CHAPTER XVI

THE HARD-PASTE PORCELAIN OF GERMANY--(_continued_).

VIENNA--BERLIN--HÖCHST--FÜRSTENBERG--LUDWIGSBURG--

NYMPHENBURG--FRANKENTHAL--FULDA--STRASSBURG.

THE HARD AND SOFT PASTES OF SWITZERLAND, HUNGARY, HOLLAND, SWEDEN,

DENMARK, AND RUSSIA.

In spite of the elaborate precautions that were taken--the oaths of

secrecy, the military guards that accompanied the relays of china-clay

to the fortress at Meissen in which the works were established--by the

middle of the eighteenth century, at nearly all the courts of Germany,

imperial, royal, or serene, we find a porcelain manufactory already in

full work. It was the fashion of the day, and took its place, like the

opera company or the stud, in the equipment of an up-to-date

_Residenz-Stadt_. Only one or two of these princely factories survived

the time of turmoil at the end of the century and the Napoleonic

invasions. In no single one of the works can we find that any fresh line

was struck out or any important improvement made either in technique or

in design. The products of these different factories are often to be

distinguished only by the marks they bear, and these marks are as often

as not forgeries. We shall therefore confine ourselves to a somewhat

summary description, pointing out especially the relations of the

different centres to one another. The starting of a new manufactory

generally depended upon the successful bribing of some official or

foreman of works: at the beginning such aid was sought from Meissen,

but later on the assistance came from Vienna or from Höchst, so that on

this ground the relation of the works to one another might be

represented by a rough kind of genealogical tree.

VIENNA.--The beginnings of the factory at Vienna were humble. Claude du

Paquier, a Dutch adventurer, took out a patent for making porcelain in

1718, and with the aid of an enameller and gilder from Meissen, one

Hunger, a man with some knowledge of chemistry, carried on the work on a

modest scale, until in 1744 his factory and his secrets were bought by

Maria Theresa for 45,000 gulden. The Viennese porcelain was henceforth,

until the extinction of the industry in 1864, marked with the Hapsburg

shield, generally in blue, under the glaze (PL. C. 28), with the

addition, after 1784, of a contracted year-mark.

So long as the kaolin from Passau was employed the paste was inferior to

that of Meissen and Berlin, but in later days a better material was

obtained from Bohemia. The most flourishing period was from 1770 to

1790, and in 1780, we are told, there were three hundred and twenty men

employed. In early years the porcelain did not differ much from that of

Dresden, but in 1784, when Conrad von Sorgenthal became director, a new

style was introduced which has made the Viennese in some respects the

typical ware of a bad period. Much attention was paid to the gilding and

to the pigments employed, and the surface of the porcelain was covered

by an elaborate and often gaudy decoration. We are, however, informed by

an eminent German authority that ‘from 1785 to 1815 the Viennese

porcelain among all the manufactures of the time took, from an artistic

point of view, the highest rank’ (Jaennicke, _Keramic_, Stuttgart,

1879). It is in any case remarkable that, during a period of disastrous

war and foreign occupation, so much bad porcelain and good music should

have been produced at Vienna. It was at this time that the chemist

Leithner obtained, for the first time, an intense black from uranium and

perfected the process by which platinum is applied in low relief.

To the same chemist we must also attribute another speciality of the

Viennese porcelain of this time,--the decoration with designs in

polished gold upon a dead ground of the same metal. There are some

elaborately decorated plates at South Kensington which well illustrate

the merits or demerits of this ware. In spite of the early foundation of

the factory, the Viennese porcelain, as a whole, falls into the later

‘sentimental to classical’ period, that contemporary with Marcolini at

Meissen and with the earlier hard paste of Sèvres. The historical

development of the ware is well illustrated in the Industrial Museum at

Vienna, and it may be acknowledged that some success was obtained with

small figures and even life-sized busts. A good deal of cheap and

meretricious stuff made in the numerous private kilns in and around

Vienna in the latter half of the nineteenth century has lately found its

way into the English market.

BERLIN.--The porcelain of Berlin is of some interest to us for two

reasons, one historical and the other of a technical nature. On the one

hand it was thanks to the fostering care of the great Frederick that the

factory first assumed any importance, and on the other it was the great

attention given in later days to choice of materials (together with the

refractory nature of the paste) that led to this pure white ware being

employed above all others in the laboratory of the chemist. As at

Vienna, the origin of the works was humble, and in this case one perhaps

might even say ‘shady,’ if we are to believe the story that it was the

workmen who had stolen from the pocket of Ringler, the arcanist of

Höchst, the papers containing his recipes and private notes, who were

engaged in 1750 by the merchant Wegeli, the first to set up a kiln for

porcelain at Berlin.[160]

The ware that Wegeli made is not important. We find little figures and

groups in imitation of Kändler as well as cups and teapots decorated in

blue, _sous couverte_, with little sprigs; his mark, a W., has

unfortunately been used at other factories. It was indeed rather the

banker Gotzkowski who was the practical founder of the Berlin works, for

Wegeli had abandoned his enterprise at the commencement of the Seven

Years’ War.

German writers are not agreed as to what share should be given to the

king in the removal of the staff and workmen of the Meissen works to

Berlin in 1761. Frederick at that time was hard pressed by his enemies

and in great want of money; in the letter, quoted below, he writes that

he has nothing left but his honour, his coat, his sword, and _his

porcelain_. He has been accused of forcibly removing to Berlin, not only

the workmen, but the artists also and other members of the staff at

Meissen. On the other hand, it is claimed that the removal was

voluntary, and brought about by the offers of good pay made by

Gotzkowski. Frederick at that time had other things to do,[161] and it

was not till the close of the war in 1763 that he purchased

Gotzkowski’s new works for a large sum. He now had leisure to take a

personal interest in the manufacture. About this time the kaolin which

had been previously brought from Passau, in Bavaria, was obtained, of

better quality, from the quarries near Halle which still supply the

Berlin works. The sale of the porcelain was forced with true Prussian

energy: its purchase was obligatory for lottery prizes, to the amount of

10,000 thalers every year, and no Jew could obtain a marriage

certificate except on the production of the receipt for the purchase of

a service of porcelain. It is for this reason that the Berlin ware is in

Germany sometimes known as _Juden porcellan_. Grieninger, a Saxon, was

the practical manager of the works from the time of their foundation by

Gotzkowski to the end of the century. During this period the porcelain

produced differed little from that previously made at Meissen. A shade

of pink, derived from the purple of Cassius, was much admired by

Frederick, and forms the _pendant_ to the famous rose-colour of his

bitter enemy, Madame de Pompadour.

The changes made after this time were chiefly of a practical nature. The

horizontal furnaces were early replaced by the cylindrical type now

generally in use in Europe, and as long ago as 1799 steam power was

employed in the preparation of the materials. The chemist, above all,

has at all times played an important part at Berlin.

Many strange applications of porcelain, some more curious than really

beautiful, were introduced about the beginning of the nineteenth

century. A close imitation of lace and _tulle_, made by dipping into a

specially prepared slip a real tissue which was afterwards burned away,

was a nine days’ wonder when first introduced. (A veiled bust in white

biscuit of Queen Louise of Prussia, now at Dresden, is perhaps the most

famous example of this ware.) Another application of porcelain was to

the ‘transparencies’ or _lithophanie_, in which the design, as seen by

transmitted light, was given by variations in the thickness of the

paste.

The only mark of interest on the porcelain of Berlin is the sceptre (PL.

C. 31), the prized ensign that the electors of Brandenburg bore on their

shield as an emblem of their position as Arch-Chamberlains of the Holy

Roman Empire.[162] It was this sceptre (very slightly indicated on the

earlier examples, and resembling, perhaps intentionally, the Saxon mark)

that the Prince de Ligne observing on his plate, when dining with the

king, affected to take for a sword, and made the occasion of a

‘two-edged’ compliment.

HÖCHST.--The fayence of Höchst, a town lying between Frankfort and

Mainz, had acquired some reputation early in the eighteenth century, and

already, by the year 1720, one of the manufacturers, Göltz, had

attempted to make porcelain. But not until he had obtained the

assistance of a runaway workman or ‘arcanist’ from Vienna, one Ringler

(a name which occurs over and over again in similar connections--see

note, p. 262), was anything of importance accomplished.[163] The kilns

were now rebuilt on the Viennese model, and by the year 1746 porcelain

of good quality was produced. The works had already received many

privileges from the local prince, in this case the archbishop-elector of

Mainz, and about 1778 (or perhaps earlier) the whole establishment was

purchased by him. This prince was a patron of art and fond of display,

so that during his day the manufacture was conducted on a non-commercial

basis. The chief claim to attention of the ware made at Höchst depends

upon the little lifelike figures that were modelled by a clever sculptor

who worked there from 1768 or 1770 to 1780. The work of this Johann

Peter Melchior, who survived till 1825, is preferred by some collectors

to anything made at Meissen. He migrated late in life first to

Frankenthal, and then to Nymphenburg. The wooden models from which he

worked are now much sought after in Germany. It is stated that the

kaolin used at Höchst was obtained from Limoges, but this can only apply

to a comparatively late period. The works came to an end with the

invasion of the French in 1794. The mark, a six-spoked wheel, sometimes

surmounted by a crown (Pl. c. 29), is derived from the arms of the

arch-episcopal see of Mainz,--indeed the Höchst ware is sometimes known

as _porcelaine de Mayence_.

FÜRSTENBERG.--The Duke Karl of Brunswick was one of the earliest German

princes to establish a porcelain factory; this was at the castle of

Fürstenberg, on the Weser. The works were organised about 1746 by the

Baron von Langen, who was something of an arcanist; and from Höchst, in

1750, the assistance of an experienced potter, one Bengraf, was

obtained. Bengraf had to escape by stealth from Höchst, where he had

been in the employ of Göltz, and reached Fürstenberg after many

sufferings and privations. A point of interest in connection with the

porcelain made at a later time at this factory is that flour-spar

(fluoride of calcium) has formed an important element in the composition

of the glaze. In the Museum at Brunswick may be seen more than eight

hundred specimens of this porcelain, and any want of originality is made

up for by the extraordinary variety and number of the different wares

that have been copied. It is not perhaps surprising, in view of the

close family ties existing between the dukes and our second and third

Georges, to find copies of our English soft pastes, especially of

Chelsea. The clarets and maroons of this latter ware were imitated with

some success. A landscape-painter of some local fame, whose works may be

seen in the gallery at Brunswick, one Pascha Weitsch, was employed to

paint views on this porcelain, and good portrait-busts--of Lavater and

of Raphael Mengs, among others--may be found in the adjacent museum. The

factory has continued in operation up to quite recent times. The

Fürstenberg mark, a large F in a flowing hand (PL. C. 30), may be

observed not unfrequently on china in old collections in England. There

was more than one specimen at Strawberry Hill.

LUDWIGSBURG.--We now come again upon the arcanist Ringler. In 1758 he

was tempted away from Höchst by the Duke Karl Eugen of Würtemberg, and

placed at the head of a manufactory of porcelain which had lately been

established at Ludwigsburg, the Versailles or Potsdam of the dukes,

situated some nine miles to the north of Stuttgart. The paste of this

ware is not remarkable for purity of tint, and I do not know whether we

are to believe the statement that the materials came in part from

France. The enamel painting is distinguished by its high finish; on the

gala services made for the court, among wreaths of flowers in low relief

we find carefully painted beetles and butterflies. The little, highly

finished statuettes and groups are of some merit. In the Museum of

National Antiquities at Stuttgart is now to be seen an extensive

collection of porcelain, purchased in 1875 from Herr Murschel, and here

the Ludwigsburg ware can be well studied. The shield of Würtemberg,

with

[Illustration: _PLATE XXXII._ 1. MEISSEN. 2. LUDWIGSBURG.]

its three pairs of antlers, is sometimes found on this ware (PL. C. 35),

but more often the initials of the reigning duke--or (after 1806)

king--with or without a crown (PL. C. 36). It is this last mark that has

probably given rise to the absurd name of Kronenburg by which this ware

is sometimes known among dealers. Soon after 1775, when the dukes

abandoned Ludwigsburg as a place of residence, the factory declined in

importance, but the manufacture lingered on till the year 1824.

NYMPHENBURG.--About the middle of the eighteenth century the electoral

prince, Max Joseph, established some works at Neudeck, on the Au, in

ducal Bavaria, and this factory, it is said, was visited and reorganised

by the ubiquitous Ringler in 1756. In 1758, however, the manufactory was

removed to the summer residence of Nymphenburg, near Munich. Heintzmann

painted landscapes, and other artists copied famous pictures from the

Munich Gallery, on the fine white ground of this porcelain. The

elector-palatine inherited the ducal territory in 1778, and hither, in

1799, came many workmen from Frankenthal when the palatinate was invaded

by the French. This ware is best represented in the National Museum at

Munich. The works are still carried on, but they are now in private

hands. The Nymphenburg porcelain may generally be recognised by the

shield of Bavaria, ‘fusilly’ (PL. C. 35), but this shield takes various

forms and the mark is often very small.

FRANKENTHAL.--Somewhat more interest attaches to the porcelain made at

Frankenthal, a town of the palatinate, not far from Mannheim, if only

because at its foundation we are brought into connection not only with

the earlier German works, but at the same time, indirectly, it is true,

with Sèvres. Here, according to one account, came Ringler, in 1751,

leaving Höchst in disgust, after he had been robbed of his papers and of

his secrets. At any rate, a few years later, in 1755, Paul Antoine

Hannong, a member of a famous family of potters at Strassburg, was

granted a privilege to found here a factory of porcelain. Hannong had

graduated as a porcelain arcanist, and had already fruitlessly

endeavoured to sell his secrets to the authorities at Vincennes. As the

royal porcelain works, on their removal to Sèvres, now began to claim

the monopoly for the whole of France, Hannong was not allowed to set up

his kilns at Strassburg.

The electoral prince Karl Theodor bought the works at Frankenthal in

1761, and devoted himself to obtaining the best artists (Melchior, among

others, was brought from Höchst) and most skilful potters, so that for a

few years the porcelain here produced was in its way as good as any made

in Germany--indeed it was attempted to rival the contemporary work of

Sèvres in the delicacy of the painting and the brilliancy of the

gilding. This ware is always to be associated with the Elector Karl

Theodor, and its glory came to an end when, in 1778, he abandoned the

palatinate on becoming elector of ducal Bavaria. The factory, however,

was not finally closed till about 1800. The most usual mark is the

lion-rampant crowned, from the arms of the palatinate (PL. C. 32); the

initials of Karl Theodor are also found surmounted by a crown (PL. C.

33). There is a curious plate of this ware in the Franks collection; it

bears a Latin inscription (containing a chronogram for 1775) which

states that all the various colours and gilding used at the works are

made use of in the decoration.

FULDA.--Porcelain was probably made at Fulda as early as the year 1741,

but it was only in 1763, or perhaps even later, that the prince-bishop

set up the ‘_Fürstliche Fuldaische feine Porzellan-Fabrik_’ close by

his palace. The daintily modelled and carefully finished ware here made,

marked with a double F or by a cross (PL. C. 37 and 38), is seen

occasionally in English collections. The fireclay as well as the

beechwood for his kilns was obtained from the adjacent volcanic hills of

the Hohe Rhön. As not only the bishop himself but the canons of the

church also availed themselves somewhat freely of their privilege of

appropriating whatever pleased them, as presents to their friends, a

heavy loss was incurred, and the works were closed soon after the death

of the founder.

Porcelain was also made during the latter half of the eighteenth century

at Gotha and several other places in the neighbourhood of the Thüringer

Wald. There are specimens of the ware made at many of these kilns--at

Kloster Veilsdorf, at Wallendorf, at Gross Breitenbach, Limbach, Gera,

and especially at Gotha--in the Franks collection of continental

porcelain. A good deal of common porcelain for table use is still made

at scattered factories in this district.

STRASSBURG.--Without committing oneself to any political _parti-pris_,

we may conveniently say a word of the ceramic history of Strassburg at

this point, although in the eighteenth century the town already belonged

to France.[164] The Hannong family had here from the beginning of the

eighteenth century been making fayence, and this family is of interest

to us as forming a link between the porcelain of Germany and that of

France. Charles François Hannong, probably with the assistance of a

German arcanist, attempted the manufacture of hard porcelain as early as

1721. It was his son Paul Antoine who first entered into negotiations

with the French for the sale of the secret of making hard porcelain.

This was in 1753. Not only did these negotiations come to nothing, but,

as we have already mentioned, Hannong was hampered in his attempts to

establish a porcelain factory in his native town. In 1755 we find him

with the elector-palatine at Frankenthal. After his death in 1760, the

factory at Strassburg was carried on for a time by his son, Pierre

Antoine, but in 1766 the latter went to France and started a factory

first at Vincennes, and later in the Faubourg St. Lazare, under the

patronage of the Comte d’Artois. Later still we find him employed at the

Vinovo works in Piedmont. His eldest son, Joseph Adam Hannong, struggled

on for some time at Strassburg under the protection of the local

magnate, the Cardinal de Rohan. Thus for more than sixty years four

generations of this family played a prominent part in the dissemination

of the knowledge of hard porcelain in Europe, although the actual wares

made by them are of little importance.[165]

The factory at the adjacent town of Niderwiller appears to have derived

its inspiration directly from Meissen. Porcelain was here made from

German clay as early as the sixties. At a later time the works belonged

to the Comte de Custine, and some well modelled biscuit figures, the

clay for which was obtained from Limoges, were then turned out.

SWITZERLAND.--A good deal of porcelain was made in the eighteenth

century both at Zurich and at Nyon, on the Lake of Geneva. The various

wares are well represented in several of the local Swiss museums.

The porcelain of ZURICH belongs essentially to the Saxon group. The

hard, greyish or dead-white paste, and the flowers or landscapes

carefully painted in opaque colours, point at once to the origin of the

ware. The factory was established as early as 1763, with the assistance

of an arcanist, one Spengler, from Höchst. The Swiss poet, Solomon

Gessner, took a great interest in the works, himself painting landscapes

on several pieces. From Ludwigsburg also came Sonnenschein, to model

some clever and lifelike figures. A coral-coloured ware made at this

time was much admired. The Zurich factory did not long survive the

French invasion: it was closed in 1803. This porcelain is marked in blue

under the glaze with a capital Z of German form (PL. D. 49).

At NYON, on the other hand, the influence came from Sèvres, in later

times at least, for on the earlier specimens the tulips, birds, and

landscapes are of a Saxon type. The white ware, _semé de

fleurettes_--blue violets and roses--is perhaps the most characteristic.

There were probably two factories here at the end of the eighteenth

century. Of these the better known one was established by Maubrée, a

flower painter from Sèvres, to whom is attributed the porcelain marked

with a hastily sketched fish in blue (PL. D. 50). Some of the Nyon

porcelain was decorated at Geneva, and at a later date we find more than

one artist of the latter town holding an important position at Sèvres;

indeed under Charles X., a Genevese, Abraham Constantin, who copied the

pictures of Raphael on porcelain, was director of the art school

attached to the royal factory.

HUNGARY.--A factory was established by Moritz Fischer at Herend, in

Hungary, early in the nineteenth century. The porcelain of Herend is of

especial interest to us, for Fischer appears to have mastered the

problem of producing the brilliant and jewel-like enamels of the

Chinese. Some of his imitations of the _famille rose_ are excellent. He

appears to have devoted himself to making coffee-cups and other small

objects for the Turkish market. There is an interesting collection of

his ware at South Kensington. The _rouge d’or_, the green and even the

black grounds of the Chinese are well imitated, but the blue, _sous

couverte_, and the iron red are not so successful. He also imitated the

porcelain of Sèvres and Capo di Monte. Fischer stamped his ware with the

word Herend in very small characters, and the Hungarian coat of arms is

sometimes added over the glaze (PL. C. 39).

* * * * *

At the time of the great porcelain fever of the eighteenth century, of

which the culminating period may be held to be coincident with the Seven

Years’ War (1756-63), the North of Europe--Holland, Denmark, and

Russia--formed part of the great province that had its metropolis at

Meissen, while the southern countries--Spain and Italy (in part)--may be

said to have looked to Sèvres for their inspiration. As for England, its

allegiance was divided, but at the beginning, and certainly during the

best period, the French influence was predominant; and later on, as

regards the materials at least, we struck out a line of our own.

HOLLAND.--There is little of novelty or originality to be found in the

hard-paste porcelain made at this time in the North of Europe. The great

days of Dutch art were over long before the introduction of porcelain

into Holland, and the little that was then made fell readily into the

Saxon school of decoration. Somewhere about 1760 the Count of Gronsfeld

Diepenbroik established some of the Meissen workmen at Weesp. The mark

on this early ware is doubtless derived from the Saxon swords (PL. C.

40). Later, when removed to OUDE LOOSDRECHT, the works were under the

superintendence of a Calvinist _pastor_--his name is given as Moll. The

mark on his porcelain, however, M. O. L., certainly referred in the

first place to the place of manufacture (PL. C. 41). On the death of

the reverend director in 1782 the factory was removed to Amsterdam,

where the porcelain known generally as OUDE AMSTEL--a name that is often

made to include the other Dutch porcelain of the time--was manufactured.

At THE HAGUE, in 1778, a company was formed to make porcelain. This was

under the patronage of the local magnates. They obtained the assistance

of German workmen, and took the well-known badge of their town--a stork

holding a fish in its mouth--as a mark (PL. C. 42). This was painted in

blue _under the glaze_--for the native porcelain at least. In the case

of the foreign white ware, much of which was decorated here--the soft

paste of Tournai especially--the mark was painted _over the glaze_. The

somewhat heavily decorated porcelain of the Hague, painted with

landscapes, sea-pieces, and flowers, is now much sought after by the

Dutch. At the time, however, the competition of both Oriental and German

porcelain, of the enamelled fayence of Delft and later of the English

wares, left little place in Holland for a native porcelain.

SWEDEN.--The fayence and soft-paste porcelain made at Marieberg and at

Rörstrand--both places in the neighbourhood of Stockholm--received their

inspiration from Delft and Sèvres (or rather perhaps from Mennecy)

respectively. Some hard paste was also made at Marieberg about 1780. The

rare specimens of this ware are of considerable artistic merit. Of the

soft-paste Swedish porcelain there are some custard-cups, closely

imitating the Mennecy ware, both at South Kensington and in the Franks

collection. The hard porcelain (and also, it is said, a ware that

appears to be of a hybrid paste) bears as a mark the three crowns of the

house of Vasa (PL. C. 44).

DENMARK.--At Copenhagen there were some early attempts at a soft paste

made by a Frenchman named Fournier about 1760.[166] The mark--F. 5.--on

this ware refers to Frederick V., the reigning king. But the famous

factory of hard-paste porcelain, that has of late years shown so much

enterprise and originality,[167] was founded in 1772 by F. H. Müller, a

chemist and Government official, the materials being obtained from the

island of Bornholm. In this case the German influence came from Meissen,

and also, it would seem, by way of Fürstenberg, for we hear of a certain

Von Lang from that town (probably the Von Langen mentioned above), baron

and arcanist, who helped in the founding of the works. The factory was

taken over by the Government in 1779, and it was long worked at a loss.

The mark of three wavy lines in blue on this ware stands for the Sound,

the Great and the Little Belt (PL. C. 43). The curved mouldings,

radiating in sets of three from a central medallion, sometimes found on

bowls and plates, may also have a similar reference. This latter

decoration is shown well on a bowl at South Kensington, painted with

birds and flowers in gold frames. The handsome _cabarets_ and

dinner-services produced in the eighteenth century belong to the German

school of the time, and have little relation to the more recent

developments about which we shall have a word to say in chapter xxiii.

RUSSIA.--Peter the Great, at the instigation of his friend and ally,

Augustus of Saxony, is said to have projected a manufactory of porcelain

at St. Petersburg, but the scheme was not carried out till the time of

the Empress Elizabeth. This was probably about 1756, or perhaps

earlier, and she doubtless, a few years later, welcomed the Meissen

potters driven out by her mortal enemy, Frederick.[168] Under Catherine

II. these works rose to some importance, and among the many artists and

sculptors attracted to her court, not a few--Falconet, among

others--were employed as modellers or painters on porcelain. But on the

whole the Russian porcelain was influenced more by Saxon models, and we

hear that the gaps in the court services of Meissen ware were so well

replaced by native pieces that the new dishes and plates were not to be

distinguished from the old. The kaolin and the china-stone were derived

from native sources.

After the Napoleonic war the manufacture of gigantic vases, in the style

of those made at Sèvres under Brongniart’s _régime_, was attempted, and

several skilful artists migrated from France. Technically the porcelain

was not inferior to the hard paste of the latter country. The only mark

is the initial of the reigning Emperor or Empress in Russian characters

(PL. C. 46), surmounted sometimes by a crown, but beyond these letters

there is nothing Russian about the ware. The factory, which is still

carried on, has always been an appanage of the court, and its chief

produce has consisted in gala pieces for imperial presents.

Not much seems to be known about a certain Gardner, an Englishman, who

in 1787 organised a porcelain factory at Tver, near Moscow. Some

statuettes with his initials, written in Russian, have been attributed

to him. His name occurs in full, again in Russian letters, on some

small pieces of ribbed porcelain, decorated with green and gold. The

factory seems to have long preserved his name, for on a statuette of a

Russian peasant, in the Franks collection, the words _Fabrika Gardnery_

are accompanied by the initials of Alexander II. (PL. C. 45).

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