evres manufactory, such as the
exclusive right to gild or paint in colours on porcelain, the
breakdown of the monarchical regime, which was rapidly accelerated
after the accession of Louis XVI., led to the establishment in Paris
and its environs of a number, of factories for the production of
hard-paste porcelains more or less in open rivalry with the royal
manufactory of Sevres. In order that the royal edicts might be more
easily evaded, most of these factories were placed under the patronage
of one of the French princes of the blood or even of Queen Marie
Antoinette. There is little need to dwell on the doings of these
Parisian factories, but the productions of the best of them, such as
those of Clignancourt (patronized by Monsieur, the king's eldest
brother); Rue Thiroux (patronized by Queen Marie Antoinette); Rue de
Bondy (patronized by the duc d'Angouleme), compare not unfavourably
with those of Sevres itself.

It is impossible to do more than mention the other important French
factories at Mennecy, Sceaux, Bourg-la-Reine, Strassburg,
Niederviller, Marseilles, Limoges and Caen. In the disastrous years
of the French revolution (between 1789 and 1800), such of these
factories as had survived came to an untimely end, even the royal
factory at Sevres passing through a kind of lingering death between
1792 and 1801, and it was not until Napoleon decided to revive the
glories of Sevres that modern French porcelain really came into being.

Just as the manufacture of German porcelain spread into Holland,
Denmark, Sweden, Russia, &c., we find the manufacture of a glassy
porcelain analogous to the early French arising in Belgium, Italy, Spain
and England. The materials and methods were so like those used in France
that it would be ridiculous to claim for them an independent origin,
even were we unable to prove by documentary evidence that workmen
trained in the French factories had migrated into those countries.

_Italy_.--In Italy we have the factories at Le Nove near Bassano
(1762-1825); Doccia near Florence (founded in 1735 by the marchese
Carlo Ginori, and still carried on by the same family); and
Capo-di-Monte near Naples (1736-1820); with minor factories like those
at Vinovo, Treviso, and the Volpato factory at Rome. The most
important of these were the factories at Doccia and Capo-di-Monte. The
porcelain made at Doccia was famous for its soft translucent textu