“Was there a pottery on your father’s farm, Aunt Sarah?” inquired Mary.

“No.  The nearest one was the McEntee pottery, but the grandson of the old man who purchased our old farm at my father’s death had a limekiln for the purpose of burning lime, and several miles distant, at the home of my uncle, was found clay suitable for the manufacture of bricks.  Only a few years ago this plant was still in operation.  My father’s farm was situated in the upper part of Bucks County, in what was then known as the Nockamixon Swamp, and at one time there were in that neighborhood no less than seven potteries within two miles of each other.”

“Why,” exclaimed Mary, “were there so many potteries in that locality?”

“’Twas due, no doubt, to the large deposits of clay found there, well suited to the manufacture of earthenware.  The soil is a clayey loam, underlaid with potter’s clay.  The old German potters, on coming to this country, settled mostly in Eastern Pennsylvania, in the counties of Bucks and Montgomery.  The numerous small potteries erected by the early settlers were for the manufacture of earthenware dishes, also pots of graded sizes.  These were called nests, and were used principally on the farm for holding milk, cream and apple-butter.  Jugs and pie plates were also manufactured.  The plates were visually quite plain, but they produced occasionally plates decorated with conventionalized tulips, and some, more elaborate, contained besides figures of animals, birds and flowers.  Marginal inscriptions in English and German decorate many of the old plates, from which may be learned many interesting facts concerning the life and habits of the early settlers.  I think, judging from the inscriptions I have seen on some old plates, it must have taxed the ingenuity of the old German potters to think up odd, original inscriptions for their plates.”

“Aunt Sarah, how was sgraffito ware made?  Is it the same as slip-decorated pottery?”

“No, my dear, the two are quite different.  The large plate you so greatly admired is called sgraffito or scratched work, sometimes called slip engraving.  It usually consists of dark designs on a cream-colored ground.  After the plates had been shaped over the mold by the potter, the upper surface was covered by a coating of white slip, and designs were cut through this slip to show the earthenware underneath.  This decoration was more commonly used by the old potters than slip decorating, which consisted in mixing white clay and water until the consistency of cream.  The liquid clay was then allowed to run slowly through a quill attached to a small cup, over the earthenware (before burning it in a kiln) to produce different designs.  The process is similar to that used when icing a cake, when you allow the icing to run slowly from a pastry tube to form fanciful designs.  I have watched the old potters at their work many a time when a child.  The process employed in the