113. Of bricks and tiles. An oblong box of wood fitting upon a bottom fixed to the brickmaker's bench, is the mould from which every brick is formed. A portion of the plastic mixture of which the bricks consist is made ready by less skilful hands: the workman first sprinkles a little sand into the mould, and then throws the clay into it with some force; at the same time rapidly working it with his fingers, so as to make it completely close up to the corners. He next scrapes off, with a wetted stick, the superfluous clay, and shakes the new-formed brick dexterously out of its mould upon a piece of board, on which it is removed by another workman to the place appointed for drying it. A very skilful moulder has occasionally, in a long summer's day, delivered from ten to eleven thousand bricks; but a fair average day's work is from five to six thousand. Tiles of various kinds and forms are made of finer materials, but by the same system of moulding. Among the ruins of the city of Gour, the ancient capital of Bengal, bricks are found having projecting ornaments in high relief: these appear to have been formed in a mould, and subsequently glazed with a coloured glaze. In Germany, also, brickwork has been executed with various ornaments. The cornice of the church of St Stephano, at Berlin, is made of large blocks of brick moulded into the form required by the architect. At the establishment of Messrs Cubitt, in Gray's Inn Lane, vases, cornices, and highly ornamented capitals of columns are thus formed which rival stone itself in elasticity, hardness, and durability. 114. Of embossed china. Many of the forms given to those beautiful specimens of earthenware which constitute the equipage of our breakfast and our dinner-tables, cannot be executed in the lathe of the potter. The embossed ornaments on the edges of the plates, their polygonal shape, the fluted surface of many of the vases, would all be difficult and costly of execution by the hand; but they become easy and comparatively cheap, when made by pressing the soft material out of which they are formed into a hard mould. The care and skill bestowed on the preparation of that mould are repaid by the multitude it produces. In many of the works of the china manufactory, one part only of the article is moulded; the upper surface of the plate, for example, whilst the under side is figured by the lathe. In some instances, the handle, or only a few ornaments, are moulded, and the body of the work is turned.