Of more interest, perhaps, to Americans are the porcelain tumblers which have just been produced at the same factory, bearing on the front a faithful duplication in blue and yellow enamels of the insignia of the society of Sons of the Revolution, which were made at the suggestion of a member of the society in Pennsylvania. The soft, satiny Belleek body seems to be particularly well adapted to show off to advantage the rich designs of these badges, and this suggestion will doubtless be followed by other patriotic hereditary societies in the United States.
John Hart Brewer, of Trenton, first attempted the manufacture of Belleek ware in this country. He commenced his experiments in this line in 1882, and in the following year brought over from England William Bromley and his son from the Belleek works in Ireland. Subsequently the elder Bromley joined the Willets Manufacturing Company, of the same place, and introduced the manufacture of eggshell porcelain there, and at the present time there are no less than five or six establishments in Trenton where the same class of ware is made.
Among many specialties recently introduced is a new style of decoration which has been worked out by Miss Kate Sears, a Kansas girl who studied modeling in Boston. Going to Trenton for the purpose of pursuing her studies in this direction, one day in 1891, while engaged in working over the wet Belleek, the idea of carving delicate designs in the dry clay occurred to her, and after conducting a series of experiments her efforts were crowned with success. The process of modeling which Miss Sears has originated is as follows: A vase or other piece which has been formed in the wet clay and dried is taken before it has been in the kiln, and with knives or other tools the design is cut or chiseled so as to leave the background as thin and transparent as possible when finished. As the dry Belleek, besides being thin, is extremely brittle, and crumbles easily, the carving is an exceedingly difficult operation. It is necessarily a very slow process, since at any moment the knife is liable to cut through the wall and ruin the piece.
The result of this process is a clear cut, chiseled effect, which cannot be obtained by moulding or casting, a moonlight effect of fairy like character, most beautiful in conception, and possessing marked originality. While sometimes several weeks are consumed in executing a single piece of the carved ware, Miss Sears has produced a large number of such designs, each one of which is a perfect work of art, reflecting credit upon the artist and the manufacturers.
The marks which appear on the various productions of Belleek porcelain are of considerable interest to collectors and admirers of this beautiful ware. Mr. Gross has adopted as a factory mark his family crest, a falcon rising ducally gorged, which is printed on each piece in black. The mark of the Belleek factory in Ireland, consists of the four Irish emblems, the watch tower, the hound, the harp of Erin, and the shamrock, and is printed on the ware in green or black. At the Etruria Pottery, formerly operated by Messrs. Ott & Brewer, now known as the Cook Pottery Company, the mark used on Belleek ware was a crescent bearing the name with the initials of the proprietors, "O. & B." The Willets Manufacturing Company uses for a factory mark on its decorated Belleek pieces the figure of a serpent looped in the form of a W, which is printed in red. On similar ware produced by the Ceramic Art Company is printed in red a design composed of a painter's palette and a circle inclosing the monogram C. A. C., while Messrs. Morris and Willmore, of the Columbian Art Pottery, employ a shield with the initials of the firm name, M. W.
The manufacture of Belleek ware was introduced into this country by English potters who had learned the processes at the potteries in England and Ireland, and we cannot, therefore, lay claim to originality so far as the product itself is concerned; yet, in a measure, the ware as made in America differs materially from the foreign in many respects, and has been developed in new directions, so that it has come to have distinctive characteristics of its own which entitle it to be ranked with original American productions. While our potters, perhaps, have not yet reached the high degree of elaborate modeling which characterizes some of the imported Belleek, they have already surpassed the foreign manufacturers in the simplicity and elegance of their forms and the artistic quality of their decorations, while in delicacy of coloring, in the excellence and lightness of body, the American products are not surpassed. A visit to the showrooms of the Trenton potteries will prove a revelation to those who still believe that no artistic china is made in this country.—Edwin Atlee Barber, in China, Glass and Lamps.
GOODMAN'S HATCHET PLANIMETERS.
The instrument we are about to describe is an improvement on the hatchet planimeter and is due to Prof. Goodman, of Leeds. One form of the instrument is intended for the measurement of areas of surfaces, and the other form for the measurement of the mean height of a figure such as an indicator diagram.
London Engineering, to which we are indebted for the cuts and copy, describes the instruments as follows: The method of using the two instruments is practically the same, but for the present we shall confine our remarks to the instrument for measuring areas. In order to familiarize oneself with the peculiar action of the instrument, it will be well to get a large sheet of paper on a drawing board or a large blotting pad, and holding the instrument vertical to the paper, grasp the tracing leg very lightly indeed between the forefinger and thumb of the right hand, with the hatchet toward the left hand, as shown in Fig. 1. Then by moving the tracing point round and round an imaginary figure and allowing the hatchet to go where it pleases, it will be seen that the hatchet moves to and fro along zigzag lines, and travels sideways—the side travel being nearly proportional to the area of the figure described by the tracing point. If the tracing point be too tightly grasped, the hatchet will not move freely, and, will have a side slip. When this occurs the side travel of the hatchet ceases to be proportional to the area traced out. A loose weight is hung on the hatchet to prevent this side slip, but as soon as a little skill is attained in the use of the instrument, this weight may be dispensed with.