lish in branches of the art which they have seriously undertaken. Our copies of certain European wares are fully equal to the originals, and in some directions are superior. It only requires the proper appreciation and encouragement of the public to furnish the incentive to a broader application of the principles which have been mastered by American artists, in order to produce the best that has been attempted by the older French, Italian, and German schools. In our reproductions of the thin Belleek ware of Ireland, the Limoges faience of the Havilands, and specialties of other Continental factories, we not only equal them, but often excel them, in delicacy of form and beauty of glaze and decoration. Our relief tiles surpass in artistic merit anything produced abroad of a similar character, having won the first premium over British wares long before we brought them to their present state of perfection. Our architectural terra cottas have, within the past few years, left England behind, and, could the absurd prejudice against home art and native work be overcome, America would soon lead the world in ceramic fabrics of every nature. Americans are commencing to discriminate between the meritorious and the meretricious, and to decide in favor of American goods. Having the richest mines in the world, from which the best materials are
Fig. 52.—Military Panel, G. A. R. Memorial Hall, Wilkesbarre, Pa.
New York Architectural Terra Cotta Company.
procured, the most talented artists, and the most highly cultured public, there is no reason why we should not compete with the entire globe in the manufacture of artistic pottery and porcelain. It has been repeatedly stated that our artists are imitative, rather than inventive; but while this may, to a certain extent, be true, and some of our potters have been content to creditably reproduce the well-known wares of foreign schools, others have directed their attention to the perfection of distinctively original products, which, for richness of glazing, excellence of body, and beauty of conception, will rank with the best productions of Europe. The inventive genius of American potters has a vast and practically limitless field for experimenting, and the art schools which have sprung up in our principal cities may in time produce a second Robbia, a worthy successor to Palissy, or an emulator of that prince of potters, Josiah Wedgwood.
