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EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
When, in 1762, the,people of the pottery region petitioned Parliament in favor of an Act for a turnpike road, they set forth that in Burslem and the neighborhood there were nearly one hundred and fifty separate potteries for making various kinds of stone and earthen ware, employing and supporting nearly seven thousand people. Many tons of shipping, and seamen in proportion, were employed in winter carrying materials for the Burslem ware, and as much salt was used for glazing as paid an annual duty of £5,000 to the government.
In ten months of 1871 there were 90,412 packages of North Staffordshire ware exported from Liverpool. The total value of the exports of porcelain and earthenware from the kingdom—the greater part of which was produced in the Staffordshire potteries—amounted, in ten months of 1871, to £1,423,110 in value. This is about the santfe as in 1864 and 1865, the value of the production being in the latter jmar £1,442,000. The annual consumption of coal in the art, in 1865, was about 450,000 tons, and in 1870, according to official returns, 680,000 tons. To color the clay and print the ware, in 1865, about 67,000 pounds of oxide of cobalt were used, and 1,100 tons of borax and boracic acid in glazing, and 12,000 ounces of gold in gilding. About 4,500 tons of calcined bones from South America were consumed annually. In 1861, 40,697 persons were engaged in the manufacture.
English porcelain is said to differ from either the pâte dure or the pâte tendre of the French, and, to a certain extent, to combine the qualities yf both. A high degree of trails- lucency is obtained by the use of phosphate of lime. It 1S not as plastic as hard porcelain, but may be cast, moulded, or turned easily in the ordinary ways. It combines well with the frits of the pâte tendre, and with glazes adapted to colored decorations.
The exhibitors deserve great credit for their liberal représentation of the industry, by sending to such a great distance so many bulky and fragile objects of great value. The more important of the collections will now be briefly noticed.