Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/626

 with a vengeance; and only shows the vagaries to which the uncultivated workman will resort for the purpose of mere novelty. Compare such an object with some simple vase in fine dark red or buff terra-cotta, its form elliptical, if for cut flowers, and less elongated if for bulbous or growing plants. Its subdued tone of colour, throws back, as it were, nature's more brilliant hues, and its conventional ornament, if ornament there need be, contrasts fitly with the exuberance and infinite variety of Nature's outlines.

Apart from the facts, that the same geometrical principles and the same materials are as open to the modern as to the ancient potter, we greatly question if mere servile copies of antique specimens would ever suit the chief purposes of modern art, particularly that part of it which lends aid to floral decoration. The larger portion of the ancient fictilia which has descended to our time was fabricated for funeral purposes, and, with this object in view, its forms were severe and its tones of colour subdued. There is also much reason to think that the taste for flowers was rather an expression of their poets, so far as it went, than a fact of daily life. Floriculture is almost a modern taste, engrafted on the old Teutonic predilection for the open country and its products; and, therefore, it is with this newness of facts and ideas that the artistic potter has to old outlines and their variations, because they are elementary in form; but he will vitalise these to the necessary purposes in view, if he be a true artist. He will avoid highly glazed surfaces and gaudy colouring, except minutely and in the way of ornament; and once having conceived the work he has to do, as a whole, he will trust to taste, and to spontaneous feeling, for that which he will express in ornament, whatever be its amount or kind. It was this method which enabled the Lombardian workers in terra-cotta to give to their productions the force and character of a fine art.

In this country, as on the Continent, the workers in these cheap, yet fine materials, are gaining ground every day. The English, taking the side of utility, as they ever do, excel in architectural ornaments and adjuncts; the Neapolitans in statuettes of a pale red colour; the Swiss make red terra-cotta flower-vases, and were the first to introduce red suspending vases. In Germany are many manufactories of terra-cotta, where ornamental articles in red and buff are made; and in Belgium and Holland porous biscuit vessels and ornaments in red ware are common, particularly flower-vases. The French likewise excel in terra-cotta; and some of the largest and most magnificent works of a sculptured class have been produced at Toulouse, as also architectural ornaments of a buff colour, and many fine imitations of Etruscan works. Exceedingly beautiful models of statuettes in buff and red terra-cottas are also made in France; and many of these are so well proportioned and perfect as to serve as models in public schools of art.

Ornamental works of the highest character are produced in England, but owing to the want of what we may call a better dispersive machinery, they are comparatively unknown, and not easily seen or procured. It is one thing to make a fine set of vases for the lawns and terraces of Windsor Castle, Burleigh House, or Trentham Hall; and another to reproduce them in a smaller and cheaper form for the multitude. Yet important and honourable as the one commission is to the manufacturer, the other is far more so, not only so far as profit goes, but in a national and artistic point of view. Art must be infiltrated unconsciously, as it were, into the home life of the people, and to effect this he must do what Wedgwood did a hundred years ago, build up fine art on useful art and make the flower-pots, vases, and little ornaments for humble homes, pay by their large and ready sale for the cost in modelling the fine bas-relief and life-like bust. What seems essential to this is a better dispersive machinery. It ought to be seen by dealers that pottery must be brought to men's doors, or nearly so, if it is to sell. People will not go far out of their way to seek things in good taste. Good pottery must stand forth in the markets if it is to meet the eye of the multitude. The "missis" on her Saturday night's peregrinations, "father" on his way home from the "shop," Smith or Brown in search of some present for his "young woman," with a sixpence or may be a shilling to spare, will not enter shops to make inquiries. The very number and prettiness of the goods scare them, to say nothing of that chronic bashfulness which belongs to the more respectable of their class when not "cleaned up" or in their best attire. But they can chaffer with the keeper of the street stall. And if the eye has been attracted, a purchase is sure to follow.

It may be hoped, that when Covent Garden is rebuilt on a wider area, and the growing wants of the metropolitan and suburban districts are met by good and well-constructed markets, provision will be made for this indirect culture of the taste and refinement of the great masses. If they can buy a plant, or a few sweet flowers for a penny, let there also be in a near neighbourhood, the cheap yet elegant vessel wherein to place them. And if dealers of a better class would take this question, up in an enlightened spirit, and not, as now, burden the markets with the refuse goods only of the Staffordshire potteries—but import from abroad—from Italy, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, and Holland, those cheap and beautiful forms which mark many of the ordinary branches of the potter's art in those countries, such as statuettes, vases, hanging baskets, salt cellars, tea and coffee services, jugs, and other useful and ornamental, yet cheap and simple goods, a boon scarcely to be over estimated would be conferred on all classes of society, for it would vitalise the truths of art through the acceptance of the people. It would allow comparison to be made between the fabrics of different