Number of Manufactories.--Their Rise and Decline.--Nevers.--Prices.--Beauvais.--Rouen.--Moustiers.--Strasbourg, or Haguenau.--Marseilles.--Sarreguemines.--Sinceny, Nancy, Creil, Montpellier.--Paris.--Paris to-day.--Limoges.--Deck. Of French faiences, the _Palissy_ ware and the _Henri-Deux_ have been already treated. I now propose to give some account of the most prominent among the very large number of potteries which, in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, sprang up in various parts of France. Mr. Chaffers, in his work upon "Pottery," etc., enumerates one hundred and sixty-five factories which in 1790 petitioned the National Assembly that they might not be ruined by the floods of cheap pottery then being sent in from England; and this was not the whole number in France. Great skill and much good taste have been expended upon the faiences of France, and some of the work rises into the region of art. Much of that found in collections and museums is of this kind. But it should not be forgotten that the great purpose and business of those manufactories was the production of dishes, plates, and services, for the table--for the uses of life. And in this direction the production in France was very large and profitable, until the time when, as said above, the introduction of cheap wares from England ruined the makers. These disastrous changes and whimseys of trade, disagreeable as they may be to the masters and the workmen who are ruined, do give a certain zest and variety to human history; they relieve life from the monotony and dullness which usually attends upon unbroken prosperity. As some of the _doctrinaires_ tell us, they are really blessings--often very much in disguise; at least, they seem so to those who are the immediate sufferers. Nearly the whole of the French potteries went down about the period of the great Revolution, from the effects of the wares introduced from England, and the troubles growing out of the political disorders. Within this last quarter of a century a noted revival has come to this most interesting industry, of which some notice will be made hereafter. It is the fine examples of the work of the older potteries which collectors are desirous to get. _Marks_ are often found upon pieces of the faiences of France, the delft of Holland, etc.; but I do not reproduce them here, partly because they are much less important than those on the porcelains, and partly because we should have almost no occasion for their use. NEVERS.--It is supposed that at Nevers was made the first enameled pottery in France, in the days of Catherine de' Medicis. M. Broc de Ségange, in his work "La Faïence, les Faïenciers et les Émailleurs de Nevers,"[6] traces the beginning of the work to an Italian named _Conrad_, who probably came to France with the queen, and was naturalized in 1578. He and his brothers began the manufacture about that time. Another famous potter there was _Pierre Custode_.