A history and description of French porcelain

Front matter

.

HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION

OF

Preface

The history of French porcelain must always be full of interest to the English reader because, beyond the intrinsic merits of the material and the marvellous technical skill displayed in the finest examples of French porcelain, we can never forget that the earliest English porcelains, particularly those of Bow and Chelsea, owed so much, both directly and indirectly, to our neighbours across the Channel.

We need offer no excuse, therefore, for this new work on the history of French porcelain, written by a hand so competent as that of Mr. E. S. Auscher, who, besides having been “ Chef de Fabrication” at the Sevres manufactory from 1879 to 1889, has a European reputation for his knowledge of all matters connected with the manufacture of porcelain. Mr. Auscher has been collecting materials for this history of French porcelain for many years, and it seems to me a fortunate circumstance that the results of his labours should make their appearance in England, where to-day so many magnificent collections of the old soft-paste porcelains exist.

The artificial soft-paste porcelain, composed of a large proportion of glass or frit, with a small proportion of marl and chalk, and glazed with a luscious glaze rich in lead, is often distinctively spoken of on the Continent as “ French porcelain,” just as true felspathic porcelain is spoken of as “German

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PREFACE.

porcelain,” because these two entirely dissimilar products were first perfected, in Europe, in those countries.

The artificial French porcelain was extremely difficult, and therefore costly, to manufacture, for reasons which are most clearly explained in this volume. In no other country but France was its manufacture continued for any considerable length of time; for while the earliest English porcelains were undoubtedly very similar in composition to those of Chantilly, Mennecy, Yincennes, and Sevres, the ingredients were soon modified, and the manufacture rendered more certain, by the addition of bone-ash to the materials of the paste ; an innovation which finally became common at all the English factories and led to our characteristic English bone-porcelain.

Long after this change had commenced in England the French factories continued to manufacture their costly artificial porcelain, and it was not until the latter part of the eighteenth century that this distinctively French product was abandoned for a simpler, and cheaper, hard-paste porcelain analogous to that of Germany and of the Far East.

It was only by the patronage of great nobles like the Prince de Conde at Chantilly, the Due de Villeroy at Mennecy, and the King of France and his favourites at Yincennes and Sevres, that the manufacture was able to persist so long, and no one can read Mr. Auscher’s account of the enormous sums of money lavished on these undertakings without realising the precarious nature of the early French porcelain industry.

From the modest commencements of the French porcelains produced at Rouen and St. Cloud at the end of the seventeenth century, with their simple decorative patterns in under-glaze blue, to the triumphant productions of Sevres between 1756 and

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1770, when all that unlimited expenditure and the highest technical skill could accomplish was lavished on the pieces produced for the Royal palaces of France, we have practically an unbroken record of French taste and French craftsmanship for three-quarters of a century.

The most fastidious artist cannot but feel the charm of the material and colour of the rare pieces of Rouen, the early examples of St. Cloud, made in imitation of the white porcelains of Fuchien, and the Chantilly wares decorated with “KakiyemonJ> designs on an opaque and milk-white glaze.

But the later and more elaborate productions of Vincennes and Sevres are on a different plane. Where we are able to see the white material it charms us by its tender, translucent quality, recalling Hellot’s description of “ a porcelain with a fine, solid white grain like squeezed snow ” ; the freshness and beauty of the coloured grounds whether of turquoise, apple-green or rose- Pompadour, are quite unrivalled among colours applied over the glaze; the pieces are enriched with the most skilful painting, relieved by the richest gilding : they are, in a word, marvels of technical skill. Perfectly embodying the taste of their period, the most skilful works of their kind that have ever been produced, they set the fashion so completely in France, as well as in England and other European countries, that the Sevres styles, Sevres patterns, and Sevres ideals were accepted and followed, almost as an article of faith, for more than a century. To-day, however, probably no one would deny that artistically these wonderful pieces of old Sevres cannot be compared to Chinese single- coloured or Flam be porcelains, to the painted faiences of Persia or Asia Minor, or to Italian majolica of the best period.

Collectors and connoisseurs in every country have owned the viii

PREFACE .

charm of French porcelain in unstinted measure, and they cannot but appreciate an account of the rise and progress of all the noted French porcelain factories so clear and logical, yet so full and precise, as that given by Mr. Auscher. It may seem invidious to single out any portions of the work for special mention, but Chapter IX. “ The Attempts to produce Hard-paste Porcelain in France ” ; Chapter XIII., on “ The Sevres Biscuits ” ; and Chapter XVII., on “ Modern Developments,” contain much that will be new to the majority of English readers ; while the final chapter on “ Forgeries ” should prove invaluable to every collector.

The publishers have spared no pains or expense in the illustration of the work, and many of the coloured illustrations are the most faithful renderings of perfect examples that have been made hitherto.

I have to thank in Mr. Auscher ’s name, as well as my own, the keepers of the various English and French museums for their kindness in according facilities for obtaining the necessary photographs ; and our fullest acknowledgments are due to M. Georges Papillon for his permission to reproduce the marks of the Sevres painters and decorators, which will be found at the end of the Section on “ Marks.” Lastly, I must thank Mile. Wolters for invaluable assistance in the work of translation, and Mr. E. G. Hawke for his kindness in reading the proof-sheets.

Clifton Junction,

Near Manchester.

February , 1905.

William Burton.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Invention of Porcelain in France ... 1

II. First Essays in Paris, and First Successes in Rouen 13

Chapter I. The Invention Of Porcelain In France

THE story of the invention of porcelain has often been told, but no account of the history of French porcelain would be complete without some reference to the general history of porcelain in Europe. It is impossible for anyone but an expert or a connoisseur to realise the long and sustained efforts that were necessary before it was possible to reproduce in Europe a material so fine, so delicate, and so precious as Oriental porcelain.

Previous to the reign of Louis XIY. nothing was known in France of any other porcelain than that which came from the Far East — from China and Japan. A few pieces of the soft Florentine porcelain, made under the patronage of the Medicis, doubtless found their way to the court, but they must have remained unknown elsewhere. This soft porcelain, whether made in Italy or in France, was the natural step by which the faience-makers of those countries strove to bring the ware with which they were perfectly familiar into closer agreement with the new and marvellous pottery of the East. It will be shown farther on that the technique of true porcelain approaches in many ways to that of simple faience. At all events, it was the faience-makers in both countries who had the first success in making a material that could in any respect be compared with Oriental porcelain.

It has been well established that during a period of at least one hundred and fifty years several tentative efforts at the manufacture of translucent pottery were made in Italy ; not without interruption it is true, for the invention seems to have been made and forgotten, and made again. Baron Davillier has recorded in his book — “ Les Origines de la Porcelaine en Europe ” — the experiments made in Venice at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century, the more successful efforts of the Duke of Este and Ferrara, and, finally, Florentine productions of the sixteenth century, which have been already referred to.

These pieces of Medicean porcelain, so highly treasured by the museums and the great collectors for their rarity, are not remarkable for their quality as porcelain ; the glaze is seldom very brilliant, the body is only moderately translucent, and the colour of the whole is somewhat dull and yellow. The precious little collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum will allow the English connoisseur to appreciate the artistic merits of its blue and white decoration, even though the pieces themselves are rather thick and clumsy in manufacture.

Scientifically speaking, the mystery of porcelain was not truly solved by these experiments of the faience-makers, the glassmakers, and the alchemists. What they tried to reproduce was the true Oriental porcelain ; that material so fine and so precious, so delicate to the touch, so mysterious to the eye, that it was imported into Europe and sold at enormous prices in spite of unheard-of difficulties ; what they did produce was a fine species of glass, possessing something of the same aspect.

Even as early as the fourteenth century one finds some mention of Oriental porcelain in the inventories of the possessions of kings and great nobles, but as the word “ porcelain ” was at this time very loosely and unscientifically applied, it is not until the reign of Charles VII. that we find anything really reliable under this head. There is a passage of Mathieu de Coussy, the historian of Charles VII., dating from the year 1447, where he speaks of a letter addressed to the Sultan of Egypt, or of “ Babylon,” that he would favour French commerce in the

INVENTION OF PORCELAIN IN FRANCE.

seaports of the Levant. The letter finishes with these words : — “ Si te mande par le dit Ambassadeur un present a savoir trois escuelles de pourcelaine de Sinant, deux grands plats ouvertz de pourcelaine, deux touques * verdes de pourcelaine, deux bouquetz t de pourcelaine ouvre, &a”

One realises the value attached to objects of porcelain at this period when they were thus solicited as presents from one monarch to another. It may be safely said that from this time (the middle of the fifteenth century) Oriental porcelain was collected and treasured by the crowned heads of Europe. Francis I. possessed, in his room of curiosities, “ vases and dishes of porcelain, curiously wrought,” as we find by an inventory of the year 1586.

At this period the entrepot for such Oriental porcelain as came to Europe was Cairo, then one of the greatest centres for the exchange of the products of the East and West. The precious porcelain was brought overland to the bazaars of Cairo, and thence it was shipped to the ports of the Mediterranean, as we know through an author of the end of the sixteenth century* Loys Guyon, who, in a chapter entitled : — “ Quest la Vaisselle de pourcelaine ; d’ou elle s’apporte ; et comme elle se fait,” tells us that in Cairo the faiences of Sicily, of Naples, and other places are sold at very moderate prices, while Chinese porcelains are held in the highest favour. This favour evidently extended to England as well as to France. Does not the Victoria and Albert Museum possess a magnificent octagonal ewer of blue and white porcelain, the spout of which is joined to the body by a richly ornamented neck ? On this ewer a grotesque Chinese figure, painted in blue under the glaze, shows to the full the quality of the material, while, finally it is mounted with a silver mount bearing the hall-mark of the year 1585. We may judge of the importance attached to this piece of porcelain by its English owner of the sixteenth century, from the care with which he had it mounted with a most beautiful and characteristic example of the silversmith’s work of the period.

(*) Touque. Vessel — oval vase.

(t) Bouquet. Bottle with handles.

FRENCH PORCELAIN.

Throughout the seventeenth century, though the imports of Oriental porcelain into France and England were largely increased by the development of trade consequent on the opening up of the Cape route to India, Oriental porcelain still remained a rarity, as is attested by the high value put on such pieces as we find specifically mentioned in contemporary documents. But the introduction of Chinese porcelain in larger quantities led to a distinct trade in it which has continued to our own times. As early as 1660 there were in Paris a number of merchants dealing in fine porcelain ; collectors and amateurs were already numerous ; yet so great was the mystery connected with this unique material that all the authors of the period seriously declared that porcelain must remain a whole century embedded in the ground to reach its beautiful texture and gloss. There existed, in the Palace of Versailles, a Chinese room, or porcelain room, where porcelain given to the King, or acquired by his privy purse, was kept. This collection was greatly enriched in 1686 when the ambassador of the King of Siam delivered, with great and solemn pomp, the presents which his Majesty had sent to Louis XIV. and some of the princes and nobles of his court. Among these presents were a great number of magnificent specimens of Oriental porcelain, many of which are to be found to-day in museums and collections, elaborately mounted in French metal- work of the period. On some of these metal mounts stamped decorations of “ suns ” and “ fleurs-de-lys ” will be found which correspond with the descriptions given in the inventory of the Royal pieces drawn up in 1686 by the Jesuit Father, Tachard.

It is no surprise to find that throughout this period ceaseless efforts should have been made to imitate a material so highly prized. We have already mentioned the apparent success that attended upon these efforts in Italy ; and in Nevers as well as in Delft, in Rouen as well as in Italy, one potter after another strove to rival and imitate the white plates and vases, with decorations in blue and in polychrome, that had found their way from the East. It must be remembered that even by the second half of the seventeenth century pottery was not in common use

INVENTION OF PORCELAIN IN FRANCE.

in Europe. Doubtless, the art of working in clay bad been considered too clumsy and too rude to entitle it to extensive use in the decoration of churches, or for the production of the rich accessories used in ceremonial observances. In fact, all the pyxes, the vessels, the crosses, the shrines, and the ornamental plate, used in the services of the church, were of gold and silver, often covered with enamels. When we recall the efforts that were made at this period for the adornment of places of worship with the most noble and precious materials, we realise the importance that was attached to the making of enamels at Limoges, and the relative worthlessness of the pottery of the period. If the Church that, by its demands, has created and developed so many branches of industrial art in France, did not esteem pottery as a fine art, then the nobility, and even royalty itself, were likely to have little use for it either. In every rank and class of French society dishes of gold, silver or pewter were employed for daily use. Ultimately, general misery and prolonged and wasteful wars made the silver plate disappear from the tables of the wealthy, and on two occasions, first, after the war of 1691, and, secondly, after the famine of 1709, the King and the nobles sent their plate to the Mint in order to procure needful supplies for the service of the court. Thus it was that dire necessity finally led the French nobility to patronise the art of the potter, and the great development that took place in French faience at the commencement of the eighteenth century was caused, not so much by the love of art as by the necessity of providing a substitute for the plate that had been melted. It should be added that if the clergy and the nobility had displayed little interest in the development of decorative faience, the lower orders were content with the most vulgar dishes of clay, more or less badly glazed, with galena glaze, like the common crocks used all over Europe. It is singular that the disasters of the French State at the end of the seventeenth century, due to the unlucky politics of Louis XIV., should have been necessary to establish the French ceramic industry, which was to reach such a remarkably high development before the close of the eighteenth century; and with this development of the painted faience of France came repeated efforts to manufacture porcelain.

By this time the various Indian Companies had imported into Europe vast quantities of Japanese and Chinese products. A Portuguese mission having stranded in 1542 on the coasts of the Island of Kou-Siou were most hospitably entertained by the Japanese, who called them their fellow-countrymen. This mission obtained commercial rights, and the Portuguese were allowed to establish warehouses in Nagasaki. They were soon followed by the Dutch, who, for more than a century, maintained a monopoly of trading with Japan. The Portuguese had, however, the idea of introducing Catholic missionaries, to whom the population listened with interest. Then followed the excesses of the propaganda, and political and religious difficulties arose, so that the Japanese were driven to expel the foreigners and prosecute those who believed in their new doctrines. In 1639 an Imperial edict was promulgated which expelled the foreigners — priests and merchants, laymen and missioners, alike — from the Islands of Japan. This exclusion was rigorously maintained against the Portuguese and the missionaries, but the Dutch were granted certain exemptions. They were allowed to establish in an islet near the port of Firando a station called Decima, or Deshima, and it was from this place that the Dutch Indian Company carried on their trade as before. It was from this entrepot that they brought, between 1698 and 1722, a series of porcelains, from which were chosen the magnificent pieces now to be found in the J apanese Museum at Dresden.

While the Dutch had their centres of commerce, first at Nagasaki, and afterwards at Decima, the other European nations soon strove to obtain a share of the commerce of the East. Of the various Indian Companies that were formed for the purpose, the English East India Company, organised at the commencement of the seventeenth century, soon began to make its power felt. As the Dutch and the Portuguese were at this time supreme in the Far East, the English company helped Shah Abbas, the powerful and enlightened ruler of Persia, to expel the Portuguese from the port of Ormuz. By this means they

INVENTION OF PORCELAIN IN FRANCE.

were allowed to establish themselves at Gombroon on the Persian Gulf, where they soon built up a considerable trade, Gombroon being a natural warehouse for Europe, the Indies, and China. From Gombroon, Chinese porcelains were sent to England, where they acquired the name of Gombroon ware, the common title used for Chinese porcelain down to about 1640. At about that time the English company obtained a settlement in Canton, and the appellation was slowly changed from Gombroon ware to China ware. It was by way of Gombroon that the Persians obtained their Chinese porcelain decorated after the Persian taste, beautiful collections of which are to be seen in the British Museum, as well as in the Oriental section of the Victoria and Albert Museum. In the beginning, of course, the various European trading companies took from the Chinese their native porcelain, of true Oriental form and decoration, but throughout the eighteenth century and even earlier, European patterns were sent to the East to be copied or imitated in porcelain by the potters of Canton or King-te-Ching, of Hizen or Nagasaki. Occasionally we find rude imitations of European statuettes, as, for instance, the equestrian statue of Louis XIV. which has been found in Chinese porcelain ; or the large vases bearing the arms of the Boyal family of France, or of the Princes of the Houses of Bourbon, Orleans, Conde, &c. We may still find whole dinner services, or portions of dinner services, or flower-pots bearing the coats-of-arms of less distinguished families, or even simple badges or emblems* Most amusing of all is it to find careful and elaborate copies, painted by hand, of some European engraving, used to decorate plates, dishes or cups for a European patron.

It will thus be perceived that when French potters turned their attention to the manufacture of porcelain they had many competitors already in the field. In the first place there was the large and growing importation *of true Oriental porcelain, and in addition there was the manufacture of Italian, Dutch and French faience. When we add to this the absolute ignor-

* The English collector will immediately recall the so-called “ Lowestoft ” hard-paste porcelain. — Ed.

ance of all Europeans as to the technique of Chinese porcelain, of which such ridiculous and wonderful stories were current, we cannot but admire the courage, and applaud even the partial successes of those experimenter^ who were at work striving to produce a European substitute for this wonderful Eastern substance.

There are, in fact, two different ways of making what may be called “ Porcelain ” : one way is by attempting to make a transparent pottery from natural materials ; while, commencing from the other end, it is possible to produce a devitrified glassy substance and to coat this with a transparent layer of a soft glaze rich in lead. If we replace the ordinary clays which form the bases of faience or earthenware with earthy mixtures which are white and fusible, a species of porcelain is produced which can be covered with glaze ; such a material is the true porcelain of the East. If, on the contrary, we first of all prepare a frit, which is a glass having only a limited translucence, and then agglomerate this frit with a small proportion of plastic material (either clay marl or organic substance), such a mixture fired to the “ biscuit ” condition, and then covered with a rich lead glaze, forms the true soft porcelain. Throughout the seventeenth century the only clays known in France were those found in the neighbourhood of Rouen, Nevers, Lisieux, and Paris; the occurrence, and even the nature, of kaolin and the kaolinitic minerals — the only bases of true porcelain — remained unknown ; it follows, therefore, that the latter of these methods was the one first resorted to in France for the production of porcelain.

It was the faience-makers, who, after long and consistent experiment, had the merit of developing in France the manufacture of this soft porcelain, an industry eminently French, which rendered the eighteenth century illustrious with the oftrepeated names of Rouen, St. Cloud, Chantilly, Mennecy-Villeroy, Vincennes, and, above all, Sevres, where the manufacture of soft-paste porcelain attained such a prodigious development. This, soft-paste porcelain had a very special technique, which rendered its production a matter of the utmost delicacy. If we follow the

PLATE II.

CHANTILLY

Flower-holders in the form of Statuettes,

With Painted Decorations in the Kakiyemon Style.

Victoria and Albert Museum.

{By kind Permission of J. H. Fitzhenry, Esq.)

.

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contemporary authorities who have written on this question, and who had full knowledge of the manufacture of soft paste, we understand that they commenced by making a frit. This frit almost always contained natural earths and alkalies, and alkaline-earths such as lime. To give an example, it would be necessary to melt together, at a sufficient heat, siliceous sand, alum, sea-salt, gypsum, soda and nitre ; the fusion taking place in the bottom of a furnace where porcelain or faience was fired, or, sometimes, in a special furnace built for the purpose. This frit was pounded and washed with boiling water to remove any materials which remained soluble. The working clay was then prepared by adding to this frit a small portion of calcareous marl, which, as its name implies, was a mixture of chalk and plastic clay ; sometimes pure chalk was added in addition. This mixture was ultimately ground together in water, and gave a paste which had little plasticity, and was so very difficult either to “ throw ” or to mould that it was necessary to add to it certain organic substances, such as black soap or parchmentsize, to render its manipulation possible.

The moulds used for shaping the pieces were of plaster, of considerable thickness, and so contrived that they gave the outer shape to the vessel ; another mould or core of plaster gave the inside shape, and was pressed into position by means of a mechanical press worked by a lever.

The pieces thus moulded were first dried, and were then turned on a lathe to reduce them to the proper thickness. The handles, or other ornaments in relief, were applied in the same way as is common with other species of pottery, by the use of slip to act as a lute. The pieces thus fashioned received their first or “ biscuit ” fire, and this was the most difficult part of the whole process. First of all it was necessary to support all the round or projecting parts with little props or supports of the same material, for during the firing it was necessary to reckon on two conditions which might lead to the deformation of the piece : on the one hand the softening of such a highly vitreous substance, and on the other hand, the shrinkage due to the diminution in bulk of the whole piece. As the props or supports must

FRENCH PORCELAIN.

be made of the same material as the piece itself, a little powdered sand was used to prevent actual contact. The firing was done in saggers made from calcareous marl, in ovens similar to those used by the faience-makers. These ovens were divided into two chambers one above the other ; in the lower chamber the “ biscuit ” ware was fired, and in the upper chamber the saggers only were fired. Under the lower chamber, in the bottom of the furnace, was formed a circular opening into which the flames came direct from the firing mouths, and here it was that the frit itself was melted. These ovens appear to have fired in a very irregular manner and were difficult to manage, so that a large proportion of the pieces came out from the first firing in an imperfect condition ; some being too much softened and vitrified by excessive heat, while others would be rose-coloured, grey, or blackened from insufficient firing and penetration of smoke. Aspen wood was used as fuel because it gave a clear and steady flame, the fire being maintained from seventy-five to one hundred hours. It was necessary to burn from thirty-two to forty cubic metres of wood to fire an oven of this type having only about ten cubic metres of useful space, so that the necessary fuel formed no inconsiderable portion of the expenses of the process.

When the “ biscuit 55 was drawn from the oven, the supports were removed, the whole piece was rubbed with sand to clean the surface, and was then coated with glaze by sprinkling with a brush, in the same way that glaze was applied to faience. The glaze used was nothing but a fusible glass very rich in lead, finely ground, and suspended in water. The glaze-coating was then melted by firing the piece a second time in a similar oven to that already described, but this firing was completed in from twenty-five to thirty-five hours, the temperature required being only such as would bring the glaze to its point of fusion. It was frequently necessary, in order to obtain a perfect glaze-coating, to give the piece several coats of glaze, firing it afresh each time. In some factories the glazed pieces were fired in the upper chamber of the oven, while the “ biscuit ” pieces were being fired in the lower chamber ; but in any case the glazed pieces were

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always fired in saggers well washed inside with the same glaze, so that the sagger itself might not impoverish the glazed surface by absorbing some of the oxide of lead from it.

Such a procedure as that above described is extremely complex although we have dealt merely with the shaping and glazing of the ware, and have not considered at all the important questions of decoration and painting. If we reflect that at this period the chemical industry did not exist, so that every fresh supply of the materials might have a different composition, and that the knowledge of the clays and other natural substances used was also in its infancy, we can realise that the potters of the eighteenth century found in their materials alone a constant source of trouble and of failure. When we reflect further on the numerous difficulties of shaping a material that wras not plastic, and of firing a substance so liable to go out of shape within a very few degrees of heat, we begin to understand and appreciate why the French soft porcelains are so much sought after and so highly valued by collectors.