This
was known as Gres de Flandres, _gres_ meaning earthenware. The unique
feature it possessed was not so much its orange-skin surface as the
surprising method by which it was glazed. The ware itself was made on
a potter's wheel often from the commonplace kinds of clay, such as are
employed in making stone china; sometimes this was brown, sometimes
gray, sometimes cream-colored. There was nothing original about the
material employed. But afterward--then came the amazing thing! When
the clay articles were put into the kiln to be fired a quantity of
common salt was thrown in with them and this salt created a vapor
which when it settled upon the ware fused with it, giving to the clay
a coarse, porous-appearing surface."
"How do you suppose anybody ever thought of using salt?" inquired
Theo.
"I do not know. Probably the discovery, like so many others, was a
mere happen-so. At any rate it was a fortunate happening, for
immediately this method of glazing earthenware was carried to England,
where Doulton of Lambeth began manufacturing some very beautiful
gres. For gres can be of exquisite beauty as well as of most ordinary
type. Do not forget that.
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