e not only esteemed in their own day, but are
also likely to be regarded always as among the distinguished productions
of the 19th century. Emile Lessore and Chapelet were both painters who
were attracted by the technique of the potter. For some time they bought
specimens of pottery from a small manufacturer named Laurin at
Bourg-la-Reine, and after a time they definitely forsook pictorial art
for that of the potter. Lessore painted in underglaze colours in a
delicate sketchy style figure-subjects, mostly adapted from old
engravings. He worked for a short time at Sevres, and then, like so many
other French pottery artists of this period, he came to Minton's in
England, and finally entered into an engagement with the old firm of
Josiah Wedgwood & Sons which continued almost to his death (1860-1876).
On their fine cream-coloured earthenware he sketched many thousands of
fanciful designs which had a great vogue in the 'seventies and 'eighties
of the last century. Chapelet pursued a very different course. His first
innovation was a method known as "Barbotine" or slip-painting, in which
coloured clays were used "impasto," often in considerable thickness, so
that after the work had been fired and glazed it bore some resemblance
to an oil painting. For a few years this style of decoration became the
rage all over Europe, but it fell into contempt almost as rapidly as it
had found favour, and is now only used for the decoration of common
wares. Ultimately, Chapelet gave up painting and applied himself to the
discovery of technical novelties. He was apparently the first European
potter to produce flambe glazes after the manner of the Chinese, and a
fine collection of these productions of his is preserved in the museum
at Sevres.

The greatest of all the French innovators was, however, Theodore Deck,
who had been trained as a working potter and was led to forsake the
management of an ordinary tile and pottery business in Paris to
experiment on his own account. He started a little workshop in the
Boulevard Montparnasse in Paris and rapidly gathered round him a number
of young painters all eager to experiment in the magnificent colours
which Deck with his passionate love of Persian and other oriental
pottery could place at their disposal. Within a few years this venture
was so successful that Deck was known all over the civilized world as a
great potter, and his original creations, painted by men like Ranvier,
Collin, Ehrmann, Anke