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LEFT POTTER 829 20, 1625; settled at The Hague, and painted cattle and landscapes, but was particularly successful in the former. One of his most celebrated pictures is "The Bull," at The Hague. He died in Amsterdam, Jan. 27, 1654. POTTER, PAUL M., an American dramatist; born in Brighton, England, June 3, 1852; entered journalism and •was foreign editor of the New York "Herald" in 1876-1883. Subsequently he turned his attention to the drama. His best-known works are "Our Country Cousins" (1893), a dramatization of "Trilby" (1895); and "Under Two Flags" (1901). He was the American representative at the Congress of Dra- matic Art at the Paris Exposition in 1900. POTTERY, the art of forming vessels or utensils of any sort in clay. This art is of high antiquity, being practiced among various races in prehistoric times. We find mention of earthenware in the Mosaic writings. The Greeks had im- portant potteries at Samos, Athens, and Corinth, and attained great perfection as regards form and ornamentation. Dem- aratus, a Greek, the father of Tarquinius Priscus, King of Rome, is said to have instructed the Etruscans and Romans in this art. Glazed earthenware was long ■upposed to be of no older date than the 9th century of our era, and to have originated with the Arabs in Spain; but the discovery of glazed ware in Egypt, of glazed bricks in the ruins of Babylon, of enameled tiles and glazed tcrfRns of earthenware in other ancient eities, proves that this is not the case. ^ The Arabs, however, seem to be en- titled to the credit of having introduced the manufacture of glazed ware into modern Europe. The Italians set up their first manufactory at Faenza in the 15th century. In Italy the art was im- proved, and a new kind of glaze was invented, probably by Luca della Robbia. The French derived their first knowledge of glazed ware from the Italian manu- factory at Faenza, and on that account gave it the name of faience. About the middle of the 16th century the manufactory of Bernard Palissy at Baintes in France became famous on account of the beautiful glaze and rich ornaments by which its products were distinguished. A little later the Dutch began to manu- facture at Delft the more solid but less beautiful ware which thence takes its name. The principal improver of the potter's art in Great Britain was Josiah Wedg- wood in the 18th century. POTTERY Porcelain or chinaware first became known in Europe about the end of the 16th century through the Dutch, who brought it from the East. Porcelain or chinaware is formed only from argillaceous minerals of extreme delicacy, united with siliceous earths cap- able of communicating to them a certain degree of translucency by means of their vitrification. Porcelain is of two kinds, hard and tender. Both consist, like other earthenwares, of two parts — a paste which forms the biscuit, and a glaze. The biscuit of hard porcelain is composed of kaolin or china clay, and of decomposed felspar. The glaze consists of a felspar rock reduced to a fine pow- der, and mixed with water, so as to form a milky liquid into which the articles are dipped after a preliminary baking. Tender porcelain biscuit is made of a vitreous grit, composed of siliceous sand or ground flints, with other ingredients added, all baked together in a furnace till half-fused, and then reduced to a condition of powder. The glaze of tender porcelain is a specially prepared glass ground fine, and made into a liquid by mixing _ with water. The processes employed in manufacturing porcelain wares are very much the same as those used for other kinds of earthenware, but requiring more delicacy and care. The biscuit paste even of hard porcelain has so little tenacity compared with that of earthenware that it cannot easily be shaped on the wheel, and is consequently more frequently molded. The paste of tender porcelain is still less tenacious, so that the wheel cannot be used for it at all, and a little mucilage of gum or black soap must be added before it can be worked even in molds. During the baking, too, it becomes so soft that every part of an article must be supported. Tender porcelain receives two coats of glaze. Metallic oxides incorporated with some fusible flux, such as borax, flint, etc., are used for painting on porcelain. The colors are mixed wnth essential oils and turpentine, and applied by means of a camel's hair brush. When the painting is finished the vessels are baked in a peculiar kind of ovens called "muffles," which are also used for fixing the printed fig:ures on the glaze of stoneware. By the operation of the furnace most of the colors employed in painting porcelain be- come quite different, and the change which takes place in them is usually through a series of tints, so that the proper tint will not be obtained unless the baking is stopped precisely at the proper time. Sometimes porcelain has designs etched on it by means of fluoric