In the Mercure Galant of October 1700 we hear of frequent visits of princes, lords, and ambassadors to the works of ‘M. Chicanaux,’ above all of the young Duchesse de Bourgogne, who ‘stopped her carriage at the gate to see the manufacture of fine porcelain which has not its like in all Europe.’ This reads very like a modern réclame, but it is important as showing the interest already taken by great people in the new ware.
At a later time the Saint-Cloud works came more directly under the patronage of the Dukes of Orleans, both the regent and his son ‘Louis le Dévot.’ It was then in the hands of Henri Trou, who had married Chicoineau’s widow. Earlier Chicoineau pieces (1702-1712) bear as a mark the sun of Louis xiv. roughly traced in blue ([Pl. d]. 51). At a later time, under the Trou régime, we find a roughly drawn T surmounted by the letters S.-C. ([Pl. d]. 52). The specimens of this ware—there are plenty of them in the French museums and several at South Kensington—are seldom of any size, and the decoration is generally sparingly applied to the milk-white ground. In the earlier pieces the lambrequins borders in under-glaze blue carry on the tradition of the seventeenth century renaissance style in use at Rouen, and we find similar patterns moulded in low relief.[171] The moulded surface is often covered with a scale-like pattern ([Pl. xxxiii].): with this we may probably identify ‘the quilted china of Saint-Cloud,’ of which there was a tea-service at Strawberry Hill. But it is rather the Oriental influence that is generally predominant; and the white ware of Fukien, decorated with sprigs of prunus blossom, is closely copied. Of special interest are some very successful imitations of the famille rose. On a trembleuse saucer at South Kensington[172] the rouge d’or is used with great effect; the way in which the pink is gradated with the white enamel shows full command of the materials. This saucer bears the T of the Trou family as a mark, but we unfortunately do not know the exact date when this mark was first introduced, and still less for how long it was employed.[173]
Lille.—A manufactory of porcelain was founded at Lille as early as the year 1711. The founders, in their petition to the mayor and council of the town, acknowledge that their aim was to follow in the wake of the Chicoineau family of Saint-Cloud, the only place in Europe, they say, where porcelain was made. At the same time they seize the occasion to attack the head of the Rouen works, who, they affirm, has attempted to palm off his inferior wares at Paris, to the prejudice of the real Saint-Cloud porcelain. Some side-light is thus thrown on the rivalry of the Poterat and Chicoineau families. In fact, the porcelain made at Lille closely resembles the Saint-Cloud ware. We find this especially in the pieces with a white ground sparely decorated with lambrequins of blue. It was, however, evidently made with less care, and we do not find the milky paste which is so great a charm in the Saint-Cloud porcelain. The mark, the letter L, stands for the town of Lille. This factory of soft paste does not seem to have lasted more than twenty years. Late in the century hard porcelain was made for a short time in this town, and it is claimed that it was at Lille that coal was first used for the firing of porcelain. There is a plate in the Sèvres Museum inscribed ‘Faite à Lille en Flandre, cuite au charbon de terre.’ The manager, Leperre Durot, was unsuccessful, however, in an attempt to introduce his new fuel at Paris. In 1786 the Dauphin (he was only five years old at the time) became patron of the factory at Lille, and the mark for the few remaining years of its existence was a dolphin crowned.
Chantilly.—We have seen how close to nearly every Residenz-Stadt in Germany there sprang up a porcelain manufactory under the patronage of the prince. In somewhat similar way the fashion spread in France. Here the head of each branch of the royal house either took some already established factory under his protection, or promoted the setting up of new works. At this time, I mean at the beginning of the eighteenth century, it was the mark of a loyal subject and good citizen to send the family plate to the melting-pot and to forward the resulting bullion to the mint to be coined into money, in this following the example of the king. This was the case above all in 1709, when Louis was in great want of money. We are told that the Duc D’Antin, ‘the perfect courtier,’ after a sacrifice of this kind, ‘courut à Paris choisir force porcelaine admirable qu’il eut à grand marché.’ So that, in the words of Saint-Simon, the goldsmiths were being ruined, and the makers of fayence and porcelain enriched. This fashion gave, of course, a great stimulus to the establishment of new factories. Thus the head of the great house of Condé became the patron of the works established in 1725 by Ciquaire Ciron at Chantilly. In the letters patent granted in 1735 we are told ‘Notre bien aimé Ciquaire Ciron nous a fait représenter que depuis plus de dix ans il s’est appliqué à la fabrique de la porcelaine pareille à celle qui se faisait anciennement au Japon.’ The prince, Louis Henri,[174] already possessed a remarkable collection of this Oriental porcelain, and some sixty examples of this ware made anciennement au Japon, what we now know as Kakiyemon, are still to be seen in the Château of Chantilly.
The earlier porcelain of Chantilly is remarkable in this, that following the example of the enamelled fayence of the day, it is coated with an opaque stanniferous glaze. On this ground, which resembles closely that of the earliest Japanese ware, the peculiar decoration of the Kakiyemon porcelain is closely copied.[175] Indeed, the delicate yet spirited handling of this decoration—I would point especially to two cylindrical vases mounted in silver in the Fitzhenry collection ([Pl. xxxiv].)—is something that we are quite unaccustomed to in European porcelain. It will be noticed, however, that the over-glaze blue enamel is somewhat heavy in tone, and has evidently given trouble to the decorator.
At a later time the tin enamel gave place to a vitreous glaze similar to that used at Mennecy, and the decoration most in favour was a somewhat poor underglaze blue. On such ware, especially on plates, we find the well-known ‘Chantilly sprig,’ so often imitated on English porcelain. This pattern is distinguished by a leaf, or rather bract, of peculiar shape at the branching of the twigs, and the design would seem to be of Persian origin. It is interesting to compare it with the very similar sprigs often seen in the decoration
PLATE XXXIV. CHANTILLY
of the Medici porcelain. The shield of the Condé family is sometimes found on plates of this ware, the ‘baton of cadency’ between the lilies so reduced in size as to look like an accidental spot. The mark, a hunting-horn, is carefully painted in red on the older pieces; later on, it is found rapidly sketched in blue under the glaze[176] ([Pl. d]. 53).