POTTERY AND PORCELAIN.

and assumed the direction of the factory.  Being a
practical potter, as well as an artist of ripe experience, he
at once set to work to compound better bodies and glazes
and to design new shapes and decorations, and soon
began the manufacture of richly embellished pieces, such
as vases and other articles of ornamental character. One
of the finest examples made at this factory, which is
shown in Illustration 155, is a large granite vase, in the
Persian style, designed and painted by Mr. Lycett. While
entirely covered with rich ornamentation, the effect is
subdued and pleasing. The ground is a dark bronze,
over which conventionally treated flowers, the poppy on
one side and the clematis on the other, are executed in
dull tones of color and outlined with raised gold, while
the embossed and perforated work, handles, and foot, are
covered with gold of different tints. The height of this
vase is forty-two inches, and it is claimed that it was sold
for probably the highest price yet paid for any single
piece of American pottery.
A fine grade of porcelain was introduced by Mr.
Lycett, its peculiarity being that, although a true porce-
lain, entirely devoid of bone, it is fired in the reverse of the
usual method, being burned hard in the biscuit and softer
in the glaze, in which no lead or borax is present, thus pos-
sessing all the advantages, in placing and firing, of afaience
or earthen body and the superior glaze of hard porcelain.
Vases up to twenty-six inches in height were made of this
body, which is very white and of a pleasing softness to the
eye. The example here figured is modelled and painted
in the Moorish style, with openwork handles, collar, and

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