FÜRSTENBERG.--The Duke Karl of Brunswick was one of the earliest German princes to establish a porcelain factory; this was at the castle of Fürstenberg, on the Weser. The works were organised about 1746 by the Baron von Langen, who was something of an arcanist; and from Höchst, in 1750, the assistance of an experienced potter, one Bengraf, was obtained. Bengraf had to escape by stealth from Höchst, where he had been in the employ of Göltz, and reached Fürstenberg after many sufferings and privations. A point of interest in connection with the porcelain made at a later time at this factory is that flour-spar (fluoride of calcium) has formed an important element in the composition of the glaze. In the Museum at Brunswick may be seen more than eight hundred specimens of this porcelain, and any want of originality is made up for by the extraordinary variety and number of the different wares that have been copied. It is not perhaps surprising, in view of the close family ties existing between the dukes and our second and third Georges, to find copies of our English soft pastes, especially of Chelsea. The clarets and maroons of this latter ware were imitated with some success. A landscape-painter of some local fame, whose works may be seen in the gallery at Brunswick, one Pascha Weitsch, was employed to paint views on this porcelain, and good portrait-busts--of Lavater and of Raphael Mengs, among others--may be found in the adjacent museum. The factory has continued in operation up to quite recent times. The Fürstenberg mark, a large F in a flowing hand (PL. C. 30), may be observed not unfrequently on china in old collections in England. There was more than one specimen at Strawberry Hill. LUDWIGSBURG.--We now come again upon the arcanist Ringler. In 1758 he was tempted away from Höchst by the Duke Karl Eugen of Würtemberg, and placed at the head of a manufactory of porcelain which had lately been established at Ludwigsburg, the Versailles or Potsdam of the dukes, situated some nine miles to the north of Stuttgart. The paste of this ware is not remarkable for purity of tint, and I do not know whether we are to believe the statement that the materials came in part from France. The enamel painting is distinguished by its high finish; on the gala services made for the court, among wreaths of flowers in low relief we find carefully painted beetles and butterflies. The little, highly finished statuettes and groups are of some merit. In the Museum of National Antiquities at Stuttgart is now to be seen an extensive collection of porcelain, purchased in 1875 from Herr Murschel, and here the Ludwigsburg ware can be well studied. The shield of Würtemberg, with [Illustration: _PLATE XXXII._ 1. MEISSEN. 2. LUDWIGSBURG.]