CHINA AND GLASS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4831, 18 May 1925, Page 3

CHINA AND GLASS.

feO.ME INTERESTING FACTS.

HINTS ON SELECTION. Pottery is probably the oldest of the crafts. Wa have records of excellent dishes nineteen centuries B.C. In those remote grey-misted years women owners probably showed their collections of pieces proudly to others, a habit never since entirely lost. Today dishes are more legirimately a source of pride than ever, and designs are lovelier. England, France, and Japan arc all producing fine patterns. In judging china, according to an ovensea authority, three things are to be considered; the pattern, the body, and the glaze. The body, is the material from which the ware is made. Olay is, of course, the foundation. Different formulae, jealously guarded, are the possession of individual manufacturers. They fall into three main classes. Porcelain—This makes a ware which is light and thin. It is translucent in texture. The combination of qualities makes it pleasant to look at and to handle. Unfortunately, It makes it also less durable. Earthenware. —The most durable of all for home use. The name sounds less lovely than the “body” really is. Much English ware belongs to this class. It takes glaze delightfully, and is not readily chipped or broken. Stoneware. —A familiar vitrified and opaque ware, used for storage containers as well as for table service. For wear and beauty of glaze much depends upon the quality of the surface developed by firing. Glaze is paplicd to the surface of the body, and 'tremendous heat, as great even as twelve hundred times boiling temperature, fuses body and glaze together. Fcr household use any glaze containing a large proportion of lead is undesirable, as it produces a surface easily scratched and worn. Pattern includes two kinds of design, first the form of the pieces themselves, and second the decoration ap plied to them. In judging either all that is required is to hold fast to the two cardinal principles of good taste —simplicity and fitness to purpose. No shape which is fussy- or complicated will prove satisfying in the long run.

In decoration it is a safe choice to adopt a pattern rather formal in character or one which has stood the test of time. The lily pattern in Royal Worcester was the first they ever turned out for a dinner service, and it is as good to-day as when the designer first evolved it. Fashion cannot change true beauty. Really fine tabic ware is just as lovely for generations and just as up-to-date at the end of many years as when it left the potter’s kiln.

The gold band, when properly applied and fired, it always good. One caution is necessary. Choose yoiir soap with care when washing any dishes with gold decoration. Pure soap alone, will leave them unharmedIt is' increasingly the fashion to vary the-service. AIT the dishes, although perfectly harmonious, are no longei required to be of one -pattern. It lends charm to the menu to serve different courses on varying dishes. For the soup course glass plates are smart, on beautiful service plates. The salad course presents an opportunity to use a specially designed. Another word of caution is in order here. Be sure to have the salad plates large enough. Many a man professes not to care for salads when in reality he dislikes the risk of a catastrophe in eating them from too small a plate.

In buying china or glass it is now possible to select a stock pattern replaceable over a long period of years.