The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-10-20
Terra Gotta.

The antiquity of terra Gotta is coeva,
with the world and as it has never been
really dropped from the active COM
merce OF nations, its present universal
popularity can hardly be called a re-
Nuisance of the art of manufacture in
baked clay, but is due to modern an
probation of the science of yalues
During the past year or two terra GOTTA
has been extensively known as n warm
thread of color running through the
warp and wool of fashion. The ladies
nave worn dresses, hats, gloves, rib
bons and hosiery of terra Gotta shades
and such was the rage for it at one fine
that with its different tints of red. vel
low and brown, the streets seemed to
be peo1pled with walking autumn leaves.
MS however, was but the shadow of
the substance.
Ihe terra Gotta as color had but n
slight relation to terra Gotta as a mate
rial Tor architectural and decorative an
pllcatlon. 1t was found to be cheaper
than stone; warmer in its appearance;
necessity of an age color, endowed
with more properties of endurance and
capable OF resisting the most powerful
dlslntegrants of wind and weather.
With these qualities it combined
an artistic and genealooic value
of phenomenal interest lis records
were almost from the foudations
OF the world. The ancient Babylonians
and Assyrians recorded their, laws on
tablets OF terra Gotta in the arrow-headed
or cuneltorm characters of that ancient
day. The recent discoveries of these
primitive royal libraries by Layard and
Rawlinson have brought to light MANY
thousands of the cylinders and tablets
which have saved to modern history
much of the Babylonian and Assyrian
literature. 1t was used in the sarcoph-
agus of the dead; in the cinerarv urn:
in the stone coffin found at remote
periods; in the vicinity of the pyramids.
An English traveller records in his pub
lished diary the account of an excava-
ton in some part of Egypt where
mother and child were found in a state
of life-like preservation and great
beauty, and an unknown writer wove
the story into verse:
'"rhey found the dead of ages.
The people wept aloud
So fair, so fair, they slumbered there
In their Terra Gotta shroud.
From the twelfth to the seventeenth
century terra Gotta was much used in
architectural designs, and Michael An
gelo and other sculptors, employedit for
models and clay sketches, urns and orna-
ments with raised and depressed figures
The coat of arms seen over many of the
shop fronts of London are nodded
of this clay, which was no doubt
also the primitive Egyptian attempt
at fashioning rude and simple uten-
sis for daily use. The introduce
ton of bands and geometric patterns
was the first attempt at decoration.
There is little doubt that the soft clay
was nodded with the hands, baked and
rudely traced with black lines that
represented ideas and soon took forms
of beauty in the unconscious birth of
repetition. The terra Gotta of the
ancient Romans in the British Museum
represents chariot races and scenes SYM
bolical of the times. The Etruscans
were like the Greeks. their best pro-
ducts being statues, and although they
initiated with small success the painted
NftSSo VI pltCCG. llASN PIOuuCCl IL pcCu-
liar ware of brown color with rude or
naments, and soft black ware nodded
with decorations and figures in coarse
style. The clay was originally brown,
fawn and yellow, and as the art adj
vanced it became q warmer tint. AT
present it is artifically colored and is II
deep, yellow-tinted red that answers to
the name of terra Gotta alone, the shade
that most resembles it being known as
Bismarck brown.
In our own country the baked clay
is in great demand and has been for
some years. All fine buildings have
now an admiXture of terra Gotta. Or
namental figurines, spandrels, the
corner that squares a circle above the
window; roof ridges, chimney tops,
panels, belts and column heads are in
troduced with admirable efect.-De-
trOH Post.