Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 7.djvu/304

 210 NOTICES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS. in their elaborate character ; none, notwithstaiuling their fragility, are more durable, or bear more indelibly the impress of the period or country, to which they belong ; none evince more distinctly the conditions of social refinement or artistic taste, which had influenced their fabrication. Tlie ease with which the material was obtained and fashioned, caused the plastic art to be one of the first devised by the ingenuity of man : in the obscurity which surrounds the primeval history of nations, its productions present to the Archaeologist the most positive evidence now to be adduced. The despised potsherd may become in his hands as certain an authority in the discrimination of periods or of races, of migratory settlements or inter- national relations, as the isolated fossil or fragment of bone, brought to the scientific test of comparative anatomy, may prove a sure indication both of the Geological formation, — the stratum of the earth's crust, as also of the class in the animal kingdom and the individual species, to which such vestige appertains. The interesting work before us relates to a class of fictile products far more attractive than those rude vessels which interest the antiquary. Such a ti'eatise had long been a desideratum ; tb.e four centuries to which the researches of Mr. Marryat specially relate, comprise the period which has supplied examples of the potter's skill, in the richest variety, commencing with the age when the impress of artistic taste first, in Medieval times, bestowed upon vessels of clay the charm and grace which we so much admire. The facility of communication, enjoyed for twenty-five years past, has caused innumerable products of foreign art to be introduced into this country : the majolica of Pesaro or Urbino, the curious chefs-d'oeuvre of Bernard Palissy, the choicest productions of the ateliers of Meissen, of Sevres, and numerous continental states, are now as familiar to us, as were in the last century the vases of China or Japan, the kylins and monstrosities of porce- lain, which composed the cimelia of the days of the Duchess of Portland and Horace Walpole. Collectors are no longer content with mere accunmlation : a more intel- ligent spirit of enquiry stimulates even the (UJcttanti of our age. Hence the multiplicity of hand-books and elaborately illustrated treatises, which familiarise us with the arts, the usages and manufactures of Medieval times, in all the detail of their history. The subject of pottery and porcelain had been left untouched in England ; the valuable Avorks of one of the most talented men of science that France has produced in recent years, — Alex- andre Brongniart, and his coadjutor, Riocreux,' the intelligent founders of the Musee Coramique, at Sevi'es, aroused a fresh interest in the subject, and dissipated much of the obscurity in which it had been enveloped. Mr. Marryat appears to have adopted, for the most part, the outline of classification ably sketched out by Brongniart. He commences with the soft and enamelled pottery of Italy, a manufacture presumed to be derivable from a Moorish origin, and which produced not only graceful appliances for domestic use, but enrichments accessory to architecture. In our own country, these last were but sparingly introduced : the genius of Holbein, however, rendered them available for the decoration of the palace at White- hall, of which relics, well deserving to be placed in a national collection, serve, it is believed, to grace a grotto at son)c suburban Tusculum in Essex. ' Traite des Arts Ceramiques, par Alex. Biongniai-t, 2 vo]s. 8vo, Pnris 1844. With an Atlas of Plates. — Descriptimi flu Mmce Ceramique de Sevres, 2 vols. 4to. copiously illustrated.