THE FIRST ATTEMPTS AT IMITATION IN EUROPE
What, then, were the wares with which the porcelain of the Far East came
into competition, when during the course of the seventeenth century it
reached Europe in ever increasing quantity? It was not the ordinary
lead-glazed pottery, or the salt-glazed stoneware in common use, that
felt this competition. Crockery of this sort would always be protected
by its cheapness. The rivalry was rather with the more artistic ware
found on the tables of the richer sort of people, much of it made for
ornament only. Now at this time, ware of this latter kind all came under
the class of _enamelled fayence_--earthenware, that is, whose dull
surface was rendered bright and shining by a coating of stanniferous
enamel; on this artificial surface the decoration, often pre-eminent in
artistic merit, was painted. It is not our business here to show how
this great ceramic family of stanniferous enamelled ware, which had now
spread over Europe, had its origin in the nearer or Saracenic East, just
as the porcelain, which in a measure was destined to replace it, can all
be traced back to a Chinese source. Suffice to say that, starting from
the Moorish potteries of Spain, this enamelled fayence gradually
replaced the old lead-glazed slip ware of the Italian _quattrocento_,
and in the sixteenth century was carried by Italian workmen to France,
where important centres of manufacture were established at Rouen and at
Nevers.
But it was rather the fayence of Delft, a ware of essentially the same
class as the last, and one which, during the seventeenth century, was
pushing its way into the markets of France and of England, that first
felt the competition of the porcelain now imported from the Far East.
The fact is that all these enamelled wares suffered from one great
defect. It was not so much their lack of translucency or the softness of
their paste that was at fault, but rather the fact that they made
pretence to be something better than they really were ‘at heart.’
Compared to porcelain, they are as plated ware to real silver, and time
and wear are apt only too soon to reveal the base nature of their body.
Wherever the enamel is chipped off, the dirt lodges, and greasy matter
finds its way into the porous paste, causing a wide spreading stain.
This is a practical, and, we may also add, a hygienic defect, that is
now sometimes forgotten, the more so as nowadays our common table ware
is free from this fault, and resembles fine porcelain in so far that the
white, compact body is covered by nothing but the transparent glaze. In
fact, as far as European experience is concerned, we may say, broadly,
that the merits of porcelain compared with those of fayence are rather
of a practical than of an artistic nature.[146]
It will be convenient to divide the history of European porcelain into
two periods. The first, with which we are alone concerned in this
chapter, deals with a time of isolated and tentative experiments. We are
concerned in Italy with the experiments of the Venetian alchemists which
form an introduction to the porcelain made by the Tuscan Grand-Duke; in
England with the early researches of Dr. Dwight and others; and finally,
in France with the more successful efforts of the potters of Rouen and
Saint-Cloud. The second period opens with the great discovery of Böttger
at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The porcelain made
subsequent to this may be divided conveniently into three groups: (1)
the true porcelain of Germany; (2) the artificial soft paste of France;
and (3) the so-called natural soft paste of England. These are the most
important types; and other wares such as the ‘mixed or hybrid pastes’ of
Italy and Spain, and the hard, true porcelains of England and France,
can be most conveniently treated in connection with the second and third
divisions.
EARLY VENETIAN PORCELAIN.--Of all the cities of Europe we might, on
theoretical grounds, expect to find in Venice the place above all others
where the question of the composition of porcelain would at an early
date attract attention, and indeed, the evidence brought to light by the
Baron Davillier (_Les Origines de la Porcelaine en Europe_, 1882) and by
the late Sir William Drake (_Notes on Venetian Ceramics_, London, 1868,
privately printed) fully proves that more than one alchemist or
‘arcanist’ of that city, in one case as early as the fifteenth century,
produced specimens worthy to be called ‘_porcellane transparente e
vaghissime_,’ and this by contemporaries who had some opportunity of
seeing the real porcelain of China.[147]
This ‘transparent and beautiful porcelain’ was made in 1470 by Master
Antonio, the alchemist, at his kiln by San Simeon, and the writer of a
notice that has been preserved sends two specimens of this ware to his
friend in Padua. Again, in 1518 we hear of ‘a new artifice not known
before in this illustrious city, to make all kinds of porcelain like to
the transparent wares of the Levant’; and a year later the ambassador of
the Duke Alfonso writes to his master at Ferrara, sending him specimens
of the _porcellana ficta_ made by a certain Caterino Zen, whom he has
persuaded to emigrate to the latter city.
There cannot be the slightest doubt that in all these instances the
writers are referring to attempts at the manufacture of something
resembling, in its transparency at least, the porcelain of China. There
is no question of any confusion with the majolica of the day, with whose
properties these men were well acquainted, and we may therefore
reasonably regard the Venetian ‘archimisti’ as the first in Europe to
make a soft-paste porcelain. As in the case of later experimenters,
translucency, rather than hardness or refractory qualities, was the
point aimed at; and from the few hints we get as to the substances
employed, we may infer that these old ‘archimisti’ started with the idea
of combining the properties of glass and of fayence by mixing a ‘frit,’
or glassy element, with various kinds of pure white clay.
It is unfortunately true that we can point to no single existing
specimen of Italian porcelain that can safely be referred to so early a
date; but it must at the same time be remembered that it was only in the
year 1857 that the first piece of Medici porcelain was identified by
Signor Foresi, and that as late as 1859 a flask-shaped vase of this ware
was sold at the Hôtel Drouot as a specimen of Japanese porcelain!
MEDICI PORCELAIN.--The first mention of this now well-known ware is
probably to be found in Vasari’s _Lives of the Painters_. It is in his
account of Bernardo Buontalenti, painter, sculptor, architect, and
mechanical genius, who, in all these capacities,
[Illustration: _PLATE XXIX._ MEDICI, BLUE AND WHITE]
was in great favour with Cosmo, the first Grand-Duke of Tuscany, and
still more with his son Francesco. ‘Bernardo,’ says Vasari, who was a
contemporary, ‘applies himself to everything, as may be seen by the
vases of porcelain which he has made in so short a time--vases which
have all the perfection of the most ancient and the most perfect.’ He
could make objects of all kinds in porcelain. ‘Of all these things our
prince [Francesco the Grand-Duke] possesses the methods of manufacture.’
Francesco Maria, the second Grand-Duke of Tuscany, was neither a good
prince nor a faithful husband. He was, however, by nature an
enthusiastic and patient experimenter, and a chemist after the manner of
the day. Soon after his accession, in 1576, the Venetian envoy writes of
him--I abbreviate here and there: ‘He has found the way to make the
porcelain of India; he has equalled them in transparence, in lightness,
and in delicacy. With the help of a Levantine he worked for more than
ten years, spoiling thousands of pieces, before producing perfect work.
He passes his whole day in his _casino_ [in the Boboli Gardens]
surrounded by alembics and filters, making, among other things, false
jewels, and fireworks.’
We learn also, from a contemporary manuscript, that the paste of this
porcelain was formed by mixing certain white earths from Siena and from
Vicenza with a frit, itself made from pounded rock crystal fused with
soda and glassmakers’ sand. The Vicenza clay, at all events, was
probably of a kaolinic nature. After shaping on the wheel and drying,
the decoration was painted on the raw paste, and the vessel subjected to
a preliminary firing; the plumbiferous glaze was then applied to the
biscuit. This Medici ware is decorated for the most part with cobalt
blue alone, but occasionally a little purple, and still more rarely
other colours are added. The design is made up of sprigs of
conventionalised flowers and leaves connected by fine stalks,
suggesting, on the whole, a Persian rather than a Chinese influence. In
a few cases we find the renaissance arabesques (or, more properly,
grotesques) of the time combined with masks in relief. The usual mark is
a hasty outline of the dome of the Cathedral of Florence, and below it
the letter F; on a few pieces, those especially which are decorated with
the grotesques, we find the six roundels, or ‘palle,’ of the Medici,
surmounted by the ducal coronet. A few pieces are dated. The earliest
date that has been discovered--1581--is on a bottle of square section,
rudely painted, under a crackle glaze, with the arms of Spain.
As might be expected in the case of an experimental ware of amateurish
origin, the extant pieces differ much in technical merit. Some are
heavily moulded, with a rough decoration of dark blue (I refer to some
pieces now in the Louvre); while on others, as on the fine but damaged
bowl at South Kensington, a delicate design is carefully painted (PL.
XXX.). The ground, however, of this Medici porcelain is seldom of a pure
white, and the colours have a tendency to run. Now that the specimens
from the Davillier and Rothschild collections have found their way into
the Louvre, this ware is best represented in that gallery. There are,
however, several pieces at Sèvres, and some good examples at South
Kensington. The later history of this ware is obscure. The kilns appear
to have been removed to Pisa, and their existence cannot be traced later
than 1620.
ROUEN PORCELAIN.--For a period of two generations and more after this
date it would seem that little was attempted. The vague assertions found
in patents taken out during this time in England and in France are of
slight value for us, for the claim is only made to an _imitation_ of the
Eastern ware, and such an expression might apply to many kinds of
enamelled fayence.
[Illustration: _PLATE XXX._ MEDICI, BLUE AND WHITE]
In France,[148] Claude Reverend, in 1664, is authorised to ‘_contrefaire
la porcelaine à la façon des Indes_.’ A more serious interest attaches
to the letters-patent granted in 1673 to Louis Poterat of Rouen. This
Poterat was a man of some position; he belonged to a family that had
long been connected with the manufacture of enamelled fayence at St.
Sever, near Rouen. In the diploma of 1673 facilities are granted him by
the king for making vessels of porcelain similar to those of China by
means of the secret process that he had discovered for manufacturing
‘_la véritable porcelaine de la Chine_.’ There exist certain little
pieces of soft-paste porcelain, sparely decorated with arabesques and
_lambrequins_ in blue _sous couverte_, in the style of Louis XIV., and
marked with the letters A.P. surmounted by a small star.[149] These are
now generally classed as Rouen ware of the time of Poterat; in that
case, we must see in them the earliest specimens of the French family of
_porcelaines tendres_. We have seen specimens at Sèvres and at Dresden,
in both cases little cylindrical boxes divided into compartments. A
similarly decorated cup, of very translucent ware, in the Fitzhenry
collection, is also attributed to Rouen.
There were probably at this time and later many others, _arcanistes_ or
practical potters, working at the problem in France. M. Vogt quotes,
from the _Comptes des Bâtiments du Roi_ for 1682, two singular payments
for the transport of ‘terre de porcelaine’ from Le Havre to Rouen and
thence to Paris. This porcelain earth had, it is stated, been previously
shipped to Civita Vecchia. It has been suggested that this might refer
to a cargo of kaolin sent from the East (_La Porcelaine_, p. 34).
In 1695 the king granted to the Chicoineau family the privilege of
making porcelain, by means of a secret process, reserving only the right
previously granted to Poterat of Rouen.
With the establishment, however, of the Saint-Cloud kilns we pass out of
the stage of tentative experiment, and the porcelain of Saint-Cloud
forms the proper introduction to the soft-paste wares of France.
EARLY EXPERIMENTS IN ENGLAND.--The potters art was at a very low ebb in
England in the seventeenth century. The Dutch with their Delft ware had
taken up a position comparable to that held by our Staffordshire potters
a century and a half later. They supplied us for many years with the
ordinary crockery in use among the middle classes (indeed, in parts of
Ireland such ware is still known as ‘delf’). From the scattered local
potteries were produced only the roughest kinds of earthenware. But in
this rude ware we see at times a certain barbaric, almost Oriental
feeling for colour and decoration, giving more promise of artistic
possibilities than we can find in the tame imitative work of the
eighteenth century porcelain maker.
Quite early in the seventeenth century, however, certainly by the time
of Charles I., pottery works were established by the banks of the Thames
at Lambeth and elsewhere, where successful imitations of Delft were
made, probably with the assistance of Dutch workmen. Not far off, at
Fulham, Dr. John Dwight experimented upon various clays and glazes, in
the reign of Charles II. His is the earliest name that occurs in the
history of English ceramics. In the letters-patent granted to him in
1671, he claims that ‘at his own proper costs and charges he hath
invented and set up at Fulham ... several new manufactories.’ Not only
was he prepared to deal with ‘the misterie of the stoneware vulgarly
called Cologne ware,’ but he also lays claim to ‘the mysterie of
transparent earthenware, commonly knowne by the name of porcelaine or
china, and Persian ware.’ This claim is made even more definitely by his
friend Dr. Plot, in the _History of Oxfordshire_, which he published in
1677. Dr. Dwight, he tells us, ‘hath found ways to make an earth _white
and transparent as porcelane_, and not distinguishable from it by the
eye or by experiments which have been purposely made to try wherein they
disagree.’
We may compare this claim with the similar statements made about the
same time in the petitions of Poterat and others. In neither case is
there any sign of an acquaintance with the Chinese _materials_. In
France the aim was to make something that should combine the properties
of earthenware and glass; while in the case of Dr. Dwight’s ware,
hardness and infusibility were the points sought for.
The portrait busts and statuettes in the British Museum, and a famous
piece at South Kensington, are all that remain of Dr. Dwight’s wares.
These were until lately in the hands of his descendants, and are,
therefore, thoroughly authenticated.[150] In the former collection are
two figures, a sportsman and a girl with two lambs, which in spirit and
sharpness of execution compare favourably with our later imitations of
Meissen porcelain in soft paste. A thin, apparently non-plumbiferous
glaze covers a white body, which is undoubtedly of great hardness and
possibly just translucent (‘approaching in some cases to translucency,’
says the writer of the ‘Jermyn Street’ Catalogue). Unfortunately there
has survived nothing to illustrate his imitations of Chinese and Persian
ware. Dr. Dwight was a man of some social position, and a Master of
Arts of Christ Church, Oxford. The very considerable merit of his
stoneware figures (and we may add, the pathetic interest attaching to
the little figure of a dead child, at South Kensington, inscribed ‘Lydia
Dwight, dyed March 3rd, 1673’) have established his position as the
father of English ceramics, and on this ground he has found a place
along with Duesbury and Wedgwood in the _Dictionary of National
Biography_. For us his stoneware has a special interest. It is perhaps
the only ceramic ware in existence that has so many of the
characteristics of true porcelain--its hardness, its resistance to high
temperatures, and to some extent also its translucency and whiteness of
paste--but which in origin and chemical composition differs so entirely
from the normal type.
Dr. Place of York was a contemporary of Dwight; he devoted much time to
experiments on various kinds of clay. Although he has some claim to rank
as an artistic potter, I do not think that there is any proof that he
ever made porcelain of either hard or soft paste.
It is certainly remarkable that during the following fifty years and
more we hear nothing in England of any attempt to manufacture porcelain,
nor is there any patent or contemporary notice bearing on the subject
during the interval between Dr. Dwight’s specification of 1684 and the
date of Frye’s first patent. A claim to make porcelain by working up the
ground fragments of Oriental ware with some gummy materials is perhaps
the only exception.
But in England, as elsewhere, the ‘ware of the Indies’ was coming more
and more into favour, and its partial victory over foreign and native
stoneware and pottery is, as we said above, closely connected with the
increasing popularity of tea and coffee. Sack and claret were still
served in bottles of Delft ware, and beer in stoneware jugs and
tankards. A certain suspicion of effeminacy and degeneracy came to be
associated both with tea and coffee, and with the ware in which they
were served.[151] Even now, any ridicule to which the china-collector is
exposed is generally associated with a teapot.
We have in this chapter traced the early attempts made in Italy, as well
as those in France and England, to imitate the porcelain of the Far
East. We must now turn aside to Saxony, where, at the dawn of the
eighteenth century, the problem was solved by the genius of a poor
chemist’s assistant. We will then run rapidly through the many centres
where hard-paste porcelain was made in Germany, before returning to the
soft-paste wares of England and France.