Note 82 — Chapter VIII

The pottery made by Palissy (of which, under the name of Palissy Ware, exquisite specimens are still existing) was very characteristic of himself. He was a naturalist, and had a keen, innate love of the beautiful. To reproduce, in his works, the bright colours and elegant forms of the plants and animals on which he had so long and so often gazed in the woods and fields was his delight, and he founded his reputation on what he called rustic pieces. The title which he took for himself was, Ouvrier de Terre, et Inventeur de Rusticities Figulines—Worker in Earth, and Inventor of Rustic Figulines (i.e., small modellings). These were, in fact, accurate models from life of wild animals, reptiles, plants, and other productions of nature, tastefully introduced as ornaments upon a vase or plate. His rich fancy covered his works with elaborate adornment; but all these designs were so accurately copied from nature, in form and colour, that the species of each can be readily recognized, and there is hardly found a fancy leaf, and not one lizard, butterfly, or beetle, which does not belong to the rocks, woods, fields, rivers, and seas of France.