PORCELAIN MANUFACTURE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21279, 5 September 1932, Page 11

PORCELAIN MANUFACTURE

SECRETS OF THE CHINESE LECTURE AT MUSEUM The secrete of porcelain manufacture, one of the most closely-guarded trade formulae known in earlier days, were made known by Captain G. HumphreysDavies, in a lecture at the War Memorial Museum yesterday afternoon. The lecture, at which Sir George Fowlds presided, marked the conclusion of the special exhibition of Chinese and Japanese art which has attracted widespread interest since July 4. Captain Humphreys-Davies said it was generally admitted that, the Chinese had originated porcelain, but the belief that it had not been discovered until 1500 was disproved recently by the discovery of fragments among the ruins of the ninth century city of Samarra, in Mesopotamia. The first knowledge Europeans had of porcelain was gained by commerce even before the Renaissance, the lecturer said. The ware created great interest and great efforts were made to discover the secret of its manufacture. Under the Medici an imitation was actually made at Florence, but mio difficulty was always to make a hard enough "paste" and glaze. Great sums of private and public money were spent in researches and finally, aided by accounts brought back by Jesuit missionaries and vanous accidental discoveries, true porcelain was made in Germany and England toward the middle of the loth century.