FRANCE.
Prospect on approaching France.--Present and Past.--The Ancient
Celts.--Under the Romans.--Middle Ages.--Poitou, Beauvais, and
Hesdin.--Italian Influence.--A National Art.--Bernard Palissy,
Barbizet, Pull, and Avisseau.--Henri Deux
Ware.--Rouen.--Nevers.--Moustiers.--Marseilles.--Strasburg.--Limoges.
--Haviland’s New Process.--Examples.--Bourg-la-Reine.--Laurin.--Deck.
--Colinot.--Creil.--Montereau.--Longwy.--Parville.--Gien.--Sarreguemines.
--Niederviller.--Luneville.--Nancy.--St. Clement.--St. Amand.
--Paris.--Sceaux.
Turning as we leave Italy we seem to look back across a wide, unbroken
plain, from the midst of which rises a mountain range, its summits
glowing with the rays of the setting sun behind us. It is thus we revert
across comparative barrenness to the Renaissance, beyond which, and
hidden, lie the earlier glories of Etruria and Græco-Italy. As we turn
to France the sun is in front of us, striking full upon a height still
cloud-capt and unrevealed, and bathing the intervening undulating
landscape in the fulness of its undimmed splendor. With France the
present sheds lustre, life, and light upon a long past beginning with
pre-Roman Gallia, and extending through Roman domination, the darkness
of the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance to the present time.
The early pottery of Gallia has been variously viewed, but there seems
no reason for withholding from the ancient Celtic potters the credit of
having adopted a high and pure standard of art before the Roman power
was established. It has even been questioned, in the light of a full
knowledge of the subject, if the Romans did not, by the introduction of
new models, retard the growth of native skill and destroy an art
superior to their own. Judging from the examples still remaining, it is
at least unquestionable that the Celts had, at a very early date,
arrived at ideas of simplicity and elegance of form far in advance of
those entertained by contemporary nations. These works, moreover, give
no indication of foreign influence, and probably represent the last
stage of native art, before it was disturbed by the entrance of the
invader. The ornamentation is chaste almost to severity, and although in
some instances it shows a community of style with the early German
pottery, it is generally independent and distinctive. We do not assign
an age to these pieces, but it appears probable that they were preceded
by a ruder pottery also referable to the ancient Celts. The earlier
remains, supposed to belong to the pre-Roman era, have been found in the
North, and are of a very primitive character, evidently made entirely by
hand, without the assistance of either mould or wheel. The paste is
dark-colored and coarse. There is also a class equally rude, in so far
as the composition is concerned, but giving in the shapes a suggestion
of Roman influence. Red Roman ware has been found in every part of Gaul,
and a furnace was discovered in Auvergne. At Bordeaux red, black, white,
and yellow Roman pottery has been exhumed, and several localities are
indicated at which potteries existed.
As we approach the Middle Ages, and begin to detect evidences in France
of a knowledge of processes with which we are already familiar, and to
question ourselves as to their special origin, it may be well to keep
the following facts in view: firstly, that Marseilles was founded by a
Phœnician colony; secondly, that pottery of the South of France,
after the Arabs had spread over the States of Barbary, so closely
resembled the Arabian as to suggest at once communication with the North
of Africa; thirdly, that France was open to the same influences of
trade, intercourse, and immigration which had so powerful an effect upon
Italy. Let us allude to one point, the probable transmission of
lead-glaze from Greece to Rome, and thus to the Gauls, for an
illustration of the untraceable route by which knowledge was spread, and
for an explanation of the phenomenon so often witnessed of a certain
product revealing itself in the most incomprehensible manner at a point
far removed from the accepted centre of works of its class.
In the twelfth century Oriental ideas in France begin to supersede those
of Gothic inspiration, and Christianity and chivalry together operate a
decided change in ceramic ornamentation. Processes gradually improved.
At Poitou, in the thirteenth century, green-glazed conical urns were
made, and Beauvais had already reached celebrity. More interesting is
the fact that, at Hesdin, Jehan de Voleur was, toward the close of the
fourteenth century, acquainted with stanniferous enamel. In France,
therefore, as in Italy, this secret was known long prior to the supposed
discovery by Luca della Robbia. It is, however, to Italy that France is
indebted for the access of spirit infused into its ceramic art in the
sixteenth century. Italy supplied models to the French potters, who had
been busying themselves with ornamentation of Gothic origin and
Christian devices and legends. And, further, Italian artists flocked to
France between the close of the fifteenth and the latter part of the
sixteenth century, and settled at Lyons, Amboise, Nantes, and elsewhere.
After a time the Italian taste they represented and their technical
skill were turned into a channel more thoroughly French, and to the
building up of an art purely national.
Among those who assisted in this great work no name is more eminent than
that of Bernard Palissy (Fig. 227). We have already characterized his
life as the great romance in the history of ceramics, and certainly it
reads more like a romance than sober fact. Let us look at it a little in
detail. His father was a humble artisan, and the honor of his birthplace
is ascribed to La Chapelle Biron, between the years 1506 and 1510. His
education was of the most limited kind, including merely reading and
writing; and at an early age he began professional life as a worker in
glass, a combination of the glazier and painter. His artistic instincts
were thus kindled; and besides acquainting himself with drawing,
painting, modelling, and geometry, he studied the Italian masters,
copied their works, and devoted part of his time to literature.
Thereafter, to add to his stock of knowledge and widen his experience,
he began to travel, and visited Germany, Flanders, and the several
provinces of his native country. As he travelled, he worked as surveyor
and glass-painter, and studied chemistry and natural history. It is with
some astonishment that we find this man, unknown to the world at large
except as a potter, investigating the subjects upon which the noble
science of geology was afterward built, and theorizing upon the
elasticity and power of steam.
[Illustration: Fig. 227.--Bernard Palissy. (From a Painting in the Hôtel
Cluny, Paris.)]
He finished his travels in 1539, settled at Saintes, married, and
devoted himself to his original profession and to land-measuring. A few
years later he saw the beautiful enamelled earthen cup--whether
Oriental, German, or white Ferrarese need not concern us--which turned
the entire course of his life. He wished to imitate the enamel without
knowing anything of its composition, and embarked upon the long series
of experiments which led him, through numberless trials, to eminence and
fame. He presents at this period one of the most curious figures
possibly in all history, that of a man apparently bent upon shutting out
all benefit that might have been derived from the experience of others,
literally “groping in the dark,” as he says of himself, and determined
to make up for lack of technical knowledge by assiduous experiment. He
ground, built furnaces and fired them, tried the potter’s oven of
Chapelle-des-pots--all to no purpose. Having accepted a surveying
mission he returned with treasury replenished and ardor unabated.
Surely, no man ever knocked with such pertinacity at the door of
knowledge. He met his first success by trying a glass-maker’s furnace.
One of the pieces came out “white and polished.” This was food to live
upon, and he began to build a furnace of his own, doing all the work
himself--three masons in one. At length it was finished, and the first
attempt ended in failure. He tried again, becoming poorer and poorer, so
that he could not buy wood for his furnace. In his strait, he took the
tree-props from his garden, his furniture, and house-flooring for fuel.
“My shirt had not been dry for more than a month; and also, to console
me, they laughed at me, and even those who ought to have helped me went
crying about the town that I was burning my floor, and by these means
made me lose my credit; and they thought me mad.” He was evidently in a
bad way when he dropped into wearing a wet shirt for a month, and
thinking that any one ought to have helped him. After a short rest, he
turned his attention to the preparation of a new furnace.
To carry out this new plan, he was compelled to mortgage his credit by
employing a potter to assist him. His assistant he kept in food by the
friendly offices of a tavern-keeper, who seems not to have shared in the
madness theory. After six months he felt himself obliged to pay off his
help, and did so--in clothes, part of his own scanty wardrobe. Still he
was not to be beaten. He finished his furnace single-handed, put in his
pieces, and started the fire; but still the gods were inexorable. The
pebbles in the mortar used in building the furnace cracked under the
heat and flew in splinters, sticking in the glaze of his pieces, and
spoiling them. Remorselessly, he broke them all, declining even to give
his importunate creditors a single specimen in part payment of his
debts. One can imagine the storm such conduct raised, and to make
matters worse, “I met with nothing in my house but reproaches, and
received maledictions instead of consolation.” The ashes spoiled his
next batch, and when he resorted to seggars the unequally distributed
heat marred the enamels. He was now, however, too near victory to be
altogether discouraged, and finally, after fifteen or sixteen years of
unheard-of struggle and misery, this indomitable genius produced the
long-sought enamel, and the secret of his well-known rustic pottery was
discovered.
[Illustration: Fig. 228.--Palissy Dish. (Rothschild Coll.)]
Fame and patronage came with success, but Palissy’s troubles were by no
means ended. Having embraced Protestantism, he fell under the edict of
1559, saw his workshop destroyed, and was only saved from death by the
intervention of the king. Under the protection of Queen Catherine de
Medici, he first went to Rochelle, but was afterward summoned to Paris,
and there, in a workshop erected in the garden of the Tuileries,
produced some of his best works. Saved by court influence from the
massacre of St. Bartholomew, he afterward, in 1588, fell into the hands
of the Leaguers, and in the following year, at the age of eighty, died
in the Bastille.
His first success was the production of the white enamel, which appears
to have engrossed his entire attention. His second attainment was a
jasper glaze, the examples of which show a mixture of brown, white, and
blue, and which he deemed only worthy of using as a means of temporary
subsistence. His third and most famous achievement was the _Rustiques
figulines_ (Fig. 228), with which his name is most intimately
associated. These are known by imitations almost everywhere, and consist
of variously shaped dishes and vases ornamented with shells, frogs,
lizards, snakes, fish of several varieties, and leaves (Fig. 229). He
was succeeded by certain members of his family, upon whose death his
specialty was lost. At the Centennial Exhibition several imitations were
shown in the French, Swedish, and Portuguese departments. Of these the
best were those of M. Barbizet (Fig. 230), of Paris, the son of an
artist who is said to have rediscovered Palissy’s method, some fifty
years ago, and who introduced his father’s discovery into commerce in
1850. Pull, of Paris, and Avisseau, of Tours, are also modern imitators
who have been very successful in approaching their model. Pull began to
produce his imitations in 1856, and has even deceived connoisseurs. One
of his pieces has been sold at as high a figure as £240. Mr. Walters, of
Baltimore, has an excellent example by the elder Avisseau. With the
exception of the works of Avisseau, Pull, and Barbizet, the imitations
of Palissy ware are neither skilful nor in any way attractive; as
independent works of art, accomplished on the suggestion supplied by
him, they are hardly deserving of serious consideration.
[Illustration: Fig. 229.--Pitcher by Palissy. (Rothschild Coll.)]
What is to be admired or condemned in Palissy as a man requires no
mention; the admirable in him as a potter has been already pointed out
(see Introduction, page 42). Passing now from his _rustiques figulines_,
we find him, after his settlement in Paris, carrying his peculiar style
into works of a totally different general character. In one piece a
figure representing Charity is surrounded by a rustic frame, and a
Magdalen kneels in another among shells and plants. In these, as in his
rustic pottery, the figures are admirably executed and the coloring
vigorous. His palette was limited to a few colors, of which yellow,
blue, and gray were the chief, although sometimes we find him
introducing violet, green, and brown. Some tiles are attributed to him,
but the statuettes formerly ascribed to him are now generally conceded
to be the works of other hands. His vases, basins, and dishes are
extremely varied, and are decorated with subjects taken from
contemporary life and from history. A very remarkable vase now in the
Louvre is blue, with yellow ornaments in relief, and not less
characteristic are his large oval cisterns, with masques, foliage,
fruit, and shells for ornaments. One of these (Fig. 231) is a perfect
marvel of soft and harmonious coloring. The heads are white; the drapery
white, with yellow fringe, and in its heavier folds blue; the fruit and
feathers white, gray, red, yellow, and blue; the ground gray in tone,
and composed of blue, maroon, and green. In two specimens of dishes the
ground is white, upon which reptiles lie in strong relief. None of his
pieces are signed.
[Illustration: Fig. 230.--Barbizet’s “Palissy Ware.” (Tiffany & Co.)]
One would imagine the idea to be prevalent that Palissy executed nothing
but _Rustiques figulines_, if we are to judge from the tendency of
imitators to produce pieces of that character, and from the prevailing
taste of collectors, who appear to demand lizards and fish as essential
to the correct imitation of the master. Having given as full a view of
his great works as may be necessary to appreciate their variety and
beauty, let us revert once more to the fact that Palissy was original in
two respects: firstly, in his methods; secondly, in his adoption of
natural objects as models. He deliberately shut out all influences which
might consciously or unconsciously have affected his aim; and as a
consequence, although tin enamel and reliefs were in vogue all over
France, he emerged from his obscurity, and lived through the period of
his eminence without being affected by either German or Italian ideas or
processes. He must be accepted as the exponent of an art emphatically
French. His imitators have used his moulds, and his pupils have followed
his styles; but even when possessing the secrets and skill, copyists
seldom catch the intelligence of their master, and thus we find that on
his death his art declined.
[Illustration: Fig. 231.--Palissy Cistern.]
While Palissy was still in early manhood, the famous and wonderful Henri
Deux ware, or Faience d’Oiron, had been made. There are only sixty-seven
pieces in existence; and the mystery which for a long time enveloped its
manufacture, its rarity, and its beauty, have both surrounded it with a
peculiar interest and rendered specimens almost fabulously valuable. At
a sale in 1865, no less a sum than $5500 was given for a biberon. This
ware was made about 1530, by a potter named François Cherpentier, and
Jehan Bernart, secretary and librarian, both in the service of Hélène de
Hangest, widow of Artus Gouffier, Sieur de Boisy. How this lady came to
acquire a taste for ceramics, it is not, in view of what heretics call
China-mania, hard to imagine. In any case, she built for Cherpentier and
Bernart a workshop and furnace near the château of Oiron, and there the
admirable Henri Deux ware was made. After the death of Hélène de
Hangest, in 1537, Bernart appears to have continued his labors under the
superintendence of her son. This faience, therefore, which has created
more curiosity--the place of its manufacture was not known until
1862--than any other, and been more lavishly praised, owes its existence
to the whim or enthusiasm of a woman.
[Illustration: Fig. 232.--Henri Deux Ewer.]
[Illustration: Fig. 233.--Biberon. Henri Deux Ware. (Malcolm Coll.)]
It is an entirely exceptional ware. The paste is a pipe-clay, pure,
fine, and white. Upon the first or inner layer, a second layer of a
still finer and whiter clay was laid, in which the design was engraved.
Colored pastes were then used for filling in the cavities, and the
surface was then made level. So closely did the work resemble niello in
metal that the name “Faience à Niellure” was given to the ware (Fig.
233). On the earlier works arabesques in zones, initials, and heraldic
designs were thus engraved, chiefly in black, brown, and red. The zones
are also frequently yellow, and the borders brown. A further
ornamentation consists of frogs, shells, lizards, and wreaths in relief.
After the death of Hélène de Hangest the decoration assumed an
architectural character, and soon afterward the colors lost their
beauty, the forms their elegance, and the art, as a whole, degenerated.
For a period of about twenty years the faience was made which puzzled
ceramists for over three centuries. Copies of this ware, by Minton of
England, are in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and in the collections
of Mr. Walters, of Baltimore, and Mr. W. L. Andrews, New York.
Having referred to the specialties of Saintes and Oiron, we now turn to
the other centres of French ceramics, grouping all its porcelain
together in a separate section. Beauvais, Poitou, and Hesdin have been
already alluded to incidentally. Of the remaining seats of the faience
manufactory in France, a few are selected for their importance as
producing styles more or less distinctive, such as Rouen, Nevers,
Moustiers, and Limoges.
[Illustration: Fig. 234.--Rouen Cup. Lambrequin Decoration.]
Rouen may be taken as representing independent Norman art. Marreot
Abaquesne was engaged there in enamelling from 1535, and two tile
pictures from the château of Ecouen, dated 1542, are still in existence,
representing, in blue, green, yellow, and white, Mutius Scævola and
Marcus Curtius. Abaquesne worked until 1557, and after that date the
manufacture of tiles was continued by others. In 1646 Nicolas Poirel,
Sieur de Grandval, obtained a privilege or patent for making faience,
and immediately transferred it to Edme Poterat, already established in
the business in Saint-Sever. To this potter is, in all probability, due
the most distinctive styles of decoration practised at Rouen, those
resembling lambrequins and lace (Fig. 234.) These are modifications of
the Oriental type. In 1673 another patent was granted to Louis Poterat,
a son of the former, for the making of “porcelain similar to that of
China, and of violet faience painted with white and blue and other
colors, in the manner of that of Holland.” After the expiry, about
1700, of Poirel’s patent, manufactories multiplied rapidly, and reached
an aggregate of eighteen, from which some estimate may be formed of the
number of artists and potters engaged at Rouen.
[Illustration: Fig. 235.--Rouen Faience. Decoration, à la corne.
(Trumbull-Prime Coll., N. Y. Metropolitan Museum.)]
As to the successive styles, there is no doubt that designers drew
largely from the works of the gold and silver smith. Flowers in wreaths
and bouquets surround landscapes painted on white. Then came the senior
Poterat’s adaptation of Oriental designs in the lace and cognate styles
already mentioned, at first in blue camaïeu, and afterward mingled with
red. Equally well known is the brilliant decoration _à la corne_ (Fig.
235), in which many-hued flowers issue from a cornucopia, and dazzling
insects fill in the interstices between the flowers. All these styles
have been imitated both throughout France and in other countries. No
faience of the eighteenth century was more rich and artistic than that
of Rouen. Many of the pieces are of large size and highly ornate in
character.
To Nevers it has been usual to accord the honor of being the earliest
producer of enamelled pottery in France, but without good reason. The
evidence appears to be rather in favor of Rouen. When Louis Gonzaga
became Duke of Nevers, he sent for a number of Italian artists, and from
that date, about 1565, the production of faience at Nevers took its
rise. In 1578 the brothers Conrade came from Albissola, near Genoa, and,
settling at Nevers, were patronized by the ducal family. Their works
date from 1602, and it was not until thirty years later that a second
manufactory was established. The influence of the Conrades upon the art
is very doubtful, notwithstanding the monopoly they appear to have
enjoyed. One thing may be accepted as certain, that there existed a
Nivernais style prior to that introduced by them. Louis Gonzaga, the
patron, as we have seen, of ceramic art, died in 1595; and as the
Conrades did not establish themselves until 1608, although they had been
working for a few years previously, we have a period of forty-three
years to account for, dating from the accession of Gonzaga, during
thirty of which that prince was alive. The Nivernais styles may,
therefore, be divided into the Franco-Urbino prior to the Conrade, the
Italo-Chinese which existed under them, the Italo-Nivernais, and the
Franco-Nivernais. The Franco-Urbino is marked by a predominance of blue
and yellow, by violet tracings, a yellowish flesh tint, a peculiar
copper-green, and a scarcity of red. A favorite form of vase handle is
the dragon, and the sea is represented in lines of wavy blue. The styles
of Persia, Japan, and China began to manifest themselves under the
Conrades, and continued down to near the middle of the eighteenth
century. We have, after the Persian, blue grounds with white and yellow
ornamentation, and white grounds with polychrome and blue decoration. At
the same time we find minglings of Italian and Oriental designs. After
1640, however, the traces of Italian influence become less distinct. The
Italian school is disappearing, foreign artists are giving place to
natives, and down to the end of the eighteenth century there are obvious
traces of the styles of Rouen and Moustiers. From that time Nevers
declined.
Moustiers has only been known for a few years, but facts have been
discovered which prove it to have held a highly important place in
ceramic art. Situated in the Lower Alps, its works were long attributed
to other places, although its geographical position near Marseilles and
Italy would naturally point to it as one of the most favored centres of
Provençal art. It is chiefly known by the productions of the Clerissy
family and of Joseph Olery. Pierre Clerissy’s works extended from 1686
to 1728, and to this period some of the finest specimens belong. The
pieces are generally large oval or round dishes, with hunting or
scriptural scenes as central decorations, and borders either of flowers
or masks and fabulous monsters and arabesques. The paintings are in
blue, upon a very pure white enamel. In the succeeding styles the centre
scenes after Tempesta were abandoned. One piece has in the centre a
small medallion representing Diana, the huntress, equipped for the chase
and accompanied by her dogs. Surrounding it are arabesques, grotesque
figures, heads, busts, and amorini, and for an outer border there is a
narrow edging of the lace-like pattern of Rouen. Olery (Fig. 236) seems
to have abandoned entirely the styles of Clerissy. He enriched his
palette with violet, green, brown, and yellow, and revelled in floral
decoration. Heavy wreaths of flowers surrounding a series of medallions,
with bouquets between, form a deep border for scenes from mythology and
the classics.
[Illustration: Fig. 236.--Moustiers Faience Dish. By Olery.]
Intercourse afterward obliterated the lines between distinctive styles.
Olery went to Spain, and probably acquired there his taste for
polychrome decoration (Fig. 237). Spanish artists accompanied him on his
return, and worked, no doubt, in the light of their national traditions;
and toward the end of the century it is impossible to recognize the
styles of either individual artists or schools. Clerissy’s workshop was
continued after his death by his partner, Joseph Fouque, whose family
retains it to the present day.
[Illustration: Fig. 237.--Moustiers Dish. Polychrome.]
Allied to Moustiers, as representing the art of Southern France, is
Marseilles, a city in every way favorably situated for the prosecution
of the faience industry. Of its earlier works, dating as far back as the
fifteenth century, nothing is known; but toward the end of the
seventeenth century a workshop was founded, in which was made an
authenticated faience. The distinguishing feature of the decoration is
the combination of violet from manganese with cobalt blue. The style
bears a general resemblance to that of Moustiers, and it is probable
that the works of the two factories are frequently confounded. About
1750 the Marseilles faience was exported in immense quantities; and from
that date, when the name of Honoré Savy appears in the list of potters,
polychrome decoration became more prevalent. Savy was, in 1777, on the
visit of the future Louis XVIII., authorized to call his workshop
“Manufacture de Monsieur, Frère du Roi,” and is said to have then
adopted the _fleur-de-lis_ as his mark. The mark alone cannot, however,
be accepted as indicating with absolute certainty a work of Savy. The
same potter is said to have invented a particular green; but it appears
to have been common to the other potters of Marseilles, as it is found
upon pieces by Joseph Gaspard Robert and Mme. Perrin. Robert ranks next
to Savy in faience, and was making porcelain at the time of the royal
visit.
In Strasburg we find the origin of a style of faience painting which,
although displaying unquestionable excellence of workmanship, was
carried to such an extent that the suitableness of the decoration to the
earthen-ware body was completely lost sight of. Reference is made to the
porcelain style, by which decoration more properly reserved for
porcelain was applied to faience. The Strasburg paste is of comparative
fineness, the glaze is excellent, and the colors brilliant. The first
factory was established by Charles François Hannong in 1709. In 1721
Hannong associated himself with a German potter from Anspach, named
Wackenfield, and in 1724 started a second workshop at Haguenau. The
latter ultimately fell to Balthasar Hannong, a son of Charles; and the
Strasburg establishment was carried on by another son, Paul Antoine. The
latter worked industriously, and brought the establishment up to a very
high position. On his death, in 1760, it was carried on by his son
Pierre Antoine, who transferred it to Joseph Adam, his brother, and in
1780 the production ceased. The best period was that between 1740 and
1760, when Paul Antoine was proprietor.
The places mentioned, Nevers, Rouen, Moustiers, Marseilles, and
Strasburg, are the centres from which emanated the leading old styles of
decoration. An exact classification is impossible, since, as Marseilles
faience often bears a striking resemblance to that of Moustiers, the
works of Strasburg, on the other hand, are closely related to those from
Marseilles. After them comes a centre, more interesting because very
recently arriving at eminence, from which has emanated a style different
from that of any of its predecessors.
Limoges is as yet scarcely known in the history of pottery, although
there is a probability, almost amounting to a certainty, that it will
hereafter be accepted as one of the leading representatives of the
ceramic art of France in our day. We find, in 1737, a decree granted in
favor of Sieur Massie, empowering him to establish a workshop of faience
at Limoges. The discovery of kaolin at St. Yrieix appears to have
directed the attention of potters from faience to porcelain. One piece
of the Massie period, dated 1741, is now in Limoges. A border,
resembling those of Moustiers, surrounds the figure of Justice
enthroned and holding the sword and scales. Religion, Truth, and Law
attend her, and Crime is crushed under her foot. Other equally
remarkable pieces may be in existence, but Limoges nowhere appears in
the records as producing any faience of importance or of a very high
order of art.
Within the past few years the aspect of affairs has changed, and the
Havilands of New York have made for Limoges--in conjunction with
Auteuil, near Paris, where much of the moulding and decorating is
executed--a place in the history of pottery as lofty as that which it
occupies in the history of enamelling. Notwithstanding all that has been
said of Saracenic and Italian decoration, we believe that it was
reserved for Haviland to show the real decorative capacity of faience,
and to demonstrate the possible harmony between decoration and its
excipient. For a long time Limoges was known solely as a seat of the
porcelain industry. It was in this way that Americans first became
familiar with its name. When the time came for Haviland to turn his
attention to faience the change above referred to set in. He did more
than merely institute a revival of an obscure industry. While Montagnon
of Nevers was following closely in the track of his predecessors, and
other manufacturers, both French and Italian, were busy with imitations
of dead styles, Haviland set a gigantic task before himself, and it is
to the credit of Americans that they have been among the readiest to
appreciate his works and to encourage his efforts. His faience is
remarkable by reason of its combining three very important
qualities--novelty of process, originality of decoration, and the
strength of drawing and color which are most perfectly in keeping with
the material on which they appear.
We have already pointed out the difficulties with which artists on clay
have contended. The action of the fire made the result, in so far as the
coloring is concerned, always more or less of a problem. Too much or too
little heat changed the entire aspect of the piece. Although, therefore,
we find in Italy and elsewhere great painters furnishing designs for the
decoration of pottery, we seldom find them actually engaged upon the
ware itself. Artists naturally prefer the medium which preserves their
individuality of touch and finish. This personality the fire destroyed.
All that was distinctive of the individual palette and brush vanished
under the heat. What the exact nature of the Havilands’ new process and
the composition of their palette may be we have not the means of
discovering. We know, however, that the painting is laid upon the clay
before it is fired, that the piece is then glazed, and is afterward
baked for between twenty and thirty hours. Body, glaze, and colors are
therefore subjected to the fire together. The glaze is alkaline, and is
similar in its general character to that used on _pate tendre_
porcelain. We need not inquire into the preparation of the colors. It is
claimed that the possession of the latter brings the result of any
operation within such bounds that it can be calculated with a reasonable
approach to certainty. Let it be fully understood what this implies. It
means that with palette practically unlimited, any artist can apply
himself to the decoration of earthen-ware, and find his work emerging
from the furnace stamped as clearly with the individuality of his design
and execution as if he had applied it to a painting upon a panel or
canvas.
Among the artists engaged upon the Haviland faience are M. and Mme.
Bracquemond, MM. Lindeneher, Noel, Chaplet, Damousse, Lafond, and
Delaplanche. With Messrs. Chaplet, Laurin, and Lafond, the new
enamelling process may be said to have accidentally originated at
Bourg-la-Reine in 1873, and M. Bracquemond was the first to appreciate
its value and to bring it under the notice of the Messrs. Haviland. The
latter at once saw its merit, and by farther experiment and the use of
the resources at their command, brought it to perfection. The works of
their artists have made America as familiar with their faience as it
formerly was with their porcelain. The process having been discovered,
the second step was the adoption of a style. Here we meet with a
peculiarity of the ware. We speak of schools of painting, and our
language implies a limitation, a peculiarity of _technique_. All artists
who follow nature closely must needs belong to the same school. Their
success in the reproduction of natural effects is a bond of union, which
brings them together across the boundaries of special methods of
treatment. Each of Havilands’ artists may have his specialty, but we
find no broad dividing lines. Their subjects are taken from nature or
from imagination, which is only a wider field based upon the natural.
The sympathy between them lies in the new sense of the capabilities of
their art. The brush is wielded with a stronger hand, and the designs
appear bolder, at times almost reckless. There is no striving after
what might be called “prettiness of style.” Where we have been
accustomed to restraint we find largeness and liberty. There are no
longer minute divisions of surfaces to be covered in detail with
graceful precision, but designs of full artistic completeness and strong
simplicity. Color is applied with a commensurate boldness, which carries
the conviction that here at last we find a decoration suited to its
basis of earthen-ware.
[Illustration: Fig. 238.--Memorial Vase. Haviland Faience. (Smithsonian
Institute.)]
A recent visitor to the workshop of Haviland & Co., near Paris, where
much of their faience is painted, thus describes what he saw: “While in
Paris, I studied the way in which the vases are painted, and was
surprised to find what an amount of care is expended upon them. They
demand more exact treatment than China or English faience. The artist
works as if the material were canvas. A bouquet of flowers, for
instance, is minutely painted, and the shades of the grounds are all
carefully studied. Nothing is left to chance. During the process of
firing everything fuses, and it is then that the appearance of boldness
is produced. If a vase were painted, as on a cursory examination it
appears to be, with a bold brush and careless hand, the result would be
a mere daub of no value. The peculiar talent of the artists consists in
producing an effect of boldness and carelessness with a great deal of
work and a close imitation of nature. Could all the work actually
bestowed upon one of these vases, and as it can be seen before firing,
be seen after firing, the faience of Limoges would resemble that of
England or any other pottery which is painted on the glaze. But the
process is different, and after the firing the detail of the work melts
away, leaving behind that fascinating harmony of colors which has never
before been produced on any pottery. Nothing has as yet been invented to
replace work and care; and when anything you may see presents something
pleasing, be certain that both have been lavished upon it. No writing or
music seems so easy to imitate as that which cannot be imitated; and it
is the part of a good author to conceal the method he employs.”
There are now in the Smithsonian Institute at Washington three pieces of
Haviland faience which may be taken as exemplifying much of what has
been said. These are the Memorial Vases (Fig. 238) and Bracquemond’s
tile-piece allegorizing Human Progress. Let us take the vases first.
They are the joint productions of MM. Bracquemond, designer, and
Delaplanche, sculptor, and are intended to commemorate the Centennial of
American Independence. The broad and easily understood conception is
intensely American, and was, in fact, due to American inspiration. They
fitly stand in the capital, not only as lasting memorials of the
hundredth anniversary of America’s entrance into the great commonwealth
of nations, but as a congratulatory compliment from the ceramic artists
of France.
Viewed in the light of history and of historical usage, they both
acquire a fresh interest, and are better understood. They are
exceptions, in the idea they represent, to the myriad ornamental vases
which load our cabinets and shelves. We have already seen that, from the
most ancient days of Egypt downward, vases were employed for the
conveyance of religious sentiments. The Chinese followed the same
course, and joined with it the custom of using pottery as a reward, or
for the purpose of conferring a mark of imperial distinction upon
officers deserving well of the state. Vases were also made the media
between friends for the conveyance of compliments or congratulations. We
might, in this connection, revert once more to the Greeks, who carried
the Oriental practice still farther. By that people vases were, as we
have seen, used as prizes, as wedding presents, as pledges of love or
friendship, the legends they bear enabling us at this distant day to
listen to the whisperings of passions which burned and died over two
thousand years ago. We also find such commemorative vases as that which
bears the legend, “The beautiful horse, twice conqueror at the Pythian
games.” On many others are inscribed the names of the great men of
antiquity, its kings and its poets. Some of these belong to times
posterior to those in which the persons they were intended to honor
lived, and may, therefore, be called commemorative in the same manner as
statues. Throughout the Middle Ages we find the same usage more widely
prevalent. When, therefore, the artists of France decided upon
commemorating the American Centennial, they had, as a precedent for
making a memorial distinctive of their art, the usage of the potters of
all countries back to the most remote times.
In regard to design and decoration, these vases will bear consideration
in detail. There is one very large class of Greek vases which represent
what we have called the union of pottery and sculpture. In one we have
the helmeted head of Pallas Athene surmounted by a figure of Nike, or
Victory. On others are Tritons bearing Nereïds, Medusa’s head, pennate
figures, and the winged steeds of Aurora. The artist had no thought of
utility to hamper him in designing accessories. It is said that M.
Bracquemond, while in the Louvre, was attracted by one of the Grecian
vases of this class found in Apulia (see Fig. 167). The style is full of
grandeur and pomp. The form of the vase would be heavy and clumsy were
its outline unrelieved by the decorating figures. On the neck stands a
divinity in graceful drapery. Lower down, on the sides, are two
statuettes of deities, and on either side of Minerva’s head surmounted
by Nike in front are two Tritons, with their horse-feet pawing the air.
This vase suggested to M. Bracquemond a design for the Memorial Vases in
Washington. All that he thus derived, however, was merely a suggestion.
The details of the design may be gathered from a description of the
vases themselves. One is intended to represent the year in which the
United States won independence; the other the hundredth anniversary of
that event. Between them is a whole century of history. The vase “1776”
rises from a base consisting of greenish, foamy waves, lashing angrily
against rocks surmounted by a circlet of cannon modelled after the
ordnance of Revolutionary times. In this we have the whole story of the
struggle for independence, and of the turmoil and confusion of the
strife. It is worth noting that this symbolical use of the wave
ornamentation is strictly classical. When the potters of Greece sought a
symbol of caprice and mutation, they could find none more expressive
than the foam-crested waves of the sea. From the cannon the body of the
vase swells gracefully outward, and attains its widest girth near the
top, where it curves rapidly inward to the upper rim. The orifice is
closed by a star-covered dome of blue, from either side of which spring
statuettes of Fame and Victory. On a pedestal on the rim in front stands
a bust of Washington, modelled by Houdon, after one formerly owned by
Lafayette, and now in the Louvre.
The ornamentation on the body is simple and expressive. Green fronds
cross each other above the cannon, and smaller branches and stars are
sprinkled over the whole surface. On the front is the American eagle
with outstretched wings, with the national colors on either side. Above
it, and immediately under the bust of Washington, in small gilt
letters, are the names of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence.
The base of the Centennial vase, “1876,” symbolizes peace and prosperity
by means of fruit, cereals, and the implements of husbandry. Above the
eagle, in place of the names of the signers of the Declaration, are
those of the Presidents, from Washington to Grant, and the surmounting
bust represents Columbia. In other respects the two vases are alike. The
story they tell is plain, and for every observer to read. Out of the
struggle of a hundred years ago have come liberty, peace, and
prosperity. The designer was exposed to dangers which he has coped with
successfully. He has achieved something grateful to American patriotism
without throwing originality aside. The American flag, the eagle,
Washington, and the Goddess of Liberty, compose a group which, but for
their artistic combination, might have been viewed with the indifference
begotten of familiarity. As they stand, it becomes hard to conceive how
otherwise, in equally intelligible language, a great historical event
could have been commemorated in the everlasting record supplied by clay.
They are records, and not mere ornaments. They mirror the first century
of America’s life as a nation. They tell all or nearly all that history
can tell of the passage from the struggle of 1776 to the prosperity of
1876.
The story of their formation is interesting, that of one applying to
both. The body was modelled by M. Renard, chief modeller at Sèvres. He
worked incessantly on the inside for thirty-four hours without resting
more than a few minutes at a time, in order that his work might be
finished before the clay lost any of its plasticity by the evaporation
of the moisture. When this operation was completed the body was allowed
to dry for fifteen days. A kiln was then built round it, its great
size--the vases are twelve feet high, and the largest ever made in
Europe--rendering removal impossible. It was fired for eight days at a
low temperature, and then for three days at a high degree of heat, and
the result of the stupendous work was in every way successful. The
furnace required eight days to cool. If anything more is needed to
enable us to estimate the immense labor involved in such a work, it may
be summed up in this, that these vases demanded thirteen months’ work of
some of the ablest artists and potters of France.
It is difficult to criticise them apart from the sentiment they embody,
and which invests them with a never-fading interest. It was, however, a
touch of genius to get away from immediate usage to a style of
ornamentation with which the artists of Magna Græcia and Apulia
embellished their vases. It is the style best suited to their enormous
size. The enamel is applied only to the ornamentation, the body, busts,
and statuettes being all left unglazed and showing the natural color of
the clay. Every detail is made expressive, while the strictest
simplicity is retained. The size of the work forbade minute
ornamentation of a symbolical character, and there is thus a harmony
between the entire work and the details. The colors are brilliant, and
the general effect, though sombre, is imposing and fine. They will be
viewed hereafter with increasing interest, as marking the revival of an
old complimentary usage under particularly gratifying conditions; and
the grandeur and beauty of the art they represent is not likely to be
forgotten in the contemplation of the sentiment they express.
We turn to the tile-piece in which, upon nearly a thousand tiles, M.
Bracquemond presents his allegory of Human Progress, with a mingled
feeling of dislike and attraction. It also stands in the Smithsonian
Institute. The repellent influence is first experienced, and arises,
probably, from an apparent absurdity of design and the peculiar
coloring. A figure of gigantic size occupies the centre, trampling fire
underfoot, and having a greenish bronze statuette in the right hand and
a vase in the other. On the left are the chimneys and smoke of a
factory, and on the opposite side is a railway train. A flash of
lightning strikes in from the right, and above the central figure is the
recumbent form of a woman partially enveloped in cloud. The picture, as
we have said, is allegorical, and represents the genius of man utilizing
the waters of the rebellious stream and storm, the fires of the volcano
and lightning, and making them subservient to progress. As it is more
closely studied, its true place in art is better understood, and we
ultimately accept the piece as an indication of the possibilities of M.
Bracquemond’s art. We feel that another stage has been passed on the way
toward the perfect union of the potter’s and painter’s skill, and toward
the picture “permanent as the Pyramids” of which Ruskin writes.
Many of the other tile-pieces, panels, and plaques (Fig. 239) from
Limoges and Auteuil are more absolutely excellent. On a circular plaque
appears a draped female head, in which the flesh tint, clear and ruddy,
is simply wonderful. The delicacy which it lacks is found on two panels,
perfect rural pictures, with single female figures. These pieces
illustrate the fineness of landscape effect and the nicety of touch to
which the artist in possession of Haviland’s palette can attain. The
trees stand out well against the sky, its blue slightly shaded with
cloudy gray; and if we turn from these to the figure-drawing, the
arrangement of the drapery, even the finish of the embroidery, we feel
that we are in presence of an art of the decorative and artistic
capacity of which we are only catching the first glimpses.
[Illustration: Fig. 239--Haviland Faience. (H. Havemeyer Coll.)]
If we pass now to the vases of this ware, we are struck by the
originality of their shapes, the freedom of their designs, and the
remarkable depth and beauty of their coloring. There is nowhere visible
any symptom of the nervous feeling after a doubtful result
characteristic of an artist without confidence in himself and his
process. Everything indicates strength, assurance, and power; and if
there is weakness anywhere, it is evidently the result of a boldness
which is over-hasty or too careless of finish and detail. We find no
precedent for the decoration. It is as far removed as possible from all
that is associated with China or Japan, from the majolica of Italy,
Spain, or Berlin, from the stone-ware of England, or the faience of
Sweden. The forms of the vases are of boundless variety, and suggest
originality by their very multiplicity. One would carry us back to the
pottery of ancient Gaul before it had felt the heavy hand of Rome.
Another recalls the Anglo-Saxon vases of England. A third would lead us,
in searching for a precedent, to the clumsy, rotund urns of ancient
Germany. These would all be equally fanciful, no doubt; and in that
suspicion one is confirmed by the exquisite forms of a small _pichet_, a
quaint card-receiver, and a vase rising to its slightly out-turned lip
as gracefully as the cup of a flower.
[Illustration: Fig. 240.--Haviland Faience. (G. W. Gibson Coll.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 241.--Haviland Faience. (Whitelaw Reid Coll.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 242.--Luna Vase. Haviland Faience. (Mrs. William H.
Dannat Coll.)]
We may take a few examples in order to illustrate the decoration. It
consists of painting on the surface, of carved figures in unglazed
relief, and of forms glazed and attached to the surface. Of the first
of these the choice is wide. On some appear hunting dogs full of life
and action and in many attitudes. On another is a Cupid with full-drawn
bow, rosy and chubby, and evidently bent upon dealing a fatal wound. On
a third is a nymph and satyr (Fig. 241). A fourth shows us a barn-yard
pair, a duck and drake, the latter preening himself in the sun, under
which his many-hued plumage glitters with a lustre almost iridescent.
On a fifth a gayly feathered open-throated songster appears to be
warbling his even-song upon a tiny spray. Flowers are painted with all
the splendor of nature, and cling round the forms with gracefully
sweeping stem. One in particular is made attractive simply by its color,
a mottled gray, into the depths of which we look as into the clouds
hanging over the couch of the sun in the early mornings of summer. Its
beauty is in its suggestiveness, which strikes us again in many of the
flower-wreathed vases where there are openings of green, into which one
can look as into a forest glade. The mind creates what the eye cannot
see, and the glade is peopled with beings whose forms are never caught.
This is, no doubt, an example of fancy helping out the artist, but the
artist is none the less fortunate and skilful who can thus induce the
fancy to take wing. He leaves her room to take flight, and the vase he
has decorated with a simple flower becomes a poem suggesting far more
than it tells.
Of the vases showing unglazed carvings in bas-relief there is a single
pair, sufficient for illustration. On one is represented Phœbus, the
golden-haired god of day, and on the other the triform goddess Luna.
Phœbus stands with bow drawn full to the shoulder, just as we picture
him in Homer. It will be remembered that when Lyrnessus was taken by the
Greeks and the spoils divided, Chryseis, the wife of the king of the
captured place, and daughter of Chryses, one of the priests of Apollo,
fell to the share of Agamemnon. Her father sought her restoration from
the “king of men,” and on his request being refused, asked aid from the
god he served. We here have Apollo in the attitude of returning an
answer to his suppliant priest.
“Bent was his bow, the Grecian hearts to wound,
Fierce, as he moved, his silver shafts resound;
Breathing revenge, a sudden night he spread,
And gloomy darkness rolled around his head.
The fleet in view, he twang’d his deadly bow,
And, hissing, fly the feather’d fates below.
On mules and dogs the infection first began,
And last, the vengeful arrows fixed in man.”
On the companion vase (Fig. 242) is the figure of the goddess of night,
Luna, Diana, or Hecate, in her character of Luna, with the crescent
under her feet, and throwing back a mantle from her graceful form. In
both vases the beauty of the conception is skilfully carried out in the
execution. The figures are admirably modelled, and, being of a light
paste and left unglazed, stand out in bold relief against the ground.
The daring of the latter innovation is amply justified by the result.
[Illustration: Fig. 243.--Faience Vase. (Mrs. Colonel T. Scott Coll.)]
Of the third class of vases with glazed ornaments applied to the body
there are many fine specimens. One of the most charming (Fig. 243) is
wreathed by flower sprays twined naturally and gracefully round the
body. The flower is in full bloom, and its large leaves are spread out
above it and below. For handles there are snakes turning in their
changeless coil round the flower stem. On another the handles consist of
butterflies beautifully moulded and colored, and placed as though they
might have been transformed into clay as they alighted on the vase.
Another, of small size and quaintly rotund form, has a mass of leaves
and flowers in relief clustering round the body. A pitcher with a soft
gray ground is lightly overrun with an ivy branch, which twines itself
round the neck and handle as naturally as the plant creeps up and winds
itself round the stem of a tree.
Can anything be more simple than the suggestions to which these
creations are due? Do we need to be reminded of the fable which explains
how Callimachus was inspired to produce the Corinthian capital? We are
told that he was walking in the country, and as he travelled he came to
the grave of a child, upon which, in a basket, some relative--its
mother, probably--had placed the customary offering of food. To keep off
the birds and small animals, a tile had been laid upon the basket. In
course of time an acanthus appeared; and as it grew, its stalk was
pressed back by the tile and turned round spirally under its edge.
Nothing more was needed. Callimachus found in the little basket on the
flower-grown grave a suggestion for the order of architecture which has
never been surpassed to this day. We have similarly, in the faience
vases of Haviland now under consideration, constant hints of inspiration
drawn from the simplest forms of nature. A branch falls upon a vase and
becomes its ornament. A butterfly hangs for a moment on fluttering wing
and drops from its flight, and it too becomes an ornament. The workman
leaves his unfinished work at night, and when he returns at day-break,
finds that a lizard or an asp has crept upon the still slimy vase to
bask itself in the first rays of the morning sun. It darts out of sight,
but it has left an idea which appears in the decoration; and on the spot
from which it glided when disturbed a snake displays its spiral
convolutions.
Where but in nature shall we see anything suggestive of such decoration?
We do not find it in Japan, for the symbolical and semi-imaginative,
semi-realistic style of the extreme East has nothing in common with this
naturalism. As little do we find it among the brilliant colors and
fantastic forms of Persia. If we come nearer home, to Italy, even to the
French centres we have already visited, there is nothing in their
classical scenes and floral wreaths and bouquets to prepare us to find
in Limoges their orderly successor. In a word, the style is original.
There is no crowding of tints for the sake of their rich beauty. A
single flower lying on a ground of one prevailing tone is sufficient
ornamentation for a vase; or a handful of flowers may be scattered upon
the surface in tumbled profusion, or woven into a wreath. Haviland has
entered upon a hitherto undiscovered path, and let us pray that he may
never be tempted to try the porcelain decoration which threatened to
ruin faience, nor to give us anything more meretricious than the beauty
of a garden flower or of the many other admirably conceived forms which
he has endowed with life.
[Illustration: Fig. 244.--Haviland Faience. (Miss Clara Louise Kellogg
Coll.)]
The best pieces have been chosen for commendation and to illustrate the
highest results to be expected from the new process. It is
unquestionable, however, that there are many pieces of this faience
which could be disposed of without seeking words for the expression of
enthusiastic praise. This gives those desiring specimens every
opportunity for the exercise of a judicious discrimination. In some
pieces the simultaneous melting of the color and glaze has resulted in a
haziness of outline and confusion of colors by no means characteristic
of the better examples. On others with figure decoration the drawing has
been completely destroyed, and the figure left in obscurity. These
inferior pieces are useful, however, for showing how careful must be the
work which produces the bold effects securing our admiration.
When Haviland took up the process discovered by MM. Chaplet, Laurin, and
Lafond, at Bourg-la-Reine, he secured the services of two of these
artists. The third, M. Laurin, carried out the process at the place of
its discovery. Many of this artist’s works come to us bearing his mark
and the name of the factory, Bourg-la-Reine, in full. Like that of
Haviland, his work is occasionally irregular; but, as a rule, it is
entitled to very high commendation. The flower decoration is extremely
beautiful, and when laid upon a soft ground, such as the gray, which
Laurin produces to perfection, is entitled to nearly all the praise
bestowed upon the corresponding works from Haviland’s factory. The
Bourg-la-Reine faience is chiefly painted on the flat, and the leading
decoration consists of flower and figure painting. We meet with many
well-selected subjects and much strong and realistic treatment. On one
vase appear an eagle and a serpent on an excellent ground of gray and
blue, the former of which is also employed with fine effect in a variety
of flower pieces.
[Illustration: Fig. 245.--Bourg-la-Reine Faience. (G. Collamore.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 246.--Bourg-la-Reine Plaque. (Tiffany & Co.)]
A very common mistake is made regarding this faience. It is often
confounded with that of Haviland, although the differences between the
two fabrics are obvious. In the first place, the marks can be consulted.
That of Limoges is stamped “H. & Co.”--or, Haviland & Co.--with or
without the place of manufacture. The artist’s mark also is generally
attached. The Bourg-la-Reine is marked either with the name “Laurin” or
“B.-la-R.,” or with both. In the second place, the alkaline glaze of the
Haviland faience gives the paintings, especially of flowers, a life-like
appearance peculiar to itself. It is a mistake to suppose that the
processes of decoration are identical in every particular. In one
respect only they are alike. In both, the colors are laid upon the
unbaked clay. In the mixing of the colors and in the glaze they are
distinct. Laurin’s decoration is harder in outline than the Limoges, and
never possesses the mingled softness and strength which constitute the
great charm of the latter.
[Illustration: Fig. 247.--Deck Faience. (Corcoran Art Gallery.)]
Of the early history of Bourg-la-Reine little of general interest is
known. It appears that Jullien and Jacques of Mennecy founded a workshop
there about the year 1773. Jullien died in 1774, and was succeeded by
his son, who resigned his share in the business to Jacques. When Jacques
died, in 1799, his son, C. S. Jacques, continued the fabrication. At a
later period fine white faience was made. It is upon Laurin alone that,
in this country, the reputation of the place depends.
[Illustration: Fig. 248.--Deck Bottle. (Gilman Collamore.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 249.--Deck Vase. (Gilman Collamore.)]
The name of Deck, of Paris, brings before us much that is beautiful in
the recent ceramics of France. For a long time, in fact, his name was
supposed to represent nearly all that was excellent in the color and
decoration of European pottery. Having enriched his palette with a
wealth of colors which made him the envy of his cotemporaries, he turned
his attention to reviving Oriental styles in hues rivalling those of the
East. He was first attracted to Persia, and with marvellous skill
applied his rich enamel colors to the reproduction of the faience of
that country. In other cases he is manifestly inspired by Japanese art.
His technical skill enables him to reach widely varied effects, and
since to this are added truthful drawing and a fine taste in the
assortment of tints, we can easily understand his eminence in the art.
Specimens of his best work are comparatively rare in this country. The
faience vase from the Corcoran Art Gallery (Fig. 247) is characteristic,
and is an excellent example of M. Deck’s coloring. The ground is a soft
yellow or buff, and the plumage of the pheasant is brilliant and rich.
The blue tints are especially fine, and the glaze, which is judged to be
alkaline, gives the coloring that peculiar softness which is found in
the greatest perfection on _pate tendre_. There is considerable doubt as
to the body used by Deck. It varies very much in different pieces,
approaching in some cases the hardness and compactness of porcelain. Of
this character is the bottle, Fig. 248. The ground color of this
specimen is a clear blue, and in it the white blossoms appear in thick
clusters. A vase and plaque, with a somewhat similar, but possibly even
a finer body, are shown at page 325 (Figs. 280 and 281). That given here
(Fig. 249), singular alike in form and color, has a ground of undecided
shades of brown and yellow. Deck’s violet is soft and rich, approaching
at times the velvety violet of China.
[Illustration: Fig. 250.--Colinot Faience. (Tiffany & Co.)]
The other names most familiar to Americans are those of Colinot,
Parville, Longwy, Creil, Sarreguemines, and Montereau. Their products
illustrate the taste for Oriental styles which sprung up a few years
ago, and to the gratification of which much of the ingenuity of French
makers has been devoted. Colinot, of Paris, has employed with great
skill colored enamels in the imitation of Japanese work. On one
cylindrical vase (Fig. 250) he has laid in strong relief, upon a
dark-buff ground, flowers and leaves exactly after the models supplied
by Satsuma and Kioto. On other specimens the decoration is outlined upon
a white ground, and filled in with enamel colors. The method is
productive of a clear hardness of outline, but the results are seldom
unpleasing and often very attractive. Colinot has succeeded in obtaining
several excellent colors. The vase (Fig. 251) is a rich purple, on which
the flowers are laid in white and green. The treatment is similar to
that of Deck, but the ground is less brilliant and clear. Colinot also
acquired considerable reputation by his faience with colored
stanniferous enamel. We give an example (Fig. 252) of his treatment of
large pieces. The ground is a pale blue, and the medallions are
admirably painted. The color is subdued throughout.
[Illustration: Fig. 251.--Colinot Vase. (Gilman Collamore.)]
The Creil workshop was established some time during the eighteenth
century, probably about 1780, by a number of English potters. Its
earliest works appear to have consisted chiefly of services of a
semi-porcelaneous paste. The Worcester method of transfer-printing and
then painting the design in colors was adopted, and successfully
handled. The founders transferred the establishment to Le Bœuf,
Milliet & Co. and De St. Criq & Co. Porcelain was made until 1860, after
which the production was restricted to English faience. The paste
cannot, however, be distinctly qualified, as it varies from the original
semi-porcelain to cream-colored ware. The latter has a wide reputation,
both for its quality and its decoration under the glaze.
[Illustration: Fig. 252.--Colinot Faience. (Tiffany & Co.)]
The Montereau establishment was, like that of Creil, founded by
Englishmen. Letters patent were granted on March 15th, 1775, to Clark,
Shaw & Co., to make English faience and queen’s-ware. The firm started
under very favorable auspices, receiving an annual allowance of 1200
francs for ten years, probably for the purpose of naturalizing the
industry. Its wares helped to overturn the manufacture of French
faience, and were imitated at several places, including Toulouse and
Sarreguemines. In 1790 there were two establishments at Montereau. As at
Creil, M. De St. Criq, in 1810, acquired the right of protection, and in
1829 assigned it to Lebœuf & Thebaut.
At Longwy the manufacture of faience was begun about forty years ago,
when M. Huart de Northcomb was proprietor of a workshop. Its name is now
found upon many excellent specimens of faience with colored stanniferous
enamel. In the bottle and tray (Fig. 253) a rich effect is produced by
the employment of two shades of blue in the scaly ground. The oval
medallions and other ornamentation are yellow, with leaves and flowers
in green and pink. It is one of the best examples we have seen from this
factory, which is one of the largest of its kind in France. The pitcher
(Fig. 254) has a ground of undecided very pale yellow, and the leaves,
flowers, and birds are variously colored. Our third specimen, an oval
plaque (Fig. 255), has, in its design and the brilliancy of its
coloring, a decidedly Oriental appearance. In the other examples the
ground is broken up by a crackle more or less open and irregular; but in
the plaque the white enamel is veined with fine and regular darkly
colored cracks, which bring the ground to a soft and pleasing gray. The
flowers are red and pink, and the foliage green, turning at times to
blue. The bird is brightly plumaged with blue and other colors. In this
as in the other pieces, the ground alone is crackled, and the decoration
has the appearance of being graved in the enamel and then filled in with
the requisite colors.
[Illustration: Fig. 253--Longwy Faience. (Gilman Collamore.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 254.--Longwy Faience. Crackle. (G. Collamore.)]
Parville, of Paris, makes enamelled faience of the same general
description; and the vase chosen to represent it (Fig. 256) deserves
attention both for the peculiarity of its form and for the illustration
it gives of a French modification of the Persian style of decorating.
The ground is a dull and sombre shade of dark-blue, upon which the
ornamentation is laid in light-blue, white, red, and two shades of
yellow.
[Illustration: Fig. 255.--Longwy Faience. Crackle. (Tiffany & Co.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 256.--Parville Faience. (Tiffany & Co.)]
Gien faience, like those of Creil and Montereau, belongs to the class of
ware with a colorless plumbiferous glaze, and its decoration is often
remarkable both in design and color. In the vase with which we represent
this faience (Fig. 257) the design is outlined on the biscuit, and the
colors are then applied. The earlier products of Gien are said to be
imitations of the styles of Marseilles. A more artistic faience,
resembling the Gien, is made by M. Elysse at Blois, in the old Italian
styles of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The Sarreguemines factory was founded in 1770, by Paul Utzchneider, and
is now carried on under the firm of Utzchneider & Co. It turns out both
faience and porcelain. Figures and groups in porcelain biscuit and
artificial porcelain are made. The factory is also known by a fine white
stone-ware. In the fine faience of Sarreguemines, certain works may be
found which are, in many respects, the most extraordinary of the present
time. Imitations of jasper, marble, granite, and porphyry, are produced
of the most beautiful description, and other pieces resemble the
jasper-ware of Wedgwood, with white decoration on a blue ground. The
vase (Fig. 258) can hardly be described in words. Among the varied
contents of Mr. Collamore’s collection, it is perfectly unique. The
ground is a deep and brilliant black, upon which the decoration is laid
in white, gold, and blue, dotted with drops of jewel-like enamels. The
handles are blue and gold. The design can be distinctly followed in the
engraving, but even a colored plate could hardly do justice to the
enamels, or give an idea of the general effect.
[Illustration: Fig. 257.--Gien Faience. (Davis Collamore Coll.)]
Niederviller has made faience in the Strasburg style since at least the
beginning of the eighteenth century, and about 1760 was producing pieces
with delicate flower paintings. It was then under the patronage of Baron
de Beyerlé, and afterward of Count Custine, under whose proprietorship
the porcelain style was farther developed. A curious specimen is given
by Jacquemart, in which the ground of the plate is painted to imitate
wood, and in the centre is a reservation simulating a sheet of white
paper with a landscape in pink. In 1768 the Baron de Beyerlé was making
a good quality of porcelain from German material. Under Count Custine,
François Lanfrey was engaged as manager. Charles Sauvage, or Lemire,
made small figures and groups in biscuit, and Cyfflé also executed some
of his works at Niederviller.
[Illustration: Fig. 258--Sarreguemines Faience. (G. Collamore.)]
The name of this artist, Paul Louis Cyfflé, is, however, more intimately
associated with Luneville. The faience workshop of Luneville was founded
about 1729, by Jacques Chambrette. In 1778 it was acquired by Keller &
Guérin. The styles of Nevers and Strasburg were both successfully
followed. It was here that Cyfflé made his statuettes of fine “terre de
Lorraine.”
In the same district are the factories of Nancy and St. Clement. The
former produced faience in 1774, and a peculiar kind of biscuit which
takes its name from the place. The factory was founded by Nicolas
Lelong. Very little is known of the St. Clement works, though they are
said to have been in operation in 1750. In 1835 they were under the
directorship of M. Aubry. Both Luneville and St. Clement have been more
recently known by their stanniferous faience.
St. Amand holds an important position in the history of French art. It
is one of the places, including Lille, Dunkirk, Valenciennes, and the
other faience-producing towns of Flanders, which enabled France to
domesticate, in a measure, the manufacture of ware resembling that of
Delft. The paste of these faiences is identical with that used in the
great Dutch establishment, with which they very soon came into
competition. The history of St. Amand extends from 1740 down to the
Revolution. It was founded by Pierre Joseph Fauquez, was continued by
his son, Pierre François Joseph, until 1773, and by his grandson, Jean
Baptiste Joseph, until the Revolution. The earlier style of decoration
is based upon that of Rouen; the second is after that of Strasburg. One
of the distinguishing features of this faience is the use of white
enamel in relief upon the glaze, which is faintly tinged with blue.
Having already touched upon a few of the leading names of modern Paris,
there yet remains to be said something of its previous history. The
relics discovered within the city belong to every period, from the Roman
downward; and it may therefore be said that the metropolitan potters
have been as busy, comparatively speaking, in the past as they are
to-day. Faience was made from the beginning of the seventeenth century,
and Réverend was, in 1664, making imitations of Delft, “thin, with a
white enamel, with clear polychrome colors, often excessively pure.”
This is M. Jacquemart’s description. Notwithstanding the privilege
accorded to Réverend, many other workshops appear to have made faience
throughout the whole of the eighteenth century, and it is generally
impossible to tell them from the wares of Rouen and elsewhere, which
they imitated.
Artistic faience was made at Sceaux for about forty-five years previous
to 1795, by Chapelle and Glot successively. Gros-Caillou, St. Denis,
Vincennes, St. Cloud, and Sèvres were all more or less engaged in the
manufacture of faience. We find Pierre Antoine Hannong, from Strasburg,
at Vincennes in 1767, but he met with little success.
There are many other places at which faience was made, some, like
Nantes, Bordeaux, and Orleans, of importance, and others of which little
is known besides their names. A list of them would add nothing to our
real knowledge of French art, which has been chiefly influenced by the
styles of which we have most fully treated. To the accounts of them has
been added all that could be learned regarding Limoges, Creil,
Sarreguemines, and a few Parisian and other workshops especially
interesting to the collectors of the present day.
PORCELAIN.
Efforts to Make Porcelain.--First Artificial Porcelain.--St.
Cloud.--Lille.--Paris.--Chantilly,--Mennecy.--Vincennes.--Sèvres.--Natural,
or Hard, Porcelain.--Discovery of Kaolin.--Various
Factories.--Limoges.--Deck.--Regnault.--Solon.--Pate
Changeante.--Pate-sur-Pate.
[Illustration: Fig. 259.--St. Cloud Porcelain Salt-cellar. (Jacquemart
Coll.)]
We have already seen that the discovery of artificial porcelain preceded
that of natural, or kaolinic, porcelain. In treating of the faience of
Rouen, we quoted, from the letters patent granted to Louis Poterat on
the 31st of October, 1673, a passage to show that he meditated the
production of porcelain similar to the Chinese. A privilege was also
granted to Claude Réverend, of Paris, in 1664, which bears that he
possessed the secret of making a “counterfeit porcelain, as fine and
finer than that which comes from the East Indies.” All that Réverend
achieved was a very fine faience; and Poterat, having met with success
as a maker of faience, probably renounced the prosecution of the search
for porcelain, although he may be said to have arrived at or very near
success. The first French artificial, or soft, porcelain known to
commerce was that made by the Chicanneau family at St. Cloud in 1695
(Fig. 259). It is first noticed by Martin Lister, a traveller, in 1698.
Henry Trou, having married the widow of Pierre Chicanneau, became head
of the manufactory of St. Cloud; and a family quarrel having taken
place, Marie Moreau, widow of one of the Chicanneaus, established
herself in Paris. The earliest marks of St. Cloud porcelain are the sun
and the letters S. C. and T., the former dating from 1702 to 1715, the
latter from 1715 to 1730. The sun was the device of Louis XIV., and the
letters afterward used were the initials of St. Cloud and Trou. The
paste was close and white, and the glaze uneven. The decoration soon
became varied in character, some pieces, with birds and flowers in
relief, resembling the Chinese, and others of French patterns in blue,
with arabesques or lace borders.
[Illustration: Fig. 260.--Vincennes Porcelain Cooler. (Duke de Martina
Coll.)]
The attempts of Poterat and Réverend, and the more perfect success of
Chicanneau, indicate the prevalence of the desire to solve the mystery
of Chinese porcelain. Experiments were being conducted almost
everywhere, and the success of the potters of St. Cloud gave a new zest
to the search. A manufactory was founded at Lille in 1711; at Paris, by
the offshoot of the St. Cloud family, in 1722; and at Chantilly in 1725,
where the porcelain of Corea was taken as a model. Ten years later
Barbin was established at Mennecy, and in 1739 the philosopher Réaumur,
led away by the universal search, arrived at a devitrified glass, which
went under the name of “Réaumur’s porcelain,” though in no sense
deserving such a name. With 1740 we reach the establishment of the royal
manufactory at Vincennes (Fig. 260).
Two brothers named Dubois, formerly of St. Cloud, offered to sell their
secret to the Intendant of Finance, and were given the necessary means
to carry on the production at Vincennes. These men did not fulfil their
promise, and were succeeded by one of their workmen, named Gravant. The
celebrated Madame de Pompadour used her influence with the king to
induce him to favor an enterprise the success of which would make France
independent of Saxony. The result was that the manufacture quickly rose
to eminence. Chemists, artists, and goldsmiths were engaged in designing
and decorating. Flowers were modelled and painted in a style so closely
resembling the natural that the king is said, upon one occasion, to have
mistaken the artificial for the real. In 1753, the position of manager
was given to Eloi Brichard. Louis XV. took a third of the capital upon
himself, and the name of “The Royal Porcelain Manufactory of France” was
conferred upon the establishment. The workshops at Vincennes became too
small, and in 1756 a removal was made to a new building erected
specially for the purpose at Sèvres.
[Illustration: Fig. 261.--Old Sèvres Pate Tendre. (August Belmont
Coll.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 262.--Old Jewelled Sèvres Pate Tendre. Cup diameter,
2½ in.; Saucer circumference, 18 in. (Mrs. J. V. L. Pruyn Coll.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 263.--Jewelled Sèvres. (H. C. Gibson Coll.)]
The imitations which had annoyed Adam, the director who preceded
Brichard, continued under the administration of the latter. The king
then took the entire establishment into his own hands, and appointed M.
Boileau director. Such was an eighteenth century toy of royalty. The
king, accompanied by the Pompadour, paid regular visits to Sèvres, which
was well worthy of being a royal possession. Everything that art could
suggest in the form of gardens and groves had been done to embellish it.
Even a private chase was provided for the artists, where, in hunting the
boar and stag, they relieved the labors of the studio. Never, possibly,
were artists so favored by patronage and place, and the productions of
Sèvres were worthy of the sunshine in which it basked. Its flowers and
vases admit of no classification. Figures were also made in biscuit (see
Fig. 226). Chemists vied with each other in the invention of colors, and
the _bleu de roi_, Hellot’s turquoise blue (1752), the Pompadour pink
(1757), violet, greens, yellow, and iron-red followed each other in
rapid succession, and were employed with dazzling effect. Special
mention need only be made of the jewelled porcelain (Figs. 262 and 263)
on a _bleu de roi_ ground. The successive directors after Boileau were:
Parent, 1773-1779; Regnier, 1779-1793; Commissioners, with Chanou and
afterward Salmon, Ettlinger, and Meyer, jointly as inspectors, down to
1800; Brongniart, 1800-1847; and then MM. Ebelman, Regnault, and Robert
in succession. The specimen here given (Fig. 264) is one of a pair
dated 1772 and 1781 respectively, which formerly belonged to Louis XVI.
On his request they were sold by Governor Morris, in order to raise
money, and were bought by Dr. Hosack, of New York. The scene in the
medallion represents Louis XVI. in his cabinet, and the nurse bringing
in the newly born Dauphin.
[Illustration: Fig. 264.--Sèvres Pate Tendre (1772-1781). _Bleu de Roi_
Ground. (Mrs. C. B. Hosack Coll.)]
Meantime the paste was still artificial, and the researches for a
natural, or hard, porcelain were not relaxed. In 1769 the discovery of
kaolin and petuntse at St. Yrieix, near Limoges, led to the introduction
of hard paste into Sèvres. In 1804 M. Brongniart decided to abandon the
manufacture of artificial porcelain, and soon afterward regretted having
taken such a step. In 1847 M. Ebelman, Brongniart’s pupil and successor,
decided to revive the _pate tendre_, and for four years made use of a
body which had been prepared by Brongniart forty-five years previously.
The clay, instead of being thrown away, as Brongniart thought, had been
stored throughout the long period of its neglect, and both saved the new
director any trouble in experimenting, and supplied a standard for the
future. The production of soft paste has been continued, but the
quantity is inconsiderable. Mr. Walters, of Baltimore, has in his
collection a valuable _pate tendre_ vase dated 1860.
To give in detail the events which led to the introduction of natural
porcelain into the royal factory, we must turn back to the year 1721,
when Wackenfeld was attempting to utilize at Strasburg the knowledge he
had brought from Germany. Hannong was engaged in the same enterprise;
and his son, Paul Antoine, after endeavoring in vain to carry on the
production in competition with the artificial porcelain of the royal
factory, and engaging in fruitless negotiations with Director Boileau,
at last retired to Frankenthal. His son afterward took the Strasburg
works in hand, but failed. All this porcelain was made from imported
material. That of Paul Antoine resembles in decoration the works of
Meissen, and his son followed both the Saxon and Sèvres styles.
[Illustration: Fig. 265.--Charlotte Corday Vase; Sèvres Porcelain,
Mounted. Red and Gold. (White House.)]
In 1758 an event happened of the first importance to the making of a
true French natural porcelain. This was the discovery by the Count de
Brancas Lauraguais of an inferior quality of kaolin near Alençon. The
specimens of the ware in which it was used show a coarse body, and
decoration after the Chinese and Japanese types. Shortly afterward
Gérault, or to give his name in full, Charles Claude Gérault Daranbert,
the proprietor of a faience establishment at Orleans, engaged in the
manufacture of porcelain. A privilege had been granted to the Orleans
workshop, in 1755, to make a white faience, and the making of porcelain
appears to have begun about 1764, on the acquisition by Gérault of a
kaolin mine at St. Yrieix-la-Perche. In 1765 Guettard, chemist in the
establishment of the Duke of Orleans at Bagnolet, came upon the kaolin
deposit at Alençon originally discovered by the Count Lauraguais. Within
a few years, also, Robert was making porcelain at Marseilles.
[Illustration: Fig. 266.--Old Sèvres, Mounted in Metal. Dark-blue
Ground. Height, 9½ in. (Mrs. J. V. L. Pruyn Coll.)]
The next events of importance are Madame Darnet’s discovery of kaolin at
St. Yrieix, and Macquer’s experiments with it at Sèvres. As at
Strasburg, the mistake was made at Sèvres of mixing the kaolin and
petuntse in the wrong proportions, and the result of the excess of
felspar was a very translucent glassy body. The first pieces and those
of artificial paste were so nearly alike that, to distinguish the
former, they were marked with the well known double L and crown. They
may also be known by the color being laid upon the glaze. In the soft
paste the colors appear to be sunk in the glaze. When Brongniart, in
1804, stopped the production of _pate tendre_, the works of the royal
factory began to assume the forms and to be decorated in the styles with
which the world has been familiar for the last seventy years. “The
largest pieces,” says Jacquemart, “were undertaken, and sculpture and
painting united to enrich gigantic vases. Plaques of forty-six by
thirty-six inches were given to distinguished artists, who reproduced in
unalterable colors the frescoes of Raffaelle, the masterpieces of
Vandyke, Titian, and of the modern school.” Of modern Sèvres we give one
example (Fig. 268), to which some interest attaches as belonging to a
service presented by the French Government to Miss M. F. Curtis,
distributor of funds sent from Boston for the relief of sufferers by the
war with Germany in 1870-1871.
[Illustration: Fig. 267.--Franklin Vase. Sèvres. Blue and Gold.
Inscription on Vase, “Vue de la Maison de Franklin à Passy.” (White
House.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 268.--Sèvres Porcelain Tea-Set. (Curtis Coll.,
Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]
To give an idea of the value of the Sèvres porcelain, it may be
mentioned that Napoleon, following an example set by Louis XV., sent to
the King of Etruria a vase worth about sixty thousand dollars. Tea-sets
worth $1000, vases at $1500 and $5000, are mentioned as being in the
royal collection in England.
[Illustration: Fig. 269.--Washington’s “Cincinnati” Sèvres.]
[Illustration: Fig. 270.--Mrs. Washington’s Sèvres Tea-Service.]
There are several specimens of Sèvres porcelain, formerly preserved at
Arlington House, and now in the Patent Office at Washington, to which a
historical interest attaches. There are, firstly, some pieces of the
“Cincinnati China” (Fig. 269) presented to George Washington by the
French officers who fought in the continental army. They are white, with
deep-blue bands of leaves and scroll-work, and have on the bottoms or
sides the figure of Fame holding in her left hand the Order of the
Cincinnati. There are, secondly, several remnants of the set presented
at the same time, and by the same gentlemen, to Mrs. Washington (Fig.
270). The rim of each piece is surrounded by a chain of thirteen links,
in each of which is the name of one of the original States. In the
centre of each plate and saucer, and on the side of each of the other
pieces, is the monogram of Martha Washington, surrounded by a green
wreath of laurel and olive leaves. A golden aureole surrounds the
wreath, beneath which is a ribbon scroll with the motto, _Decus et
tutamen ab illo_. The colors are at once delicate and brilliant, and the
painting admirable.
[Illustration: Fig. 271.--Limoges Porcelain. Cup and Saucer. Painted by
Pallandre. (S. S. Conant Coll.)]
Manufactories rapidly sprung up in other French towns--at Niederviller,
where German kaolin was used; at several places in Paris; at Bordeaux,
Clignancourt, Lille, Valenciennes, Vincennes, Limoges, and elsewhere.
Fauquez made porcelain at Valenciennes in 1785, and the works were taken
by Lamoninary in 1787. Hannong was employed at Vincennes in 1786, and
marked his pieces with two pipes crossed, with or without the letter H.
The industry was afterward protected by the Duke of Chartres, when the
monogram L. P. was adopted as the mark.
[Illustration: Fig. 272.--Limoges Porcelain Plate. Painted by
Pallandre.]
The porcelain of Limoges is probably better known in this country than
any other, through the enterprise of the makers, whose works in faience
have already arrested our attention. The proximity of Limoges to St.
Yrieix would alone lead us to view it as an important centre. After the
discovery of kaolin, the brothers Grellet, Massié, and Fourniera
established a porcelain workshop in 1773. The mark C. D. occurs on many
remarkable works. In 1784 the manufactory was absorbed by Sèvres,
Gabriel Grellet acting as director. The paste was then very pure and
white, but deteriorated; and Alluaud succeeded Grellet in 1788. Another
change was made in 1793, and the works were again carried on as a
private enterprise in the hands of MM. Joubert and Cancate. In 1794 the
convent at Limoges was converted into a manufactory, and another rose in
1798, in the hands of the elder Alluaud, who was succeeded by his son.
Though highly commendable in purity of glaze and compactness and
whiteness of paste, his porcelain was inferior in decoration. The next
we hear of Limoges is through David Haviland, of New York, who went from
this country to Limoges upward of forty years ago. His firm worked
steadily in the manufacture of porcelain, chiefly of a domestic
character, before they conjoined it with that of faience.
[Illustration: Fig. 273.--Limoges Porcelain. (Mrs. Colonel T. Scott
Coll.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 274.--Limoges Porcelain. (Gen. A. J. Meyers Coll.)]
At the present time Haviland & Co. make a domestic ware of exceptional
purity and of great beauty of design. One set is modelled after and
decorated with the water-lily, and others are of equal simplicity and
beauty. The rule in these and in more strictly ornamental pieces is, to
follow a chaste and refined style, marked by a limited use of color. The
rule we laid down for the decoration of porcelain--that it should never
be loaded with colors less beautiful than its own glaze--is here more
closely followed than anywhere else occurring to us. Here, for example,
is a set of plates painted with different scenes, such as a snow-storm,
morning, night, before a shower, during a shower, and other similar
subjects. The details are not wrought in with obtrusive precision.
Something is left to imagination, and the effect of every view is
perfect. They are painted by M. Bracquemond.
[Illustration: Fig. 275.--Limoges Porcelain. (Whitelaw Reid Coll.)]
[Illustration: Fig. 276.--Limoges Pate Tendre. (H. J. Jewitt Coll.)]
We nowhere find a better successor to the “egg-shell” of China than in
the delicate, pure, and fragile specimens of thin porcelain from
Limoges. This is an exceptional fabric, but there is elsewhere to be
seen enough to substantiate the excellence of French porcelain for
domestic use, in point of both beauty and strength. We have seen certain
small coffee-cups so finely wrought, exquisitely modelled, and chastely
colored, that when not in use they might serve as ornaments. The point
to which painting on porcelain has been brought is further illustrated
by a series of dessert plates ornamented with different kinds of
fruit--grapes, peaches, and other varieties. The supreme delicacy with
which the requisite tints are here applied is admirable. On others are
different kinds of seaweed and other marine objects, in which the artist
has caught the natural hues with wonderful precision. The porcelain
vases are, as a rule, small in size. No attempt, so far as we are aware,
has been made to follow the gigantic works of Sèvres, Meissen, and
Berlin, and we do not regret the fact. The works with which we are
presented show great skill in the colors obtained, and the shapes are
simple and sometimes severe. The domestic porcelain of Limoges deserves
careful study for the sake of the refined taste which it invariably
reflects.
[Illustration: Fig. 277.--Dinner-set in Limoges Pate Tendre.]
The most highly artistic pieces are in _pate tendre_, or artificial
paste. Considering the difficulty of manipulating the body and its
liability to sink in the furnace, many of the old Sèvres pieces must be
regarded as marvels of workmanship. We look with a similar interest upon
the examples coming to us from Limoges. It has the honor of having
produced the only complete dinner-set ever made of this ware (Fig. 277).
Its beauty is parallel with its value, which we hardly dare estimate.
Beautifully modelled and plumaged birds form the dish handles, and a
simple accessory decoration on the body reveals to perfection the
peculiar appearance presented by _pate tendre_ of having the colors sunk
in the soft and creamy glaze.
Haviland & Co. have attained an exceptional success in colors. A
complete toilet-set of _pate tendre_ is turquoise blue of great richness
and transparent depth. The modelling corresponds with an achievement in
color which has been the despair of ceramic artists for centuries. Deck
is the only French maker who, before the Havilands, approached the old
turquoise of China. The art has long been lost in the East. Deck’s
pieces, however, are apt to craze or crack in irregular breaks, and this
was thought to be unavoidable until Haviland made crackle closely
resembling in color the rare old Chinese. Of the same material are two
recumbent Psyches (Fig. 278), one in blue, the other in pink. In no more
poetic form do we remember to have met the winged nymph who turned
against Cupid the darts with which he was wont to afflict humanity. A
set of three graceful vases (Fig. 279) with reticulated necks, and each
supported on a tripod of goats’ feet, is painted in blue, gold, and
pink. The forms are graceful and the coloring refined. The paintings of
Poitevin and Du Liege on these and other pieces are characterized by the
most exquisite delicacy. M. Pallandre, the Parisian flower-painter, has
also lent to the porcelain of Haviland & Co. the beauty conferred by his
dexterous brush.
[Illustration: Fig. 278.--Psyche, in Blue Pate Tendre.]
[Illustration: Fig. 279.--Pate-tendre Vase.]
[Illustration: Fig. 280.--Deck Vase. (G. Collamore.)]
An excellent domestic ware, also made at Limoges, is largely imported by
the manufacturers, Charles Field Haviland & Co., of New York. The
greater portion of it is undecorated; but lately the makers have been
turning their attention to decoration, and artistic work of considerable
merit now comes from their establishment.
[Illustration: Fig. 281.--Deck Plaque. (G. Collamore.)]
Before leaving France, the names of Deck, Solon, and Regnault may be
allowed to stay our progress. The Messrs. Deck, of Paris, have, as we
have seen, made a special study of color, and were the first, or among
the first, to revive Oriental decoration. Their Persian ware, or
imitation of the old art of Persia, is characterized by much of the
beauty of the original. Their blue, as we have seen, is especially
commendable, and enabled them to compete with the enterprising imitators
of England, the Mintons, who have for several years been in possession
of a blue very little inferior to the turquoise. It is to be regretted
that Deck was not represented at the Centennial Exhibition, where, by
the richness of his palette, he would have had an opportunity of
extending his reputation in America.
M. Regnault, who succeeded M. Ebelman in the directorate of Sèvres, was
the inventor, while at the Sèvres manufactory, of _pate changeante_. The
ware appears, during the day, like gray céladon, and at night, under
artificial light, changes to a beautiful pink, whence its name.
[Illustration: Fig. 282.--Minton Porcelain. Pate-sur-pate, by Solon.
(Wales Coll., Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)]
The name of M. Solon recalls at once the peculiar style of decoration
called “_Pate-sur-pate_,” or paste upon paste. The process has been long
known in China, and was first attempted in Europe by M. Ebelman at
Sèvres about thirty years ago. The experiments were successful, and some
very fine works were issued. The process was taken to England from
Sèvres by M. Solon, who was engaged a few years ago by the Messrs.
Minton (Fig. 282). In Mr. A. B. Daniells’s collection at the Centennial
Exhibition, some examples of _pate-sur-pate_ by M. Solon attracted
general attention. There were two pairs of vases of a pure Greek shape,
with a body of a rich bronze or chocolate color. On this, in white
relief, were figures symbolizing Fire and Water, and a group of the
Graces accompanied by Cupid in a race. The forms were exquisitely drawn,
and were half revealed by the semi-transparent drapery. More usual
grounds are a dark green and a grayish tint, either of which has a soft
effect. A second specimen is given at Fig. 352.
This method of treatment consists in applying to the surface to be
decorated white liquid porcelain as a pigment. The application is
repeated until the necessary relief is obtained, when the figures are
finished by carving or scraping. Repeated firings are necessary before
glazing, and the decoration, which is opaque while wet, becomes more or
less transparent, according to the thickness of the pigment. The process
is one of the nicest and most difficult in the entire range of ceramic
art, as a mistake once made cannot be remedied, and the glaze has a
tendency to destroy the fine outlines of the figures.