May
24, 1545, "Masseot Abaquesne, esmailleur en terre demeurant en la
paroisse St. Vincent de Rouen." After 1565 this "terre emaillee" is
not made here any more, but in 1645 Esme Poterat is the best maker of
porcelain in France, and was the founder of the famous Rouen school of
the "fond jaune ocre," in which Guilleband and Levavasseur were
conspicuous for their "style rayonnant" in the seventeenth century. On
the right of this gallery is a very fine example of this style, with
blue arabesques, and in the same room a queer mixture of localities is
observable in the Chinese figures dancing the dances of Normandy, to
the tune of Norman bagpipes, in a queerly Celestial atmosphere. There
is also the famous "violon de faience" to be seen. The _fourth_ and
most important division is, of course, that which contains the
pictures, and by a very sensible arrangement those which have
especially to do with the ancient or modern history of the town are
usually gathered into one gallery, which is of the highest interest to
any student of the history of Rouen. Some two hundred and fifty
prints, drawings, and paintings of local interest may often here be
studied. In the galleries themselves, No. 413 is a view of Rouen taken
from St. Sever by Jean Baptiste Martin who died in 1735. It shows the
gates of the town, even the Vieux Palais on the left, the wooden
bridge, the Ile St. Croix full of trees, the old piers still standing
of the Empress Matilda's Bridge, and a fashionable assemblage on the
Cours la Reine, by the St. Sever bank. After reading this book, you
will find few pictures more interesting as a reproduction of the
various pieces of architecture now vanished.

Out of a list of pictures most kindly made for me by M. Edmond Lebel,
the keeper of the Museum, I will select a few which must on no account
be missed.

EARLY WORK.--

No. 421. Ecce homo Mignard.
" 34. Concert sur une place publique Berghem.
Paysage Ruydael.
" 570. Portrait Velasquez.
" 494. Le Bon Samaritain Ribera.
" 536. Chasse au Sanglier Sneyders.
" 285. Portrait de l'auteur Jouvenet.
" 481. Venus et Enee Poussin.
" 54. Vierge et Enfant Sandro Botticelli.
" 210. Vierge et Enfant (avec portrai