The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-02-27
CERAMIC ART.
Mrs. Elizabeth Orr Williams Lecture o,
Saturday.

The four hundred ladies of the united
Women's Clubs of Portland, certainly
had an unexpected pleasure presented
them bn Saturday afternoon, that is judg-
ing from somewhat occasional exper-
fence, in listening to the results of a
thorough study in comparatively new
field of art, VIZ: The history and pres
> ent state of the Ceramic art by Mrs.
Elizabeth Orr Williams of Boston. This
accomplished young lady has devoted
much time in study upon this and kindred
subjects, viz: Literature, art, history
and music. She has also, we understand,
recently finished study Of the life and
character of the great master in paint
ing, sculpture and architecture. Michael
Angel has also prepared a por-
traiture of the maestro taken from Mr..
Longfellow's long and beautiful poem
upon the great man; and this is illustra.
ted in music by a lady friend.
Mrs. Williams commenced by an allu-
sion to the first terra Gotta ware (which
simply means burnt clay, made by the
earliest peoples Of the earth for the pur-
pose of holding food OF drink. The first
allusion in the Bible to pottery and the
potter's wheel, were newfoundland
pottery includes every article from the
rudest flower pot in red clay to the most
elaborate ornamented or costly vases.
The nations of Egypt, Babylonic. Assyria-
etc., were considered and specimens
shown of the first rude making of domes-
tic ware for the necessary uses of the
family. The manufacture of bricks on
the banks of the Nile was very early
carried on and they were extensively
used in the building up of cities in the
prehistoric epochs. And bricks were
stamped on the Tigris shore with signs
which our sages scarce can read. No
country has had so much influence in the
matter of pottery as Egypt has. Vases
and toilet bottle of the time of Abra-
ham and Hagar were shown, and an
Egyptian lamp was lighted which was
5000 years old. Greece next came into
the field of review and among no people
has beauty been more thoroughly adj
mired and even worshipped. Even Spar
tan women commended together for the
prize of beauty which was some vase or
article of the potter's wheel. The Greeks
excelled all others in purity, grace and
beauty of of style, and the worship of
Diana of EpheSus reached its climax in
the palmiest days of artistic develop
ment. The wonderful temples were the
glory and the pride of Greece and the des-
pair of all otherlnatious and are at this day
Initiated as the very standard of archi-
tectural beauty and perfection of form.
Dolls have been found in Grecian sepul-
chres which had jointed limbs and could
move their eyes, showings5hat those of
the present day are not original with us
of the 10Th century. Amphora to con-
tain wine, oil, etc., from the collection of
Gen. De Cesuola of New York, were
shown. Rome has been called the High
School of Art. Virgil alluded beauti-
fully to the art ceramic in his Bucolics
and by the bye Virgil's father, was a
potter. The Roman lamp used by the
Vestal virgins and by the early Christians
in the catacombs, were exhibited and
lighted, one of which was taken from
the rains of Herculaneun, and Mrs.
Williams appeared like very vestal
virgin herself, as she held aloft verita-
BILE lighted lamp of eighteen hundred and
fourteen years ago. Another ancient
lamp in the form Of human foot which
she obtained in the revived Roman villa
erected at Saratoga last summer, was
shown and lighted with the wick in the
end of the large toe. The times of the
glorious Renaissance were touched upon,
and then she concluded with brilliant
resume of the subject as far as she had
reviewed it and the ladies applauded her
enthusiastically.