Saggars

The lost art of saggar-making,from the days before kiln-shelves,when kilns -in England- were round and fired with coal. I think the word saggar comes from the Hebrew root sagur meaning closed [I do enjoy using italics]. One of our Tel Hai students [Mor] wants to try some saggar firing,so I looked out 2 of my favorite pictures from "Refractory Materials:their Manufacture and Uses", a venerable [1940] and weighty tome salvaged from the ruins of Naaman Porcelain factory by Sydney and passed on to me; on the whole,it's a hopelessly technical volume, but scattered with pictures of wonderful obscure contraptions from Britain's engineering glory days,operated by nonchalent men with imposing moustaches. I'll post some more pictures to give the flavour...