The highest test to apply to a figure subject in porcelain is that

it should be criticized in the biscuit stage. The crudities, the

disproportioned ornament or the restless lack of cohesion become at

once evident, without the touches of colour added to conceal the

poverty of the art.

In our old factories at Plymouth and Bristol in the hard paste and

at Bow in the soft paste, owing to an imperfect knowledge of the

technique, fire-cracks often appeared in the body of objects intended

for ornament. Collectors of experience and mature judgment know exactly

what the potters did in these trying circumstances. The scientific

examination of the treasures of the china cabinet has revealed many

of the potter's tricks. A fire-crack becomes the body of a butterfly

gaudily painted in rich colours. This is one instance of the use of

colour to conceal the inexactitude of the craftsman. Similarly, in

figures it becomes a speculative question as to what their character

would turn out to be when they were stripped of the gorgeous costumes

with which they are decked. Many a Chelsea figure with rich brocaded

surtout, yellow vest, and breeches of amazing colour in scale pattern

of peacock hues, would turn out to be a veritable scarecrow if stripped

of the glories of pigment. The colour has deceived the eye in regard to

form.

This love of colour and disregard of the niceties of form has betrayed

many enthusiasts into going into raptures over monstrosities which

would not bear the light of day upon them if they were in biscuit

state. It is a matter for conjecture how many Staffordshire figures or

Toby Jugs, minus pigment, would call for a word of praise judged solely

on their modelling and symmetrical beauty.

In Copenhagen, from the early overglaze painted figures of the Müller

period to the underglaze decorated figures of the Renaissance style,

there is one quality that they have in common. This is especially

noticeable in comparing them with work of other factories over an

extended period of time. They exhibit with unerring precision the

limitations of the potter in regard to the medium in which he works.

At no time has the Copenhagen modeller attempted, save in the decadent

period when he copied Thorvaldsen's sculpture, to encroach upon the

work of the silversmith or the glass-blower. He has been true to the

clay whose properties in the fire he knows so well. The technique of

modelling in clay follows laws as definite as can well be laid down.

It is the same in all crafts where strict observance is paid to the

use for which objects are created. The Japanese ivory-carver in his

_netsukes_, or ivory fastenings for garments, carves them as nearly

oval or round as is possible. It may be a curled-up mouse, or an old

man with a barrel, or any other fanciful subject, but the absence of

spikes is the sign that the work is old and not modern carving for the

European markets, when such objects bristle with points.

Similarly, in figures, for many reasons they should have no jutting

arms or over out-thrust ornaments. First because in use they will be

broken off. A glance at the damaged specimens on the china shelf will

at once show the mistakes of the potter. Rarely at the Copenhagen

factory did the modeller fancy for the moment he was a silver-worker

and leave a projecting arm. There is one instance in an old figure most

noticeable. A seller of _kringler_ has an outstretched hand offering

his ware for sale, but that is missing in the example the writer

examined.

Another reason for the avoidance of undue extension is the technical

difficulty of supporting this in the oven during firing. Clay in the

oven requires every assistance to keep it from warping or bending over,

and to introduce unnecessary difficulties in modelling is to produce

bad art. This, coupled with the fact that porcelain shrinks in firing

to about six-sevenths of its original size, is sufficient reason for

the artistic potter to keep strictly within the limitations of his

technique.

=The Sound Principles of Old Copenhagen Porcelain.=--Throughout

the Müller period it will be seen how carefully these axioms were

followed. In regard to the styles of decoration, the old school worked

in overglaze painting and the Renaissance school employs underglaze

painting. They are in complete contrast to one another in the treatment

of a subject. The narrow range of underglaze colours in a measure

limits the results of the decorator of figures. But it must not be

imagined that the overglaze school of painting, by reason of its freer

palette, allowed the modelling of the figures to be less than ideal.

A reference to the Müller chapter on _Figure Subjects_ will show that

a great many examples were produced in white or in biscuit, and were

thus entirely independent of colour to help out any deficiencies in

modelling, if such existed.

An indication of the strong individuality of the figure modelling of

the Juliane Marie period, is forthcoming in the fact that the factory

to-day is producing some of the coloured figures of that period in

white.

=Underglaze succeeds Overglaze Colouring.=--Concerning the Renaissance

figures as a whole, there is a tendency to produce them in white;

this bespeaks great strength of modelling, and, varied as they are

in character, dealing with different phases of life, they are never

insipid. But it may be advanced that the underglaze colours are not

extended enough in their range to do justice to some of the costume

subjects. It seems to the present writer, and perhaps the criticism

is confirmed by a pronounced tendency in that direction by the latest

artistic movement in the factory, that many of the modern figures, such

as peasant women in costume and the soldier in Hans Andersen's story

of the _Tinder Box_, would give more complete results in overglaze

painting. This revival of overglaze painting in Copenhagen in figures,

and in combination with underglaze work, is a new development which is

being curiously watched by connoisseurs and technical experts.

The underglaze colours find complete harmony in the decoration of

figures of birds, and are delicate and true to nature in the modelled

fish, which have a graceful charm especially their own. They are a

perfect medium for placques and vases, depicting the long vaporous

clouds stretched across a leaden sky, the silvery blue transparent

billows tossing in from the Baltic, or in the foreground streaming

wearily over the level grey-yellow sand, flecked with the lilac

seashore flowers and tufts of grass on the sand-dunes. The pale sad

blues, the delicate greens, the amber, and pink, and dun-grey tones

verging into violet which are transmuted in the _grand feu_ convey the

faint colours, the mist and the sadness, the storm and the rainy air,

the dim haze extending over meadow and lake, and the tremulously yellow

tones of sunset. The landscape is tinged with that soft melancholy

which tones down all harshness and softens all lines. Meditative,

somnolent, indecisive, liquid, limpid, and alluring in tender serenity,

these characteristics appeal to the soul of the artist as belonging

to the dream country of lakes and beech-woods and sand-hills and

kaleidoscopic waters. These intangible and wraith-like impressions have

been momentarily snatched by the potters and painters at the factory,

nor has anything been dropped in the fiery ordeal of the furnace,

and they stand in ceramic art as a permanent national record of the

homeland of the Dane.

=The Love of Animal Life.=--There is one point at which the modern

figure subjects break new ground. The Renaissance period is rich in its

love of the animal kingdom. The wheeling gulls, the wild swans, and

geese, and mallards, wading and diving birds, and storks, and owls have

been modelled. The wild life of Denmark has provided a new field. This

is studied from nature. There is a figure of a turkey, a denizen of the

factory grounds, modelled from life. What other factory in the world is

there where one may meet, as did the writer, a turkey with her brood

being ushered from the garden up a staircase into a pen in one of the

studios? The original with her brood may be seen illustrated, p. 337.

[Illustration: FIGURE OF WOMAN AND COW.

Painted in underglaze colours. Modelled by Chr. Thomsen.]

Animals and fish have obtained full recognition in the gallery of

figure subjects. The Zoological Gardens in close proximity to the

factory has provided the Polar bear and other studies. A notable

example of fine modelling is a _Sea Lion_, which is life-like in its

faithful representation. The modelled fish, with the liquid glaze

suggestive that they have just been captured, are a remarkable feature

and are true in every detail--as true as were the botanical specimens

on the _Flora Danica_ service. They come as decorative objects as

surprisingly beautiful in form as are the birds, and their variety

captivates the lover of natural form and subdued colour.

=Peasant Types and Children.=--The peasant life of the country, the

costume, now fast disappearing, and the old-world character, still

happily preserved in many districts, were reproduced in the overglaze

figures of an earlier period. This love of veracity in costume and

environment is a feature which is traditional in the factory; it

therefore comes as no surprise to find that peasant types are produced

with underglaze treatment in colours. The only example of an animal in

the overglaze Müller period is the _Woman milking a Cow_, and a similar

subject of a Milkmaid and Cow may be seen treated in modern manner in

underglaze style, with delicate suggestion of colour in the pale grey

dress, delicate blue shawl, and kerchief with infinitesimal spots. The

cow is white save for one or two splashes of light brown.

If Cupids be child-life, then the old style offers scores of examples,

but the modern child has been denuded of his wings and is employed in

other occupations than twining wreaths of roses around lovers. The

usual children of the china shelf are armed with baskets and posies,

and are Cupid-like in their character. But in the Renaissance figures

of Copenhagen children the spirit of childhood is present. The simple

peasant _Child_ (illustrated, p. 279), with burden of bottle and

basket, is as true to life as the faithful record of an old Dutch

master. It is, possibly without meaning to be, symbolic of the life of

toil of the peasant. It is a tale the clay tells of the busy life of

the fields. Even a tiny child has to bear her share of the long day's

work. It is just that sad touch of reflection which illuminates great

works of art, and it is here present. A figure such as this is worth,

as a work of art, fifty meaningless Rockingham _Flower Boys_ or Chelsea

manikins in grotesque costume.

[Illustration: FIGURE OF BOY AND CALF.

Painted in underglaze colours. Modelled by Chr. Thomsen.]

The _Old Woman_, modelled by the same artist, with bonnet and shawl

with fringe, represents a type now belonging to days rapidly passing.

The character of an obsolescent type has been caught with exceptional

cleverness. There is another figure of an old woman less robust, and

indicating less lovable qualities, with Bible in hand, and, if the

truth be told, a somewhat crafty look. Such types as these will be

recognized by those who know Denmark well; they are racy of the soil,

and represent the acute perception of the modern potters in seizing

disappearing types. Such crystallized character forms a permanent

and very valuable record of the remoter side of country life, and is

instinct with a truer feeling of art than whole galleries representing

impossible porcelain cavaliers and ladies in costume the like of which

no man has ever seen.

In dealing with the underglaze ware from its first application to

utilitarian services to its subtle use in placques and vases with

_grand-feu_ colours, and finally in figure subjects and groups, it

will be seen, both in regard to mastery of technique and artistic

evolution, the natural order of development is that given in Chapter II

in examining the stages of overglaze painting and modelling. At that

period the order proceeds on lines of its own, and the usual stages of

progression were influenced by the fact that in the early days of the

factory Luplau, the first modelling-master, brought his experience to

bear on the work, and figure subjects of a high order were attempted

almost from the beginning. Here, in the Renaissance period, by slower

evolution and particularly sure processes, the modelling of figures has

arrived at a state of undoubted excellence. Apart from the first early

inspiration when things Japanese broke upon Europe with overwhelming

force, the Copenhagen artists have obtained their inspiration from

within. They have followed the instincts of their own race, and they

have developed on lines essentially their own, both in form, in colour,

and in technique.

The Europe of sixty years ago was sated with meaningless formalities.

Tired with the repetition of the scanty stock of Greek ornaments, and

in search of novelty, it is only natural that men should turn their

eyes to the only living schools of decorative art then in existence.

In India, China, and Japan was found the freshness that design

needed. When Müller was producing his masterpieces in clay, Wedgwood

was transplanting Greek gods and goddesses into Staffordshire, and

Chippendale was fashioning his fretwork angles to tables and chairs,

taken direct from China. Between those days and the present is the

great wave of classicism which dug out Etruscan vases and remodelled

them, brought the Latin chair into the early nineteenth-century

drawing-room, and with stilted affectation of simplicity drove elegance

and comfort far afield.

[Illustration: PEASANT FIGURES.

Painted in underglaze colours. Modelled by Chr. Thomsen.]

Of all Oriental schools it is thus natural that the Japanese, with

the unexpected and unsymmetrical treatment of design, should appeal

most at such a time. The true and fine feeling of the Japanese for

birds and beasts, for the flower world and for landscape in its larger

features, is shown in all their design, from the small ivory carvings

to the lacquer work or the colour prints of Katsuchika Hokusai.

The West has learned much from the East in the nineteenth century.

Whistler's Nocturnes and Aubrey Beardsley's pen drawings catch their

germ of novelty from sources other than European.

But "East is East and West is West," and Copenhagen underglaze

decoration has produced the tones of the Northern world. Of all curious

happenings, it is singular to record that to-day the Japanese ceramic

artists are fashioning their work in the same subdued tones, and

producing similar subjects in figures, to the little band of ceramic

workers in Denmark. In the history of the manufacture of porcelain

this is not exactly a new thing. In England we have Worcester copying

Chinese examples and inventing a pseudo mark, and the Bow and Lowestoft

factories copying Worcester's copy of Chinese originals. Meissen and

Sèvres have both suffered heavily from votaries who have loved the

originals so well that they could not forbear from imitating them. In

England, at Worcester and at Coalport, the copyists excelled in their

love for the Sèvres and Meissen originals by putting the marks of those

factories on their productions.

It is a remarkable fact that Denmark, with no coal and with no

minerals, and with no quartz and no china clay, should stand to-day

as the leading porcelain factory in Europe. In the admirable article

on _Ceramics_ in the new edition of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_

(1911) this verdict stands: "The most admirable result of this

revived interest in Japanese art was, however, developed at the Royal

Copenhagen works, the productions of which are not only famous all over

the world, but have set a new style in porcelain decorations which is

being followed at most of the Continental factories." In connection

with figure subjects the same critic recognizes their precious

qualities. "The Royal Copenhagen works have also produced a profusion

of skilfully modelled animals, birds, and fishes, either in pure white

or tinted after nature with the same underglaze colours. Other European

factories have adopted the modern Copenhagen style of decoration."

Something should be said in passing of the domestic influence of

the Royal Copenhagen Factory upon the art of Denmark. Like a sturdy

oak-tree, the old factory has continued in its steady growth from

the days of Queen Juliane Marie. It has weathered many storms, and

now proudly rears its head as a beloved landmark. Its influence on

generations of artists has been deep and lasting. It has scattered its

_largesse_, and its sheltering branches have lent their protecting

shade to many grateful pilgrims. In common with many another great

factory, it has added new impulses to the centre of its origin. Like

the acorn dropping from the parent tree, productive of flourishing

young oaks, so has it been with the royal factory. It is pleasurable to

be able to record here the successes of a Copenhagen porcelain factory

conducted by Messrs. Bing and Gröndahl. Their art is fresh and winning,

their painters have caught the touch of the royal factory, and their

modellers have found inspiration in the work marked with the three blue

lines. The Bing and Gröndahl ware is marked with the initials B & G. It

was originated in the year 1853, and has been marked with a successful

career. Many of its productions are to be found in museums side by side

with work of the royal factory. There is a spirit of friendly rivalry

between the ancestor and the youthful scion. This is only natural. But

the old oak and the young tree will still continue to flourish side by

side, and the old oak will always be the monarch of the forest, even a

hundred years hence, when painstaking collectors wrangle as to dates

and marks and weigh the B & G with the three blue lines, and find, as

undoubtedly they will, beauty and poetry reminiscent of the Danish art.

Many of the early figure subjects of the Renaissance period were of

surprising originality, and in some cases only one example was made.

The collectors who were fortunate enough to secure these examples have

since realized how happy was their choice. There is one figure of a

_Black Cat_, exhibited at the Paris Exhibition, 1900, which has never

been repeated in black, owing to the great difficulty experienced in

manipulating the glaze and the hazardous nature of the experiment.

White cats have been modelled in similar fashion, but there is only one

black Copenhagen cat, and naturally such a rare piece is exceedingly

valuable.

Among some of the later productions in figures are some finely modelled

subjects taken from Hans Christian Andersen's _Stories_. Who does not

remember the _Tinder Box_, that tale of enchantment where the soldier,

coming home from the wars, marching along the road with knapsack on

back, meets a witch who induces him to descend into the great cavern

and procure the magic tinder box. A dainty little group in white

represents the _Soldier and the Witch_. We know of his sudden rise

to fortune, armed with a talisman as potent as Aladdin's Lamp. The

sleeping princess imprisoned in a copper castle is brought to him by

the faithful canine genii of the tinder box. How he narrowly escaped

the gallows and finally took the princess as his bride is one of our

own nursery stories, and there is a Copenhagen figure group showing the

soldier with his arm around the princess in soldierly and lover-like

fashion.

[Illustration: GROUP IN WHITE PORCELAIN.

_The Princess and the Swineherd._

(From Hans Christian Andersen's _Stories_.)

Modelled by Chr. Thomsen.]

The story of the _Swineherd_ provides another subject, and what

grace and elegance and beauty are in the lines, and delicacy in the

sentiment. It is an idyll in porcelain. Away with pierrots and mimes,

the fevered extravagances of imagination run riot in bizarre form and

garish colour! Such a group as this should have a niche to itself in

the china cabinet. It is superlatively chaste and reticent, daintily

conceived and faultless in technique. The story is of the prince who

became swineherd to the father of the weary princess. His taste for

music took a mechanical turn in the whimsical invention of a pot that

played tunes when it boiled, and, among other like toys, a rattle

that would play waltzes and polkas. His hobby gained the fancy of the

princess, who had to buy them with kisses. The porcelain represents the

completion of the fairy-tale bargain. Alas! there is no happy ending,

for the kissing became so fast and furious that the swineherd threw

off his disguise, became prince on a sudden, and departed home to his

kingdom, in disgust with a princess who could look with disdain on his

presents of a rose and a nightingale because they were only natural,

and set her affections on the trivialities of a swineherd.

Among the figures calling for regard in the highest sense, that

of the _Peacock_ standing on an urn, modelled by Arnold Krog, is

of surprising grace and symmetry. Its modelling is at once true to

nature and true to the requirements of the potter's art. A model on a

lower plane would have placed the peacock on a base or tree-stump and

utilized this as a support, and no figure would be complete without

the gorgeous colouring of the tail. This is exactly what happens in

a Derby figure of a Peacock (at the Victoria and Albert Museum). On

a rococo base covered with a wealth of coloured flowers, a peacock

stands in brilliant natural colouring. But in the Copenhagen figure

the drooping tail is support enough in the kiln, and the natural pose

of the bird, proud and erect, conveys dignity and beauty of form. The

treatment at Copenhagen is exactly the opposite to the old school of

ceramic artists. Here it is beauty of form first and colour in reticent

subjection as an adjunct, and the results are undeniably superlative.

CHAPTER X

CRYSTALLINE GLAZES

CHAPTER X

CRYSTALLINE GLAZES

_Flambé_ or transmutation glazes of the Chinese potters--The Royal

Copenhagen Factory produces the first specimen of crystallized

glaze in 1886--Blue crackled glaze produced with design under

control.

During the last decade of the nineteenth century the Western potter

came under the spell of the modern chemist. Scientific study applied

to the body and glaze and vitrifaction of the materials composing

porcelain and faience, together with a closer study of the exact

conditions of temperatures in the kilns, resulted in the discovery of

certain well-defined decorative qualities in connection with glazes

which, after considerable experiment, offered practically a new field

for colour-work of a very beautiful nature.

In the _flambé_ or transmutation glazes for which the Chinese potters

were renowned, the effects of variegated or splashed colour are due

to the capricious action of the fire on the glazes during the firing

process. The single-coloured glazes of the Chinese applied to vases

and other objects have been much prized by Europeans. The tints are

very numerous, sea-green or celadon, yellow, red, blue, purple, brown,

black, and other tones. These include the celebrated _sang-de-bœuf_

colour of French collectors, so highly prized in China. It is thought

probable that many of these single-colour glazes have been applied at a

somewhat lower temperature, termed by the French _demi-grand feu_.

The mottled classes owe their appearance less to the difference in

the colouring matter than to the manner in which it is applied.

They are termed in French _flambé_, and there is no doubt that they

were originally accidentally produced. According to the letters of

a Jesuit missionary, Père d'Entrecolles, written in the early years

of the eighteenth century, such vases were called _Yao pien_ or

_transmutation_ vases. Such types, with turquoise colour passing

into green, green melting into purple, and amber fading into grey,

are suggestive of the permutation of colour harmonies which these

transmutation glazes undergo in the furnace.

Beside the _flambé_ glazes there are crackled glazes of turquoise-blue,

apple-green, or of greyish white. This crackle porcelain is now

artificially produced, but it doubtless owes its origin to accident and

caprice of firing.

[Illustration: POLAR BEARS ON AN ICE FLOE.

Modelled by C. E. Bonnesen. Crystalline glaze by V. Engelhardt.]

In _flambé_ glazes an English potter, Mr. Bernard Moore, of Longton,

has succeeded in producing _sang-de-bœuf_ colour with delightful

gradations of tone; unhappily, some of these pieces were destroyed by

fire at the Brussels Exhibition in 1910.

=Copenhagen produces the First Crystalline Glaze.=--At the Copenhagen

factory _grand-feu_ coloured glazes have been developed in a remarkable

manner. The crystal glaze, the serpent-skin, the tiger-eye, and

crackled glaze, as well as many other varieties, show effects which

hitherto have been unknown in porcelain, and have won the admiration

of all connoisseurs. The inception of the crystalline glaze was due to

Hr. Clement, the chemist at the Royal Copenhagen Factory, and it was

owing to the indefatigable energy and experiments of Hr. Clement that,

in 1886, the first piece of porcelain with crystalline glaze achieved a

record for the Copenhagen laboratory and studio. Since that day other

European potters have succeeded in producing crystalline glazed ware of

exceptional beauty.

We illustrate a fine specimen of the early crystalline glaze of

Copenhagen now preserved at the Museum of the National Porcelain

Manufactory at Sèvres. It represents a frog on a leaf. "We should like

specially to point out," says M. Edouard Garnier, the Director of the

Museum at Sèvres, writing in 1894, "a large water-lily leaf on which a

frog is imbedded in a thin layer of ice, which it has just succeeded

in breaking. We have never seen a more striking example of what may be

attained by a purely scientific process applied to art decoration, and

we cannot repress the wish that this example may be followed by our

modern ceramists." This is one of Arnold Krog's fine conceptions.

This specimen of the work of the Copenhagen chemist, Hr. V. Engelhardt,

in crystallized glaze, has been followed by many notable achievements

on his part. In 1902 there was a figure of a _Polar Bear_ lapping

water, modelled by Arnold Krog and produced in crystalline glaze by

Hr. Engelhardt. This, of which only thirty pieces were made, was

executed for an artistic club in Paris. Another fine subject is that

representing two Polar Bears on the ice, one mounted on a frozen

pinnacle. The whole is a skilful piece of modelling by C. E. Bonnesen,

and crystalline glazing by Hr. V. Engelhardt.

[Illustration: FROG IMBEDDED IN ICE ON A WATER-LILY LEAF.

Modelled by Arnold Krog. Crystalline glaze by V. Engelhardt.

Period 1891-1895.

(_At Sèvres Museum._)]

[Illustration: VASES.

Designed by Arnold Krog. Crystalline glaze by V. Engelhardt.]

New shapes are continually being invented, and a long chain

of experiments in the laboratory has resulted in the production of

some very remarkable examples of colouring which are always welcome

to collectors, who are quick to realize that no two examples can

ever be the same. All colours can be handled in this manner. The

range is a wide one, and the surprising gradations of tone have a

charm undoubtedly their own, and not unworthy to be regarded as

representative of some of the most wonderful creations of the modern

potter. The metallic oxides in the hands of the twentieth-century

chemist become possessed of magical properties and are transformed into

tender harmonies vibrating with exquisite tones. Yellows, and blues,

and browns merge into mauve or grey, in delightful tenderness, and

black and white are included in the colour schemes of which this style

is now capable.

=Blue Crackled Glaze.=--In regard to crackled glazes there is evidence

that they are coming more under the governance of the chemist. There is

a beautiful deep blue variety produced at Copenhagen, with a network

of crackle graduated to a nicety, now swelling, when on the belly of

the beaker or vase, and now contracting into minute meshes when on the

slender neck. This is completely under mechanical control. As yet blue

is the only colour produced in this style.

At the Brussels Exhibition, 1910, the Sèvres factory exhibited some

large vases with crystalline glaze evidently under the complete mastery

of the potter and chemist. These vases were of a very fine character,

and the suggestion arises that at no far distant date the glazes now

termed "transmutation" or adventitious will be completely mastered by

the latest developments of modern science as applied to pottery, and

thus "transmutation" will be a word of the past.

The technique of Copenhagen differs from that of Sèvres or of Berlin.

In these latter cases the crystals appear like spots on the surface,

whereas in Copenhagen ware the crystals have a more subtle and intimate

incorporation with the glaze. They never stand on the surface, and

often, as in the mellow brown glaze, they lie beneath and glow in

reflected light.

A series of effects in broken colour, delicate in marking and veined

and mottled in most pleasing character, is being attempted in vases.

We illustrate several types in whole and partial crystallization,

which lose considerably by appearing as black-and-white illustrations.

Such vases are conspicuous for their revelry in colour, not the hard,

dense, opaque colours of the old Chinese single glazes, but the limpid,

vibrating, restless subtleties of Nature's own play of pulsating

colours in changeful mood--the dazzling and fairy-like opalescence

of the frost and the deep blue of the ice cave, or the pale amber

sand-dunes imperceptibly fading into a translucent green stretch of

waters, with the vaporous haze of a violet sky. In the white heat of

the modern furnace the flowers of a prehistoric day, which have lain

buried in the coal seams of an alien land, transmute the dull clay and

the mineral glaze under the hand of the modern magician into colour

nocturnes.

[Illustration: VASES.

With Crystalline glazes by V. Engelhardt.]

CHAPTER XI

COPENHAGEN ART FAIENCE

CHAPTER XI

COPENHAGEN ART FAIENCE

The inception of a new technique--The slow growth of a new art--The

old masters of majolica--The great promise of a new school--The

rich output of colour and inventive form.

[Illustration: COPENHAGEN ART FAIENCE.

Dish, with tropical bird, decorated in rich colours. Designed by

Christian Joachim.]

The student of ceramic art well knows that porcelain and earthenware,

although as poles asunder in their technique, do oftentimes touch

one another in apparent affinity. For instance, what is more earthen

than the brown crumbling body of the Dutch delft ware? It is a poor

relation of porcelain. But the Dutch potter had in mind the great

prototypes of the East. His dishes and his jars were an attempt to

copy blue-and-white Kang-He porcelain. He covered his brown body

with a white enamel and painted his tulips and his Batavian-Chinese

designs to imitate the Dutch East India Company's examples he had

before him. He created a new art, but he started as a copyist.

Beautiful as is Delft, it is really only a simulation in earthenware of

blue-and-white porcelain. Similarly in regard to English earthenware,

with the noteworthy exceptions of a few types essentially true to the

technique of earthenware, it is singular how peculiarly obtuse the

Staffordshire potters have been to the limitations of earthenware.

They have assiduously attempted to bring it into line with porcelain

in its decoration and its appearance. The line of demarcation between

earthenware and porcelain has become in England very indefinite, owing

to the fact that true porcelain is not manufactured in this country.

In consequence, the artificial composition of the body of English

porcelain, where calcined bones form an addition to the Chinese

formula of true porcelain, has brought it into closer relationship

with earthenware than is the case in any other European porcelain.

"Semi-porcelain," a term in English ceramics, is not to be found

elsewhere. It is still a moot-point whether to classify Wedgwood's

jasper ware as earthenware or porcelain. "Ironstone china," a

hardware introduced by Mason in 1830 and copied by other potters, is

earthenware, and the instances could be multiplied of confusion in

nomenclature. But where, as on the Continent, only hard paste that is

true porcelain in the Chinese manner is produced, save at Sèvres, the

distinction between this and earthenware is most clearly defined.

[Illustration: COPENHAGEN ART FAIENCE.

Placque, with parrot, decorated in rich colours by Christian Joachim.]

At Copenhagen, therefore, the manufacture of faience at a porcelain

factory was a leap into the unknown. Not only were different kilns to

be employed, but a different technique and especial conditions governed

the manufacture. The theories which had been skilfully put into

practice and the ideals which had been reached in the art of porcelain

were alien to the new departure in the field of faience. To have welded

together the two arts and the two techniques would have ruined the

enterprise at its commencement. The two streams were allowed to run

apart, and the result is an artistic achievement no less noteworthy

than the Renaissance of the Royal Copenhagen porcelain. The mantle of

Philip Schou has descended on his son-in-law, Frederik Dalgas, who has

ably continued the traditions of his predecessor in the management of

this national enterprise. The inception and development of this art

faience of Copenhagen is due to Mr. Frederik Dalgas, who brought a keen

and virile intuition into this new field of ceramic adventure. Whereas

in the porcelain there is delicate artistry and finesse, in the faience

there is breadth and vivacity of colour schemes. Never do the twain

touch each other in kinship. The faience is not a poor kinsman of the

porcelain. It is a new creation, a fresh and forceful note in ceramic

art. It has a relationship with bygone majolica of another land. It is

a transplantation of a southern stock into a northern clime. One is

reminded of those labels at Kew Gardens indicating that certain rare

trees from sunnier lands have been acclimatized and have become beauty

spots in a far country.

=The Slow Growth of a New Art.=--It is always interesting to the

student to examine specimens belonging to the experimental stage of

an art. It is here that the potter struggling with his new technique

betrays in his _motifs_ suggestions as to its origin. There are very

few wares in ceramic art that stand out as supremely original. In some

way or another they bear relationship to earlier potters' work, as a

rule. Whole schools of artistic potters have been avowedly copyist.

This is a truism in regard to European ceramic art as a whole: it

is admittedly derivative from Oriental prototypes. But in regard to

various branches of pottery apart from porcelain, there is little doubt

that it has a long lineage. It is therefore possible to compare the

stages of evolution of faience in the Western countries and to realize

that since Greek and Roman and Etruscan days man was a progressive

potter, though even in this field derivative technique came from east

of Suez. The earliest examples of the Copenhagen faience suggest that

the old Italian majolica models had lingered in the memory of the

potters making their essay into a new domain. Those who have carefully

watched the slow but sure growth of this art faience of Copenhagen will

have come to realize how surely the potter has put his foot on a new

plane and established something that is characteristic and original. He

has by a gradual process year by year added new forms, created dishes

and beakers of sound design, and perfected the decorations in colour

till they have reached something which is gay without being garish

and exuberant in rich colouring without being other than surprisingly

harmonious. One wonders how the Oriental rug-weaver can place his blues

and his reds seemingly so disastrous to tone effect. But there they

are, and, either by strong contrast or perfect harmony, the results

are artistically true. It is the same question one asks of the colour

effects in the Copenhagen art faience. They are perfectly luscious

and strikingly original. No one else has employed these combinations

of pigments, nor their wide range of colours. They appear to have

been produced by magic. But to any one with a working knowledge of

a great factory will come the reflection that the apparent magic is

the wizardry of genius, and genius has been defined as the infinite

capacity for taking pains. The strenuous work, the long vigils, the

indefatigable and indomitable determination to accomplish the mastery

of the technique is here evident. It is the strong and fruitful harvest

of a slow growth carefully tended in an especially artistic environment

by trained minds.

[Illustration: COPENHAGEN ART FAIENCE.

Vase, decorated with sprays of flowers in rich colours.]

=The Old Masters of Majolica.=--The Italian school with its glazed

ware of polychrome decorative effects, Faenza, Caffaggiolo, Urbino,

Pesarro, and later its lustre (notably the ruby ware of Gubbio), was

partially derivative from Persian and from Hispano-Moresque prototypes.

Figure subjects form an important feature. Groups in contemporary

costume, portraits, and religious or allegorical subjects, as well as

heraldic devices, occupy the centre of the dish. But the border is a

framework which is richly decorated with brilliant and varied colours.

The designs are conceived in the best vein of sixteenth-century

fecundity of invention. Elaborate floriate ornament is in combination

with satyrs and grotesque masks, or cupids, or birds, or sea monsters.

It suggests the sprightly grace which enlivens the tail-pieces engraved

in contemporary Italian books. Design, till it ran riot later, was

exuberant, and there seemed no end to the outburst of originality and

imagination.

It is to these old masters, particularly of the Italian period from

about 1480 to about 1580, that one turns for great ideas and perfect

execution. Before the latter date signs were evident that the art was

declining: already the secret of the Gubbio ruby lustre had been lost.

The earlier Persian pottery and the Rhodian ware, produced as

far afield as Damascus and Ispahan, had disseminated the wondrous

technique of the East. The Hispano-Moresque ware of Malaga and

Valencia, a century earlier than the greatest period of the Italian

school, gradually lost its Moorish character with arabesque design and

pseudo-Arabic characters, till, in the late sixteenth century, designs

in contemporary Spanish costume and broad floriate borders found

favour. The copper lustre was, however, still a feature.

[Illustration: COPENHAGEN ART FAIENCE.

Vase with hexagonal top and base, richly decorated with flowers and

arabesque ornament, by Christian Joachim.]

It is obvious, therefore, that the old masters are the fount from

which so much has been derived. Nevers, Rouen, and Moustiers caught

the colour-schemes of Persia and Italy, and each in turn made them her

own. In studying the finest work of the old masters of faience we see

that the technique is something very different from what Staffordshire

has made it. John Dwight in the seventeenth, and Thomas Whieldon in the

eighteenth century both worked on sound lines. It is not high art to

attempt to make faience simulate porcelain, any more than it is when

wall paper pretends to be marble, or leather, or tapestry. Porcelain

shows as much of its white body and sparkling glaze as is possible.

It depends, as does an etching, on its uncovered background for its

luminous effects and its atmosphere. Faience is like an oil painting:

it demands that the whole surface be covered. It has a yellow, or

brown, or green, or lilac ground. The decoration, in contradistinction

to porcelain, is broad and strong. There are no finicking "Chantilly

sprigs" in faience. Bold, virile, and striking must be the notes

that dominate faience, but withal--and herein lies the supremest

difficulty--it must be naïve and simple. It must not suggest the

palace, and certainly not the boudoir. It must bespeak the open air.

It is the perennial herbaceous border in ceramic art, and not the

hot-house or the conservatory.

=The Great Promise of a New School.=--Lovers of Copenhagen ware and

connoisseurs who were aware of the possibilities of faience produced

under rightly understood principles have not been disappointed in

the art faience which Mr. Christian Joachim has made his own under a

group of trained artist potters. His is the guerdon of praise, and the

laurel wreath should be placed on his head for his services to the

art of his native country. He has happily received the support of a

farseeing directorate. His life record will stand as a great triumph

for the Copenhagen art faience. What Arnold Krog has done in porcelain,

Christian Joachim has done in faience. With a fine appreciation of

the limitations of his technique, and with a bold imagination as to

further possibilities in modern conditions, he has sent forth his

pottery with a message of gaiety and youth. No man is a prophet in his

own country. But in Europe and in America Christian Joachim's work has

become noteworthy. Danes the world over buy it because it is Danish. We

English and other strangers buy it because it is beautiful art.

[Illustration: COPENHAGEN ART FAIENCE.

Figures. _A Midsummer Night's Dream._ Modelled by R. Harboe.

Bottom the Weaver. Fairy. Philostrate, Master of the Revels.]

In an examination of the art tendencies of the new school, it would

appear that in the attempt to be surprisingly original there is the

wilful abandonment of anything suggestive of Persian, or Rhodian, or

Moorish, or Italian ideals. The _motifs_ are especially modern, and the

schemes of colour are skilfully handled in a novel manner, and owing

to scientific development the potter's palette is more extensive than

heretofore. The promise has already been fulfilled, and connoisseurs

await later developments with no little curiosity.

=The Rich Output of Colour and Inventive Form.=--The illustrations to

this chapter lack colour, and therefore they cannot do justice to what

is one of the most important features in the new art faience. Among

the pigments that are used are the following, no incomplete range in

comparison with what has gone before in this ceramic field. The Dutch

found blue the least refractory of colours, and adhered largely to its

use till later they employed yellow. Rouen employed yellow and red

and green. But Copenhagen has a palette consisting of cream, yellow,

green, blue, red, lilac, and a warm plum colour or purple. This latter

colour, the product of scientific modernity, is wielded with a sure

hand by Christian Joachim and his school of artists. It is in such

examples as the dish and the placque with tropical birds (illustrated,

pp. 307, 311) that the rich colour effects procurable are seen at their

best. In the placque extreme simplicity and artlessness of design is

exhibited in the floral border. In the dish the border is luxuriant

with colour, although broad in treatment. Such examples are extremely

decorative, and exhibit this branch of ceramic art on a high level.

They attain their excellence by methods of their own. They cannot be

confounded with the productions of any other factory, either older or

contemporary. Their originality is a factor not to be eliminated in

adjudging them.

In vases and other vessels demanding attention to form there is

apparent the striving, natural in all potters, for unique forms. A

fine vase with rich floral decoration (illustrated, p. 315) follows

the early Italian drug pot. Another breaks new ground, and its square

hexagonal surfaces require a touch of geometric ornament, rarely found

in Copenhagen faience (illustrated, p. 319). Punch-bowls with covers,

having as a knob a full-sized lemon in natural colours, are novel and

utilitarian. The modelling of Mr. Harboe and of Mr. Slott-Möller is

deserving of recognition. _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ was performed

some years ago in the open air in a glade in the Deerhavn, near

Copenhagen, before some thousands of people. It is natural, therefore,

to find little faience figures of Bottom the Weaver, of Flute the

Bellows-mender, and of Philostrate the Master of the Revels, of Puck,

of Oberon and of Titania, and of delightful fairies. These are not

conjured up from the German translation by Schlegel of Shakespeare's

plays, but from Shakespeare's own imaginings, minus the addition of the

heavy hand of German _Kultur_. We do not remember that Staffordshire

has attempted to reproduce Shakespearean characters in clay, though at

one time, after Wedgwood, Jupiter and Venus and other alien gods and

goddesses were found on every cottager's mantelshelf. The Copenhagen

figures of _Clown_, _Columbine_, and _Harlequin_ are pleasing in their

graceful simplicity (illustrated, p. 327).

[Illustration: COPENHAGEN ART FAIENCE.

Figures--Clown, Columbine, and Harlequin--by Christian Joachim.]

Boxes--_bonbonnières_ as the French term them--are produced in great

variety. We reproduce two, broadly decorated and having covers with

original design of bird and wood sprite. This latter follows the true

canons of plastic art. He is as rotund, with no breakable projections,

as a Japanese ivory button _netsuke_. With them is illustrated a vase

Persian in character, but with modern colour effects. All this is

excellent, but one asks for more. In wishing the new school of the

North _bon voyage_, we may be allowed to express a hope that it will

continue its outburst of resplendent colour and perpetuate its virile

design, that it may worthily vie with the great masters of faience in

the South and in the East. In regard to personal inclinations, the

writer would like to see sometimes embodied in the decorative borders

of placques and vases the interlaced work of Runic design, symbolic of

the Norse mystery and magic. If the Italian saints find place on the

_tazzas_ of Faenza, surely Thor and Wodin, who gave their names to two

days of the week, and other heroes of Northern mythology, should be

embodied in this Copenhagen gallery. The triumphs of the Vikings and

their sagas quicken the imagination. Of heroes of later date, one could

wish to see Cnut at the English seashore, or the rugged portrait of old

Christian IV.

It may be that these vain cravings for pages from the past run not

attune to the dreams of the master potter with an eye to the future;

possibly decorative technique forbids--but here are the stray lines of

a foreign spectator in kindly spirit.

[Illustration]

The ware is marked in green with an italic _A_ to signify its origin

from the parent Aluminia factory as early as 1863, and to this are

added the three lines so well known as a Royal Copenhagen Porcelain

mark.

[Illustration: COPENHAGEN ART FAIENCE.

Vase and Boxes with lids surmounted by wood sprite and by bird,

richly decorated in colours. By H. Slott-Möller and Christian Joachim.]

CHAPTER XII

THE FACTORY TO-DAY

CHAPTER XII

THE FACTORY TO-DAY

Its situation and surroundings--Facilities for the study of plant,

flower, and animal life--Modern equipment in machinery and

in hygienic improvements--The absence of lead poisoning--New

impulses.

In the word _factory_ there is nothing suggestive of poetry. In England

it represents the Frankenstein who has slain many cottage industries.

In connection with our own potteries there are the Five Towns, merged

into one, with a quarter of a million of inhabitants. They stand for

organized science and applied manufacture. Their architecture is an

architecture of chimney-shafts and kilns, black with smoke. It is a

prosperous district, crammed with the workers in a gigantic industry.

There are visions of murky canals and great hills of accumulated rubble

of the mines, coal and copper and iron, dug from the bowels of the

earth and blotting out the skyline.

There are crowded byways filled with hurrying operatives, men and

women and girls. The beauty of the rich, green, undulating lands of

Staffordshire has been effaced by this delving of human moles. It is as

though some ruthless giant had made sport of the hills and worked havoc

on a smiling plain. But modern life demands sacrifices, and chinaware

must be made to send to the four corners of the earth--this is the

great White Country.

In Denmark things are managed differently. It comes as a welcome

surprise to the English visitor, educated to other scenes, to find the

Royal Porcelain Factory set in a pleasant suburb of the city near the

old gardens of the Palace of Frederiksberg. One cannot have an omelette

without breaking eggs: the factory chimneys are there, the green-hedged

paths are surely a snare leading up to another such prison-house as

are all factories the world over. Here are the heaps of quartz, and

we catch the hum of the machinery. The workers are in the hive; some

unkind sprite has snatched them from the pleasant ways of a delightful

city set by the sea and immured them for their sins in this fortress of

stone.

[Illustration: COURTYARD OF ROYAL COPENHAGEN FACTORY.

Showing turkey and brood.]

It suggests the story of Böttger and his workmen imprisoned by

reason of the secrets they held. Surely these workmen and artists who

know the secret of the Copenhagen ware will not be allowed to escape.

It is too precious a thing to Denmark that its secrets be divulged. But

the reply comes suddenly when the doors are opened and the secret, that

is no secret, is disclosed. These men and women are Danes, and proud

of their art and filled with the love of their Copenhagen porcelain.

They come and go as they will. Like bees they roam over the flowers and

the gems of nature, and they return home to the hive because they love

their art. That which their hand findeth to do, they do with all their

might.

=Facility for Study of Animal and Plant Life.=--There is sunshine here

in this Northern pottery. The courtyard shows a scene no other factory

in the world can offer; it is bewildering to a student of potteries:

a turkey with her brood proudly dominates the scene. We have with the

camera caught this as a record. It is as suggestive as it is remarkable

that the artists have carried their love for fidelity so far that

flowers and animals and birds find themselves in suitable environment

at this strange enchanted factory.

Animal life is dear to the potters here. There are over three hundred

moulds of different types--wading and diving wild fowl from the remoter

"haunts of coot and hern"; sea-gulls, never absent from the harbour

and canals spanned by bridges over which trams pass; bears and seals,

the originals of which are to be found at the Zoological Gardens

close by; and if the Phœnix--that fabulous bird which lives for five

hundred years, making its nest of spices and burning itself to ashes,

coming forth with renewed life for another five hundred years--could

be captured, it would find a place in the aviary of the factory which,

Phœnix-like, has arisen with youth and vigour.

=The Absence of Lead Poisoning.=--In place of the white-faced factory

workers, we find at the Copenhagen factory a healthy band of workmen,

artisans, and artists, employed in conditions that are a credit to all

concerned. The usual drudgery of a pottery is eliminated as much as

possible in this factory. The latest modern appliances to ventilate

the dust-laden air are in use. _There are no cases of lead-poisoning,

because lead is not used in the factory either in pigments or in

glazes._ A dining-hall and dressing-rooms have been erected for the

workmen. The factory provides its own electricity and mechanical power;

it is heated throughout by hot water, and has a complete system of

vacuum and pressure mains.

The lady artists work in almost ideal conditions. They are installed

in studios filled with flowers and plants, and in no other factory are

the artistic conditions so favourable to the study of plant and animal

life. The photographs we reproduce are taken of the normal surroundings

of everyday work.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ROYAL COPENHAGEN PORCELAIN FACTORY.

Showing studios of lady artists.]

The writer has indelible memory pictures of the workmen at the

machinery, or in the open air turning over the quartz where it lies

in heaps "weathering," exposed to the sun and the frost, of slowly

grinding stones revolving in a vat mixing and amalgamating the raw

materials, in preparing them for the next stage of handling, revealing

the slow and patient processes of the potter's art. There is something

hazardous in manipulating the raw materials, crushing them into powder,

and bringing them together in the correct proportions for the body.

It is here that the long traditions of the factory, the well-guarded

secrets in the mixing, and the skilful instinct in conjunction with

scientific exactitude, come into full operation. The result is evident

in the smooth, white, pearly body and the transparent liquid glaze, so

technically perfect and so much admired by other potters.

One recalls an anxious and expectant group at the ovens when a firing

is being removed after the ovens have cooled down from the intense heat

of the _grand feu_, a temperature never attempted by the manufacturers

of soft-paste porcelain in this country.

The laboratory holds mysteries of its own. It is an inner sanctum to

which few penetrate. These little human touches indicate that there

is a romance in manufacture as well as in more stirring scenes to the

accompaniment of the roll of the drum or the rousing bugle-call. The

potter's art is rich in associations which render the arts of peace as

alluring in story as the arts of war. Many victories have been won in

silence, but no less triumphant for that, and these represent man's

conquest of earth and the white-hot flame of the furnace, whereby he

transmutes the rocks from the quarry and the mountain-side into crystal

vases reflecting those same mountains, and streams, and placid lakes,

and clouds in stately procession. This is the art of the magician, and

modern science has added one more laurel wreath to her victories over

the elements.

The interior of a great factory where art is in the making has many

exciting moments. The cruel fire is no respecter of persons. After the

various steps have been taken, the grinding, the mixing, the moulding

into form, the firing in biscuit, the painting, and the subsequent

glazing, the creation comes out of the oven as a finished work of art.

At any one of these stages a slip may mean disaster. Each successive

process gains in difficulty. It is a tragic instant when the last hour

is reached. After the oven has cooled the news goes round that a firing

is being taken from the kiln. A knot of artists gathers round as each

piece comes out. Some call for admiration; there is a hush of joyful

surprise when a completed masterpiece comes forth perfect. Alas! too

often some delightful dream with its tender colours has twisted out

of shape in the intense heat. A graceful form has coalesced with a

neighbouring vase. They stand as failures, and the workman with swift,

relentless hand gives them a tap with a hammer, and they become shards.

The poet-painter's dream has ended in nothingness.

=New Impulses.=--In regard to the future there are golden hopes

and happy anticipations. The past has been glorious, the present is

triumphant. A true and living school of design amid sound artistic

environment has its band of artist-potters, trained under happy

auspices, whose aims are set steadfastly on art that is nothing unless

it be national--these are the children of to-morrow. New generations

will come and go, and new art impulses will beat, as the waves breaking

from the Baltic, on the little pottery set on a rock and proud in its

great achievements. The future, like the vessel in the furnace, is in

the hands of Fate. Taking courage in both hands, the potter-sons of

Denmark will in those yet unborn days carry on the great traditions.

There is a great heritage for the sons of the days to come, and looking

backward, they will place the laurel wreath on the brow of the masters

who, in the old days and at the present era, have fought the good fight

and won the guerdon of praise from potters in far-off lands who have

paid homage to the art of the Three Blue Lines.

[Illustration]

FINIS

INDEX

INDEX

A as a mark, Copenhagen faience, 330

Abildgaard, 107

A.H. as a mark, 102

Aluminia Company buys factory (in 1883), 205

Aluminia mark on Art faience, 330

Andersen, Hans, _Princess and Swineherd_, _Tinder Box_,

figures illustrating, 269, 284

Animal life, study of, at Copenhagen, 270, 339

Antonibon, Pasqual, potter at Venice, 24

Arentz, Johan, 109

Arnoux, Report on Pottery at Paris Exhibition (1867), 24

Art Faience, Copenhagen, 307-330

B and G (as a mark), 283

Bargains in porcelain, a regiment of dragoons exchanged for

collection of porcelain, 32

Battle of Copenhagen, 179

Bowl commemorating, 184

Bau, N., 109

Baÿer, J. C., the painter of the _Flora Danica_ service, 105

Signature of, 103

Berlin factory founded by Frederick the Great, 32

Bing, M., collection of Oriental art at Paris, 215

Bing and Gröndahl, Messrs., the factory of, at Copenhagen, 283

Bird life, strongly represented in figures and painted work, 270, 339

Biscuit figures, a high test of ceramic art, 266

Biscuit figures of great size (Sèvres porcelain) (1900), 224

Blue-and-white, early, underglaze painted, 157-76

Painters of, 104, 110

Table of marks, 174-6

Boisgelin, Count Louis de, visits Copenhagen factory (1790), 76, 109

his report quoted, 76-84, 150, 151

Bornholm clay used at early period, 63, 78, 165

Botanical character of Copenhagen, decoration in _Flora Danica_

service, 148

Böttger, Johann Fredrich, his discovery of hard porcelain, 22, 29

his secret divulged throughout Europe, 30, 35

Bowl in memory of Battle of Copenhagen, 184

Brandstrup, gilding by, 195

Brongniart discontinues making _pâte tendre_ at Sèvres, 24

Bushell, Stephen W., "Chinese Art," quoted, 23

C7 (incised) as a mark, illustrated, 104

Cadewitz, Martin, 107

Camrath, Johan, junior, 110

senior, 108

Caroline Matilda (Queen of Denmark), her tragic history, 47

Catherine II, Empress of Russia; her friendship with contemporary

philosophers and scientists, 142

Establishes a French theatre at St. Petersburg, 142

Letter of Voltaire to, 143

Great services made for--

_Flora Danica_, 139

Sèvres, 139

Wedgwood, 140

Characteristics of modern Copenhagen porcelain, 230, 233

Charles XV of Sweden, present of Fournier Copenhagen service to, 39

Child-life a feature in Copenhagen modelling, 274

"Chinese Art," by Stephen W. Bushell, quoted, 23

Chinese conventional underglaze blue-painted types, 233, 238

Crackled glazes, 292

_Flambé_ glazes, 291

Influence on Copenhagen at the outset of the modern period, 211

Potter, the poetry of the, 95, 245

Prototypes in underglaze painted porcelain, 233

Subjects at Copenhagen, rare, 125

_Christian VII_ (of Denmark), the court of, 43-52

Chronology (Queen Juliane Marie period) (1732-1780), 42

Chronology (1780-1820), 74

Classic movement the, in Europe, 191

Classic ornament, avoidance of, in modern Copenhagen porcelain, 234

used in Copenhagen decadent period, 196

Clement, chemist at Copenhagen factory, produces first crystalline

glaze in 1886, 219

Clio, Hans, signature of, 101, 106

Colour, combinations of rich, in Copenhagen art faience, 325

Colours of underglaze painting, their limitation, 236, 268

Colours invented by Müller, 64, 78

Commemorative placques, 230, 243

Commonplace development of underglaze painting avoided at

Copenhagen, 234

Contemporary criticism of Copenhagen factory (1790), quoted, 76

Copenhagen Art Faience, 309-31

Copenhagen factory compared with Meissen, 77-80, 126

Copenhagen Factory Mark, its origin and symbolic meaning, 56

Copenhagen porcelain, early (soft-paste), 37

Copenhagen porcelain, characteristics of modern style, 230, 233

Copyists of modern Copenhagen porcelain, 229, 295

Costume subjects, weakness of, in china, 266

Costume subjects, respective claims of overglaze and underglaze

painting, 268

Costume subjects. Meissen vitiates Europe, 126

Costume subjects in Meissen and Chelsea manner avoided at

Copenhagen, 126, 129, 277

Court scandal. _Coup d'état_ of Crown Prince Frederik, 48

Court scandal. The story of Queen Caroline Matilda, 47

Crackled glazes, 292, 301

Crown, use of, as a mark, 262

Crystalline glazes, 289-303

Crystalline glazes invented by Hr. Clement in 1886, the chemist at

the Copenhagen factory, 219

Dalgas, Frederik, his activity in upholding the traditions of the

factory, 313

his development of the Art Faience, 313

Dannemand, Countess, presents a service of Copenhagen porcelain to

Charles XV of Sweden, 39

Danish and Japanese ceramic art compared, 247

Danish heroes of the Battle of Copenhagen, 184

"Danish" pattern, the, in blue and white, 159

Dish, illustrated, 169

Plate, illustrated, 249

Decadence, the, at Copenhagen factory (1820-1880), 177-97

Decoration, fitting, a true test of high ceramic art, 238

Defects in firing in porcelain corrected by the painter, 265

Delft and its origin, 309

Denmark the arena of European conflicts, art impulses extinguished, 179

Denmark, the first porcelain made in, 35

Derby porcelain peacock compared with Copenhagen model, 288

Diderot and Catherine II of Russia, 142

Diversity of designs, Müller period, 81

Dutch potters' imitation of Chinese porcelain, 309

Eckersberg, Danish painter, 197

Eighteenth century, outburst of enthusiasm for art of potter, 28

Empire style, the so-called, 191

_Encyclopædia Britannica_ (1911), article on _Ceramics_

(_re_ Copenhagen) quoted, 282

Engelhardt, Hr. V., chemist at Copenhagen factory, his crystalline

glazes, 223, 296

English factories, soft-paste, list of, 27

Hard paste, 27

English factories, slavish imitation of Oriental models and

marks, 11, 281

The short duration of the old, 202

English factories, soft paste mainly produced at, 27

English porcelain, its peculiar technique, 310

English potters, clever technique of, 27

Europe, establishment of china factories in, 21

Secret of hard paste discovered, 29

European ceramic art, a new note added by Copenhagen, 216

European factories, hard-paste, origin of, 30

F painted in forget-me-nots, 99

F5, mark Fournier period, 36

Factory marks, European, with royal and patrician cyphers, 28

Factory Mark, not used from 1773-1775 at Copenhagen, 42, 56

Factory Mark (Copenhagen), origin and meaning of the three blue

lines, 56

Factory, the old, closed down for want of fuel, 135

Factory, the Royal Copenhagen, to-day, 333-45

Art Faience and its future, 330

Dalgas, Frederik, the modern spirit of, the artistic distinction

achieved under his direction, 313

Facilities for study of plant and animal life, 339

Its artistic environment, 339

Its modern equipment, its hygienic improvements, 340

The studios (illustrated), 341

Faience, Copenhagen Art, 309-31

Faience, its technique, 321

Falck, A., buys factory in 1867, 196

Figure Subjects, early production of, at Copenhagen, 71

National character of, 126, 274

Figure Subjects and Groups (1780-1820), 111-36

Classification of, 122

Renaissance period, 263-88

Figure Subjects, Thorvaldsen period, 196

Fischer, Admiral, bowl in memory of, 184

Fish modelled from nature, 273

_Flambé_ glazes of Chinese potters, 291

_Flora Danica_ service, the, 137-56

Painters and modellers of, 105, 106, 108, 144, 155, 156

_Flora Russica_, by Dr. P. S. Pallas, German naturalist, 153

Florence, imitative porcelain made at, 23

Foreign porcelain prohibited in Denmark, 114

Foreign workmen and artists at Copenhagen--

Baÿer, 83

Cadewitz, 83

from Meissen, 59

Luplau, 60, 83, 121, 122

Thomaschefsky, 83

Form _versus_ Colour, 265, 266

Formal landscape, the, supplanted by modern Copenhagen, 234

Fortia, de, Count Alphonse, his volume, 76

Fournier, Louis, French potter at Copenhagen, 36

Fournier, Louis, and his period (1760-1766), 35-9

Mark used by, 36

Frederick the Great carries off Meissen workmen to Berlin, 32

Frederick the Great founds the Berlin factory, 32

his ruse to stimulate interest in porcelain, 32

Frederik V of Denmark, Sèvres service a present from Louis XV, 38

Frederik V establishes a factory at Copenhagen, 35

Frederik VI, his early training, 141

Orders the _Flora Danica_ to be made, 140

Frederiksborg Castle, vases at, 125

Fürstenberg, artist from, at Copenhagen, 71

Fürstenberg, mark of, mistaken for early Copenhagen porcelain, 36

Future triumphs, the supernatural yet unplumbed, 253

Garmein, painter (1820-1825), 195

Garnier, M. Edouard (of Sèvres Museum), quoted, 220, 223

Genius independent of modern science, 67, 91

George III demands release of his sister on pain of war being

declared, 51

Gilding of exquisite quality at Copenhagen, 91

Ginger jar, the Chinese, of commerce, its beauty, 237

Glaze--

Overglaze decoration, 233

Underglaze decoration, 214, 224, 236, 268

Glazes--

Chinese crackled, 292

Chinese _flambé_, 291

Crystalline (Copenhagen), 295

Transmutation, 291, 301

Gray, Thomas, student of nature, 153

The first note of love of nature in English literature in his

"Letters," 153

Grimm and Catherine II of Russia, 142

Gubbio, ruby lustre glaze of, 318

Hald, Andreas, 109

Signature of, 102

Hamilton, Lady, Nelson's letters to, 187

_Hamlet_, quoted, 192

Hansen, Lars, painter, 106

Hard paste--

first made at Meissen, 22, 29

Plymouth, Bristol, and New Hall, 27

Sèvres, manufacture of, at, 24

Heraldic placques designed by Arnold Krog, 230, 243

Hetch, G., Director of Copenhagen factory, 191

Highest work of Copenhagen, an attempt to indicate, 230, 233

Hispano-Moresque ware, 318

HM (incised) as a mark, illustrated, 104

Holm (Privy Chancellor to Queen Juliane Marie), encourages Müller, 55

Holm (potter), signature of, 103

Holmskjold, the botanist, director of Copenhagen factory, 144

Höyen, his lecture on the natural Scandinavian art, 196

I as a mark, 195

I. Holm, 103, 107

Imitativeness of European potters, 11, 215, 281, 309, 314

Imitators of modern Copenhagen porcelain, 229, 281

Initials on Copenhagen porcelain (F), 99

Inscription on Chinese vase, 95

Copenhagen (bowl), 184

(cup), 69, 99

(plate), 87

(cup and saucer), 99

Staffordshire pottery, 96

Italian Majolica, old masters of, 317

J (mark of Jensen), 195

Jacobsen, quoted, 251

Japanese and Danish ceramic art compared, 247

Japanese imitations of Copenhagen porcelain, 247, 281

Japanese influence in Copenhagen at outset of modern period, 235

Japanese ivory carver, his technique, 267, 329

Jensen, mark of, 195

Jews compelled by Frederick the Great to buy porcelain, 32

Joachim, Christian, his art faience, 322, 325

JS (incised) as a mark, 103

Juliane Marie, Dowager Queen, patron of Müller, 55

Part of, in overthrow of Struensee, 48

Juliane Marie porcelain period--

Part I (1775-1780), 41-71

Part II (1780-1796), 73-110

Excellence of modelling an ideal for modern work, 268

Juliane Marie style revived, 233

K (incised) as a mark, 175

Kalleberg, G., the designer of fine subjects, 107, 118

Kändler of Meissen and his style, 126

_Kaolin_, definition of, 22

Keith, Sir Robert Murray, British Minister at Copenhagen, 51

Krog, Arnold, Art Director at Royal Copenhagen Factory (from 1885), 210

his artistic impulses, 213

his development of new style in underglaze painting, 214

Traditional ornament discarded, 234

Nature, the source of inspiration, 215

Signatures of, 255

Kronborg, Castle of, painted on a cup, 192

Kroyer, Danish painter, 197

L as a mark (incised), 175

(painted), 195

Landscape subjects painted in underglaze colours, 237

Lead glaze not used at Copenhagen, 340

Lead-poisoning, no cases at Copenhagen, 340

Lehmann, Peter Heinrich Benjamin,107

Signature of, 101

Living schools of decorative art, 345

Lost arts, the technique of genius, 91

Louis XV sends a Sèvres service to Frederik V of Denmark, 38

Ludwigsberg factory, 31

Lunbye, Johan Thomas, Danish painter, 197

Luplau, comes to Copenhagen from Fürstenberg factory, 71, 105

his limitations, 117

Signature of, 101

Lyngbe, L., mark of, 195

M (incised) as a mark, 104

Madsen, Professor Karl, quoted, 105

Majolica, old masters of, 317

Mark not used at Copenhagen (1773-1775), 104

Marks (continental) with royal and patrician cyphers, 28

(Copenhagen) art faience, 330

Early blue-and-white porcelain, 174-6

Fournier period (illustrated), 36

Müller period (1775-1801), 100-4

Peculiarities in position of (blue-and-white porcelain), 171

Renaissance period, used by leading painters and modellers

(from 1885), 255-62

Similarity between early Copenhagen and Fürstenberg, 36

Three blue lines, origin of the, 56

(English) imitation of Oriental, Sèvres, and Meissen, 11, 281

Mason's ironstone china, 310

Meehl, Hans, mark of, 104

Meissen--

Establishment of factory at, 29

Figure subjects of, compared with Copenhagen, 77, 126

Marks copied by English potters, 11, 281

Porcelain, authoritative history of, 29

Secret of, divulged and spread throughout Europe, 30

Workmen and materials carried off by Frederick the Great to Berlin, 32

Workmen at Copenhagen, 59

Mehlhorn, a potter from Saxony, comes to Copenhagen, 36

Meyer, Elias, 109

Panel painted by, 97

Meyer, M., 109

MII (incised) as a mark, 174

ML (incised) as a mark, 174

Modellers and painters, Müller period (1773-1801), list of, 105-10

Modellers' and Painters' Marks (early blue-and-white), 174-6

(Renaissance period), 255-62

Modern ephemeral art movements unheeded at Copenhagen, 248

Modern equipment of Copenhagen factory, 340

Modern Renaissance at Copenhagen--

Crystalline glazes, 289-303

Early days, 201-19

Figure subjects, 263-88

Golden period, 219-54

Moltke, Count, of Bregentved, Fournier porcelain in collection of

(illustrated), 33

Moore, Mr. Bernard, his examples of glazing, 292

Moorish potters, arabesque designs of, 318

Müller, Frantz Heinrich (1773-1801)--

Discontent and misery contemporary with establishment of his

factory, 39, 48

his secret mission to other factories, 52, 84

Portrait of, 41

Range of his subjects and order of their production, 68

Recognition of, in his lifetime, 64

Scurvy treatment of, at factory, 80, 83

Statue of him that was never erected, 64

Successors of (1820-1880), 177-97

Technique of, 63, 64

Müller period, the, culminating point of, 71

Mussel-blue painted, the great service, 172

Mussel-blue painted, underglaze, the suggestive idea of modern

developments, 234

Napoleonic wars, 202

National character of early Copenhagen porcelain, 130

of Japanese ceramic art, 247

National Museum (Stockholm), Copenhagen porcelain at, 38, 69, 115, 119

National sentiment in Müller's designs, 95

in modern Copenhagen porcelain, 235, 246

National style created at Copenhagen, 84

Nature, Danish, reflected in modern Copenhagen porcelain, 252, 253, 339

Nature-study a dominant note at Copenhagen, 150, 339

Nelson, Admiral Lord--

Letters to Lady Hamilton, 187

sends Copenhagen porcelain to Lady Hamilton, 188

Nicolaj, Christian Faxoe, 108

Numerals (1-7), painters' marks on early blue-and-white, 176

Nymphenberg factory, 30

Oeder, the originator of the _Flora Danica_, 149

Old Copenhagen Factory described by contemporary eye-witnesses

(1790), 76-84, 154

Omar Khayyám, quoted, 96

Ondrup (1779-1787), signature of, 102

Oriental prototypes of European porcelain, 215, 237, 281, 309

Originality at Copenhagen factory, its avoidance of ephemeral art

movements, 248

of stereotyped styles, 234

Outburst of activity in 1780, 75, 113

Overglaze decoration, modern revival of old Copenhagen forms, 229

Overglaze painters, Müller period, 105-10

Painters, Müller period (1773-1818), list of, 105-10

Painters' and Modellers' Marks (early blue-and-white), 174-6

Painters, underglaze, early blue-and-white, 106, 110

Pallas, Dr. P. S., the _protégé_ of Catherine II of Russia, 153

Paris Exhibition (1889), success of Copenhagen porcelain at, 220

(1900), 223

_Pâte dure_ porcelain of Meissen and allied schools, 22

_Pâte tendre_ porcelain of Sèvres and allied schools, 22, 24

Peasant life a feature in Copenhagen figures, 273

Peasant types and contemporary character in figure subjects, 130, 273

Peacock, figure of (Copenhagen), compared with Derby porcelain

model, 287

Peculiarities in marks (blue-and-white), 171

Persian pottery, 318, 321

_Petuntse_, definition of, 22

Placques, heraldic commemorative, 230, 243

Poetry and imagination, expression of, in modern Copenhagen work, 246

Poetry of the potter's art, the, 95, 245

Porcelain--

First made in Europe (Böttger), 22, 29

in Denmark, 34

Hard-paste, schools of, 21

Semi-porcelain, a term in English ceramics, 310

Soft-paste, schools of, 21

Portraits--

Frederik, Crown Prince (vase), 49

Juliane Marie, Queen Dowager (vase), 45

Müller, Frantz Heinrich, 41

(cup), 69

Rabener, 92

Pott, chemist at Berlin factory, 31

Potter, Chinese, the poetic terms of the, 245

Preus, Sören, modeller of flowers, 108

Processes at old Copenhagen factory described, 63, 76-80, 91

Rarity of old porcelain--

Copenhagen (Fournier period), 36

Florence (sixteenth century), 23

Renaissance, modern, Copenhagen, 199-262

Retail depot opened at Copenhagen, 60, 113

Revival of overglaze painting, 229

Rhodian pottery, 322

Rhymes and mottoes on Copenhagen porcelain, 99

on Staffordshire pottery, 96

Ringler, a workman at Vienna, carries the secret of hard paste far

and wide, 30

Roscoe and Schorlemmer, _Treatise on Chemistry_, quoted, 31

Rosenborg Castle--

_Flora Danica_ service at, 137-56

Fournier porcelain at (illustrated), 25, 37

Rousseau, Jean Jacques--

his influence on Struensee, 47

his naturalistic theories, 141

Royal factory established at Copenhagen by Frederik V (1760), 35

Royal patronage of potters--

(in general), 28

(in particular) _Copenhagen_:

Christian VII, 104

Frederik V, 35

Juliane Marie and royal family shareholders in Müller's company, 56

Crown Prince Frederik and the _Flora Danica_ service, 140

_Berlin_: Frederick the Great, 32

_Fürstenberg_: Duke of Brunswick, 31

_Meissen_: Frederick Augustus, Elector of Saxony, 29

acquires porcelain in exchange for a regiment of dragoons, 32

_St. Petersburg_: Emperor Paul, 28

Empress Catherine II, 31

Empress Elizabeth Petrowna, 31

_Vienna_: Empress Maria Theresa, 30

St. Cloud, factory (1695-1773), 21, 23

Scandinavian _Diana_ biscuit group in Sèvres porcelain, 224

Schleswig-Holstein, war concerning the duchies of, fatal to Danish

art, 205

Schmidt, Jacob, 102

Schou, Philip, pioneer of Modernity, 205

Makes a European tour, visiting factories of Holland, Belgium,

France, and England, 214

Rebuilds factory at Frederiksberg--his genius, 205

The triumph of his foresight, 213

Copenhagen porcelain raised to a new plane, 216

Schou, Philip, comparison between, and Müller, 210

Schreiber, Lady Charlotte, letter from Francesco Antonibon to, 24

Secret of hard-paste porcelain spreads throughout Europe, 30

Secrets of craftsmen not dependent on scientific accuracy, 67

Semi-porcelain peculiarly English, 310

Sèvres, crystalline glazes at, 301

Sèvres factory, date when hard paste first made at, 24

Sèvres factory, marks of, copied by English potters, 11, 281

Sèvres porcelain, its spirit reflecting northern ideas, 224

Sèvres porcelain, Louis XV

sends present of service to King of Denmark, 38

Service made for Catherine II of Russia, 139

Sèvres styles introduced at Copenhagen, 37

Shakesperean subjects (Copenhagen), 326

Signatures of artists, etc., in Copenhagen porcelain--

Baÿer, 103

Clio, 101

Hald, 102

Holm, 103

Krog, 255

Lehmann, 101

Liisberg, 256

Luplau, 101

Meehl, 104

Ondrup, 102

Schmidt, 103

Skovgaad, Peter Christian, Danish painter, 197

Soft-paste porcelain, definition of, 23

English, 27

When made at Copenhagen, 36

Sören Preus, 108

Söroe, view of, painted on a cup, 195

Spiritual outlook, the, of modern Copenhagen, 252

Staffordshire figures stripped of their pigment, 266

Staffordshire potters' fondness for rhymes, 96

Stockholm, National Museum, specimens of porcelain at, 38, 69, 115, 119

Fournier period, 38

Juliane Marie period, 69, 119

Struensee, John Frederick, his fatal influence at the Court of

Christian VII, 47

his overthrow by Queen Juliane Marie, 48

his execution, 51

Styles which modern Copenhagen wisely avoided, 234

Subject, the apt choice of a fitting, the truest test of the highest

ceramic art, 238

Successors of Müller, 177-97

Supernatural, the, untouched by Copenhagen, 253

T (incised) as a mark, 175

Table of leading painters and modellers, Müller

period (1773-1810), 105-10

Table of Marks, Müller period (1775-1810), 100-4

Table of Marks, old blue-and-white porcelain, 174-6

Tables of Marks, painters and modellers of Renaissance period

from 1885, 255-62

Technique--

Copenhagen art faience, 317, 325

Copenhagen porcelain (modern) imitated by many factories, 229, 247

Copenhagen porcelain (old), processes described, 63, 268

(Müller period) its triumph with primitive methods and impure

materials, 67, 88, 91

English porcelain, 310

Figure subjects, the limitations of the potter obeyed, 267

Modelling and its especial, 266, 267

Modern schools of potters, 229, 247

Underglaze decorated porcelain, 236, 237

Underglaze painter, true ideal in, 214, 234, 242

Thomaschefsky, Carl Fridrich, 110

Thorvaldsen, figures after sculpture of, 196

Three blue lines (Copenhagen mark), origin of, 56

TI (incised) as a mark, 170

_Times_ (1801), quoted, 183

Toby jugs stripped of their pigment, 266

Transmutation glazes, 291, 301

Tschirnhaus, Ehrenfried Walter von, 29

Tuscany, Grand Duke of, patron of Florence factory, 23

Tvede, Claus, modeller, 105

Underglaze painted, early blue-and-white, 157-76

Underglaze painting, new technique created, 214, 234, 242

Underglaze painting succeeds overglaze painting in figure subjects, 268

Unmarked Copenhagen porcelain (1773-1775), 42, 56

Verses on Copenhagen porcelain, 87, 99

Vincennes factory (1740), 23

Voltaire, letter to Catherine II of Russia, 143

W2 (incised) as a mark, 176

Wedgwood exhibition, the, by Messrs. Josiah Wedgwood & Sons, London, 1909

(including service made for Catherine II, Empress of Russia), 140

Wedgwood, his introduction of classicism into Staffordshire, 192, 278

his jasper ware, its classification, 310

Wedgwood service made for Catherine II of Russia, 140

Wedgwood workmen apply in vain at Copenhagen, 122

Wiedewelt, the sculptor, assists Fournier, 36

Wilkins, W. H., _A Queen of Tears_. History of Caroline Matilda,

Queen of Denmark, 47

Winther, Christian, quoted, 251

Worcester, its Oriental prototypes, 215, 237, 281

Workmen, foreign, at Copenhagen, 59, 60, 83, 121, 122

Workmen, foreign. English artisans from Wedgwood's factory apply in

vain at Copenhagen, 122

Zimmermann, Professor Ernst (Meissen porcelain), 29

Zurich factory, 31

_Printed in Great Britain by_

UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON

Transcriber's Note:

Unusual and archaic words have been maintained as in the original book.

Words that were in bold in the original book are surrounded by "=",

such as =bold=.

Instances where the List of Illustrations did not match the contents of

the book were corrected:

Corrected entries for Chapter II:

Saucer. Eagle and Lamb 57

Saucer. Water-god 61

Originally:

Saucers. Eagle and Lamb; Water-god 61

Corrected entry for Chapter XI:

Dish with tropical bird (_Christian Joachim_) 307

Originally

Dish with tropical birds (_Christian Joachim_) 307

Instances where the index did not match the contents of the book were

corrected. In all cases, the preferred spelling in the body of the book

was maintained and the index was changed.

Corrected: Baÿer, J. C., the painter of the _Flora Danica_ service, 105

Originally: Bayer

Corrected (under Foreign Workmen...): Thomaschefsky, 83

Originally: Thomasefsky

Corrected: Frederiksborg Castle, vases at, 125

Originally: Fredericksborg

Corrected: Kändler of Meissen and his style, 126

Originally: Kandler

Corrected: Mehlhorn, a potter from Saxony, comes to Copenhagen, 36

Originally: Melhorn

Corrected: Ondrup (1779-1787), signature of, 102

Originally: Ondrop

Corrected: Schreiber, Lady Charlotte, letter from Francesco Antonibon

to, 24

Originally: Antibon

Corrected: Shakesperean subjects (Copenhagen), 326

Originally: Shakesperian

Corrected: Thomaschefsky, Carl Fridrich, 110

Originally: Freidrich

In researching the letter from Francesco Antonibon to Lady Charlotte

Schreiber (and the correct spelling of "Antonibon"), I found that the

cited work, "Marks and Monograms on Pottery and Porcelain" by William

Chaffers does exist, but does not contain the cited information. A

related work by the same author, "Marks and Monograms on European

and Oriental Pottery and Porcelain with Historical Notices of Each

Manufactory" contains the cited information. The citation has not been

changed in the footnote in this ebook (page 24 of the original book).