The Dream City, Paul V. Galvin 
Digital History Collection
 
 
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  FRENCH AND GERMAN PORCELAINS - The reader here may very nearly catch the difference between the finest works done in French and in German ceramics. On the left is a vase from the celebrated French National Factory at Sevres, near Paris. On the right is a vase which stood in the pavilion of Royal Saxon Porcelain, in the German Section. The latter vase was one of a pair, and the pair was intended as the lateral decoration of a mirror treated with the same profusion of porcelain flowers. The Teutonic taste is delighted with the marvelous skill shown in the manipulation of the clay, precisely as if it were wax, for all these flowers are in relief, and vari-colored. The painting on the open space is in every sense successful, and the image on the summit is the typical Germanic matron. The general effect is bluish in color, and the sensation produced on a Western critic is, that the vast detail has in the end overwhelmed the artist. Opposite, on the left, we have the highest results of French taste, betraying the skill of rather the goldsmith than the true potter, but securing results that the most exigent observer must generously admire. It is said that the Government of France has always dealt indulgently with the factory at Sevres, permitting experiments there that would be regarded as too costly in private establishments.
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Digital History Collection
Page created: August 26, 1998