Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/661

Rh SEVRES.] POTTERY T No. 26. No. 27. Potters marks. Chinese ; or painted in many bright colours and gold with Chinese designs ; or thirdly, with paintings in blues only of flowery scroll-work and grotesques. It is marked either with a sun, or with &quot; S. C.&quot; combined with &quot; T.&quot; (see No. 25), and other makers initials. Martin Lister, physician to Queen Anne, in an account of his travels in France during 1698, mentions a visit which he paid to the Saint-Cloud porcelain works, and speaks with great admiration of their productions. The privilege was frequently renewed during the first half of the 18th century, and the Saint-Cloud manufactory Potter s mark. continued to be the most important in France till the establishment of the royal manufactory at Sevres. Other places in France during this period, from 1700 to 1745, produced a certain quantity of artificial porcelain. These were Lille, from 1711, marked with No. 26 ; Paris, 1722, a branch of the Saint-Cloud works ; and Chantilly, from 1725. The porcelain of Chan tilly was specially in tended to imitate old Japanese ware. Like the Medici porcelain, it has a white tin enamel over the paste. It is marked with a hunting-horn (see No. 27) and painter s initials. Porcelain of every variety of style was also made at Mennecy-Villeroy from 1735, under the patronage of the duke of Villeroy, with whose initials, &quot; D.V.,&quot; all the pro ductions of the manufactory are marked. All these early varieties of porcelain were of the artificial or soft kind, called by the French &quot; porcelaine a pate tendre.&quot; Sevres. The increasing success and popularity of the porcelain produced in Germany and England induced Louis XV. to establish a private royal manufactory of porcelain, which was first started at Vincennes, with a privilege granted to Charles Adam and others in 1745. In 1753 the king himself became a partner in the works, with a third share in the property. The seat of the manufactory was then transferred to Sevres, and the official title was assumed of &quot;manufacture royale de porcelaine de France.&quot; Before 1753 the royal porcelain was simply marked with two crossed L s for Louis, but from that year a date-letter was made compulsory, A for 1753 (see No. 28), B for 1754, and so on till 1777, after which a new doubled alphabet was started AA (see No. 29), BB, &c. ; this lasted down to RR (1793), and then a less regular series of marks came into use. Till 1792 the date-letter was put between the crossed L s, but in that year the republic substituted the letter R. Later various royal monograms and marks were used. Till about 1770 all French porcelain was artificial or &quot; soft &quot; (pdte tendre) ; the discovery of kaolinic clays in France then brought about the manufacture of natural hard porcelain (pdte dure) like that made in China and Japan. This gradually superseded the soft kind, which ceased to be made at the end of the 18th century. Its manufacture has recently been revived at Sevres to some slight extent. M. Brongniart, the director of the Sevres porcelain works from 1800 to 1847, in his most valuable Traite des Arts Ceramiques (1854), gives a full account of the materials and methods used at Sevres during all periods. The soft porcelain was composed of white sand 60 per cent., nitre 22, common salt 7 2, alum 3 6, soda 3*6, and No. 28. No. 29. Potters marks. gypsum 3 - 6 per cent. This compound was roasted at a high temperature, then ground to a fine powder, and washed with boiling water. To nine parts of this mixture or frit two parts of white chalk and one of a sort of pipe clay were added. The whole was again ground, and passed several times through a fine silk sieve. Water was added to make the powder into a paste, and it was then fit for the thrower on the wheel or the moulder. Owing to the very unplastic nature of this elaborate mixture, black soap and size or glue made from parchment were added to bind the paste together under the moulder s hands. The glaze used for the pdte tendre was an ordinary silico-alkaline glass, made fusible by oxide of lead. The coloured decorations and gilding were added after the firing of the glaze. The hard porcelain is made of natural kaolinic clays, and is glazed with almost pure felspar, both substances very hard and infusible. The superior softness and richness of effect possessed by the pdte tendre are due to the fact that the paintings on the softer and more fusible glaze sink slightly into it under the heat of the kiln, and are, though almost imperceptibly, blended one with another. It is easy to distinguish the two pastes and glazes : pieces of the one kind can be scratched by a knife, while those of the other resist it. Nevertheless the difference in beauty between the two kinds of porcelain has been much exaggerated, and the extravagant prices which are given for the pdte tendre are greatly due to its rarity, and to its having been produced earlier than the other. The whole question, in fact, of the value of Sevres porcelain is a highly artificial and conven tional one, which can hardly be considered in accordance with the ordinary rules or canons of art. Certain special qualities were aimed at, such as brilliant colours, with abso lute smoothness of surface, microscopic delicacy of paint ing, and the most perfect accuracy and neatness of execu tion throughout ; and it must be admitted that the porce lain-makers gained their object with the help of ingenuity, technical skill, and unwearied patience, which must com mand our respect and even admiration, whatever may be our verdict as to the artistic result of their labours. Still, with all possible allowances, there is no doubt that rarity, the necessary result of the slow and laborious processes employed, is the chief reason for the extraordinary value now set on this porcelain. The 10,000 which three flower-vases of pdte tendre fetched at a public auction a few years ago can be ac counted for on no other hypo thesis. The colours of Sevres porcelain are generally harsh, and out of harmony with the pictures they surround ; the forms of the various vessels too are frequently very un graceful, and utterly unsuited to any plastic substance. The whole of this porce lain ware, in fact, labours under the serious artistic dis advantage of being designed and decorated with no regard to suitability of material or method ; the elaborate pic ture-subjects would have been far more fit for ivory FIG. 69. Sevres vase, pdte tendre ; miniature-work, and are quite green body and gilt imitation AVlthout breadth of decorative mounting. (South Kensington effect, while the shapes of the more elaborate vases are often deliberate imitations of gold and &quot;or moulu,&quot; which in no way suggest the special pro-