Evening star., 1938-03-01

dnQ new England as early as 1850
They made crude type of pottery
not unlike our modern flower pots in
texture. that were used for kitchen
ware. They also made roof tiles and
building bricks. There was a crude
white ware made at Burlington, N. j.,
as early as 1851. not unlike the white
clay pipes children use for blowing
bubbles nowadays. But it was not until
the middle of the 18th century that
anything of Importance was ac-
complished, and not until the middle
of the 10th century that fine porcelain
was made and business well estab-
lshed.
The main reason that pottery MAX
Ing did not flourish in the early days,
was that England had well established
factories from which came very useful
products for general use, that could
be shipped to the colonies and
sold at very reasonable prices. The
thrifty colonists were careful to put
their small funds into something they
knew about, rather than into a home
manufactured product that had not
been proved satisfactory. Fine china
or porcelain came from England,
France or China and the colonists
with money to spend, took great care
that they received only the best. In
this way the pottery business died for
lack of patronage almost before it
had a chance to prove what it could
do.
There is often great deal Of con-
fusion in the terms, pottery. china,
earthenware and porcelain. Reduced
to the simplest terms, all pottery, or
earthenWare, which is the same thing,
is opaque. These are the stoneware
jars, the ornamental ra-cotta ware,
flower pots, the coarse slip decorated
ware from Pennsylvania and similar
pieces.
A LII of the potters' art that is not
pottery is china. Meaning that
any piece at all translucent falls in
this class. The words china and
porcelain are synonymous. The word
china has come into common use
IN the English-speaking countries, be-
cause so much of the best of the
early ware came from China and the
article has taken the name of the
place. Porcelain or china may be
divided into two types, namely, hard
paste and soft paste porcelain. To
go further into the various groups
is not possible in a limited space.
The best known of the early types
of pottery, and one of the most in
teresting is the sgraffto ware. which
was made in Pennsylvania about 1850.
OF reddish brown earthenware, it was
covered with lighter-colored slip and
the decoration scratched or incised
through to the darker body. A trans
parent glaze was then applied, which
when fired showed a yellow-green
mottled surface with deep red intaglio
decorations. These decorations were
often very amusing, with figures in
quaint costume interspersed with flow
ers and animals Dates were often
used and the names of the owner
or the potter. Made of a similar
"slip-decorated' ware were large vege-
table dishes and platters. also pie
plates with the name Lemon pie"
written across it. Il wonder if there
were rigid restrictions for their use,
and one must not" make mince pie
in a lemon pie dish, or if they were
such fine householders that they had
complete set, with one for each kind
Of pie)
The first American hard porcelain
was made at the American China
Mandatory in Philadelphia in 1925.
William Tucker was the son of the
owner of this shop, and was employed