USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Historical sketches : a collection of papers prepared for the Historical Society of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1921-1925, Volume VII > Part 20
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Within the past thirty years, nearly two thousand acres
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WASHINGTON'S HEADQUARTERS AT VALLEY FORGE IN 1887 (Photo by William H. Richardson.)
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of the original encampment, including the various head- quarters of the generals of divisions, forts, redoubts, in- trenchments, outer approaches and other military works, have been recovered, restored and consolidated into a splendid park, with all its natural scenic beauty revealed and enhanced by the skill and art of the topographical en- gineer and the landscaper; all its conspicuous points brought out, and many of them adorned by the statues of heroes of the Revolution, and other memorials contributed by many states to mark the bivouac of their patriots; among these, there is one erected by the D.A.R. to the memory of the unknown but valorous dead.
Crowning the summit of one of its resplendent ridges rises the majestic Roman arch, the gift of the Nation, and the dominant note in all this picturesque composition. Here and there, among the scenes of this glorified inheritance, may be seen the replicas of the rude huts which partially sheltered the soldiers in that bitter winter of 1777-1778, and these, too, pathetically remind us of War's tragedy-"lest we forget"; but realism is added to the picture when we face the menacing gun-batteries mounted on the knolls and threatening the avenues of approach.
Off in the distant, higher woodland, an observation tower rises above the dark timber, and permits a panoramic view of interlacing vales, the winding Schuylkill and the horizon of the Blue Ridge. Splendid roads, drives and walks lead in unconventional ways to the historic landmarks and scenic vistas; sheep, symbols of Peace, graze the grassy slopes and give an element of vitality to the composition.
Down in the village, at the entrance to the headquarters, a modern railway station has been provided for the better accommodation and convenience of the ever-growing num- bers of visitors; and where only hundreds came in the old days, now hundreds of thousands annually make their pil- grimage to the Park by every conceivable mode of convey- ance, and pay their respect to the greatest shrine of patri- otism in American history.
But this is not all, nor have I the time to mention many other appealing features that can be seen there; there is
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one object, however, that stands paramount and apart, for at the threshold of Valley Forge, on the main highway, is the beautiful Washington Memorial Church-a universal tribute of the present generation to the record of an heroic sacrifice, and to the undaunted spirit of an illustrious com- mander; and this unique creation was the conception of Dr. Burk, whose lofty inspiration, zeal and devotion to a great ideal made possible this epic in stone-the physical expression of patriotic America exalted, sublime and spir- itual. The epitome of it all lies in the words of Henry Armitt Brown, as they are carved on one of the panels of the Memorial Arch at Valley Forge:
And here, in this place of sacrifice; in this vale of humiliation; in this valley of the shadow of that death out of which the life of America rose regenerate and free, let us believe with an abiding faith that to them Union will seem as dear, and Liberty as sweet, and Progress as glorious as they were to our fathers, and are to you and me, and that the institutions which have made us happy, preserved by the virtue of our children, shall bless the remotest generations of the time to come."
Lustre Pottery*
By ANNA JARRETT
Lustre ware was made in Egypt in the eleventh century, as is evident from an account of a journey made to that country by Nasir-i-Khusran, in 1047 A.D. He stayed eight months on his first visit and three on his second. "They make at Jonisr (name of both country and capital) all kinds of pottery-translucent-bowls, cups, plates, and they dec- orate with colors analogous to those of the stuff called Bukalimin: the shades change according to the position given the vase." This Bukalimin, with which the metallic reflection of lustre is compared, was a fine lustrous silk, of a "shot" variety, and made at Tinnis, by Coptic workers, and "nowhere else in the world." Its colors changed "every hour of the day," according to the refraction of the light. Five thousand looms were said to be employed. This Tinnis was a town on an island in what is now known as Lake Mer- zalah; it was pillaged in 1155 A.D.
This traveler, a Persian of education, was born at Bulkh in 1003 A.D. He was a keen observer of works of art; trav- eled to the chief cities of Persia, including Rhages, and in India; he dwelt in Damascus, and was conversant with the wares of Persia, Syria, and even China. He greatly admired the lustre films of the tiles, which were a well-established and characteristic industry of Egypt at this time. Tiles of lustre on the Mosque of Sidi-Okba, Kairwan and Tunisia are cited as dating from the ninth century, and as evidence of the existence of a lustre industry at Bagdad, as old as, or older than, that claimed for Egypt. Some authorities say the tiles were imported from Bagdad, and also made on the spot by a potter from Bagdad. Dr. Butler disagrees. He says it
*Read before the Society, November 15, 1924.
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is only tradition, as the dates do not agree with industries of the countries of that time. They are more akin to early Egyptian or Coptic.
Of Persian lustre, the spittoons, among the finest exam- ples, were perhaps much needed to save the wonderful carpets. All belong to the thirteenth century. One example of a golden bronze on a white ground is in the Richard col- lection in London. In 1220 A.D., Persia was invaded by the Mongols, and Chinese artists were introduced into Persia by Ghengis Khan. Then is noticed the use of indigo instead of lapis, the Chinese not being influenced by the Persian industry.
Low temperature for firing was necessary for successful lustre. Cream and ivory, on a reddish-brown clay, was a rosy polychrome vase of the fourteenth century; a Damas- cus specimen is decorated in blue, with golden lustre on a cream ground, with inscription in Arabic lettering: "Made for Asad of Alexandria by Yousef of Damascus." One rare specimen, either Syrian or Egyptian, has intense blue glaze, on which a decoration of bronze-green lustre is found.
SPANISH
Contracts for pottery was made in 1009 by Loza-Dorado, of whom mention is made in 1350: "At Malaga is made the beautiful gold pottery, which is exported to the farthest countries."
Francis Epimines, date 1384, is a work of extreme rarity. The only known copies (in the Library of Madrid and Palma) in enumerating the products of the kingdom, record the pottery, and especially mention Manises, near Valencia, where the pottery is gilded and painted so well that Popes and Cardinals and Princes marvelled that there could be on earth a work so excellent. An Egyptian chronicler of 1348 mentions Malaga as "an extremely elegant town, whose golden pottery is unrivaled." A Polish traveler, Nic- olas Von Popplan, in 1484, tells of Moorish potters occupy- ing a town near Valencia, where they made vessels in blue and gold colors, with which they supplied all Christendom.
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TRADE TERMS
Obra de Malica Melicha Meliqua
Malaga ware (Golden pottery) Loza dorado
René of Anjou, who died in 1480, got pottery direct from Valencia, August 22 and October 16, 1478. In the Godman collection is a Valencia dish, 1450-1495, decorated with vine leaves, alternating deep blue and golden lustre of pearly sheen, with intertwined stems in blue, and a shield of arms, with fleur-de-lys, identified as that of René, of Anjou; it is surmounted by a royal crown, indicating a sov- ereign house, while on the back is an eagle. René's daugh- ter, Margaret, became, by her marriage with Henry VI, in 1445, queen consort of England, where she lived for some thirty years.
TYPES OF LUSTRE
The technique of Persian lustre does not seem to have changed much over a period of years: the blue and tur- quoise with golden brown lustre of reddish reflection on a creamy ground, that may be tin enamel. Persians were slow to adopt foreign ways-the conquest by Mongols, in 1220 A. D., made little impression on their pottery.
Tile from Manzanderan is 121/2 inches square, and represents, in one corner, "Bohram, the hunter" of the Sass- mian dynasty, riding on a camel, shooting an arrow at an antelope. The story goes that, proud of his skill in archery, he wished to show it off to a favorite wife. On a camel, he sped to the plain, the wife on the rise of the hump, indolently fingering a mandolin, when he found an antelope asleep. He shot at it with such precision as to graze its ear; the awak- ened animal tried to brush away the annoyance with its foot; a second arrow transfixed the foot to the horn. The lady was expected to be much impressed by this feat, but cooly remarked : "Practice makes perfect"-for which want of appreciation the disgusted king ordered her to the moun- tains to perish.
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MAJOLICA
That the ware was made here or in the Balearic Islands, Senor Companer Y Ferentes refutes. Majorca was con- quered by James I, of Aragon, in 1228, shortly before his Valencian campaign. Companer suggests that the word Majolica, as used in Italy, may have originated from the fact that Spanish earthenware was imported into Italy by Majorcan ships, which, not always able to complete their cargoes with Balearic products, filled up their holds with pottery picked up in Valencian and Catalan ports, Majorca thus becoming a recognized depot among Italian pottery dealers. Companer says: writers on the subject would take more notice of the ships carrying the ware than of the ware itself.
A Venetian document of 1426 prohibits the importation of many things, but not such as "come from Majorca." "Lavori di Majolica" are the subject of an ordinance at Siena in 1476. If lustred ware was a product of Majorca, it it difficult to see why Galgano di Belforte, a potter of Siena, went secretly to Valencia to learn the craft, in 1514, and not to Majorca.
An example of Hispano-Moresque lustre ware is the "Alhambra Vase," now in the Museum of the Palace. Tradi- tion says it was found filled with gold in an underground chamber, by the first Christian governor of the Palace. For many years it stood with other large vessels, exposed to weather and the chance of injury, on the garden terrace, where it was noticed by travelers in the sixteenth century, and by 1818, only a few of the vessels remained, and this vase was for some time in a small room in "the Court of the Fish-pond." It is Amphoric in form, four feet high, one handle missing. Decoration is in blue and tan, and a brown lustre of faint metallic quality ; a band of Arabic inscription, a device of leaf and stem ; two gazelles (affronted) reversed, in cream and golden lustre, on a blue field. Below, with floral designs in lustre, are medallions in blue ; and the tree- of-life pattern alternates inscriptions in Arabic characters, and arabesques complete the design. Panels of the neck are
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divided by mouldings, and characteristic strap and floral patterns alternate.
Dr. Barber, in the introduction to his catalogue of the collection of the Hispanic Society of America, contends that after the expulsion of the Moriscos, the Spanish potters, gradually abandoning the process of their Moorish teachers, began to give up the process of the bath of opaque tin enamel, and to adopt a double process of a thin white pipe clay, or slip, covered with a modified glaze in which lead was the principal ingredient. Such a method is assumed, by Dr. Barber, to be cheaper, while the opaque white appear- ance, characteristic of the tin enamel, would, he thinks, be preserved. The porous slip, with its film of glaze, would be of less specific gravity than the enamel, so that examples treated with slip and glaze would be perceptibly lighter in weight than those treated with tin enamel only; and he claims to be able to distinguish the two varieties by weight, without resorting to the test of hardness.
Uses to which lustre ware was adapted were symbols and coats-of-arms. Christian religious symbolism arose at Byzantium, both personal and religious symbolism passed to Europe; heraldry was not much in use there before the thirteenth century, then became very elaborate. The Arms of Eleanor, daughter of Ferdinand of Castile, the first wife of Edward III, A. D. 1272, were on her tomb in West- minster Abbey; they are the earliest examples in England of two coats-of-arms quartered on one shield. Christians of Alexandria assigned the eagle to St. John the Evangelist. It appears, on a tile now in the British Museum in London, as a part of the arms of Philip, Archbishop of Seville, in the latter part of the thirteenth century. The Apostolic eagle is used as the sinister supporter of the arms of Cath- erine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand II of Spain, wife of Henry VIII of England, and was also used by her daugh- ter Mary I, of England. It is of frequent occurrence on the back and front of Hispano-Moresque lustre dishes. St. John the Evangelist became the patron saint of Valencia. In this connection, the first words of his Gospel occur on Va- lencian lustre ware : "In Principio erat Verbum."
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In 1609-10 the Moriscos, descendants of the Moors, were expelled from Spain, which was a great economic blunder, depriving Spain of her workers in artistic usefulness. Decad- ence followed, and the seventeenth centry forms of pottery became heavy, with confused decoration, the lustre taking on the deeper tone of copper. A specimen from North Devon, in England, 113/4 x 8 in. in size, shows the Virgin, crowned, with Babe, both enclosed in an aureole, all in coppery lustre, and wrapped from head to foot in a deep blue mantle. The background is a floral design in lustre on cream ground, with eight cherub heads in relief around a central group, all framed in a raised border painted in lustre, with a deep blue curved line running through it. Lustre craft lived on in the Spanish Peninsula, but was put to common uses, such as kitchen ware and barber's bowls.
Bowle's History of Spain, 1775, mentions "a fair-looking town of only four streets, two leagues from the capital of Valencia, where they made a copper-coloured ware of great beauty, used for common purposes and for decorating the houses of the working people of the province." These articles were very inexpensive, and not in high repute in Valencia.
In 1780, Sir John Talbot Dillon, traveling in Spain, notes that "the inhabitants of Manises are chiefly potters, who make an earthenware with copper-coloured gilding." Even poor examples are decorated, both back and front, this being the practice of the early potters. The Comte de La- borde, in the early nineteenth century, mentions Manisia as a village north of Valencia. The "Society" of the workmen possesses the secret of the composition of a color which, in the fire, takes the tint and brightness of gilt-bronze. A dish, the property of Mr. A. Wenger, Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent, was made in 1865, by Senor Juan Castan, of Manises. This family of Castan is stated to have continued the lustre process of pottery without interruption from medieval times. Senor J. Ros is one of the best-known producers of modern pottery of this class.
The official modern lustre vase-and-tile industry of Seville is under the Director and Secretary of the School of Art there.
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Many specimens of Valencia ware now in English collec- tions came from Italy, and show the Arms of great Italian houses. The secret of lustre ware seems to have traveled to Italy from Spain in this way. Golzano di Belforte, a potter of Siena, disguising himself in mean apparel, went to Va- lencia, learned the secret of lustre decoration, and returned to Siena, 1514. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, typical lustre ware of Italy was produced at Deruta, near Perugia (early date uncertain), but by the end of the six- teenth century, the industry had declined, and was finally abandoned. Deruta ware was of heavy "body"; upper side white tin enamel; under side lead glaze, yellow clay show- ing through. Painting was often done in blue, broad outline; slight shading covered with transparent lustre.
The Beit Collection contains unusual ruby lustre plate, dated 1477. In the Pierport Morgan Collection is a Deruta specimen of enameled earthen-ware in relief, painted in yellow lustre and blue. Central figure; Judith, with the head of Holofernes, made about the early part of the six- teenth century.
The lustre of Gubbio has a splendid ruby tone, and the ware of Deruta and Gubbio is less metallic than that of Spain. The ruby-red stain is given by the penetration of copper vapor into the surface-produced for the sake of color. Gubbio ware was not made before 1517.1 The Italian ware is not as decorative in itself as that of Spain. The Spanish ware finally found its way to the Lowlands, where Valencia pottery was admitted, free of duty, in Bruges;
1 Mr. N. H. Moore, in his "The Old China Book," states "to the Saracens were the Italians indebted for the freedom and luxury of the styles they copied, for the use of colour without stint and for the beauty of the lustre which they copied from the Eastern artists. The most famous lustres emanating from Italy come from the city of Gubbio. The master- artist there was Georgio Andreoli, and his fame rests on his ruby lustre, brilliant and gleaming like a polished gem and shading from ruby to claret; on the silver, with the effects of moonlight on the water; on the gold and golden shades and on the green, rarest and most jewel-like of all. Georgio's signed works date from 1519 to 1537.
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throughout the estuary, and canal of Zinn, by enactment of Philip of Burgundy, 1433.
The potters of the Netherlands became much at home in Spain in the sixteenth century. Jonan Flores, a Fleming master tile-maker, 1565, was commissioned to do work at the Royal Palace, Madrid. The ware reached England di- rectly, through merchantmen trading at Bristol and the coast-lines of the West. Fragments have been found in an old rubbish heap, some dating from Norman times to the sixteenth century; some, in an old mill-pond, when it was cleaned, in 1840, at St. Ann's Wood-on-Avon; some, close to moorage used by Spanish sailors in trade with Bristol.
English lustre ware of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries covered large spaces; the metallic covering being imitation of metal. John Hancock, of Etruria, 1767-1847, claimed discovery of gold, silver and steel "lustres" at Messrs. Spode's factory at Stoke, for Messrs. Daniel and Brown, who were at that time decorating ware produced by Spode.
Silver lustre brought about one of the earliest uses of platinum. When that decoration was brought to England from Spain, about 1750, English chemists became much interested in platinum and its salts. This lustre ware was produced throughout Staffordshire from 1785; Etruria, 1780-1810.
In 1838, electro-plate was introduced. The general method was to dip ware, when prepared and glazed, in a bath of platinic chloride and dilute spirits of tar. When dry, the article was baked for twelve hours in an oven at 1200 degrees Fahrenheit, the organic matter being thus burnt away, leaving a fast deposit of metallic platinum on the sur- face, inside and out. The Resist pattern was taken out by stick, the pattern was painted on by brush in an adhesive "resisting" mixture : brown shellac in spirits of wine. Then followed the platinum bath, the pattern adhering to all parts not painted. A second firing removed the substance, the pattern being left; blue, yellow and other colors were used with this method.
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Stencilled patterns were in use between 1810 and 1825, on examples from Yorkshire, Doncaster, Rotherham, Cas- tleham and old Leeds pottery. Gold lustre was made with gold chloride solution in balsam of sulphur, or other oily substance. The effect was thin and beautiful, but Wedg- wood2 found it did not wear well. The familiar purple resist came from Staffordshire in the early nineteenth century. The gold lustre, over mottled ground of blue or purple, was made at Swansea. Gold on red produced a very rich effect, and when a darker effect was desired, copper was added.
Rare examples of about 1820 show gilding on a cop- per-lustre ground, but the application of gold fixed to the glaze of pottery and porcelain, now usual, was an inven- tion of the middle of the eighteenth century-before that leaf gold was attached by size. Wedgwood had much trouble with this method.
Swansea, Newcastle and Sunderland had great success in applied relief designs combined with English lustre. About 1830, gaudy flowers in relief, and bands of blue, cream and pink, show the degradation of the ware. Trans- fer patterns, printed in black, brown, gray and lilac, were much used in panels, or patches, combined with lustre and sentimental doggerel; trite moralities and political allusions are often found in transfer prints on the ware.
A tray, late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, is of painted copper-lustre, printed in black, with a ship, in- scribed "May peace and plenty on our nation smile, and
2 While the silver lustre was originally made as a sham, the sturdy gold lustre stood on its own feet from the first. It is claimed by the sup- porters of Wedgwood that he first made the copper-and-gold-lustered wares in 1776, from a receipt given him by Dr. Fothergill. The first idea was to apply it only to frames, but it proved so unexpectedly ornamental that numberless beautiful articles were made. The gold lustre was excep- tionally fine, and honey-cups of simple but beautiful form became very popular. The lustre jugs come of every size, from the tiny ones holding but a couple of spoonsful-mere toys-to the great ones for tavern use holding a gallon or more .- Ed.
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Trade with Commerce bless the British Isle." Much English lustre, so-called, hardly comes under the category of real lustre. Mr. de Morgan, "the Lancastrian," working for the Messrs. Pilkington, about 1856, made real lustre, directly affected by the Gubbio tradition.
ENGLISH TRUE-LUSTRE
Ingredients and methods for making the clay and colors, sound formidable, viz: "Fine, white earth from a distance, brought on donkeys; an iron pestle, 36 pounds weight for breaking clay; large vat, wooden bat for beating the de- posit; mill of two stones for grinding enamel, seived; four pounds white lead in rolls, and 23 pounds of tin laid in." For colors: "safre," an earth obtained by calcining cobalt; when mixed with vitreous bodies, it vitrifies, and at the same time assumes a strong blue color. Three pounds cop- per fillings, common salt as a fix for the metallic com- pounds, and faggots of goose wood. Patterns on parchment, supplied by Guillaime. A dozen eggs for mixing colors, fur- nished by Jehame, the hen-wife, at one time; twelve loads of fuel (charcoal) for kilns; tongs; brushes. Daily pay was 12. francs in modern money. This list is dated August, 1385.
One formula includes silver and copper macerated in vinegar. After first firing, take from furnace in "biscuit," dusted, dipped in white enamel.
Ingredients of enamel. Oxide of tin and lead, milled, and poured through a sieve, and reduced with water to a consistency of milk. Thickness of enamel coating should not be thicker than glove leather when dry; paint as de- sired with brushes of goats' and asses' hair, and the finest of the whiskers of rats and mice. After drying, apply thin coat of transparent glaze of lead; more liquid than the enamel, and painted over finished work, and again dried. The lustre pigment applied with a brush, and placed in a special furnace, exposed to direct action of flames. This special "secret" furnace sounds of simple construction, but probably the "half was not told." Three to four feet square ; dry spoon for the smoking process. When cool, soaked in
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soap-suds; dried with flannel; and beauty was developed by gentle rubbing with wood ashes. This notation follows: Frequently only six pieces out of 100 come true; the art is beautiful, and when the pieces are good, the joy is gold.
Report of Annalist for 1925*
By SARAH E. FRY
New record created by 1925 for Achievements, Pros- perity and Progress throughout the entire County. Greatest year in the history of Norristown since it was incorporated into a borough in 1812, one hundred and fourteen years ago.
Completion of the new Valley Forge Hotel.
Formation of the Norristown Chamber of Commerce.
Opening of the new County bridge over the Schuylkill river at DeKalb street, connecting Norristown and Bridge- port, at a cost of $500,000.
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