Porcelain

by Edward Dillon

Mennecy-Villeroy.—This time it is not a prince of the blood, but a très grand seigneur, whose name we find associated with a group of French porcelain. It was on the estate of the Duc de Villeroy, the son of Louis xiv.’s notorious marshal, at Les Petites Maisons, near Mennecy,[177] that Barbin began to make porcelain in the year 1735. The ware he turned out is remarkable for a translucent body covered by a brilliant and uniform glaze. Many kinds of decoration were tried by Barbin and his successors during the forty years of the existence of these works. This period of time well covers the culminating period of soft-paste porcelain in France, and the Mennecy ware fairly represents the school as a whole in its more modest efforts. The decoration with scattered flowers (bouquets de style français) is perhaps the most characteristic design on this ware, but more ambitious work in imitation of Sèvres was attempted later. As at Saint-Cloud and at Chantilly, much attention was given to the little daintily painted ‘toys’—patch-boxes, cane-heads, and knife-handles—many of which were copied a little later at Chelsea.

But the reputation of Mennecy rests above all upon its figurines—little statuettes, generally brilliantly painted, though some are covered with the plain white glaze only ([Pl. xxxv].). Others, again, are in a biscuit of peculiar quality, and these last are at times remarkably well modelled. The mark D. V. ([Pl. d]. 54), doubtless referring to the patron, was maintained up to the time of the removal of the works to Bourg-la-Reine, near Sceaux, in 1773.

We have taken up the porcelain of Mennecy at this point, as the date of its foundation is earlier than that of Vincennes. From its general character, however, we might rather class it as a ‘younger sister’ of Sèvres, while the other wares we have described, Saint-Cloud, Chantilly, and Lille, form a distinct and earlier group by themselves. These latter are distinguished from the later soft pastes of France, on the one hand, by the predominance of designs either of Oriental origin or derived from the French enamelled fayence of the seventeenth century; on the other, by the restrained way in which the coloured decoration is applied, or even by the total absence of colour, so that, as a whole, these wares form an essentially white group of porcelain.

Smaller Factories of Soft Paste.—There were already, in Paris, during the early or Saint-Cloud period, some small private works where soft-paste porcelain was made. We hear of one in the Faubourg St. Honoré as early as 1722, belonging to the Veuve Chicoineau. De Réaumur, in 1739, mentions a factory in the Faubourg St. Antoine. Some other porcelain works under the patronage of princes of the blood were erected at a later date. The Duc de Penthièvre took a keen interest in the porcelain made near to his château at Sceaux, and this ware, first made in 1751, is distinguished by its high finish and careful decoration. So much cannot be said of the produce of the ducal kilns at Orleans, where both fayence and soft-paste porcelain were made about the middle of the century. Not long after, hard-paste porcelain was made at Orleans by

PLATE XXXV. 1—SÈVRES, WHITE BISCUIT
2—MENNECY, GLAZED WHITE PORCELAIN

Gérault, but it is doubtful whether all the pieces marked with the Orleans label (of three points) ([Pl. d]. 60) can be attributed to these works rather than to the factory at Clignancourt. The works at Arras, probably the last started with the object of making a soft-paste ware, cannot be traced further back than 1771. Here the Demoiselles Delesseux, with the support of M. de Calonne, manufactured blue and white ware in competition with the neighbouring factory at Tournai.

Tournai.—Soft-paste porcelain was first made at Tournai in 1750, and although the town is now in Belgium, the ware there manufactured in the last century forms, with that made at Lille and Arras, a distinct group. The mark of two swords in saltire and four small crosses ([Pl. d]. 48) is derived from the arms of Peterinck of Lille, the founder of the works. At first a tower ([Pl. d]. 47), from the town arms, was also used. Many varieties of decoration were employed here both for blue and white and enamelled ware. But before long the commercial spirit prevailed, and a common ware was turned out in large quantities.

Vincennes and Sèvres.—‘La porcelaine de Sèvres est sans contredit la plus belle qui existe.’ This is the dictum of no less an authority than the late Baron Davillier, and we may doubtless accept it if we limit ourselves to the porcelain of Europe. There can be no doubt but that the work turned out by the royal porcelain works during the first fifteen or twenty years of their existence takes an important, if not an essential, place in the decorative art of the eighteenth century, and that, too, at the best period of that art. As to the intrinsic artistic merit, if such a thing exists, or even to the general decorative value of this ware, compared, for instance, with the fayence of the Saracenic East or with the porcelain of China and Japan, these are questions which we are fortunately not called upon to answer here.