Pots in Furnace (Wood Glass Making Plate XIV)

This plate depicts workers carrying pots for holding glass from a kiln to the furnace. This plate is indicative of how the Encyclopédie showed the intervening steps in a manufacturing process. Individual plates depicting the creation of the clay pots and the construction of the wooden frame used in the furnace wall were also included. The inclusion of manufacturing infrastructure in the Encyclopédie’s plates complements its depiction of craftsmen and tools to form a more complete representation of 17th century French industry.

Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
Encyclopédie. Volume 10, Glass Making – Wood Glass Making or Bottle Glass Making (Verrerie – Verrerie en bois ou petite verrerie à pivette) Plate XIV: Operation of Taking the Pots out of the Pot Furnace to the Glass Furnace.
Paris: Briasson [etc.], 1751-1772