Courtyard of Factory, showing Turkey with Brood 337
Interior, showing Studios of Lady Artists 341
CHAPTER I
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE COPENHAGEN FACTORY
THE FOURNIER PERIOD SOFT-PASTE PORCELAIN (1760-1766)
CHAPTER I
THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE COPENHAGEN FACTORY
_THE FOURNIER PERIOD_ (1760-1766)
Establishment of porcelain factories in Europe--The German School
and the French School--Hard paste--Soft paste--The new ceramic
art--The great secret--The secret divulged--The first porcelain
in Denmark.
In order to understand the initial stages in the history of the
manufacture of porcelain in Denmark, it is necessary to review the
peculiar conditions in which china factories existed in the eighteenth
century. At the middle of the century there were two great schools, the
German and the French. The former made hard or true porcelain according
to the formula of Meissen, and the latter made soft or artificial
porcelain in the manner of St. Cloud.
=Hard Paste.=--The impulse of the Western potter had always been to
reproduce exactly and chemically the Oriental porcelain. Until the
first decade of the eighteenth century this had not been achieved. The
news of the great discovery by Johann Fredrich Böttger, in 1709, of
a white translucent porcelain, having all the characteristics of the
Chinese ware, ran like a flame throughout Europe. Translucent porcelain
may be either what is termed hard paste (_pâte dure_), containing only
natural elements in the composition of the body and the glaze; or soft
paste (_pâte tendre_), where the body is an artificial combination of
various materials used as a substitute for the natural earths. All
Chinese or true porcelain is of the hard-paste variety. The term _pâte
tendre_ really applies to the feeble resistance of this artificial
porcelain to the action of a high temperature as compared with that
offered by true porcelain, and also to the softness of the glaze, which
can be scratched by steel.
The body of the true porcelain is essentially of two elements--the
white clay or _kaolin_, the infusible element which may be said to
be the skeleton, and _petuntse_, the felspathic stone, which is
fusible at a high temperature, which may be termed the flesh, and
gives transparency to the porcelain. Of the two Chinese names, which
have become classical since they were adopted in the dictionary of
the French Academy, _kaolin_ is the name of a locality where the best
porcelain earth is mined, and _petuntse_, literally "white briquettes,"
refers to the shape in which the finely pulverized porcelain stone is
brought to the Chinese potteries, after it has been submitted to the
preliminary processes of pounding and decantation.[1]
[1] _Chinese Art_, vol. ii. p. 16, 1906, by Stephen W. Bushell, C.M.G.
(late Physician to H.M. Legation, Peking).
=Soft Paste.=--The artificial porcelain, which was difficult of
fabrication, was an imitation of the true Chinese porcelain, although
its whiteness, its translucency, and its brilliant glaze have all the
appearance of true porcelain. _Kaolin_ and _petuntse_ are of little
importance in the composition of soft porcelain. Its transparency
was obtained by the addition of glass, its plasticity by the use of
soapstone, and its glaze by an admixture of silica and lead. Moreover,
the composition of artificial porcelain has required researches
and combinations much more intricate than those which had led to
the discovery of hard porcelain, the latter being produced by two
substances already provided by nature.
Imitative porcelain had been made at Florence under the auspices of
the Grand Duke of Tuscany as early as from 1568 to 1587, of which
_fabrique_ only about thirty pieces are known. France is the most
prolific in porcelain factories of the _pâte tendre_, as it came
afterwards to be termed in contradistinction to the _pâte dure_ or true
porcelain of Meissen. The factory at St. Cloud lasted from 1695 till
1773. Vincennes was founded in 1740, and was finally transferred to
Sèvres in 1756, which factory stands paramount in its porcelain, known
to collectors as _vieux Sèvres_.
At Nove, near Venice, in 1752, Pasqual Antonibon brought from Meissen a
potter, Sigismond Fischer, to construct a furnace for making porcelain
in the Saxon style. In 1761 there were three furnaces, one for hard
paste _ad uso Sassonia_, and two for soft paste _ad uso Francia_.[2]
[2] _Marks and Monograms on Pottery and Porcelain_, by William
Chaffers. (Letter from Francesco Antonibon to Lady Charlotte Schreiber.)
It will thus be seen that the two schools had begun to run side
by side. The crowning point was in 1768, when the Sèvres factory
commenced to make hard paste. Both bodies were simultaneously made
until 1804, after which the manufacture of soft porcelain at Sèvres was
discontinued by M. Brongniart. In 1847, the old style was revived by
his successor, M. Edelman (_Report on Pottery at the Paris Exhibition
by M. Arnoux_, 1867).
In general, it may be said that the manufacture of soft porcelain is
beset with difficulties and uncertainties. Its artificial composition
renders it capricious in the kiln. In connection therefore with the
modern manufacture of Sèvres of the old _pâte tendre_ variety, it is
interesting to record that in the late eighties the original formulæ
of the early potters were used in an attempt to reproduce the old
body, but had, after repeated and costly failures, to be abandoned as
hopeless.
[Illustration: SUCRIER AND COVER. Fournier period (1760-1766).
Soft-paste porcelain.]
[Illustration: DISH AND COVER AND CUSTARD CUP. Fournier period
(1760-1766). Soft-paste porcelain.
(_At Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen._)]
In regard to England, it is interesting to note in passing that the old
porcelains so highly prized by collectors are all artificial with the
exception of Plymouth (1768-1771), Bristol (1771-1781), followed by the
company of Staffordshire potters at New Hall who bought the Bristol
factory patents, although Wedgwood in his jasper ware and Staffordshire
salt glazed ware are fine stone wares which approximate to true
porcelain.
Our soft-paste factories are here set in chronological order: Bow
(1745), Chelsea (1745), Derby (1751), Worcester (1751), Lowestoft
(1762), Caughley (1772), Pinxton (1795), Coalport (1798), Minton
(1798). It should be observed that these, as do all soft-paste
porcelains, differ in body in an enormous degree, whereas the true
porcelain differs in a minor degree whether it be Canton or Meissen.
It was only for fifty years that the English potters used the
capricious body of the glassy soft porcelains then made. Gradually, by
experiment, the standard body for artificial porcelain was perfected
by the addition of bone-ash, which has been adopted since the late
eighteenth century in varying forms by all English potters. It is
more related to true porcelain, and is as safe to manufacture as that
body, and at a lower heat, but it retains many of the qualities of
the soft body. The painted colours melt into the glaze in its final
firing and produce that mellow effect so much esteemed by connoisseurs
of old porcelain. It is peculiarly English, and stands unique in
having technical assets not possessed by any other porcelain. This is
something great to record to the honour of the English potter in his
mastery of technique.
=The New Ceramic Art.=--The eighteenth century, in spite of the wars
which shook the kingdoms of Europe to their foundations, showed a
singular enthusiasm for the art of the potter. A reference to a table
of the factory marks of European porcelain of that period will disclose
the fact that most of the leading factories were under the auspices of
royal or noble patrons whose arms or monograms were incorporated in the
mark of the factory.
Kings, princes, electors, grand dukes, and margraves vied with
each other in producing rival ware. The St. Petersburg factory
had the cipher of the Emperor Paul. At Weesp, in Holland, Count
Gronsveldt-Diepenbroek's factory, the works were handed over to the
direction of a Protestant pastor. From Vienna with the mark of the
Austrian arms, to La Haye with the design of the stork, the symbol of
the city; from the arms of the Archbishop of Mayence and the cross
and initials of the Prince Bishop of Fulda, to the design of Lille,
the _Manufacture Royale de Monseigneur le Dauphin_ with the crowned
dolphin, a bewildering entanglement of royal marks and patrician
ciphers is studded on china, to the confusion of collectors, adding
zest to the art of the connoisseur.
=The Great Secret.=--The actual discovery of the composition of true
porcelain by Böttger is interwoven with romance, and the betrayal of
the secret processes of its manufacture at Meissen to the leading
factories of Europe is a record filled with stirring incidents of the
most piquant character. The story of young Böttger, the alchemist and
inventor, is told in full by Professor Ernst Zimmermann, Keeper of the
Royal Porcelain Collection at Dresden, _Die Erfindung und Frühzeit des
Meissner Porzellans_, Berlin, 1908. The search for the philosopher's
stone to transmute baser metals into gold had fascinated all chemists.
Böttger was credited with more knowledge than he possessed, and he
hastily quitted Berlin to avoid the too assiduous attentions of the
King of Prussia. For years he wandered in Saxony, and finally claimed
protection in 1701 from Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony. His life
at the laboratory at Meissen, under Ehrenfried Walter von Tschirnhaus,
who was a distinguished scientific scholar, was that of a guarded
prisoner with a wonderful secret. Tschirnhaus, who was a good chemist,
established a glass furnace and invented an ingenious burning mirror,
and had essayed to make porcelain. But on the assumption that it was a
vitrification, his results only led him to the production of a milky
glass. A specimen of this _milch glass_ is in the Japanese Palace at
Dresden.
When Charles XII of Sweden invaded Saxony, Böttger and his workmen
were hurried off to the impregnable fortress of Königstein, where a
laboratory was erected. A year later he was back at Meissen conducting
experiments and cheerfully exhorting the workmen. In 1709 he produced
his true hard porcelain from natural earth obtained from Aue, near
Schneeberg.
The most elaborate precautions were taken at Meissen to prevent the
secret becoming known. The earth was delivered in sealed casks. It was
in vain that an oath was exacted from each workman and written on the
walls--"Silence until death" (_Geheim bis ins grab_). The punishment
for betrayal was incarceration as a State prisoner in the fortress
of Königsberg for life. The terrible silent conditions of the labour
produced a longing on the part of the immured workmen to escape. And
escape they did.
=The Secret divulged.=--In 1718, the year previous to Böttger's death
Stolzel, the chief workman at Meissen, made his way to Vienna and
proceeded to establish, under the direction of a Belgian named Claude
Du Pasquier, a manufactory of hard porcelain. The factory was acquired
for the State by the Empress Maria Theresa in 1744.
From Vienna a workman named Ringler carried the secret far and wide.
His name is linked with the founding of several factories--at Höchst in
1740, at Frankenthal in 1754, where he became director, at Nymphenberg
in 1756, where his aid was invoked, at Ludwigsberg (in Würtemberg) in
1758, and at Zurich in 1759.
The workmen of Höchst, in their turn, further divulged the secret.
Bengraf, in 1750, carried the process to Fürstenberg, the factory under
the patronage of the Duke of Brunswick.
In 1744 an imperial china factory was established at St. Petersburg by
the Empress Elizabeth Petrowna, who employed workmen from Meissen, and
in 1765, under the patronage of the Empress Catherine II, the works
were enlarged.
There were two methods of obtaining the great secret of Meissen--by
stealth and by experiment; most of the factories employed the former
means. The attempts to arrive at the hard paste by experiment resulted
in the establishment of many soft-paste factories. One remarkable
instance of indefatigable industry is that of the chemist Pott, in
the employ of the King of Prussia at Berlin, who endeavoured honestly
to arrive at the nature of the composition of the Meissen body. He is
credited with having made no fewer than thirty thousand experiments,
and in so doing he contributed largely to the modern chemical knowledge
of the effect of high temperatures on minerals.[3]
[3] Roscoe and Schorlemmer, _Treatise on Chemistry_, vol. ii. p. 598.
It is thus seen how great was the discovery of Böttger, of Meissen,
and how far-reaching were the results of the manufacture of true
porcelain in Saxony. A wild burst of enthusiasm followed which has been
rarely equalled. Soldier-princes engaged in the wars which were waged
in the German States turned aside to indulge in speculation concerning
the new art. In 1717 about a hundred and fifty pieces of fine
porcelain, many of them old Oriental, now at the Japanese Palace at
Dresden, were acquired by Augustus the Strong of Saxony from the King
of Prussia in exchange for a regiment of dragoons, without uniforms,
horses, or arms.
When the vigilant Frederick the Great commenced the Seven Years' War,
and on a sudden filled the electorate of Saxony with sixty thousand
Prussian troops, Dresden was taken. It was in vain that the Queen of
Poland, daughter of an emperor and mother-in-law of a dauphin, placed
the secret State documents in her bedroom to avoid seizure. They were
too valuable to Frederick, who had them forcibly removed, and by
publishing them proved that he was to be assailed at once by Austria,
France, Russia, Sweden, Saxony, and the Germanic body.
The factory of Meissen was depleted of material and models, and he
transported artists and workmen to Berlin to found his factory there.
Five hundred persons were engaged at this new factory, and in order to
win commercial success he executed a master-stroke by framing a decree
that all Jews in his kingdom must produce a voucher from the director
of the factory that they had purchased a certain amount of the royal
porcelain before permission would be granted to enable them to marry.
[Illustration: VASE (ONE OF A PAIR).
Decorated in rococo style with panels having allegorical subjects, one
of which has a medallion supported by cupids upon which a crown and F5
are inscribed in gold. Festoons of flowers, painted in natural colours,
are suspended from a ring at top of vase; all in high relief. Marked F5
in gold.
(_In the collection of Count Moltke, of Bregentved._)]
It is such human touches as these, significant in their piquancy, which
give exceptional interest to the porcelain of the old days produced
in conditions of no little difficulty. Under Court patronage, beset
by espionage and hedged about by intrigue, the secret of one factory
rapidly found its way across the frontier to the neighbouring State.
The fortunes of potters have not lain in smooth places, and fate has
been as capricious as the fire of the furnace. In eighteenth-century
days the _furore_ of mad dilettantism pursued them relentlessly. Royal
amateurs more often than not asked them to make bricks without straw,
and there was still in the air the lingering suspicion that the furnace
might yield up the secret of the philosopher's stone and fill the State
treasury to the full.
=The First Porcelain in Denmark.=--It is not difficult to imagine the
situation. King Frederik V determined to found a porcelain factory of
his own. His queen consort was Louise, daughter of George II, who died
in 1751, eight years after her marriage. His second wife was Juliane
Marie, of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
[Illustration: MARK.
Fournier period (1760-1766). Soft-paste Porcelain.]
Faience was made at various factories in Denmark, and it is more
than conjectural that various native attempts were made to produce
porcelain. The royal factory, which the king built near the Blue Tower
at Christianshavn, with the aid of foreign workmen whom he had induced
to enter his service, commenced to make various experiments. Mehlhorn
was one of the alien potters brought from Saxony, but apparently,
whether from paucity of natural earths or owing to faulty kilns,
nothing of any moment resulted until Louis Fournier, a Frenchman
(1760-1766), was induced to take charge of the factory. During what is
known as the Fournier period the French director had the assistance
of Danish artists, including Johannes Wiedewelt the sculptor. His
contemporaries speak of the services he designed. Doubtless many of
them were intended as presents to foreign princes and ambassadors, and
found their way into royal and foreign cabinets. Although only about
twenty pieces of the Fournier period are known, it is not impossible
that careful research may discover that some of the early pieces
attributed to Fürstenberg may really belong to Fournier of Copenhagen.
Obviously, on account of their rarity they are of great value and
of exceptional interest as being the first creations of the Royal
Copenhagen Porcelain Factory. The identification should be rendered the
easier when it is borne in mind that the early Copenhagen porcelain of
the Fournier period is soft paste, whereas the Fürstenberg porcelain is
hard paste. The mark F with the figure 5 stands for Frederik V and not
for Fournier. The coincidence of the initial letter is like the W in
Worcester porcelain of the Dr. Wall period.
The early creations of the Copenhagen factory were porcelain, it is
true, but they are not the hard or true porcelain of Meissen. They are
the soft paste of the same nature as the _pâte tendre_ of contemporary
Sèvres. They did not attain the high ideal contemplated by Frederik V
when he set out to equal the Saxon porcelain and the other hard-paste
porcelains of Germany, but they arrived at a dignity and a grace
of style which are worthy of regard. As first attempts they are of
surprising beauty, and the few specimens remaining arouse curiosity as
to what masterpieces of this short period have been lost to posterity.
The modelling, the design, and the colouring of such early examples
as these of a new factory are naturally dependent on prototypes. It
was a great thing to produce porcelain at all, consequently the style
is found to be derivative. A fine Sèvres jar with cover, in date 1761,
at the Sèvres Museum, has a family likeness to the Fournier cups with
covers in Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen. Although these latter have the
same type of decoration with a white panel on a dark ground, it will
be seen that the Sèvres example exhibits the sure mastery of technique
of an older factory. The painting is richer and of more detail, with
birds of tropical plumage. The Fournier examples, with handles, were
evidently designed for use. There are five of these covered custard
cups at Rosenborg Castle, three having green and two having blue
grounds; we illustrate an example. At the _Kunstindustri Museum_ at
Copenhagen there are two custard cups and covers of similar form--one
with red decoration; and the other with red and green, and floral
decoration painted in colours. These are both marked F5 in blue.
It is interesting to note, in the archives of the Sèvres factory, that
Louis XV sent, in 1758, to the King of Denmark a service of green,
decorated with figures, flowers, and birds, which cost 30,000 livres.
Here, at hand, was a fine Sèvres service as model for Fournier, and
the resemblance of soft-paste Copenhagen porcelain to Sèvres is not
difficult to understand.
In the illustration of the _Oval Dish and Cover_ standing beside the
cup with handle, the ware is coarser and in paste and colouring is
not unlike some of the earlier specimens of Bow china. These and the
other illustration of _Sucrier with Cover and Dish_ are from the famous
collection at Rosenborg Castle. The sucrier and cover are decorated
with scale pattern; portions of the outer rim are moulded in relief and
the floral decoration is in natural colours.
A _Teapot_ from a tea service at the National Museum at Stockholm
exhibits a similar style in this experimental period. The colours of
the teapot, cream jug, and cups and saucers are emerald green borders
with gilding. The flowers are painted in natural colours. They bear the
Fournier mark F5 in gold. The service was a present to King Charles XV
of Sweden from the Countess Dannemand.
In the collection of Count Moltke of Bregentved are four fine _Vases_
of this period. They exhibit the rococo style then prevalent and are
remarkable works emanating from the little royal factory of Copenhagen
during the first years of its existence. On one of these vases is a
panel decorated with a group of Cupids supporting a shield upon which
is inscribed the mark used by Fournier in the period of Frederik V.
All these soft-paste Copenhagen examples are of great rarity. The
Fournier period was of short duration. The death of Frederik V, in
1766, removed its royal patron. The winter of 1766-7 brought great
distress in Copenhagen, and the masked balls and masquerades and
the luxurious riot of the Court of the young king Christian VII at
Christianborg inflamed public opinion against the new monarch.
It is obvious that at such a juncture the royal factory, which in its
struggling infancy needed enthusiastic patronage, suffered from neglect
so that it is not surprising to find that its days were numbered, and
after a vain struggle it finally ceased work. Louis Fournier returned
to France, and the first period of Copenhagen porcelain came to an end.
CHAPTER II
FRANTZ HEINRICH MÜLLER (1773-1801)
QUEEN JULIANE MARIE PERIOD PART I (1775-1780)
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF FRANTZ HEINRICH MÜLLER. (From an old
lithograph.)
_Reproduced by kind permission of "Tidsskrift for Industri,"
Copenhagen._]
CHRONOLOGY
1732. Frantz Heinrich Müller born, 17th November.
1765. Müller solicits support for the establishment of a porcelain
factory.
1773. Frantz Heinrich Müller presents his first pieces of hard-fired
transparent porcelain to Christian VII. The first hard
porcelain made in Denmark.
1775. A company formed, of which the members of the Royal Family held
shares. The Dowager Queen Juliane Marie suggests the factory
mark of the three blue lines, symbolizing the three waterways
of Denmark, which mark was adopted and has been continuously
used since that date.
1779. The factory taken over by the king becomes the Royal Porcelain
Manufactory.
1780. The first retail depot opened in Copenhagen.
CHAPTER II
FRANTZ HEINRICH MÜLLER (1773-1801)
_QUEEN JULIANE MARIE PERIOD_ PART I (1775-1780)
The Court of the young king Christian VII--A great Court scandal--A
_Coup d'Etat_--The inception of the Porcelain Factory--The origin
of the mark of the Three Blue Lines--Müller's technique--Müller's
range of subjects.
At the death of King Frederik V, in January 1766, and the succession
of Christian VII, then seventeen years of age, the royal china factory
at the Blue Tower fell upon evil days. When Frantz Heinrich Müller,
"only after numerous unsuccessful attempts," presented his first
three pieces of hard-fired transparent porcelain to the young king in
September 1773, there were matters of much graver moment occupying
public attention. It was almost in vain that Müller had built new kilns
differing from those in which soft porcelain was made, travelled to
Bornholm to find suitable clay, and experimented with glazes.
In the six years since the death of Frederik, Denmark had passed
through one of the most tragical periods of her history. Christian
VII, a manikin prince, became the sport of fate. Caroline Matilda, the
sister of George III of England, at the early age of fifteen, became
his queen. Himself the son of the beloved Louise, daughter of George
II, great hopes were entertained by the Danish people of the alliance.
But perverse circumstances--with the grim figure of the Dowager Queen
Juliane Marie in the background--beset the path of the young couple.
The Court at Christianborg, an echo of Versailles, filled with
painted men and women who affected to despise Danish customs and even
the Danish tongue, was a hot-bed of intrigue. Christian threw etiquette
to the winds in his sanctum, surrounded by boon companions. The coterie
had all the abandon of Sans Souci without the master-mind of Frederick
of Prussia and the wit and satire of that monarch's _confidantes_.
Madame de Plessen, lady-in-waiting, stern precisian in etiquette,
devoted to her young mistress, but heedlessly tactless, made a breach
between the king and queen. The bride of a year retired to the company
of staid dowagers and played chess. The petulance and malicious tricks
of the king early showed that, unable to govern himself, he was unable
to govern others. Madame de Plessen was dismissed by the king and
ordered to leave Denmark. Christian's dissipation was rapidly becoming
a public scandal. The "Northern Rogue" was the mild epithet of the
English populace, who cheered the little king when he came to St.
James's. Echoes of his wild life reached Matilda at Copenhagen.
[Illustration: VASE WITH COVER.
With wreaths of roses and other flowers in high relief, painted in
natural colours. Cover with seated figure of cupid with garland. Panel
with painted portrait of the Dowager Queen Juliane Marie. Height 15
inches.
(_At Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen._)]
=A Great Court Scandal.=--At this juncture a remarkable man, John
Frederick Struensee, the king's physician, a German, possessed of
extraordinary talents, gradually began to assume control of State
affairs. The tragic story is too intricate to refer to here in more
than a cursory manner. Queen Matilda's attachment to Struensee is as
romantic as that of Mary Queen of Scots for Rizzio. An English author
has termed her "A Queen of Tears."[4] It is Madame de Genlis who
affirms that "men summon physicians only when they suffer, women when
they are merely afflicted with _ennui_." In six years this man became
the most powerful in Denmark. An amazing state of things followed.
The envoys of the various Powers became alarmed at the situation.
Drastic reforms followed one another in quick succession, inaugurated
by Struensee, but promulgated in the king's name. Undoubtedly
Struensee had a genius for government had he tempered his reforms
with discretion. He was saturated with German philosophy, and based
his ethics on Voltaire and the sordid sentiment of Rousseau. "It is
the path of the passions that has conducted me to philosophy," writes
Jean-Jacques, and Struensee might well have applauded that sentiment.
He invented a new office and became "Master of Requests" and virtually
Prime Minister. But he offended too many people's interests and became
the object of hatred. He galled the old nobility by his despotic power,
and the Dowager-Queen Juliane Marie, from her seclusion at Fredensborg,
filled the Court with spies. The weak-minded king, now showing signs
of mental aberration, signed everything put before him, and the young
Queen Matilda was under the domination of Struensee, who openly treated
her with disrespect.
[4] _A Queen of Tears, Caroline Matilda, Queen of Denmark and Norway,
and Princess of Great Britain and Ireland_, by W. H. Wilkins, M.A.,
F.S.A. (2 vols.), London, 1904.
In 1771 there was great distress in the country and discontent was
growing. Scurrilous letters fell at the feet of Struensee and Matilda
on their walks at Hirscholm, and placards of a threatening nature
were affixed to the walls of the royal palaces. Struensee had flouted
the army by attempting to disband the Guards. The mutterings of
disaffection became more audible. His effrontery deserted him. He grew
craven-hearted in face of grave dangers. His failure stamps him as a
colossal adventurer at bottom; had he been of sterner stuff he might
have become a hero.
=A Coup d'Etat.=--The hour for striking a blow was at hand, and
Queen Juliane Marie and her son Frederik, with a band of conspirators,
at a masked ball on the night of January 16, 1772, seized the person
of the king, together with Matilda; the latter was hurried off to the
fortress of Kronborg, and Struensee and Brandt, his coadjutor, were
imprisoned in the citadel at Copenhagen.
[Illustration: VASE WITH COVER.
With wreaths of roses and other flowers in high relief, painted in
natural colours. Cover with seated figure of cupid with garland Panel
with painted portrait of the Crown Prince Frederik. Height 15 inches.
(_At Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen._)]
The trial and divorce of Matilda and the beheading of Struensee and
Brandt is a poignant story. The name of the unfortunate young queen was
ordered to be officially omitted from the prayer-book at a time when
she surely stood most in need of prayer. Juliane Marie pursued Matilda
with vindictiveness, and her malevolence nearly precipitated Denmark in
a war with England. It was intended that Matilda should be imprisoned
in a remote fortress in Jutland. The British Minister, Sir Robert
Murray Keith, informed the Danish Government that unless Queen Matilda
was released he would present his letters of recall and war would be
declared. The Danish Minister in London wrote in great haste to say
that a fleet was fitting out. It was only then that Queen Juliane Marie
released her hold of Matilda and allowed her to depart to Celle, in the
State of Hanover, where she died in 1775 in her twenty-third year.
Here, then, was the state of affairs when Müller was experimenting
with his clays, his glazes, and his colours. In 1771 a hundred and
fifty weavers set out on foot from Copenhagen to Hirscholm, in days
of panic, to complain that they were starving because the royal silk
factory was closed. It was an ill-starred venture to attempt the
establishment of a new porcelain factory, but in face of reverses of
fortune and undeterred by lack of support, Müller by his immense energy
fired into being the great porcelain factory of Copenhagen. To Müller
the Dane belongs the honour of founding the little factory which strove
to achieve results no less beautiful than Meissen, Berlin, or Sèvres.
Begun in a spirit of worthy emulation, the Copenhagen factory shortly
began to develop an original and national style, in spite of the fact
that it worked in the early days on foreign suggestion and employed
foreign artists.
=The Inception of the Porcelain Factory.=--Frantz Heinrich Müller was
born on the 17th of November 1732. When an apprentice, from the age of
fifteen, at the Kong Salomon's Pharmacy at Copenhagen, he devoted his
leisure to the study of chemistry, botany, mineralogy, and metallurgy.
He was appointed as Guardian of the Mint at the Bank of Copenhagen
in his twenty-eighth year, and held the post from 1760 to 1767. As
early as 1765 he had the object in view of establishing a porcelain
factory; together with a painter named Richter we find him soliciting
support. In common with his contemporaries he cast eager eyes on
foreign porcelain. He wandered for three years on the Continent under
an assumed name, and the unravelling of this period of his career would
throw much light on his researches.
[Illustration: PORTION OF TEA AND COFFEE SERVICE, WITH TEA-CADDIES, ETC.
Decorated, overglaze, in Indian red.]
Müller, on his secret mission in Germany, found that the china
factories of Fürstenberg, Meissen, and Berlin were closed to him. But
he threw his whole life and energy into his work. He outlived the
opposition of the Society of Apothecaries, who objected to a licence
being granted him as a druggist and dispenser. But in face of the
objection the College of Medicine found the applicant "a very capable,
learned, and experienced man, not only in Pharmacy, but also in
Chemistry, Assaying, and Natural History." With characteristic energy
he passed the pharmaceutical examination at the age of forty-one;
already he had shown originality and inventiveness by making several
discoveries in colours and in dyeing. But with all his virility he
found financial success no easy matter at such a disturbed period. He
endeavoured to form a company for the manufacture of Danish porcelain.
To his chagrin, only one share was sold.
At the outset there was little promise that his untiring efforts would
win the remotest recognition from his countrymen. It seemed imminent
that the whole enterprise would have to be abandoned. Happily, Privy
Chancellor Holm, the private secretary to the Dowager-Queen Juliane
Marie, saw possibilities in the venture. To revive the old factory
which Fournier had vacated was an opportunity not to be missed. If it
proved a success, it would redound to the credit of the queen and add
lustre to the new _régime_ just commenced under the sway of Juliane
Marie, with Guldberg as the power behind the throne. Christian VII had
simply passed as a signer of documents into the keeping of another set
of masters.
Of the shares, most of them in the new factory were held by members of
the royal family and one by Müller himself. The directors were Holm;
Suhm, the historian; General Eickstedt, one of the conspirators who
took a leading part in the arrest at the masked ball; and Guldberg,
who had a finger in every pie. On the 13th of March 1775 the company
obtained the monopoly of the manufacture of porcelain in all the
dominions of the King of Denmark, in spite of the opposition of the
Board of Trade.
=The Origin of the Mark of the Three Blue Lines.=--The first meeting of
the company was held on the 1st of May 1775. It was decided that the
trade-mark of the factory, according to the proposal of Queen Juliane
Marie, should be three wavy lines, always marked in blue, representing
Denmark's three waterways--_Oresund_, and the two belts: _Storebelt_,
between Sjaelland and Fyen; _Lillebelt_, between Fyen and Jutland. With
this trade-mark of the three blue lines the Copenhagen factory (_Den
Danske Porcellænsfabrik_) took its place beside the older factories
on the Continent, and to this day, a hundred and forty-three years
afterwards, this same mark appears on all porcelain emanating from the
Royal Copenhagen Factory.
[Illustration: SAUCER.
Subject, Eagle and lamb painted in natural colours. Richly gilded
border.
_(At the Kunstindustri Museum, Copenhagen._)]
Although Müller only had one share of the subscribed capital,
there was only one controlling brain. He worked the enterprise
single-handedly. It was "_par ses seules lumières_," to quote a
contemporary French account of the factory, that he had succeeded in
producing the beautiful porcelain which won early recognition from
connoisseurs. But the Court were not eager to encourage ambition. After
the late startling exhibition of a now defunct medico, whose head
still stuck on a pole on Gallows Hill, genius must needs be rigorously
safeguarded. In common, therefore, with his artisans, Müller was
required to sign a contract binding him to remain in the employ of the
Court factory, and to keep secret all that he knew of the manufacture
of porcelain--his own invention. His official position was only that of
works manager.
Genius, that indomitable and unquenchable spirit which overrides all
obstacles, found Müller, with his crowd of untried soldier workmen and
crude apprentices, ceaselessly working in the factory from five in the
morning till seven in the evening, and often superintending the firing
all night. In 1776 three workmen were inveigled from Meissen to the
Court factory at Copenhagen, but only two out of the three showed any
ability. Their supercilious manners, together with their higher wages,
brought trouble in the factory among the other workmen, and Müller
expelled them by force. But he made one appointment which undoubtedly
was of benefit to the factory; by contributing part of the salary
himself, he brought A. C. Luplau from the Fürstenberg factory, who
became modelling master. As early as 1776 the name of Ba er appears as
a painter in colours, as opposed to the painters in underglaze blue.
It was Ba er who afterwards was entrusted with the painting of the
celebrated _Flora Danica_ service, begun in 1790. Others whose names
are found in the early records are Hans Clio and the portrait painters,
Camrath and Ondrup.
The first four years of the factory were very critical. Notwithstanding
the close application of Müller, the financial position came to a
serious crisis in 1779. There seemed every likelihood that the factory
would follow in the steps of Fournier and close its doors. How the
royal shareholders adjusted matters is not known, nor what became of
Müller's one share in the enterprise. The debts were paid in the king's
name, and the factory was taken over by the State and became the Royal
Porcelain Manufactory (_Den Kongelige Porcellænsfabrik_), which name it
bears at the present day. In March 1780 a retail business was opened at
Copenhagen in connection with the factory. Müller was made inspector of
the factory and the title of Councillor of Justice was conferred upon
him.
[Illustration: SAUCER.
Subject, Water-god painted in purple, with green wreath of aquatic
foliage on a base of shells and seaweed.
(_At the Kunstindustri Museum, Copenhagen._)]
Dated specimens have an exceptional interest in proving that no
inconsiderable progress had at that time been made in the artistic
development of the factory. Already in form and in decoration there was
something distinctive in Müller's ware. Such pieces show indisputably
that great days were at hand, if indeed in these first few years
success had not already been achieved in training artists and craftsmen
in the new industry.
=Müller's Technique.=--Danish ceramic art is profoundly indebted to
Müller for his pioneer work. He was a giant in days when pigmies
controlled the destinies. His unflagging energy, his practical
experiments, and his original and inventive genius impelled him to
implant national characteristics in the Royal Copenhagen porcelain
which have never departed from the ware of this factory. His first
attempts were made with kaolin which he obtained from the island of
Bornholm. He soon realized that this did not fulfil all the conditions
necessary for a fine body. It was of a greyish-blue tint, and was
liable to lose its shape in firing. In appearance it is not very
transparent and is somewhat coarse, like some of the old Japanese
porcelain. Of this Bornholm period mention will be made later in
dealing with the early examples of blue underglaze painted ware, which
is a special variety by itself, running concurrently with the overglaze
painted ware which Müller brought in his best period to unexampled
perfection.
He prepared the glazes himself, determined the correct method of
firing, and made the colours used at the factory. The blue that he
invented is perfect, and is to be found on the early specimens of
underglaze painted porcelain for domestic use. The green and the
purple found in the early Müller period were his own discovery and
of exceptional quality in tone. He was a master of technique, and
perfected a new body which he called "virgin paste." This is of a
dazzling white, and Müller's glaze is transparent and smooth as
polished crystal. The tint is that of the green of the sea, and without
doubt its technical excellence lends great beauty to the porcelain
of this period. Considering the primitive methods of working and the
impure materials then available, the perfection and beauty of the
results claim profound admiration from the connoisseur. Even with
the aid of modern technology and chemistry it has not yet been found
possible to equal the technique of Müller's best period.
The year 1780, the date when the first opening of the retail
business took place, was the turning-point in the history of the
factory. Müller was acclaimed as a genius by his countrymen. It was
proposed that a statue should be erected to his honour--and this in his
lifetime. A wave of enthusiasm found an outlet in Latin poems to "the
man who had done so much for his king and country." It is exceptional
to find such contemporary honour bestowed on a potter. Rarely is a man
a prophet in his own country. But happily Müller lived to wear the
laurel wreath. "What honour," writes a contemporary, "this industry
has brought its founder! I was enraptured with the things which I saw.
How could I have dreamed that these could be made by a Dane and in my
native land!"
[Illustration: COFFEE CUPS.
Painted in overglaze colours with blue border richly gilded.
Rose and spray in natural colours.
Group of cavalry in rich uniform, in colours.]
We catch an insight into Müller's methods from a letter he wrote,
when eighty years of age, to Boye, a subsequent director, who had
suggested the use of some pieces of new apparatus for the laboratory.
Old Müller wrote as follows: "I fail to see the use or necessity of the
thermometer, eudiometer, or hydrometer. I have never found it necessary
to apply such exact learning in the manufacture of porcelain, and ideas
such as these appear to me to be absolutely absurd." While allowance
must be made for Müller's advanced age and his hypersensitiveness
towards his successors, it is of great interest to speculate upon his
point of view. Man of science that he was, his deprecatory regard for
these instruments seems to denote that his technique was arrived at by
practical rule-of-thumb methods, dependent upon personal exactitude
rather than upon formulæ. It is idle to scoff at Müller's conservatism,
for science has yet to unravel the secret of the lost art of tempering
the Damascene blade and the subtleties of the potter's art of the
K'ang Hsi period in the single coloured glazes, _la qualité maîtresse
de la céramique_, the delicacies of the rare _peau de pêche_, the
_famille rose_, and the _famille verte_. In the late seventeenth and
early eighteenth-century days the methods of Chinese potters were as
unscientific as those defended by Müller, but the results are "not
of an age, but for all time." And Müller's results stand the test of
intense criticism; they are hitherto inimitable.
=Müller's Range of Subjects.=--In regard to the periods of the various
styles of Müller, with very few data to guide the critic it must be
largely a matter of conjecture as to the exact chronological order of
their manufacture. It seems to the present writer, in endeavouring to
classify the examples, that they naturally fall under the following
heads. One class overlaps another in point of time, and although at
first, in the experimental period, elaborate artistic creations cannot
at that stage have been attempted, it must equally follow that in the
middle and later period the simpler and utilitarian forms were still
being made concurrently with the finer works of art.
The natural order of development in point of technique would be:--
1. Underglaze painted "mussel" blue-and-white fluted porcelain (pp.
161, 163, 167).
2. Early examples painted in colours overglaze. (See illustrations,
pp. 65, 89.)
(_a_) Dishes, plates, tea and coffee services.
(_b_) Vases and ornamental pieces of a minor character.
3. Vases with modelled figures. Figure subjects in colours.
4. Busts, in biscuit.
5. Elaborate and finely modelled vases and sumptuous services, of
which the _Flora Danica_ is the culmination.
[Illustration: COFFEE CUP.
With painted subject of Frantz Heinrich Müller in his laboratory, in an
oval surrounded by wreath of flowers in gold. Marked with three blue
lines. Blue border with inscription in verse in gold:--
Forstanden, Sind og Sands kan samtligen förnojes--Naar ved Naturens
Kraft paa chymiske veije plöijes--Men vil og Nytten sees da skal
Forstanden raade--Og binde Sind om Sands til det som Skatter baade.
(Translation.)
_The finest senses may well pleased be--When Nature leans on Science
for her aid--But Art in wedlock with Utility--Demands from skill a
double debt be paid._
(_At the National Museum, Stockholm._)]
It is obvious that in the immature years of a pottery figure subjects
would be rarely attempted until such time as the potters were sure
of their ground and the technique had been securely established. The
highest artistic achievements must necessarily come after the rudiments
of the art have been mastered. In regard to figure subjects, the fact
that Luplau came to Copenhagen in 1776 with eighteen years' experience
from the Fürstenberg factory must be taken into consideration in regard
to the appearance, at an earlier stage than usual in the history of a
factory, of figures of excellent character. But at the same time it
must be borne in mind that the utilitarian blue-and-white services, the
national Danish pattern now so well known, were made simultaneously
with such fine creations as the elaborate royal services at Rosenborg
Castle and elsewhere.
All through the periods from Müller onwards the famous blue-and-white
has remained as a standard output; but as a rough generalization, with
the reservation admitted in regard to figures, it may be said that the
classes above mentioned followed one another in quick succession, until
the climax of the Müller period was reached, when the Royal Copenhagen
Factory worthily claimed a place beside the great factories in Europe.
CHAPTER III
FRANTZ HEINRICH MÜLLER (1773-1801) _continued_
QUEEN JULIANE MARIE PERIOD PART II (1780-1796)
CHRONOLOGY
1780. The first retail depot opened by the Royal Porcelain
Manufactory in Copenhagen. The china becomes national.
1784. Queen Juliane Marie and her son Frederik, the Hereditary
Prince, overthrown.
The Crown Prince Frederik undertakes the government of the country
on behalf of his imbecile father, Christian VII.
1790. The importation of foreign porcelain into Denmark prohibited.
The great _Flora Danica_ service for Catherine II, Empress of
Russia, commenced.
1796. Queen Juliane Marie dies in retirement.
1801. The battle of Copenhagen.
Müller retires from active work at the factory, then in his
sixty-ninth year.
1807. Copenhagen bombarded by the British fleet. Considerable damage
done to the Royal Porcelain Factory.
1808. The Crown Prince Frederik ascends the throne as Frederik VI on
the death of his father, Christian VII.
The _Flora Danica_ service completed.
1820. Death of Müller. Buried 9th March.
CHAPTER III
FRANTZ HEINRICH MÜLLER (1773-1801) _continued_
_QUEEN JULIANE MARIE PERIOD_ PART II (1780-1796)
The great outburst of activity in 1780--The manufacture of
porcelain an assured success--A contemporary account of the
factory--A national style created--The diversity of Müller's
designs--National sentiment--Table of marks (1775-1801)--List of
leading painters and modellers (1773-1801).
The masterpieces of Müller come, as do all _chefs-d'œuvres_, as a
surprise. Their gracefulness and poetic charm are captivating. To
those who have never had the opportunity to examine a fine collection
of old Copenhagen porcelain the discovery of these works of art is a
revelation. It has hitherto been supposed that the productions of the
little Danish factory were only imitative of the works of the older and
better-known German factories. But to the most superficial observer
it is at once evident that here is something at once national and
beautiful.
During the ten years subsequent to the opening of the retail
establishment in Copenhagen, the output of the factory must have been
very extensive. It is interesting to find that in 1790 the Custom House
regulations relative to the subject are as follows: "Foreign china is
prohibited, because the manufactory at Copenhagen, which is at the
charge of the State, has been of late productive enough to supply
the two kingdoms with an article of luxury, more than of necessity.
Painted earthenware is likewise prohibited, from its resemblance to
china being so great that many may be induced to purchase it instead of
a more valuable article; but plain earthenware, being more generally
necessary, is allowed, as is also the porcelain brought over by the
East India ships belonging to the Asiatic Company."
=A Contemporary Account of the Factory.=--The testimony of two foreign
critics who visited the factory in 1790 is a valuable record, as
they produced authoritative statistical volumes on Northern Europe.
Their opinion assists the modern student in forming an estimate of
the relative value of the Royal Copenhagen porcelain as compared with
that of the great contemporary factories, especially Meissen. In _Les
Voyages de deux François dans le Nord de l'Europe_ (the Chevalier Louis
de Boisgelin and the Comte Alfonse de Fortia), published by the latter,
the trade and manufactures of Denmark receive full treatment.
We quote from the English edition, _Travels through Denmark and
Sweden: to which is prefixed a Journal of a Voyage down the Elbe from
Dresden to Hamburgh, including a compendious historical account of
the Hanseatic League, by Louis de Boisgelin, Knight of Malta, with
views from drawings taken on the spot by Dr. Charles Parry_. This was
published in two quarto volumes in 1810. The author states that the
former volume written by his fellow-traveller is so rare that it is
hardly possible to procure a copy "either of the original edition or of
the counterfeit one produced in Germany."
The details in regard to the factory as it then existed are very
interesting. There were three large and two small ovens; one of these
was the first employed by Müller when he produced his hard porcelain.
The ovens were of brick. A firing lasted eighteen hours. It took
four days to cool. "These ovens are capable of firing eight complete
services at once, whereas those of Saxony cannot take in more than
three. The fire here is so well distributed that in many of the
firings of fine porcelain the loss sustained is scarcely more than ten
rix-dollars."
After describing the process of glazing, the writer proceeds
to describe the most important operation of all, performed in a
room "where there is only one man, who takes an oath to have no
communication whatsoever with any other workman. He works a mill by
hand in which he prepares the paste, and mixes the different matters
which compose the glaze." Of the mills for grinding there were two. The
granite came from Zealand; "the black is of no use for this operation,
which is not performed in the same manner as in Saxony, where the
matter is mixed without water, but here it is quite the contrary. By
the method employed in this country there is as much made in two hours
as they can possibly produce in Saxony in twenty-four; besides the
advantage of having no occasion for sieves."
A contemporary account such as this by competent observers who had
visited other porcelain factories in Europe and came with the definite
object of finding out as much as possible, is of supreme importance
as a document. It appears that the blue which came from Norway was
considered the finest. There was an immense loft for "coffins," or
cases, to be stored for a year before being ready for use. These were
made from Bornholm clay, and were used in the ovens as "saggers," as
the term is in English pottery, to contain the porcelain. "The moulds
are made of a kind of plaster which comes from France. This," says the
narrative, "is the only foreign article employed in the manufactory."
In regard to the overglaze colours used there are some interesting
facts. Yellow is made from pure tin; purple, with tin and gold; dark
poppy, with iron; sky-blue, with cobalt; black, with manganese;
rose-colour, with gold; and green, with copper. "These colours never
change in firing, but remain precisely as they were first drawn;
whereas they spread in many other factories."
Bearing in mind that the travellers were comparing the manufactures
of one country with another in their precise records, which excited
European interest in regard to their statistic and economic value,
the praise of the Royal Copenhagen porcelain makes the more pleasant
reading. "The Copenhagen porcelain is less glassy than that of China.
The paste of the biscuit is lighter and closer than that of the Saxon
porcelain, the white keeps its colour better, and it is easier to wash.
In short, the whole of this manufacture is perfectly well understood,
and carried on with great spirit and diligence. It has only been
established thirteen years, and at the end of four the storehouses
were already filled with a variety of articles. We saw some flutes,
for which they asked seventy rix-dollars each. These are very just in
tune, but too heavy to be played upon conveniently; they are likewise
astonishingly brittle. We were also shown vases two and a half feet
high most beautifully painted by Camrath."
The writer makes one extraordinary statement, which goes to show that
the finest works were made for rich people, and were not seen by the
Danish people in general. "The Copenhagen porcelain is very little
known even in Denmark; for the original expenses of a manufacture of
this nature are such, that it must necessarily be sold very dear: it is
indeed more so at present than the Saxon china; but it is imagined the
price will be lowered in a short time."
The number of workmen employed at the factory at the time of this
inspection was three hundred, "forty of whom were for the painting part
of the business, which we thought but few for that important branch."
In regard to the director, Müller, himself, some trenchant criticisms
are made as to the poor recognition the State had given to so great
a potter. In other factories there were different directors, one for
the body and glaze, another for the ovens and firing, a third for the
artistic form, and a fourth for the painting and gilding, all of whom
were paid at a high rate. "But here M. Müller, an excellent chemist,
acts himself in these various departments, and is very shabbily paid,
having only a salary of 500 rix-dollars. He is also the original
inventor of this manufacture, and when it is known that he was never
out of Copenhagen, and consequently could have had no model to go by,
it is inconceivable to what a degree of perfection he has brought it,
and that, too, entirely from his own enlightened genius, without the
smallest foreign assistance."
[Illustration: SUCRIER WITH COVER, AND CUP.
With deep-blue bands having rich and elaborate gilding. _Sucrier_ with
panel inscribed _Guds Frücht_, figure representing Harvest. Cup with
convolvulus painted in natural colours.
(_At Dansk Folke Museum, Copenhagen._)]
Concerning the salary of Müller of 500 rix-dollars per annum,
it is noteworthy to observe that at that time the retail price in
Copenhagen of a complete afternoon service, consisting of six chocolate
cups with handles, twelve coffee cups, coffee-pot, teapot and dish,
sugar dish, tea caddy and cream jug, was 19 rix-dollars 3 marks first
quality blue-and-white, and 26 rix-dollars 4 marks painted with natural
flowers. Müller's yearly labours were evidently reckoned as only worth
a score of such afternoon services. Hence the piquant strictures of the
foreign noblemen.
The point raised as to Müller not having had the smallest foreign
assistance may be dismissed as somewhat erroneous. There was Anton Carl
Luplau, who was at the Fürstenberg factory for eighteen years, and who
came to Copenhagen in 1776; Johan Christoph Ba er, who was born in
Nuremberg, and came to Copenhagen in 1768, when he was thirty years
old; Peter Heinrich Benjamin Lehmann, who was a native of Hamburg, and
came to Copenhagen from the Berlin factory in 1780, and was naturalized
in 1781; Carl Fridrich Thomaschefsky, who worked a short time at the
factory; and Martin Cadewitz, who served eleven years and died in 1791.
But in 1781, of two hundred persons employed at the factory only ten
were foreigners.
As to whether Müller ever left Copenhagen the Count de Boisgelin adds
a footnote: "According to M. Catteau, this was not the fact; we only
repeat what the man told us was the case." The work referred to is
_Le Tableau des Etats Dannois envisagés sous le Rapport du Mécanisme
Social, par Jean Pierre Catteau_, printed in Paris in 1802 in three
volumes.
It is rather an interesting point, but the evidence is against de
Boisgelin, for Müller not only visited Brunswick when he entered into
negotiations with Luplau to enter the Danish service, but at a slightly
earlier date he made a tour of the German factories--in an assumed
name, as some accounts go. That he made good use of his time is amply
borne out by the results he achieved in so short a space of time on his
return to his native land.
There is nothing to detract from the originality and inventiveness
of his work. The personality of his genius illuminates the work
of the factory. He experienced as many reverses of fortune as did
Bernard Palissy, and battled against adverse circumstances with no
less indomitable spirit. He conquered technical difficulties, and
experimented with clays and bodies and glazes and pigments with hardly
less assiduity than did Josiah Wedgwood.
=A National Style Created.=--No art is wholly independent in origin
or of sporadic growth. In the early days and the initial stages it
must always be derivative. In ceramic art this applies either to form
or decoration, often to both. The form and decoration of Chinese
blue-and-white porcelain was the basis of the school of Delft faience.
The scale pattern and the panel with exotic birds were slavishly
adopted at Sèvres from Oriental prototypes. Similarly the older
European factories impressed their styles upon factories of a later
growth. The crowd of German factories came under the direct influence
of Meissen in design as well as in technique. It is a significant fact
that Copenhagen porcelain under Müller's guiding spirit developed
an original style from the first establishment of the factory. This
achievement should be placed to Müller's credit in determining his
position among European potters. He did something more than assimilate
the technique of Meissen in his hard paste, and the fact that he was
the first man to make real porcelain in Denmark is only a part of the
honour due to him. He created what was far more difficult--a national
style.
Influences there undoubtedly were bearing on the form and on the style
of decoration employed at Copenhagen. Luplau had little technique to
learn. He came as a maturely trained modeller from Fürstenberg, which
accounts for the fact that busts and statuettes were produced at a much
earlier date in the history of the Copenhagen than in a factory having
slowly to train its modellers. But undoubtedly a close examination of
the porcelain of the Müller period exhibits the fact that there was a
fine reticence applied to the form and the decoration which stands out
in strong contrast to the extravagances and reckless prodigality of
ornament employed by factories with older traditions. The new factory
at Copenhagen was endowed with a sense of beauty from the first. The
rococo style prevalent then at Meissen and dominating art is seldom
found in old Danish porcelain; now and again its presence is noticeable
and indicates that the work is of the early experimental days. But
Copenhagen created a characteristic and natural style of its own, not
only in the choice of Danish or Norwegian subjects, but in its intense
love of nature and of simple forms.
The whole series of fine _pot-pourri_ vases with natural flowers in
relief is essentially different from Meissen examples where the vase is
overloaded with fancifully modelled flowers and leaves. The graceful
form and subdued decoration of Copenhagen stand out in effective
contrast.
Moreover, the flowers themselves were evidently copied direct from
nature, and are executed with such skill and refinement that they still
stand as ideals of technical and artistic perfection.
In regard to the modelling of figures, especially those in costume,
the reticence of Copenhagen is noticeable in comparison with the
_outré_ cavaliers and dames in crinolines of the Saxon and other
factories. The subdued colouring and the simple charm of the Danish
figures places them in a gallery of their own. Nor must this be
mistaken for insipidity or weakness of design. Judged by the highest
canons of art, the quality of such creations indicates complete control
and mastery of technique, and art in due subjection.
The outburst of strong national intensity, love of nature, breadth of
conception, and virility of execution lasted at the most for twenty
years. The verse on a plate:--
_Enhver sin Sæk til Möllen bærer
Hvor tungt den ham end og besværer:_
which may be turned into English:--
Each man to the mill must bear his sack
Although the load may break his back--
was the leading precept of the staff under Müller. All worked together
with single-heartedness of purpose, and the result is the admiration
of all who love ceramic art, purposeful, and instinct with grace and
dignity.
=The Diversity of Designs.=--The illustrations accompanying this
chapter will show the range of subjects executed under the masterly
_régime_ of Müller. At first vases and services for royal use were
made, but as soon as the retail establishment in 1780 enabled persons
outside the royal _entourage_ to purchase the porcelain, the feet of
the factory were set on a rock. Similar forms to those embellished with
royal ciphers and monograms and portraits were subsequently employed
for persons of lesser degree.
The portrait of Müller shows him to have been a keen, virile,
determined man, as we know, of endless resources, and possessed of
abnormal energy. In less than twenty years there had been a constant
and untiring enthusiasm in order to bring the factory to such
perfection that it would be able to compete with the older and larger
factories of Meissen, Berlin, and Sèvres. Perhaps this object was not
achieved, inasmuch as the little factory did not enter into the lists
to win European approval, but it succeeded in developing a national
style, and this in spite of the fact that at the early stages it worked
on foreign suggestion and employed foreign artists. Owing to the crowd
of smaller factories at that date assimilating the technique and
copying the designs of Meissen, it has come to be erroneously believed,
owing to the looseness of generalization by writers on the subject and
the absence of detailed study of Copenhagen porcelain of that period,
that the Danish factory was another echo of Meissen or Berlin. The
contemporary opinion of the two French counts, men of practised skill
in observation and keen critics in regard to comparing the state of
technique and conditions of manufacture of one country with another,
comes as a complete refutation to the belief that Copenhagen was then
in the second rank.
In regard to Müller's technical achievements, they stand to this day
as a permanent record of his mastery of his art. The new body which he
invented and called "virgin paste" is of a clear dazzling white, and
is covered with a glaze transparent and smooth as polished crystal,
tinted with the green of the sea; this glaze enhanced the beauty of the
porcelain. Considering the impure materials then available, and the
primitive working methods (for instance, fuel used at that time was
wood, in poles 10 feet long of pine and fir), the perfection and beauty
of the results demand profound admiration. Even with the aid of modern
technology and chemistry it has not yet been found possible at the
factory to produce porcelain equal in every respect to the old Müller
period.
[Illustration: PASTILLE BURNER AND COVER.
On tripod stand with modelled dolphins as supports. Moulded cherub
heads, and gilded banded wreath in high relief. Perforated cover
surmounted by gilded pine-cone ornament.]
The diverse character of the output was stupendous. It was rich in
design, varied and original in invention, virile in modelling, and
national in spirit. The beautiful body invented by Müller had its
decoration with his perfected overglaze colours, green and blue and
purple. In regard to gilding, the artistic ideal seems to have been
attained. It is not possible to convey as illustrations in this volume
the extraordinary variety and beauty exhibited in this field. In the
cups and saucers herein illustrated, the fine quality of the designs
is lost in translation, but these borders of deep blue enriched with
gilded designs of the most exquisite character are something to marvel
at in connection with the work of the Müller period.
The creations of the factory cover a wide range. The versatility of
the modellers and the artists is pronouncedly marked. It bespeaks a
great and prolific period when ideas were not lacking. Evidently there
was no great searching after novelty, the gold was not beaten thin,
apparently there was a profusion of intellectual force behind the
factory. The difference is noticeable as soon as the great period is
passed, when one falls on barren ways and thinly eked out inventions,
the long years of the dreary twilight.
The love of landscape especially appealed to Copenhagen. The colours of
the ceramic artist have limitations peculiarly their own. Atmosphere is
rare in overglaze painting. There is a tendency to prettiness and an
absence of breadth. But with pigments so refractory there are instances
of work surprisingly powerful. Single colour scenes fare best, and
there is one example in purple, poor enough medium, which has qualities
almost suggesting the strength of a Dutch etching, as shown on a cup
and saucer in the _Dansk Folke Museum_. The picturesque in colour finds
its exposition in two octagonal dishes with sporting subjects. The one
shows a man with a hound (illustrated, p. 93), and the other a man with
a red coat engaged in the pastime of hawking.
Vases with portraits secured their patrons. There is one at the
_Kunstindustri Museum_ at Bergen; with the portrait of G. W. Rabener,
born at Leipsic in 1714 and died in 1771, the friend of Klopstock, and
the good-humoured satirist of German _bourgeois_ society.
[Illustration: OCTAGONAL DISH.
With figure subject, Huntsman with hound, finely painted in colours.
Blue border with rich gold decoration.]
Apart from colour and decoration, there is the fine modelling.
The symmetry of the more important vases, instinct with decorative
qualities of the highest order, having ornament in relief, moulded
garlands, gay Cupids, or mask handles of some wood-god, is always
paramount. Rarely is there a false note.
To form and the mastery of the difficulties and the due observance of
the technique of the potter, it is necessary to devote another chapter
in which the illustrations convey sufficient evidence to show that
projecting limbs and fantastic shapes more suitable to the metal-worker
were eschewed at Copenhagen. The essentials of ceramics were never lost
sight of by the band of modellers working under Müller.
=National Sentiment.=--There is a vein of sentiment, very pleasing and
very piquant, running through much of the work of this period. It is
the under-note of the potter, who, as other potters of other nations
have before him, desired to convey a written message as well as the
message in line, in colour, and in beauty of form that he set before
his generation. Centuries before Müller, the Chinese potter revelled
in his inscriptions. Potters the world over apparently are poets. On
an old Chinese porcelain vase painted in blue, with a garden scene by
moonlight, the following inscription in Chinese is found:--
"Heaven and earth are the associates of creation, as light and
darkness are the passing guests of a hundred generations. Fleeting
life is like a dream; how long do we enjoy it? It was this knowledge
that made men in the old days trim the midnight lamp. And now Yang
Chun invites us with smoke to illuminate the world with literature, to
associate the fragrant gardens of the peach and the plum, and to talk
of happiness. All graciously join me, and as they chant and sing, I
alone am ashamed; they become vivacious, I in solitude rejoice. With
loud talk they grow merry; a scholar's feast is spread, and sitting
amid the flowers we pass the goblet quickly and drink till we are
drunken. When the moon is not in its splendour, how can one expatiate
on its ecstasy? But if my verses are not perfect I am fined the
customary gold and the embarrassing wine."
Here is the Chinese potter--almost Viking-like in his song of the
wine-cup in place of the wassail-bowl. Or shall it be the Persian
astronomer-poet Omar Khayyám with his--
The Grape that can with Logic absolute
The Two-and-seventy jarring Sects confute:
The subtle Alchemist that in a Trice
Life's leaden Metal into Gold transmute.
The Staffordshire potters to a man loved a rhymed couplet on a jug
or mug or punch-bowl, and their crude efforts amuse the latter-day
collector. Their subjects were varied in character--loyalty, naval
victories, courtship, and conviviality, with a smack of religion, as,
for instance:--
Drink to live and live to die
That you may live eternally.
[Illustration: TRAY.
With oval panel with landscape painted in deep green. Wreaths around
panel in purple. Finely gilded at borders. Painted by Elias Meyer.
Given by Frederik VI to Pastor Mandal, Sörum, Norway, 1790.
(_At the Kunstindustri Museum_, _Copenhagen_.)]
There are many pretty sentiments found on Müller's ware. We have
already quoted one (p. 87), and there are many mottoes inscribed in
Danish on the porcelain of his period. There is the long inscription on
the cup with his portrait (see p. 69), and there are others which we
have translated as follows:--
Art bends nature to herself that clay
By magic is transformed to gold alway;
and an inscription on another example, translated runs:--
Long live the King, and glorious be his reign;
Long live ourselves to drink this toast again.
In the collection at Rosenborg Castle there is a cup and saucer upon
which the letter F is painted in forget-me-nots. It is dated November
22, 1797, with this inscription:--
_Uforglemmelige ungdomsaar for mig!_
(Years of youth, unforgettable for me!)
We wonder for whom this initial F stands. The permanently abiding
sentiment enshrined behind the glass case is to-day as fresh as the
forget-me-nots. What romance lies hidden in these four Danish words
burnt into the clay? But the records are silent, and F the giver or
the receiver is turned into dust, while the potter's clay stands to
symbolize an old-world story of the days when youthful ambitions and
dreams lit up the memory.
TABLE OF MARKS[5]
Found on Royal Copenhagen porcelain with decoration painted overglaze
of the Frantz Heinrich Müller period (1775-1801).
[5] These marks are strictly copyright.
These signatures and initials of painters and modellers, either painted
or incised, are found in conjunction with the usual factory mark of the
three blue lines.
GENERAL
The usual Factory Mark, in blue, found alone or in addition to
painter's or modeller's signature or initials.
This mark was adopted at the suggestion of Queen Juliane Marie in 1775,
and symbolizes the three waterways of Denmark--the Sound, and the Great
and Little Belts.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
This mark has been used on all porcelain made at the Royal Copenhagen
Factory, both with overglaze and underglaze painted decoration, since
that date.
N.B.--From 1773-1775 the porcelain of the Copenhagen factory made by
Müller bore no mark.
Signature of Anton Carl Luplau, who came to Copenhagen in 1776, and
died in 1795.
A _Bust of Queen Juliane Marie_ at Rosenborg Castle bears this
signature on base:--
[Illustration]
Signature of Hans Clio, who was working at the factory prior to 1779,
and who died in 1786.
[Illustration]
Peter Heinrich Benjamin Lehmann. Came to the factory in 1780. Died
1808. Painter of landscapes, figures, and birds.
[Illustration]
Signature of Hans Christopher Ondrup (1779-1787). Sometimes signed
_Ondrup mahlt (Ondrup painted it)_. Painted signature frequently in red.
This signature in full has been traced from an example in the
collection of Count Chr. Danneskjold-Samsöe, at Gissenfeldt.
[Illustration]
Signature of Andreas Hald (1781-1797), modeller and sculptor.
Frequently marked his pieces in full or with initials =AH= incised. In
some instances his initials are painted in blue on side of base, as in
Figure of Flute Player (illustrated, p. 127).
[Illustration]
Jesper Johansen Holm. Born 1747. Member of Royal Academy. Incised
mark, =HOLM 1780= on _Statuette_ at _National Museum_, Stockholm. (See
illustration, p. 115.) =I HOLM 1781= incised marked on a _Bust of
Prince Frederik_ at _Kunstindustri Museum_, Copenhagen.
[Illustration]
Signature of Johan Christoph Ba er. Came to Copenhagen in 1768. Died
1812. Landscape painter, followed the style of Johann Christoph
Dietsche, of Nuremberg (1710-1769). Engaged on painting the flowers in
the _Flora Danica_ service.
[Illustration]
The mark of Jacob Schmidt, modeller and sculptor. He was, in 1779,
a pupil at the factory in his fourteenth year. He died in 1807. Many
of his pieces have his initials incised. An example at the _Dansk
Folke Museum_, Copenhagen, has this mark together with the three lines
_incised_, which is an exceedingly rare mark.
[Illustration]
Incised mark on a cream cup and cover at the _Kunstindustri Museum_,
Copenhagen, decorated with purple flowers and rococo ornamentation,
gilded, and having scale-pattern in red. This mark (signifying that
the piece belongs to the Christian VII era) is unusual. This may be
conjectured to be a specimen made by Müller prior to 1775, that is,
before the adoption of the mark of the three blue lines.
[Illustration]
The incised mark of Hans Meehl, who was a modeller at the factory in
1791. This mark is found on a polychrome _Figure of a Man_ in national
costume (_Norsk Bjergmund_), at the _Kunstindustri Museum_, Copenhagen.
[Illustration]
This mark is incised on the base of a polychrome figure of a _Woman
with Hens_ at the _Kunstindustri Museum_, Copenhagen.
[Illustration]
LIST OF LEADING PAINTERS AND MODELLERS[6]
Who worked at the Royal factory under the Direction of Frantz
Heinrich Müller (1773-1801).
[6] For the leading facts contained herein, I am indebted to Professor
Karl Madsen in his article in _Tidsskrift for Kunstindustri_, 1893.
ANTON CARL LUPLAU. 1776-1795.
Was at the Fürstenberg factory for eighteen years. Müller
visited Luplau at Brunswick in 1776, and on November 14th an
agreement was signed, and Luplau joined the Copenhagen factory as
modelling-master. He died in 1795. He was a perfect craftsman. Many
of his pieces were signed, e.g. the Bust of Queen Juliane Marie.
Luplau made many of the models for the _Flora Danica_ service, and
executed 20 Norwegian types after the well-known sandstone figures
at Fredensborg.
CLAUS TVEDE. 1775-1783.
Sculptor and modeller at the factory. He is supposed to have made
the Statuette of the Hereditary Prince Frederik after the design
by Ludovico Grossi, which piece bears the initials of the modeller
Andreas Hald.
JOHAN CHRISTOPH BAŸER. 1776-1812.
Born in Nuremberg 1738. Came to Denmark in 1768. Agreement signed
on November 16, 1776, when he entered the service of the factory.
He died in his seventy-fifth year, in 1812. Landscape painter;
followed the style of Johann Christoph Dietsche, Nuremberg
landscape painter (1710-1769). Executed drawings for Holmskjold's
book on _Danish Fungi_. Entrusted with the work of flower painting
on the _Flora Danica_ service.
HANS CLIO. Working before 1779. Died in 1786.
Painter. Appointed drawing-master to train the pupils at the
factory. His signature appears on some of the porcelain with
landscapes painted by him.
LARS HANSEN. 1777-1800.
Born in 1739. In 1777 he is noted as being one of the best painters
in blue underglaze ware. He died in 1800.
JACOB SCHMIDT. 1779-1807.
Born in 1764. Modeller and sculptor. At factory in 1779 as pupil
in modelling in his fourteenth year. Many of his pieces are marked
with his initials incised.
HANS CHRISTOPH ONDRUP. 1779-1787.
Painter. His signature, or his initials, painted in red, is found
on several pieces.
PETER HEINRICH BENJAMIN LEHMANN. 1780-1808.
Born in 1752 at Hamburg. Came to the factory from Berlin in 1780.
Was naturalized in 1781 and died in 1808. He was a painter of
landscapes, figures, and birds.
G. KALLEBERG. 1780-1810.
Modeller of figures and _repoussé_ worker. He appears to have had a
large share in the production of figures and moulds, and there is
presumptive evidence that his work was of a superlative character.
JESPER JOHANSEN HOLM. 1780-1802.
Modeller. Born in 1747. Member of the Royal Academy. Trained by
Wiedevelt, the sculptor. His statuettes are finely executed. See _A
Hero_ (with =I HOLM 1780= incised mark), illustrated, p. 115, at
National Museum, Stockholm. He became model-master in 1802.
ABILDGAARD. 1780-
Danish artist and sculptor, returned to Copenhagen from Continental
travels in 1777, and brought new impulses. Consulted as adviser to
factory in regard to art matters and correctness of modelling.
MARTIN CADEWITZ. 1780-1791.
Served eleven years at factory. Died in 1791.
JOHAN CAMRATH, _Senior_. 1780-1796.
Portrait painter. Executed work for the factory till 1796. Died
in 1814, in his seventy-sixth year. He was engaged on fine vases,
and painted grey medallion panel portraits of Queen Juliane Marie,
and other royalties, for important pieces. There is a small cup
at Rosenborg Castle with the portrait of P. A. Heiberg painted by
him. He was not permanently at the factory, but undertook work of a
highly artistic nature.
NICOLAJ CHRISTIAN FAXOE. 1783-1810.
Born in 1762. Pupil at the factory in painting, 1783. Flower
painter. Worked at the factory till his death in 1810.
SÖREN PREUS. 1784-
Modeller. Executed the delicate flowers in relief on vases,
baskets, and groups. The vases with Cupids and garlands, and the
magnificent vase, with portrait of Queen Juliane Marie painted by
Camrath, having a Cupid seated on body of vase amidst a garland of
exquisitely moulded flowers and two lions finely modelled on cover,
is the work of Sören Preus.
The baskets of flowers and bouquets and ornaments in the dessert
centre pieces of the _Flora Danica_ service suggest his master-hand.
ELIAS MEYER. 1785-1809.
Born in 1763 at Copenhagen, trained at Dresden. Flower and
landscape painter. He occasionally marked pieces with his name. His
work is not in the first flight. He died in 1809 as member of the
Royal Academy.
M. MEYER. 1784-1792.
This artist was mentioned in conjunction with Camrath by Count
Louis de Boisgelin, who visited the factory thirteen years after
it had been founded. M. Meyer "is much esteemed for the beauty of
his designs." It appears that both he and Camrath were not actually
in the factory service on a fixed salary, but received payment for
each piece executed.
ANDREAS HALD. 1781-1797.
Modeller and sculptor. This artist modelled a number of gracefully
conceived figures. He frequently signed his work either A. Hald or
with initials, incised, sometimes initials painted in blue, as on
figure of _Flute Player_. See illustration, p. 127.
JOHAN ARENTZ. 1786-1796.
N. BAU. 1791-1820.
Landscape painter, animals and figures, _genre_ subjects of
peasants, and also silhouettes. Bau was the head painter from 1812.
He died in 1820.
Many of his landscape subjects are painted in purple.
JOHANNES LUDVIG CAMRATH, _Junior_. 1794-
Flower and fruit painter. Born in 1779. Became pupil at factory in
1794. Died in 1849.
CARL FRIDRICH THOMASCHEFSKY. 1780-
This painter, originally trained at Berlin, worked only a short
time at the factory. A colleague of Lehmann.
RABEN SVARDAHLYN. HANS JACOB HANSEN. CHRISTIAN AHRENSBORG. MATTHIAS
WOLSTRUP. SCHALTZ.
These painters were engaged on the underglaze mussel-blue painted
ware during the Müller _régime_, together with Lars Hansen, who, in
1777, was considered the leading painter in this style.
CHAPTER IV
FIGURE SUBJECTS AND GROUPS
(1780-1820)
CHAPTER IV
FIGURE SUBJECTS AND GROUPS
(1780-1820)
The inauguration of new impulses, 1780--Luplau,
the modelling-master--The figure subjects of
Kalleberg--Classification of figure subjects--Old Copenhagen
figures, their national character--The last days of Müller.
Apart from the royal busts and statuettes, the sumptuous vases with
portraits of royalties, and the magnificent services made for royal use
or for some important personage, culminating in the great and extensive
_Flora Danica_ service, there were other examples, notably figure
subjects and groups, often of a minor character, and vases and services
of less splendour in their decoration but not of inferior character.
The date of these may be determined as subsequent to the year 1780,
when a retail establishment was opened in Copenhagen in the heyday of
Müller's triumph, for the sale of the factory productions. An outburst
of popular feeling hailed this adventure with delight. The chronicles
of the time are full of the subject. Hitherto great and important
pieces were made under the Court patronage of Queen Juliane Marie and
of Prince Frederik, her son, and important subjects were executed,
giving to this period a character and dignity not surpassed by many
of the older factories. But the royal factory now became the national
factory. Henceforth merchants, burghers, the professional classes, and
the Danish public in general were enabled to see a permanent exhibition
of the ware of the Royal Porcelain Factory, and to purchase or give
orders for a national ware which, naturally, was supplanting the use
of all others in the country. In the year 1790 the importation of any
foreign porcelain save Chinese was prohibited by law.
From 1780 to 1790 one may expect to find the factory in full enjoyment
of success, particularly in regard to its manufacture and sale
of utilitarian blue fluted services, underglaze painted, and of
small figures and vases, overglaze painted, of a less magnificent
character, designed for use and ornament in the home rather than
representative of types more fitted for presents to foreign princes and
plenipotentiaries. In 1790 Müller was fifty-eight years of age. In 1801
he had retired from the factory.
This chapter, while including important figures and groups, deals
with types of a class which may be termed as in the second flight
of Müller's artistic triumphs, and be it said much of the work is
contemporary with more ambitious creations equal in character to some
of the finest.
[ILLUSTRATION: STATUETTE ENTITLED _A HERO_.
With incised Mark HOLM/1780 and three blue lines painted.
Height 12-1/5 inches.
(_At the National Museum, Stockholm._)]
As many of these minor pieces are dated and others have the signature
of the artist or modeller, it is possible to arrive, with some degree
of accuracy, at the period of their manufacture. Contemporary with
all these overglaze painted examples of the factory one must not lose
sight of the fact that the mussel-blue underglaze painted ware was
continuously being made. New forms were being added, and its decoration
with the "Danish pattern" adhered closely to the original floral
_motif_ now perennial to the ware.
=Luplau, the Modelling Master.=--In regarding the figure subjects,
it must be borne in mind that the foreign assistance which Müller
called in at the inception of the factory had not a little influence
on the early and sure production of figures which could not have been
attempted without experienced supervision. Under Anton Carl Luplau, the
modelling-master who came to Copenhagen from the Fürstenberg factory,
where he had spent eighteen years, the early stages of the Copenhagen
modelling show a completer mastery of the technique than is usually
exhibited by so young a factory.
But design and modelling, excellent though they undoubtedly were in
the hands of Luplau, were only factors in the problem towards perfected
results. The body, the glaze, and the colours were Müller's. Nor is it
to be supposed that Luplau contributed more than the idea, practical
without doubt, but it is improbable that he carried his supervision
beyond the plastic stages. All credit is due to him for instilling
the principles of fine lines and graceful forms into the minds of the
young potters. But it was Müller by day and by night, with long vigils,
often all night, at the ovens with his workmen whom he was training to
control the caprice of the furnace, who seized the situation and gladly
profited by experience in his uphill struggle to establish his factory
in the face of all difficulties. Müller had the genius of "moulding
men in plastic circumstance." Nor was Luplau the swan he is sometimes
thought to have been. There is a suggestion in one of Müller's letters
to the board of management of the factory which illuminates the inner
history. Speaking of Luplau, and probably the old story--the cost of
production--he says: "On the contrary, he demands extra payment for
any work which he does himself, and as the factory cannot afford this,
most of the figures and moulds are made by Kalleberg, and in this work
Luplau appears to take a very small share."
[Illustration: TWO FIGURES OF SEA HORSES.
Painted in colours, brown predominating on a white ground. Each marked
with three blue lines. Height 3-3/4 inches. Length 6-3/10 inches.
(_In the National Museum, Stockholm._)]
=The Figure Subjects of Kalleberg.=--The fertility of the early
Copenhagen period when masterpieces, full of charm and perfect in
style, rapidly appeared one after another in a short but crowded
period, has puzzled students of the old period. To accept Luplau as
the creator of them all, is to believe him classic and precise, and
at the same moment capable of transforming his style into elegant,
restrained creations of gaiety and fanciful forms in due subjection. To
omit the subtle and critical examination of style is to fall into the
pit which contains those curious mortals who believe the exact, terse,
and laboured prose of Bacon to be by the author of _A Midsummer Night's
Dream_ and _Hamlet_. To such, it is possible to credit Julius Cæsar
with having written the ode of Horatius Flaccus to _Lyde_.
There is some mystery as to the designer of the dancing figures,
the flute-player, the lady at the tea-table, the Copenhagen group,
the Norwegian dalemen in Fredensborg, the mountain-men, and certain
dainty Cupids. They differ entirely from Laplau's productions in every
respect, and stand far above them in artistic merit. The late Professor
Krohn, whose patient researches, on this and other vexed questions
concerning old Copenhagen porcelain, were unfortunately broken off by
his untimely death, was of the opinion that these figure subjects were
the work of the _repoussé_ worker Kalleberg. Authentic confirmation is
lacking, other than the letter above quoted. Until further evidence is
forthcoming and further investigations are made into the Müller period,
we must accept the authentic pronouncement by Müller as the last word
on the subject.
In regard to the employment of foreigners, it is certain that the
experiment was not a success. Five workmen were inveigled from Meissen
in 1776. Out of the five, probably induced by monetary considerations
to quit the Meissen factory, two did not make an appearance in
Copenhagen. Of the three who came, it seems that only one showed any
great talent. It would appear, too, that they exhibited an arrogance
that stirred up strife in the factory. They received higher wages
than the Danish workmen and began to assume correspondingly superior
manners, with the belief that the factory could not proceed without
them. But Müller speedily put an end to this state of affairs by
closing the factory gates against them, and when they attempted to
break in, he had them turned out by force. With these experiences in
mind, it is not surprising that when, at a later date, some English
workmen from the Wedgwood factory desired employment, they received
scanty consideration.
[Illustration: FIGURE GROUP (ONE OF A PAIR).
Painted in overglaze colours. Period 1780-1790. Marked with three blue
lines. Height 9-1/5 inches.
(_From the collection of the late Hr. B. Hirschsprüng_)]
=Classification of Figure Subjects.=--The figure subjects under
examination in this chapter may be divided into the following groups:--
Portrait Busts and Statuettes and Classic figures, in biscuit--
such as those of Queen Juliane Marie and the Hereditary Prince
Frederik, and the statuette of _A Hero_ at the National Museum,
Stockholm (illustrated, p. 115)
Ornamental subjects, in white--
such as the centre-piece with the supporting Cupids at the _Dansk
Folke Museum_, Copenhagen, and the remarkably fine vases, 4 feet
high, at Frederiksborg, having powerfully modelled groups of
female classic figures.
Classic figures and subjects, decorated in colours, overglaze--
such as the group _Flora and Minerva_ by Jacob Schmidt and _Sea
Horses_ at the National Museum, Stockholm (illustrated, p. 119).
Romantic subjects in costume, decorated in colours, overglaze--
such as _Lovers with Cupid and Garlands_ (illustrated, p. 123),
and small figures of women and children in fanciful costume.
There is at Frederiksborg Castle a group--_Chinese Woman and
Chinaman_, who is offering her a basket of fruit. This Oriental
subject is very rare. Marked with three lines underglaze in blue,
but the yellow overglaze pigment on base has turned the blue into
three _green_ lines.
Figure subjects in correct contemporary costume--practically a
ceramic gallery faithfully reflecting the social character of the
period--
such as the _Flute Player_, the _Lady and Gentleman dancing_,
the _Beggar_, and an especially fine series of peasant types
in old costume, engaged at their various vocations--e.g. two
groups of _Norwegian Miners_, with black costume and green
caps, with C7 in gold (at Frederiksborg Castle). The _Woman
with Hens_, in Norwegian costume, a _Market Woman with Fowls_,
a _Lobster-seller_, _Woman selling Fruit_, _Woman milking Cow_.
Figures in naval and military uniform, and many others.
=Old Copenhagen Figures--their National Character.=--In regard to the
series of figures in contemporary costume, there is an air about them
which stamps them at once as being the work of the old Copenhagen
factory. They are practically portrait studies, with that added touch
of poetic charm which fits them for their place among the gods of the
china cabinet.
They challenge comparison with the work of other European
factories. Kändler, the modeller at Meissen, in what is styled the
_Krinolinengruppen_ period in mid eighteenth-century days, produced
figures of lovers and ladies in rich costumes. They belong to that
impossible world of the china-shelf, of shepherds and shepherdesses
and bending cavaliers and gay ladies, conjured up in the fertile brain
of the potter. They invaded France and they conquered England in the
glorious days of Derby and Chelsea. But with a few notable exceptions
they did not penetrate to Copenhagen.
[Illustration: FIGURES.
Old woman supplicating alms. Man playing flute.
Marks.--A.H. incised on base, and A.H. painted in blue at side of base.
Height 6-3/8 inches.
(_At the Dansk Folke Museum, Copenhagen._)]
The groups of _Lovers with Cupids_ and chains of roses are two
examples of this romantic movement which came into the world of
ceramics, a reflex of the decorative art of fashionable Court painters,
who invented a topsy-turvy world of make-believe.
The quiet strength and the subdued restraint of the old Copenhagen
figures stand out in contrast to this outburst of fanciful exuberance.
The note of fidelity is as apparent in the figures in costume of the
Müller period as it is noticeable in regard to floral decorations and
modelled foliage taken direct from nature. Nor does this betray a want
of imagination or a lack of ideality in choice of figure subjects. If
it be classic, there is poetry in the statuette of _A Hero_, or a loose
rein is given by the modeller to his _Sea Horses_, a poet's vision of
the sea rollers leaping shore-wards from the Baltic. The fashion for
the romantic did eventually tinge the Copenhagen _atelier_. Some of the
little figures are graceful, retiring, modest examples of the movement.
It is true they are decked in impossible costumes, but the mode has in
the transplantation acquired simplicity and reticence. Some of them
suggest, in porcelain, the quaint charm of Kate Greenaway's world of
picturesque children.
Of the gallery of contemporary life the Copenhagen figures, in
the main, are faithful likenesses. The dancing cavalier and lady
(see _Frontispiece_) represent persons who actually did dance as
they are modelled. There is nothing added except that touch of the
modeller's genius in catching the rhythmical pose of the poetry of
motion which crystallizes them as a work of art. The _Flute Player_ is
equally caught in the act, natural and unobtrusive. There is nothing
affected in his attitude or in his costume (illustrated, p. 127). It
is such traits as these which endear the old Copenhagen figures to
connoisseurs. The glaze is rich and liquid and the colours are subdued
in tone and appeal to lovers of subtlety in art. Whatever extraneous
influences in art press upon the work of the Danish potters, there is a
process of refining which they seemingly undergo, and in so doing
Suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
As may be imagined, these old-world figures are much treasured by
Danish collectors, who realize that they represent a national phase of
art and form a record of quaint and forgotten costume. The sellers in
the market-place, the women with fowls, the fisherman with the striped
jersey and shiny hat familiar in old prints of our own sailormen, and
the Admiral with his speaking trumpet--it might be the great Fischer
himself, of the days when fleets were sweeping the North Sea and the
Baltic--come with peculiar associations from bygone days.
[Illustration: FIGURE GROUPS.
Market woman with Fruit and Lobster seller. Height 6-2/5 inches.]
[Illustration: FIGURES IN CONTEMPORARY NAVAL AND MILITARY UNIFORMS.
Decorated in colour.
(_From the collection of His Excellency the late M. de Bille._)]
=The Last Days of Müller.=--The illustrations herein given cover
this diverse field and serve to indicate the versatility of the
modellers who worked during the Müller period. The peasant types and
some of the smaller figures belong to the latter days of the Müller
_régime_. Although Müller retired from the factory in 1801, he kept
in touch with what was in progress. His hand may not have been on the
helm, but he had spirit enough left in his retirement to burst forth
with pungent criticisms upon the later methods pursued, and there is
no doubt the old veteran was frequently consulted by those upon whom
his mantle had fallen. The fiery spirit of Müller, proof against all
adversity, with the eye of the eagle saw across a longer space than men
of ordinary vision. "Everything which has been done after I left the
factory," growls out the fiery old man, "has been to its detriment."
And who shall say that his words were not true?
Müller had heard the guns booming in the Sound in 1801, he had seen
the havoc of bombardment by an alien fleet in 1807. His heart's desire,
his beloved factory, had been wrecked. A great man's treasure-house of
dreams had been devastated. The story of the ruin which overtook the
factory comes with stunning poignancy with the knowledge that owing to
the misery which followed the war the factory actually closed down in
1810, for a time, owing to the want of fuel. Years after the death of
Müller and the glories of his day had departed, a number of his oldest
models and moulds were found in a heap of shards stowed away in a loft
in the old factory. At the removal to the new factory at Frederiksberg
it was hardly thought worth while to carry them away.
Fortunately, this was done, and in spite of their wrecked condition,
loving hands have pieced them together. It is now happily possible to
reproduce faithfully some two hundred of the beautiful models of the
great days.
Frantz Heinrich Müller, the greatest potter of Denmark, is not dead,
although his ashes have lain in a nameless grave for nearly a century.
His memory still lies green in the hearts of those who love great
things finely conceived, great triumphs nobly won, and great dreams
perfectly consummated.
CHAPTER V
THE _FLORA DANICA_ SERVICE
(1790-1802)
MADE FOR CATHERINE II, EMPRESS OF RUSSIA
CHAPTER V
THE _FLORA DANICA_ SERVICE
(1790-1802)
_MADE FOR CATHERINE II, EMPRESS OF RUSSIA_
The Crown Prince Frederik (afterwards Frederik VI) orders the
Flora Danica service to be made--A period of twelve years
occupied in making it--The taste of the Empress Catherine II of
Russia--Theodor Holmskjold, the botanist--The service.
A separate chapter is devoted to the great service executed by the
Royal Copenhagen Factory during the years 1790 to 1802. It takes
a place with other great services, the masterpieces of old and
distinguished factories, such as the magnificent table service of _pâte
tendre_ Sèvres porcelain finished in 1778 for the Empress Catherine II
of Russia, consisting of about 750 pieces and costing some £13,200. The
Empress, it is interesting to read, considered this price exorbitant,
and a lengthy diplomatic correspondence ensued. This service was part
of the imperial collection at St. Petersburg. The celebrated Wedgwood
dinner service of earthenware made for Catherine II and delivered in
1774, consists of painted English scenery, depicting famous views and
noblemen's seats. This comprised over 950 pieces, and a portion of it
was exhibited in London in 1909 by Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood and Sons,
of Etruria, by permission of late His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of
Russia.[7]
[7] See illustrated descriptive Catalogue of Wedgwood Exhibition, 1909,
4to, 22 pp., by the present writer, also _Connoisseur_, December 1909.
The _Flora Danica_ service had as a patron the Crown Prince Frederik,
the son of Christian VII and Queen Caroline Matilda. In 1784 another
palace revolution had happened. The power of Queen Juliane Marie and
her son, the king's brother, was broken. Prince Frederik (afterwards
Frederik VI on the death of his father Christian VII, at the age of
fifty-nine, in 1808) assumed the presidency of the State Council, after
an unseemly struggle for the person of the imbecile king had taken
place between him and his uncle Frederik, Prince Hereditary, resulting
in the complete rout of the latter. The same day, April 14, 1784, the
Crown Prince Frederik was proclaimed Regent. From that moment the rule
of the Queen Dowager and her son Frederik was ended. She and her son
retained their apartments at Christiansborg Palace, and Fredensborg was
set apart for the use of Queen Juliane Marie. She lived in retirement
until her death in 1796. Her son Frederik refrained from meddling in
State affairs, and confined his attention to the welfare of art and
science.