PLATE XXXI.
The general character and form of this object appear to have been derived by its skilful designer,M. Dieterle, from some of those beautiful Majolica vessels which, during the sixteenth century, ministeredat once to ornament and utility, in containing the drugs dispensed at the pharmacies of Venice, Florence,Padua, See. As we have seen in our notice of Mr. Minton’s vase (Plate XI.), the Italian objects referred towere fabricated in a somewhat coarse earthenware body, for which, in the Sevres manufactory, that exquisitecomposition, the precise admixture of which has long engrossed the attention of French chemists, has beensubstituted. The results of this substitution may be naturally inferred. The perfect purity and compactnessof the service, as it is called, in the Sevres manufacture, not only counteract the tendency to twist in firingwhich is manifested in earthenware, but afford a much more brilliant ground for subsequent decoration. Theintense whiteness of the objects now produced at Sevres , is so great as to reflect light through every colourapplied upon them, and thus a clearness and transparency are given to the tints laid on, which far surpassany that it was in the power of the Italian painters to obtain on their comparatively dull material.
In the remarks which accompanied Plate XI. an attempt was made to trace the progress of Italian pottery to the end of the sixteenth century. Towards the middle of that century a series of experimentshad been successfully carried out in France , through the activity and indomitable perseverance of the celebratedBernard de Palissy, *—on the composition of earthenware; on the application of opaque coatings; on the varietiesof transparent enamel colours proper for painting on china ; and on the best methods of preparing vitreous
glazes, with a view to protect the opaque, and enhance the brilliancy of the transparent colours. The labours
of Bernard de Palissy, and Leonard de Limousin the great reviver of the processes of the ancient Limoges enamel, laid the foundation for that facility with which the earliest French painters on china enriched theirworks with the most varied colours.
In our notice of Plate XIV. we indicated the various steps by which the manufacture of soft porcelain,or pdte-tendre, was carried to its perfection; and we shall now, in a similar manner, endeavour to trace theprogress of the pate-dare, or hard porcelain.
The body of the Oriental china which, about the commencement of the sixteenth century, began to be
imported into Europe by the Dutch and Portuguese , presented the perfection of pate-dare, and many efforts
were made to discover its ingredients. After considerable labour it was found to consist of a fusible clay,known in China as kao-lin, a substance which has preserved the same name in Europe ; and of a material calledpe-tun-tse, which is decomposed feldspar. The glaze or covering known in China as yen, was compounded of achoice and finely-powdered feldspar, and a small quantity of che-kao, a species of gypsum, togethei with someother matters, but never with the addition of either lead or tin.f
* We can scarcely direci our readers to a more interesting piece of autobiography than that of this extraordinary individual, who has recordedin most graphic terms the intensity of his opinions on subjects of every description, and the remarkable acts to which his strong convictions impelledhim. CEuvres de Bernard de Palissy, publiees par Faujas de Saint-1 1 ond, Paris , 1/77.t Brongniart , “ Traite des Arts Cerainiques.”