Visitors to Europe should see those in the Kensington Museum, and in private galleries; such as that of M. Rothschild, whose collection is worth millions.
Fig. 137.—Sèvres.
It is a singular thing that during that fearful tempest known as the French Revolution, when almost everything which had a suspicion of royalty or luxury was swept away, the works at Sèvres were not destroyed, but were carefully guarded and supported by the republican Directory.
Besides these “articles of luxury,” the Sèvres works have always made a large number of services for household use, which, however, must always be costly. Some of these are in this country; also a good many single pieces, particularly from the collections of Louis Philippe, which were large, and which were scattered at the time of the Revolution of 1848. Quite a goodly number were in the sale of Mr. Lyons’s collection, in 1876.
Some of these dinner-services were of course very elaborate and some intended for royal houses were finished in the rich and heavy colors, such as the bleu de roi, which for myself I would never desire; but most of them were decorated with edges of very rich gold, and bands or bouquets of flowers painted on the white.