Ex Libris
C. K. OGDEN



The Series

Iron and Steel
Copper .. ..
Brass, Tin, am



Metallic Mining
Coal .. ..

Collieries
Building Stones
Explosive Cotn



Guns, Nails, 1
screws, Raifa
Spikes, But
Needles, Saa
troplate . .

Pens .. ..

Papier-M&M



Acids and Alkalies

Oils and Candles
Gas and Lighting



Wool .. ..

Flax and Linen
Cotton .. ..
Silk




THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES



each.

L.A.S.
nst. C.E.).



Museum



I.A.S.



PROF. CHURCH, M.A., F.C.S. (Royal Agricul*

tural College, Cirencester).
W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS, F.C.S., F.R.A.S.
R. H. PATTERSON, F.S.S. (late Metropol. Gas

Referee).



PROF. ARCHER, F.R.S.E. (Director of Edinburgh

Museum of Science and Art).
W. T. CHARLEY, M.P.

ISAAC WATTS (Sec. Cotton Supply Association).
B. F. COBB (Sec. Silk Supply Association).



London : Edward Stanford, 55, Charing Cross.



British Manufacturing Indtistries*



Hosiery and Lace ..

Carpets

Dyeing and Bleaching



The late W. FELKIN (Nottingham).
CHRISTOPHER DRESSER, Ph.D.
T. SIMS (Mayfield Print Works).



Pottery L. ARNOUX (Art Director of Minton's Manu-
factory).

Glass and Silicates .. .. PROF. BARFF, M. A., F.C.S. (Kensington Catho-
lic University).

Furniture and Woodwork .. J. H. POLLEN, M. A. (S. Kensington Museum).



Paper PROF. ARCHER, F.R.S.E. (Director of Edinburgh

Museum of Science and Art).
Printing and Bookbinding . . JOSEPH HATTON.

Engraving The late SAMUEL DAVENPORT.

Photography P. LE NEVE FOSTER (Society of Arts).

Toys G. C. BARTLEY (South Kensington Museum).

Tobacco JOHN DUNNING.

Fibres and Cordage .. .. P. L. SlMMONDS, F.R.C.I.

Ship-building CAPT. BEDFORD PIM, R.N., M.P.

Telegraphs ROBERT SABINE, C.E.

Agricultural Machinery . . PROF. WRIGHTSON (Royal Agricultural College,

Cirencester).
Railways and Tramways .. D. K. CLARK (Mem. Inst. C.E.).

Jewellery G. WALLIS (Keeper of Art Collections, South

Kensington Museum).

Gold Working REV. CHARLES BOUTELL, M. A.

Watches and Clocks .. .. F. J. BRITTEN (British Horological Institute).
Musical Instruments .. .. The late E. F. RIMBAULT, LL.D.
Cutlery F. CALLIS (Sheffield).



Brea Pr '" S >} J. J. MANLEY, M.A.

Stigar Refining C. HAUGHTON GILL (late Assist. Exam. Univ.

of London).

Butter and Cheese . . . . MORGAN EVANS (late Editor of ' Milk Journal ').
Brewing and Distilling .. T. POOLEY, B.Sc., F.C.S.



The Industrial Classes and\
Mistrial Statistics, 2Vols.|



n ^ -r,

G " PHILLIPS BEVAN >



London : Edward Stanford, 55, Charing Cross.



Hri.



BKITISH
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.



BKITISH
MANUFACTUBING INDUSTEIES.



EDITED BY

G. PHILLIPS BEVAN, F.G.S.



POTTERY,

BY L. ARNODX, Art Director and Superintendent of Minion's Factory.

GLASS AND SILICATES,
Br PBOFESSOK BARFF, M^.;

FURNITURE AND WOODWORK,

BY J. H. POLLEN, M.A., South Kensington Museum.



SECOND EDITION.



LONDON :
EDWAKD STANFORD, 55, CHAEING CROSS.

1877.



TS
57



in?

PREFACE.



THE object of this series is to bring into one focus the
leading features and present position of the most im-
portant industries of the kingdom, so as to enable the
general reader to comprehend the enormous develop-
ment that has taken place within the last twenty or
thirty years. It is evident that the great increase in
education throughout the country has tended largely
to foster a simultaneous interest in technical know-
ledge, as evinced by the spread of Art and Science
Schools, Trade Museums, International Exhibitions,
&c. ; and this fact is borne out by a perusal of the
daily papers, in which the prominence given to every
improvement in trade or machinery attests the desire
of the reading public to know more about these
matters. Here, however, the difficulty commences, for
the only means of acquiring this information are from
handbooks to the various manufactures (which are
usually too minute in detail for general instruction),
from trade journals and the reports of scientific
societies; and to obtain and systematize these scattered
details is a labour and a tax upon time and patience



105C662



VI PREFACE,

which comparatively few persons care to surmount.
In these volumes all these facts are gathered together
and presented in as readable a form as is compatible
with accuracy and a freedom from superficiality; and
though they do not lay claim to being a technical
guide to each industry, the names of the contributors
are a sufficient guarantee that they are a reliable and
standard work of reference. Great stress is laid on
the progressive developments of the manufactures, and
the various applications to them of the collateral arts
and sciences ; the history of each is truly given, while
present processes and recent inventions are succinctly
described.



BRITISH
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.



POTTEET.

BY L. ARNOUX, Art Director and Superintendent or
Minton's Factory.

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 sup-
posing that this was not so, it must strike everybody
that, after providing himself with those rude instru-
ments 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

B



2 BRITISH MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

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. Con-
sequently 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 remark-
able 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.



POTTERY. 3

One can understand how difficult it is to decide
who were the earliest potters. It is a question that
archaeologists 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 infor-
mation 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 acknow-

B 2



4 BRITISH MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

ledge, 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
Phoenicians, who in their turn became famous for
their knowledge in the art of vitrifying mineral sub-
stances ; and then to the Assyrians, who seem to have
applied pottery more specially to the ornamentation of
their buildings.

Greece, who shortly after received her first notions
of art from the two former nations, did not devote her
energies so much to improvement of material and rich-
ness of colour, as to the refined beauty of the shape
and the excellence of the painting.

In pottery, the material is of little value, and it is
only by the art displayed in shaping and decorating it,
that its price can be increased. In this respect the
Greeks proved to what enormous value it could be
raised, by making it the groundwork of their art,
since sums equivalent to several thousand pounds of
our money were readily paid by Eoman patricians for
a single Corinthian vase. In this, as in the other
branches of art, the recognized taste of the Greeks
will never be surpassed ; and if at the present time
little attention is paid by collectors to their ceramic
productions, it is probably owing as much to the



POTTERY. 5

versatility of our tastes and fancies, as to our inability
of showing the articles to their advantage.

The Greeks seem to have monopolized the ceramic
production of these fine works for seven or eight
centuries at the least ; for although vessels of the
same description were largely produced in Italy, it
was invariably by the Greeks, following closely the tra-
ditions and mode of decorations of their own country.
It was only about a century B.C. that the Eomans
began to create a pottery on which they impressed
their stamp, a pottery really their own ; I mean that
which is so improperly called Samian, and so easily
known by its reddish colour and the embossed orna-
ments by which it is profusely covered. It is,
however, genuine and characteristic, neatly executed,
and possessing some standing qualities which did not
belong to the Greek. On the other hand, the refine-
ment is deficient ; the forms are derived from the
circle instead of the ellipse ; the plain surfaces are
replaced by embossments, and the painting is absent.
For four centuries, the Eomans seem to have made
this class of pottery in several of their European
settlements, chiefly in Italy and in the provinces
adjoining the Khine. In the operation they seem to
have required some special material, which imparted
to its bright red surface a semi-shining lustre or glaze,
and which has proved remarkably durable. After
this, the art of pottery experienced a time of darkness,
when all the refined processes seem to have been
neglected, and primitive vessels, like those produced
by the Saxons, Gauls, and Celts, ranked amongst the



6 BRITISH MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

best examples. The decorations, if any, are rudi-
mentary ; not only is the painting reduced in a few
instances to some lines or spots made of a different
clay, but even the embossed ornaments are replaced by
lumps of clay or impressed lines in a kind of geo-
metrical disposition. Art was not quite dead, but it
scarcely breathed. However, these specimens are not
altogether uninteresting, for they were the first efforts
of our forefathers, and there is always a certain plea-
sure in witnessing the feeblest attempts made in the
research of art.

But the time came when pottery was to accomplish
another revolution, no less remarkable than the first.
Strangely enough, it was again from the East, in
nearly the same province in which it originally took
its rise, that it was revived, and it is not unlikely that
some faint tradition of the old processes was the
source whence sprung the new ceramic era, which was
to extend to our own time.

The precise date of this revival is not positively
ascertained ; but it was probably contemporary with
the establishment of Islamism amongst the Arabs.
The energy displayed by this people in improving and
adapting the different fabrics to the requirements of
their new religion, was no doubt beneficial to the art
of pottery, and with their' fanaticism and spirit of
proselytism, they carried their new ideas to every
country which they conquered. Syria became a great
industrial centre, and some of its towns, such as
Damascus, were soon famous for the perfection of
their wares. To reach Europe, however, this new



POTTERY. 1

movement did not take its course through Greece and
Italy, as in the first instance ; it was through Egypt
and the North of Africa that, at the beginning of the
eighth century, it made its way to Spain, where it
became firmly established. As regards pottery,
nowhere were better specimens produced than in the
towns of Malaga, Grenada, Cordova, and others, going
northwards as far as Valencia and Toledo. The
newest feature of the Arabian or Saracenic pottery
(called Hispano-Moresco ware, when made in Spain)
was the introduction of the oxide of tin in the glaze,
to render it opaque. Previous to this innovation,
when white was required for a design executed on a
clay which did not take that colour in firing, these
parts had to be covered with a silicious mixture,
and subsequently coated over with a transparent
glaze. This was the Assyrian and Persian process.
To find a white opaque enamel, which could be ap-
plied direct on a coloured clay and adhere firmly to it,
was a great discovery.

Everyone now knows how successfully these people
used pottery for the ornamentation of their buildings,
and how ingeniously they mixed transparent and
opaque enamels to obtain an unprecedented harmony of
effect. Not only did they use this tin enamel in parts,
but also all over the ware, making it more or less
opaque as they wished ; and this was the origin of the
pottery called majolica, which, according to tradition,
was imported from Majorca to Italy, at the beginning
of the fifteenth century, and for the introduction of
which credit is given to Lucca Delia Kobia. Terra



8 BRITISH MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

in-vitriata was the first name given by this sculptor to
his works, when they were coated with this opaque
mixture. There was at that time such an earnest
desire to find suitable materials for art decorations,
that the new enamels soon ceased to be exclusively
applied to architectural purposes. Under the bene-
ficial influence of the revival of taste for ancient art,
and the encouragements with which it met from the
princes at that time ruling the Italian Republics,
majolica attained its beauty, though its external ap-
pearance reminded us but little of its Spanish or
Oriental origin. During the course of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, the most famous in the history
of modern art, the influence of the great painters of
that period was soon felt by those whom we may call
the artists of pottery, for the name of potters could
hardly do them justice ; and several of them applied
their talents to the reproduction, on that ware, of their
most celebrated paintings. It was reported that
Perugino, Michael Angelo, Raphael, and many others
painted majolica ware, probably on account of their
cartoons being often reproduced ; and it is sufficient to
say that such talented men as Francisco Xanto da
Rovigo, Orazia Fontana, and Gorgio Andreoli, devoted
their energies to the improvement of this branch of
art. Most of the Italian towns had their manufactory,
each of them possessing a style of its own. Beginning
at Caffagiolo and Deruta, they extended rapidly to
Gubbio, Ferrara, and Ravenna, to be continued to
Casteldurante, Rimini, Urbino, Florence, Venice, and
many other places.



POTTERY. 9

After the sixteenth century, majolica soon dege-
nerated in appearance and quality, the producers
being more anxious to supply the market, than to
devote to their ware the care and attention bestowed
on it by their predecessors. In increasing the quantity
of tin in their enamel, to make it look more like
porcelain, they impoverished their colours, and this
alteration, however prejudicial to majolica, assisted
greatly in the new transformation which it was subse-
quently to undergo. It was under the name of faience
that it continued to be known, and France and Holland
became the principal centres of its manufacture. At
Nevers, it still resembled slightly the Italian ware,
though at Delft, in Holland, it was principally made
to imitate the blue and white ware of the Chinese, in
which attempt the makers were often remarkably suc-
cessful. At Rouen, the blue ornamentation was relieved
with touches of red, green, and yellow ; at Moustiers,
the monochrome designs were light and uncommonly
elegant ; at Paris, Marseilles, and many other places,
the flower Decoration of the old Sevres and Dresden
ware was imitated with a freedom of touch and a fresh-
ness of colour which is really charming. This pottery,
which was a great favourite in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, declined rapidly soon after our
present earthenware made its appearance; the chief
inducement for the change, on the part of the manu-
facturers, being the excessive price of tin, which is the
principal ingredient of enamel.

Except in the provinces contiguous to France, Ger-
many was never a producer of majolica. It created,



10 BRITISH MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

however, a pottery entirely of its own, full of originality
in its general appearance, and which, by the peculiarity
of the process, was really a very distinct type. I am
alluding to the Flemish and German stoneware.
There is a tradition, that the first pieces were made in
Holland at the very beginning of the fifteenth century.
The principal centre of its production was, however,
in Germany, at Nuremberg, Ratisbon, Bayreuth, Mans-
feld, and other places ; but the best were made in the
neighbourhood of the Lower Ehine, where the clays
most fitted for that class of pottery were easily to
be found. Here we find, for the first time in Europe,
the body of the ware partly vitrified by the high
temperature to which it was submitted, and also the
remarkable peculiarity, that it was glazed by the vola-
tilization of common salt, thrown into the oven when
the temperature had reached its climax. The com-
bination of these two processes had never been effected
before, and it would be difficult on that account to find
any connection between stoneware and some of the
Egyptian potteries. This stoneware varied in colour :
some were almost white, some brown, others of a light
grey, the last being the most valuable when the effect
was increased by blue or purple grounds, harmonizing
admirably with the foundation colour of the ware. The
shapes are generally elaborate, with a great many
mouldings, enriched with embossed ornaments in good
taste, some of which were designed by no less an artist
than T. Hopfer. The decline of this stoneware began
with the seventeenth century, and from that time to
the present, this material was only used for wares of



POTTERY. 11

the commonest kind. It is only very lately, that it
was revived successfully by Messrs. Doulton and Co.,
of Lambeth.

France, which had not as yet any ideas about the
process for imitating the Italian majolica, created
towards the same time two new sorts of pottery, one
of which is the Palissy ware, the other the faience
d'Oiron. Palissy, a very inquisitive and intelligent
man, is said to have been possessed by a strong desire
to reproduce some Italian ware, which he had the
opportunity of seeing; whether it was a piece of
majolica or of graffito, is not known. Left to his own
resources for there was nobody to instruct him he
succeeded by perseverance and industry in finding out
the process for making the different coloured glazes
that the Moors had used long before him. There was
no discovery in this, but the talent which he displayed
in the mixing and blending of these vitreous colours,
combined with the incontestable originality of his com-
positions, have made this ware very difficult to imitate.

The time of its production was limited to the life of
Palissy, for there is not really a single good piece
which can be traced to his successors. In the faience
d'Oiron, incorrectly called Henri Deux ware, we find a
real cream-coloured earthenware taking precedence of
two hundred years over our own. It was made between
the years 1524 and 1567, and we have now every proof
that three persons co-operated in this invention : Helene
de Hangest, who had been formerly entrusted by
Francois I. with the education of his son, afterwards
Henry II. ; her potter at Oiron, named Francois



12 BRITISH MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES.

Charpentier ; and her secretary Jehan Bernart. The
charming pieces resulting from the combination of
these three intellects were few, and only intended to be
offered as presents to the friends of the noble lady at
court. This sufficiently explains the monograms and
devices, which are found associated with the elaborate
ornaments profusely spread over their surface. No
ware was ever made before or after this, which required
more care and delicate manipulation, and this explains
why the highest prices paid in our generation for an
article of pottery have been freely given for several of
these curiosities. Their principal feature consists in
inlaying differently coloured clays one into the other,
a process not quite new, as it had been extensively used
in mediaeval times for making encaustic tiles for the
flooring of our churches, but they were so minutely
and neatly executed, and the designs so well dis-
tributed, that they are justly considered as marvels of
workmanship. In speaking of these faiences d'Oiron,
we can hardly admire sufficiently the variety in the
productions of this period of the Renaissance ; and if
we select four of these specimens, such as a piece of
Faenza ware, one of stoneware, one of Palissy, and
another of Oiron, they may fairly stand as good
illustrations of the ingenuity of man.

The progress realized in these times seems to have
undergone a sort of lull, and if we accept the French
and Delft faiences, which were a transformation of
majolica, we find that the greatest portion of the seven-
teenth century was not marked by any new discovery
or decided improvement. Towards its close, however,



POTTERY. 13

we begin to notice in Germany and the western
countries of Europe several attempts at making a ware,
possessing the three standard qualities of whiteness,
hardness, and transparency of the Chinese, and these
were the precursors of the great movement which oc-
cupied the whole of the eighteenth century. As might
be expected, inquiries made in different countries by
persons unacquainted with each other, brought different
results ; and if they failed in so much, that a porcelain
identical to the Oriental was not reproduced, all of them
succeeded in making a white ware of their own, adapted
to the materials which they had at their disposal.