“Instead of the fresh flowers, dried roses are sometimes used, and, with the addition of some essential oils, these answer quite as well.” (Redwood.)
The following is a French formula:—Take the petals of the pale and red roses, pinks, violets, moss rose, orange flower, lily of the valley, acacia flowers, clove gilliflowers, mignonette, heliotrope, jonquils, with a small proportion of the flowers of myrtle, balm, rosemary, and thyme; spread them out for some days, and as they become dry put them into a
jar, with alternate layers of dry salt mixed with orris powder, till the vessel is filled. Close it for a month and stir the whole up, and moisten it with rose water.
POT′TED MEATS. See Putrefaction and Potting (below).
POT′TERY. The mechanical operations connected with the manufacture of pottery (CERAMIC ART) do not come within the province of this work. The materials employed, in this country, to produce the best kind of earthenware (Staffordshire ware) are the fine white clays of Devonshire and Cornwall, and powdered chert or flint. This is brought to a perfectly homogeneous plastic mass with water, and in this state is fashioned upon the potter’s wheel and lathe, or by moulding, into all the varied objects of utility and ornament, which are made in this material. After the newly formed vessels and other articles have been dried by exposure in heated rooms, they are enclosed in clay cases (SEGGARS) and exposed to heat in a kiln, by which they arrive at a state (BISCUIT) which renders them fit for glazing; the patterns (if any) and, afterwards, appropriate vitreous materials having been applied to their surfaces, they are again placed in the seggars, and are again exposed in a kiln to a heat sufficiently high to fuse the newly applied compound, by which they acquire a uniform enamelled surface, and become fit for the market. Porcelain, or China, as it is commonly called, is manufactured in a nearly similar manner, but the materials are selected and the various processes conducted with corresponding skill and care.
The ornamental patterns are produced upon both Staffordshire ware and porcelain by a number of ingenious processes, among which printing, painting, and moulding are the principal. The colours employed are those which have been already referred to under Enamels.
The metallic lustres now so common on stoneware, &c., are given as follows:—
1. Gold lustre. Dissolve grain-gold, 1 dr., in aqua regia, 3⁄4 oz.; to the solution add of metallic tin, 6 gr.; and when this is dissolved, pour it very gradually, with constant stirring, into a mixture of balsam of sulphur, 1⁄2 dr.; oil of turpentine, 20 gr.; when the mass begins to stiffen, 1⁄2 dr. more of oil of turpentine must be added, and well mixed in. More gold deepens and brightens the lustre; more tin turns it on the violet or purple.
2. Iron lustre. From a mixture of ‘muriate of iron’ (ferric chloride) and spirit of tar.
3. Platinum lustre. To a solution of platinum in aqua regia (platinic chloride) is added, drop by drop, a mixture of spirit of tar and balsam of sulphur in equal proportions, until by a trial the composition is found to give the required result. This gives the appearance of polished steel.