If we pass now to the vases of this ware, we are struck by the originality of their shapes, the freedom of their designs, and the remarkable depth and beauty of their coloring. There is nowhere visible any symptom of the nervous feeling after a doubtful result characteristic of an artist without confidence in himself and his process. Everything indicates strength, assurance, and power; and if there is weakness anywhere, it is evidently the result of a boldness which is over-hasty or too careless of finish and detail. We find no precedent for the decoration. It is as far removed as possible from all that is associated with China or Japan, from the majolica of Italy, Spain, or Berlin, from the stone-ware of England, or the faience of Sweden. The forms of the vases are of boundless variety, and suggest originality by their very multiplicity. One would carry us back to the pottery of ancient Gaul before it had felt the heavy hand of Rome. Another recalls the Anglo-Saxon vases of England. A third would lead us, in searching for a precedent, to the clumsy, rotund urns of ancient Germany. These would all be equally fanciful, no doubt; and in that suspicion one is confirmed by the exquisite forms of a small _pichet_, a quaint card-receiver, and a vase rising to its slightly out-turned lip as gracefully as the cup of a flower. [Illustration: Fig. 240.--Haviland Faience. (G. W. Gibson Coll.)] [Illustration: Fig. 241.--Haviland Faience. (Whitelaw Reid Coll.)] [Illustration: Fig. 242.--Luna Vase. Haviland Faience. (Mrs. William H. Dannat Coll.)]