The vulture was the symbol of divine maternity, because thought to conceive spontaneously; and hence Souvan, the mother of all, is represented with a vulture’s head. This single instance furnishes a key to the system. The symbol is chosen which most nearly represents the principle, and thus becomes a part of the embodied form of the deity possessing the principle as his or her peculiar attribute. The dog and jackal were emblems of Anubis, the guardian of the tombs, and the deity presiding over embalmment. The scarabæus was the emblem of the demiurgic god Phtha. The lion was also the emblem of Phtha and of the goddess Pasht. Cynocephali were emblems of Chous and Thoth.

Throughout the entire system, the birds, fishes, land animals, and plants of Egypt, the hawk, vulture, ibis, uræi snakes, the cat, pig, cow, and so on, are all used as symbols. It will be sufficient now to glance at the converse, and note the forms under which the deities are represented.{87} Ra, the sun-god, appears with the head of a hawk; Athor, the Egyptian Venus, with horns and ears of a cow; Anubis with head of a jackal; Thoth with head of an ibis; Amun-ra, a man with solar disk on head, and plumed; Mut, the mother goddess, crowned; Chous, sou of Amun-ra and Mut, with moon disk, occasionally hawk-headed; Phtha with scarabæus on head, sometimes with two heads, one of which is that of a hawk; Pasht, Bast, and Tafne are all lion-headed goddesses; Her has a lion’s head; Taur appears as a hippopotamus; Osiris sits enthroned with the cap of truth, and holds a staff and scourge; Isis, like the Roman Luna or Diana, appears in two forms, sitting as a terrestrial goddess, suckling Horus or kneeling, or sitting in her celestial character, with disk and horns, nursing her son Horus.

enlarge-image
Fig. 32.—Egyptian Gods. (Way Coll., Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)
Fig. 32.—Egyptian Gods. (Way Coll., Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)

We are now in a position to give names to the group (Fig. 32), each piece in which is of the blue or green glazed pottery to be noticed hereafter. It may be said, however, that no engraving could give an idea of the exquisite finish of these pieces, especially of the two in the middle. The lower central figure is the plumed Amun.{88} It is turquoise-blue, and is one and three-quarter inches in height. The upper central figure is the lion-headed Pasht, surmounted by the solar disk and the asp. To the left is ibis-headed Thoth, a flat figure intended to be sewn into a mummy covering. On the right are Isis and Nepthys, with Horus between them. From the combination of symbols, the study of the mythology of the Egyptians as found illustrated on their pottery is of deep interest, and of great importance both to the ceramist and the student of the science of religion.

The ceramic productions of Egypt are divisible into two great classes, unglazed and glazed.

Unglazed Pottery.—This may again be divided into the unbaked, or sun-dried, and baked. Of these the former is unquestionably the more ancient, and Egypt is one of the three countries whose sun-dried pottery has lasted until the present time. Unbaked bricks are the oldest examples. Some of those discovered recall the bondage and wrongs of the Israelites under the “new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph.” The command of Pharaoh will be remembered: “Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick as heretofore; let them go and gather straw for themselves.” The straw was used to bind them together. They were moulded generally in a rectangular shape, and were extensively used in the construction of pyramids of various ages. They vary in size in different edifices, and are marked according to their composition or destined use. In the former case, the marks were used merely to distinguish the quality; in the latter, the marks indicate either the individual’s tomb in the construction of which they were to be employed, or the king in whose reign they were made for public buildings. The whole process can be studied in the engraving (Fig. 30). The stamp for bricks was not used until the fifteenth century before the Christian era.

The vessels of unbaked clay which have been preserved are few{89} in number, and are either religious in character, or devoted to sepulchral uses. The ornamentation is of the simplest kind.

Egypt was exceptionally favored by nature for advancing in the potter’s art. The Nile mud was abundant and plastic, and was suitable for either moulding or throwing. Specimens of baked earthen-ware (Fig. 33) have accordingly been found belonging to a very remote period. They represent the second step in the manufacture, which was reached nearly three thousand years before our era. From the tombs of that period have been exhumed vessels of various kinds, such as were employed by the Egyptians in their households; and taking these as a starting-point, the art can be traced to its decline under imported ideas and foreign domination. This ware is mostly of a dull red color, verging at times toward purple or yellow, according to the temperature at which it was baked. The baked bricks were of the same red color. They were used, apparently, for purposes for which the less lasting unbaked bricks were not suitable, but were not generally employed. Of the same material coffins, although rare, have also been found. Many of the objects connected with the Egyptian customs regarding the burial of the dead were made of this clay. Among these were the cones (Fig. 34), with inscriptions in hieroglyphics stamped on the base, and giving the name of the deceased. They indicate the resting-places of many civil and ecclesiastical functionaries—clerks or scribes, priests, chamberlains, soldiers, and seldom of women. They appear to have fallen into desuetude in the sixth century before our era. Figures have also been found in the sepulchres of a later period. The vases for holding the entrails of the embalmed dead were of the same ware, and bring up for notice a very singular custom. The viscera were divided into four parts, and deposited in separate jars having the shapes of the{90} genii of the Egyptian Hades, Amset, Hapi, Tuautmutf, and Kebhsnuf. The ibis mummy pots belong to the same class. They were used for holding the embalmed body of the sacred bird, and are very frequently of a conical shape, with a slightly convex lid. Of domestic vases in this ware, the shapes and uses are very numerous. Great numbers have been found in the tombs, varying as much in size as in purpose. The latter may often be divined from the shape of the vessel: thus those for liquids are wide-mouthed for convenience in drawing the contents; those for bread and flesh-meats are wider and more shallow. Ointment pots and oil jars are also fashioned in view of their respective purposes.

Another kind of unglazed ware is of a light gray color, and was common to Egypt and some of the countries of Asia. Amphoræ have been found of this material, with long bodies ornamented with horizontal grooves. Of these the larger ones appear to have been intended for liquids, and the smaller ones, some of which are very diminutive, for solids. The bases of the former are pointed, while those of the latter are occasionally rounded. The handles are both small and large, and the necks open or contracted, according to their use. These are well deserving of notice for the sake of comparison with the amphoræ of the Greeks; and for the same reason reference may be made to the vessels with three handles, which were in all probability the prototypes of the Greek hydrai, and to others with only one handle, which were also reproduced in Greece. The former are very frequently oval-bodied, and the position of the handle is arbitrary. The latter were jugs of various shapes, with pointed bases. The further we come down, the more distinct become the proofs of Egypt’s having supplied models to the Grecian potters. It would be impossible to specify all the shapes, but reference may be made to those with handle arching the top from side to side, and of so small a size that they are thought to have been used by children as toys.

The larger vessels, which answered all the purposes of a modern meat-safe, have no handle, and have the usual pointed base for fixing them upright in the floor of the cellar. They taper gradually from the base upward, until their greatest girth is reached, when they curve more suddenly inward to a short neck. From these the forms vary through the intermediate shapes of oval jars, bottles with long necks,{91} and narrow oil vases, to wide bowls or dishes and plates. Reference was made in the introduction to the multitudinous purposes to which clay vessels were put by the Egyptians. They used their ware in many ways which to us appear very primitive and strange—for storing all manner of eatables and drinkables, for cooking and smelting. In fact, whatever one may think of their ideas of beauty in pottery, there can be no doubt that they took a very wide view of its infinite usefulness.

Decoration of a simple kind is occasionally found on both domestic and sepulchral vessels. Colored bands were the usual ornament, and very rarely the entire body was painted with a ground color upon which bands were laid, and the whole was then varnished. It is rarely that a leaf or lotus flower is found. The use of varnish points to a step in advance. It has not yet been determined whether it is really varnish or a glaze applied by firing, but in either case it is found upon the finer and harder kinds of ware. The body color is black, brown, or red, of different shades (Fig. 36). To this class belong the single and double cruses, generally of pale red paste, but sometimes black, used apparently for holding oil or ointment. The best examples of polished ware are red. They show both ornamentation of a higher order and more artistic shapes than the others. The shape of one of these vases resembles the goddess Isis suckling Horus, in the attitude previously mentioned; another is in the form of a woman playing upon a stringed instrument (Fig. 37); a third is shaped like a fish; and many domestic vessels, cups, jugs, and vases are of the same material.

The Græco-Egyptian pottery forms a distinct class, differing in paste, color, and decoration. The outside shows varying shades of{92} gray and red, and the ornamentation consists of lines and animal and floral forms, in colors capable of standing the kiln. At the same period was introduced the custom of making writing tablets of this ware.

Glazed Ware.—Leaving the unglazed and polished wares, there yet falls to be considered that with an undoubted glaze, to which belong the most artistic works of the Egyptian potters. This is the ware which has been miscalled porcelain (Fig. 38); and as the unglazed ware was never employed for purely ornamental purposes, so we find the glazed seldom used for domestic vessels. Contrary to what might be expected, specimens have been found as old as the Sixth Dynasty, or nearly two thousand years before the Christian era. The ware is not at all close in texture, and the silicious glaze was colored by metallic oxides, of the properties of which the Egyptians had an intimate knowledge. Chief among the colors thus produced are the blue and green, exemplified in some of the finest relics of Egyptian art. Their beauty is occasionally very remarkable, and led to their being highly valued both by the Egyptians and others, and to the ware itself being applied to special purposes of ornamentation. It is found, for example, in the form of tiles as a wall decoration, and as a material for inlaying. Tiles with figures in relief, having parts such as the hair, beard, eyes, or extremities inlaid with glazed ware, are among the most curious specimens discovered. Detached beards are not unlike spirally ribbed hose. Coffins, or mummy cases, are similarly inlaid. The forms the glazed pottery assumes, when employed for this purpose and for figures to be attached to other substances, are very numerous. The moulded ornaments and amulets of both the living and the dead were most frequently of the same material. These take the shape of finger and ear rings (Fig. 39), small images of the gods and of their symbols, and various other ornaments, such as bracelets, necklaces, and{93} hairpins. The nature of the paste leads to the belief that these were more generally devoted to sepulchral purposes, with a religious significance, than to any other. All the minute beads, in a net-work of which the dead were often encased, and also the pectoral or breastplates, were of this material (Fig. 40). In the lower specimen, Ra is represented by the scarab. In the barge, on either side, are Isis and Nepthys. This tablet bears the inscription, “He that is worthy goes over in the barge of Ra.” Of the upper specimen only one-half is preserved, showing the figure of Isis. In the hollow centre has been a scarab, probably of jasper, and in the borders colored stones or glass have been set. The lower border consists of a series of lotus flowers, and the wavy lines represent the water in which they grow. Above was the winged disk of the sun. Figures of the gods and goddesses and their emblems, and sacred animals and plants, which were deposited with the dead, afford some of the most exquisite examples of Egyptian glazed pottery. The images have either a perforated upright support behind, or are otherwise perforated for attachment to the necklaces of the mummies. The scarabæus is very often met with on the breastplates. All these symbols and images were employed for the supposed benefit of the dead, either to save them from evil, or as a direct means of bringing good, and can only be understood through an acquaintance with mythology. Rings of various colors appear properly to belong to the same category of ornaments of the dead. Other sepulchral figures were deposited with the deceased, besides those of the protecting gods. These were supposed to aid the departed in his labors in the future state, and are invariably small representations of a mummied figure, partially covered with hieroglyphics. Like many of the other figures and objects, they are generally of the beautiful Egyptian blue. In the example (Fig. 41) given on the following page, the figure of a bird with human head, appears upon the breast. It is{94} an emblem of the soul leaving or returning to the body. The more usual form is that seen in the central figure in the engraving (Fig. 42), with long beard, a pickaxe and hoe in either hand, and having a cord in the right hand which is crossed to the left, and allows the cord to pass over the left shoulder. At the end of this cord is a bag or basket, which is faintly discernible on the shoulder of the figure on the right. The hieroglyphics are passages from the Ritual, in compliance with which these figures were made. Balls, draughtsmen, and toys were also made of glazed pottery. All the figures and ornaments to which reference has been made were turned out of moulds, the friability of the paste not permitting its being thrown.

For the same reason the glazed vases are diminutive, but often very beautiful, and intended for purely ornamental purposes. They are of different shapes and sizes, generally a few inches in height, and some of them illustrate the peculiar ideas entertained by the Egyptians of personal beauty. One of their customs was that of darkening the eyes with a black powder, sometimes held in a small case resembling a series of reeds. The toilet is otherwise represented by a variety of boxes, jars, bottles, small vases, and oil flasks. The latter are unique, and sometimes elegant in shape, and supply good examples of the greenish glazed-ware to which reference has been made.

Many of the bowls evidently used by the wealthy are of a finer and closer paste, and bear very characteristic ornamentation of flowers, fish, hieroglyphics, or of lines only. Their uses can only be conjectured from their shapes. The inscriptions sometimes point to their owners, and at others to the place of fabrication.

The Egyptians also resorted to a process of glazing vases, figures, rings, and other articles for which pottery was usually employed,{95} made of a variety of hard schists. These, however, as not being properly potter’s ware, are here passed over.

It will thus be seen that the Egyptians did not carry the art to a very high point. They were, however, successful in creating a foreign demand for the productions of their potteries. From discoveries made in Eastern Greece, Nineveh, and elsewhere, it would appear that the fine pottery ornaments of Egypt were in considerable repute in neighboring countries; and, as we shall hereafter see, Egypt contributed its full share to the furtherance of the art by supplying suggestions and models.

One important matter remains to be disposed of. It has long been a subject of doubt whether or not Egypt possessed the secret of stanniferous enamel. It has been already intimated that the discovery of the use of tin for a pottery enamel is due to either that country or Assyria. The honor may probably be ascribed to Egypt. In the loan collection of the Metropolitan Museum of New York is a fragment (Fig. 43) of a vase exhibited in the Egyptian section, and referable to a very remote antiquity, covered with what is apparently tin enamel, bearing purple decorations. Should this be the case, then this solitary fragment will settle the matter, and we must believe that the Egyptians possessed this secret of the art four thousand years ago. In that event, the Assyrians probably acquired it from Egypt. The fact supplies us with the means of arriving at a very clear idea of the grand antiquity of that civilization under which a valuable art was practised, to which Europe was a stranger for more than three thousand five hundred years afterward.{96}

It is, as we have seen, long since the art purely its own reached its culmination. The Egypt of the nineteenth century in this respect scarcely suggests that of the Pyramids. If we were to take that country as it appeared at the Philadelphia Exhibition, we would hardly be prepared to look upon its ceramic products as those of a country in which the art has been practised for four thousand years. A few pieces exhibited were of light, slate-colored body, unglazed, and so brittle that dozens were broken in transit. The ornamentation was laid on the bare surface, and was, as a rule, bright to the verge of gaudiness. The greater portion of the painting was the work of an Italian artist resident in Cairo. Some of the red terra-cotta was more satisfactory; but all that can be said in favor of either kind is that it was, in its way, characteristically Egyptian. One specimen of pale green “porcelain” was sent by the Museum at Cairo. The last is mentioned because it represented the farthest point which the Egyptians reached on the way toward a true porcelain.{97}

CHAPTER II.

ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA.

enlarge-image
Fig. 44.—Pottery found in the Tombs above the Palaces of Nimroud.
Fig. 44.—Pottery found in the Tombs above the Palaces of Nimroud.

Although we have taken Egypt as our starting-point, there may have been a pottery antecedent to that we have considered. Looking farther east for the cradle of the human race, knowledge and art may have spread east and west from the Euphrates, the great river of Babylon. Egypt having been first inhabited by settlers wandering from the province of which that city became the capital, who found in the Nile a river resembling, in many respects, that which they had left, these colonists may have carried with them some knowledge of the uses of clay. However this may be, it is beyond question that the oldest pottery of which the age is known is Egyptian, and that the knowledge acquired from the East was returned with interest.{98}

enlarge-image
Fig. 47.—Inscribed Seal. (Assyrian.)
Fig. 47.—Inscribed Seal. (Assyrian.)     Fig. 48.—Seal of Sabaco and Sennacherib.

enlarge-image
Fig. 49.—Impression of Sabaco’s Seal, enlarged. Fig. 50.—Back of Assyrian Seal, showing Marks of Fingers.
Fig. 49.—Impression of Sabaco’s Seal, enlarged.     Fig. 50.—Back of Assyrian Seal, showing Marks of Fingers.

enlarge-image
Fig. 51.—Fragment in Porcelain (?). (Nimroud.)
Fig. 51.—Fragment in Porcelain (?). (Nimroud.)

enlarge-image
Fig. 52.—Box in Porcelain (?). (Nimroud.) Fig. 53.—Enamelled Brick. (Louvre.)
Fig. 52.—Box in Porcelain (?). (Nimroud.)       Fig. 53.—Enamelled Brick. (Louvre.)

Assyria and Babylonia are almost necessarily considered in conjunction. The latter having been a province of Assyria prior to its assertion of independence, we anticipate, what is actually the case, a close similarity between the ceramic productions of the two countries. In tracing the history of their pottery, we not only discover many points of resemblance between it and that of Egypt, but advance along an exactly parallel line. From sun-dried bricks we pass to burnt bricks, thence to unglazed pottery possessed of an artistic character, thence again to glazed specimens and enamel. In both countries unbaked bricks were made use of in the construction of mound-like foundations for buildings. Walls, houses, and tombs were built of similar materials. In Assyria, bricks were sometimes faced with marble, either externally, for the sake of strength, or to give greater beauty to an interior. Some were gilded and others colored. Small figures of both baked and unbaked clay, and of a religious character, were also made by the Assyrians (Fig. 45). From the stamped and baked bricks much has been learned of Assyrian history and topography, the sites of cities and names of{99} kings having been thus discovered or substantiated. By the same people writing tablets of rectangular, cylindrical, or prismatic shapes were very commonly made of terra-cotta (Fig. 46). They form a very curious remnant of ancient literature, which, thanks to the indestructibility of the material upon which it was written, is still open to the{100} study of the historian. All kinds of records have thus been preserved—religious, legal, and astronomical. The Assyrians and Egyptians both used seals (Figs. 47, 48, 49, and 50) of baked and unbaked clay, in the same way that wax seals are still occasionally appended or attached to documents.

Many of the vases discovered in the ruined cities of Assyria are clearly to be attributed to foreign occupants, and are therefore of comparatively late date. To this class belong many of the cinerary urns exhumed from the tombs. Ancient and really Assyrian vessels have been discovered of a pale brown clay (Fig. 44), unglazed, and of various shapes, but seldom painted. It is, however, difficult, in many cases, to discover the nationality of the potter or the age of the piece. Of terra-cotta figures of the gods, several have been found, although these must have existed in far greater numbers. Porcelain, or fine glazed pottery (Figs. 51, 52), is rarely met with, and the specimens found are inferior to the Egyptian. The several uses of the ware appear to have been the same in the two countries. For {101}a knowledge of glazing and enamelling, the Assyrians were in all likelihood indebted to the Egyptians. Bricks subjected to these processes, and ornamented with flowers, leaves, and animals, were employed in decorating interiors and even in building walls (Fig. 53). These bricks reveal the fact that the Assyrians were aware of the peculiar suitableness of tin for making a white enamel. The other enamels employed were yellow, brown, blue, and green, and were produced from metals almost identical with those employed by the Egyptians.

enlarge-image
Fig. 56.—Terra-cotta Tablet, from Babylon. (British Museum.)
Fig. 56.—Terra-cotta Tablet, from Babylon. (British Museum.)

Like the Assyrian and Egyptian, the Babylonian bricks, whether unbaked or baked, were moulded, and the latter were stamped. Hundreds of these (Fig. 54) bear the stamp of Nebuchadnezzar, the sites where they were found indicating with tolerable exactness the bounds of his kingdom. The extensive use of bricks by the Babylonians may be taken as characteristic of a people inhabiting the country where the Tower of Babel was built (Fig. 55). In many respects the vessels found in Babylonia resemble those of Assyria, so closely, in fact, that they need not here be separately treated. As in the latter country,{102} the Babylonians used terra-cotta writing tablets. Several terra-cotta bas-reliefs have been discovered, of one of the more remarkable examples of which, now in the British Museum, we give the preceding engraving (Fig. 56). This tablet was found near Babylon. The dog is of the huge Thibet breed, and both figures have been modelled. The small size of the pieces would almost preclude their use as ornaments; and Dr. Birch ventures the conjecture that they may have been an artist’s studies for larger works. The fine paste is the same as that used for the writing cylinders.

In regard to the earthen-ware vessels and figures, the same difficulty in determining their age is encountered here that was met with in Assyria. They have been taken from the mounds in large quantities. To this class belongs the ram (Fig. 57) found at Niffer, on the supposed site of ancient Babylon.

enlarge-image
Fig. 58.—Glazed Coffins, from Warka.
Fig. 58.—Glazed Coffins, from Warka.

The Babylonian glazes resemble the Assyrian, and it may be particularly mentioned that the oxide of tin was employed in making enamel. These glazes are found upon both bricks and vases, and were applied extensively to architectural decoration. At Warka, identified with the ancient Ur of the Chaldees, thousands of coffins made of glazed ware have been exhumed, variously decorated with figures. Of these one specimen is given (Fig. 58).{103}

CHAPTER III.

JUDÆA.

enlarge-image
Fig. 59.—Earthen-ware Jars and Water-pots.
Fig. 59.—Earthen-ware Jars and Water-pots.

We now turn westward to Judæa, in order that, before penetrating farther into Asia and to the extreme East, we may glance at a country showing in its ceramic remains unmistakable signs of Egyptian teaching, but exercising in its turn no recognizable influence upon the art which from all sides of it was diffused over Southern Europe. The art never reached any eminence among the Jews. They preferred the richer beauty of the precious metals. Potters did, no doubt, exist among them in considerable numbers, and were acquainted with the different processes of throwing, firing, and glazing; but the formation of such a guild as that of which Scripture speaks is not of itself a proof that the occupation was held in high esteem. The few relics{104} which can be ascribed to a purely Jewish origin might be passed over as immaterial to observers of the progress of the art, were it not that everything pertaining to the land once called that of Promise, and now designated by all Christendom as Holy, possesses an interest altogether independent of its artistic merit.

For such earthen-ware vessels as they required, the Jews appear to have applied on the one hand to the Phœnicians, and on the other to the Egyptians. The manufacture among themselves was restricted to domestic articles. These resemble the Egyptian in both style and finish, the body being of a somewhat coarse paste, and the glaze of that peculiar kind which is hardly distinguishable from varnish or mechanical polish. A fragment now in the Louvre, of blue-glazed earthen-ware, resembling the finer ware of Egypt, and found in Judæa, further substantiates the close similarity between the pottery of the Jordan and that of the Nile. In ornamentation, however, the Israelites have some claim to originality and independence. Associating the lotus, papyrus, and the symbols of Egypt with idolatry, the Jewish potters substituted grapes, leaves, and pomegranates. In the description of the building of the Temple, in the First Book of Kings, the decoration within the oracle of “carved figures of cherubim and palm-trees and open flowers,” was repeated on the walls and doors; and on the chapiters of the pillars made by Hiram of Tyre were long rows of pomegranates. A similar style of ornamentation was adopted by the potters.

We have already seen that both Egyptian and Phœnician wares were imported into the country, and in addition to these there have been found at Jerusalem and elsewhere several examples of the red Roman, or Samian ware.{105}

CHAPTER IV.

INDIA AND CENTRAL ASIA.

Travellers who did not stop to examine things very closely, accordingly declared India a stranger to ceramic art. Recognizing its importance as an exchange, from the abundance of imports from abroad, they did not pierce the commercial conditions which hid its productiveness and originality. Later researches have shown not only that{106} India was not dependent upon other countries, but that it had developed an exceptional skill in the application of porcelain to the embellishment of architecture. As if completely to subvert the statements of the first visitors to Hindostan, China, the great seat of the porcelain manufacture, has acknowledged its indebtedness to that country, and the extent to which it has imitated its styles. There is no reason for supposing that a country which had early shown a wonderful capacity for reaching the highest forms of architectural magnificence, and for executing work of the nicest delicacy in the precious metals and gems, lent to China alone its ideas of ceramic beauty. The absence of thorough investigation on the one hand, and the presence of a tendency to take refuge in secrecy in regard to both methods and results, rather than to court observation on the other, may, however, have had their effect in lessening the influence India might otherwise have exercised on the art. That she borrowed and adapted styles originating in both Persia and Japan, after her marts had been flooded with imports from these countries, there is every reason for believing, even when she preserved styles sufficiently distinctive to enable us to distinguish the foreign from the native work.

Of the more ancient forms of pottery, specimens exist which are upward of two thousand years old. The clay varies from red to a gray color, and the ornamentation, when used, is simple and chaste. A funeral urn of this class has a round body without decoration, short, thick neck, projecting lip, and is accompanied by a lid. Another, of the same red clay, instead of the rounded base of the former, has a wide, flat bottom. A band is drawn round the widest part of the body, from which it curves rapidly inward to the neck, and on this upper part, between the greatest circumference and the neck, a simple ornament is laid. Although rather clumsy in appearance, this urn does not lack a certain primitive symmetry.

Like the other ancient nations of which we have already treated, India was intimately acquainted with the processes of enamelling and glazing, and, better than that, brought a cultivated taste to bear upon their employment in both architecture and the decoration of pottery. Glazed bricks, of many colors, were used with great effect in the building of temples and other edifices. They are of much harder and finer material than the bricks of either Egypt or Babylonia. The application{107} of colors and glaze to terra-cotta was productive of the most astonishing and beautiful effects. The specimens preserved of a monumental character substantiate the right of the Indian potters to a very high rank. Not only is the coloring of their terra-cotta friezes brilliant, but the floral and animal forms, introduced either for their symbolical significance or by way of ornament, are masterpieces of art.

Arranging these products chronologically, the wares belonging to the second or third century before our era will take precedence. The buildings in which glazed bricks were used bring us down to from five hundred to upward of a thousand years later. After them come the specimens of glazed terra-cotta. Subsequently a kind of faience was made which has been very generally ascribed to Persia, but which may, from the internal evidence supplied by a comparison with purely Indian work, be safely attributed to India. Lastly, there is the faience of the present time, so intimately allied with the more ancient in both ornamentation and the prevailing shapes, as to be confidently pronounced its legitimate successor. Flowers and ornaments, incised or in relief, and grounds of blue, green, or yellow, are designed and mingled in the most artistic and effective manner.

The porcelain of India has been ascribed, on the one hand, to Persia, and, on the other, to China or Japan, while a closer examination would have revealed the fact that, though having many qualities in common with them, it is yet radically distinct. It seems probable that in several processes which the Indian artist borrowed, he followed Japan, without allowing himself slavishly to copy. The art of India as represented in porcelain manifests itself in a high technical skill, in the most exquisite delicacy, and in a close attention to all the minutiæ of detail. Indian figure-painting owes to these three qualities its superiority alike over those of Persia and of the extreme East. In the beauty consisting of delicacy and careful precision of finish, neither country makes even an approach to an equality with it. This truth is one, however, which can only be fully understood by actual comparison. A similarly painstaking care and conscientious literalness of interpretation characterize the floral ornamentation of Indian porcelain. Even when we find traces of Eastern inspiration in the Hindoo deep-blue or green, the Indian artist asserts his superiority in working out details. In many cases we detect more refined perception combined with a{108} greater technical skill. A deep bowl has floral decoration in green, blue, and red, on a white ground, the flowers being alternately red and blue. Another has a ground of pale green, divided into sections by arches of gold, immediately under the outward curving lip. Upon this are laid larger sections of a rich red color, and filled with flowers. The contrasts are strong, and the effect is magnificent. In one respect the Indian artists are particularly skilful, and that is in the use of gold. It is employed generally with reserve, and always with rich effect.

enlarge-image
Fig. 61.—Washington’s “Indian” Porcelain Vases. Deep blue and gold.
Fig. 61.—Washington’s “Indian” Porcelain Vases. Deep blue and gold.

A specimen of Indian porcelain (Fig. 61), of exceptional interest to Americans, as having once belonged to George Washington, formed part of the collection at Arlington House. It consists of a set of three vases, presented to Washington by Mr. Samuel Vaughan, of London. Their value, for our present purpose, is somewhat lessened by the fact that, though made in India, the vases were painted in London.

In Siam, a style common to that country with India is prevalent, and is the result of imitating cloisonné enamel in porcelain. The practice has had one result in both countries. It has led to a comparison of the native porcelain with native work in metal, and the originality of the decoration of the former has thus been substantiated and its source explained.{109}

enlarge-image
Fig. 62.—Group of Chinese Porcelain. (From the Avery Coll.)
Fig. 62.—Group of Chinese Porcelain. (From the Avery Coll.)

CHAPTER V.

CHINA.