The porcelain of Copenhagen is the product of scientific skill and artistic taste. In the studios attached to the Royal Manufactory there has grown up a tradition of work and criticism which is fostered by ladies of birth and position. Many of these paint upon the porcelain themselves and so constitute a school which has become world famous.
Natural objects are, for the most part, chosen and, as the palette of colors is, owing to the intense fire, quite limited and low in key, a tone of quiet atmosphere pervades the painting. This is accentuated by the use of the air-brush to distribute a ground color upon the ware in graduated strength.
At the National Manufactory of Sevres there has been some attempt to follow the Copenhagen method but to a greater extent the work is along the lines of conventionalized form. In this treatment the French artists excel, being wonderfully accurate--almost too accurate--in their lines and spacing. Several individual workers in France have also pursued this plan, designing and executing the pieces which have made the French artist-potters famous.
In the porcelains of Berlin the quality lies largely in the complete mastery of technical details. The work is, as would be expected, German in style, but the paste is pure and the colors are well prepared.
From this brief review it will be seen that the interest in the manufacture of porcelain lies not so much in variety as in the value of individual results. In the pottery described in the previous chapter a great many different clays were used and each one proved suggestive to the potter. In porcelain, on the other hand, the body clay is almost identical wherever prepared, the requirement of a white translucent paste being paramount.
CHAPTER IV: THE NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF CLAY
Clay differs from earth or soil in that it possesses certain characteristics which these do not possess. Its distribution is very wide but for the most part it lies concealed from view. In certain parts of the country it is so abundant that it breaks through the surface or is exposed as an outcrop but usually it is covered by the soil which supports vegetation. Unless the subsoil consists of sand it is easy to expose a clay by plowing or digging with a spade. It usually appears as a greenish or bluish substance of close and uniform structure. The texture is sometimes smooth but more often numerous small stones are found imbedded in the mass. Such clays as are commonly found can be used for the manufacture of some kind of pottery but in the great majority of cases the ware will be red when fired because the clay contains a proportion of oxide of iron. A pure clay does not contain this and therefore becomes white or nearly white in the kiln.