Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-08-25
IN AUSTRIA NOW.
Our Traveller Discusses Paintings.
Porcelain and Jewels.
VIENNA, July 18th, 1892.

l will go right on with Dresden
Emma and l haven't once been sorry
! that we didn't go to Berlin because ou,
stay in Dresden was such a pleasant
one. Our hotel was a small one and
delightful in every way, and our room
the pleasantest we have yet had Il
had single beds, lounge, three tables,
! half dozen chairs, a beautiful writing
desk, Dresden china bowls and candle.
sticks, lovely clean curtains, a screen
| at the foot of the beds, large mirror
and mantel, little balcony and white
porcelain stove in our room here. They
are such tall things. higher than I am
The girls say they look like monu.
ments, but l like them, they are sc
clean. l would prefer our own black
ones in winter, though, for they say
that you can sit on these without get
ting warm.
| Wednesday afternoon, before the
others started for Berlin, we all went
out to Meissen, half hours ride or
the cars, to visit the royal porcelain
mandatory there. We went through
the works by paying a mark apiece,
and it was well worth it. They en-
ploy seven hundred and twenty men,
nd for n
and modelling in connectin with the
firm. The guide spoke English some
and we pumped him we'll. He took us
to the rooms where they baked the
china. The articles are put in closed
vessels made of coarse earthen ware.
and the oven filled with these. Then a
fire is built and they are baked one
day. 1t takes two more days for them
to cool off. There was no fire in the
oven then and we walked in, SO you
can see that it was large. Most of the
things are baked three times-baked
once, then glazed and baked again,
then painted and put through the oven
the third time. Sometimes they are
painted before being glazed. We saw
men making plates out of the moist
clay. They put the clay on a revolv-
ing mould and then there was a knife,
the shape of a bottom of plate, that
he let down on the revolving mass and
it scraped off the extra clay and made
it the shape of a plate; tnen he took it
off, mould and all, and, after it had
dried for minute Or two, blew on it
and separated the plate from the mould.
Then we saw men putting the common
blue pattern on plates. 1t was trans
ferred by means of perforated paper.
But the more elaborate pieces were the
most interesting. When they make
little statues of boys, cupids and such
things, they mould the legs, arms and
heads separately and afterwards put
them together. We saw them take lit
tie arms out of the mOulds. But the
most interesting of all, perhaps, was to
watch men make things with their own
fingers out of the wet clay, without the
use of moulds. l watched for n long
time man putting a bunch of leaves
and flowers on q vase. He would cut
off little piece of the wet clay, roll it |
On his board, wet it with sponge, |
iatten it little, cut it with a little |
tool he had, and there would be a |
pretty flower, which he would stick On |
and then make another. / must have |
shown my interest in my face. for the
nan gave me a flower he had made. |
and | was the only one in the crowd |
who had such a present. Some of the
plates they make have fancy cnt edges
and little forget-me-nOts all over them.
It takes man four days just to put the
lowers on. You can see why such a
plate costs fifty dollars Or SO. Then
We saw men painting little statues and
others painting designs ON plates and
,ther dishes. Some of them have
beautiful copies of famous pictures on
hem - Raphael's cherubs and such
pictures. The last process of all is
so many pieces have
great deal of gold on them. This is
he only thing that women do, to shine
IN the pilt with agate tools
The next day we went to see porce-
ain exhibit in a museum, where there
5 room after room of Chinese and Jap
lnese ware, Italian majOlica and china
rom Berlin, ST. Petersburg, Sevres,
Ieissen and England. There were i'm
nense vases painted in such beautiful
Olors, worth hundreds of dollars.
particularly bust of a woman
With a lace veil over her head, en-
'roidered net, all made of china. You
would have thought that it was really {
ace, it was in such natural folds. How
hey made such little holes / do not
ee. Ii
The same morning we went to the
;reen Vault in the King palace, where
here is an unrivaled collection of cary /.
d ivory, gems and such things The t
rown Jewels in the tower of London c