and financial difficulties; the consequent deterioration in its
productions was precipitated by the French Revolution, which marks
the close of its most glorious epoch. The artistic level reached
in the last years of Louis XV. was never again attained until recent
times; the success of the factory was the outcome of the peculiar
excellence of the Sèvres soft-paste for the display of gilding and
painting in enamel colours, and the abandonment of this class of body
was inevitably followed by an artistic decline. At quite an early
stage of the factory’s career experiments were made with a view to
discovering in France the materials for true hard porcelain like that
of China and Germany. The success of those researches in 1765 was the
prelude to the complete adoption of the new material, when the works
were rescued by Napoleon from the state of adversity into which they
had sunk in the revolutionary period. For some years before the fall of
Louis XVI. both soft and hard-paste were made concurrently; an early
example of the latter is a cup and saucer in the Jones Collection,
painted with the shield of France supported by an eagle and a dolphin,
made to commemorate the birth of the ill-fated Dauphin in 1781. Under
the Empire and the restored monarchy everything was done that could be
effected by rich gilding and highly-finished painting to bring back
the magnificence of former years, and the new material made possible
dimensions never attempted before; witness is borne by the huge vase
in the Sèvres Museum representing the arrival in Paris of the artistic
spoils of Napoleon’s Italian conquests, and another with a frieze
depicting the athletic sports of ancient Greece. France suffered
perhaps less than other countries from the general debasement of art
in that age, but the redeeming charm of the eighteenth century styles
was gone, and with it the glory of the Sèvres factory; its artistic
recovery with the return of French prosperity under the Third Republic
belongs to recent history.
* * * * *
Before leaving the subject of French porcelain, something must be
said of the cluster of PARISIAN FACTORIES for making hard-paste
china, which arose in many cases under Court patronage after the
introduction of the new material at Sèvres. The exclusive privileges
of the royal factory, designed to repress all attempts at competition
within the borders of France, had been one by one abandoned, having
become gradually of no effect. In 1787 complete liberty was accorded
to all French manufacturers to pursue all the methods employed at
Sèvres, including the jealously-protected use of gilding. As a rule
only useful wares were made in the smaller factories, but these were
often of considerable merit. The use of gold as the only decoration
on a white ground became increasingly popular, and much charming ware
is ornamented in this manner. A typical instance may be cited in the
spirit-kettle made at the Clignancourt works, comprised in the series
of Parisian hard-paste in the Fitzhenry gift. The affectation by
these small factories of classical forms is exemplified in the same
collection by a ewer with oblong basin decorated in gold and blue, made
in the duc d’Angoulême’s kilns in the rue Bondy, which are also famous
for the pretty cornflower-sprig pattern afterwards popular in English
china.
PLATE 26
Vase, Chelsea-Derby, 1770-1784, with handles in the form of female
terminal figures in biscuit porcelain; on the front a medallion
with the subject of Celadon and Amelia. Height, 15¼ in. Jones
Collection.
No. 825-1882. See p. 84.
Mark: an anchor in gold.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
V
GERMAN PORCELAIN
While the efforts to imitate Chinese porcelain first led to lasting
results by the invention of soft-paste porcelain in France, the credit
belongs to Germany of discovering and introducing into Europe the art
of making true hard-paste porcelain of the Chinese type. The discovery
was the outcome of researches not originally directed to this end.
The romantic story of Johann Friedrich Böttger, the chemist to whom
it was due, is well known: how he claimed to possess the secret of
making gold, how he fled from Berlin across the Saxon border to avoid
the covetous attentions of the King of Prussia, how he was promptly
visited with the fate he wished to escape, at the hands of Augustus the
Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, and how he spent a great
part of a short life in fruitless efforts to make gold by alchemistic
means for replenishing the Elector’s coffers. It was only when the
needs of Augustus had become the more pressing, in consequence of the
exhausting war with Sweden through which he lost the Polish Crown, that
his optimistic credulity was in danger of being overtaxed. Böttger
foresaw that the Elector could no longer be duped, and the happy idea
was suggested to him, probably by the chemist Von Tschirnhausen, of
drawing a blind over his failure by another plan for enriching his
royal master. The latter was foremost among the sovereigns of Europe
as an amateur of the porcelain at that time being imported by Dutch
merchants from the Far East; he was therefore likely to view with
favour Böttger’s new scheme, which was no other than the restoration
of Saxony’s prosperity by the establishment in the country of ceramic
industries, and particularly of porcelain factories on the Chinese
lines. All Böttger’s efforts were now turned in this direction. In
1708 a “_Steinbäckerei_” was started at Dresden for the manufacture
of tiles, and shortly after Böttger’s celebrated red stoneware was
invented. In 1710 he obtained a royal patent for the foundation of
a porcelain factory; the site chosen for it was the fortress of
Albrechtsburg, near MEISSEN, and in the course of the year the first
samples were submitted to the Elector, two small cups with enamel
decoration, still in the royal collection at Dresden. So began the
manufacture of hard-paste china in Europe.
The porcelain made at Meissen before Böttger’s death derived its shape
in part from contemporary metalwork of the baroque style, and partly
from the Elector’s Chinese collection; statuettes were also modelled,
after the caricatures of the French etcher Callot. Varied methods of
decoration were attempted. Lace-like borders inspired by French designs
were executed in enamel colours, or in gold, silver, or lustre; we
also find miniature hunting-scenes, such as are seen on Bohemian and
Silesian drinking-glasses of the period, applied in gold leaf thickly
laid on in slight relief.
PLATE 3
Bowl, Chinese, bearing the mark of the Emperor Chia Ching
(1522-1566) of the Ming dynasty. Height, 2-7/8 in.
No. 1616-1876. See p. 12.
Mark:
[Illustration]
Plate, Chinese, jointed in colours of the _famille rose_, with a
bird perched on the branch of a plum-tree. Period of Yung Chêng
(1723-1735). Diameter, 8-1/8 in. Cope Bequest.
No. 600-1903. See p. 25.
Unmarked.
[Illustration]
After Böttger’s death in 1719 the painter Herold became the leading
spirit of the factory, and painting began to play the chief rôle in the
decoration of the wares. The earlier French borders gave place for
a time to faithful copies of Oriental patterns selected from the royal
collection, those of the Japanese Kakiyemon being specially in favour.
By 1730 a distinctive Meissen style had arisen, characterised by simple
baroque forms and a decoration of panels enclosed with borders of
delicate symmetrical scrollwork in gold and colours, often reserved
on a monochrome ground; the panels are filled either with groups of
pseudo-Chinese figures, or with landscape subjects depicting wide open
country with broad rivers, reminiscent of the lowland scenery to the
north of Dresden.
The appointment of the sculptor Johann Joachim Kändler, in 1731, to be
superintendent of the modellers, led to a revolution in the character
of the wares. If painted figure-subjects were introduced, the favourite
themes were gallant parties of ladies and gentlemen in the manner of
Watteau, but relief ornament and not painting now became the leading
feature; the style adopted in the modelling was a modified form of the
French rococo, and impressed itself on the productions of most of the
German factories which sprang up in rivalry with Meissen. The very
spirit of the German rococo is embodied in the countless figures and
groups, destined among other purposes to form part of table-services
as decorative “_Tafelaufsätze_,” which were modelled during this
period by Kändler and his associates; as we shall see later, they were
extensively copied in the earliest English china works. The development
of sculpture in porcelain inaugurated at Meissen is a branch of the art
in which Europe attained a proficiency absolutely unknown in China; the
German factories in particular excelled in their skill in this class of
work.
The state of warfare in which Germany was plunged about the middle of
the century was a serious check to the progress of the works. When
peace was restored in 1763, a new spirit began to manifest itself,
contemporaneously with the addition to the staff of the French
modeller Acier. The change was completed under the directorship of
Count Camillo Marcolini, which lasted from 1774 to 1814. Just as in
music, an art in which Germany enjoyed at that time an unquestioned
supremacy, the sprightly melodies of Haydn gave place to the graver
harmonies of Beethoven, so in porcelain too the altered mood of the
age was reflected. Florid rococo forms were abandoned and replaced by
the severer contours and simpler decoration of the classic style of
Louis XVI. The philosophic sentimentalism of the day was not interested
in the pretty but aimless frivolities of the Watteau school, and
subjects of an entirely different order were chosen to fill panels and
medallions. A service at South Kensington is painted with a series of
careful miniatures in illustration of Goethe’s _Sorrows of Werther_, a
work in which the spirit of the age is characteristically expressed.
Other favourite themes were Angelica Kauffmann’s renderings of the more
sentimental stories of classical mythology.
The Meissen vase chosen for illustration in Plate 20, one of a set
of three in the Jones Bequest, dates from the earlier years of
Count Marcolini’s management. The slight decoration of dainty and
pleasing effect allows the fine qualities of the paste to be fully
appreciated. The various ornamental features embody in characteristic
manner the ideas of the age. The symmetrical amphora form, the square
architectural plinth, the wreaths of oak on the cover and foot, point
to the new interest awakened in ancient, more particularly Roman, art
by the publication of the antiquities of Herculaneum; the garlands and
festoons of forget-me-nots recall the sentiment of an age that amused
itself with the study of the “language of flowers.”
* * * * *
The Meissen factory had not long been working before its success
suggested the introduction of the manufacture of porcelain in other
German states, and in less than fifty years from the date of the royal
patent of Augustus the Strong, a porcelain factory was considered a
necessary adjunct to the Court of even the minor German rulers. The
influence of Meissen is everywhere apparent, but individuality shown
in various directions by a few of the rivals entitles them to special
mention. The seniority amongst these belongs to VIENNA, where a factory
was set up as early as 1718 by a Dutchman with the help of workmen who
had escaped from Meissen; in 1744 it became an imperial institution.
The style of the wares followed closely on that of the parent works,
until financial embarrassments led to a complete reorganisation under
Baron von Sorgenthal in 1784. The change was heralded by the adoption
of severely angular shapes, and of romantic or mythological subjects
pictorially rendered, within elaborate borders composed of classical
motives carried out in rich highly-burnished gilding on panels of
gorgeous colouring; the true qualities of porcelain were forgotten in
the effort to arrive at the highest pitch of sumptuous richness.
* * * * *
The factory of HÖCHST, under the patronage of the Elector of Mainz,
famous for its figures of children modelled by Johann Peter Melchior,
was also founded with the help of a Meissen artist. Again, it was his
marriage with a Saxon princess that awakened in the Elector of Bavaria,
Max Josef III., the desire to possess his own porcelain kilns. These
were erected at first at Neudeck, near Munich, and were removed in 1758
to NYMPHENBURG. Thanks to an Italian sculptor, Franz Bastelli, the
Bavarian factory takes foremost rank in Germany for its statuettes;
whether characters from the Italian comedy, or dancing cavaliers and
ladies, they display in their crisp, nervous lines, a spontaneity
tempered by masterly restraint which is best appreciated when the white
porcelain is left to speak for itself, unobscured by the application of
enamel colouring.
* * * * *
The Duke of Württemberg’s factory at the _Residenzstadt_ of
LUDWIGSBURG, near Stuttgart, was founded in 1758, a propitious moment
for starting a new enterprise of the kind, as Meissen and other
factories in northern Germany were suffering from the effects of
a long-protracted war. Under the directorship of Ringler, who had
previously gained experience at Vienna and Neudeck, the works speedily
reached a high pitch of efficiency. In figures they were stamped at an
earlier date than other German works with the new ideas of classicism,
through the influence of the sculptor who was appointed in 1759 to
superintend the modelling, Wilhelm Beyer of Gotha. As the result of
prolonged residence in Rome and Naples he was deeply imbued with the
spirit of antique sculpture. He understood well how to temper the
cold serenity of the antique so as to suit the taste of an emotional
age; at the same time he knew how to modify classical forms in
compliance with the exigencies of his material, nor did he, like later
porcelain-modellers of the classical school, renounce the charms of
glaze and colour. The classical feeling makes itself felt as much
in his pastoral groups as in his renderings of mythological subjects.
PLATE 4
Ewer, Chinese, period of Wan Li (1573-1619), with contemporary
brass mount of Augsburg workmanship. Height, 12¼ in.
No. 174-1879. See p. 13.
Mark: _Fu_ (“Happiness”) in seal character.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Whilst Beyer was the pioneer of the classical in porcelain figures, the
Ludwigsburg factory was slow to abandon the rococo style in its table
wares. The exceptionally graceful forms which they assume are typified
by the coffee-pot in Mr. Fitzhenry’s collection, represented in Plate
21. The gilt scrollwork under the lip shows the rococo at its best. The
mark on the bottom is the cipher of Duke Carl Eugen, a double “C” under
a ducal crown.
* * * * *
Excellent work was done in their best periods by several other German
factories. BERLIN under the patronage of Frederick the Great was
successful in combining gracefulness of form with rich painted and
gilt decoration, as for instance in the beautiful rococo service with
openwork borders made for the Neue Palais at Potsdam. The works of the
Elector Palatine at FRANKENTHAL rivalled Meissen in the rich diversity
of its figure-modelling, while at ANSBACH the factory established
by the Margrave Christian in 1758 excelled in landscape work in the
manner of Claude, painted _en camaïeu_ in crimson within elaborate gilt
borders of feathery rococo scrollwork.
The royal Danish factory at COPENHAGEN may be mentioned as another
instance in which the help of Meissen workmen was secured for setting
the enterprise on foot. The manufacture is represented at South
Kensington among other pieces by an important vase with a portrait of
the Crown Prince, afterwards Frederick VI. of Denmark.
PLATE 21
Coffee-pot, Ludwigsburg, about 1760. Height, 8½ in. Collection of
Mr. J. H. Fitzhenry.
No. 1990. See p. 71.
Mark: the cipher of Carl Eugen of Württemberg under a ducal crown.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
VI
ENGLISH PORCELAIN
PLATE 17
Jug, with hinged Cover, Sèvres, dated 1770, with the mark of the
flower-painter Bouillat fils. Height, 5 in.
No. 2019-1855. See p. 57.
Mark:
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The obscurity which enshrouds the history of the earliest English
porcelain works may be accounted for by the fact that these factories
were private ventures, started for commercial purposes; they were not,
as at the outset were many of their Continental rivals, experimental
undertakings conducted under the protection, or subsidised out of the
funds, of a royal or princely patron. It is true that the Chelsea works
received some measure of support from King George II. and his son, the
Duke of Cumberland, but it was probably to private enterprise that they
owed their beginning and continuance alike.
While the earliest known piece of English china, bearing the date 1745,
belongs to Chelsea, the other great London factory, Bow, has the honour
of the earliest documentary record of the manufacture in this country.
This priority, by one year only, based on a patent applied for in 1744,
entitles the Bow works to be noticed first.
* * * * *
Except in the direction of figures, the productions of Bow were of an
unambitious character. “Useful” wares showing many varied types of
decoration were made during the thirty odd years of the factory’s
existence. The earlier of these were interpretations, not as a rule
slavish copies, of the Chinese _famille rose_ and of the works of the
Japanese potter, Kakiyemon; their colours are often harmonious, and
their gilding of peculiar richness. Such praise cannot be bestowed on
the later productions, which have too often a garish and clumsy air;
the charm of simplicity is sacrificed in the effort to be splendid,
and the results are crude and ungainly. It is interesting to note
some pieces with landscapes so closely resembling the type which is
commonly found on the German porcelain made at Fulda as to point to the
suggestion that they must have been derived from that source.
Some of the figures made at Bow show considerable spirit and breadth
of modelling, which is best appreciated when the china has been left
white, without the addition of coloured enamels. The statuettes of
the actors Woodward and Kitty Clive in character, King Lear, and
some dignified figures of nuns, are almost as effective as the white
figures of Nymphenburg, of which mention has already been made. These
white pieces date mostly from the earlier stages of the works. At a
later time the clever modelling is usually obscured by enamelling
of unpleasing tones. A great number of the later figures are copied
directly from the Meissen models of Kändler. Instances in the Schreiber
Collection at Kensington are a spirited pair of prancing horses held
in respectively by a Turk and a negro, Augustus the Strong of Saxony
kissing his hand to a lady, and a pair of tureens in the form of
partridges on their nests.
Perhaps the most pretentious figures ever made at Bow were the pair of
General Wolfe and the Marquis of Granby, of which there is an example
in the same collection. These were modelled by Tebo, who is also
mentioned as having worked at Worcester and Bristol. The name has a
curiously unfamiliar form, and is probably an English phonetic spelling
of the French Thibaut. It is by no means improbable that he was one
of the many French potters who migrated to this country in search
of fortune, or to escape the tyrannical pretensions of the French
royal manufacture. The pair of figures was doubtless made in 1760, to
commemorate the events of the previous year, so glorious in the annals
of British warfare. In the victories of Quebec and Minden, Wolfe had
met his death and Lord Granby had won his first distinction by saving
the British cavalry from disgrace. These two soldiers were the popular
heroes of the day, and their figures in porcelain would be sure to
command a ready sale. The portrait of Wolfe is copied from a sketch by
Captain Smith, which was engraved by Richard Houston. Granby appears
to be taken from a print by the same engraver after a painting by
Reynolds, which was published in 1760; he is represented in the uniform
of Colonel of the Horse Guards.
* * * * *
Passing on to CHELSEA we have to deal with perhaps the most famous
of English china works, one that takes its place worthily beside the
great factories of the Continent. The history of Chelsea is in one
respect parallel to that of Bow; its earlier productions, with all
their technical imperfections, are possessed of a charm that is wanting
in the gorgeous and ambitious achievements of its later years. This is
notably the case with the statuettes for which most of all the name of
Chelsea is famous. Neither the figures of the cream-coloured glassy
paste marked with a triangle, nor those in the heavy cold-looking
material on which a raised anchor often occurs, are devoid of spirit
and vigour; nor are these qualities concealed by the excessive use of
gold and enamel colours common at a later period. While they are not
for the most part original conceptions, good judgment was exercised in
the choice of models to be copied. Barthélemy de Blémont’s _Nourrice_,
for example, is no less charming in white Chelsea porcelain than in the
colour-glazed earthenware in which it first made its appearance.
After the works passed from the management of Charles Gouyn into the
hands of Nicholas Sprimont, distinct changes are noticeable alike in
the composition of the paste and in the nature of the decoration,
but still for some time the colouring of the figures was subdued and
limited in range. New models appear, copied in many cases directly
from the Meissen figures of Kändler and Acier; the masked man dancing
with a peasant girl, and the “Monkey Musicians,” may be cited as
instances. Chelsea seems, however, to have been less dependent than
Bow on extraneous inspiration. During the last years of the factory’s
independent existence a great variety of fresh models make their
appearance, coming from the hand of sculptors such as Roubiliac. Here
at last original compositions are more in evidence; where inspiration
has been sought elsewhere it has been derived not from porcelain
prototypes, but from painted works by French or English masters, made
accessible by contemporary engravings.
PLATE 18
Vase, Sèvres, dated 1772, with classical medallions on an apple-green
ground. Height, 10-7/8 in. Jones Collection.
No. 805-1882. See p. 58.
Mark:
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
The masterpiece of Chelsea is the group of the “Music Lesson,” with its
two accompanying pairs of figures symbolising the Four Seasons, made
to form a _garniture_ for the chimney-piece; a complete set is in
the Schreiber Collection, where it stands as a veritable _tour de
force_ in porcelain. This set is the work of Roubiliac, whose initial
“R” is stamped on all three pieces, the subject of the centre-piece
being borrowed from _L’Agréable Leçon_ by Boucher. Other examples of
translation in the round from a painting or engraving are the dancing
figures taken from Watteau’s _Fêtes vénétiennes_. Historical interest
attaches to the pair of figures of the democratic hero John Wilkes and
his champion, General Conway; they were doubtless modelled in 1764,
when Conway sprang into popularity in consequence of the degradation
with which he was punished for having spoken in Parliament on Wilkes’s
behalf.
The later Chelsea figures of this class are usually so much decorated
that their attractiveness is gone, but an example has been chosen for
illustration in Plate 22, which has suffered less than others in this
respect, and is thoroughly characteristic of the style. The graceful
_allure_ of the shepherdess with her basket of flowers and kilted
skirts will suffice as an excuse for the painter’s extravagance in the
decoration of her raiment.