Litchfield enquirer., 1876-06-15
Harper's Monthly asazine. LOVES SERVICE.

l Who has not touch of the porcelain mania It is fashionable epidemic. hard l for the female mind to resist We may not be extensive collectors, with our side boards covered with Henri IT. plates, | Dressden-ware. antique Venice glass, and Pallssy platters filled with reptilian forms, needing only to be filled with water to simulate the floor of an aquarium. We nay not even be connoisseurs in the secret marks of Sevresware. But we are all lovers of pretty tea things, and have been ever since we displayed our first Set of dolls dishes on grandmother's footstool. Each one of us has tea-cup that our grand nncie, the sea-captain, bought from China, plate which was one of set that a French officer gave to a remote ances- tress during the Revolution, silver-rivet- i ed puneh-bowl used at grandtather's or dination, or a majolica monkey so ludi- crous that to possess it we were begulled into denying ourselves new neck-ties for q l month.
 | While in Ecouen, near Paris, friend who knew something of this fancy of mine said to me, 'If you wish to see some crl- riosities iu porcelain, some really rare bits of old faience, do not fail, before you go, to visit the Mere Roulette. The giving of nicknames is common habit among the Ecouen peasantry, and felt sure that Roulette (meaning little balD must be one, and asked why it had been given. ''Be- 1 cause she is small and round, replied my friend; and on seeing her, recognized it's appropriateness.
 ''Does she sell bric-0-6rGc 2" next asked. .F
 ''No, was the replys ''but her house is a museum in it's way. She allows the art l lsts to paint there whenever they wish, any many of the charming interiors of the | Ecouen school were arranged there. Of. ten has she lighted fire in one of her un. occupied chambers, that admiring artists 1 might paint the faded orose- clored hang. ings of the old-fashioned bed; or the GU. rious fireplace, with the sphinx head and irons half buried in the ashes, as though sunken in drifts of desert sand; or the ug. | ly Virgin of the. Renaissance, with the blessed palm branch holding above her, But perhaps the greatest curiosity of all is her buffet. will not describe it but leave you to explore It's treasures for your. self"
 My friend was wrong. The greatest GU. riositysin Mere Boulette's house was the Mere Boulette-a fat old lady, with spot less cap of delicate old lace (perhaps hel grandmother's workl, and gray fringed silken kerchief spread over her ample bosom, humor and benignity ripping in every wrinkle about her laughing mouth which never lost it's smile even when the ever-ready tears were coursing down the channels they had made in the crows feet about her eyes. And yet the buffet was wonder. A china barbel's basin was fastened to the wall above It, while rare old plates, decorated with grotesqqe design of flower and bird, some, of the period of Louis XV., bearing the celebrat ed device of the Moulin JaUelle, were screwed to the wall on either side. On l the under shelf of the buffet were two vases, with apoplectic middles and long slender necks, and decorated with climera like peacocks. Between these were rang ed dozen tea-cups of Chinese manufac Jure eacn represented cnlldren piayInE some game appropriate to a different month of the year. There were children ren playing marbles, spinning tops and shuttlecock, together with number of games unknown to us and impossible to be imagined from the fantastic att tudes of the goblin-like little figures The next shelf was devoted to saladsset. Its centre piece was bowl in the milky white and blue pottery of Lille; on one side stood huilier of the time of Louis XIV, two graceful little porcelain pitchers for oil and vingar inclosed in porcelain caster; on the other side was the cover on ly of a very quaint mustard pot. The last shelf was devoted to gaudliy painted Au vergne pottery.
 Seeing how much interested l was II her collection, tLe old lady unlocked { chest, and after opening many wrappigs handed me cup of exquisitely delicate porcelain. Around the rim ran wreath of thistles in silver and light green, and beneath five snails were being ridden by { Cupids as upon q race-course. Roguisl little Pucks they were, who urged for. ward their strange steeds with all the science and enthusiasm of jockeys. The last snail seemed balky, and besides the sprite bestriding it, three others were tug 1 ging at it's bridle and pushing it forward with their rosy shoulders.
 l "What lovely workmanship r J exclaim | ed. "How did you get such an exquisite bit of Sevres ?''
 Mere Roulette smiled with mild pride My son Emile was china decorator al Sevres, and he designed that. It is only a specimen of an entire set which he was preparing for an English lady. Her daughter was betrothed to a milford, to whom she was to be married in five years My son did her service when she was visiting Seyres, and she gave him an or der for dinner set. He was to make the designs upon paper, show them to her, and then put them upon the porcelain. The order was given in 1868. It was my sons idea that the time must pass very slowly to the young betrothed, and so he represented the years by snails, with Love trying to make them move faster. Don't you see the last snail has wedding ring 1 for collar, and they are whipping him with orange blossoms and sprays of myr- l tle." @
 ''Did all the pieces have this design ?. I asked.
 "Oh no: each was different On the soup tureen the Cupids were training a 1 great turtle: on the fish platters they were mermaids and mermen riding on salmon and dolphins; on other dishes they flew about among beautiful birds hid under strawberry vines, or swung in spider-web hammocks from sprays of wild blackberry; they dug ill mines, like the mountain ] gnomes of the Germans, and pried and lifted carrots with comical machinery, as though they were great bars and ingots ot yellow gold. Some of the covers were I-Ix<