CHAPTER VI
FROM VASES TO DRAIN-PIPES
During the week that followed neither Dr. Swift nor Mr. Croyden took any more long trips away from the camp. They went, to be sure, on short fishing excursions, often being absent an entire morning or afternoon; but they passed no nights away from Theo. The boy suspected that his father's reason for this decision was because for the last few days try as he would he had been unable to conceal how miserable and uncomfortable he felt. Dr. Swift, however, would not own that this was the cause of his loitering at home. He merely declared that when the near-at-hand sport was so good it was foolish to tramp ten miles to waylay some unwary and distant trout. And indeed this logic appeared to be sound, for not once did the anglers return from one of their brief tours that they did not bring with them baskets well lined with yellow perch, trout, or land-loch salmon.
As a consequence the Doctor managed to keep very close watch of his son, and Theo saw a great deal both of his father and Mr. Croyden.
The friendship of the latter for the sick lad was no empty pose.
He sincerely liked Theo—liked his manliness and his intelligence; his brave attempt at unselfishness; his boyish love of fun.
Mr. Croyden was very fond of boys and, in fact, often betrayed the circumstance that in reality he himself had never really grown up.
Accordingly he sought Theo out whenever he had leisure, and many a happy hour did the two spend together.
One day when he chanced to be sitting beside the invalid's couch Theo said:
"You told me once that there were three famous potters in history, and that Palissy was one of them; who were the others?"
"If I should tell you their names and nothing more about them it would be only so much dry sawdust," was Mr. Croyden's reply. "The only reason they were great was because of what they did; and that is a long story."
"Too long to tell?"
"Too long to put in a nutshell."
"Wouldn't you have time to tell me some of it now?"
"I might have time to tell you about one of the men, but not both; and even were I to tell you about one of them, in order to make you understand how truly great he was I should have to tell you much that happened before he began his pottery-making," answered Mr. Croyden slowly.
"I shouldn't mind that at all," laughed Theo. "The longer your stories are the better I like them."
Mr. Croyden smiled.
"Suppose, then, we begin," he said, "and I will try before luncheon to introduce you to our second great potter. But before I do this we must go back a little that you may recall exactly where we left off. While Holland was turning out its Delft ware; Italy its glazed terra-cotta; and France its Henri Deux and other enameled earthenwares, in the Low Countries and the German States a new variety of pottery with a coarse surface not unlike the porous skin of an orange was being made. This was known as Gres de Flandres, gres meaning earthenware. The unique feature it possessed was not so much its orange-skin surface as the surprising method by which it was glazed. The ware itself was made on a potter's wheel often from the commonplace kinds of clay, such as are employed in making stone china; sometimes this was brown, sometimes gray, sometimes cream-colored. There was nothing original about the material employed. But afterward—then came the amazing thing! When the clay articles were put into the kiln to be fired a quantity of common salt was thrown in with them and this salt created a vapor which when it settled upon the ware fused with it, giving to the clay a coarse, porous-appearing surface.
"How do you suppose anybody ever thought of using salt?" inquired Theo.
"I do not know. Probably the discovery, like so many others, was a mere happen-so. At any rate it was a fortunate happening, for immediately this method of glazing earthenware was carried to England, where Doulton of Lambeth began manufacturing some very beautiful gres. For gres can be of exquisite beauty as well as of most ordinary type. Do not forget that. The term serves to cover those opaque earthenwares which are fired until vitrification or an external glassing results. At first all styles of gres were called Gres de Flandres, but later the single term gres was given them. You will hardly be surprised when I tell you that those past masters in the art of every kind of pottery-making, the Chinese and Japanese, have given us our finest specimens of gres, some of them having designs of imitation jewels upon them; and others decorations of beautifully colored enamels. Next to these Oriental varieties Germany has always excelled in the making of gres. There is a great scope for artistic expression in this ware, a far broader range for merit than in many others."
"So it was this salt glaze that England took up, was it?" ruminated Theo.
"Yes. You see, up to this time very little glazed ware had been made in England, for until the Dutch traders came with their Chinese and Delft wares the English had been cheerfully using, as I told you, unglazed clay, wood, pewter, and on rare occasions silver dishes. Even the ladies of Queen Elizabeth's household felt no shame to eat from wooden dishes. As for knives and forks—nobody used those! Every one ate with his fingers. Think how primitive it must have been to go to a banquet of the Lord-Mayor of London arrayed in your silk or velvet costume, and eat roasted ox with your fingers from a trencher, or square slab of wood! Yet such a procedure was considered entirely proper in those days."
Theo was much amused.
"Afterward for quite a long time dishes of brown stoneware were in vogue; and then as an improvement on those came a coarse greenish-yellow type of ware. It was about 1645 that into England strayed a few Dutch potters who began to make a reproduction of Delft pottery. In the meantime in quite another part of the country a salt-glazed stoneware of far better quality than any previously manufactured made its appearance. To this the name porcellane was given, and although the product was in reality simply a gres the fact is interesting because it is the first time that we have the word applied to china. It probably came from the Italian noun porcellana, meaning a shell, which the thinness of the new ware may have suggested; or the term may have been derived from the French word pourcelaine, a word used for any material from which a sculptor models his statues. We are not certain which of these theories is correct. Nevertheless we have the name, although at this particular date it was incorrectly applied."
"But the English had nothing at that time but pottery to give the name to," objected Theo.
"Exactly! So they shouldn't have used the term at all," he said, "because they have confused a lot of good people since then. From this period on England went steadily forward with its china-making. Earthenware of various kinds covered with salt glaze were made at Fulham, Stoke-on-Trent, and Staffordshire. It was about 1750 that the second of the great potters made his advent."
"Ah!" cried Theo, "now we are going to hear who he was!"
Mr. Croyden paused a moment as if thinking just how he should best tell the story. Then he began:
"The name of this second pottery-maker to whom the world owes a mighty debt was Josiah Wedgwood. He was a man who came naturally by his skill at pottery-making, for, not only was he himself a potter, but he also had several ancestors who had followed the trade. He was a conscientious workman of limited education, but a person to whom a thorough, careful piece of work, done as well as it was possible to do it, was a satisfaction and delight. Remember that fact, for it had much to do with Wedgwood's subsequent success. He also loved beauty of form, and probably had he been able to choose he would have turned his entire attention to making a classic type of pottery. But being one of thirteen children he was poor, and his common sense told him that there were far more necessary things to be done in the world than to give all one's time to articles that were not useful. So he put his dream behind him, like the practical fellow he was, and looked about to see what his contemporaries needed, and what he could do to aid his generation."
"I should think that if he could have made some dishes it would have helped as much as anything," asserted Theo emphatically.
"That was precisely what he decided," answered Mr. Croyden. "Accordingly he went to work to apply his knowledge of pottery to the improvement of English earthenware. First he made a kind of cream-white pottery which he dubbed Queen's Ware in honor of Queen Charlotte; and which in spite of the fact that it boasted no decoration, became very popular in England because of its moderate price. From this simple beginning Wedgwood got money to experiment further, and work out other varieties of china. In 1773 he began his famous dinner-set for Empress Catherine II of Russia, which had upon it over twelve hundred enameled views of English estates, and for which she paid three thousand pounds. For two months before this set was packed and sent away it was on exhibition in London, where it was the marvel of every one who saw it."
"I'd like to have seen it!" interjected Theo.
"And I too," echoed Mr. Croyden. "By this time Wedgwood had money enough to carry out some of his dreams. He was fortunate in having the friendship of several Englishmen of wealth and through one of them, Sir William Hamilton, he obtained a chance to take impressions of rare cameos from Italy and Pompeii; later the Duke of Portland, who you may recall outbid him at the sale of the world-famed Portland Vase, allowed him to copy it. It was a very generous thing for an art-lover to do, and I think it must have cost the duke a wrench. It took Wedgwood a whole year to copy this vase, and when he had succeeded in doing so he made fifty more copies. The venture cost him not only his time but a small fortune as well; but it proved far from a waste of hours or money, since the feat brought to the manufacturer a familiarity with Grecian art which had its outcome in his well-known Jasper ware."
Theo glanced up questioningly.
"Surely you have seen this ware, Theo," asserted Mr. Croyden. "It comes in blue sage-green, or purple, and has upon it Grecian figures in white."
Instantly a flash of recognition came into Theo's face.
"Oh, I know it now!" he ejaculated. "Mother has a teapot of it at home."
"That is more than likely," came cordially from Mr. Croyden. "At first, however, Wedgwood did not put the white figures on this ware; he merely mixed the coloring matter with the clay and got as a result a dull, opaque ware of green. Afterward he conceived the idea of making the pottery in other colors and decorating it with the Grecian, Italian, or Roman figures of which he had long before taken impressions. As this venture took form sculptors became interested in the project and lent their aid, so that by and by an entirely original ware was developed which has come down through history as one of the significant art contributions of the age. In addition to his Queen's ware, and Jasper ware, Wedgwood also made a black Egyptian-like ware called Basalt; another variety of cream-colored ware known as Bamboo; and a kind of terra-cotta that imitated granite."
"Well, I should certainly think Wedgwood did his bit!" declared Theo.
"Ah, but this was not all he did," retorted Mr. Croyden quickly. "His most important work I have not yet mentioned."
"What was that?"
"He invented two things of widely different nature which have been of the greatest practical value to our civilization ever since. One was a hard biscuit porcelain such as is used in laboratories, and for chemist's and pharmacist's utensils. This meant far greater convenience in the mixing and preparation of drugs and medicines."
"And the other?"
"The other was the glazing of common earthenware or terra-cotta drain-pipes. This non-æsthetic product was perhaps Wedgwood's greatest contribution to his time, for it revolutionized sanitation, and was a mighty step toward better living conditions. Surely no one can say that Josiah Wedgwood did not let his art serve his generation both from an artistic and a practical standpoint."
