Vase (pottery)

“ Province of Cibola.—1/3.
Bottles.—Under this head I desire to present a number of vases having high, narrow necks. Few examples of the pottery of any people show bolder and more successful treatment than the specimen illustrated in Fig. 330. It is a large, full-bodied bottle, the neck and lip of which unfortunately are lost. The restored outline can profess to be approximate only. The surface is well polished, though gray from age. 344 Two masterly scrolls, formed each of a broad black line bordered by white lines, are thrown across opposite sides of the vase. ”

“ The influence of antique vase shapes and of modern renderings of Greek motives in design spread over Europe like a plague, and whether in France, Germany or England the last quarter of the 18th and the first quarter of the 19th century mark a definite period in pottery design and decoration. The introduction of hard-paste porcelain rendered the manufacture of large vases and other pieces possible; and after 1780 we find the manufactory at Sèvres engaged in the production of enormous vases 5 or 6 ft. in height, a manufacture which has been continued there to this day. ”

“ A porcelain vase is required to be light, graceful and refined. A piece of ruder pottery may be no less satisfactory if it exhibit vigor, strength and solidity. A large pot for a growing tree is, for these reasons, more appropriate in grès than in porcelain. Porcelain is translucent but such a quality is of no advantage in the case of a flower pot; the strength of a massive body is, however, demanded by the circumstances of use and hence the unfitness of the one and the fitness of the other. ”

“ Others have more complete presentations of potteries, with men engaged in the different processes of vase manufacture, modelling, painting or supplying the kilns with newly-made wares.
The Painting of Vases.—We may distinguish three principal classes of painted pottery, of Which two admit of subdivision.
1. Primitive Greek vases with simple painted ornaments, chiefly linear and geometrical, laid directly on the clay with the brush. The colour employed is usually a yellowish or brownish red passing into black. The execution varies, but is often extremely coarse. ”

“ They have no foot or “base-ring” to stand upon; and another characteristic is the frequent absence of handles, the place of which is supplied by small ears, by means of which the vase was hung up or carried by cords. [821] Sometimes these ears cover the whole outline of the vase. The plastic principle is always popular in the Bronze-Age pottery, and manifests itself in more than one direction. From the first it is exhibited in the tendency, so common in early art, to combine the vase and the statuette, [822] a tendency which is even stronger in the pottery of Hissarlik. ”

“ The final process in the fashioning of a vase is the attachment of the handles. These can be made either in moulds or by hand. Any one who thinks that the making of handles is a simple or quick process will soon be undeceived. Whether working in plaster, as one would if the handle is made in a mould, or in clay, if it is made by hand, the potter must bestow infinite care on the work, as both clay and plaster are very liable to break; and working on so small a thing as a handle is extremely fussy. ”

“ Everything tends in the direction of elegance and delicacy.
Our next sub-division consists of vases, chiefly of late date, in which the decoration is by means of opaque colours laid on the surface of a vase altogether coated with black varnish or glaze. The process is not indeed one absolutely unknown in earlier times, for there is the primitive Kamaraes ware of Crete (p. 266) , and also a small series of archaic vases belonging to the early part of the fifth century (p. 393) in which this principle is adhered to, the designs being painted in opaque red or white on the black varnish. ”

“ The P’ing shih, the P’ing hua p’u, and the Chang wu chih, all late Ming works. An extract from the second (quoted in the T’ao lu, bk. ix., p. 4 verso) tells us that “Chang Tê-ch’ien says all who arrange flowers first must choose vases. For summer and autumn you should use porcelain vases. For the hall and large rooms large vases are fitting; for the study, small ones. Avoid circular arrangement and avoid pairs. Prize the porcelain and disdain gold and silver. Esteem pure elegance. The mouth of the vase should be small and the foot thick. Choose these. They stand firm, and do not emit vapours.” ”

“ This distinction may be well observed in the Second Vase Room of the British Museum, where most of the vases on the east side of the room belong to the former or “red-bodied” class, while all those on the west side are “black-bodied,” with designs in panels.
In the red-figured vases the black varnish is used as the background, and covers the whole vase, as in the “black-bodied” B.F. fabrics, the figures not being actually painted, but left red in the colour of the clay. ”

“ The vases and ewers bearing figure-pieces or mythological pictures had a certain quality peculiar to this style of work which at first may excite distaste rather than desire, but after a time may induce a mild sort of assent; more, we believe, from the low and quiet tones and harmonies of color than from any marked excellence of either the form of the vase or the painted subject. The two names most conspicuous as potters in Italy now—Ginori at Florence, and Giustiniani at Naples—did not appear among the exhibitors, so far as we know. ”

“ If you live near a pottery you can procure a vase, in what is called a green or unbaked state, and ornament it with some leafy design, or if you choose you may make for yourself a vase, and having ornamented it with a design in relief, you can have it baked at a pottery. ”

“ INTERIOR OF POTTERY.
It would appear that the vases after the baking were often placed on the exterior of the furnace, either to prevent the too rapid cooling of the clay, or (as indicated on the Berlin cup) for the pigments to dry. Jahn and others have published a gem [789] on which a small two-handled vase is placed on the top of an oven, and a youth is applying two sticks to it, perhaps in order to take it down without injury by the contact of the hand. A companion gem, [790] on which an artist is painting a similar jar, shows a jug and a kylix standing on a kiln. ”

“ In the earlier tombs this Pottery. ware is present in greater numbers than any other, and the vases exhibit considerable dexterity of manufacture so far as form goes. But it is evident from comparisons with early Ionian vases that the better proportioned of the shapes are direct copies of the Ionian. The decoration of the bucchero is either engraved, in which case it is almost always extremely rude, or formed by figures modelled or pressed by a mould on to the body of the vase. ”

“ In the north of England, as at York, pottery is commonly found with wreaths and fan-patterns cut in intaglio in the clay while moist. Others have patterns of four leaves 20four-leaf cut in the soft clay, or continuous ornaments round the vase made with the toothed roller-like instrument of which we have already spoken. Some of this ornamentation may be in imitation of contemporary glass vases. M. Déchelette has traced this fabric to Lezoux, [3121] and the specimens found in Britain are doubtless imported. ”

“ At Koptos, in Egypt, and in Rhodes, vases were manufactured of an aromatic earth. [747] The extreme lightness of the paste of these vases was remarked by the ancients, and its tenuity is mentioned by Plutarch. [748] That it was an object of ambition to excel in this respect, appears from the two amphorae mentioned by Pliny as preserved in the temple of Erythrae, [749] of extreme lightness and thinness, made by a potter and his pupil when contending which could produce the lightest vase. The thinnest vases which have come down to us are scarcely thicker than pieces of stout paper. ”

“ They are never, as so often on modern vases, detached pieces stuck on the vase as a kind of afterthought. Rather, they seem to grow out of the vase like branches from a tree, which gives them a wonderful, living quality. ”

“ These names may have been placed on the vases with the view of attracting the public to purchase them, or may even have been the subject of special orders from customers. Some light seems to be thrown on the matter by a cup signed by the painter Phintias, [2213] which represents a young man, purse in hand, making purchases of vases in a potter’s workshop. This vase has the inscription Χαιρίας καλός, but whether it is intended as a representation of Chairias or his admirer it is impossible to say. The names, however, are not always those of every-day life. ”

“ There is no reason why such a type of sepulchral vase may not have been in use for many centuries, and if the porcelain reliefs in one specimen suggest a date no earlier than the Ming dynasty, the glaze in another has strong analogies to some of the rougher T ́ang wares. The majority of these vases are of coarse, rough make; others are superior in finish and of comparatively attractive form. ”

“ Hogarth’s finds. [901] Some vases are merely covered with knobs, or with a sort of honeycombing in relief [902] ; in others toothed or bossed bands are employed, either simply or combined into complex patterns. In any case this plastic element is quite a new departure. The pictorial designs include geometrical and linear patterns, zigzags, network, concentric circles, spirals, and swastikas; leaves, rosettes, and other vegetable forms; fishes, and even in one case a human figure. [903] The chief field of decoration is the shoulder of the vase. ”

“ On the vases of the latter class explanatory inscriptions seldom occur, but when they do (as on the vases of Assteas) they are always incised. Of their palaeographical peculiarities we will speak later. On a vase in the South Kensington Museum [2067] the words Βραχᾶς καλός are incised and painted red, and on the pottery found on the site of the Kabeirion at Thebes the same process is often adopted, except that the paint used is white. ”

“ The most interesting objects to me at Tucker were the specimens of pottery made by the natives, which is manufactured from clay of fine quality, although it is not properly beaten previous to being worked into vases, jugs, &c. Moulds are used to fashion the bases of the larger vessels and the inner part is shaped by the hand; a rough turning-machine simplifies the finishing of the upper part of the vase, leaving it comparatively smooth. Two handles with rough line ornamentations are added to the larger vessels, but one suffices for the jars with longer neck and small aperture. ”

“ Pottery. Wheel–made, well potted, and commonly ring–burnished, the process beginning at the base of a vase and climbing spirally: little painted decoration: face usually dusky brown over pinkish body clay, but red and yellow–white faced wares also found: shapes, mostly bowls, open and half closed: ring feet, but no handles to vases: only occasionally lug–ears (IX, Figs. 1,2,3,5,6) . Rims well turned over belong to the latest period, in which elaborate ring–burnishing is common.
Beads, &c. Diamond–shaped, with incised decoration, in clay or stone, common. ”

“ The next group shows the operation of “throwing,” a boy turning the wheel while an old man shapes the vessel. On the left is a young man sitting and holding on his knees a vase to which he seems to be attaching the handle. The entire composition is interesting, since—assuming the old man with the crook to be Homer, and not the proprietor of the pottery—it illustrates a poem which shows how widely, even at the early age in which the poet lived, the various operations in making vases were understood. For our present purpose, however, attention is chiefly directed to the furnace. ”

“ Reichhold, Griechische Vasenmalerei, I, Text, p. 159
An Athenian pottery establishment. To the left a man sits on a stool and is holding with both hands an amphora on his lap; a boy (only the head and one hand are preserved) is standing before him, placing one hand on the body of the vase; the latter is painted black, that is, it has [65] already been glazed. The man has the air of inspecting it, while the boy is apparently helping him hold it (since it is still in leather-hard condition, it requires careful handling) . The next group represents a man throwing a tall vase on a wheel ”

“ The best examples of polished ware are red. They show both ornamentation of a higher order and more artistic shapes than the others. The shape of one of these vases resembles the goddess Isis suckling Horus, in the attitude previously mentioned; another is in the form of a woman playing upon a stringed instrument (Fig. 37) ; a third is shaped like a fish; and many domestic vessels, cups, jugs, and vases are of the same material.
The Græco-Egyptian pottery forms a distinct class, differing in paste, color, and decoration. ”

“ In all these wares we see a tendency to the imitation of metal vases, which, with the growth of luxury in the Hellenistic age, had entirely replaced painted pottery both for use and ornament; the pottery of the period is reduced to a subordinate and utilitarian position, merely supplying the demands of those in the humbler spheres of life.
Collections.—The majority of the painted vases now in existence are to be found in the various public museums and collections of Europe, of which the largest and most important are the British Museum, the Louvre and the Berlin Museum. ”

“ 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. ”