Tour the Smithsonian After its First Fifty Years

These vases have an estimated value of $16,000. They are the largest ever made in Europe, and are intended to commemorate the independence of the United States and the completion of their first century of its existence as a nation. They were designed by M. Bracquemond, and sculptured by M. Delaplanche. The body of the vases is of common clay, upon which the enamel and colors are applied by methods peculiar to the Limoges Faience, of Haviland £ Co. The vase "1776"-"The Struggle"- has for its base a barren rock, washed by angry waves; on top is a battery of cannon, modeled from those in use during the Revolutionary War, the idea conveyed being turmoil and disorder. On the body of the vase is an eagle, with outspread wings; on either side, the colors of the United States. Above the eagle are the names of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The vase is surmounted by a bust of Washington; on the one side is a statue of "Victory," and on the other "Renommee," or "Fame." The vase "1876"- "Prosperity"-has for its base, emblems of Peace, the fruits of the earth, and the implements of industry. On the body are the eagle and the colors, and above are the names of the Presidents of the United States, with their terms of office. On top is a bust of "America," and on each side are "Victory" and "Fame." -RHEES.

The same artist, Bracquemond, designed, and the same firm executed, the panel of Limoges Faience which is composed of over 900 tiles.

The picture on this panel is allegorical and represents the genius of man utilizing the waters of the rebellious stream and storm, the fires of the volcano and lightning, and making them the willing slaves of progress. In the background is the town of Limoges, with its numerous potteries. The coloring of these tiles resembles oil painting, and their effects are different from any heretofore produced with the same materials.-RHEES.

An equally famous French pottery center-that of Sevres-is richly represented, not only by examples of its elegant work in various forms, as cups, plates, pitchers, vases, statuettes, etc., and in several styles of ornamentation, but there is shown beside the finished ware the clays of which they are made, the pigments used in coloring, and the articles in process of making, forming altogether an exhibition of the greatest educational importance. Elsewhere in the Museum exquisite examples of Sevres work are to be found. A similar, but much smaller collection, illustrates the making of Dresden ware.

The English potteries are represented by considerable finished material. The most prominent is the Lambeth pottery of Henry Doulton and Co., who are the makers of the splendid vase, tinted in tones of green, which now stands in the center of the West Hall. From this pottery, also, come many examples of modeling and line-ornamentation in terra cotta, the most noticeable examples of which are the copies of Guido's "Last Supper" and another picture, as panels in high relief for mural decoration. These are the designs of George Tinworth, one of their workmen who has won reputation for originality in the manipulation of terra cotta, further examples of which fill adjacent cases. The colossal group in the West hall of the Old Smithsonian building is the work of this same house, and is a full-sized reproduction of one of the corner pieces of sculpture in marble which form part of the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, London. The modeler was John Bell. The Staffordshire potteries contribute to the Museum examples of their ware, chiefly that made by Minton, whose artistic tiles are also present. This house is most conspicuously represented, however, by the pulpit of terra-cotta which copies one of those to be seen in ancient cathedrals throughout Europe; and a mosaic reredos made up of more than 1,400 pieces.

In addition to these are to be seen small, yet fairly representative, collections of the pottery of Japan (some pieces of which were brought home by Perry), Turkey, ancient Rome and Egypt, Spain, Brazil and Mexico; besides a great many tiles, old and new, and architectural ornaments.

To exhibit the beauties of a delicate bit of china to full advantage, the regulation stand of the Museum has been so modified as to show all sides of a cup or vase. This is accomplished in one way by a small slanting mirror, and in another by placing a small vertical mirror behind the specimen, which rests upon a stand whose surface is of glass, half an inch underneath which is a second diminutive mirror. By this arrangement you have at a glance the whole surface of the object outside and inside, and can read the maker's mark on the bottom-a matter of no small importance in the eye of the collector or connoisseur of ceramic masterpieces.

The most important feature of Ceramics at present in the National Museum, however, is the vast series of pottery made by our native Indians, and especially by the Puebloanos, or Village Indians of the valleys of the Rio Grande and Rio Colorado, the bulk of which was collected by Colonel and Mrs. James Stevenson, of the Ethn. Bureau.

In regard to North America generally-and the Museum contains examples from every part of the United States and Canada, prehistoric and recent-a summary is at hand in the language of the learned Dr. Charles Rau:

The aborigines of North America, to recapitulate the general characteristics of their pottery, formed their vessels by hands, modeling them sometimes in baskets, and were, as far as we know, unacquainted with the art of glazing. They mixed the clay used in their pottery either with pounded shells or sand, or with pulverized silicious rocks, mica also formed sometimes a part of the composition. Their vessels were often painted with ochre, producing various shades, from a light yellow to a dark brown, or with a black color. They decorated their pottery with lines and combinations of lines and dots, and embellished it also by notching the rims, or surrounding them on the outside with studs, or in various other ways. Their vessels exhibited a great variety of forms, and sizes, and many of them had rounded or convex bottoms. They hardened their earthenware in open fires or in kilns, and, notwithstanding the favorable statement of some authors, it was much inferior in compactness to the common crockery manufactured at present in Europe or America, and has even, in some instances, an appearance as though it had merely been dried in the sun."Sm. Rep't, 1866.

It is impossible here to go into an account of the "pueblo" pottery, made by the Village Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, an astonishing quantity of which is on exhibition. It was mainly collected by Col. James Stevenson, and Mrs. Stevenson, who accompanied him, has written (for private circulation) a little sketch of life in Zuni, and the Moqui towns, whence the bulk of the collection came, from which I extract some entertaining facts:

In some of their arts the Zunians have actually retrograded. Such is the case with the manufacture of pottery, their plastic art having deteriorated to a considerable extent. The pottery found in the ruins throughout the southwest, especially in the Canyon de Chelly and San Juan, is superior to any now made, not only in ornamentation, but also in fineness of quality and symmetry. The ancient products show a much finer paste than any now made, owing no doubt to the use of some kind of material, the knowledge of which has been lost. In consequence, moreover, of the great increase of their stores, the people have become careless about this beautiful work, the women, who alone make the pottery, having comparatively little time to devote to its manufacture and ornamentation. The decoration of the old pottery consists chiefly of scrolls, straight lines and walls of Troy. The earliest attempts to represent animals seem to have been directed toward depicting birds, some very old samples with designs of this character having been found.

That the ancient pottery bears a resemblance to that of Egypt and Cyprus is evident to any close observer. It is also somewhat like old Japanese ware, in the animal handles, and in a design known as the old Japanese seal. The class of ancient ware most widely distributed is called the "corrugated" pottery. It is always to be found among the ruins of the people who lived on the mesas and cliffs of the far southwest, and is equally plentiful among the mounds and other traces of aboriginal occupation in all parts of the United States. It is black and of coarse material, and was laid up, coil upon coil as has been described in South America; but while the inside was carefully smoothed the outside was only pinched together, and remained rough, giving a surface which might be called imbricate. There is also another variety of pottery exhibiting a highly glazed surface. Specimens of this kind are found usually in very small fragments amongst the mesa ruins, though occasionally bits are found in the valleys. The present Pueblo Indians believe this process of glazing to be a lost art, and from their earliest recollections they have endeavored to produce the glaze, but success has never attended their efforts. After the most careful investigations and chemical analysis Dr. W. J. Hoffman affirms that the glazing was purely accidental, and due to the saline ingredients in the water used for mixing the clay. In one respect only, Mrs. Stevenson thinks, does the pottery of the present day show an improvement upon that of the older time. The latter is decorated with no designs of animals save those moulded figures which serve for handles, while the modern ware is ornamented profusely with representations of every animal known to the makers.

The only implements used in making this Puebloan pottery are little trowels made of clay and mortars and pestles of stone, the latter serving to reduce to a powder the mineral substances employed in part in the decoration. When formed by hand and trowel into the desired shapes, a number of the unbaked vessels are placed together, and an ovenshaped pile of combustible manure is piled around them and set on fire, by which process those utensils intended for cooking are finished, when sufficiently hardened in the fire. The finer vessels, designed for uses which will not impair their beauty, are coated with a fine quality of white clay, which, after being allowed to dry, is capable of a high polish. Upon this coating the vegetable and mineral paints are applied with a piece of rabbit-skin for a brush, in such designs as suit the artist's fancy. The intense blackness of one kind of ware is produced by covering them, when very hot with a second heap of manure-fuel; the sudden partial cooling that ensues, causes them to absorb the smoke which becomes oxidized upon their surfaces. In the Moqui towns the burning is done in small square ovens built into the walls of the houses; thus each family bakes its own pottery, and family marks, or peculiarities of symbolical ornamentation distinguish each matron's make. "These ornamental designs," says the artist-investigator, W. H. Holmes, referring particularly to prehistoric pottery, "are often admirable, and apparently so far in advance of the art-ideas of these people, in other respects, that one is led to suspect that they may be of foreign origin;" but he assures us that there is "no conclusive evidence that these people ever came in contact with Europeans." Articles by E. A. Barber and others in The Am. Naturalist, and by Holmes and Jackson in the Bulletins and Reports of the U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv. (Hayden's) from 1874 to '77, contain the fullest accounts and many illustrations of this pottery-especially the ancient ware.

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