Page:Troja by Heinrich Schliemann.djvu/83

large bowls, is but very slightly baked; the clay contains a great many small coarse pieces of granite, the mica of which shows its presence by numerous small flakes, glittering like gold and silver; but it must be observed that this granite was contained in the clay, and that, consequently, there was no need for the potter to add it.

The celebrated manufacturer of earthenware, Mr. Henry Doulton, of Lambeth, who, at my request, has made experiments with some of these lustrous black bowl-fragments of the first city, has obtained the following results. The fragments which he submitted merely to a red heat turned a light yellow, whilst those which he subjected to a high degree of heat, in fact to quite a white heat, such as vitreous stoneware is submitted to, got a red brick colour. The material of the pottery has proved to be very refractory, standing a high degree of heat. Mr. Doulton's experiments perfectly confirm, therefore, the theory of Dr. Lisch,^[1] as to the manufacture of the clay vessels in prehistoric times.

Though I thought that in Ilios (pp. 218–220) I had exhausted the discussion of the manufacture of the Trojan pottery in general, and of that of the first city in particular, yet I cannot refrain from giving here an extract of a letter on the same subject from Dr. Chr. Hostmann, of Celle, because his theory differs from those I have advanced. "I have found in my excavations in the ancient necropolis of Darzau, vases with the same lustrous black colour which is conspicuous on those of the first settlement at Troy. Now, in the most varied experiments I have made, and for which my manufacture of printing-ink gave me an excellent opportunity, I have found that that colour can never have been produced in a slow fire with much smoke, but that it has been obtained merely by dipping the vases in oil, covering them with a thin layer of