1. A rage for the production of artificial flowers, especially in plain white ware, existed at one time, and when the Vincennes artists were able to rival the Dresden flowers that had previously been imported, from this department alone was a steady source of income obtained. The flowers first produced were confined merely to small detached blossoms, but in 1748 M. de Fulvi presented to the queen a trophy of white porcelain which surpassed anything yet manufactured. On a base or pedestal of white ware, mounted in gilt bronze, rises a small tree completely covered with blossom of white porcelain, under which stand three female figures of the same material. The whole trophy is about three feet in height.[185] So again in 1750 we hear that the king had ordered similar bouquets of flowers, ‘_peintes au naturel_,’ which were to cost 800,000 livres! This for the famous Château de Bellevue, and for Madame de Pompadour.[186] 2. Much of the porcelain made at Vincennes at this time (1740-50) was decorated with scattered groups of flowers on a white ground, a style then known as _fleurs de Saxe_. These flowers were often in high relief, and in this case they formed a passage to the first group. 3. There exist certain small pieces, chiefly cups and saucers (of the _trembleuse_ type, as usual at this time), with a ground of a deep blue. A great vigour and depth is given to the colour (known later as _bleu du roi_) by its somewhat irregular or mottled texture, a result, it is said, of the manner in which it was painted on to the biscuit (it is an underglaze colour) with a brush. We may note that the use of a dark ground for porcelain was exceptional at this time in France. This _bleu de Vincennes_ was imitated with some success by Sprimont at Chelsea. Gravant (he who had the secret of the paste) had before 1753, so Hellot tells us in his report, succeeded in making a paste much whiter than that of Chantilly, so as to allow of a ‘_couverte crystalline et parfaitement diaphane_’ in place of the opaque ‘_vernix de Fayance_’ (_sic_) used by Ciron at that factory. It is indeed important to remember that before the works were removed from Vincennes, the soft paste that we know as Sèvres had already reached its highest development both as regards the materials and the decoration. The most [Illustration: _PLATE XXXVI._ SÈVRES]