Chapter XVII: Part 17

The most admirable result of this revived interest in Japanese art was, however, developed at the Royal Copenhagen works, the productions of which are not only famous all over the world, but have set a new style in porcelain decoration which is being followed at most of the continental factories. By the use of the pure Swedish felspar and quartz and the finest china clays from Germany or Cornwall a material of excellent quality is prepared, and on this naturalistic paintings of birds, fishes, animals and water or northern landscapes and figure subjects are painted in delicate under-glaze blues, greys and greens. The Royal Copenhagen works has also produced a profusion of skilfully modelled animals, birds and fishes, either in pure white, or delicately tinted after nature, with the same under-glaze colours.

Not only have Berlin, Sèvres and other European factories adopted the modern Copenhagen style of decoration, but the Japanese are now imitating these skilful productions which were originally inspired by their own early work.

_Stonewares._--Mention must be made of the revival of the manufacture of artistic stonewares by Doultons of Lambeth, and Villeroy and Boch, the great German potters. Doultons, besides reviving the older forms of English stoneware, made some entirely new departures, and their pieces with designs etched in the clay are admirable examples of the right use of a refractory material. Villeroy and Boch reproduced the old Rhenish stonewares, and many interesting new departures in addition, but mostly in German forms that have not commended the wares to other nations.

Chelsea porcelain; 1745-1770 Figure after Watteau.

Worcester Porcelain; c. 1760-1770.

Whieldon and Wedgwood, cauliflower ware; c. 1750-1760.

Wedgwood's jasper; c. 1780.

Turner's jasper; c. 1780.]

_Artistic Results._--While the great potteries of Europe have been employed in improving their methods of manufacture and in consolidating their knowledge on the technical and scientific side, so that they are able to produce pottery more perfect in shape, with a higher degree of finish and greater certainty of result than was ever known before, it cannot be said that the artistic results have been commensurate with the labour expended. Fortunately, however, the success of these important industrial concerns in stereotyping modern production has incited a considerable number of clever men, either potters or artists, to become artist-potters and producers of individual wares, often recalling the works of the great schools of bygone centuries. This movement, which to-day has its exponents in every European country as well as in the United States of America, originated in France between 1840 and 1850, when the formation of the earliest ceramic museums and the new-born interest in the old French faience led to various attempts at pottery-making by the old methods of handwork and rule of thumb. Avisseau of Tours (1845), Pull of Paris (1855), and Barbizet (1859) began to make pieces in the style of Palissy, and Ulysse of Blois (1863) revived painted faience in imitation of that of Nevers. Slowly a demand for painted pottery was created among collectors and amateurs, and in France and other countries artists began to dabble in the painting of pottery. In some cases the artist retained his freedom, painting pieces obtained from some pottery manufacturer, which he sold on his own account after they had been decorated and fired; or he became attached to a particular factory and his productions were sold by the potter; or the artist became an amateur potter, and either worked alone or encouraged other artists to co-operate with him.

It is impossible to do more than mention a few of the prominent men in each class, whose works were not only esteemed in their own day, but are also likely to be regarded always as among the distinguished productions of the 19th century. Emile Lessore and Chapelet were both painters who were attracted by the technique of the potter. For some time they bought specimens of pottery from a small manufacturer named Laurin at Bourg-la-Reine, and after a time they definitely forsook pictorial art for that of the potter. Lessore painted in underglaze colours in a delicate sketchy style figure-subjects, mostly adapted from old engravings. He worked for a short time at Sèvres, and then, like so many other French pottery artists of this period, he came to Minton's in England, and finally entered into an engagement with the old firm of Josiah Wedgwood & Sons which continued almost to his death (1860-1876). On their fine cream-coloured earthenware he sketched many thousands of fanciful designs which had a great vogue in the 'seventies and 'eighties of the last century. Chapelet pursued a very different course. His first innovation was a method known as "Barbotine" or slip-painting, in which coloured clays were used "impasto," often in considerable thickness, so that after the work had been fired and glazed it bore some resemblance to an oil painting. For a few years this style of decoration became the rage all over Europe, but it fell into contempt almost as rapidly as it had found favour, and is now only used for the decoration of common wares. Ultimately, Chapelet gave up painting and applied himself to the discovery of technical novelties. He was apparently the first European potter to produce flambé glazes after the manner of the Chinese, and a fine collection of these productions of his is preserved in the museum at Sèvres.

The greatest of all the French innovators was, however, Théodore Deck, who had been trained as a working potter and was led to forsake the management of an ordinary tile and pottery business in Paris to experiment on his own account. He started a little workshop in the Boulevard Montparnasse in Paris and rapidly gathered round him a number of young painters all eager to experiment in the magnificent colours which Deck with his passionate love of Persian and other oriental pottery could place at their disposal. Within a few years this venture was so successful that Deck was known all over the civilized world as a great potter, and his original creations, painted by men like Ranvier, Collin, Ehrmann, Anker and other artists, were readily purchased by the lovers of ceramic art in every country. The crown of his career came in 1887, when he was appointed director of the National Manufactory at Sèvres, for he was the only practical potter who had ever occupied that position; but he died in 1890 before he had been able to impress his personality on the work of Sèvres.

The same movement that was active in France found its exponents in other countries as well. In Italy and the south of France the last quarter of the 19th century witnessed a revival of Italian majolica and of lustre decoration. Prominent in this direction were the productions of Cantegalli of Florence and of the Massiers of Golfe-Juan near Cannes; while in England William de Morgan created an artistic sensation by his tiles and vases decorated with lustres, or with painted colours recalling those of the Persian and Syrian potters of the middle ages. This departure in England was, however, followed up by many manufacturers who were keenly alive to the possibilities of pottery colour, and Mr Bernard Moore, of Longton, Maw & Company of Jackfield, and Minton's of Stoke-upon-Trent, produced much excellent work, in tiles and vases inspired from the same oriental sources.

Meantime, in America there had been growing up a manufacture of pottery after the approved methods, in Trenton, New Jersey; East Liverpool, Zanesville and Cincinnati (Ohio). To all these centres English workmen had been attracted, and earthenware after the current English styles was manufactured; but, as was the case in Europe, individual efforts were made to produce artistic pottery. The first and best known of these artistic departures was that of the Rookwood Pottery at Cincinnati, and again it was an amateur, Mrs Bellamy Storer, who founded an enterprise which has since produced some very original work. From 1880 to 1889 the work was mainly carried on at the expense of this lady, but since that date the enterprise has been self-supporting, and the Rookwood pottery has become known throughout the world.

The latter half of the 19th century also witnessed the development of new branches of pottery manufacture for sanitary purposes--and it is not too much to say that much of the improved sanitation of modern dwellings and towns has been rendered possible by the special appliances invented by potters for these purposes. In this direction the English potters undoubtedly led the way, and not only have their methods been imitated abroad, but English manufacturers have also established large works in Germany, France and the United States of America. Varieties, too, of hard-fired pottery, comprising earthenwares, stonewares and porcelains, have been invented for use in the chemical and electrical industries. But these belong to the great modern branch of pottery manufacture, not to pottery art. In the same way, the revived attention paid to the various forms of pottery for the interior and exterior of buildings belongs rather to the question of mural decoration than of pottery.

At the beginning of the 20th century we find England and Germany the leading pottery manufacturing countries; Germany excelling in the amount of its output, and England in the fineness and finish of its productions. France, in addition to the National Manufactory at Sèvres, as much as ever divorced from commerce, has its porcelain industry at Limoges and large manufactories of tiles and earthenware in many departments; while there are also a number of artist potters like Lachenal, Dalpayrat, Delaherche and Taxile Doat who make purely artistic pottery in hard-fired stonewares (_grès_) and porcelain, while the production of decorative stonewares for building purposes has been developed by such firms as Bigot, Boulanger and E. Müller. A great development has also taken place in the production of decorative pottery and tiles in Holland. The famous Delft works, besides producing quantities of painted blue and white earthenware (made in the English and not in the old Dutch fashion), has been experimenting largely in the development of crystalline and opalescent glazes and in lustres, while the Rozenburg factory at the Hague and a factory at Puramerende, near Amsterdam, have made some distinctive but rather bizarre painted pottery and porcelain. The success of the Royal Copenhagen factory has already been mentioned, and this success led to the foundation of Bing & Gröndhal of Copenhagen, who largely follow the styles of decoration initiated at the Royal works. In Sweden there are two important factories at Rörstrand and Gustafsberg. Under the accomplished director of the Rörstrand factory, Mr Robert Almström, a great variety of products have been successfully manufactured, including hard-paste porcelain, English bone china, earthenware, majolica and stoves. Italy, Spain and Belgium have also important modern pottery works.

In the United States of America there are large establishments for the manufacture of earthenware, bone china and tiles, all after the English fashion, while in addition there are a number of experimental kilns at work producing artistic pottery. The Rookwood factory has already been mentioned, but the wares produced at the Grueby factory and by Mrs Robineau and T. Brouwer are also worthy of note. (See "Report on American Art Pottery," pp. 922-935 of _Special Reports of the U.S. Census Office, Manufactures_, pt. iii., 1905.)

_Technical Pottery Works._--It is only possible to give a selection of
the best of the modern standard works dealing with the technical side
of pottery production. Brongniart, _Traité des arts céramiques_ (3rd
ed., Paris, 1877), with notes and additions by Salvétat; E. Bourry,
_Traité des industries céramiques_ (Paris, 1897); Théodore Deck, _La
Faïence_ (Paris, 1887); A. Granger, _La Céramique industrielle_
(Paris, 1905); E.S. Auscher, _La Céramique cuisant à haute
température_ (Paris, 1899); _Technologie de la Céramique_ (Paris,
1901); _Les Industries céramiques_ (Paris, 1901); Seger, _Gesammelte
Schriften_ (Berlin, 1896; Eng. trans., Eastern, Pa., U.S.A., 1902);
Langenbeck, _The Chemistry of Pottery_ (Easton, Pa., U.S.A., 1895);
William Burton, _Porcelain_ (London, 1906). (W. B.*)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The archaeologist is frequently puzzled as to the place of origin
of some example of ancient pottery--was it made in the district where
it was found, or had it been imported from some other centre? When we
possess a sufficient body of analytical data obtained by the use of
one general chemical method, an analysis of a fragment will
frequently enable such a question to be answered, where now all is
doubt and speculation. But the analytical results published hitherto
are often not worth the paper they are printed on for such a purpose,
the older methods of silicate analysis being only approximate.

[2] It must always be borne in mind that, side by side with the
production of artistic wares in all countries, the traditional craft
of the village pot-maker continued, and has probably been less
interfered with than is generally imagined, except in the British
Isles. Any country market-place in Spain, Italy, Greece, France,
Germany, or Holland is provided to-day with a simple peasant pottery
little removed in its forms, its decorations, or its technical skill
from the country work of the middle ages. In England the cheapness of
machine-made pottery has largely destroyed such village industries.

[3] _I tre libri dell' Arte del Vasajo_, by Cipriano Piccolpasso of
Castel Durante, A.D. 1548.

[4] The earliest glazed objects found in Egyptian tombs (once
dignified by the name of Egyptian porcelain) are hardly to be called
pottery at all, though we have no other name for them. The material
is largely sand held together by a little clay and glass.

[5] Foreign pottery had been imported into Egypt at least as early as
the XIIth Dynasty, e.g. the Cretan polychrome ware of the Middle
Minoan period (Kamares style) found at Medinet Ghuraib ("Kahun") and
the Cypriote (?) "punctuated" black ware from the same site, and from
Khata'anah (17). The date between the XIIth and XIIIth Dynasties is
certain (14), but the Middle Kingdom Egyptians do not seem to have
imitated these earlier foreign forms. British Museum, No. 17,046, is,
however, probably an instance of an Egyptian idea imitated by the
foreign potter (17).

[6] Some of these figures appear to have been made with a mixture of
sand, clay and coloured glass which produced a real glassy
porcelain--the earliest porcelain of which we have any record.

[7] On this subject see in particular Mazard, _De la connaissance par
les anciens des glaçures plombifères_, a scientific and valuable
monograph (1879); also Rayet and Collignon, _Hist. de la céramique
grecque_, p. 365 (or _B.M. Cat. of Roman Pottery_, Introduction).

[8] For a full description and lists of such kilns see Walters,
_Ancient Pottery_, ii. 443-454.

[9] See examples in colour on Plate V.

[10] A peculiarity of the Persian and allied blue glazes, of many
shades, is that they appear to have been produced not by dissolving
the colouring matter in the glaze, but by coating the white ground of
the ware with a thin wash of some cobaltiferous substance--probably
an earth containing varying proportions of cobalt, manganese and
iron--and then melting a thick alkaline glaze over it.

[11] See Drury Fortnum, _Archaeologia_, vol. xlii.

[12] Specimens of Turkish and other Eastern wares exist with
elaborate English silver mounts of the time of Elizabeth, and these
were doubtless included under the name of "Damas Wares."

[13] See Riaño, _Spanish Arts_, Victoria and Albert Museum Handbook,
pp. 149-151; and _Sobre la manera de fabricar la antigua loza dorado
de Manises_ (1878).

[14] See examples in colour, Plate VI.

[15] There is ample documentary evidence to prove how largely the
lustred pottery of Spain was imported into Italy from the 12th
century onwards; and it is important to note in this connexion that
almost all the fine examples of Hispano-Moresque in our modern
collections have been obtained from the palaces of ancient Italian
families.

[16] Piccolpasso, _I tre libri dell' arte del Vasajo_, dated 1548. It
has been several times translated both into modern Italian and
French. The English reader will find an excellent abstract of this
interesting MS. in the volumes on _Majolica_ by Drury E. Fortnum.

[17] For a full account of the lustre process see Franchet, _Comptes
rendus_ for December 1905, and W. Burton, _Society of Arts Journal_,
2846, vol. lv., 1907.

[18] See Magne, _Le Palais de Justice de Poitiers_ (Paris, 1904);
also Solon in _Burlington Magazine_ (November 1907).

[19] See B. Fillon, _Les Faiences d'Oiron_ (1862).

[20] See E. Bonaffe, _Les Faiences de Saint-Porchaire_ (1898).

[21] See examples in colour, Plate X.

[22] An excellent summary of the remains of English medieval pottery
will be found in Hobson's "Medieval Pottery found in England,"
_Archaeological Journal_, vol. lix.

[23] Böttger at Meissen made a similar ware as his prelude to the
discovery of white porcelain, but this was after Dwight's death.

[24] For a discussion of the stages through which this was achieved
the reader is referred to special works, such as Prof. A.H. Church's
_English Earthenware_, and W. Burton's _English Earthenware and
Stoneware_.

[25] It is amusing or annoying to find in European museums the wares
of Wedgwood, Turner, Adams and one of the Leeds potteries, all lumped
together as "Wedgwood," and yet one can hardly wonder at it,
remembering how much has been written of Wedgwood and how little of
the other English potters of the 18th century.

[26] See examples in colour, Plates VII. and VIII.

[27] S.W. Bushell, _Chinese Art_ (Victoria and Albert Museum
Handbooks, ii. 5-6).

[28] _Yao_ is the Chinese term equivalent of the English "pottery" or
"ware."

[29] See Brinkley, _Japan and China_, ix. 353-365.

[30] Solon, _The Noble Buccaros_ (Stoke-upon-Trent, 1896).

[31] M. Reinand, _Relation des voyages faits par les Arabes et les
Persans dans l'Inde el à la Chine dans le IX^e siècle_ (Paris, 1845).

[32] The suggestion has been made that the _céladon_ wares found in
Western countries were made by Moslem potters and not by the Chinese,
but this theory is not generally accepted. On this point consult
Karabacek, "Zur muslimischen Keramik" in _Österreichische
Monatsschrift für den Orient_, vol. x., 1884; A.B. Meyer, "Über die
Herkunft gewisser Seladon-Porzellane" under "Über die Marta banis,"
ibid. vol. xi., 1885; Hirth, _Ancient Porcelain_ (1888), and Bushell,
_Oriental Ceramic Art_ (1899).

[33] It is of interest to note that the "Delft" of Holland, also a
product of the 17th and early 18th centuries, makes the nearest
approach in quality to the blue and white porcelain of the Chinese.

[34] See Drake, Sir W., _Venetian Ceramics_; and Davillier, Baron
Ch., _Les Origines de la porcelaine en Europe_.

[35] A perfect _tour de force_ in this inartistic style of work,
preserved in the Dresden Museum and formerly attributed to Meissen,
has been shown to be the work of Vincennes. See _Gaz. des
beaux-arts_, September 1904.

[36] _Travels in England and Scotland_ (Eng. trans.), vol. i. p. 97.