=Müller's Range of Subjects.=--In regard to the periods of the various styles of Müller, with very few data to guide the critic it must be largely a matter of conjecture as to the exact chronological order of their manufacture. It seems to the present writer, in endeavouring to classify the examples, that they naturally fall under the following heads. One class overlaps another in point of time, and although at first, in the experimental period, elaborate artistic creations cannot at that stage have been attempted, it must equally follow that in the middle and later period the simpler and utilitarian forms were still being made concurrently with the finer works of art. The natural order of development in point of technique would be:-- 1. Underglaze painted "mussel" blue-and-white fluted porcelain (pp. 161, 163, 167). 2. Early examples painted in colours overglaze. (See illustrations, pp. 65, 89.) (_a_) Dishes, plates, tea and coffee services. (_b_) Vases and ornamental pieces of a minor character. 3. Vases with modelled figures. Figure subjects in colours. 4. Busts, in biscuit. 5. Elaborate and finely modelled vases and sumptuous services, of which the _Flora Danica_ is the culmination. [Illustration: COFFEE CUP. With painted subject of Frantz Heinrich Müller in his laboratory, in an oval surrounded by wreath of flowers in gold. Marked with three blue lines. Blue border with inscription in verse in gold:-- Forstanden, Sind og Sands kan samtligen förnojes--Naar ved Naturens Kraft paa chymiske veije plöijes--Men vil og Nytten sees da skal Forstanden raade--Og binde Sind om Sands til det som Skatter baade. (Translation.) _The finest senses may well pleased be--When Nature leans on Science for her aid--But Art in wedlock with Utility--Demands from skill a double debt be paid._ (_At the National Museum, Stockholm._)] It is obvious that in the immature years of a pottery figure subjects would be rarely attempted until such time as the potters were sure of their ground and the technique had been securely established. The highest artistic achievements must necessarily come after the rudiments of the art have been mastered. In regard to figure subjects, the fact that Luplau came to Copenhagen in 1776 with eighteen years' experience from the Fürstenberg factory must be taken into consideration in regard to the appearance, at an earlier stage than usual in the history of a factory, of figures of excellent character. But at the same time it must be borne in mind that the utilitarian blue-and-white services, the national Danish pattern now so well known, were made simultaneously with such fine creations as the elaborate royal services at Rosenborg Castle and elsewhere.