The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-05-04
VICYoRIA's CHINA.
THE BEA UTIFUL TREASURES I'll 1T
 BELONGkD TO THE QUEEN.

BELONGED TO THE QUEEN.
 Her Various Residences are Full a
 Priceless He:rIooms and Presents
 ChantilIy Dinner Service.
 TO attempt to pass in review all tn
 nne china and porcelain that her lat
 Majesty possessed, says the Londoi
 Gentlewoman, would be to compile (
 catalogue, for the beautiful specimens
 she inherited, or bought to please hel
 own taste and from the laudable desire
 to patronize manufactures so closely
 akin to fine art, or received as presents
 are simply legion and her various resi-
 dences were full of them. Many, es-
 pecially at Windsor Castle and Buck
 1ngham Palace, are heirlooms, and be.
 long to the sovereign of these realms
 for the time being, but quantities of
 others are offerings and keepsakes
 which accumulated during the queens
 long life and reign, and they fill many a
 great cupboard and cabinet, the con
 tents of any one of which would be suf-
 ficient to decorate a large country
 house whose chatelaine had pretty
 taste in ceramics and aspired to the reputation of chinamaniac At Wind
 sor there is a large, light china and glass room fitted with wide shelves, protected from dust by glass doors. It contains services for domestic use, such as dinner, dessert and tea and coffee, many of which are priceless and in other establishments would be reserved for ornament alone. Every room and gallery in the castle Is, moreover, adorned with magnificent porcelain over and above that stored in the china room.
 The queen personally had a connois- seur's knowledge of china, and occa- sionally showed a fine isolated piece to a visitor imbued with similar tastes. A story is told of an occasion, not very long ago, when her Majesty sent for a plate with good deal of green in it that she wished to show. The messen- ger returned, saying that no such plate could be seen, Look again." said the queen, and described not only the shelf but the juxtaposition of the desired plate among other pieces of china, and with her directions in mind, it was i'm mediately found.
 The Guelph sovereigns have all been fond of china, and when they first cane to rule over England it was the fash ion for every German prince to have some special ceramic manufactory un- der his royal protection. The kings of France and Naples followed suit, and, Of course, the king of England could not be behindhand. George II devoted him. self to the Chelsea factory. then in the zenith of it's prosperity, and magnifi- cent dinner service of old Chelsea, painted with birds and butterflies, is in the china room at Windsor castle; it is hardly ever taken from it's place on the This is so valuable as to be absolutely precious, and it closely re- sembles one that George II and his queen presented to the Duke of Wur- temberg and gave twelve hundred pounds for. PLATES WORTH TEN GuINEAS ( @ EACH. &
 large, complete and lovely dinner service of Chantilly is also one of the treasures. The output of Chantilly ceased when the French Revolution broke out, so this china must be at least one hundred and fifteen years old. Most delicately painted birds occupy the center of every plate and dish, and the borders are royal blue with little gold on them. The plates are valued at ten guineas each, and it is believed that none have ever been broken A very fine Dresden service dates from the lat ter part of the eighteenth century. A Worcester harlequin service is curious, and regarded entirely in that light, aa It rarely left it's appointed place; but modern Worcester service, made espec- ally for the queen from the designs of Sir M. Digby Wyatt, was sometimes brought out. The dessert services are and the most famous and in- valuable Is the wonderful sevres originally made for Louis XVI, and bought by George W, who, on ac- count of the prevalence of very deli- ,ate green in it's coloring, placed it in he green drawing from whence [ was taken when the Queen and Prince Albert rearranged their house. lold goods, quite early in their married l fife. Her Majesty frequently used the | plates, and the service occasionally made its appearance in the household | It is valued at ten thou and pounds. A service of Furstenberg | nina, painted with very beautiful | landscapes is interesting from it's con- lection with the House of Brunswick | The Furstenberg factory owed its exis- | ence to that Duke of Brunswick who | n 1737 married Princess Augusta, the { laughter of Frederic, Prince of Wales, | whose rhyming epitaph was:
 Here lies Fred,
 Who was alive, and is dead,
 md sister of George III. He engaged l 3engraf, the skillful potter to whose influence the Mayence factory was due, ut the mans former employer arrested l nd nearly starved him to death lest he hould carry the secrets of porcelain making away. However, he divulged hem and was released, but did not live 1ng after the establishment of the works, which were then aken up by Baron von Lang, famous hennist of the day, under whom her Iajesty's service was made. An Etrus- an service in black and red is distin- uished by the classic shapes of the pieces but the queen had no reat liking for it, and vastly preferred
 most beautiful dessert set made to CT own order by Minton about twenty cars ago. The fruit dishes, of which