CHAPTER VII.

FRENCH FAIENCE.--PALISSY WARE, AND HENRI-DEUX WARE.

Bernard Palissy.--The Catholics and the Huguenots.--Saintes.--Figurines.--The Centennial Exhibition.--Prices.--Henri-Deux--where made--when.--Copies at Philadelphia.--List of Pieces extant, and Prices.

Bernard Palissy.--Over the name and fame of Palissy hangs an aureola of glory. He was a potter, and he learned his trade through much perseverance and much suffering. But, more than that, he was a Protestant in the days of the Leaguers, when to be a Protestant in France meant to persecute or to be persecuted; and it meant also peril and probable death. Palissy was born about 1510, and died in 1590. He lived, therefore, through the times of the bitter and cruel wars of the Huguenots and the Catholics, when political and religious and social intrigues divided the nobility of France into factions, which were not only ready to, but did, rend each other's throats. He lived--he, a Protestant--through the wholesale butcheries of St. Bartholomew (1572), when it is asserted that from twenty to one hundred thousand Protestants were slaughtered in the kingdom of France in cold blood.

Palissy was one of those Protestants, was known as one, and he was not slaughtered. From this fact has come a good part of his glory, as a few words may serve to explain.

For a long time the struggle for power between the Catholic party and the Huguenot party had raged, with varying fortunes, when both sides pillaged and persecuted, and true religion was driven to the wall, or fled from France. At last the Catholic party, under the lead of the Duke of Guise, secured the preëminence, and in due time--in 1559--severe edicts were issued against the Protestants. Palissy was not safe; but by that time he had acquired reputation as a potter, and had made pieces of his rustic ware for the king and for members of the court. He was known to the king; and the queen-mother, Catherine de' Medicis, brought him to Paris, established his furnaces in the grounds of the Tuileries, made him a servant of the king, and so saved him for the time from the persecutions which swept away his brethren.

It must be remembered that those were days in which many men _believed_--believed that their truth or faith was the only thing to save them from the eternal fires of hell. Palissy was one of those earnest, intense, narrow natures who believed their faith was the only true faith for man. All the influence of the queen, the persuasions of the priests, and even the appeals of the king, could not shake him. Palissy has written his own story, and it has the interest of romance and the fervor of faith. When he was eighty years old he was thrown into the Bastile, with other stanch Huguenots, because of his faith. The king, Henry III., is reported to have said:

"My good friend, you have now been five-and-forty years in the service of my mother and myself; we have allowed you to retain your religion in the midst of fire and slaughter. Now I am so hard pressed by the Guises and my own people, that I am constrained to deliver you up into the hands of your enemies, and to-morrow you will be burned unless you are converted."

Inflexible to the last, the old man is reported to have answered the king in this wise:

"Sire, I am ready to resign my life for the glory of God. You have told me several times that you pity me; and I in my turn pity you, who have used the words '_I am constrained_.' It was not spoken like a king, sire; and these are words which neither you nor those who constrain you, the Guisards and all your people, will ever be able to make me utter, for I know how to die."

The whole world admires pluck; and that, we cannot doubt, marked the character of the man. We need only to look at his face (Fig. 72) to believe that he might have said those words. And those who came after him, inheriting in a degree the hatred of the Catholics which he enjoyed, have not allowed the words nor the fame of the man to die.

But he was not put to death; he lingered out his last year in the prisons of the Bastile, and then departed.

The story he left behind him, of his own struggles and sufferings in seeking and finding the arts of the potter, has been intensified by his admirers; they have added to its intrinsic interest by telling of his patience, his endurance, his suffering, and his final success--that which can be imparted by the glow of admiring souls, who see in him a hero such as they would themselves wish to be, but are not.

That story is briefly this: He was born poor, but he had patience, industry, and an aspiring nature. He studied, he learned, he sought; he became something of a draughtsman, a painter, a surveyor, a writer. Glass-painting may be said to have been his occupation, or one of them; and, in following this, he came quickly into sympathy with cognate arts. We can well believe, therefore, that when he saw a beautifully-enameled cup--whether one of those now so famous as the _Henri-Deux_ ware, or whether one of those already made at Nuremberg by _Hirschvogel_ (probably the latter)--we can well believe that it inspired his soul with enthusiasm, and held him with the tenacity we know to have marked his character.

From that day he was possessed; he had a mastering thought: it was to discover the secrets of this art, and to apply them to the production of like ware in France, where it was not known. With little or no knowledge of chemistry, with none of pottery, he set himself to the task. He worked persistently, indefatigably, but darkly, ignorantly, wastefully, and at last only reached a half-success. He did this, too, by sacrificing largely of his own life for sixteen years, and, more than that, as he has himself told the story, by the hard and almost cruel sacrifice of the decent comforts of life of his wife and family. He borrowed the money of his friends and neighbors to conduct his experiments; he burned his tables and chairs to heat his furnaces; he could not pay his assistants; he could bear the tears and reproaches of his wife and his friends, and did so for years; and all this for what some persons call the "glorious result" of discovering a glaze for pottery--which had already been known and was in full practice at Nuremberg, only a hundred miles from him! If, as is stated by Demmin, he did himself visit Nuremberg to see and learn what was there being done, his course becomes still more inexplicable and unpraiseworthy. And what makes the matter still more curious is that, after all, he did not succeed in discovering or applying the stanniferous enamel; for M. Demmin states positively that his glaze was the plumbiferous glaze, and not the stanniferous. Quoting his words, he says: "On ne rencontre pas la moindre parcelle d'émail stannifère, blanc ou autres, sur les poteries attribuées à ce maître. Le _blanc_ est une terre blanchâtre qui, couverte d'un vernis incolore, conserve sa blancheur."

If, therefore, it may be questioned whether the object of discovering a stanniferous glaze was worthy the sacrifice of sixteen years of his own life, as well as of the peace and comfort of his friends and family; and if, after all, he did not discover it; and if, besides that, he might have obtained it from Hirschvogel without all this tribulation, and did not--we may well be at a loss to understand the high praise which in some quarters has been lavished on Palissy; and for myself I am not willing to continue it. Martyrdom is usually a very poor business, and the cause of good pottery certainly does not demand it.

The work begun at _Saintes_ about 1535, and afterward carried on at Paris, is marked by peculiarities which for a long time were supposed to be confined to the wares of Palissy. These were the use of shells, lizards, snakes, fish, frogs, insects, and plants, in high-relief upon the surface of his plates and dishes. This will be shown in the example we give (Fig. 73), which is one of the finest pieces of this work extant, now in the museum of the Louvre. And even this is now believed by some competent experts to be of modern manufacture.

These natural objects were modeled with considerable care, and colored to represent the real things, so that they have a value to the naturalist as well as to the potter.

As works of ceramic art, can we accord them a high rank, or can we get much satisfaction in their contemplation? Can we accept them as _art_ at all? Admit them to be clever imitations--and that is all, it seems to me, we can do--and they fall to the place of prettiness, and rank with wax-flowers and alabaster-apples.

It is quite certain that work of this sort was done by many potters after Palissy, if not by his contemporaries; and collectors have been induced to pay great prices for things alleged to be the work of Palissy which are now known not to have been made by him. In addition to this, the world is full of counterfeits of this sort of thing which out-Palissy Palissy; and the extravagant prices once paid for counterfeits cannot now be obtained for what are known to be genuine.

The other two examples shown in Figs. 74, 75, and 76, differ from the first; and it may be doubted whether these are not to be attributed to some other potter than Palissy. The cornucopia on Fig. 74 was a favorite decoration at Rouen, and might readily enough find a place there.

This style of work, being made in moulds, can be easily and cheaply reproduced.

At one time a large number of _figurines_, such as "The Nurse" and others, were attributed to Palissy, notwithstanding that the dresses, and in some cases the persons, did not exist until after the time of Palissy; but it is now asserted that there is nothing at all to prove that Palissy ever made this style of work.

A great number of examples may be seen of so-called "Palissy" in the Kensington Museum at London and in the Louvre at Paris. But they nowhere hold the high places they once did, nor do they bring the prices they once did. In the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia of 1876 a great variety of this sort of work was shown, made by the clever potters of the day in Europe.

A very large sale has been found within the last twenty years for imitations of Palissy ware, and these have been made with great skill by Barbizôt and Aviso, of France, and by Minton, of England; indeed, some of these seem much better than any I have seen supposed to be the genuine thing. The virtues most needed are, of course, patience and a keen faculty of imitation--art in any good sense is not essential.

The sales of Palissy ware at the Bernal sale were not at the high figures they afterward reached. The prices ran from seven to one hundred and sixty-two pounds, the latter price having been paid for a circular dish twelve and a half inches in diameter, which, having been broken into pieces and mended, was bought by the Baron Rothschild.

We give, in Fig. 77, another style of work--a very beautiful jug in the collection of the Louvre. It is there placed among the works of Bernard Palissy; and there are various other pieces of like work so catalogued in the public and private collections of Europe. But there are doubts as to these, which in some minds approach to certainty--doubts whether Palissy himself worked at all with the human form. It is well known that he was a naturalist, a geologist, a scientist, but it is not certain that he was an artist in this direction. Some students assert distinctly that he was not; and it seems most probable that he was not a modeler of the human figure.

As work like this, shown in the last illustration, has for so long a period been attributed to him, it has seemed desirable to give an example of it in our pages. That it is work of his time, if not made by him or under his direction, is not questioned.

HENRI-DEUX WARE: FAIENCE D'OIRON.--This unique earthen-ware for years perplexed the lovers of pottery. It seemed to appear from Touraine and La Vendée, and only here and there a piece. It was so peculiar, so different from any and all the known styles, that no one could decide whence it came or by whom it was made. The impression--and it was only an impression--seemed to be that it must have come out of Italy, and that Benvenuto Cellini was as likely as any one to have had to do with its designs or execution; and this simply because he was known to have stamped his peculiar taste upon works which might be classed with this only in expressing the finer forms and decorations of the Italian Renaissance.

A few pieces only of this ware came to light from time to time, but they were eagerly seized upon, and they gave rise to much speculation. Why there should be so few, and why no traces of like ware were found in other directions, remained for a time a mystery. But it was solved. I quote here from a paper by Mr. Ritter, which sums up what is now known upon the subject; he writes with the knowledge and appreciation of a practical potter:

"It was so late as the year 1839 that M. André Pottier, a French writer on art, first announced to the world the existence of the singular species of pottery now known as 'Henri-Deux' ware. He gave it as his opinion that it was the production of Florentine artists working in France. Until thus brought to the knowledge of connoisseurs, the very existence of this exquisite ware had been forgotten. It soon, however, became famous. Every corner of Europe was ransacked for specimens of it. Dukes, princes, and millionaires, contended with the heads of national museums for the few pieces still to be found. No ware ever yet became so costly; for every hundred pounds that a rare piece of Sèvres or maiolica will fetch, the 'Henri-Deux' will bring its thousand. As yet only about fifty pieces have come to light; and of these fifty more than one-half have found their way into the galleries of our wealthier English amateurs.

"Those who see a specimen of this rare and precious pottery for the first time are apt to be extremely disappointed. They see a vase, or a ewer, or a candlestick, of fantastic shape, covered with a thin, greenish-yellow glaze, the coloring not by any means brilliant, and the surface seemingly inlaid and incrusted with the innumerable details of a most elaborate ornamentation, made out in quiet browns, blacks, and sad neutral tints. Nothing is less striking to a casual or an ignorant observer--nothing in the whole range of decorative art so absolutely exquisite in design and effect to the cultivated appreciation of a connoisseur in Renaissance-work.

"No sooner was the ware discovered than speculations began as to its maker, its date, and the locality of its fabrication. On no single point did the ten or twelve French writers on the subject come to an agreement, and a certain amount of unsolved mystery still attaches to all these points. There is no so-called 'potter's mark' on any of the pieces except one, and this solitary mark is not recognizable as that of any known potter. It may be tortured into a monogram, or assumed to be a device, at the pleasure of those who form their various theories on the origin of the ware.

"The pieces are decorated with the arms of French royal and noble families. One piece has on it the salamander surrounded by flames, the device of Francis I. of France; and very many out of the fifty bear the well-known monogram of Henry II. worked into the ornamentation of the surface--a circumstance which has given the ware its name. The date is, therefore, more or less fixed to the short period between 1540 and 1560, or twenty years. As to the nationality of the artist, the best authorities join in thinking he must have been a Frenchman, because the work is essentially of the style of the somewhat distinctive French Renaissance then prevailing. The precise locality of its production could only be inferred to be somewhere in Touraine, because a majority of the pieces can be traced as coming from that province.

"Such was the mystery which hung about all connected with this curious ware--a mystery which not a little enhanced the interest taken in it, and perhaps the estimation in which it was held.

"This mystery is now, to a great extent, cleared up.

"At the court of King Francis lived a widow lady of high birth, named Hélène de Hangest. Her husband had been governor of the king, and Grand-Master of France. She was herself an artist, and a collection of drawings by her of considerable artistic merit is preserved. They are portraits of the celebrities of the period. She was in favor at court; the king himself composed a rhymed motto to each of her portraits, and some of these verses are written in his own hand. It is established that Hélène de Hangest set up a pottery at her Château of Oiron, and that Francis Charpentier, a potter, was in her employ. To his hand, under the auspices of the Châtelaine of Oiron, is due the famous ware of 'Henri-Deux.'

"Mr. J. C. Robinson gives it as his opinion that the technical merit of the 'Henri-Deux' ware is very small. With due deference to Mr. Robinson, who, as a rule, writes well and learnedly upon this and cognate matters, we do not think he would say this if he had been able to appreciate the subject from a potter's point of view. The _body_ of the 'Henri-Deux' ware is of admirable texture and quality; the mode in which the various clays are incorporated into the substance of the pieces without shrinking or expansion, the clearness, thinness, and smoothness of the glaze--which, by-the-way, is plumbiferous--all these things are so many marvels of skillful manipulation, and fill the mind of a practical potter with admiration."

These curious and interesting facts were brought to light by the researches of a French _savant_, M. B. Fillon, about 1862.

It appears that this ware was not made for sale, and that it was not sold, but was made for presents, and therefore was produced only in small quantities. The clay itself is what the French term _terre de pipe_, and what we know as pipe-clay--a white, delicate, and very light clay. The inlaying, or the incised lines which are filled with colored clays, are most delicately cut, and so much resemble work done by book-binders that some persons have suggested that they were made with the tools used in the bookbinder's trade. At any rate, one should give these pieces a close look, for any thoroughly good piece of work is a source of supreme satisfaction. Admirable copies have been made of some pieces of this work by an artist named Toft, which were exhibited at Philadelphia in 1876 by Minton, of England.

We give, in Figs. 78 and 79, two examples, more to exhibit something of the forms and conceits indulged in than to show the delicacy and precision of the work, which are perfect. Fig. 78 is termed a _biberon_; it is but seven inches high. "The upper part is white, the ornaments yellow; and the lower part black, with white ornaments. On the shield underneath the spout are the three crescents interlaced." Fig. 79 is a salt-cellar.

After the decease of Madame Hélène de Hangest, who was the widow of Arthur Gouffier, a gentleman of rank, the manufacture of this peculiar ware was continued at the Château d'Oiron by her son, Claude Gouffier; but the production was still limited, and it is doubtful if any pieces were ever sold. It is therefore of great rarity and of corresponding money-value, only fifty-three specimens of it being known to exist.

The interest in these pieces is such now that many persons may like to know where they are and what they are thought to be worth. I transcribe from Chaffers as follows:

In England there are twenty-six pieces:

+----------------------------+==> | | DESCRIPTION. | Owner. | | | ---------------------+----------------------------+==> 1. Large ewer | H. Magniac | 2. " " | Sir Anthony de Rothschild | 3. " " | " " | 4. Candlestick | " " | 5. Hanap | " " | 6. Tazza | " " | 7. Cover of a cup | " " | 8. Bouquetière | " " | 9. Candlestick | Andrew Fontaine | 10. Biberon | " " | 11. Salt-cellar | " " | 12. Biberon | Baron Lionel de Rothschild | 13. Salt-cellar | " " | 14. Tazza | Duke of Hamilton | 15. Salt-cellar | " " | 16. " " | George Field, Esq. | 17. Part of ewer | H. T. Hope | 18. Small ewer | " " | 19. " " | M. T. Smith | 20. Biberon | J. Malcolm | 21. Salt-cellar | South Kensington Museum | 22. Tazza and cover | " " | 23. Tazza | " " | 24. Candlestick | " " | 25. Salver | " " | 26. Salt-cellar | " " | ---------------------+----------------------------+==>

+--------------------------------+-------+---------- | | | DESCRIPTION. | Whence obtained. | Cost. | Estimated | | | Value. ---------------------+--------------------------------+-------+---------- 1. Large ewer | Odiot sale, 1842 | £96 | £1,500 2. " " | Strawberry Hill, 1842 | 20 | 1,200 3. " " | De Monville collection | 140 | 1,200 4. Candlestick | Préaux sale, 1850 | 208 | 1,000 5. Hanap | De Bruge sale, 1849 | 20 | 500 6. Tazza | Préaux sale, 1850 | 44 | 500 7. Cover of a cup | Unknown | | 150 8. Bouquetière | Bought of a curé at Tours | 48 | 800 9. Candlestick | Bought a century ago | | 1,000 10. Biberon | " " | | 800 11. Salt-cellar | " " | | 500 12. Biberon | Bought of Madame Delaunay | | 800 13. Salt-cellar | Strawberry Hill, 1842 | 21 | 300 14. Tazza | Préaux sale, '50; Rattier, '59 | 280 | 500 15. Salt-cellar | " " | 80 | 300 16. " " | ... | | 300 17. Part of ewer | De Bruge sale, 1849 | 16 | 300 18. Small ewer | " " | 20 | 600 19. " " | Bought as Palissy | | 600 20. Biberon | Pourtalès sale, 1865 | 1,100 | 1,100 21. Salt-cellar | Soltykoff, 1861, to Napier | 268 | 300 22. Tazza and cover | " " | 450 | 500 23. Tazza | Poitiers, 50 s., Delange | 180 | 180 24. Candlestick | De Norzy sale | 640 | 750 25. Salver | Espoulart, 1857 | 180 | 400 26. Salt-cellar | Addington collection | 300 | 300 ---------------------+--------------------------------+-------+----------

In France there are twenty-six pieces:

+--------------------------+==> | | DESCRIPTION. | Owner. | | | --------------------+--------------------------+==> 27. Tazza | Le Duc d'Uzes | 28. Cover of cup | " " | 29. Pilgrim's bottle| " " | 30. Tazza and cover | M. Hutteau d'Origny | 31. " " | Musée de Cluny | 32. Salt-cellar | Baron A. de Rothschild | 33. Jug or canette | " " | 34. Small ewer | " " | 35. Candlestick | Baron G. de Rothschild | 36 Hanap | " " | 37. Tazza | Baron James de Rothschild| 38. Biberon | Museum of the Louvre | 39. Salt-cellar | " " | 40. " " | " " | 41. " " | " " | 42. Tazza | " " | 43. Salt-cellar | " " | 44. Tazza | " " | 45. " | Sèvres Museum | 46. Cover of cup | " " | 47. Salt-cellar | Madame d'Yvon | 48. " " | Comte de Tussau | 49. " " | " " | 50. " " | " " | 51. Cover of tazza. | M. B. Delessert | 52. Biberon | | --------------------+--------------------------+==>

+-----------------------------+-------+---------- | | | DESCRIPTION. | Whence obtained. | Cost. | Estimated | | | Value. --------------------+-----------------------------+-------+---------- 27. Tazza | | | £500 28. Cover of cup | | | 150 29. Pilgrim's bottle| | | 800 30. Tazza and cover | | | 500 31. " " | Bought by M. Thoré in 1798 | £20 | 500 32. Salt-cellar | | | 300 33. Jug or canette | Bought by Strauss, £600 | 800 | 1,000 34. Small ewer | Préaux sale, 1850 | 44 | 500 35. Candlestick | | | £1,000 36 Hanap | | | 500 37. Tazza | South of France, 1860 | £480 | 500 38. Biberon | Sauvageot, from Tours | | 800 39. Salt-cellar | Sauvageot, from Lehrié, 1824| 5 | 300 40. " " | Sauvageot, from Troyes | | 300 41. " " | " " | | 300 42. Tazza | Sauvageot, bo't as Palissy | 8 | 500 43. Salt-cellar | Revoil collection, 1828 | | 300 44. Tazza | " " | | 500 45. " | | | 500 46. Cover of cup | | | 150 47. Salt-cellar | | | 300 48. " " | | | 300 49. " " | | | 300 50. " " | | | 300 51. Cover of tazza. | South of France, by Rutter. | 4 | 150 52. Biberon | | | --------------------+-----------------------------+-------+----------

In Russia, one piece:

+---------------------------+==> DESCRIPTION. | Owner. | | | --------------------+---------------------------+==> 53. Biberon. | Prince Galitzin | --------------------+---------------------------+==>

+------------------------------+-------+---------- DESCRIPTION. | Whence obtained. | Cost. | Estimated | | | Value. --------------------+------------------------------+-------+---------- 53. Biberon. | Préaux sale, 1850 | £100 | £800 --------------------+------------------------------+-------+----------