Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-01-18
THE LOST ART OF IRIDESCENT
METALLIC GLACES.

tLeir shimmering, burning, changeful
colors, which take new depths at every
varying angle of light, which rival the
mother of pearl in delicacy and variety
and which initiate every sheen and
glimmer which is found on the lip oi
the shell, the skin of the serpent, the
coat of the leopard, the wing of the
: bird? Their work has been called one
of the 'lost arts, but that it is to re-
main so one doubts in looking at 6
recent pottery development OF France
tile metallic lustre art ware made al
Golfe-Juan, near Cannes, in the Mari
time Alps.
This ware, first displayed at the
Paris Exposition in 1889, has only just
begun to attract anything like public
attention. In its short life it has been
put on exhibition but a few times, has
never been offered TO the public in q
Falesroom, and except in a few rare
pieces has not been exported. Never
theless, since first displayed, it has
numbered among its friends several oi
the leading artists and connoisseurs oi
Paris. one especially, the artist Ger
ONE, has interested himself in the ware
and given the aid of his advice and in
duence to the potter. NJ. Clement
Master.
In the present year the ware has
been displayed in Paris at the salon of
the Champs de Mars, and Is now to be
Eeen in the exposition of the arts OF
women open in the city. Its success
has been great with lovers of artistic
pottery. The government has bought
pieces which will be put into the Lux
emboug, it is said, at the next rear
ranging of the museum, and Its domain
hes been extended to America, where
it goes, L trust, to conquer, several
Americans of wealth having carried
home pieces, among them Potter
Palmer, MIR. Havemeyer end Mr..
Tiffany.
The ware is an imitation of the
twelfth century lustre ware of Persia.
The Persian pottery shown in the great
collections of museums is usually of
later date-sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries-and is known as Khodian or
Damascus ware. While very interest
ing and sometimes beautiful, it is quite
another thing from the Persion of the
twelfth century, which tine new pottery
initiates. The latter ware has usually
white ground and is decorated with
positive greens and blues; the earlier
ware is of dark ground and much
richer IN luster. 1t was especially en-
ployed in tiles which the Persians used
freely in decorating the exterior as
well as the interior of their buildings.
The special beauty of the ware was
produced by the decomposition of a
metallic salt, usually silver or gold.
The salt was not applied until after the
piece had received its white lead hard
glaze, then it was used to paint in the
pattern. The chemical action which
took place in the firing of the piece
after the application of the metallic
pigment let loose the oxygen of the
salt and left the atoms of the metal
mbedded in the surface of the glaze.
The result was the treasured rides
cent, prIsmatic effect. The peculiar
tiles of the glaZes and the operations
employed at Golfe-Juan are, of course,
not revealed to the public, but as it is
The result, not the method, which in
terests rs, there is no loss. The result
is excellent.
In tue first place, the forms are
good. NJ. Massier claims to follow
only Persian shapes, and in dong this
be not only preserves the unities,
but he awakens many remembrances of
Persian customs. He makes the
hookah- jar for containing the water
through which the smoke from the
strange Persian pipe, the hooksh was
made to pass for the sake of cooling it (;
the Iong-necked wine bottle; the open
water jars placed in rooms; the
old water pitchers, spheroidalin shape,
with short necks and tiny spouts, from
which it was the custom to pour the
water first into the hand of the drlnker;
the ewers in which the water was
brought to the table for the washing of
the fingers before the meal began-a
performance which always preceded a
Persian dinner party; the great bowls
in which flowers and fruit were kept;
plaques, lamps, a variety of small
dishes; in short all the forms found in
the clay and brass vessels of Persia.
0 The decorations follow those found
on the wares which have been un-
earthed. in many cases they are pat
terms copied from fragments brought
from Persia by the painter Girouse.
Palm leaves. the spine of the thorn,
the leaf and flower of the thistle, the
irregular radiation of crystal, the tar
fish, the eye of the peacock's feather,
the spotted hide of the leopard, the
rings and marks of the snake, the wav-
ing lines of plumage, all and used gener-
ally in an ''all-over" treatment. Rarely
distinct pattern as a large fieur lis
is used on a ground covered with pe-
culiar markings. Rarely two styles
are used.
The ground in nearly all the piece5
is dark. Looked at from one angle it
Is a brown, a dark red, n dull green,
an almost black blue, hard gold, a
leafiike silver. Taken in another light
it is shot with brilliant violets, puppies,
yellows, reds, Colds, every color con-
ceivable. The lridescent effect is much
less brilliant than in Hispano- Moorish
and Italian lustre ware, but it is never
theIess. very beautiful. and it is in per-
feet harmony with the dignified, chaste
designs and the rich, dark coloring.
The new pottery is not destined to
become common. Its production is
attended by too great pains, expense
and uncertainty. Fifteen years were
spent in experimenting before any
thing was obtained to offer the public
and now the potter never knows how
a piece will come from the kiln after it
has undergone the Is to 90 hours firing
necessary for its lustre. But the ware
is undoubtedly destined to be classed
among the purely artistic pottery de-
velopments and to mark a stage in the
re6nding of the ''lost art" of iridescent
glaces. NJ. TARBELL, in Phila
detphia Inquirer.
Edwin-Do you think your father
and mother will do anything fer u
when we ara marrIe'?
Angeline-They have promised to
come and live with US.
At the Menagerle: Mr.. Bolsover-
Look at that snake vino is tying him-
self nto knot.
Miss Vere-He probably has some
thing he wants to remember,