The Portland daily press., 1877-04-06


report of competent judges, worthier of prais
than that at any previous worlds fair. How
ever that may be, it is certain that the displa
made by the French, German and Swedisl
potteries, by the great Oriental porcelain facto
ries, and by the English manufactures of full
niture, has aroused the strong initiative facult
of the American people. In our chief cite
the leaders of society, the people who hav
already basis Of culture upon which they cal
build whatever art structure the fancy of tn
| moment favors, can as readily pull i
down to make place for the next caprce,-hav,
of late given their time and attention to th,
ceramic arr, more especially to the decoration
| OF pottery In Portland, where, a few months
since, men of Intelligence were highly amused
| at an exhibition of Japanese cabinets in one o
! our best-known art stores, and wondered who
would buy "such old-fashioned stuff, lit was
| several centuries old, the conscientious chroni
| cler must confess) men now talk with some ap
| pearance of learning about Etruscan porcelain
and the pottery found in Eastern tombs, and
the ware of famous Italian artisans, and The
fine clay fashionings of France. The latest
freak of fashion is the collection of antique
pottery: fashion which has long been in date
in narrow circle, but which has only of late
comprised the wide circle of the whole people.
The. fashion, one may hope, has taken SO firm
hold that it cannot be shaken off. Indeed,
there is reason to believe that the attention we
pay to art, in its various forms, is not an affec-
tation, but comes Of genuine love born of OBJ
servation and nurtured taste.
One of the most unmistakable indications of
the growing taste for art among our people is
the increasing demand for representations of
the antique forms. A genuine antique, in any
manifestation of art, necessarily falls to the lot
of few men to possess. But most of us are
able to own copy of the Medicean Venus, or
of the Apollo of the Vatican, or of the
Farnesian Hercules, or to come down
to lesser things, tolerabe imitation of
Della Robbia ware or other designs in majolca.
Everyone cannot hope to possess the famous
old designs, but no one need deprive himself
of the admirable copies which the accomplished
artisans of our time furnish.
The establishment of art museums in this
country, like the Metropolitan at New York,
the fine collection in Philadelphia, and the
new museum which the far-seeing generosity
of Boston has founded, where collections of
antiques, noticeably those Of Di Cesnola and
Castellani have been secured, has done much
towards creating and fostering taste for an
Gent art especially as manifested in fictile pro-
ducts. All over the country men and women
are studying the relics which the spade of the
explorer is exhuming from the buried ruins of
ancient cities. and slowly learning that the old
world possessed sense of form and color to
which we can scarcely attain. The highest eff
fort of modern art, in fictes at least, is to re-
produce the antiques formsi and decorations.
Few are aware that here in Maine some of the
finest representations of the ancient pottery are
made. Within a few days articles of earthern
ware, fashioned after the old-time models, have
been exhibited in the window of Abner Lowell
on Middle street, and have attracted great and
deserved attention. They are produced by the
Portland Stoneware Company. While our
people have been interesting themselves in the
pottery elsewhere exhibited, this company has
been furnishing that pottery. Taking wise
advantage of the prevailing taste and the con-
sequent demand for representations of the an
tique, the company early engaged modelers
and decorators who had been trained in the
best industrial schools of Europe. In conse-
quence the products of their factory have found
ready market and easily command prefer
ence to the wares elsewhere made in the coun-
try. Much of their success is due to the ex-
eellence of their material. Heretofore the clay
vessels offered for ornament have been of the
red clay of the Beverly manufacture. mate
rial admirably adapted for ornamentation in
black, but lending itself with difficulty to poly
chromatic design. The clay used by the Port.
land company possesses the delicate buff tint,
the ''Rogers color" SO desirable in material
upon which the brush has been employed. This
tint is due to a peculiar process of baking,
though the finest quality of clay, that of New
Jersey, has to be used. The bake is really a
biscuit, sufficiently strong for its purpose and
giving surface peculiarly fitted for the laying
Oh of color. The models, after those in the
South Kensington Museum, the Metropolitan
Museum, the new museum in Boston, and 9TH
er recognized amples of ancient art, are
made by L. f. Nilsson, Swede designer, who
has had long study in his profession. The
models are of many shapes, fashioned after
patterns bequeathed to US by the ancents.
Most noticeable among the designs are those
taken from the vessels found by Schliemann
in the Hissarlik mound on the site of Troy. A
favorite form is that of the amphora, with it's
pointed base and double handles, and with its
later modification, the twisted Urbino' handles.
The aryballos shape of vase, decorated in black
and red bands, is quite frequent. The krater
vase, or ancient punch bowl, the oinoch@, wine
pitcher OF the Greeks, the hydra vase stained
black, with no decoration except the laurel
leaf, and with handles set in gilt rings, are all
reproduced. The double bottles, puzzle jugs,
and other grotesques of Greek art, appear to
be favorite objects of imitation. Egyptian
forms of pottery, set off with red, black and
yellow, and bearing the lotus, are among the
most striking designs. A favorite pattern ap-
pears to be a peculiarly shaped Saracen vessel
decorated in blue and green. Thej Ph@nician
designs, in simple lines, zigzags, &c., are very
happily reproduced. Some of the modelngs
after Cypriote vases in the Di Cesnola collec-
lions, strike one as admirably done, and the col
oring has all that rude effectiveness which per-
tains to earlier specimens of pottery. The at
tempt at the superb vases found in South Ital-
ian tombs. called Etruscan but clearly Greecian,
is not so successful, though the shapes are fine
" modelled and artistically colored. The an
Gent lucerna, lamps, the amphora from the
Tounley and Elgin collections, the tripons or
three footed vase of the Greeks, the ointment
cups after the Phnnician models in the Di
Cesnola 'ind,' are favorte objects Of imita-
ton. The decoration is done by Peter
DanielsoD, Swedish decorator of ex-
cellent taste and varied accomplishments.
His favorite figure appears to be the Greek
fret, in black on gray ground, though some
Of his most brilliant and striking designs are of
the Cashmere pattern, green, gold and red in
the figures of India shawls. His attempts at
polychrome decoration after Egyptian patterns
and on Egyptian forms are highly successful.
Of late he has been turning his attention to
Thyra cups and other Northern vessels. Some
of the best examples of his work are to be seen
in Lowell's window. One, water cooler, is
especially noticeable for its dark, rich and
strong coloring. A vessel for which, judging
from the quantity made, there is great call, is
the 'fcuspidor," which is decorated richly