Excerpt from Art Potteries The potter's wheel is a very simple contrivance for aiding the potter in producing round pieces, of a better finish than the rudely fashioned hand-made ware. The wheel is a flat disc or table revolving upon a central support, and kept in motion by the potter or his assistant. The potter throws a lump of clay upon the wheel, and while it is in motion, fashions it with his hands into whatever shape he may wish. His only tool is a wood or metal guage, with which he forms or tests the outline of the piece. Pieces of an irregular shape are made by hand in a much slower and more laborious way. Handles, knobs and raised ornaments are formed separately, and applied to the piece with a mixture of water and clay. After the piece has dried in the Open air, it is put in a large oven or kiln, and fired at a high temperature. This is the process employed in almost every pottery. The need Of something to overcome the porosity of the ware was long felt, and the Greeks made use of a coating of beeswax for this purpose. Some Egyptian potter conceived the idea of covering the ware with a coating of glass. To make this adhere it was necessary to mix sand with the clay. This art was pro bably introduced by the Egyptians to the eastern nations. The addition of a considerable quantity of oxide of lead to the glaze, makes it more brilliant and much easier to meAbout the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.