Duke de Montpensier; until, at the age of
ninety, Palissy died in prison. Palissy was only
a potter; but certainly not the less a hero.

Concerning the ware painted by Palissy, it
is to be remarked that the great father of
French pottery, being an able naturalist
painted no monsters. Only the plants, and
shells, and reptiles natural to France, were
used by him for purposes of decoration.

To the horror of all skilful collectors, we
shall slip by a good many of the choicest
commodities, Fayence of Henry the Second,
and so on, as not interesting to our profane
minds; and stop next at England, where the
first potteries seem to have been at Stratford-
le-Bow and at Fulham. The first potter's
ware in England, the Elizabethan, is particularly
light; and, for the reason, that it seems
to have been made as follows, in an exceedingly
inartificial manner. The old workers
in gold and silver found their trade on the
decline, through the introduction of so much
foreign painted ware. They therefore entered
into competition; made a liquid paste, which
they poured into their moulds instead of metal,
therein burned it dry, and produced, after
evaporation of the water, very light earthen
jugs and pots of the same patterns formerly
in use for vessels manufactured of the precious
metals.

For the manufacture of fine ware, however,
it was necessary that the use of calcined flint
should be discovered; and the mode of its
discovery was curious. While riding to London,
in 1720, Astbury,—the younger the
precursor of Wedgwood—" had occasion, at
Dunstable, to seek a remedy for a disorder in
his horse's eyes, when the ostler of the inn, by
burning a flint, reduced it to a fine powder,
which he blew into them. The potter observing
the beautiful white colour of the flint after
calcination, instantly conceived the use to
which it might be employed in his art."
When Astbury returned home, he introduced
burnt flint into the manufacture. Now we
come to Wedgwood, who in our country
brought the fine ware to perfection. A few
words about him complete all that we wish
to say concerning pottery, and then we shall
pass on to porcelain.

The outline of Wedgwood's life is already
familiar to most of us. Son of an unsuccessful
potter, he was born at Burslem, in Staffordshire,
in 1730. England then imported large
quantities of earthenware from France,
Holland, and Germany. Wedgwood was educated
scantily, and at the age of eleven was a
thrower in his brother's pottery. Small-pox
having lamed him in one leg (which afterwards
was amputated), he was compelled to
quit the wheel. He left Burslem, and was
for a short time partner with one Harrison, at
Stoke, where he first proved his talent as an
ornamental potter. Then he was connected
with a Mr. Wheildon in the manufacture of
some fancy articles; but Mr. Wheildon having
no great desire to cultivate that branch of
trade, Wedgwood returned to Burslem in
1759. There he opened shop in a thatched
manufactory upon his own account, made
ornamental things, and prospered. So he
took a second manufactory, and therein made
white stone ware. That prospering, he took
a third, and therein perfected the cream-
coloured ware, of which he gave some pieces
to Queen Charlotte. The Queen, delighted
with it, ordered a whole service, and
commanded that it should be called after her,
"the Queen's ware." This ware had a simple
cane-coloured surface—the natural colour
produced from the burning of the fine grey marl
found between the coal strata. Presently
Wedgwood put a coloured rim, under a
tolerable glaze. After awhile he learnt to cover
the whole surface with a pattern, without
making a great increase in the cost. The
effect of all this progress upon the trade in
Wedgwood-ware is thus described by a
foreigner writing at that period:- " Its excellent
workmanship, its solidity, the advantage
which it possesses of sustaining the action of
fire, its fine glaze, impenetrable to acids, the
beauty and convenience of its form, and the
cheapness of its price, have given rise to a
commerce so active and so universal, that in
travelling from Paris to Petersburg, from
Amsterdam to the furthest port of Sweden,
and from Dunkirk to the extremity of the
south of France, one is served at every inn
with Wedgwood ware. Spain, Portugal, and
Italy are supplied with it, and vessels are
loaded with it for the East Indies, the West
Indies, and the continent of America."

Wedgwood, however, did not confine
himself to the manufacture of useful articles. His
imitations of Egyptian, Greek, and Etruscan
vases, copies of cameos, medallions, tablets, &c.,
would form quite a museum by themselves.
When the Barberini Vase was sold by auction,
Wedgwood having determined to make copies
of it, continued obstinately to bid against the
Duchess of Portland. His motive, having at
length been ascertained, it was promised that
if he would leave off bidding, the vase should
be lent to him for copies. So the Duchess
bought that which is now known as the Portland
Vase, for one thousand eight hundred
guineas. Wedgwood made fifty copies, which
he sold at fifty guineas each, and then was not
repaid for the expenses of their manufacture.

Of course, by this time Wedgwood had his
warehouses in London, when he was much
aided by the skill and influence of Mr. Bentley,
his partner. The best artists were engaged
to design and model for him, Flaxman
producing, among other things, a set of chess-men,
the first ever made in pottery. Visitors from
all parts of Europe were attracted by the works
at Burslem, and afterwards at Wedgwood's
own village of Etruria, where, in the year
1795,he died, aged sixty-five—an educated man,
an F.E.S., and F.S.A., a man of large fortune
which nothing but his own intelligence and
perseverance had bestowed upon him, and