All these soft-paste Copenhagen examples are of great rarity. The Fournier period was of short duration. The death of Frederik V, in 1766, removed its royal patron. The winter of 1766-7 brought great distress in Copenhagen, and the masked balls and masquerades and the luxurious riot of the Court of the young king Christian VII at Christianborg inflamed public opinion against the new monarch. It is obvious that at such a juncture the royal factory, which in its struggling infancy needed enthusiastic patronage, suffered from neglect so that it is not surprising to find that its days were numbered, and after a vain struggle it finally ceased work. Louis Fournier returned to France, and the first period of Copenhagen porcelain came to an end. CHAPTER II FRANTZ HEINRICH MÜLLER (1773-1801) QUEEN JULIANE MARIE PERIOD PART I (1775-1780) [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF FRANTZ HEINRICH MÜLLER. (From an old lithograph.) _Reproduced by kind permission of "Tidsskrift for Industri," Copenhagen._] CHRONOLOGY 1732. Frantz Heinrich Müller born, 17th November. 1765. Müller solicits support for the establishment of a porcelain factory. 1773. Frantz Heinrich Müller presents his first pieces of hard-fired transparent porcelain to Christian VII. The first hard porcelain made in Denmark. 1775. A company formed, of which the members of the Royal Family held shares. The Dowager Queen Juliane Marie suggests the factory mark of the three blue lines, symbolizing the three waterways of Denmark, which mark was adopted and has been continuously used since that date. 1779. The factory taken over by the king becomes the Royal Porcelain Manufactory. 1780. The first retail depot opened in Copenhagen. CHAPTER II FRANTZ HEINRICH MÜLLER (1773-1801) _QUEEN JULIANE MARIE PERIOD_ PART I (1775-1780) The Court of the young king Christian VII--A great Court scandal--A _Coup d'Etat_--The inception of the Porcelain Factory--The origin of the mark of the Three Blue Lines--Müller's technique--Müller's range of subjects. At the death of King Frederik V, in January 1766, and the succession of Christian VII, then seventeen years of age, the royal china factory at the Blue Tower fell upon evil days. When Frantz Heinrich Müller, "only after numerous unsuccessful attempts," presented his first three pieces of hard-fired transparent porcelain to the young king in September 1773, there were matters of much graver moment occupying public attention. It was almost in vain that Müller had built new kilns differing from those in which soft porcelain was made, travelled to Bornholm to find suitable clay, and experimented with glazes.