‘Menez-moi chez les Portugais
Nous y verrons à peu de frais
Des marchandises de la Chine
. . . de la porcelaine fine,’ etc.—Scarron, Paris Burlesque.
[143] In 1689 Madame de Sévigné notes the quantity of Oriental porcelain imported at L’Orient.
[144] Are we to identify these with some huge Imari vases, now in the Louvre, with coats of arms bearing the French lilies and the label of Orleans? Some similar vases, with the same arms, have lately been seen in dealers’ shops in London.
[145] The catalogues of Gersaint and of some other early French collections may be found at South Kensington.
[146] Passeri, writing in 1752 in favour of the then neglected majolica, claims that ‘la parte brutale dell’ uomo sarà a favor delle porcellane, ma l’intellettuale e raziocinativa giudicherà a favor delle nostre majoliche.’
[147] Recent researches in the archives of Venice have proved that Oriental porcelain was comparatively abundant in Venice at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Dr. Ludwig has shown me extracts from the inventory of the property of a rich ‘cittadino’ who died in 1526, in which can be distinguished plain white, blue and white, and porcelain decorated with red, green, and gold.
[148] It is quite possible that Palissy may have tried his hand at this problem. M. Solon has suggested that in the many years’ labour at Saintes (when attempting especially to imitate ‘the cup with white enamel’) Palissy was really seeking to make porcelain.
[149] I take the following from the excellent catalogue of the Ceramic Museum at Limoges, by E. Garnier: ‘1125. Pot à Pommade, de forme cylindrique godronné à la partie inférieure et décoré en bleu d’une bande de lambrequins. Marque A.P.’ Some other small pieces in this museum are classed as Rouen porcelain.
[150] Professor Church allows that ‘the substance of some of these statuettes is distinctly porcellanous.’ He found, however, in a fragment of this ware as much as 79·5 per cent. of silica, and only 12·5 per cent. of alumina (Cantor Lectures, 1881).
[151] This feeling is well expressed in a contemporary drinking-song:—