The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1905-09-27
REvIyES LOST ART.
POTTERY MAKING, 1900 YEARS
AGO, BROUGHT TO LIGHT.
Harry Firth, an Englishman, Dnrh-
Gates the Celebrated Backward OF
the Etruscans--Hits on Scheme
by Roundabout Route.

| London. Examples of an art lost
more than 20 centuries and only redls-
covered by accident, have been exhibited
recently by Harry Firth, of krkby
Lonsdale, England. The work dupll-
Gates the famous backward of The
Ltruscaus.
Mr.. Firth spent the first 40 years Of
his life tending flowers TOR the squire
of KirSby Lonsdale. He was a common
gardener. earning in the neighborhood
of six dollars a week In 1886 he be-
came Interested in wood carving.
through the instruNentality of the
Arts and Crafts Gui1. an in5titntiou
originally started by watts. Ruskin,
Morris and number of other then
youthfully enthusiastic artists. but now
supported almost wholly by the various
county councils of England under the
patronage of the queen and almost all
the royal family. In 1890 the guild was
introduced into Kirkhy Lonsdaie. and
Mr. Firth, his little daughter. his wife and
other members of his family joined the
student ranks. He took up wood carv-
ing. the daughter worked in color his
wife embossed leather, and all three
have made a wonderful success.
Mr. Firth speedily found that his de-
signs were difficult of execution. how
ever. as he had no model with which TO
guide the movements of his chisei.
Hence he was quick to avail himself OF
! a suggestion that he model his work in
i clay, afterward copying the design in
wood. For year or more he laboriously
trudged seven weary miles with loads of
plastic models to a neighboring brick
kiln, where they were baked hard. BY
degrees his interest in clay overshad-
owed his interest in wood, and instead
of molding mere designs for his chisel
to copy he tried his prentice hand at
original work in pottery. The same sue
cess which had met his wood carving
followed him in this. and the same en-
| ergy which had carried his models seven
! miles after a hard day rs work in the gar
den carried his pots and his vases over
the same tedious road to the brick kiln.
A few months. however. and he saw
that he had either reached his limit as
q creative potter or he must devise new
means for firing his clay. This he did by
building for himself a small oven in a
, little deserted shed whose owner al
! lowed him its use free of charge. It was
/ In this shed and in a little testing box
j at the apex of his homemade oven that
Harry Firth. the gardener finally wrest-
ed a secret of the ages and made once
more the famous black Etruscan ware.
sung by Juvenal. Perseus and Horace
and sought unsuccessfully by The lead
ing potters all through the Christian
era
To the unsophisticated gardener.
playing at pottery the discovery meant
nothing more than the loss of so much
clay and so much labor. The rare speci-
mems of newly found art he placed tear
fully away in a corner where rubbish
piled up and dust covered them. There
they stood for weeks iii an inqusitive
clergyman with an eye for the artistic
and an interest in the potter began
routing about in the shed and urearthed
them. He was enthusiastic. and quickly
set Firth's heart beating wildly with
his tales of dead arms and his praise of
the discarded treasures.
Then came the real labor. for though
made once. it was not easy to reproduce
an accident. and it took nine months Of
daily work before Firth again managed
to duplicate the ancient work.
Mr.. Firth has ceased gardening and
now makes his living entirely by his art,
but it is not much of living. for he has
all n.
money by his work. He charges barely
enough to cover the cost of his labor.
and lives laborious days. where a less
squeamish man might have luxury and
the plaudits of thousands.