PLATE LVIII.
Few among the many novelties in art-manufacture introduced within the last ten years have been morepleasing or interesting than the ceramic material known under the various names of parian, statuary porcelain,and carrara, each of which is essentially the same.
Since the priority of introduction of this material has been a matter of debate between those connectedwith the establishments of Messrs. Minton and Co. and Mr. Alderman Copeland, we can scarcely be expectedto decide “ where doctors disagree; ” but we may at least recognise that, at the present time, both theabove-named gentlemen are entitled to the highest praise for the energy and success with which they haveemployed their respective materials. Mr. Minton has brought what he terms “ parian ” to an exquisite consistency;and has succeeded, by means of it, in producing a remarkable variety of useful and ornamental objects.
The white biscuit figures of Meissen, Sevres , Berlin, and Derby, have long been known and admired.The material in which they are executed is, indeed, peculiarly well adapted to the reproduction of cabinet
sculpture. Biscuit may be defined as hard porcelain, once fired, and unglazed. As at present employed by
Mr. Minton, parian is a highly-vitrified, hard, bisque porcelain; much more so, indeed, than either the stoneor old jasper ware of Wedgewood, the old stone ware made in the Potteries thirty years ago, or the hardbisque porcelain of Sevres , Meissen, or Berlin. It is superior to the bisque china formerly used for ornamentalpurposes and statuettes, inasmuch as the latter had a dry, chalky, and occasionally bluish, appearance, fromwhich the new material is exempt.
The mode of producing figures and other objects in parian is one of peculiar interest, and of extremedelicacy. Unlike the ordinary objects of pottery and porcelain—which are formed entire by the wheel, or bythe hand of the modeller, and afterwards fired—articles in this material are made from what is termed “ slip,”being the fluid mixture of clay and flint, reduced to the consistence of cream; that degree of fluidity being
necessary to ensure the perfect mixture which is essential for the subsequent mutual chemical action in the
fire. The complete object is moulded in several parts, which, when united and dried, undergo successivefirings; by the operation of which, and in the process of drying, they shrink to three-fourths of their originalsize. The judgment necessary in the first instance to anticipate this excessive shrinking, and the extreme carerequired in fitting the various parts together, render the manufacture one of great difficulty; and but for theability displayed by our skilful and tasteful manufacturers, the material could never have been brought intogeneral use. The early experiments were not only discouraging, but would have been ruinous to any producerof limited means.
With this general intimation of the difficulties attending the production of works in parian, we proceedto abridge the following minute description of the process from Mr. Robert Hunt’s valuable “ Hand-book tothe Great Exhibition .” “ The material is used in a liquid state, technically termed ‘ slip.’ It is poured intothe moulds forming the figure or group, which, being made of plaster, rapidly absorb a portion of themoisture, and the coating immediately next the mould soon becomes of a sufficient thickness for the cast,when the superfluous slip is thrown back. The cast remains in the moulds for some time at a high