Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 455: Volume 18, New Series, September 18, 1852Various
History
Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 455: Volume 18, New Series, September 18, 1852
Various
Periodicals
We now ascend to the upper rooms, where in one is a collection of
armour, and in the other, the 'Majolica' Room, specimens of pottery,
as revived in Europe in the fifteenth century by Luca Della Rubbia,
who was born in 1388. He discovered the art of glazing earthenware. In
the former of these rooms, all sorts of weapons and defensive
apparatus are met with--modern, mediaeval, and antique; some are highly
finished, others very rude. In the Majolica Room, there is much matter
for study, and those will fail to appreciate the value of the
collection who have not learned something of the history of the ware.
Here is exhibited a Madonna and Child, of about the year 1420, by
Rubbia himself. It was given to Mr Mayer by the Grand Duke of Tuscany,
when the medal of Roscoe was struck and presented. There are five
plates, made after the patterns of the Moors, about the middle of that
century, at Pessaro, near the Po; and four with portraits, marked
'Majolica Amatorii.' We find several other specimens, shewing the most
curious anachronisms and blunders in design. The 'Temptation,' for
example, is represented as a plate, with the drawing of a town and a
Dutch church. 'Jacob's Dream,' 'Joseph and his Brethren,' 'Alexander
and Darius,' 'Actaeon and Diana,' and such scenes, seem to have been
favourites. The specimens of 'Mezza Majolica,' with raised centres,
scroll-work borders, and embossed figures, are very curious. There are
two dishes, each eighteen inches in diameter, of Raffaelle ware, on
one of which is 'Christ healing the Sick,' and on the other, 'Christ
driving out the Money-changers.' Another, of Calabrian ware, is very
curious: it is of brown clay, glazed, with four handles, and inside
are the figures of two priests officiating at an altar; behind, are
female figures overlooking, but concealed by latticed-work. There is
one object here of local interest, and with it we bring this
description to a close. It is an earthenware map of Crosby, to the
north of Liverpool, made in 1716, at pottery works in Shaws-brow.
UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.
STORY OF UNCLE TOM.
A former paper on Mrs Stowe's remarkable book, presented a little
episode, the heroine of which was Eliza, a female slave on the estate
of a Mr Shelby in Kentucky. We now turn to the story of Tom himself,
whose transfers from hand to hand afford the authoress an opportunity
of describing the private life and feelings of slave-owners, and the
unwholesome and dangerous condition of society in the south.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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