The Industrial Arts in Spain

by Juan F. Riaño

"Almost all the inhabitants of this village are potters, and all the earthenware sold at Zaragoza is manufactured in the following manner. First the vessels are fashioned of a certain ingredient the earth furnishes them in that locality, in the shape they may require. Once made, they bake them in an oven fitted for the purpose. They then remove them to varnish with white varnish and polish them, and afterwards make a wash of certain materials in the following manner: twenty-five pounds, one arroba, of lead, with which they mix three or four pounds of tin, and as many pounds of a certain sand which is to be found there. All these ingredients are mixed into a paste like ice; it is broken into small pieces and pounded like flour, and kept by them in powder. This powder is mixed with water, the dishes are passed through it, and they are rebaked in the oven, and keep their lustre. Afterwards, in order that the pottery may be gilt, they take very strong vinegar, mixed with about two reales (a small coin equivalent to 6d.) of silver in powder, vermilion, and red ochre, and a little wire. When all is mixed together, they paint with a feather on the dishes any decoration they may like, rebake them, and then they remain gold-coloured for ever. This was told me by the potters themselves."

But nothing can be compared in exactitude to the following receipt of the manner of preparing this lustred ware, which I was fortunate enough to find in a manuscript in the British Museum. (Egerton, No. 507, MS. fol. 102).

Count Florida Blanca wishing in 1785 to establish at Madrid a manufactory of metallic-lustred ware, had the following report on the actual state of the industry sent to him from Manises with full details of the manner in which it was required to be carried out.

"After the pottery is baked, it is varnished with white and blue, the only colours used besides the gold lustre; the vessels are again baked; if the objects are to be painted with gold colour, this can only be put on the white varnish, after they have gone twice through the oven. The vessels are then painted with the said gold colour and are baked a third time, with only dry rosemary for fuel.

"The white varnish used is composed of lead and tin, which are melted together in an oven made on purpose; after these materials are sufficiently melted, they become like earth, and when in this state the mixture is removed and mixed with an equal quantity in weight of sand: fine salt is added to it, it is boiled again, and when cold, pounded into powder. The only sand which can be used is from a cave at Benalguacil, three leagues from Manises. In order that the varnish should be fine, for every arroba, 25 pounds of lead, 6 to 12 ounces of tin must be added, and half a bushel of fine-powered salt: if a coarse kind is required, it is sufficient to add a very small quantity of tin, and three or four cuartos worth of salt, which in this case must be added when the ingredient is ready for varnishing the vessel.

"Five ingredients enter into the composition of the gold colour: copper, which is better the older it is; silver, as old as possible; sulphur; red ochre, and strong vinegar, which are mixed in the following proportions: of copper three ounces, of red ochre twelve ounces, of silver one peseta (about a shilling), sulphur three ounces, vinegar a quart; three pounds (of twelve ounces) of the earth or scoriæ, which is left after this pottery is painted with the gold colour, is added to the other ingredients.

"They are mixed in the following manner: a small portion of sulphur in powder is put into a casserole with two small bits of copper, between them a coin of one silver peseta; the rest of the sulphur and copper is then added to it. When this casserole is ready, it is placed on the fire, and is made to boil until the sulphur is consumed, which is evident when no flame issues from it. The preparation is then taken from the fire, and when cold is pounded very fine; the red ochre and scoriæ are then added to it; it is mixed up by hand and again pounded into powder. The preparation is placed in a basin and mixed with enough water to make a sufficient paste to stick on the sides of the basin; the mixture is then rubbed on the vessel with a stick; it is therefore indispensable that the water should be added very gradually until the mixture is in the proper state.

"The basin ready prepared must be placed in an oven for six hours. At Manises it is customary to do so when the vessels of common pottery are baked; after this the mixture is scratched off the sides of the basin with some iron instrument; it is then removed from there and broken up into small pieces, which are pounded fine in a hand-mortar with the quantity of vinegar already mentioned, and after having been well ground and pounded together for two hours the mixture is ready for decorating. It is well to observe that the quantity of varnish and gold-coloured mixture which is required for every object can only be ascertained by practice."

Excellent lustred ware was made at Murcia, and in several villages of the province of Valencia; a good example exists of this pottery at the museum (see woodcut); none, however, was so important as the manufactory of Manises. Diago, in his "Anales del reyno de Valencia, 1613-40," repeats the words of Eximeno: "That the pottery made at Valencia is painted and gilt with so much art, that it has enamoured every one, so much so that the pope, the cardinals, and princes send for it, astonished that things of such beauty can be made of earth."