the Marchese Carlo Ginori in 1735 and still kept up by his descendants.
His aim was to compete with the porcelain imported from Saxony, and he
succeeded in his efforts without the princely support by which alone
in most European countries the manufacture was saved from failure. He
obtained the assistance of an expert from the factory at Vienna, Carl
Wendelin Anreiter, of whose painted work on porcelain rare specimens
are occasionally met with. The earliest Doccia productions showed
distinct signs of Meissen influence, as may be seen from a soup-bowl
in the Victoria and Albert Museum; this has a basket-work rim of the
Meissen type, and is decorated with genre scenes from Italian peasant
life in medallions, surrounded by tendrils in red and gold and small
panels of lilac colour. Other pieces of the same service bear the mark
of a Doccia painter, Pietro Fanciullacci. At a later stage the Ginori
works became famous for their large reproductions in white porcelain of
antique statues in the Florentine palaces, such as the Crouching Venus
and the Apollo Belvedere.
* * * * *
The celebrated royal factory at CAPODIMONTE, near Naples, is said to
owe its origin to a present of Meissen porcelain made to Charles III.,
King of the Two Sicilies, in 1736, when he married the Saxon princess
Maria Amelia. Its earliest productions were in white porcelain moulded
with shells, coral, and other marine decorations, but its fame is
more specially founded on the services with mythological subjects
minutely picked out in enamel colours. As at Doccia, the inborn genius
of the Italians for modelling was exhibited in figures and elaborate
statuettes, in which drapery and flesh are usually tinted after
nature. A characteristic example is a large allegorical composition
at Kensington, supported on four figures copied from the crouching
Turkish slaves (“_I quattro Mori_”) by Pietro Tacca, which surround
the monument of Ferdinand I. of Tuscany in the harbour at Leghorn;
modelling and colouring alike display the tendency to exaggeration
and sensationalism characteristic of Italian art in the period of
decadence. When Charles III. succeeded in 1759 to the throne of Spain,
he removed with him to the palace of BUEN RETIRO, near Madrid, the
whole establishment of his Neapolitan factory; the Madrid porcelain is
of a similar kind to that made before the transfer of the works.
The later factory carried on at NAPLES under Ferdinand IV. shows the
influence of the excavations at Herculaneum in the severe classical
style by which it is marked. Painted views of the district of Naples
and of the local antiquities are a favourite feature. At the same
time the works gained some renown by the cleverly modelled statuettes
in biscuit china of greyish tone made under the direction of Filippo
Tagliolini.
IV
FRENCH PORCELAIN
PLATE 19
Vase, Sèvres, given in 1780 by Gustavus III. of Sweden to Catherine
II. of Russia. Decorated by Morin, Fontaine, and Le Guay on a _bleu
de roi_ ground. Height, 19½ in. Jones Collection.
No. 781-1882. See p. 59.
Mark:
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The Florentine experiments and the Pisa bowls remain as solitary
relics in the story of European porcelain until the year 1673, when
the scene is shifted to France. At this date a privilege was granted
for making porcelain to Edme Poterat, of St. Sever, a suburb of Rouen,
in the name of his son Louis. Since 1644 he had been working as a
_faïencier_ as lessee of the Sieur Poirel de Grandval, _huissier de
cabinet_ to Anne of Austria; the Sieur Poirel had been granted an
exclusive licence for making faïence in the province of Normandy. The
manufacture of porcelain at Rouen was not continued for long after the
death of Poterat in 1694, in consequence of a dispute between his sons,
which resulted in their privilege being withdrawn. The nature of this
earliest French porcelain is established by a few pieces, which there
are sufficient grounds for supposing to be authentic. One of these is
at South Kensington, a tall cup finely fashioned in a paste of bluish
tone and carefully painted in a strong underglaze blue; the design
consists of small vases of flowers amid formal _lambrequin_ ornament
below a castellated border.
A point of special interest in connection with the earliest French
experiments is that, while the efforts of their authors were
consciously directed at the emulation of Oriental porcelain, the style
of decoration adopted by them was thoroughly French, showing hardly any
trace of Chinese influence. The surviving Rouen specimens are closely
similar in their ornament to the faïence produced by the factory in
which they were made. The same is true of the porcelain manufactured,
for the first time in Europe on a commercial scale, at ST. CLOUD,
near Paris. This factory was started by a Rouen potter named Pierre
Chicaneau for the making of earthenware. As the result of experiments
made shortly before his death, Chicaneau could boast of producing
objects in porcelain “_presqu’aussi parfait que les porcelaines de
la Chine et des Indes_.” His widow and family continued the work he
had begun, and in 1702 were granted letters patent by Louis XIV.; the
factory was subsequently carried on by Henri Trou, second husband of
Chicaneau’s widow. The jar reproduced in Plate 12 illustrates admirably
the style in vogue at the St. Cloud works. Formal devices adapted from
Rouen faïence and inspired by the designs of Bérain, are symmetrically
disposed as borders, leaving a large part of the surface free, so as
to display to full advantage the soft tone of the glaze. The sense of
fitness and proportion never absent from the best French work asserts
itself as much in the painted ornament as in the rich ormolu mount with
which the jar is embellished. The legs of console outline and the rayed
masks between them are typical forms of the art of Louis XIV.’s reign;
instinct as they are with sober dignity, they are saved from stiffness
of effect by the contrast of the band of running foliage engraved on
the collar round the top of the jar.
Painting in blue under the glaze was the predominant manner of
decoration at St. Cloud. In other cases the porcelain is left white,
and only moulded ornaments are used; these are either copied directly
from the Chinese Fuchien porcelain,--here at last Oriental motives
appear,--or they exhibit a hybrid mingling of classical and Chinese
forms. The latter type is seen in a fine soup-tureen in the Fitzhenry
gift at South Kensington; it is moulded with pseudo-Oriental cranes
and foliage in relief above a gadrooned border, and has grotesque
mask handles and a knob in the form of a cabbage. The tureen is of
special interest because to the relief decoration has been added enamel
colouring in primrose-yellow, green, and pale red; an examination
of the piece discloses on the bottom, not only the incised mark of
Henri Trou, but also a _fleur-de-lys_ in overglaze blue, showing
that the colouring was added at the Spanish royal factory of Buen
Retiro. Another tureen in the same collection has polychrome painting
executed at St. Cloud, a typical example of a rare class; in a strong
orange-yellow, green, purple, red and blue are depicted Oriental
figures and a motive of a bird singing among trees by a wattled hedge,
borrowed from the Japanese Kakiyemon.
* * * * *
The life of the St. Cloud works was a long one,--it lasted till 1766,
having survived a disastrous fire in 1737,--and its output must
have been considerable; yet it had little direct influence on the
subsequent history of ceramics. It is indeed interesting to note here
the existence at Kensington of a _seau_ in Staffordshire salt-glazed
stoneware with relief ornament copied from a St. Cloud model; but
this is an isolated case, and imitations of St. Cloud are not common
even among the productions of French factories. A different tale can
be told of the next in importance of the early French china works.
The factory founded in 1725 by Louis-Henri de Bourbon, prince de
Condé, on his domain at CHANTILLY, was destined to hold a position of
more than transient significance. Not only were styles of decoration
devised there which became popular beyond the Channel as well as in
France itself; Chantilly has a greater claim to recognition in that it
was two Chantilly workmen who initiated the greatest of all European
enterprises of this kind, the royal and national manufactory at Sèvres.
Before entering into details of this passage in the course of events,
some account must be given of the productions of the parent factory.
The prince de Condé chose for his director one Ciquaire Cirou, who
appears to have been a faïence-maker, and obtained royal recognition
by a grant of letters patent in 1735. The distinguishing element in
the earlier Chantilly porcelain is the use as a surface-coating of the
same tin-enamel which is the generic feature of faïence. For some ten
years the Chantilly potters confined their artistic efforts as far as
painting was concerned to adaptations or often close imitations of
Oriental porcelain of the preceding decades, of which the princely
patron had a rich collection. The Chinese _famille verte_ supplied the
motives in a few instances, but the wares which suggested to Cirou
and his painters their daintiest designs were the work of Kakiyemon.
Few things have been made to display more effectively the delicate
freshness which is the crowning virtue of painted porcelain. The
warm tone of the stanniferous glaze yields a softer ground for the
flower-like hues of the enamel colours than the colder white of the
Japanese prototypes, while the _esprit_ of the French interpreter adds
to the charming Eastern themes just that homeliness of touch which
endears them to Western beholders. No better illustration could be
furnished than by the little silver-mounted _pot de toilette_ from Mr.
Fitzhenry’s gift to the nation, figured in Plate 13. Little Japanese
boys at play, houses perched among fir-trees on rocky crags, tiny birds
and butterflies are scattered with an unimpeachable sense of fitness
over the creamy white surface; all, down to the mark on the bottom, a
_cour de chasse_ in red enamel, is drawn with the greatest neatness.
A ground colour of pure primrose-yellow is sometimes seen in pieces of
this early period, borrowed doubtless from Meissen, and foreshadowing
the sumptuous coloured grounds of Vincennes and Sèvres. This is well
exemplified by a large jardinière with rococo ormolu mounting, also
in the Fitzhenry gift. At a later date less distinctive manners were
adopted, bouquets of flowers of the Meissen type, cupids in the
style of Boucher, and rococo-panelled designs. The manufacture was
commercialised and the quality of the wares rapidly deteriorated, but
still a good word may be said for the blue festooned borders which
are a common feature in Chantilly services, and are an admirable
pattern of what designs in table ware should be. An instance is the
service made for Louis Philippe, duc d’Orléans, for use at his château
of Villers-Cotterets; a plate from this set is in the Kensington
collection.
* * * * *
Two other minor factories of soft-paste china call for a passing
notice, those of MENNECY and Sceaux, both near Paris. The former
appears to have been first established in Paris itself, and in 1748
transferred to a site at Mennecy on the estate of the duc de Villeroy,
who supported it with his patronage. In 1773, on the expiration
of their lease, the directors of the works removed their plant to
Bourg-la-Reine, where they came under the protection of the comte
d’Eu. The factory was in the main confined to the production of small
articles for the boudoir, to which their simple decoration of bouquets
or brightly-plumaged birds is well enough suited. Objects for purely
ornamental purposes are seldom met with. In Mr. Fitzhenry’s gift
there is a pair of vases on high pedestals of the form known from its
antique prototype as the “_vase Médicis_,” finely painted with birds
in landscapes. It may be remarked that the polychrome flower-painting
of Mennecy often bears a close resemblance to that of early Chelsea.
Figures were turned out in considerable quantities. The earlier ones
are generally left white, and show not only a sense of the grotesque
but also much artistic feeling in their breadth of modelling. The later
figures with polychrome painting, somewhat childish conceptions, it is
true, are yet not without a certain grace and daintiness; an important
set of groups of children with musical instruments in the Fitzhenry
Collection belongs to this class.
The works at SCEAUX, dating back apparently to 1749, are noteworthy
for the skilfulness of their flower-paintings; the tints are brilliant
yet harmonious, while the drawing is executed with remarkable care and
sureness of touch.
* * * * *
The royal manufactory of SÈVERES, destined to enjoy a fame greater
than that of any other in Europe, had its origin in a combination of
circumstances from which at first no great results might have been
expected. Orry de Fulvy, _intendant des finances_ to Louis XV., had
long been interested in experiments for making porcelain, when at
Vincennes in 1738 he came across two workmen from Chantilly, the
brothers Dubois, to whom reference has already been made. They had been
allowed secretly to set up a kiln in the precincts of the château. De
Fulvy gave them his support, and their operations were continued at his
expense. The Dubois were subsequently dismissed as incompetent, and
the venture was in danger of abandonment; but after many vicissitudes
De Fulvy’s perseverance was crowned with success, and in 1745 he was
able to form a company for the manufacture under royal privilege. For
eleven years the works were carried on at Vincennes, but in 1756 they
were transferred to new premises at Sèvres, on the other side of Paris,
at a convenient distance from the royal palace of Versailles; three
years previously the company had been reorganised under an exclusive
privilege, the king himself holding a quarter of the shares, while the
royal interest in the undertaking was signalised by the stipulation
that its productions should be marked with the royal cipher of two
interlaced “L”s.
From the outset the wares were given a high artistic quality.
Duplessis, goldsmith to the king, was charged in 1747 with the
control of the modellers; he kept the workshops under close personal
supervision, and to his guiding influence is attributable the
originality and unfailing taste of the shapes adopted. Hellot, director
of the Academy of Sciences, was in charge of the chemical composition
of the materials, while Bachelier was at the head of the painters and
gilders. Drawings of figure-subjects were supplied by François Boucher
for the painted decoration, as well as for translation into the round
by the modellers; an instance of the latter process is the fine biscuit
group of Leda modelled from Boucher’s design by Fernex, a painted
version of the same subject being in the National Museum at Stockholm.
The rare pieces surviving from the earliest stage of the factory’s
existence show clearly the aim which De Fulvy set himself of competing
with the Saxon porcelain; the landscapes or river-scenes painted on
them, with miniature groups of figures and buildings, are evidently
inspired by the Meissen subjects of the period. The same is true of the
coloured grounds with medallions in reserve which made their appearance
shortly afterwards, but the colours used for the purpose were entirely
new. The earliest of these was the deep blue (“_gros bleu_”) from which
was subsequently developed the famous “_bleu de roi_.” The researches
of Hellot bore fruit later in the discovery of the _rose Pompadour_
pink and turquoise-blue. A feature of the earliest years of the factory
before its removal from Vincennes were the artificial flowers modelled
in porcelain, which amounted in value to over three-fourths of the
total output.
None of the pieces in our illustrations are of the primitive period.
They represent several of the Sèvres ground colours. Plate 14 shows
a jardinière with openwork socket painted with cupids and flowers in
panels reserved on a _rose Pompadour_ ground. It is marked with the
royal cipher enclosing the date-letter I, for 1761, and with a branch
of foliage, the mark of the painter Jean René Dubois.
PLATE 20
Vase, with Cover, Meissen, Marcolini period, about 1780. Height,
11-7/8 in. Jones Collection.
No. 837-1882. See p. 68.
Mark
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The ewer and basin in Plate 15 are dated 1763 and have the mark of
the decorator Catrice. On a ground of yellow (_jaune jonquille_) are
rococo-bordered panels with charming miniatures of children
painted, with the exception of the flesh tints, _en camaïeu_ in blue.
This manner of painting in a monochrome of blue or crimson is a
survival from an earlier period, in which it is often found as the sole
decoration on a plain white ground; the simple contours of the shapes
also point back to an early style.
The _écuelle_ or soup-bowl with cover and stand, shown in Plate 16,
selected like the last two pieces from the Jones Collection, is an
example of the most sumptuous style of Sèvres applied to the decoration
of porcelain for useful purposes. It bears the date-letter “P” for
1768. The panels with pastoral scenes in colours by Chabry fils
follow closely the manner of Boucher, if he did not actually supply
the designs for them; with the rich gilt scrollwork borders and the
turquoise ground they blend in an ensemble of splendid but harmonious
effect, admirably in keeping with the gracefully-modelled shapes.
Another specimen of Sèvres table ware of a simpler class is the jug
reproduced in Plate 17, with lid attached by a silver hinge. On the
bottom are the date-letter for 1770 and the mark of the flower-painter
Bouillat fils.
The subject of the next drawing, a vase in the Jones Collection, with
classical busts in medallions raised above an apple-green ground,
brings us to the year 1772, with which by the death of the director
Boileau the most prosperous epoch of the factory’s career came to a
close. When compared with the previous illustrations, a distinct change
of style is noticeable; not a trace of the rococo of Louis XV. is to
be seen, while the laurel-wreath round the foot and the classical
ornament surrounding the cameo-like medallion betoken the adoption of
the severer and simpler style associated with the following reign. The
transition to antique forms and ornament came about in Sèvres china
more gradually than in other branches of French applied art, partly on
account of the fact that in many cases the artists and workmen in the
factory were succeeded by their sons, who kept up the traditions they
had learned from their parents. The change in the directorship and
the succession of the new king two years later finally determined the
abandonment of the old style.
PLATE 25
Teapot, Chelsea, from a service painted with pseudo-Chinese figures
in the style of Watteau, on a claret-coloured ground. Height, 5-3/8
in. Bequest of Miss Emily H. Thomson, of Dover.
No. 517-1902. See p. 82.
Mark: an anchor in gold.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The vase represented in Plate 19 is typical of the new tendencies. It
embodies to perfection the graceful French interpretation of classical
art associated with the name of Louis XVI. The vase is noteworthy not
only as a splendid exponent of the powers of the royal manufacture,
but also on account of its historical associations. It was made in
1780, and was given by Gustavus III., King of Sweden, as a present to
the empress Catherine II. of Russia; the gift was the outcome of an
unexpected turn of events, resulting from the war between England and
her American colonies. The state of hostilities at sea was a grave
menace to the commerce of the northern countries, and an alliance
was formed on 1st August 1780, between Sweden, Denmark, and Russia,
powers at that time usually at variance, to ensure the safety of
their merchant fleets. Gustavus III., who himself played the rôle of
Augustus in Swedish history, had a great admiration for the genius
of the Russian empress. He was at the time absent from his kingdom
on a long tour in the South, in the course of which he had doubtless
had opportunities of forming a personal judgment of the merits of the
French royal porcelain. It is not surprising therefore that he should
have thought of a set of Sèvres china as a suitable present to
mark the occasion of the treaty; he invoked to assist him in his choice
a friend of earlier days, the writer Marmontel, to whom he communicated
his desires through his ambassador at the French Court, the baron de
Staël. The circumstances of the purchase are fully related in the
letter dated 29th August 1780, by which Marmontel informed the director
of the factory, Regnier, of the selection he had made at the works.
Of five pieces chosen to make up a _garniture de cheminée_, one is
the vase before us, and it is worth while to cite the words in which
it is described: “_Un grand vase bleu de roi et or, avec un cartouche
représentant une marine marchande. Dans ce petit tableau deux hommes
sont occupés à lire dans un livre posé sur un tonneau. Je suis convenu
avec le peintre que sur le livre il écrivoit ces mots que je vais
tracer figurativement_:
| _Neutra- | _Catherine II._ |
| lite | |
| armée_ | _Gustave III._ |
_Il faut que ces caractères soient en émail et l’on m’a promis que
cette petite besogne seroit faite aujourd’hui._”
The remaining four pieces of the set were a pair of figures
representing Pygmalion and Prometheus, and two small cornucopia vases.
Instructions were given for the figures to be inscribed with verses
of Marmontel’s own composition, highly flattering to the imperial
recipient of the present. The letter concludes with a request that the
goods might be despatched without delay to the Swedish king, who was
awaiting them at Spa. The price paid for the vase was 720 _livres_, and
for the complete set 1896 _livres_.
The subsequent story of the vase is not fully known, but it may be
surmised that it left Russia on the occasion of a great fire at
the palace of Czarskoë Selo, when it is recorded that many pieces
now scattered in various museums were stolen from the celebrated
turquoise-blue service of Sèvres china ordered by Catherine II. in
1788. The vase was bought by Mr. Jones in 1880 at the sale of the San
Donato Palace at Florence, and is now housed with the rest of his
bequest to the nation. It remains only to mention that the marine
subject in the style of Joseph Vernet is the work of Morin, the bouquet
of flowers in the reverse medallion is by Fontaine, while the gilding
was done by Le Guay, whose signature with the royal cipher is painted
under the base.
A brief allusion has already been made to the sculpture in biscuit
china, which was among the most remarkable work done at Sèvres during
the time of its prosperity. The enamelled figures in the Meissen style,
made in the earliest stages at Vincennes, were soon superseded in
popularity by those in biscuit, a much better vehicle for reproducing
delicate modelling. The high artistic merit attained by them was due
to the guiding genius of the sculptor Falconet, who was in charge of
the modellers from 1757 for nearly ten years; he himself provided
the models for nearly all the figures made during that period, the
traditions set by him being maintained by his successors. His nice
sense of the capabilities of his material is manifest alike in graceful
genre and pastoral subjects and in works of more elevated conception,
such as the Pygmalion group already mentioned.
PLATE 27
Vase, with Cover, Worcester, about 1760, with design adapted from
the Japanese. Height, 11 in. Schreiber Collection.
No. 480. See p. 85.
Unmarked.
[Illustration]
PLATE 28
Vase, with Cover, Bristol, 1770-1781, painted with exotic birds in
the Sèvres manner. Height, 15 in. Schreiber Collection.
No. 740. See p. 87.
Unmarked.
[Illustration]