The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-06-16
A REPUBLICAN WEDDING PRE-
 SENT.


 Some weeks ago a friend at the Sevres manufactory sent me to look at proofs of the plates and other pieces of the porcelain dinner service ordered as a wedding gift for Don Alfonso This favor was coupled with a request that I should not speak of them until they had been submitted to the President of the republic. President Loubet ordered them, and M. Dujardin1Beaumetz, the burly, kindly, active fine art minister designed the pattern for the rims of the plates, the only articles in the set that are fieuries, or lowered At first it was proposed to give a pair of vases. There is always a stock of handsome vases in hand at Sevres for presentation to sovereigns or foreign statesmen. But M. Loubet had re- marked that such objects had already been greatly multiplied in Spanish palaces, and he said: IA newly mar ried pair would be better pleased with something that really helps to feather the nest they are engaged in building. What If we send them a dinner ser vice "a la francaise?' The objection was: There is now too little time to decorate handsomely" Cannot you decorate with the arms of the twelve kingdoms of Spain? The Spaniards are never tired of seeing them used ornamentally. What do you say, M. le Ministre?' Twelve escutcheons might be a little spotty on a white surface They would do on an ultramarine ground frightened up with gliding. But that would hardly be a suitable present for so young 6 couple. My notion is an eighteenth-century service. A French dynasty succeeded the Austrian in Spain in 17OS and a French Princess married Don Philippe forty years later. Suppose the style recalls the decoration of the latter period. We can have the twelve kingdoms brought into a gen. eral coat of arms to adorn the sides of the tureens and saucieres (sauce boats won't do,) and border of gliding in an eighteenth-century pattern with crowned ovals to contain the initials of Alfonso and Acknowledgements Be- heath this pattern we might, on the rim of the plates, introduce the pink field convolulus, plant of a graceful and a sober vegetation that would have a light and gay effect in harmony with bright hopes and the joyousness of youth. There is not time to decorate thus the whole service" M. Dujardin- Beaumetz, who is a professional paint CT, then and there sat down and sketched his scheme of decoration Naturally, M. Loubet acquiesced. The letters did not appear on the advanced plates" (soup and others) that I saw, and I have not heard whether they have or have not been brought in on the service now on its way to Madrid The name of Eugenie-and right deser- vedly, you will admit-sounds ill to Re- publican ears in France, and will be coupled by future historians with rAn- nee Terrible.
 M. Dujardin-Beaumetz is the most reforming of the fine art ministers of the republic. He has just instituted a Prix de Rome of 5000 francs for the best prose essay, novel tale, comedy or poem, irrespective of the sex of the writer. There is a limit of age, and laureates of academies are not to com- pete, but exceptions can be made to this rule. This minister also opened the Compiegne loggia to feminie com posers of sucic. He uses, like the other ministers, a victoria or coupe furnished by the State. with a single horse, and driven by an old coachman who has not yet reached the pension limit of age-wearing cockade. Whenever he attends an artistic fete as minister, guard of horse gendars surrounds the vehicle, and officers and soldiers who come in sight are expected to salute. His official residence is in the Palais Royal, which lodges his De- partment and the Council of State. The President of that body and the minister have the enjoyment of the apartments of the Dues d'Orleans, under the an- cient monarchy and the restored Bour- bons, of the late Duo de Nemours from