which vies with textiles in age and beauty of design, and possesses even greater charm of manipulation because it is plastic. One can imagine no finer outlet for creative effort. ”

“ If, for instance, some of the highly advanced Alaskan tribes which do not make pottery should migrate to another habitat, less suitable to the practice of their old arts and well adapted to art in clay, and should there acquire the art of pottery, they would doubtless, to a great extent, copy their highly developed utensils of wood, bone, ivory, and basketry, and thus reach a high grade of ceramic achievement in the first century of the practice of the art ”

“ The wealthy classes were no longer patrons of pottery but of porcelain, and when, after 1786, the newly perfected English earthenware was thrown upon the French market, the French faience-makers had to give up their works, or adopt the manufacture of this neater and, for domestic purposes, more suitable form of pottery. ”

“ For ordinary household purposes pottery was still essential, and besides that, there were many to whom services of plate and gold or silver vessels for use or ornament were a luxury unattainable. Hence it was natural that there should follow a general tendency to imitate in the humbler material what was beyond reach in the more precious, and the practice arose, not only of adorning vessels of clay with reliefs in imitation of the chased vases, but even of covering them with some preparation to give them the appearance of metal. ”

“ Pottery, of course, is in abundance, including a piece of Samian ware repaired with metal rivets, and some not inelegant Romano-Salopian pottery made from fine Broseley clay, innumerable roofing-tiles of pottery and micaceous slate with the nails yet remaining in them. ”

“ ROMAN POTTERY, HISTORICALLY TREATED; ARRETINE WARE Roman pottery mentioned by ancient writers—“Samian” ware—Centres of fabric—The pottery of Arretium—Characteristics—Potters’ stamps—Shapes of Arretine vases—Sources of inspiration for decoration—“Italian Megarian bowls”—Subjects—Distribution of Arretine wares.
In the present chapter we propose to discuss the origin and character of the finer Roman pottery, or red glazed ware with designs in relief, which is usually known to modern writers under the convenient designation of terra sigillata, a phrase which has already been explained (p. 434) . ”

“ The Bronze Age yields up pottery which does not yet show the invention of the potter’s wheel. The work is still moulded by the hand, but the clay is better, and the forms begin to show clear indications of a{17} sense of proportion and a considerable degree of choice. ”

“ Be this, however, as it may, there certainly was a Roman pottery five or six miles to the north, at Fencot upon Otmoor [6] ; and if that situation did not offer the very finest materials, the establishment at least gave the opportunity of baking vessels which had been manufactured from better clay found elsewhere. In addition to what may be called, by way of distinction, the red ware, other fragments of pottery discovered, presented a great variety of form and pattern, and indeed it may be almost added, of material. ”