RERAMIC STUDIO 
Works of Art, who is selected by the Miiiister of Beaux Arts 
and assumes the responsibihtj^ of artistic productions. He 
determines the prices of executed- pieces, buys the plans of 
decoration, designs, statuettes and all works which he considers 
beautiful and useful for the diffusion of ceramic art or the good 
renown of the factory. 
In order to determine the sale price of a piece, the sum 
paid to the artist is doubled, so as to cover the general expenses; 
so a vase for which the artist receives 500 francs will be sold for 
1000 francs, and only in cases of exceptionall5^ successful pieces 
is the sale price increased in a larger proportion. Every ex- 
ecuted piece is paid for to the artist, whether it comes out of the 
kilns successful, insignificant or broken. 
Vases, the decoration of wiiich is made with the brush, 
remain unique pieces, whatever their cost; only pieces made 
with the chisel are reproduced or edited. 
from the artists of the factory, and the statuettes which were 
to be executed in biscuit brouglit to the author onty the pur- 
chase price. In order to extend and renovate the production 
and to attract more talent the purchase of designs outside 
of the factory was adopted for the Exposition of 1900 and 
maintained since; also the allowance of 25 per cent editing 
fees for all works of statuary reproduced in biscuit. As a residt, 
the creative activity which was before confined to the factory, 
now comes from the outside, but to this invasion is due the 
magnificent display of the Exposition Universelle of 1900. 
Only the fixed and permanent personnel execute their own 
works in the factory. Occasional collaborators are not admitted 
in the factorj^ to which they do not belong, and their models, if 
accepted by the triumvirate of directors, are executed by others 
in the working rooms. 
The third department, which in point of numbers, is the 
1. Working room for r 
ntiug. 2. Working room for large casting. 3. Watching tlie firing. 4. Unpacking a kiln. 
The fixed artistic personnel has at all times constituted a 
brilliant phalanx, united and glorious, which has left imperish- 
able creations or reproductions. But this phalanx, which has 
at times reached the number of 50, has gradualty decreased 
and includes now only 24 decorators, and hardly a dozen are 
designers, the others being technical virtuosi, clever to interpret. 
The artists engaged before 1880 are entitled to a retreat 
annuity, but this privilege having been suppressed after that 
date, artists now onlj' enjoy monthly salaries, to which are ad- 
ded at the end of the j^ear allowances for supplementaiy work. 
These are irregular but justified by the moderate salaries. 
With these additions salaries varj' from 2,400 francs to 6,000 
francs. 
Until 1895 nine-tenths of the decorative projects came 
most important, includes the laborator^^ the kilns, the mill and 
all the working part. It is managed by the technical director, 
who is and has always been a distinguished chemist, and who 
has the help of another chemist, chief of the laboratory. 
It is in this laboratorj^ that are mixed the colors, pastes 
and glazes, and in it constant researches are made for new 
discoveries. It is there that scientific reason takes the place of 
empiricism. 
From this laboratory have come all the great ceramic dis- 
coveries of the century. There, were studied and determined 
the formulae of the pate tendre, the hard porcelain, the new 
porcelain, the gres cerame. There, were created the magnifi- 
cent palette of the painters, the colored pates, the p^tes-sur- 
pates, the colored glazes, the fiamni^ reds of copper, the crj'stal- 
