Prospect on approaching France.--Present and Past.--The Ancient Celts.--Under the Romans.--Middle Ages.--Poitou, Beauvais, and Hesdin.--Italian Influence.--A National Art.--Bernard Palissy, Barbizet, Pull, and Avisseau.--Henri Deux Ware.--Rouen.--Nevers.--Moustiers.--Marseilles.--Strasburg.--Limoges. --Haviland's New Process.--Examples.--Bourg-la-Reine.--Laurin.--Deck. --Colinot.--Creil.--Montereau.--Longwy.--Parville.--Gien.--Sarreguemines. --Niederviller.--Luneville.--Nancy.--St. Clement.--St. Amand. --Paris.--Sceaux.
Turning as we leave Italy we seem to look back across a wide, unbroken plain, from the midst of which rises a mountain range, its summits glowing with the rays of the setting sun behind us. It is thus we revert across comparative barrenness to the Renaissance, beyond which, and hidden, lie the earlier glories of Etruria and Græco-Italy. As we turn to France the sun is in front of us, striking full upon a height still cloud-capt and unrevealed, and bathing the intervening undulating landscape in the fulness of its undimmed splendor. With France the present sheds lustre, life, and light upon a long past beginning with pre-Roman Gallia, and extending through Roman domination, the darkness of the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance to the present time.
The early pottery of Gallia has been variously viewed, but there seems no reason for withholding from the ancient Celtic potters the credit of having adopted a high and pure standard of art before the Roman power was established. It has even been questioned, in the light of a full knowledge of the subject, if the Romans did not, by the introduction of new models, retard the growth of native skill and destroy an art superior to their own. Judging from the examples still remaining, it is at least unquestionable that the Celts had, at a very early date, arrived at ideas of simplicity and elegance of form far in advance of those entertained by contemporary nations. These works, moreover, give no indication of foreign influence, and probably represent the last stage of native art, before it was disturbed by the entrance of the invader. The ornamentation is chaste almost to severity, and although in some instances it shows a community of style with the early German pottery, it is generally independent and distinctive. We do not assign an age to these pieces, but it appears probable that they were preceded by a ruder pottery also referable to the ancient Celts. The earlier remains, supposed to belong to the pre-Roman era, have been found in the North, and are of a very primitive character, evidently made entirely by hand, without the assistance of either mould or wheel. The paste is dark-colored and coarse. There is also a class equally rude, in so far as the composition is concerned, but giving in the shapes a suggestion of Roman influence. Red Roman ware has been found in every part of Gaul, and a furnace was discovered in Auvergne. At Bordeaux red, black, white, and yellow Roman pottery has been exhumed, and several localities are indicated at which potteries existed.