The knowledge of and love for good examples of fine porcelain are on the increase, and no doubt in a few years we shall be able to see and enjoy fine work, without the disagreeable experience of crossing the implacable ocean.
Our art-museums will also give to thousands the opportunity of seeing and studying these things which no private collections can so well do.
The name of Alexandre Brongniart ([Fig. 139]) is now identified with the best period of Sèvres porcelain, and its high reputation and great success are due more to him than to any one man. Not only did he aim for excellence himself, he also insisted that others should do likewise. He gave tone and character to what was done there. Nothing having any flaw or blemish was allowed to go from the works; and in that way the standard was kept high in the minds of artists and workmen as well as in those of amateurs. Prices, too, were kept at such a point that more and more could be attempted and accomplished. To Brongniart is due the Musée Céramique at Sèvres. In this museum are examples of all or nearly all the famous work ever done there, as well as a great number of examples of both porcelain and faience made elsewhere. This museum is still receiving constant additions.
Before his appointment Brongniart was ranked as a savant in other branches. He was known among the most eminent of geologists, and in conjunction with Cuvier he made a careful examination of the geology of the neighborhood of Paris, and wrote upon it a learned essay. He was also a student of chemistry, and this knowledge was most valuable after he became director at Sèvres. For some fifty years after 1800 he held that post, and during the time he gave his soul to the work he had in hand; he encouraged the mature and he brought forward the young. His work “Traité des Arts Céramiques” is most valuable, and is looked upon as an authority to-day.
Fig. 139.—Portrait of Alexandre Brongniart.