From time to time it will be found expedient to make additions for certain specified decorations, and then the color plates will prove most valuable. 1.
Without entering into a lengthy disquisition of the component parts, or attempting and elaborate analysis of their chemical attributes, a few words relative to their peculiar properties as colors will not be amiss.
These colors are all made from metallic oxides, minerals, and earths, from which certain salts, chlorides, silicates, and aluminates have been extracted. On a previous page, mention is made of cobalt, from which blue is derived, and antimony, zinc, and iron, from which yellows are principally obtained. Greens are made from chromium ; reds from iron ; black from iron and cobalt, intensified with copper and manganese ; brown from cobalt and iron, modified by ochre and zinc ; whit from tin ; and carmines, crimsons, purples, and violets from gold, and are known as the gold colors.
Greens predominate on the list, and embrace a greater and more widely diversified variety of shades than any other color. Greens change very little in the firing, and usually glaze well, except black green No. 7, which requires fluxing.
Not withstanding the multiplicity of tints, affording a wide range and ample scope for individual
1. one should always make themselves a fired colored plate to know what each color will do .
