For more than two thousand years the “heathen Chinee” has been working at the production of porcelain—and apparently most intelligently and skillfully. He has accomplished this:
1. The materials used are selected with the greatest care.
2. They are combined, and ground, and mixed, with consummate knowledge.
3. The articles desired are turned and modeled with great precision and dexterity, oftentimes with the keenest perception of beauty of line.
4. The decorations exhibit an exquisite feeling as to value and harmony of color, and freedom of design.
This combination of knowledge, skill, and taste, the Chinese were the first to combine in pottery and porcelain, and they have not been excelled.
To those who are ignorant, it seems a very paltry thing to make a dinner-plate; but to make a perfect one requires most of the best faculties of man. Ignorant and foolish people hold the china-lovers in contempt; we reciprocate: we believe that the man who does not perceive and enjoy all this beautiful handiwork is willfully ignorant or pitiably stupid: he has our pity and our prayers.
Traces of porcelain are found in the ancient tombs and among the mummies of Egypt, in the form of small bottles as here shown ([Fig. 98]). Just what was their use or significance we do not know; but some think they prove that intercourse existed between those countries in very early days.
Marco Polo visited China in the latter half of the thirteenth century, and he told of the great factories for the production of porcelain there; and how certain kinds of earth were collected, and, after being exposed to air and rains for thirty or forty years, were then fit to be made into cups and bowls. Great quantities were sold in the city. “For a Venetian groat you may purchase eight porcelain cups.”
Beginning of course with useful articles simply, this manufacture progressed until pots and vases and dishes were made for purely decorative purposes.