NEW HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, OXFORD.
The new High School for Girls at Oxford, built by Mr. T.G. Jackson, for the Girls' Public Day School Company, Limited, was opened September 23, 1880, when the school was transferred from the temporary premises it had occupied in St. Giles's. The new building stands in St. Giles's road, East, to the north of Oxford, on land leased from University College, and contains accommodation for about 270 pupils in 11 class-rooms, some of which communicate by sliding doors, besides a residence for the mistress, an office and waiting-room, a room for the teachers, cloak rooms, kitchens, and other necessary offices, and a large hall, 50 ft. by 30 ft., for the general assembling of the school together and for use on speech-days and other public occasions. The principal front faces St. Giles's road, and is shown in the accompanying illustration. The great hall occupies the whole of the upper story of the front building, with the office and cloak-rooms below it, and the principal entrance in the center. The class-rooms are all placed in the rear of the building, to secure quiet, and open on each floor into a corridor surrounding the main staircase which occupies the center of the building. The walls are built of Headington stone in rubble work, with dressings of brick, between which the walling is plastered, and the front is enriched with cornices and pilasters, and a hood over the entrance door, all of terra cotta. The hinder part of the building is kept studiously simple and plain on account of expense. Behind the school is a large playground, which is provided with an asphalt tennis-court, and is picturesquely shaded with apple-trees, the survivors of an old orchard. The builders were Messrs. Symm & Co., of Oxford; and the terra cotta was made by Messrs. Doulton, of Lambeth. Mr. E. Long was clerk of works.--Building News.
SUGGESTIONS IN ARCHITECTURE--NEW HIGH SCHOOL, OXFORD
PROGRESS IN AMERICAN POTTERY.
No advance in any industry has been more sure than in that of pottery and chinaware, under the American tariff, or more rapid in the past four or five years. It took Europe three centuries and the jealous precautions of royal pottery proprietors to build up the great protectorates that made their distinctive trade-marks of such value. The earlier lusters of the Italian faience were guild privacies or individual secrets, as was almost all the craft of the earlier art-worker. Royal patronage in England was equivalent to a protective tariff for Josiah Wedgwood; and everywhere the importance of guarding the china nurseries has been understood. We have in this country broadcast and in abundance every type of material needed for the finest china ware, and for the finer glasses and enamels. The royal manufactories in Europe were hard put to it sometimes for want of discovering kaolin beds in their dominions, but the resources of the United States in these particulars needed something more than to be brought to light. The manipulation and washing of the clays to render them immediately useful to the potteries depends entirely upon the reliance of these establishments upon home materials. The Missouri potteries have their supplies near home, but these supplies must be put upon the market for other cities in condition to compete with the clays of Europe. There are fine kaolin beds in Chester and Delaware counties in this State; there are clay beds in New Jersey, and the recent needs of Ohio potteries have uncovered fine clay in that State. This shows that not only for the manufacture itself, but for the development of material here, everything depends upon the stimulus that protection gives.
Ohio china and Cincinnati pottery are known all over the country. The Chelsea Works, near Boston, however, are as distinguished for their clays and faience, and for lustrous tiles especially (to be used in household decoration) can rival the rich show that the Doulton ware made at the Centennial. Other New England potteries are eminent for terra cotta and granite wares. On Long Island and in New York city there are porcelain and terra cotta factories of established fame, and the first porcelain work to succeed in home markets was made at the still busy factories of Greenpoint. New Jersey potteries take the broad ground of the useful, first of all, in their manufacture of excellent granite and cream-colored ware for domestic use, but every year turn out more beautiful forms and more artistic work. The Etruria Company especially have succeeded in giving the warm flesh tints to the "Parian" for busts and statuettes, now to be seen in many shop windows. These goods ought always to be labeled and known as American--it adds to their value with any true connoisseur. Some of these establishments, more than others, have the enterprise to experiment in native clays, for which the whole trade owes their acknowledgments.