The constitution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The constitution - Essay Example fectual in running a national government, so a combination of factors further pointed to the need of a stronger government than the articles of confederation provided. Congress could not provide protection for local industries because it did not have the powers, and so America’s manufacturing had failed to grow. Settlers in the west demanded a more aggressive policy on land cessions and wanted more to be done to protect them from Indian attacks2. Merchants wanted a government that could get them advantageous trade agreements abroad. While changing the Articles was not viewed as urgent among the southern and Mid-Atlantic States, their leaders too appreciated that free navigation of the Mississippi River and a solution of the dispute with Spain needed a response from a stronger government. Before the new constitution, only white males who owned property were allowed to vote. The new constitution, however, would allow all citizens to vote. It was also going to abolish slavery, meaning the propertied white would have to find an alternative source of labor3. The preamble of the federal constitution has the words ‘we the people’. These words can be interpreted to be meaning all the citizens of America. This is not true though, what it actually meant is that it excluded slaves, poor white males, women and Native Americans. These groups of people were not allowed to vote, for example. It denied congress the power to abolish the slave trade before 1808. It also required that fugitive slaves should be returned to their masters. The unrepresented groups in the American constitution include the Hawaiians, the Indians and many other ethnic minorities living widely as small minorities. A constitutional republic meant that whereas other people enjoyed the privileges brought about by the new constitution, the unrepresented did not since they were not properly recognized by the constitution. For example, the unrepresented people lost the right of suffrage. Though they

Computer Features Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Computer Features - Essay Example For the perfect computer the processor speed should be 2 GHZ and above. This will facilitate faster performance of the system. A good computer should also have a good memory; this also affects the performance of the system. The first type of memory that is available in a computer is the random access memory that temporarily stores data. If the ram is bigger, it allows one to running more applications at one time. For the computer of choice a ram of 4 gigabytes and above is ideal. Another memory found in a computer is the hard disk that stores all the information fed into a computer. More space means high volumes of data to store, for a good computer a hard disk of one terabyte and above is perfect. All of the above mentioned are components of a good computer however, that is not all a good computer should also be able to connect to a wireless network. This type of internet connection is widely available and can be found in most public areas like schools, libraries and even coffee shops. The final piece is a disc drive. This component allows an individual to watch movies or listen to music stored in a compac t disc. It also allows one to transfer the content from a computer and into the disc for

Madam C. J. Walker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Madam C. J. Walker - Essay Example Walker. To the woman of today, the story of Madam’s (as she was called in her hey days) offers thrilling examples of how hard a black woman would have to struggle in a society prone to racial discrimination. What started out as her journey to build a career in entrepreneurship, Madam’s hair care and hair culture products business led her to become an icon in the world of slavery and discrimination that the blacks suffered in those days. Madam was always known to stay put at what she wanted. And it is from this basic nature that she found all the prosperity and success that marked her career and life. In the present article we analyze a few important lessons that every reader can take back from her life. As is well known, her life has been marked with incidents of historical importance for the American black community, and we try to study as many of them as we can. Born into a slave family, Sarah Breedlove held in her personality all the toughness that is characteristic to the African community, and this trait stayed with her till the end of her life. Not much is known to her family as to what happened in her early days. She is known to have been married at the age of fourteen and widowed at the age of twenty, with a child to earn her living for. She fended for her family by working as a washerwoman and around this point in time, she realized she was losing hair a little too much. She discovered a formula to stop the hair fall and grow back the lost tresses. In what she has herself called a magical dream, Madam discovered the formula all by herself, prepared the potion, applied it to the hair, and obtained excellent results. Without the toughness of her personality, no woman would have had the courage to develop a hair care product when she was toiling in the midst of poverty. Conviction they say can help the dying survive death. Madam’ s

Must Liturgy Adapt to Culture or vice versa Essay

Must Liturgy Adapt to Culture or vice versa - Essay Example It would seem that the trend in the liturgical changes points to an adaptation to the people’s way of life or culture. In the light of an increasing secularisation of society, the question begs: Must liturgy adapt to culture, or vice versa? The Essence of Liturgy One must rest upon the definitions of liturgy and culture to be able to take a handle on this question. The word liturgy comes from the Greek word liturgia which signifies an act of public service done for the community. From a Christian point of view , and particularly Anglicans, as explained in the Guiding Principles of Christian Worship, liturgy has come to be known as â€Å"the work of the people of God,† or their public obligation to give God thanks and adoration. It is very important to establish the relevance at this early of the six guiding principles of Christian worship as contained in the Book of Common Prayer. These are, one, that the Holy Scripture must be the foundation and the basic content of al l Christian worship; two, that tradition must be carefully respected; three, that the language in edification must be relevant to and understood by the congregation; four, that ceremonies need not be identical across cultures but must not also contradict Scripture or the Creeds; five, that the words and the liturgies should seek ecumenical convergence with the Universal Church, and six, that these words and forms of the liturgies must maintain continuity with the Church’s historic tradition, while giving way to creativity and innovation in response to societal change. Liturgy then is the vehicle for the people’s expression of their faith. In the exegesis of the six principles, it is said that in finding such expression, nothing must contradict the Holy Scriptures, it being the foundation of worship. Such deference includes the use of words, concepts and images. It is also said that in the process of expressing faith, tradition must be respected and preserved as close a s possible to when it transpired as indicated in the Holy Scriptures. One can see where Fr. Kavanagh is coming from. The admonition to adapt culture to liturgy has all its foundation rested on the guiding principles but reflects a growing fear of the consequences of the reverse happening. Torevell (2004) observes that liturgy is becoming less popular and the reason he cites is that people no longer have that creative and restorative sense of rite but rather look at liturgy as a stable act of repetition. The Essence of Culture Culture, according to Davey (2012), is a framework of behavioural patterns, values and experiences shared within and by a social group. It is the â€Å"order of life in which human beings construct meanings through practices of symbolic representations,† according to Inda and Ronello (2008). Samovar (2009, pp.144-146) define it as a set of social rules that provide the framework and meaning to events, objects and people, to make sense of the surround ings and lessen the uncertainty about the environment. It provides a sense of identity, of self, of belonging. It is learned, transmitted via generations and acquired through interactions, observation, and imitation from art, proverbs, history, teachers, parents, books and media. It is symbolic and its symbols are used exclusively by the group. It is about the group’s standards, their beliefs, their traditions, their habits, their peculiar way of living their lives or understanding

Madam C. J. Walker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Madam C. J. Walker - Essay Example Walker. To the woman of today, the story of Madam’s (as she was called in her hey days) offers thrilling examples of how hard a black woman would have to struggle in a society prone to racial discrimination. What started out as her journey to build a career in entrepreneurship, Madam’s hair care and hair culture products business led her to become an icon in the world of slavery and discrimination that the blacks suffered in those days. Madam was always known to stay put at what she wanted. And it is from this basic nature that she found all the prosperity and success that marked her career and life. In the present article we analyze a few important lessons that every reader can take back from her life. As is well known, her life has been marked with incidents of historical importance for the American black community, and we try to study as many of them as we can. Born into a slave family, Sarah Breedlove held in her personality all the toughness that is characteristic to the African community, and this trait stayed with her till the end of her life. Not much is known to her family as to what happened in her early days. She is known to have been married at the age of fourteen and widowed at the age of twenty, with a child to earn her living for. She fended for her family by working as a washerwoman and around this point in time, she realized she was losing hair a little too much. She discovered a formula to stop the hair fall and grow back the lost tresses. In what she has herself called a magical dream, Madam discovered the formula all by herself, prepared the potion, applied it to the hair, and obtained excellent results. Without the toughness of her personality, no woman would have had the courage to develop a hair care product when she was toiling in the midst of poverty. Conviction they say can help the dying survive death. Madam’ s

Technological Aspects to Support Ebusiness Essay Example for Free

Technological Aspects to Support Ebusiness Essay Introduction: For this assignment I am going to compare, contrast and look at the history of two internet giants: Ebay and Amazon. They are two sites that I regularly use, one more so than the other and find both as user friendly as I do interesting. I will look in detail at the history of the two and also the internet as a global network. Finally I will make a brief conclusion and some recommendations. The evolution of e-business: The term e-business or electronic business was first coined by Microsoft’s marketing and internet team in 1996 but businesses started using websites to marketing their products in the early 1990’s shortly after graphic based web-design became available. They quickly shifted from simply using the web for providing customers with information about their products to selling them when the software to encrypt credit card data became widely available in 1994. Netscape developed Secured Socket Layer (SSL) and websites developed the ability to encrypt sessions, making credit card transactions over the Internet safer for all concerned. With an encrypted connection between a companys server and a client computer, credit numbers could be hidden so they could not be intercepted by a third party, which made the theft of card information more difficult. This security led to the birth of e-business and changed the way we shop for ever. After this period the floodgates opened for opportunities in business to trade online but many people still didn’t trust giving out their credit details over the internet and it proved too expensive to trade on line with transactions of under a dollar or its equivalent. These payments were called micro payments and many companies came and went trying to facilitate these transactions. Paypal has been the most successful business to date that operates in this area and made it fast, cheap and most importantly secure for people to pay for goods online. Even with the emergence of these secure payment businesses, popularity with on line sales was still was not hitting the heights as expected and the .com bubble burst in the early 2000’s. The collapse of the bubble took place during 2000-2001. Many companies failed completely. Others lost a large portion of their market capitalization but remained stable and profitable, e.g., Cisco, whose stock declined by 86%. Some later recovered and surpassed their dot-com-bubble peaks, e.g; Amazon.com whose stock went from 107 to 7 dollars per share, but a decade later exceeded 200. After the bubble burst, many dot-coms liquidated or were acquired by other companies; the domain names were snapped up by domain investors or businesses with more traditional business models who had survived the crash. A few of the larger dot-com companies did survive, however: Amazon and Ebay are good examples. According to some sources, about 50% of dot-coms survived. Unfortunately, there were still thousands of technical experts such as programmers and web designers who were laid off and found themselves in a highly competitive job market. The acquisition of YouTube by Google, Skype by Ebay, and others, has led to speculation that there may be a second, similar bubble on the horizon. Consolidation of websites where top ten sites buy up competition or others go bust. Comparison of 2 web sites For this assignment I am going to explain, compare and contrast possibly the two most popular internet shopping sites; Ebay and Amazon. I’ve used both of these sites myself and have had little or no problem with either and find them both very user friendly. Ebay: Like most of the first really big internet sites, Ebay was started by one person and a computer from a bedroom or in this case a living room. Pierre Omidyar first created eBay (originally stood for echo bay technology but that domain name had already been taken) in 1995 to offer a marketplace where unwanted goods or collectables could be sold online with little knowledge of how much a global phenomenon it would become and how many times people would attempt to replicate it. The success of Ebay rose greatly for 3 years in which it amassed revenues of approx $4 miollion by its third year of trading. In March 1998, Pierre and his cofounder Jeff Skoll brought in the now multi billionaire Meg Whitman to sustain the success and take it to the next level. This proved pivotal in the world wide success of Ebay although her 9 year spell as CEO was not without controversy. Meg had studied at the Harvard Business School and had learned the importance of branding at companies such as Hasbro. Within 6 months as CEO of Ebay Whitman turned Ebay from a popular online garage sale to a multi billion dollar empire by splitting the company into 23 different business sections, and 35,000 sub categories. She made the company public and shares went from 7 cents a share to as high as $170 a share. This made Ebay the tech darling of the web and many tried and many failed to replicate their success. Ebay now stands at number 64 on the Forbes most powerful brands with 27,700 employees and annual sales of 11.65 billion. Ebay makes its money from a number of ways: Every time someone puts something up for sale on Ebay they have to pay an insertion fee (fee for starting an auction). Usually in the region of 55 cent for smaller to mid-priced auctions. So even if a product does not sell, Ebay will have made money. From each successful auction Ebay will also take a percentage from each sale. Advertising Companies pay to advertise on their site. Google adsense and various other advertising companies use ebay to advertise company’s products on the site. Paypal. Ebay own Paypal and the majority of buyers and sellers use it when making transactions on Ebay. Paypal in turn gets a cut of each transaction. In October of 2002 eBay acquired Paypal Inc. for 1.5 billion dollars. Paypal is the preferred way of making payments for eBay auctions and is growing in popularity for other Internet uses. Paypal allows a person to send or receive money via an email address. Money in a Paypal account can be spent on the Internet, sent by check to the account owner, or deposited into a bank account. Paypal also offers credit cards, debit cards, and a bill paying function. Amazon Amazon.com like ebay is one of the largest online retail websites in the world. Also like ebay it started up from one man and a computer from home but in this case, a garage, and went from a small operation to an international business employing thousands of people in a short space of time. Much the same as Ebay. People all over the world purchase books, music, movies and products from Amazon and hundreds of partner companies. Amazon.com was started by Jeff Bezos in 1994. At the time, his company was run completely from his garage in Bellevue, Washington. He was able to secure funding from Nick Hanauer. This first investment of $40,000 was joined by a larger, $100,000 investment from Tom Alburg that helped make the new website more user-friendly. Like eBay both men would probably not have turned their brand into a global force without the help of outside parties. During the first month of business, Bezos fulfilled and shipped orders to all 50 states, and to 48 countries. Books were t he only product available at that time. Bezos wanted Amazon.com to be more than just a retail website; he wanted to create an online community. Early on, he added a feature that enabled readers to add their own book reviews for all customers to view. In 1997, Amazon.com added movies and music to its offerings. On May 15, 1997, the company went public. The initial public offering (IPO) was targeted at $18, but by the end of the day, public demand had pushed the share price to more than $24 per share. The company had raised $54 million. Amazon.com is listed on Nasdaq as AMZN. In 1998, Amazon opened its first international sites in the United Kingdom and Germany, where it quickly enjoyed success. In 1999 the company opened four order fulfillment centers in Fernley, Nevada; Coffeyville, Kansas; and Campbellsville and Lexington, Kentucky to handle the large mass of orders. Time Magazine featured Jeffrey Preston Bezos as Person of the Year in 1999, calling him king of cyber commerce. The Look Inside the Book feature, added in 2001, was immediately popular as a tool for consumers to see if the book they were looking at would fit their needs. Later, the Search Inside the Book feature, added in 2003, made it possible for consumers to search key words in the text of the book. Amazon added Marketplace, where sellers of used books could offer products for sale with a small commission collected by Amazon. Amazon also teamed up with many companies to offer their products through the website. In January 2009, Amazon reported $6.7 billion in fourth quarter 2008 sales. The company now has centers in 12 U.S. states and eight countries. Its headquarters are in Seattle, Washington, and the company employs more than 21,000 people worldwide. In 2009 Amazon released the Kindle. The kindle is an ebook viewer that lets users download ebooks to the device and read them without physically every owning the book. Users can now also view films and connect to the internet through it. It was through the kindle that helped amazon sales increase ten fold. By 2011 amazon had recorded sales of $48 billion. There are a lot of similarities between Ebay and Amazon which I will now outline below. Both set up around the same time Both set up from home by one man and a internet connection. Both companies became very popular very quick. Both needed the addition of outside help to take it to worldwide success Both companies went public around the same time and made everyone involved overnight millionaires†¦ Both let users sell their unwanted items online Where they differ is Ebay sells anything and everything, new and used and owns its payment service. Ebay doesn’t sell any of its own products and relies heavily on user input, paypal and advertising to bring in income. Ebay is unique in that it actually doesn’t stock any products and is selling other peoples items which it never comes in contact with. This means they don’t have any overheads like warehousing rental, handling fees, shipping/transporting costs and all the labor costs that are attached with the above. If people stop buying or selling on the site, their business plan fails and will cease to exist, so keeping their brand in the public eye and keeping a positive public image is of more importance than most. Ebay has to spend a whopping $83 million a year on advertising and although this only represents 1% of revenue it’s still the third highest of tech companies in the modern climate. This can be viewed as an extremely proactive move but also highlights how the top brass at Ebay think and what position the company could find itself in if not continuously in the public’s mind. The annual $83 million spent on advertising is roughly double what amazon spends a year. That in itself tells you a lot about the differences between the two company’s business plans. [pic] Amazon sells books, music and film, new and used but only accepts credit card/debt card payment does not own the payment facility. Interestingly it doesn’t accept paypal as a form of payment. Amazon has more arms to its business and potentially better equipped to survive if interest drops in the brand or another dot com bubble burst arises. Amazon is like any retailer that buys and sells a product for profit and has all of the overheads that come along with it including stock management and cost issues. Amazon has its own creation in the kindle that it manufactures wholesales and retails itself which proves very profitable. Similar to Dell computers but without the wholesale part. Security: Ebay Paypal is renowned for its safety aspect of shopping securely online. If your paypal account has been hacked and money is taken out then a refund is provided by paypal. If you purchase something on Ebay trough paypal then you could be covered with buyer protection. Buyer protection can get you a refund including post and packaging costs if the item you purchase isn’t working properly, not as described or simply didn’t arrive. It’s a second to none approach to online buying that keeps the customer coming back. If customers don’t use paypal then it can prove to be a little more difficult in getting a refund and/or returning an item. Detail a few scams people do on Ebay [pic] Amazon Shopping on line with Amazon is by and large safe and secure and users often are usually very happy with it’s A to Z guarantee policy where by users are offered a full refund if item is not as materially described. In disputes Amazon usually sides with the buyer. In September 22, 2010, Amazon published a security advisory regarding a security flaw in its Amazon Payments SDK(software development kit). This flaw allows a malicious shopper to shop for free in web stores using those SDKs. Amazon mandated all web stores to upgrade to its new SDKs before Nov. 1, 2010. Amazon acknowledged security researcher Rui Wang for finding this bug. The detail of the flaw is documented in the paper How to Shop for Free Online Security Analysis of Cashier-as-a-Service Based Web Stores by Rui Wang, Shuo Chen, XiaoFeng Wang, and Shaz Qadeer Payment Metods: Amazon Payments accepts verified U.S. bank accounts. For the rest of the world it accepts credit cards and transfers from your available Amazon Payments account balance. Credit cards currently accepted include Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Diners Club, and JCB. You have to verify your bank account before you can use a bank account as a payment method. There are two methods of verification available: Instant Account Verification and Random Deposits. To verify with Instant Account verification, you use your bank login credentials through Amazons secure website to contact your bank. Verification using this method takes only a few minutes. To verify with Random Deposits, Amazon deposits two small random amounts to the checking account you specify. When the deposits are registered with your bank, you verify the amounts with Amazon. Verification using this method takes from five to seven business days. Ebay on the other hand offers many more methods of payment. Payments options for most sales are: Paypal: (as described above) Propay: When the buyers check out, they enter their credit card information. Payment is processed immediately and sent to your ProPay account. There are fees attached similar to paypal but payment protection applies also similar to paypal. Skrill (Moneybookers): Skrill is a business that allows payments to be made through the web. The Moneybookers payment system offers an online deposit accounts and a low-cost, internet-based alternative to traditional money transfer methods such as cheques, money ordersand wire transfers . To merchants, Moneybookers allows accepting online payments made with major cards or Skrills own online accounts. Skrill also has payment protection available and fees are attached. Paymate: Similar to Paypal but it puts funds directly into the sellers bank account. Only for people in Australia and New Zealand. Payment protection available. Fees attached. All major credit cards: Payment protection available. Payment on collection: payment protection available. Both companies make payment as easy as possible but Ebay are clearly out performing Amazon in this department. They offer more payment options but I think they have to in order to make it easier and appear safer for the customer to shop on their site. Internet as a global market: The internet today has become the largest shopping centre on earth accessible through your computer/tablet/mobile phone at home, work or on the go. The world has gotten smaller thanks to the advancements in technology, trading online has become available to the masses with great ease. Cyber Monday is a great example of this. High street retailers are down 0.2% on last year sales for the month of November. Not a crisis by a long shot but its main competitors, the on line retailers, were up 26% year on year for the same period and the credit card firm Visa expected 6.8 million online transactions with shoppers spending  £320 million on 2012’s Cyber Monday alone. That alone tells you how big a market the internet has become. People can now set up a business from home on the internet and become an entrepreneur over night. They can buy products from China and sell them in Argentina within a matter of days without ever having to touch it all from behind the comfort of their computer. Conclusion: Ebay and Amazon are no doubt two brilliant examples of how to make a success of an e-business and are global internet giants. They are both now and will be household names for years to come but Amazon have the advantage in my opinion in that they are retailers as well as middle men for online sales but more importantly they manufacture, wholesale and retail their own hugely successful product in the Kindle. If another worldwide credit crunch arises or dot com bubble bursts then no doubt Amazon is the better of the two equipped to survive. Ebay is in more danger of becoming last weeks news because the hits can drop on it easier and people can stop trading on it or using another similar web site much quicker than Amazon and it will become extinct. Through researching the two sites I now have a greater understanding of the humble beginnings of the two and how they got to where they are today. I now know and understand how the two operate and the security involved with the two. Most of all I would now feel confident in putting what I have learned into practise. Recommendations: Ebay should try follow Amazon by getting into the production market and expand the business to future proof its self. Amazon should focus on its strengths in the kindle and the future being the download market of movies/tv and books particularly in the market of tablets and phones. Bibliography http://online-auction-sites.toptenreviews.com/ The History of Amazon.com | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5377195_history-amazoncom.html#ixzz2Cl25m6Dd http://www.creatingcustomerevangelists.com/resources/evangelists/meg_whitman.asp http://www.forbes.com/profile/meg-whitman/ http://www.alternet.org/story/148629/how_meg_whitman_failed_her_way_to_the_top_at_ebay,_collecting_billions_while_nearly_destroying_the_company http://www.happynews.com/living/online/history-ebay.htm http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081503259.htm http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-ad-spending-for-tech-companies-2010-5 https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-safety-and-security http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=537868 http://askville.amazon.com/eBay-Amazon-place-sell-stuff/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=7778359 http://www.ehow.com/about_5282606_history-ebusiness.html http://www.genuineseller.com/comparison-ebay-amazon http://www.domainmonster.com/editorials/dot_com_bubble/

A History of Pottery

A History of Pottery The production of pottery is one of the most ancient arts. The oldest known body of pottery dates from the Jomon period (from about 10,500 to 400 BC) in Japan; and even the earliest Jomon ceramics exhibit a unique sophistication of technique and design. Excavations in the Near East have revealed that primitive fired-clay vessels were made there more than 8,000 years ago. Potters were working in Iran by about 5500 BC, and earthenware was probably being produced even earlier on the Iranian high plateau. Chinese potters had developed characteristic techniques by about 5000 BC. In the New World many pre-Columbian American cultures developed highly artistic pottery traditions. TYPES OF WARES Pottery comprises three distinctive types of wares. The first type, earthenware, has been made following virtually the same techniques since ancient times; only in the modern era has mass production brought changes in materials and methods. Earthenware is basically composed of clayoften blended claysand baked hard, the degree of hardness depending on the intensity of the heat. After the invention of glazing, earthenwares were coated with glaze to render them waterproof; sometimes glaze was applied decoratively. It was found that, when fired at great heat, the clay body became nonporous. This second type of pottery, called stoneware, came to be preferred for domestic use. The third type of pottery is a Chinese invention that appeared when feldspathic material in a fusible state was incorporated in a stoneware composition. The ancient Chinese called decayed feldspar kaolin (meaning high place, where it was originally found); this substance is known in the West as china clay. Petuntse, or china stone, a less decayed, more fusible feldspathic material, was also used in Chinese porcelain; it forms a white cement that binds together the particles of less fusible kaolin. Significantly, the Chinese have never felt that high-quality porcelain must be either translucent or white. Two types of porcelain evolved: true porcelain, consisting of a kaolin hard-paste body, extremely glassy and smooth, produced by high temperature firing, and soft porcelain, invariably translucent and lead glazed, produced from a composition of ground glass and other ingredients including white clay and fired at a low temperature. The latter was widely produced by 18th-century Europea n potters. It is believed that porcelain was first made by Chinese potters toward the end of the Han period (206 BC-AD 220), when pottery generally became more refined in body, form, and decoration. The Chinese made early vitreous wares (protoporcelain) before they developed their white vitreous ware (true porcelain) that was later so much admired by Europeans. Regardless of time or place, basic pottery techniques have varied little except in ancient America, where the potters wheel was unknown. Among the requisites of success are correct composition of the clay body by using balanced materials; skill in shaping the wet clay on the wheel or pressing it into molds; and, most important, firing at the correct temperature. The last operation depends vitally on the experience, judgment, and technical skill of the potter. DECORATING TECHNIQUES In the course of their long history potters have used many decorating techniques. Among the earliest, impressing and incising of wares are still favored. Ancient potters in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, northern India, and the high regions of Central Asia (where primitive terra-cotta figures associated with religious cults were produced) frequently decorated wares with impressed or incised designs. A notable incising technique developed more recently was that of Korean potters working in the Koryo period (918-1392). These artisans began by ornamenting their celadon wares with delicately incised and impressed patterns and later developed elaborate inlaying by filling incised lines with colored slip (semiliquid clay). Black and white slip was used most effectively for inlaying colored porcelains. Decoration of this sort generally depends more on the skill of the artisan than on the complexity of the tools being used. An especially popular type of decoration involved the sgraffito, or scratched, technique used by Italian potters before the 15th century. This technique, which is thought to have reached Italy from the Near East, was probably derived from China, where it was first used during the Song (Sung) dynasty (960-1279). By the 16th century Italian potters working mainly in Padua and Bologna had developed great skill in sgraffito, which entailed the incising of designs on red or buff earthenware that had been coated with ordinary transparent lead glaze, usually toned yellow or, sometimes, brown, copper, or green. After firing, the wares were dipped into white clay slip so that a dark pattern could be cut on the surface. By cutting through the white slip, the artist produced a design on the exposed red or buff body. Pigments were also sometimes applied. After a further coating of lead glaze the ware was fired a second time. A sound knowledge of glazesboth utilitarian and decorativeis vital to the potter. The origin of glazes and glazing techniques is unknown, but the fine lustrous glazes developed in China surely began with a simple glaze that served to cover earthenware and render it watertight. Chinese potters used two kinds of glazes, one composed basically of feldspar, and another produced by fusing silica of quartz or sand by means of a flux, generally of lead oxide. Chinese potters regarded glazes and glazing techniques as having prime importance; under the Han emperors they made great efforts to improve this technology. The use of lead glaze increased, and wood ash was incorporated to impart a dullish brown or gray green coloring, somewhat blotchy and occasionally iridescent. These effects were entirely natural, as no coloring matter was added to the composition. Glazing techniques were modified under successive dynasties. Colored glazes were developed and used to brilliant effect by Tang (Tang) and Song potters, and a great diversity of brightly hued wares appeared over the centuries. Many connoisseurs feel that the pure white porcelain, called blanc de chine, which first appeared during the Ming dynasty, is the most serenely beautiful of all Chinese ceramics. Dehua (Te-hua) potters in Fujian (Fukien) province, working during the 17th century, produced their blanc de chine masterpieces in the purest white porcelain coated with a thick white glaze. Salt glaze, used by English potters during the early 1700s, may well have been known to the Chinese but was not used by them. Near Eastern potters glazed wares in ancient times. Potters in Mesopotamia and Iran commonly used an alkaline glaze made of quartz mixed with sodium and potassium. An admixture of colored metallic oxides, mostly lead, was introduced later. Painting on pottery and porcelain became richly colorful in many regions and periods. Decorative brush painting directly on the baked clay reached its zenith in China during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), whose artists were highly skilled at painting in fired colors. For a long period Chinese ceramic artists had used only black or brown pigment to decorate wares that were then covered with clear glaze. It is believed that the appearance in China of 13th-century brush-decorated wares from Persia sparked a change. These works, painted in blue cobalt under the glaze, inspired the brushwork of the Chinese and the resulting so-called blue-and-white style. Ming artists also excelled in painting over the glaze, using brilliant enamel colors. The overglaze technique, which evolved over two centuries, demanded correct preparation of the enamels, skill in application, and the proper (low) firing temperature. The overglaze enamel decorations executed during the reign of Chenghua (1465-87), which were never surpassed in China, incorporated flowers, foliage, and figure subjects against backgrounds of arabesques and scrollwork. Designs enclosed within dark blue outlines were filled in with brilliant color. Enamel decoration of superb quality was also executed in Japan during the Edo period (1615-1868) by celebrated artists and potters of the caliber of Kenzan, Kakiemon, and Ninsei. In the ancient Aegean the potters art developed continuously from the Neolithic period and through the periods of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations, culminating, in ancient Greece, in a unique type of painted pottery, which reached its height between the 6th and 4th centuries BC. The finest Greek pottery, especially Attic vases, was exquisitely proportioned and often decorated with finely painted relief work. Unlike artisans in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia, the Attic potters did not apply heavy glaze to their wares. The unique gloss commonly seen on Attic pottery and similar wares made elsewhere in Greece still baffles those who have tried to determine its formula and method of application. Neither a glaze nor a varnish, it is more marked on some areas, such as those painted black, than on others. Some experts conjecture that it may be attributed to illite or a similar clay mineral in a weak solution that was thinly applied to the surface of wares or mixed into the black paint used by the artists. In the Islamic world ceramic decorative art flowered with the creation of a great diversity of painted wares. Painted luster decoration on pottery originated in Mesopotamia and spread to ancient Egypt; later, under Islam in Persia, this type of decoration on white-glazed wares became incredibly brilliant. Islamic luster-painted wares were later imitated by Italian potters during the Renaissance. MAJOR TRADITIONS IN THE WEST After the fall of the ancient Roman Empire potters in Europe produced little other than repetitive utilitarian wares until the end of the Middle Ages. Earthenware A distinctive type of earthenware known as majolica, which was derived from Chinese porcelain, appeared in Italy during the last quarter of the 14th century. It is now believed that this type of painted earthenware was inspired by the Hispano-Moresque luster-decorated ware of Spanish origin introduced to Italy by Majorcan seagoing traders. Majolica ware, whether thrown on the wheel or pressed into molds, was fired once to obtain a brown or buff body, then dipped in glaze composed of lead and tin oxide with a silicate of potash. The opaque glaze presented a surface that was suitable to receive decoration. A second firing after decoration fixed the white glaze to the body and the pigments to the glaze, so that the colors became permanently preserved. Frequently, the beauty of these wares was increased by dipping them in a translucent lead glaze composed of oxide of lead mixed with sand, potash, and salt. When certain luster pigments and enamels were used in all-over painting, wares had to be specially fired at low temperature. Application of metallic luster pigments required great skill because these colors were extremely volatile and needed special handling. Luca della Robbia (see della Robbia, family) did not, as has been held, invent the enamel tin-glazing process; nevertheless, his work raised majolica production from a craft to high art in Italy. Not only did he use blue and white enamels in decorative work, but, as a sculptor, he also used the majolica technique to add brilliance to the surface of his productions. By the beginning of the 15th century Italian potters had abandoned the old familiar processes, and a revolution in style and techniques was under way. The severe style as followed principally in the school of Tuscany continued to the end of the 15th century, but rules and principles slackened until the inclusion of human figures in designs, previously frowned upon, was accepted. At the end of the 15th century Faenza became the thriving center of a reinvigorated pottery industry in Italy. A new, rich decorative style, known as istoriato, fired the imagination of potters, reaching its zenith in the workshops of Urbino. In early 17th-century England attractive slipwares were produced, including the slip-decorated earthenware that was a speciality of the Toft family of potters. A kind of tin-glazed earthenware was also produced in the Netherlands, principally at Delft, beginning in the mid-17th century. Termed delftware, it was among the first European wares to be decorated with motifs inspired by Chinese and Japanese models. Continental Porcelains Eventually, European potters, who much admired the porcelain of the Far East, attempted to imitate it, but the formula remained elusive. Francesco de Medici, grand duke of Tuscany, produced an inferior type of soft-paste porcelain in his Florence workshop during the 16th century. In March 1709, Augustus II of Saxony announced that his ceramist Johann Bottger (1682-1719) had discovered how to make porcelain. The first European royal porcelain manufactory was consequently established at Meissen (see Meissen ware) near Dresden, Germany. Throughout the century following the discovery of the porcelain formulawhen, despite the utmost precautions at Meissen, the secret leaked outmany rival factories were set up in Europe. Germany, Austria, Italy, France, and England soon had factories engaged in the production of wares much like those of Meissen. Porcelain figures were first produced in Meissen as table ornaments; the earliest examples were formed as part of sweetmeat dishes. Many splendid wares issued from the royal factory, but none were more admired than the finely modeled and decorated porcelain figures imitated by almost every German, Austrian, Italian, and English factory of note. Widespread interest in figures of both pottery and porcelain has continued to the present. Johann Joachim Kandler (1706-75), a master modeler, was the most notable of the artisans engaged in this work at Meissen and rivaled the famous Franz Anton Bustelli (1723-63) of Nymphenburg (see Nymphenburg ware). The methods used to produce porcelain figures as developed by Kandler imparted a new dimension to the art. German porcelain figures were usually produced from molds, which, in turn, were cast from an original master model made of wax, clay, or, occasionally, wood. The use of molds facilitated unlimited reproduction. Because the figures shrank during firing, allowances had to be made in their sizes; they were also provided with a small venthole in the back or base to permit excess heated air to escape. Because different factories placed these holes differently, their positions help determine the provenance and authenticity of given pieces. When considerable undercutting was necessary, porcelain figures were usually made in sections, using separate molds. Portions of elaborate groups and single figures were later joined by a specially trained assembler (known as a repairer) who usually worked from a master model. Europes second hard-paste porcelain factory began operations at Vienna in 1717. In the late 1700s at the royal Sevres (see Sevres ware) factory in France, potters experimented until they developed a remarkably white, finely textured body. Sevres wares were painted in unique colors that no other European factory could duplicate. The bleu de roi and rose Pompadour of Sevres wares captivated all Europe and, with the products of Meissen and Vienna, inspired English potters. English Wares The finest English porcelainboth soft- and hard-pastewas made between about 1745 and 1775. The first English porcelain was probably produced at Chelsea (see Chelsea ware) under Charles Gouyn, but his successor Nicholas Sprimont, a Flemish silversmith who took over management in 1750, was responsible for the high-quality wares, especially the superb figures, for which the factory became famous. Factories at Worcester (see Worcester ware), Bow, and Derby also produced wares that rival those of the Continent. Led by the ambitious, energetic, and enterprising Josiah Wedgwood and his successors at the Etruria factory, English potters in the late 18th and early 19th centuries became resourceful and inventive. Wedgwoods contributions consisted mainly of a much improved creamware, his celebrated jasperware, so-called black basalt, and a series of fine figures created by famous modelers and artists. After Wedgwood, other potters of the first half of the 19th century developed a number of new wares. Of these, Parian ware was the most outstanding and commercially successful. The name of this ware was derived from Paros, the Greek island from which sculptors in ancient times obtained the creamy or ivory-tinted marble that Parian ware resembled. The first examples of this new product, described as statuary porcelain, issued from Copeland and Garrets factory in 1842 and were immediately acclaimed. Two varieties of Parian ware were produced: statuary parian, used in the making of figures and reproductions of sculpture, and hard-paste, or standard, parian, from which hollowware was made. Statuary parian, incorporating a glassy frit, is classified as soft porcelain. Standard parian, with a greater proportion of feldspar in the composition but no frit, is hard porcelain. Early parian statuary was ivory-tinted due to the presence of iron in the feldspar devoid of iron silicate. Suitable deposits were eventually located in Sweden and Ireland. Both English and American potters either obtained details of the original formula or worked out their own, and the resulti ng production of Parian wares on both sides of the Atlantic was enormous. Among the most beautiful and successful wares invented by 19th-century potters were those decorated in what came to be known in England as pate-sur-pate, a paste-on-paste technique devised sometime after 1870 by Marc-Louis Solon (1835-1913) of Mintons in England. Pate-sur-pate, involving both modeling and painting techniques, was stained Parian ware decorated with reliefs in translucent tinted or white slip, the colors being laid one upon the other. Solon was inspired by a Chinese celadon case decorated with embossed flowers that he had admired in the museum at Sevres, where he worked for a time. At first his slip painting on biscuit porcelain simply peeled off; he was successful, however, when he applied layers of slip to a damp surface. Minton wares decorated with pate-sur-pate became the most costly and coveted ceramic ornaments produced in England in the last quarter of the 19th century. Only a few English potters mastered Solons complex technique, although the work of his pupil, Alboin Birks, rivaled that of the master. 20th-Century Developments By the late 19th century, with the development of machinery and the introduction of new technologies, the age of mass production dawned and the potters art consequently suffered. Western ceramic wares declined markedly in quality of materials and decoration. Florid designs, gaudy coloring, and inartistic shapes became fashionable, and the resulting decadence continued into the 20th century. Not until the 1930s were signs of revival in the form and decoration of ceramics discernible, principally in the productions of artist-potters who were active in Western Europe and the United States. Many of these artist-potters arrived at their innovations by way of continuous experiment with materials and techniques. Others sought inspiration from primitive types of Japanese pottery or in the forms of ancient American Indian traditions. Since the end of World War II the design and decoration of ceramics in both Europe and the United States, especially ornamental wares, has been largely influence d by individual artist-artisans. Commercial products, such as tablewares, have tended to reflect the styles and patterns developed by these potters, whose work has often shown striking originality.