CHAPTER XVI.
THE PORCELAINS OF NORTHERN EUROPE.
Holland and Belgium.—Oriental Trade.—Weesp.—Marks.—Loosdrecht.—Amstel, Old and New.—Marks.—The Hague.—Marks.—Lille.—Mark.—Tournay.—Marks.—Sweden.—Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII.—Marieberg.—Rörstrand.—Marks.—Denmark.—Copenhagen.—Marks.—Russia.—Peter the Great.—Catherine II.—Marks.—Tver.—Gardner.—Moscow.—Popoff.—Gulena.—Mark.—Poland.—Korzec.
HOLLAND and Belgium.—It may be said that long before Holland attempted the production of porcelain she had been making faience or earthen-ware, which is now well known under the name of delft, of which I have given a condensed account elsewhere.
When one remembers that Holland has long winters and cool summers; that her people have not only had to fight their fellow-men, but have had to snatch from the cruel sea a considerable portion of what is now dry land; that she has had to build two hundred miles of broad and strong dikes, and to see that they are always strong and safe; and, added to this, has had to draw forth from the soil and the sea the food to feed her millions—when one remembers these things, one well may wonder that there has grown up there such a love for art as has produced the most interesting school of painters in all the world; that all over this hollow land are well-built cities and most comfortable houses, and that in these houses are probably more fine porcelains and curious clocks, pictures, and tapestries, than in any other land, one wonders still more.
The two secrets which help to explain this singular success are these: This necessary warfare with Nature has made a hardy, a patient, and a frugal people. Not only has this people conquered and subdued the land—it has also conquered and subdued the sea, and has drawn stores of wealth from both. So it has come to pass that one hundred thousand men were engaged, in the last century, in the fisheries, and a common saw was that “the foundations of Amsterdam were laid on herring-bones.”
But these fisheries created a class of men who were ready to rove the ocean in search of good or gold. Her daring navigators soon followed Vasco da Gama around the Cape of Good Hope, and in due time succeeded to the trade of the East, which she held for over two centuries, and out of which she gained untold wealth; with which she built cities and castles and churches; with which she paid artists; with which she stocked her houses with the finest porcelains of the East.
Thus, from that early day, a great love for fine porcelain has existed in the “Low Countries”—what we now know as Holland and Belgium. At the present time no field bears a better yield for the gleaner who seeks fine examples of old porcelain, and especially of the Oriental, than these countries. Thousands upon thousands of porcelains were imported into Holland after the year 1640, whence they were distributed over Europe. But Holland could not hold her monopoly of trade; France and England sought to grasp it, too, and England succeeded. During the last century England has steadily drawn the trade of the East to herself, and Holland has lost what England has gained.
In the many changes consequent upon this, many stores of good porcelain gathered in Holland have gradually come to be sold to persons who wanted them more than the Dutch did.
Out of this great trade with the Orientals it is easy to see that the Dutch should come to be connoisseurs and lovers of porcelain. It is also easy to see that a sufficient interest should spring up there, after the discovery of true porcelain at Dresden, to induce persons to attempt the manufacture in Holland. This was stimulated during the Seven Years’ War, when the works at Meissen (Dresden) were closed, and for a time broken up. Then in Holland, as well as in other countries of Europe, there was an opportunity. The love for porcelain had grown great after the discoveries at Dresden, and the demand for it was vastly increased. The disturbances in Saxony, amounting to prohibition of the manufacture, gave other countries a possible chance to compete with the advantages of Saxony, which otherwise were overwhelming. Still, in Holland no great commercial success was reached. In none of these northern countries has the making of fine porcelain been an assured success. This is owing to many causes, among which we may point to—
1. The genius of the people does not impel them.