SECRETS WON FROM PAST.

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 72, 18 December 1928, Page 15 (Supplement)

SECRETS WON FROM PAST.

Artist's Discovery.

A secret lost for hundreds of years has been rediscovered in a Chelsea studio by two well-known artists, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Vyse. They have found the forgotten art of the ancient Chinese potters, whose work to-day is held by collectors to be almost pricejess. Generations of potters have tried to discover the secret which was lost even to China. Mr. and Mrs. Vyse are the first to succeed.

Behind their triumph is a romance of years of research and experiment. Hundreds of attempts were made to try to discover how the ancient potters achieved the marvellous glaze for which they were famous. Success came when it looked as though the secret would remain lost for ever. “We set out to discover the secret of that remarkable stoneware of the Sung Dynasty, 960-1260 A.D.," Mr. Vyse told q London Journalist. “The great difficulty was in having to begin

Some day we may drop the Farcicell Light dad lose the winds of home— But where shall we win to a land so bright. However far we roam. Wc s/iaW long for the fields of Maori- ■ land, To pass as we used to pass, Knee-deep in the seeding tussock, and the Long lush English grass. And we may travel a weary way, ere we come To a sight as grand As the lingering flush of the sun’s last ■ ray, On the peaks of Maoriland. —Archibald Ernest Currie.

st the very beginning. We had absolutely no data whatever to work on. “Bit by bit we began to rediscover the lost art. Now we have succeeded in finding what I believe is the native mineral from which the Chinese potters got their white. I don’t want to say too much about it, but it has nothing to do with the tin or zinc propert iejxwhich it is usual to use to-day as a substitute.” Art experts agreed that Mr. Vyse has achieved marvellous success. They regard many of his pieces as every bit as fine as those of the Sung Dynasty. When making their experiments Mr. and Mrs.' Vyse used to take 30hour vigils over the huge kilns in which the'clay Is baked. Each slept and watched in turn. They had to try between 20 and 30 different mixtures of clay alone before they discovered the right one. Even then the jars they baked were useless until they discovered the ultimate secret. Mr. Vyse, who is well known in the Potteries, has been a potter all his life. He was the last apprentice Doulton’s ever took. He began with 3s. & week in bls early 'teens, and at 21 was a full-fledged potter having been through every phase of the craft. “For one success we probably fire eleveen failures,” he said. “Each bowl ©r shape is complete In itself and cannot be repeated*”