BIRCH'S HISTORY OF ANCIENT POTTERY. * Tuts work of Mr. Samuel

Birch is as much a critical account of ancient pottery as a history. Beginning with Egypt as the origin of the art, the author describes the various kinds of pottery found there, and the processes of manufacture as discoverable from the an- cient paintings, pointing out in addition the various uses to which the articles were applied. The remains of Nineveh and Babylon are subjected to a similar treatment, as well as those of other West- ern Asiatic nations ; though no pottery has been found which can be convineingly shown to have originated with the Phoenicians or the Jews. The useful and artistical manufactures of the Greeks are most elaborately displayed ; the Etruscan is estimated with a severity which the admirers of that ancient people will not agree with ; the pottery workings of the Romans are examined with an elaboration second only to that of the Greeks. Still, throughout, but more especially as regards Grecian handiworks, the high art displayed in the productions, and the illustrations of society thence to be deduced, predominate over history proper. That his- tory is first, the early stages and gradual advance of pottery as a manufacture; (having reference only to the quality of the sub- stance and the mechanical excellence in manipulating, glazing, and enamelling) ; secondly, the application of pottery to the various uses of life and its progress as an tmitatice fine art, since the liabi- lity to breakage would hardly allow an original artist to expend his genius on so fragile a material. Want of sufficient information renders the account of the ancient manufacture somewhat vague and. conjectural, which feature in modern art forms one of the most interesting portions of the subject. The remains themselves tell their own story of manufacturing and artistic excellence, and (when assisted by collateral lights) of their application to social wants and customs. It is on these last two points that Mr. Birch dwells with so much fulness as to become a critical expositor (especially of Grecian pottery) rather than an historian. We mention this feature of the work as a fact, not as a defect. Additional fulness' especially on topics that give a virtuoso's or a popular attraction to a subject, are indeed rather an advantage, and were it otherwise Mr. Birch's History. would still be a very good book. It exhibits the results of long inquiry and study, not made primarily to write a history, but which results led to writing a history, because such a work was seen to be wanting. For though several writers have investigated the technical part of the subject, and many have treated the critical questions in reference to art, still a history at once full and popular is wanting ; while the late discoveries, especially in Assyria, throw a new light upon several branches of ancient pottery. Besides the author's accumula- tion of materials, he possesses other qualifications adapted to the task in hand. His arrangement is lucid, arising from his mastery ove4 his matter ; his judgment is sound, though with a leaning to the importance of pottery, and a reliance upon the interpretation of ancient inscriptions, with which every one may not coincide ; without any approach to ponderosity, he has a closeness and ful- ness of style on subjects where those qualities admit of exhibition, which would be appropriate to a loftier theme. In a strict sense, pottery is only of two kinds, baked and un- baked ; for though porcelain is often included under pottery, it is an essentially different substance. The materials of porce- lain are half-vitrified in the kiln, and hence the translucency of porcelain, while pottery, intractible in the kiln, remains opaque. It is only of pottery that Mr. Birch treats : for Chinese porcelain was beyond the art of the ancients ; and (except probably in Ro- man bricks) the substance of their pottery, was inferior to that of modern times as well as their glazing and enamelling. The su- periority of the ancient, at least of the Greek pottery, is artistical ; it consisted in elegance of form and spirited truth of design. Of the origin of the art nothing is known ; the Egyptians, who first used it, ascribed its invention to the god Num, the directing spirit of the universe, who "first exercised the potter's art and moulded. the human race upon his wheel." The use of clay in various modes is so obvious, that it is applied among most people in some form though necessity may not have driven them to use it for vessels if their locality produces vegetable growths of still more obvious application. To bake the clay, as Mr. Birch observes, "so as to give it an indestructible tenacity, must have been a great stride in the art, and was probably the result of accident rather than design." As few earths, however, are well fitted for pottery without preparation if not mixture, and but little can be done by the unassisted hand, potterywhen baking was discovered was still a long way off kiln-burning, and the use of implements and machinery, however primitive ; so long, indeed, that the Scandi- navian races, and perhaps the primitive Teutons and Celts, never reached turning or baking. Of the Scandinavian remains our au- thor observes that the "paste is coarse and much interspersed with calcareous substances and particles of mica. It was made of the local clay, and not turned on the lathe but fashioned with the hand in the lap, a method still retained in Scandinavia. It is probable that it was baked in a way still practised in Scandina- via, namely, by placing the pieces in a hole in the ground, and surrounding them with bay, which is then burnt '; a feeble process, indeed, but yet sufficient for vases only intended to cover the Meow of Ancient Pottery. By Samuel Birch, F.S.A. In two volumes. Il- lustrated with coloured Plates and numerous Engravings. Published by Murray.

ashes of the dead." . . Egypt pottery as a useful art has been established nearly five thousand years.

" There is evidence that the existence of earthen vessels in Egypt was at least coeval with the formation of a written language. Several hier- oglyphs represent various kinds of vessels of red earthenware ; and these signs date from the remote period of the third and fourth dynasties, whose epoch may be placed between B.C. 3000-2000. In sepulchres of the fourth and subsequent dynasties earthenware vessels are represented as employed for the ordinary purposes of domestic life,—as jugs for water and other liquids ; jars for wine and milk ; deep pans or bowls to serve up dressed viands; and conical vessels on stands, round which is twined the favourite or national flower, the lotus. A series of monuments enables us to trace the development of the art from this period to that of the Roman empire ; whilst the manner in which it was exercised is practically illustrated by abundant specimens of many kinds of pottery. Vast mounds, or mantes testacei, which he around the rumed cities and temples, mark at once their former magnifi- cence and grandeur and the extraordinary abundance of the produce of thin art. Unfortunately, neither these remains nor the vases found in the tombs have been examined and classed with that scientific accuracy which the subject deserves. The hieroglyphics are our principal guide, which give, within certain limits, the date of every inscribed specimen. These become the data for determining the age of vases, the paste of which is of similar composi- tion, and the type and ornaments of the same kind."

In the absence of that precise information about the progress of the art, and the difficulties the workman contended with and over- came, which formed a feature in Mr. Marryat's Modern Pottery and Poreelain,t the most interesting parts of the present work relate to the characteristics of the articles, or the light they throw upon ancient customs, which really very much resemble modern usages as regards the wealthier portion of the community, and the inevitable concomitants of wealth taxation. The proofs of this in Egypt are of a somewhat late date ; but they indicate the habits of the people. "One of the most singular modes of employing this pale glazed ware of the Grieco-Egyptian class was for writing on it ; for which sometimes the yellow ware was also used. In the tombs of the kings and other places slices of calcareous stone have been found, on which have been sketched figures of deities or other subjects, resembling the working sketches of a painter, as well as inscriptions, chiefly in the hieratic character. At the Roman period inscriptions were often written upon potsherds, or trape- zoidal fragments of vases about two or three inches square. Many of these pieces have their inner sides turned in concentric bands, as if they had ori- ginally formed part of cylindrical vessels or the necks of jars. The same custom prevailed among the Copts, and many of these fragments have Coptic inscriptions on them. The prophet Jeremiah speaks of drawing a city upon a tale, which shows that a similar custom obtained among the Jews; and the Chinese schoolboy still learns the difficult characters of his language by tracing them upon a similar object. The Egyptian inscriptions have been written on them in the usual black ink with a thin writing-reed. Inscriptions in the hieratic or Egyptian writing-hand are not common ; they are chiefly religious. Those in the demotic or popular writing, which was used after the Persian rule till the close of the first century of our sera, are probably receipts ; but their contents have not yet been explained. The Greek inscriptions on those brought principally from the Roman stations of Syene and Pseleis, commencing with the reign of Vespasian and termi- nating with that of the Antonines, consist of short memoranda, receipts, and epistles. Those from Syene are acquittances by the tax-gatherers (iparripm 4yupiou) and publicans (ptcreisrat) of the sacred gate of Syene' for payments of the tax paid by craftsmen (xeLecovaEtov) or contri- butions (gaptcrpios). One more curious than the rest is an acquittance from Antonius Malchams, the port-admiral, to Harsiesis, a goose-feeder. Those from Pselcis are receipts of the soldiers to the commissary for their rations. Most of these were written by clerks, and, from the fact of their being found in duplicate it is probable that they were used as tallies; one copy being kept in the public office and the other given to the payer; which accounts for their discovery near the stations."

In Assyria pottery was used for everythi.Unbaked bricks formed the foundation or pedestal of the buildng, and the inside of the walls. The baked brick, sometimes glazed like the Dutch tiles of a former generation, faced the wall ; bricks of various colours symbolized, it is supposed, astronomy and religion. Earth- enware was also used for writing on, in cases where other nations adopted parchment or papyrus.

"Sales of land and other title-deeds were also incised on pieces of this polished terra-cotta, and, in order to prevent any enlargement of the docu- ment, a cylinder was run round the edges, leaving its impression in relief ; or if the names of witnesses were affixed, each impressed his oval seal on the wet terra-cotta, which was then carefully baked in the kiln. The cele- brated cylinders of cornelian, chalcedony, and other substances, were in fact the official or private seals by which the integrity of these documents was attested. These title-deeds are portable documents of four or fire inches square, convex on each side, and occasionally also at the edges. Their colour varies ; being a bright polished brown, a pale yellow, and a very dark tint, almost black. The paste of which they are made is remarkably fine and compact. The manner in which the characters were impressed on the terra- cotta barrels and cylinders is not known ; those on the bricks used for build- ing were apparently stamped from a mould, but those on the deeds and books were separately incised—perhaps with a prismatic stick or rod, or, as others have conjectured, with the edge of a square rod of, metal. In some instances, where this substance was used for taking accounts, it seems just possible that the moist clay, rolled up like paste, may have been unrolled and in- cised with rods. The characters are often so beautifully and delicately made, that it must have required a finely-constructed tool to produce them.

"Sonic small flat fragments of a fine reddish-gray terra-cotta which have been found among the ruins appear to contain calculations or inventories, whilst others are perhaps syllabaries or vocabularies, to guide the Assyrian readers of these difficult inscriptions. A large chamber or library of these archives, comprising histories, deeds, almanacks, and spelling-books, was found in the palace of Sennacherib at Konyunjik. It is supposed that alto- gether about 20,000 of these clay tablets or ancient books of the Assvrians, containing the literature of the country, have been discovered. Some of the finer specimens are covered with a pale straw-coloured engobe, over which has been thrown a glaze. Some horoscopes have been already found on stone, and careful examination has now detected the records of some astronomer royal of Babylon or Nineveh inscribed on a brick. Thus, while the paper and parchment learning of the Byzantine and Alexancbian wheels has almost disappeared after a few centuries, the granite pages of Egypt and the clay leaves of Assyria have escaped the ravages of time and the fury of barbarism."

In this remark, as well as in other observations of a similar kind,

Srectator 1950, p46879. Mr. Birch, we think, falls into the error of confounding the ac- cidental with the essential. The preservation of the Assyrian documents is the result of an accident, and to some extent that of the Egyptian too—they were not The in the tombs for pre- servation, but from superstition. The loss of the ancient manu- scripts may be called accidental ; preservation was intended. As for use, there is no comparison : think of the space even a small library impressed on tiles would occupy ! It would be as bad as the amount of modern corruption presented in kind instead of paper money.

"A statesman's slumbers how this speech would spoil- ' Sir, Spain has sent a thousand jars of oil ; Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door ; A hundred oxen at your levee roar.'"

Although, generally speaking, the mechanical excellence of an- cient pottery is inferior to the modern, the Egyptians equalled modern mechanics in certain beads. With these almost toys, as well as with amulets, they drove an extensive trade, not only home but foreign.

"The beads are of various sizes and dimensions, some being several inches, others scarcely, a tenth of an inch long. The larger ones seem to have been stamped out of a metal or stone mould, and many of the smaller may have been made by the same process. The bas-relief amulets have sharp edges ; much sharper, indeed, than terra-cotta moulds could have produced. Among the beads are bugles of blue porcelain, generally about iths of an inch long, and perforated with a rather large hole ; other bugles of a more conical shape ; beads, generally made of a glassy paste, slightly rounded at the base ; spherical beads sometimes of rather large size ; and globular ones of smaller dimensions. There are also annular beads, generally of small size, distinguised by having large orifices and small bands of porcelain ; and flat plate beads, like bone buttons, which occasionally are crenated. "The bugles were strung in nets, and formed, with the other small globular beads, the exterior beaded network of mummies. They often had small globular beads placed between them in order to conceal the thread at the angle. The conical beads were apparantly strung, but I am not aware that any network of them has been found. The globular beads were also strung on network ; but the flat circular beads, like bone buttons, were diapered in fillets,, which passed like a riband under the chin : at least they are so ar- ranged on the mummy of a priestess in the British Museum. The annular beads arc generally of various colours, and are often elaborately worked into patterns representing the winged scarabieus thrusting forward the sun'adise, or into lines of hieroglyphical inscriptions. They are threaded and netted together in compact masses, and form a mosaic of thin cylinders; the re- spective parts being only in beads coloured blue, red, white,". and yellow. These beads are certainly as well executed as they could be at the present day; and some are extremely small, being not more than one-tenth of an inch diameter."

Everybody has heard of Diogenes and his tub. All may not know, perhaps that the tub was an article of pottery, and not

very easy to make. The principal vases of terra-cotta manufactured by the Greeks were large tubs or casks, called pithoi, calculated to hold enormous quantities of wine or food; amphorae, or vases of a smaller size, yet sufficiently large to hold several gallons ; phialee, or saucers ; pitaakes or plates ; ehytree, or pots; mochocc, or jugs ; together with numerous small vases used for com- mon domestic purposes, and others which appear to have been appropriated solely to funeral ceremonies.

" Pithoi, or casks, of gigantic size, are found in Italy ; and although no perfect ones have been discovered in Greece, yet fragments of them prove that they were also used in that country. They are shaped like enormous caldrons, with globular bodies and wide gaping mouths. When full, the mouth was covered with a large circular stone, called kithan. It must have been into such a cask that Glances the son of Minos fell ; and in such must the Centaurs according to mythical tradition, have kept their stock of wine. They were sufficiently capacious to hold a man, and were in fact the ancient hogsheads or pipes. They are perhaps best known from the circumstance of the eccentric Diogenes having converted one of them into his domicile ; who is represented in some works of ancient art stretching his body out of a pithos at the moment of his celebrated interview with Alexander. They were used to hold honey, wine, and figs. It required great skill to make such vases ; hence the Greek proverb characterized an ambitious but inex- perienced man as one who began with a cask.' They were made by a peculiar process, which is described as plastering the clay round a certain framework of wood, the pithos being too large to be turned on the lathe."

These extracts will give an idea of the manner in which the general subject is pursued into its subdivisions, but their number we cannot enumerate. The work is profusely illustrated with wood-cuts and coloured engravings in the highest style of deco- rative art.