CHAPTER XVI.

THE PORCELAINS OF NORTHERN EUROPE.

Holland and Belgium.--Oriental Trade.--Weesp.--Marks.--Loosdrecht.--Amstel, Old and New.--Marks.--The Hague.--Marks.--Lille.--Mark.--Tournay. --Marks.--Sweden.--Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII.--Marieberg.--Rörstrand.--Marks.--Denmark.--Copenhagen. --Marks.--Russia.--Peter the Great.--Catherine II.--Marks.--Tver.--Gardner.--Moscow.--Popoff.--Gulena. --Mark.--Poland.--Korzec.

Holland AND BELGIUM.--It may be said that long before Holland attempted the production of porcelain she had been making faience or earthen-ware, which is now well known under the name of delft, of which I have given a condensed account elsewhere.

When one remembers that Holland has long winters and cool summers; that her people have not only had to fight their fellow-men, but have had to snatch from the cruel sea a considerable portion of what is now dry land; that she has had to build two hundred miles of broad and strong dikes, and to see that they are always strong and safe; and, added to this, has had to draw forth from the soil and the sea the food to feed her millions--when one remembers these things, one well may wonder that there has grown up there such a love for art as has produced the most interesting school of painters in all the world; that all over this hollow land are well-built cities and most comfortable houses, and that in these houses are probably more fine porcelains and curious clocks, pictures, and tapestries, than in any other land, one wonders still more.

The two secrets which help to explain this singular success are these: This necessary warfare with Nature has made a hardy, a patient, and a frugal people. Not only has this people conquered and subdued the _land_--it has also conquered and subdued the _sea_, and has drawn stores of wealth from both. So it has come to pass that one hundred thousand men were engaged, in the last century, in the fisheries, and a common saw was that "the foundations of Amsterdam were laid on herring-bones."

But these fisheries created a class of men who were ready to rove the ocean in search of good or gold. Her daring navigators soon followed Vasco da Gama around the Cape of Good Hope, and in due time succeeded to the trade of the East, which she held for over two centuries, and out of which she gained untold wealth; with which she built cities and castles and churches; with which she paid artists; with which she stocked her houses with the finest porcelains of the East.

Thus, from that early day, a great love for fine porcelain has existed in the "Low Countries"--what we now know as Holland and Belgium. At the present time no field bears a better yield for the gleaner who seeks fine examples of old porcelain, and especially of the Oriental, than these countries. Thousands upon thousands of porcelains were imported into Holland after the year 1640, whence they were distributed over Europe. But Holland could not hold her monopoly of trade; France and England sought to grasp it, too, and England succeeded. During the last century England has steadily drawn the trade of the East to herself, and Holland has lost what England has gained.

In the many changes consequent upon this, many stores of good porcelain gathered in Holland have gradually come to be sold to persons who wanted them more than the Dutch did.

Out of this great trade with the Orientals it is easy to see that the Dutch should come to be connoisseurs and lovers of porcelain. It is also easy to see that a sufficient interest should spring up there, after the discovery of true porcelain at Dresden, to induce persons to attempt the manufacture in Holland. This was stimulated during the Seven Years' War, when the works at Meissen (Dresden) were closed, and for a time broken up. Then in Holland, as well as in other countries of Europe, there was an opportunity. The love for porcelain had grown great after the discoveries at Dresden, and the demand for it was vastly increased. The disturbances in Saxony, amounting to prohibition of the manufacture, gave other countries a possible chance to compete with the advantages of Saxony, which otherwise were overwhelming. Still, in Holland no great commercial success was reached. In none of these northern countries has the making of fine porcelain been an assured success. This is owing to many causes, among which we may point to--

1. The genius of the people does not impel them.

2. The clay and the wood and the coal are not at their doors.

3. Other nations have taken the lead and driven them from the markets of the world, sometimes from their own.

In the Low Countries we may mention as places where the manufacture was attempted--with, however, only a fictile life: Weesp, Loosdrecht, Arnheim, Amsterdam, Amstel--old and new--The Hague, Tournay, Brussels, Luxemburg, Lille (now in France).

WEESP--HARD PASTE.--The first effort was made at Weesp, not far from Amsterdam, about 1764, during the Seven Years' War. For a short time, until 1771, fine and white porcelain was made here, but not in great quantities, and the attempt was not a commercial success.

The marks were:

At LOOSDRECHT (HARD PASTE), not far from Utrecht, De Moll began a small factory in 1772. He made a fine quality of china, closely following the Dresden. It had but a short existence. His mark was "M o L.," meaning _Manufactur oude Loosdrecht_.

AMSTEL (_Oude_), near Amsterdam, made the next essay (1782), and produced good porcelain; but it could not hold its own against that which the English were now sending forth into the markets of the world--patriotism was not equal to cope with cheapness.

The mark was the letters A and D combined, in script.

At NEW AMSTEL, nearer to Amsterdam, the attempt was also made, which continued through 1808 to 1810, when it too died. The mark here was also in script.

Marks used at Amsterdam:

At THE HAGUE, about 1775, both hard and soft porcelain was made, and of great excellence. More was done here than at Amsterdam, and the work was of superior quality. Some of the painting was excellent--equal to that done at Dresden. Tea and dinner services of great beauty were made, which are now and then to be bought in Europe. The examples shown in Fig. 158 are a plate, and cup and saucer, from Mr. Wales's collection.

The mark was a stork holding a fish, the symbol of the town.

At LILLE (SOFT PORCELAIN), Sieurs Dorez and Pelissier, uncle and nephew, were granted privileges for making porcelain as early as 1711, and this with that at St.-Cloud were the only factories at that time in Europe. But little is known of this ware, except that it resembled that made at St.-Cloud, and that it had no distinctive mark. Hard porcelain was afterward made there (1784) by one Durot, which showed great excellence, the decoration being mostly flowers and gold. These pieces are quite rare.

The mark was a crowned dolphin.

At TOURNAY (DOORNICK) soft-paste porcelain was made in 1750, and a very large business was done at one time, as many as two hundred workmen being employed in 1762. Chaffers says this factory is still at work, and that _pâte tendre_ is still made there, which is in close imitation of that once made at Sèvres.

The mark of the tower is sometimes referred to Tournay, and sometimes to the porcelain made at Vincennes. It is in doubt. The other mark in gold indicates best; in blue or red, second-best. The marks "To" and "Ty" are supposed to be old marks of Tournay.

The marks used:

SWEDEN.--That the coldest and most savage country of Europe should be rich in anything except men and women is strange. And is it? According to the standards of England or America, we may say, No. And yet travelers tell us that in the towns and on the country estates are houses rich with works of art, and filled with books. So far as these go they indicate wealth and leisure. But the best sign of a prosperous people is not pictures; neither is it books. Is it not that more than one-half her people own their lands and raise the food they eat? Is it not that the greedy cormorant called "Trade" has not shut up most of her people in those Bastiles called factories, and thus degraded body and soul to the verge of, if not into, the gulf of pauperism and vice?

This helps to explain the general well-being which is still to be found in those northern countries of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark; but it does not _fully_ explain whence came the first flow of wealth and the first gatherings of art into Sweden. I believe they came from the great and successful wars of Gustavus Adolphus and Charles XII.

By no possibility can war be careful of the rights of man. War is intended to hurt, to exhaust, to consume other nations. War not only takes food and munitions in the conquered country; it takes whatever it wants and can take, whether of necessaries, luxuries, gold, or art. War, we know, enabled the first and great Napoleon to enrich his palaces and the museums of Paris with the finest works of art found in the countries he overran. War, I do not doubt, brought into Sweden the beginnings of those collections which now count many of the fine pictures of Guido and Raphael, of Teniers and Douw. Frugality and general well-doing have done the rest; so that all through the south of Sweden, and less in Norway, are to be found delightful houses and cultivated people. But neither Sweden nor Norway has made Art the first business or first glory of life; and well for her that they have not. This is the ornament and finish of the structure, not its body or soul.

We do not look, therefore, to find here any such institutions as those of Meissen or Sèvres.

At MARIEBERG, near Stockholm, in 1759, porcelain of a good quality was made, and continued to be made in a small way for some twenty years. Before this, faience or pottery was made there, and at Rörstrand, as early as 1727. Some good examples were at the Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876. Of the work of Marieberg I know of none in this country, except that in Mr. Wales's collection, at Boston, consisting of some small porcelain custard-cups and a very beautiful faience vase, both of which we have had engraved (Fig. 159).

The mark used:

DENMARK.--Porcelain, it is believed, was made at Copenhagen as early as 1760; but it did not continue for a long time. Few specimens of this early work are believed to exist. A hard-paste factory was begun in 1772, by Müller, who, with the aid of the Baron von Lang, made a company, by which the capital was raised. It did not pay, and in 1775 it became a royal factory, and the Government paid its annual deficit. Excellent work was made here, the great aim being to equal the production at Dresden. It was up-hill work and a costly whim. Within a short time (1876) the works are said to have gone into private hands, who are prosecuting the business with vigor and skill. Certainly a very creditable display was made by some three or four firms of Copenhagen at the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876. In faience and terra-cotta they have arrived at great excellence. The Greek vase has been there revived, and copied with much precision. Seipsius and Ruch are mentioned by Marryat as the leading painters at the royal works at Copenhagen in the last century. Our illustration, from Mr. Wales's collection, is good work, and follows the lead of the Dresden painters (Fig. 160).

In the "Manual of Marks," by Hooper and Phillips, are two marks--given here--but the "three wavy lines" is the mark almost universally known. They indicate the waters of the Sound and Great and Little Belts.

RUSSIAN PORCELAIN--HARD PASTE.--When Peter Alexeyevitch, called Peter the Great--that shrewd savage--undertook to make his kingdom a power in Europe, he soon saw that he must create among his people wants which then did not exist. In 1697 he made his first pilgrimage to the dock-yards of Saardam and the quays of London, to see for himself what those nations did to make themselves rich and strong, feared if not loved. He found ships, trade, factories. He went back to his barbarians, and forced them to build a new port--St. Petersburg (1703); set them to work to make dock-yards, to build ships, to organize factories; he forced upon them new wants and new industries. If he did not make them happier, he certainly made them stronger. He organized them, combined them, so that they moved at his own powerful will. His successors, following his example, have made Russia the second power of Europe. When, in 1716, Peter visited Paris, he carried back to his capital great store of works of art--not that he cared for works of art, but his savage shrewdness told him these were the things which the growing and grasping nations of Western Europe valued; and so he would have them, too. But Art has had but an imitative life in Russia, even to this present time. Now, her silversmiths, and at least one artist, a worker of bronze named Lanceray, have made such exquisite work, and shown it at the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876, that one begins to believe that Art in this savage Russia may not forever be content to copy what some one else has done. As to porcelain, Russia has not done much, but yet something.

The Government of Russia, inspired, like the rest, after the success at Dresden, with the desire to produce fine works, at once made efforts to secure the services of accomplished men to establish a porcelain-manufactory. This appears to have been done in the year 1744, by the Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, when good porcelain was produced, probably in small amount. In 1765, however, the Empress Catherine II., with her accustomed restless energy, threw herself into the competition. She enlarged the works and secured whatever was possible of artists and workmen, and produced some of the finest porcelains of Europe. The clays used appear to have been wholly Russian, and her market was mostly with the rich nobility of her own kingdom. Still the china-fanciers of all Europe, then even more eager than now, purchased the Russian work; and it is found in good collections, though but little of it is offered for sale.

M. Demmin quotes from a Russian work of 1773: "Il existe une fabrique de porcelaine, située sur la Néva, route de Schlüsselburg, à quatorze versts de Pétersbourg. Elle fabrique des porcelaines tellement belles et fines, qu'elles ne le cèdent en rien à la porcelaine de Saxe, soit pour la blancheur et la finesse de l'émail, soit pour la beauté du décor. Sa blancheur est même supérieure à celle de Meissen. Le directeur, l'inspecteur, tous les maîtres et ouvriers sont à la solde de la cour," etc.

The porcelain has a fine glaze, the paste being hard and slightly bluish; the decorations usually highly finished in the styles prevailing at Dresden.

The piece shown in Fig. 161 is a teapot, of superior glaze and finish, from Mr. Wales's collection; the handle and spout are peculiar, finishing, as they do, with the neck and head of a bird, ending at the base of the spout in a small wing-decoration. The paste, the glaze, and the painting of the teapot and the cup and saucer are excellent.

The Russian marks most used are:

TVER.--About 1787 an Englishman named Gardner made some porcelain at Tver, of which so little is to be obtained that it is hardly known in collections. His mark seems to have been [illustration: symbol], the monogram in Russian letters of A. Gardner, and sometimes the full name in Russian characters.

MOSCOW.--In 1830 some porcelain was made at Moscow by A. Popoff, a piece of which is in the South Kensington Museum, marked with his name in Russian characters. There seems also to have been porcelain made at Moscow by M. Gulena, of which little is known. His mark was the initial letters of Fabrica Gospodina, and his own name, in Russian characters.

POLAND.--At Korzec, in Poland, in 1803, a Frenchman named Mérault, from Sèvres, made porcelain for a few years, probably in small quantity; and a mark upon some pieces of his is a triangle containing an eye.