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EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
yet need to know more of pottery as an art to secure a fair appreciation of novelties and to stimulate progress. A great obstruction to progress is the servile following of others, the constant reproduction of old forms and old designs—imitations rather than novelties.
The high development and perfection of the ceramic art in Europe is due in a great degree to the establishment of porcelain works under government protection and favor, and the rivalries between them. Each establishment became a school of art, producing models for imitation, launching out into unknown fields, experimenting and perfecting without regard to the demands of trade,—being raised above them and independent of them. They became leaders of public taste, and their influence was strengthened by the patronage of royalty and court circles.
The Exhibition in 1851 revealed to Great Britain its manifest inferiority in artistic manufactures; and it did not take long to ascertain that the cause was the neglect of art education amongst the people, while the continental artisans were taught with the greatest care, and familiarized from their youth with the choicest productions of ancient and modern art. It was conceded that the art schools and museums of France exercised a great influence upon the manufactures of the country. England saw that to compete with such a rival great efforts must be made, and that the people must be educated. The government took the matter in hand; it was studied and reported upon by government commissions, money was freely appropriated, museums were founded, and a Department of Science and Art established as a branch of the government.
The favorable influence of these efforts was apparent in Paris in 1867 ; it was still more evident in the London Exhibition in 1871, and was abundantly shown at Vienna. Great Britain, from a position of mediocrity in 1851, has risen to a commanding position in the potter’s art, standing to-day in the front rank, not only as regards excellence of materials and manufacture, but in artistic skill.
All this is full of teaching to the educators of the United States. Ceramic industry, as we shall presently see, is