coloured clay; on the other hand the Louvre has two stamps made of fired clay or plaster. The exact technique for making the extremely small and delicate inlaid patterns remains somewhat of a puzzle for scholars. The surface was then covered with a lead glaze that fired to give a slightly golden transparency. Salt cellars, standing cups with covers, plateaux, ewers and the spouted vessels called biberons, and candlesticks, often in distinctive bizarre and fantastic designs derived from Mannerist silver- and goldsmiths' work, are the usual forms of Saint-Porchaire wares. Palissy Recent findings in advance of an exhibition in 1997, "Bernard Palissy et la céramique de Saint-Porchaire" at Château d'Écouen, suggest Bernard Palissy may have employed some Saint-Porchaire techniques at his Paris workshop, 1565–72, or been more closely involved. The Victoria & Albert Museum rather boldly attributes a Saint-Porchaire candlestick it dates to "ca. 1547-1559" to Palissy. Other than that, the experiment at Saint-Porchaire remained without precedents and without direct influence in the development of French ceramics, which, apart from Palissy's experiments, started anew with increasingly fine faience in the later seventeenth century. Collections The ware had great appeal to wealthy 19th-century collectors. Supposedly at one time various members of the Rothschild family had 15 pieces between them, and J. Pierpont Morgan had eight pieces. The great majority of the sixty-odd known pieces are now in museums. Museum collections with three or more pieces include, in the Paris area: Louvre, Musée du Petit Palais, National Ceramic Museum at Sèvres; Victoria and Albert Museum in London; in New York the Metropolitan Museum of Art (7) and Morgan Library and Museum (sharing the J. Pierpont Morgan pieces); National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (3), Cleveland Museum of Art, & Hermitage Museum. Revival In 1849 Mintons, a leading factory making Staffordshire pottery, hired Léon Arnoux, a young French ceramic artist, as artistic director; he stayed until 1892. Arnoux had an interest in reviving Saint-Porchaire ware, then generally known as "Henri II ware", and mastered the technique and then taught Charles Toft, perhaps Mintons' top modeller, who produced a small number of "superlatively elegant" pieces. Toft also produced some pieces when he subsequently worked at Wedgwood. Various other 19th-century makers, mostly in France, produced pieces, some perhaps qualifying as fakes, although Mintons' and others are clearly marked. Notes References Wardropper, Ian. “Ceramics in the French Renaissance.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: