332 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



bited plates whose decorations were not distinguishable from Ku- 

 tanityaka (Kaga porcelain), and the imitations of the censers of 

 Satsuma were as surprisingly true. The porcelain painter, L. 

 Celliere, of Paris, has developed great taste and skill in imitating 

 Japanese masters ; also F. Gaidan, who copies Awata-yaki (Kioto 

 Faience) remarkably well, and has distinguished himself particu- 

 larly by his free use of Japanese manner. Majorelle, a manufac- 

 turer from Nancy, produces good copies of the lacquered Imari 

 vases. 



If we turn our attention to the exhibitions of Paris bronze work, 

 which was brilliantly represented at the Universal Exhibition 

 of 1878, Barbedienne naturally first enlists our interest. Of all 

 Frenchmen he has accomplished most in general bronze manufac- 

 ture, and especially in the employment of imbedded enamel, and is 

 almost the only one who has succeeded in imitating Japanese 

 cloisonne enamel, and using it in surface decoration. This he has 

 done with great success, though not indeed in a financial sense. 

 Not content with mere imitation, he aims to use more familiar de- 

 corative themes after the Japanese manner, which in our eyes is a 

 much more valuable service. He exhibited a large plate with the 

 central design of a pond with white water-lilies, while water 

 lilies {Biitoimts) and yellow blooming iris surrounded one side, and a 

 wild duck was just settling upon the water surface. Blackberry 

 bushes, vines, twigs of oak, oats and reeds, as well as several other 

 plants belonging to our domestic flora, were used on other bronze 

 articles with a corresponding application. 



Over against these truly noteworthy accomplishments are others 

 in which the Japanese have been copied in a most senseless and 

 ridiculous way. Of this kind was a fire screen, from the firm of 

 Bouhon & Co. Its bronze decoration, which rested on woven 

 wire in a broad brass frame, was intended to represent the branch 

 'of a pine whose needles had been transformed into shield-shaped 

 leaves, the blooming twigs of the mume plum forming the ramifi- 

 cation. To add to this unnatural combination, a silver heron was 

 placed on the horizontal part of the branch. " Make what you will, 

 somebody will praise it," wrote the "Wandsbecker Bote" (Claudius) 

 once to his friend Andre. So here also ; the article, priced at 300 

 francs, was five times ordered, as a placard stated, evidently just 

 because of this artistic combination. 



What Barbedienne is to the manufacture of bronze ware, Chris- 

 tofle is to gold and silversmith's work in France, and even more 

 as a galvano-plastic plater and decorator of nickel-silver and 

 bronze. His wares are chased partly before and partly after silver 

 plating. Often after plating, the engraved ornamentation is gold 

 plated or enamelled in black, with especially fine effect. Chris- 

 tofle employs Japanese decorative themes very frequently ; an 

 entire division of his large and rich exhibition was devoted to 

 Japanese styles. 



