in Egypt and Assyria; and then the usual
succession of domestic utensils, funeral vases, and vessels for
religious ceremonials. There is nothing to show that the potter's wheel
made its appearance in China earlier than elsewhere, and the Chinese
potters have used the simple methods of carving and "pressing" from
moulds which preceded the use of the potter's wheel, even more than
other nations. In books of the Chow dynasty (1122-249 B.C.) the
difference between the processes of "throwing" and of "pressing" from
moulds is clearly described,[27] and it is instructive to note that many
early as well as late forms of Chinese pottery are remarkably like their
works in bronze. In the same way there is no definite date to which we
can refer the introduction of glazed pottery. The earliest specimens of
glazed ware known are referred by the Chinese to the times of the Han
dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220), a date much later than that of the
earliest glazed wares of Egypt and Assyria. Remembering the intercourse
between China and the West, at times historically remote, it is not
impossible that the idea of coating a vessel of clay with a glaze was
carried into China from Chaldaea or Assyria. In any case the Chinese
developed the potter's art on their own lines, for we have ample
evidence that from very early times they fired their pottery to a much
higher temperature than was common in the west of Asia, and so
discovered types of glaze and of pottery that remained for centuries a
mystery elsewhere. The glazed wares of the Han dynasty already mentioned
are quite unlike any contemporary pottery produced in Syria, Egypt or
Europe, for the body of the ware is so hard that it can scarcely be
scratched by a knife, and the dark-greenish glaze has become iridescent
by age as though it contained oxide of lead. The easily-fired friable
wares of Assyria, Egypt and Greece seem to have had no attraction for
the Chinese, and the glazes on their hard-fired wares were naturally
different from those already described. The Chinese appear to have been
the first potters in the world to discover that at a sufficiently high
temperature pottery can be glazed with powdered felspathic rock mixed
with lime. At first these glazes were used on any ordinary refractory
clay which might burn red, drab or buff; but in this technique lay the
germ of Chinese porcelain, the most advanced form of pottery the world
has yet seen. It is necessary to consider the pottery that