and these in their turn
than the on-glaze colours.

When, about the middle of the 18th century, European pottery took on
its modern form, of earthenware made after the English fashion, and
porcelain like the French and German, the lead or felspathic glazes
used brought about another revolution in the potter's palette. The
growing ideal of mechanical perfection discounted the freedom of the
earlier brushwork, and printed patterns, or painting that might almost
have been printed, removed the mind still farther from the richness of
painted faience or majolica. It is useless to look for the glorious
colour of Persian faience, Italian majolica, or Chinese porcelain, in
modern wares produced by manufacturing processes where mechanical
perfection is demanded to a degree undreamt of before the 19th
century. The finest modern pottery colour is only to be sought in the
work of those enthusiasts and experimenters who are striving to
produce work as rich and free as the best of past times.

_Metals_.--The noble metals, such as gold, platinum and silver, have,
since the early years of the 18th century, been largely used as
adjuncts to pottery decoration, especially on the fine white
earthen-wares and porcelains of the last two centuries. At first the
gold was applied with a kind of japanner's size and was not fired to
the glaze, but for the last 150 years or so the metals have generally
been fired to the surface of the glaze like enamel colours, by mixing
the metal with a small proportion of flux or fusible ground glass.
There can scarcely be a doubt that the ancient lustres of Persia,
Syria and Spain were believed to be a form of gilding, though their
decorative effect was much more beautiful than gilding has ever been.
The early Chinese and Japanese gilding appears, like the European, to
have been "sized" or water-gilt, not fired; and it seems probable that
the use of "fired" gold was taught to the Oriental by the European in
the 18th century. To-day "liquid" gold is exported to China and Japan
from Europe for the use of the potter.

PRIMITIVE POTTERY

We can group together that great and widely-spread class of vessels made
by the primitive races of mankind, whether before the dawn of
civilization or at the present day, for it is interesting to note that
many modern races still make pottery by the same rude method as the
Neolithic races of Europe and Asia, and wi