France lacked the peculiar clay necessary for making hard porcelain till the year 1765, when chance discovered the magic earth at St.-Yrieix; after which time its manufacture was brought to a high pitch of excellence at Sèvres. The soft porcelain, or _pâte tendre_, can be made without the admixture of the clay called by the Chinese _kaolin_. It has the quality of translucency, but lacks hardness and strength. It melts at a lower heat, and, while very delicate and beautiful, it is not so enduring as the _pâte dure_. Experts can distinguish the two at sight; but there are some signs which will help the uninitiated. The soft porcelain is likely to be more creamy, and softer to the eye and touch, than the hard; the painting blends more into the glaze; the bottoms of the pieces or the rims are covered with the glaze; while, in the hard porcelain, these rims, from standing on the sanded floor of the furnaces, show no glaze. The painting on the hard porcelain is likely to be sharper, and more on the surface, than that on the soft, into which it seems to melt. ST.-CLOUD.--Before the discovery of kaolin in Europe, as early as 1695, soft porcelain, or _pâte tendre_, was made at St.-Cloud in great variety and of considerable excellence; and the story of French porcelain, begun there, may be divided into two parts: 1. Soft porcelain, begun at St.-Cloud in 1695, continued there, and afterward at Chantilly; then at Vincennes, in 1745; still later at Sèvres, in 1756. The production of soft porcelain, or _pâte tendre_, continued at Sèvres, in company with that of the _pâte dure_, until 1804. 2. The hard porcelain, or _pâte dure_ of the French; which was made after the discovery of the kaolin of St.-Yrieix, at Sèvres. Marks used at St.-Cloud: [Illustration: _The mark of the Sun._] [Illustration: _Another one._] [Illustration: _The fleur-de-lis, sometimes impressed._] [Illustration: _This mark indicated the factory and the name of the director (Trou) from_ 1730 to 1762.] The early porcelain made at St.-Cloud is said to have been quite coarse and unsatisfactory. Examples of it are very scarce. That made later was better, but a long way behind what was made afterward at Sèvres. At ROUEN, in France, porcelain appears to have been made, but it never proceeded so far as to be a business. At MENECY-VILLEROY, about 1735, soft paste was made; and later there were various limited efforts at Brancas-Lauraguais, at Arras, at Vincennes, at Boulogne, at Étoilles, at Bourg-la-Reine, at Clignancourt, at Orleans, at Luneville, at Bordeaux, at Valenciennes, at Limoges, at Sarreguemines, at Strasbourg; at Paris, a great number, some of the products of which are still in existence. We give the marks of some of the most important. Marks of Clignancourt: [Illustration: _A windmill in blue._] [Illustration: _Another form._] [Illustration: _This varies a good deal_ (1775).] [Illustration: _Monograms of Louis Stanislas Xavier, Count de Provence._]