Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/175

Rh surface. This modeling was executed by Miss Josephine Day, a sister-in-law and pupil of Mr. H. C. Robertson, and by Mr. Robertson himself. Being done by hand from original designs, no duplicates were produced. On some of the hammered vases the designs were cut into the surface and filled in with white clay, forming a mosaic, the bases of the vessels being colored buff, which offered a pleasing contrast through a semi-transparent



glaze. About the same time a variety of faience known as the Bourg-la-Reine of Chelsea was produced, after the discovery of the process of painting on the surface of the vessel with colored clays and covering with a transparent glaze, on the principle of the Limoges faience.

Mr. James Robertson died in 1880, after a long and useful life, at the ripe age of seventy years. The firm continued under the same name, and in 1884 A. W. Robertson retired from the business. In that year the remaining partner, Mr. Hugh C. Robertson, discovered a stone-ware somewhat resembling Parian in appearance, possessing a hard, vitrified body, which he worked into a variety of artistic forms.

From this time Mr. Robertson directed his efforts toward solving the secret of the famous Chinese Sang de bœuf, and after four years of sacrifice and patient investigation his labors were crowned with success. This discovery is the exact treatment necessary to produce the true ox-blood red, which with the Chinese was the result of accident rather than an established art. The body is the true stone, perfectly water-proof, and capable of resisting as high a degree of heat as any known ware. The forms of the vases are simple, with curving outlines, and entirely devoid of ornamentation which would tend to impair the beauty of color, which is that of fresh arterial blood, possessing a golden