The art of making vessels of earth is one of the oldest of all arts; the “potter’s wheel” is frequently named in Scripture, and pottery is found in all the remains of ancient nations. Earthenware is made from a mixture of clay and powdered flints; the clay is freed from all its coarser parts by being stirred with water and drawn off after the gross matters have settled; the fluid is then allowed at leisure to let fall the pure clay which was mixed with it, and is then fit for use. The flints are made red-hot, and in that state thrown into cold water, which makes them so brittle that they can be easily broken up by the “stampers,” which are perpendicular pieces of iron made to rise and fall with great force; the flints are then ground in a mill to a powder, which is treated in the same way that the clay was. When these two earths are mixed in proper proportions, and beaten together while moist, they form a substance of the consistence of putty, a lump of which is thrown into the centre of a piece of board turned by means of a wheel and treadle; while turning round, it is moulded by the hands into a rough outline of the vessel required, and afterwards put aside to dry till it becomes of such hardness, that it can be easily turned in a common lathe, and formed into the cup, jug or whatever else it may be intended for. This is then baked in a “kiln” or oven so contrived that it shall make it red-hot, and keep it so for about two days. If it has to be ornamented with a design-such, for instance, as the “willow pattern”--a number of prints on tissue paper of the subject required are kept ready, and one of these is stuck on to the vessel with the printed side next to the clay, and rubbed smoothly on to it; after a little time the paper is washed off with water, and the pattern is left on the vessel. The next process is that of glazing; this is done by dipping the vessel into a mixture generally made of ground flints and oxide of lead made into a thin fluid with water; when the glazing is dry the vessel is once more put into the kiln, and made red-hot, when the glazing-mixture on the surface melts into a smooth glass. Different colours are given to the pattern by mixing certain metallic substances with the ink used in printing. The handles, spouts, and other projecting parts are fixed on after turning, and before the ware is put into the kiln. Many kinds of pottery are not turned at all, but made in a mould by being squeezed forcibly into it; this is the case when the article to be produced is octagonal, or possessed of any form not round, and therefore not to be produced by turning, and when the surface has a pattern or figures standing out in relief. Some of these are made by filling shallow moulds with the clay, and, while moist, affixing them to the surface, but the handles of common ware are made by forcing some of the clay through a hole of the required form, so that it comes out in long strips or ribands, which are cut up into lengths,