44

EXPOSITION  AT  VIENNA.

all  the  difficulties  that  the  manipulation  of  such  a  mixture  presented.
It  could  neither  he  thrown  nor  pressed  into  moulds  in  the  ordinary
way  ;  and  the  shapes  were  got  by  Casting  it  in  thick  plaster  moulds,
and  earefully  turning  and  pushing  it  by  band  afterwards.  Moreover, ­
  as  in  the  process  of  firing  this  porcelain,  so  properly  called
päte  tendre,  the  pieces  were  very  apt  to  sink  and  lose  their  shape,
the  way  of  propping  them  was  of  the  utmost  importance  ;  but  when
the  biscuit  stage  was  safely  attained,  the  rest  was  comparatively
easy.  From  its  composition,  this  biscuit  had  the  greatest  affinity
for  eombination  with  the  vitreous  mixture  forming  the  glaze,  and
the  result  was  that  this  glaze,  not  being  hardened  by  the  biscuit  on
which  it  had  been  melted,  retained  all  its  softness  and  so  thoroughly
incorporated  the  colors  of  the^painting  that,  after  firing,  they  looked
sunk  into  it.  An  equal  advantage  was,  that  the  alkaline  nature  of
the  biscuit  and  the  low  temperature  required  enabled  those  soft  and
beautiful  ground-colors  to  be  used  which-are  not  to  be  met  with
on  any  other  potterj’:  the  green,  made  from  copper  of  an  unequalled
transparency  ;  the  turquoise,  so  attractive  to  the  eye  that  a  single  piece
'placed  in  a  room  seemed  to  take  all  the  light  to  itself;  the  bleu-deroi,
  so  well  named  from  its  riehness  ;  and  that  warm,  delicate  color,
the  rose  du  Barry.  We  purposely  mentioned  the  low  heat  required
to  incorporate  the  colors  with  the  glaze,  because  the  experienced
potter  knows  their  riehness  decreases  with  the  rise  of  temperature,
and  this  is  the  reason  why,  for  grounds  in  hard  porcelain,  hardly
more  than  two  colors  can  be  depeuded  on,—the  blue  from  cobalt,
and  the  opaque,  heavy-looking  green,  from  chrome.”

A  large  number  of  vases  in  hard  porcelain,  of  Sevres  manufacture,
  were  exhibited  _  in  1867,  and  M.  Arnoux  said  of
them  that  the  forms  recently  adopted  were  less  beautiful  than
in  1851  and  1855,  when  Messrs.  Dieterle  and  Klagmann  gave
their  assistance  to  the  establishmeut.  Among  the  best  were
a  large  vase  from  Dieterle,  the  iigures  paiuted  by  M.  lloussel,
with  the  decorations  by  M.  Avise,  and  all  those  executed  by
M.  Barryat.

Sevres  pAte-sur-pAte.
•  And  of  that  variety  of  hard  porcelain  known  as  pdte-surpäte
  (paste.  lipon  paste)  to  which  great  attention  has  beeil
given  at  Sevres,  Mr.  Arnoux  observes:
"  The  name  of  pdte-sur-pdle  explains  sufficiently  the  proc-,
ess,  which  consists  in  staining  the  body  of  the  hard  porce-