may be noticed, the power of picking out, in varied colours, the different subjects, such as leaves, flowers,tendrils, conventional patterns, &c., which form the decoration of these vases. The tints being applied inenamel are perfectly vitrified under the action of the fire, and thereby become as imperishable as the objectsupon which they are applied.
One of the peculiarities of design in objects similar to those engraved in the accompanying plate, is aclose adherence, in the primitive forms to which ornament is superadded, to those curves and contourswhich spring from a legitimate exercise of the potter’s art, and the natural modelling given to the claywhile it is upon the wheel, by his hand. There can be little doubt that the most beautiful forms in Greekand Etruscan vases have been generated from this simple process of formation, and from the refined delicacyof touch acquired by the potter during years of practice. It is not uninteresting to observe, in corro-boration of this view, that the perfect outline of some of the commonest objects of pottery contributed tothe Exhibition, from India, Tunis , Turkey, &c., demonstrates the method by which contours, equal in graceto those of Etruria and Magna Grecia , have been produced.
M. Zeigler is not the only artist in France on whom the celebrity of Bernard de Palissy has operatedin inducing a successful revival of obsolete productions, MM. Landais and Avisseau, of Tours , have accuratelyreproduced, in the present day, those quaint dishes, covered with skilfully-modelled and painted representationsof fruit, flowers, fish, &c., and coated with a rich vitreous glaze, which formed the especial delight of thenobles of the age of the Renaissance . Whether such a revival quite coincides with our ideas of the utilitarianapplication of plates and dishes, is a question upon which, considering the apparent popularity of these works,it might be ungracious to enter further.