British Manufacturing Industries: Pottery, Glass and Silicates, Furniture and Woodwork.

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Pollen John Hungerford. British Manufacturing Industries: Pottery, Glass and Silicates, Furniture and Woodwork.

PREFACE

BRITISH MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

POTTERY

GLASS AND SILICATES

FURNITURE AND WOODWORK

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Without entering into an elaborate dissertation on the antiquity of the Art of Pottery, which would be out of place in so short an article as this, I will briefly state that the practice of making vessels from plastic clays, for holding liquids and provisions, first resulted from the exertions made by man to emerge from his primary condition. It is a well known fact that vessels of clay, only partially baked, have been found, together with stone implements belonging to prehistoric times, and that those vessels, unfinished as they were, had peculiar characteristics. But supposing that this was not so, it must strike everybody that, after providing himself with those rude instruments wherewith to obtain his food and protect his life, man must have taken advantage of his power of observation to notice the property of plastic clay to retain water, and to find out to what useful purpose it might be brought for making vessels better suited to his wants, than the skins of animals or pieces of wood roughly hollowed out. If not probable, it is however not impossible, that the first man, taking in his hand a lump of soft clay, should have tried to give it a defined shape, in which case the art of pottery would be as ancient as the human race. It may have been anterior to the use of fire, for a sound and useful pottery may be made with clay hardened in the sun, as still practised in Egypt and India. At all events, it existed previous to the working of the first metal, as one can hardly understand how bronze could have been melted, without the assistance of vessels made of fired clay carefully selected. Consequently it is admitted by everybody, that this is one of the earliest of human inventions, and that the material has proved most durable. This durability, secured by the application of heat, is a very remarkable phenomenon; for while many other materials, apparently very hard, have been found unable to stand the atmospheric changes or the continuous contact with a damp soil, it was sufficient to submit this one to a very moderate heat, to be enabled to resist these various agencies for several thousands of years. This is particularly noticeable in the black Greek pottery, which, while possessing all its former appearance, can, however, be scratched by the nail or broken by a gentle pressure between the fingers. It is thus that we are indebted to the art of pottery for innumerable works of art, many of which have proved most useful in elucidating historical facts, and making us acquainted with the habits, dresses, and ceremonies of ancient peoples.

One can understand how difficult it is to decide who were the earliest potters. It is a question that archæologists have often tried to answer, but which is not likely to be ever solved. Pottery was created to meet a special want of the human race, and we find early pottery existing in almost every part of the world, in unknown America, as well as in Europe or Asia. It is, however, easier to decide which people first excelled in it, and in this respect we must give equal credit to the Egyptians and the Chinese. It is mentioned in sacred history that more than 2000 years B.C. the Egyptian potters were celebrated for their skill, and if we can believe Chinese tradition, the manufacturers in China were at this same time under the control of a superintendent appointed by the government. Unfortunately, we have very little information respecting the history of the art in China, previous to the sixteenth century; and although we have a notion of what they did and how they did it, it is wiser, with our imperfect knowledge, to abstain from speculating as to when the different sorts of Chinese ware were produced. But as regards the Egyptians, there is no uncertainty; some of their ceramic relics bear their own inscriptions, and others have been found associated with objects or monuments whose dates have been carefully ascertained. We may well believe in their skill, when we know that they were acquainted with the most difficult processes for making the bodies and glazes, and that they used the same metallic oxides for colouring their ornaments that we are now using, though often, let us acknowledge, with less success. During a period of at least eleven hundred years, from the eighteenth to the twenty-fourth dynasty, they displayed considerable ingenuity in the production of small figures, jewellery ornaments, and hieroglyphic tablets, in which several sorts of pottery mixtures and differently coloured glazes were most cleverly associated. It is from Egypt that sound principles of pottery making seem to have spread to the different nations; first to the Phœnicians, who in their turn became famous for their knowledge in the art of vitrifying mineral substances; and then to the Assyrians, who seem to have applied pottery more specially to the ornamentation of their buildings.

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Flat pieces, such as plates, dishes, saucers, and the like, are made in plaster moulds, on which a bat of soft clay is tightly compressed by a hand tool, called a polisher. The process is very expeditious, although the presser is obliged to repeat the operation, to give more pressure and finish. For this kind of ware, the potter's wheel called a jigger, is simplified so far, that the iron spindle resting on its point and fixed to a bench, is provided only with a round plaster head on which the moulds are placed. The presser keeps this in motion with his left hand, whilst with the right he guides the polisher.

In those manufactories which have adopted the latest improvements, the jiggers are worked by steam power, and the stoves in which the pieces are sent to dry are heated by steam pipes. These are constructed on a new principle, consisting of a number of shelves which revolve round a central spindle, so that by a gentle push of the hand, each section is successively brought in front of the door, giving the opportunity of removing or putting in the moulds. This simple contrivance does away with the necessity for the assistant boy entering the stove, and feeling the bad effects of the heat.

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