Pottery at the Centennial

THE term ceramics — or keramics, as many now prefer to spell it — includes all work done on the potter’s wheel, which was one of the first mechanical contrivances of man. The words porcelain, pottery, faience, earthen-ware, majolica or majolica, delft, stone-ware, are now used to express varieties of this fictile work. We do not propose here any extended desciptions of the great varieties of pottery, but simply so much as may be needed to explain the objects to be mentioned.

Pottery may be classed as unglazed and glazed: the former, being the first invented, was simply molded from the clay and then dried and hardened in the fire. In course of time a glaze or glass or skim was applied, so as to make the vessels impervious to water. The earliest fictile vessels known were the unglazed, and these are found among the remains of the earliest peoples, on this continent as well as elsewhere. In the Peruvian exhibit at Philadelphia is to be seen a great and curious collection of these, consisting mostly of bottles and pipkins, the articles most in use with this interesting and highly and peculiarly civilized people. These will hold fluids for a time, and in a hot climate are still in use, because the evaporation through the porous sides keeps up a grateful coolness. They will also to some considerable extent submit to the action of fire, and they formerly were valuable in preparing the simpler forms of food. The first method of cooking being that of toasting before a fire, the next would be the attempt to seethe or stew. It is interesting to notice in this collection the attempts at ornamentation, which seem to be almost coincident with the manufacture. In fact, the desire for ornament is so inherent as to be almost an instinct. Among the earliest attempts here, as everywhere, are to be seen the saw-tooth, the Greek fret, and some indications of beading or chainwork incised in the clay. These natural styles of decoration are found in all countries, and in some have been elaborated, as among the Greeks, to a great intricacy and variety. The next thing we see in this collection is the rude representation of the human figure, mostly in the direction of faces and hands. That these should in almost all cases take the character of grotesques or whims is inevitable. In some cases, doubtless, the potters have attempted to present the symbol of a god, who, in a visible shape, could be worshiped by the unimaginative soul.

A very fine example of this sort of unglazed figure - work is to be seen in a case in the Japanese collection sent by Kiriu Kosko Kuwaisha. It is a much higher class of work than the Peruvian, and in its way could hardly be excelled. The figure is about twelve inches high and seems to be an intense embodiment of Japanese jollity; its halfshut eyes, lolling tongue, and relaxed figure tell the story perfectly. My Japanese guide, philosopher, and friend did not consider it in any way a god, though it is so like the Chinese Poutai, god of content, that one wonders. If it indeed were a domestic god, our keen Japanese gentlemen would not be likely to urge that view to us, who have less regard for other people’s gods even than for our own. This unglazed earthen-ware, now called terra - cotta, is still made in many countries for the uses of life, and in some it has become, as it was among the Greeks, a vehicle for the finest expression of form.

Not far from the Japanese exhibit is to be seen in the Spanish collection a pyramid of unglazed pottery, nearly or quite all of a light buff color. It has this value, that it is such as is in use to-day in the houses of the common people; and that is about all we can say for it. The whole of it has been bought for the Pennsylvania School of Art. Why they should want a hundred pieces of this work one may well be at a 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. A few pieces of a light gray body in the Egyptian collection are excellent both in form and in their many - colored decoration. These pieces are like, but better than, most of that which comes out from Africa through Tangier, of which we saw none in the Main Building, but learn that there is a collection in the Tunisian Building. Many good pieces of this barbaric pottery are in the country, though most of the Specimens are glazed. These Egyptian pots have this vast merit, that they have come from the personal wants and the depths of the moral consciousness of the Egyptians themselves; from potters who know no language, no country, and no art but their own; and therefore they are in no way imitations of what has been done in France, or England, or Boston.

The dark red terra - cotta ware from Egypt is mostly in small pieces, but is excellent in its modeling and finish; and it is satisfactory to see that it is much bought by our people. This clay, with its polished surface, is peculiar to Egypt, at least we see it nowhere else. The Turks have sent a few examples of their simple pottery, some of it unglazed and some Covered with a deep green glaze, which are simply what they pretend to be. Their polychrome decoration is also good, but not so good as the Egyptian.

Mexico, too, has sent a small collection of this sort of work, which smacks yet of the Aztec races, but too little of it to be of much use. A few glazed pots painted in the Indian fashion are excellent, and have all been bought up quickly, because they suggest Montezuma and his brown people, who have been wholly consumed by the greedy whites. The belief of Mr. Alexandro Casarin, the potter or dealer who sends from Mexico, is that this native spontaneous pottery, which doubtless is yet to be found in out-of-the-way places, is not a thing to be proud of, at least it is not to be sent to us; that what we want are his very poor imitations of European porcelain. Nor is such a delusion his alone. In Italy are to be found yet among the small potters many most desirable and interesting things, which bear to-day the traditional shapes and decorations which have come down from the early Greek potters and perhaps from the Etruscans themselves. Not one of these, we believe, is shown in the Italian department. So, too, we have seen now and then, abroad, most interesting examples of plastic work from Hungary and parts of Germany; but they were very cheap, not what the nobility and gentry would be eager to buy, and none of them are to be found at Philadelphia.

Of terra-cotta work in red and in buff there is a good show, mainly from England and Denmark. The clay, the modeling, and the finish are quite perfect in many of these. The Watcombe people had already reached perfection in the color and texture of their clay, and the Greek vases, as well as jugs, ewers, and a variety of things, — their own designs, —could not have been bettered some three years ago. They had been satisfied to insure a simplicity which touched perfection. In their present exhibit it is clear that they are no longer satisfied with this, or that a jaded taste needs excitement. The work sent us constantly says, “ We are trying to do something new and surprising, if nothing better than before.” The principal novelty now is the combining of two colors of clay in the same pot; as, for example, a lighter body with a darker red for the handles, moldings, and ornaments. Dignity and repose are lost, and no new pleasure is supplied. We feel sure that this will not last. And then, when bands of color or polychrome decoration are used on the fine red clay, they nearly always injure, and the inevitable tendency to overdo cannot be restrained. Their modeled figures seemed to have neither the delicacy of the parian nor the sketchy freedom of some of the French designers.

Some years ago the Copenhagen manufacturers made a very considerable success in their revival of the Greek vase, both plain and painted in black with Greek figures of horses, warriors, women, etc. They have had for the last ten years a large sale; and as we cannot have the real Greek vases because of their scarcity and price, it is well to have some examples so well copied as these are. Yet there is a limit to one’s capacity for copies of Greek vases, and it seems positive that we have reached it. We hope so. But Ipsen’s widow has sent us some of the yellow vases and pots, most delicately and delightfully painted with the lotus and other Egyptian designs, which for subtlety of color and precision of touch cannot be surpassed. These, we are glad to see, our people are buying, and not the other.

And what have we Americans done in this terra - cotta work ? Nothing of the finer sorts, certainly. Those must come by and by. Galloway and Graff and Gossin make excellent shows of large garden vases, pots, pedestals, seats, and so on, for out-of-door uses; and it is not in one who is not a potter to say they are not better than the old English house of Doulton makes. Certainly they seem as good; and we hope they do and will find their reward in the pecuniary praise of their own people, which we well know it is hard to get. Our land is rich in clays, of which we shall have more to say farther on; and we ought to welcome any new industry and applaud every new art which shall bring up their values and display their beauties.

Of stone-ware there are but a few illustrations in the Exhibition, at least in the Main Building. Stone-ware differs from earthen-ware in that it contains in the body more silex, and that it is baked with a higher heat, so that this sand, melting into the clay, vitrifies and makes a stronger ware than the clay used for earthen - ware can make without it. It was, and we believe is still, the custom to glaze this ware by throwing salt into the heated ovens; and this, being a muriate of soda, going up in vapor seizes upon the melting silex or sand and makes on the surface of the vessels a skim which some call soda glass. This ware was once made in great quantities, and with much art and many quaintnesses of design, along the Rhine country, from Nuremberg to Cologne. We hear of it under the names of Cologne ware and Grèsde-Flanders, and good pieces of the old manufacture are hard to get. The colors of the clay were a soft gray and a darkish brown. The only color used in decorating the gray body was cobalt blue, as this was the only one which would stand the high heat necessary to produce the glaze. The large-bellied “ bellarmine ” or “gray-beard bottles ” were of this ware. Now and then we find them decorated — beside the face and long beard on the neck — with an elaborate, carefully designed coat of arms on the belly; sometimes in honor of the lord for whom they were made, sometimes indicating him who protected and most likely plundered the potter when duty required.

The old Grès-de-Flanders, when in good preservation, now bring high prices and are very decorative. In the Exhibition are to be seen some pretty good reproductions of this ware, from Hanké and Merklebach on the Rhine. In Hanké’s collection is one tall pot with a spiral procession running up it, which is excellent; Merklebach’s work is better and more carefully done. Hanké can do good work, but we happen to know that he needs to be watched. He has put upon his blues here and there some touches of green which are bad.

Messrs. Doulton and Watt, of England, within the last five years have brought to great perfection a finer sort of stone-ware, which we believe is finished still with the salt glaze. These are in no sense imitations, and thus have, besides their great beauty, the charm of originality. The designs of the Misses Barlow — animals and flower pieces — have great spirit and merit. They are etched in the soft clay and then colored and fired. We believe and hope the ladies have been able to make much money by their work and their art; for the Messrs. Doulton are liberal and high-minded men, and know when to pay. They have solved the woman question. Various styles of decoration have been applied to these pots, and they are now to be found in all the good collections of Europe.

From time to time among our occidental races has sprung up a fashion, almost a rage, for pottery and porcelain; and some fools have become more foolish than before in the pursuit. Still, among the “ wise and the good ” the subject has been one of great interest, and the collection, study, and illustration of pottery have resulted in as much satisfaction as can be got from any pursuit, even fox-hunting or money-getting.

To those who are ignorant of this, and who cannot comprehend why it is, a few words may not be out of place by way of explanation.

The making of pottery is one of the oldest industries of man, one of the most necessary, and it has been made one of the most delectable. It has from the commonest material — the dust under our feet—made some of the most delicate and beautiful things we know of. It uses the most plastic of all substances, which obeys fully, minutely, the wish or the sense of the potter; it may therefore be stamped with his individual perception of the useful and beautiful more than any other material man can use. The perfect forms of the Greek potter, the exquisite colors of the Persian and Arabian and Chinese painters, the brilliant lustres of the Moorish and Italian decorators, are here displayed and are in a sense imperishable. The paintings of Egyptians and Greeks and Romans have perished; their pottery remains. The antiquarian and the historical student have sought here for many things and have found many. The artistic sensibility has also seen much to enjoy. That we in this country are so little able to comprehend all this is partly owing to that necessity which has compelled us to pass our lives in hewing down trees, damming rivers, killing bears, cheating Indians; and partly to the fact that we have had no examples of pottery or porcelain in the country. We are now doing something to overcome this, and the private collections of Messrs. Prime, Hoe, Avery, Wales, Pruyn, and others will soon give the opportunity to see and learn which many seek.

Coming now to glazed pottery, we may say that under the names of earthenware, faience, delft, and maiolica we recognize pottery which is made of various clays, that transmits no light, and thus differs from porcelain, which does transmit some light, and does also break with a vitreous fracture, as earthen-ware does not.

Faience is a name given to the manufactures of earthen-ware made in France, and is supposed to have been derived from the town of Faenza in Italy, whence some of the potters came.

Delft came from the Dutch city where in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the best ear then-ware was largely produced.

Maiolica was the name given to the wares made in Italy as early as 1400, when painting and decorating reached a high point in art, and were marked by such peculiarities of color and design as have made this class of work a study by itself. Through more than two centuries (1350to 1550), during the time of the great Renaissance, this art was in wide activity all over Italy, where it enlisted dukes, artists, merchants, and all classes, indeed. The dukes of Urbino were specially eager in its service, and their name is often applied to some styles of the work. Raphael, the great painter, has given his name to some of the work; and, if he did not himself paint upon the vases, it is believed that some of his pupils did, and his designs were certainly used. The two artists whose names are best known are Lucca Della Robbia and Maestro Giorgio, who painted at Urbino, and whose known works bring incomparable prices; besides these are many others not wholly lost to fame.

The “ lustred ” dishes of this period were produced by the use of thin washes of metallic oxides, which are mostly ruby-reds and golden; the fashion came from the Moorish potters of Spain, from whom we have inherited so much that is good and true in art and architecture. We were not able to examine a collection of these maiolica dishes brought by Castellani to the Exhibition, which are the real products of that time; but among them the curious visitor will be able to see some excellent examples of the work.

What else shall we find? Hundreds of imitations. Italy, especially, has been devoting herself with great industry to reproductions of the vases, ewers, tozzas, plaques, dishes, and so on, of the past; and some very fair ones she has sent from Pisaro, Rome, and Faenza. The vases and ewers bearing figure - pieces or mythological pictures have a certain quality peculiar to this style of work which at first may excite distaste rather than desire, but after a time induces 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. There is a great deal of work on some of the figure-pictures, and the prices seem to be small. Nearly all the best of them are marked “ sold.”The two names most conspicuous as potters in Italy now, Ginori, at Florence, and Giustiniani, at Naples, do not appear among the exhibitors, so far as we know. Their prices are much higher, and some of their work is better than any shown. But if draughtsmen and artists so good would only give us their pictures of the life of Italy to-day as they so well could do, — of the peasants and their donkeys, their vine-dressing and wine-making, their fishing, their cooking, their street work in its thousand varieties! That they could, and do not; that they continue on and on with the stupid round of copy after copy in all departments of art, may mean that the good public who have money to spend want these copies, and therefore potters and painters sink from the clear air of invention and originality into the dull inanities of copying. That this stupidity is not peculiar to the Italians is everywhere apparent: in the English, French, German, in all departments of ceramic art, except possibly the Japanese; and we know too little to be sure even of them.

Do we who buy really demand and so create this unwise waste? Now and then a dazzling ray of hopeful light strikes the eye; as, for example, in those fresh, delightful, beautiful bronze groups by that young artist, Lanceray, born in Russia, and here and there, in a less remarkable way, in other departments. This man’s work, so daring, so fresh, so Russian and not Greek, is apparently appreciated.

Within a decade a kind of bold decorative pottery has appeared in England and elsewhere, and is called “majolica,” for what reason one cannot divine. Some very large vases and pots of this work are to be seen in the Main Building, exhibited, we think, by Daniels and Son. The work seems a sort of cross between the Italian maiolicas and the Palissy ware. It does not attempt fineness or delicacy of form, or subtlety of color or meaning in its decoration; and indeed it is not possible to understand why it should be. But it has for the last ten years been largely produced and widely sold, and it must gratify a certain want. Who buys it and where it goes, who can tell ? for in these ten years the writer has seen but one piece of it in any house except a hotel. Is it true that the people who go to hotels and who travel in steamboats demand this sort of thing? Is it indeed true that whatever is bad and big finds its pedestal in those palaces because their patrons cry for them; or is it that the designers of these caravansaries suppose they do, and are frightfully mistaken? Or is it possible that what no one else will buy a hotelmanager always does? Of this class of work the best we saw was in the collection of Rostrand, of Stockholm, and has the merit of good and quiet color.

The Palissy ware, as it is called, appears in considerable force also. The history of Bernard Palissy, a French potter who suffered much and accomplished much, is interesting; and it. has unfortunately given to the pottery he produced a glamour of merit which it does not deserve. The most striking feature of this ware is the covering the margins of dishes, and sometimes an entire plate, with representations of snakes, toads, fish, lizards, shells, leaves, etc., in high relief. These are not only not interesting, but they are poor imitations of natural objects and do not deserve to rank as art. Notwithstanding this, Palissy’s own work has a great value for museums and schools, as illustrating the history of pottery. But this does not demand of us that we should fill our houses with these things so undesirable to the artistic soul. The best of those we saw were in Barbizet’s exhibit, and we think that among them is to be found better work than any which Palissy did. As Palissy had everything to hinder, and Barbizet has all to help, it is not surprising.

It is undoubtedly true that, following in the wake of the great potters of Italy, France did produce at Nevers, at Haguenau, at Rouen, and at Marseilles some good and distinctive decorations of earthen-ware. The genuine old pieces now bring great prices, and a good demand has sprung up for their copies. These are excellently made at Nevers and at Gien, and the exhibits by these two factories in the French department are worthy of attention. But in the way of earthen-ware nothing in the French or English exhibits is at all equal to the vases, bottles, etc., shown by Haviland, from Limoges. These, we were told frankly and with all desire to give the artists their due share, were modeled by Lindencher and painted by Lafon; we hope we have their names right. The forms of the pots and the relief modelings are bold, unconventional, and excellent. The artist has studied nature and art also, but not to copy. This is true too of Lafon, whose lavish and daring use of color is remarkable. Nothing is niggled or petty, as in this kind of work nothing should be. As examples of real art they are equal to the best work of China and Japan, and a true man would wish rather a hundred such vases as the Pennsylvania Industrial Museum has bought, than one of those great vases from Sèvres which stand in the French picture gallery. This is the same kind of art-work which for a few years has been done by Chapelet and a little band of artists near Paris, some of which has been brought to Boston and has had a tedious sale. These painters are artists in color. Bold and strange as the work is, nothing is glaring, showy, bright, or flashy ; throughout there is that reserve which indicates strength and creates confidence.

A few pieces of the “Henri Deux” ware may be seen in the collection of Messrs. Daniels and Son. They are copies made at Minton’s by an artist named Toft. These are as far away from the bold pottery just spoken of as the pole from the equator, yet they are equally good as art-work, equally interesting, and probably a hundred times more costly. The ordinary observer will see nothing to attract attention at his first glance. The pieces themselves are small; the decoration is in delicate black and brown lines, covering nearly the whole surface; the glaze and body are not specially striking; but to the expert probably no pottery exists more interesting as art-work, or showing such a complete and delicate mastery of the potter’s art. They are molded of pipe clay; into this are engraved delicate lines in the style of the “ champ-levé ” enamels, and these are filled with colored clays to make the ornament. The place and history of this manufacture have for a long time been a mystery, which has been only recently cleared up, and is best explained by M. Ritter in a recent article published in England, as follows : —

“ At the court of King Francis I. lived a widow lady of high birth, named Hélène de Hangest. Her husband had been governor of the king, and grand master of France. She was herself an artist, and a collection of drawings by her of considerable artistic merit is preserved. They are portraits of the celebrities of the period. She was in favor at court; the king himself composed a rhymed motto to each of her portraits, and some of these verses are written in his own hand. It is established that Hélène do Hangest set up a pottery at her château of Oiron, and that Francis Charpentier, a potter, was in her employ. To his hand, under the auspices of the chatelaine of Oiron, is due the famous ware of Henri Deux.”

Some fifty-three pieces of this ware only are known to exist, of which twenty-six are owned in England, twentysix in France, and one in Russia. These have cost the owners from one to ten thousand dollars each, and if for sale would sell for still more, prices which no other porcelain or pottery could bring. Besides the delicate reproductions in Philadelphia, Mr. Briggs, of Boston, has had and may still have some examples.

To this pottery may be applied that excellent word, “ elegant.” It may be compared with the bold work from Limoges, of which we have spoken, in the same way that an etching of Rajon’s may be spoken of in the same breath with a painting of Regnault’s, wholly unlike but wholly good.

Let us now turn to the porcelain exhibit. Porcelain, as most know, was first invented and made in China long before our era, and was brought to Europe by the Portuguese about the year 1518.

While the Chinese have been making porcelain of the most perfect kinds from a very early period, some as early as forty to sixty centuries ago, and the Japanese since the beginning of our era, its secret was not discovered in Europe until about the years 1709-15, when Böttcher, in Saxony, succeeded in producing true porcelain. It may be of interest to many to know that this discovery of porcelain grew out of the experiments of the alchemists, and that Böttcher was searching for the secret of the philosopher’s stone when some substance was produced in one of the crucibles which suggested porcelain to his shrewd mind. Out of his experiments and the discovery of the true kaolinic clay sprang the royal porcelain works of Meissen, which continue to this day.

The finest porcelain made in Europe was the result of the work at Dresden; for in Saxony was discovered a bed of the kaolinic clay. From about 1730 to 1800 the best work was produced, and in many styles of decoration.

In the Centennial collection there is no exhibit from the royal works of Meissen, — that is, of the Dresden ware, — and it is an almost universal belief that to-day neither the clay, the forms, nor the decoration are at all equal to those of the last century. The same is true of the royal potteries at Berlin. There is quite a large collection of the present Berlin work in the Main Building; it fails to reach the old standard, either in the body or in the designs. Indeed, it must be looked at rather as a life based upon tradition, having a certain interest which one’s great ancestors might transmit.

The most famous of European porcelains in this century have been made at Sevres, and are still made there. While the pride and spirit which once inspired the factories at Dresden and Berlin have abated, at Sèvres is still to be seen much activity and a good degree of life. The only works from Sèvres, however, are some large and elaborately painted vases in the French picture exhibit. They certainly have the merits of size and careful elaboration and painful penciling, but are wholly lacking in the finer and subtler qualities which genius or courage might have given with even less hard work. We believe that France now is developing more genius in the ceramic artists than any other country. Whether it can there find its best field may be doubted, when we remember that so many who go to Sèvres to buy are controlled by such questions as these: “What do kings buy? Which costs most? ”

We find in the French exhibit a profusion of porcelain bound and strapped and fringed with those elaborations of gold mountings which, if possible, we would punish the buyers of with sudden death: they are the culprits, for if they did not demand these things, surely no potter or man of artistic education would wish to make them. If the pot is good, it not only does not need this gilding but is spoiled by it; if it is bad, it is an insult to try to make us swallow it in that way.

Haché and Pepin, of Paris, have some excellent dinner-services, in which the shapes and the body are almost perfect. The gilding, too, is good, though too much for most who do not live in palaces. Some delightful sage-green tea-cups too may here be seen, and a dessert-service which has nicely painted roses thrown on the borders. Haviland & Co. have a dinner-service, delicately modeled and nicely painted, made in pâte tendre. As this is so much more perishable and so much more costly than the pâte dur it is a pity to waste fine work and valuable time upon it. Twelve dinner-plates, designed by Bracquemond, once at Sèvres, are good; but as they are simply imitations of Japanese birds and plants, one is again impelled to ask, Why should not this artist have spent his strength upon the birds and plants of France?

Stepping across to the English exhibit, which in ceramics is perhaps the largest of all, we find much every - day good work. Messrs. Bromfield and Son have some nearly perfect dinner-sets, where body, form, and decoration are delightful. The shape of the dinner-plate, which is not deep but shallow, and has the edge or rim nearly or quite horizontal with the table, is perfection. We have been eating for so long upon plates which with their rims slanting upward make a sort of fence to keep us away from what we so greatly desire, and into which our salt is always sliding to its ruin that we are inclined to clap our hands at this simple and beautiful success. The French have been grievous sinners in this way, and it is strange, too, for they have shown so much perception of the fit and the beautiful. In this collection is to be seen a pair of large vases upon which is tossed in a bold and free way a profusion of red roses, quite fascinating.

Messrs. Daniels and Son exhibit a greater variety of art-work than any other one house; and we understand that not being potters or artists themselves they know how to have their work done by those who are in the best way artists. Many interesting things are to be seen here which cannot be well described; but it is impossible to pass over, without a word, the exquisite pâte sur pâte vases and pots designed and made by Solon. This fascinating and finished style of work, so far as we know, originated in France, where some admirable pieces have been made. The name comes from the fact that upon a body or paste of a dark color is laid a design in a light or white paste, which, being semi-transparent, allows of delicate shading and modeling. This is to be seen in great perfectness in these vases made by M. Solon. While he cannot claim to have originated a new style of artistic porcelain, it is certain that the work here exhibited cannot be surpassed. The vases sold to Sir Richard Wallace for some six hundred guineas have a subtle, deep olive-green body, upon which M. Solon’s figures seem floating as if they had just appeared from the dark, or might at any moment sink into it. The mystery and strength of color no one can fathom or explain, nor can one at all put into words the ineffable satisfaction which one receives from such work as this. It is gratifying to know that two pairs of these vases have been bought by the Philadelphia Industrial Museum and by Henry Gibson, Esq., so that one may hope hereafter to see in Philadelphia examples of this art-work. While these are in the English exhibit, it must be said that M. Solon is a Frenchman, and having been one of the artists at Sèvres he must be recognized as the outcome of the French rather than the English soil.

It was to be expected that the Chinese and the Japanese, if they made an exhibit at all, would take the places of honor. This they have done for quantity, and the Japanese do so for quality also.

When it is remembered that the great city of King-teh-Chin had grown to be a city of near a million of Chinese souls, according to the French missionaries, as long ago as the thirteen hundreds of our era, wholly devoted to the production of fictile wares, and that this city was almost destroyed in our time by the Tae-ping rebels who called themselves Christians, one can hardly expect an exhibit of modern work at all equal to what we have seen and known to have come from these heathen Chinese. Among those we saw are some good pots, but none equal to what may be seen in such private collections as those of Mr. Avery, Mr. Hoe, Mr. Pruyn, Mr. Wales, Mr. Cunningham, Mrs. Burlinghame, and doubtless others which we have not seen. In these collections are exquisite examples of work done in the best period of art, the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). To-day neither the body, the forms, nor the decoration seem at all near those of that time; and we failed to see any examples of one of the most delightful of porcelains, the celestial blue, which some of the private collections just mentioned are so rich in. Among those we noticed in the collection, sure to create a feeling of pleasure, were a pair of vases with free sketches of deer, bought by Mr. Howland; some céladon bottles etched all over, bought by Mr. Marquand; and, finer than any, some blue and green “ crackle ” pots secured by W. T. W., of Baltimore, which were exquisite.

But we can expect no more great work from these people. Upon all the Orientals we are now impressing ourselves, and they will surely be induced to copy our bad art rather than to convert us to their good.

The Japanese have the largest and the finest exhibit in the collection. Their art and their manufactures retain a certain excellence, a certain honesty, and a certain piquant individuality, so far their own, but which must certainly go down before the arrogant demands of trade. Already there is sufficient evidence that they are perceiving the desirableness of shoddy and the importance of cheapness ; already they are making us pay “through the nose,” or pocket, for what we want to buy; and it will not be surprising by and by to hear them spoken of as those “ unconscionable rascals ” and even with stronger objurgations, which, no doubt, they will well deserve.

Making inquiries of one or two of the officials with a desire if possible to learn a little of the interesting people and their ways, we were told that there are at Hizen some five factories of fictile wares; at Kioto, ten; at Owari, three; at Kaga, five; at Satsuma, one; at Banko, one; at Yedo, forty-three. This last statement was a surprise, but it was reiterated. It is likely that at that port this result has been brought about by the demands of trade following the persuasions of our ships and guns.

The porcelains of Hizen rank first, and the exhibit from there is the largest. The two great vases some eight feet high, being lacquer on porcelain, are the largest pieces of potter’s work we have ever seen, and they seem cheap at twenty-five hundred dollars. In the central part of the two great cases are two small tea-sets of some five pieces each, which are really the finest of porcelain in all particulars, and yet no one had bought them at one hundred and thirty dollars each; not even the Philadelphia Museum, which has shown a marvelous skill in selecting the best. There are also here quite a number of excellent pots and vases, from which Mr. Brown has secured a very desirable pair, sage-green with white bands containing grotesque designs. There are still other good things to be selected here.

The Owari porcelain is mostly the blue. The body or paste seemed clear, but there was a want of good form and superiority of coloring and decoration. Some excellent and striking pieces could be found here. But so far as one visit could reveal, there was nothing equal to the old six-mark blue.

The Kaga ware is distinctive and peculiar, in that there is in the decoration a preponderance of crimson and gold. It is strong and positive, but it is also pretty certain to be somewhat clumsy, lacking a certain subtle delicacy which is or should be found in the finest china.

The Satsuma is a faience now tolerably well known for its creamy tone, its quaint, often richly colored designs, and its glaze, which is a fine net-work of crackle. Of modern pottery none is more interesting than the good of this, and in the old Satsumas are to be found pieces which nothing equals. These last we do not find in the Exhibition, of course.

The Kioto is also a faience of a weaker body than the Satsuma, and running more to a lemon yellow. Its decoration is marked by a certain delicacy which in small articles is good, but which in large ones lacks strength. Shimzi of Kioto has a case of good pieces.

Meyagama of Yokohama has some delightful porcelain vases, decorated in relief with butterflies, plants, etc., which, it is Satisfactory to know, are bought by our New York friends.

The few examples of Banko ware show a curious kind of pottery, mostly in dark clays without glaze, bearing enameled decorations. We have seen at Mr. Briggs’s, and at some of the New York dealers’, more attractive pieces than any we saw here.

The case of old wares shown by Kiriu Kosho Kuwaisha, from Tokio, contains a collection which has a kind of mysterious fascination even to us “ outside barbarians,” which we suppose might become an intense desire to possess, could we know anything about them.

Have we Americans nothing in the great Exhibition to show our skill in the ceramic arts? Let us see. Some twenty firms, mostly from Trenton, are collected in the southeast corner of the Main Building, where they make a creditable display of what is known as the “ White granite ” ware, so useful and so detestable; thick, that it may resist the hostility of the Milesian maiden, clumsy because of that, without color or decoration of any kind, and cheap: can we expect or demand much ? Looking more carefully, we find in Otto and Brewer’s exhibit a modeler named Broome who has made some base-ball players which are full of life and spirit; also some unglazed vases which have excellence of form and precision of modeling and decoration, showing that good things may be done here. James Moses, too, has some white and gold work which is good. Isaac Davis, one of these granite potters, has ventured to turn his cups with a sense of good form, and with a thin lip from which one might drink without being reminded of the horse-trough : he must beware lest it Should not pay!

Laughlin Brothers, of Ohio, have a good show of the same kind of wares, and they have also a decorated dinnerset which is good. They have more than this, in that they promise us something. They are using feldspars, kaolins, clays, Silexes, from various parts of our country, and believe we have the best and the greatest variety to be found in any country; but besides these a new clay or mineral, as they think, has been found in Missouri, which promises to be of infinite value. It is cheap, is easily ground and mixed, and imparts to the body a creamy softness, and a beauty which adds much to the production. That this is true is shown in some of the cups made with it. Moreover, as Mr. Laughlin states, one or more of the best porcelain-makers of Europe are seriously contemplating the propriety of establishing themselves on this shore of the sea, and putting to use these kaolinic treasures. And why not? With cheap clays, cheap fuels, cheap foods, may we not begin to supply ourselves, if not some of the rest of the world, with the finest productions of the potter’s wheel? And it would seem a good thing for us to do. So, if we should do it, might there not be a drop of consolation to our free-trade doctors in knowing that our forty per cent. of duty had brought this good to pass?

Before we leave this subject let us ask attention to the style of decoration practiced by the Orientals, as we see it in this Exhibition.

It is not likely that the Oriental goes to a school to be taught various styles of decoration: the Greek, the Egyptian, the Roman, the Renaissance, and so on. Doubtless there are masters, men of daring and the perceptive eye, who have struck out styles which have fascinated thousands there as they do us; and these artists have impressed others; but the freedom and boldness of their painters even to-day seem to show that they have not been made into slaves or copyers. There is still, especially do we see it in Japan, a certain freedom and personality such as marked their best work three centuries ago. And this a servile copying in the schools does not permit. The Oriental sees and feels the spirit and grace and meaning of the natural forms, and throws them upon the porcelain with a free hand which excites our admiration. It is not done without study or care or pains, but it has the curious fascination of touching the imagination as no painfully penciled miniature ever can. The Oriental artist feels, and he suggests to our imagination and excites in a degree the same feeling that he had himself. Now this seems really art, and not copying. Then too there is fitness in decorating chinas or pottery with sketches, and it seems a waste to put upon these fictile vessels the elaborate penciling which should be found only in the best miniatures or the most delicate pictures.

Charles Wyllys Elliott.