New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-03-20
DECORATIVE ART AND POTTERY.
WILLIAM C. PRIME AT THE wORKINGMEN's FREE
READING ROOM.

William C.. Prime delivered lecture last
evening in the Workingmens Free Reading Room
Course, ut No. 13j Grecnwchst., on Decorative
Art and Pottery" TIE body OF the reading room was
well filed with attentive men and boys Mr.. Prime
apparently succeeded in interesting his audience for
he was loudly applauded when he concluded.
Mr.. Prime began with the explanation Of how the ee
meD OF beauty entered into the manufacture OF decOra-
tive objects and pottery how vast was the number OF
men, and children employed to produce beauty,
and how large the sum OF money paid annually Tor
IT, Beauty. he said, could be produced without art
knowledge. Brilliant coors were beautiful in them
selves. and thousands of children employed in
placing few spots of brilliant color white cups Art
was not simply luxury. AIT pursuits, nrt
museums and art studies were as important
for the Industrial world the manufacture
OF the most simple useful article. Beauty paid well, and
he who could produce IL certain to receive good pay
for his labor Pottery was an art which had probably
engaged the work OF more men than any other. Adam
the ground. For pottery nothing but baked clay
aud every savage tribe In the world had learned how to
make H. Since IL the oldest and the most widely ex-
tended of all arts 1t ought to be studied part OF
tho history OF the human race. His hearers probably
could tell, he said, wherein porcelain differed from
pottery This Vas not TO their discredit, because
he ventured to sy. there were very few college pro
fessors who could truthful oif-hand explanation
In simple terms pottery anything made OF clay aud
baked until il hard Brick nothing but soft
pottery BY grinding the clay finer and putting sand In
with IT, friedrich were mad" and this was hard pottery
nsT the be nme H to- the Asa
with this clay WAS necessary ground fedspar
q kind OF rock. II was easy to tell pottery from por
celaIn by holding II up 10 the sunlight IL the shadow OF
the hand could he seen through IT, then the article was
porcelain, which was translucent body, while pottery
was Opaque and did not let the light pass through.
In pottery ana porcelain there were two Kinds OF
beauty, that of FORM ana that OF color Mr.. Prime
charged his hearers to remember that their own taste
would decide for them what was beautiful lndepend-
ont taste their perfect right. They might now
think that certain object beautiful and some time
10 conc they might think differently. II tnty liked
onions with their food he did not but Inc had no right TO
uun IA on
OF suited different people ard dlileient ma
tions. IL would be folly for "a Frenchman or
E1Clishmau American to tell an Arab
Japanese that they could teach them better TASTE
They might teach them another TASTE but n the Arabs
and japanese equally cultivated in their own taste,
the former could not teach toe latter better taste III
WAS his own impression that beauty OF form and
color all representatives OF standards III
Nature. He doubted N any vase was ever made
tue forms OF which could not bo found In Nature:
The of C.g we're tho Commences; forms icund
In vases. IL Nature that made the nrst boWls.
After all. God the teacher III rrgprd 10 utility ana
beauty In tho workmanship 81 nll nations, simple
first found The art OF Deadtliying was OF
slow growth. The first beauty attempted To he wrought
on pottery about $500 years before CHRIST piece
of pottery had not yet been found when
1000 old. Not piece OF pottery or scratch
traccabe 10 human agency had yet been found whlch
was 5000 years old. This was the answer OF art
study 10 all the stories about The great axe
of the human If men lived on the earth
before that time, They never made any iliinS.
Mr. Prime aid that more had been learned o the history
Of nations from pottery than from AL tho other rcics OF
mankind II he wished To study the habits OF people
lac would rather See the picture. made III tbc time, as
found upon their pottery, an their books, because PIE
lures made 10 please the people ana DOCKS were
made 10 please The authors.
The Rev I. d. Beyan will deliver next Tuesday lee
ture on 4" A Bundle OF Old saws Reset aud Relied