FRENCH PORCELAINS

AFTER leaving the Fragonard Room, the visitor

enters the long corridor, Gallery 20, all the cases in which are devoted to FRENCH PORCELAINS, with the exception of the two wall cases (A and B) on either side of the door through which the visitor has just passed. These cases contain several small FRENCH BRONZES, and a number of finer specimens of ORMOLU, some of which are the work of Gouthiere. The TAPESTRY Over the door is Flemish, late sixteenth century, and the large figure pieces on the wall are of similar provenance but fifty or sixty years later. All of these tapestries, together with those in the opposite corridor, came from Knole, an historic English house, belonging to Lord Sackville, in Kent.

The other cases in this corridor are arranged to show the complete development of the art of porcelain manufacture in France. The making of porcelain in Northern Europe was brought about largely by the desire to produce a ware rivaling in quality the Chinese products of

the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which were imported in vast quantities after sea trade with the Far East became an established fact. The faïence, which until the end of the seventeenth century had occupied the attention of the French potters, was too heavy in body and dull in glaze to prove a satisfactory substitute for the splendid productions of the Chinese kilns, and the ingenuity of the European potters was long exercised in discovering the secret of the brilliant and flinty paste of the Oriental ware. This quality was produced by the use of a clay known as Kaolin, which was not thought to exist naturally in Europe, and which the potters tried to reproduce synthetically. At first they succeeded only in making a much softer body than that of the Oriental ware, the former being called soft paste in distinction to the hard paste of the latter, but early in the eighteenth century beds of Kaolin were discovered in Germany, and the manufacture was begun there of hard paste Meissen porcelain. The French potters, however, clung for a long period to their creamy soft paste, although they later attained great distinction in the making of true porcelain. In France porcelain manufacture was first attempted at Rouen, then at St. Cloud, and a little later at Mennecy, Chantilly, and one or two other places, all the productions being, of course, soft paste. The earliest specimens of French porcelain in the Morgan Collection are the pieces made at ST. CLOUD at the end of the seventeenth and

Case C

Cases D and Cases D, E

the beginning of the eighteenth century, which are exhibited on the top shelf in Case C. The rest of this case is devoted to CHANTILLY, which was manufactured after 1725 and imitates closely Chinese models. Cases D and E contain other specimens of soft paste porcelain manufactured at MENNECY-VILLEROY between 1734 and 1773, at BOURGE-LA-REINE between 1773 and 1806, and at CRÉPY-EN-VALOIS between 1762 and 1770. There are in existence only a few specimens from these last two localities, their output being exceedingly small, The factories already noted, however, are chiefly remembered as pioneers, and the real manufacture of French porcelain began only with the establishment in 1738 of the Royal Manufactory at VINCENNES, which produced far more perfect pieces than had previously been possible. The Vincennes porcelain in the Morgan Collection

is shown in Cases F and G, the pieces most worthy Cases F, G of attention being the three rare figure-groups of white enameled porcelain in Case F. The manufactory at Vincennes continued in operation until 1755, when for reasons of convenience it was moved to a better site at SÈVRES, where the production of porcelain has continued almost without interruption down to the present day. Beginning with Case H, the remaining specimens of Case H porcelain were made at Sèvres and illustrate the culmination of ceramic art in France. The perfect potting of these pieces, the rich and extraordinary detail of their

decoration, and the royal restriction on their general circulation-the product of the factory being at the disposal of the King-gave the ware enormous prestige in the eighteenth century and after. The earlier pieces of Sèvres in the Morgan Collection, that is, those in Cases H and I, are of soft paste similar to that of Vincennes, but about 1770 the manufacture of true or hard paste porcelain was introduced at the factory and superseded the soft paste there, as elsewhere on the Continent. Most Cases J to Y of the specimens in Cases J to Y, dating after 1770 are of hard paste. The two white statuettes on the top

Case H shelf in Case H deserve particular attention, as they are among the notable productions of the Sèvres factory. They are made of biscuit, that is, unglazed soft paste, and represent Madame de Pompadour and Louis XV. The figure of the Marquise bears the title "L'Amitié au Cœur," and was probably one of the nineteen figures made in 1755 at that distinguished lady's order, for gifts to her intimate friends. The statuette of Louis XV was not originally intended as a companion piece, although it is on the same scale as that of his favorite. The figure of the King is the reduction of his statue at Rheims by Pigalle, and was executed a little before 1770 as a part of a huge porcelain table decoration made for the marriage banquet of the Dauphin, later Louis XVI, and Marie Antoinette. Both figures are mounted on decorated bases of fine quality. The rest of the Sèvres porcelain