gance, and scarcely superior to
those of England before the taste of Wedgewood substituted the
graceful forms of Greek models, for some of the unseemly productions
of our old potteries. Though the clay of Upper Egypt was particularly
suited to porous bottles, it could be obtained of a sufficiently fine
quality for the manufacture of vases like those of Greece and Italy;
in Egypt, too, good taste did not extend to all classes, as in Greece;
and vases used for fetching water from a well, or from the Nile, were
of a very ordinary kind, far inferior to those carried by the Athenian
women to the fountain of Kallirhoe.

The Greeks, it is true, were indebted to Egypt for much useful
knowledge, and for many early hints in art, but they speedily
surpassed their instructors; and in nothing, perhaps, is this more
strikingly manifested than in the productions of the potter. Samples
of the more common are seen below.

Carpenters and cabinet-makers were a very numerous class of workmen;
and their occupations form one of the most important subjects in the
paintings which represent the Egyptian trades.

[Illustration: ANCIENT EGYPTIAN POTTERY.]

For ornamental purposes, and sometimes even for coffins, doors and
boxes, foreign woods were employed; deal and cedar were imported from
Syria; and part of the contributions, exacted from the conquered
tribes of Ethiopia, and Asia, consisted in ebony and other rare woods,
which were annually brought by the chiefs, deputed to present their
country's tribute to the Egyptian Pharaohs.

Boxes, chairs, tables, sofas, and other pieces of furniture were
frequently made of ebony, inlaid with ivory, sycamore and acacia, were
veneered with thin layers, or ornamented with carved devices of rare
wood, applied or let into them; and a fondness for this display
suggested to the Egyptians the art of painting common boards, to
imitate foreign varieties, so generally adopted in other countries at
the present day.

The colors were usually applied on a thin coating of stucco, laid
smoothly upon the previously prepared wood, and the various knots and
grains painted upon this ground indicated the quality of the wood they
intended to counterfeit.

The usual tools of the carpenter were the ax, adze, handsaw, chisels
of various kinds (which were struck with a wooden mallet), the drill,
and two sorts of planes (one resembling a chisel, the other apparently
of stone, acting as a rasp on the surface of the wo