THE THROWER.
Showing the Potter's Wheel.
By the courtesy of Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood & Sons.
The Pottery Kilns.—The next stage is to convert the vessel thrown in soft clay, and put aside to dry, into being as a piece of pottery. There are three ovens, termed the "biscuit," the "glost," and the "enamel." In the illustration ([p. 53]) it is seen how the vessels are put into "saggers," which are boxes of fire-clay piled upon one another. The doorway is bricked up and plastered, and gradually the furnace is heated. Practically this "oven" illustrated is typical of the "biscuit" or the "glost" oven, the difference being in the temperature applied, the latter being at a much lower temperature.
It may be interesting to mention that a quick oven is three days in firing and three days in cooling before the ware is removed. For ornamental and important specimens of a very special nature as long a period as a month may be taken to fire and half that time to cool. But of course this is only in exceptional circumstances.
It conjures up a picture of the awful anxiety of some of the great master potters at the critical moment when the doorway is pulled down and the contents of the oven are drawn. It is here where the triumph or the failure of the potter manifests itself.
When taken out of the first oven the ware is termed "biscuit." It is now ready for glazing. Of course, in such ware as jasper or unglazed stoneware, basalt, and similar kinds, the "biscuit" state is the final one, the object being completed.
The Dipping-house.—In the illustration ([p. 57]) it will be seen that the ware in its "biscuit" state is dipped in liquid glaze in a very deft manner, after which it proceeds to the "glost" oven to harden this glaze on its surface.