CHANTILLY.--We have seen how close to nearly every _Residenz-Stadt_ in Germany there sprang up a porcelain manufactory under the patronage of the prince. In somewhat similar way the fashion spread in France. Here the head of each branch of the royal house either took some already established factory under his protection, or promoted the setting up of new works. At this time, I mean at the beginning of the eighteenth century, it was the mark of a loyal subject and good citizen to send the family plate to the melting-pot and to forward the resulting bullion to the mint to be coined into money, in this following the example of the king. This was the case above all in 1709, when Louis was in great want of money. We are told that the Duc D’Antin, ‘the perfect courtier,’ after a sacrifice of this kind, ‘_courut à Paris choisir force porcelaine admirable qu’il eut à grand marché_.’ So that, in the words of Saint-Simon, the goldsmiths were being ruined, and the makers of fayence and porcelain enriched. This fashion gave, of course, a great stimulus to the establishment of new factories. Thus the head of the great house of Condé became the patron of the works established in 1725 by Ciquaire Ciron at Chantilly. In the letters patent granted in 1735 we are told ‘_Notre bien aimé Ciquaire Ciron nous a fait représenter que depuis plus de dix ans il s’est appliqué à la fabrique de la porcelaine pareille à celle qui se faisait anciennement au Japon_.’ The prince, Louis Henri,[174] already possessed a remarkable collection of this Oriental porcelain, and some sixty examples of this ware made _anciennement au Japon_, what we now know as Kakiyemon, are still to be seen in the Château of Chantilly. The earlier porcelain of Chantilly is remarkable in this, that following the example of the enamelled fayence of the day, it is coated with an opaque stanniferous glaze. On this ground, which resembles closely that of the earliest Japanese ware, the peculiar decoration of the Kakiyemon porcelain is closely copied.[175] Indeed, the delicate yet spirited handling of this decoration--I would point especially to two cylindrical vases mounted in silver in the Fitzhenry collection (PL. XXXIV.)--is something that we are quite unaccustomed to in European porcelain. It will be noticed, however, that the over-glaze blue enamel is somewhat heavy in tone, and has evidently given trouble to the decorator. At a later time the tin enamel gave place to a vitreous glaze similar to that used at Mennecy, and the decoration most in favour was a somewhat poor underglaze blue. On such ware, especially on plates, we find the well-known ‘Chantilly sprig,’ so often imitated on English porcelain. This pattern is distinguished by a leaf, or rather bract, of peculiar shape at the branching of the twigs, and the design would seem to be of Persian origin. It is interesting to compare it with the very similar sprigs often seen in the decoration [Illustration: _PLATE XXXIV._ CHANTILLY]