Note 169 — Chapter XVII · THE SOFT-PASTE PORCELAIN OF FRANCE SAINT-CLOUD—LILLE—CHANTILLY—MENNECY—PARIS—VINCENNES—SÈVRES.

An American writer has arranged the tests by which soft pastes may be distinguished from true porcelains under six heads. 1. The file test.—Soft porcelain may be marked by a file. 2. The foot test.—In hard porcelain the foot is generally rough and unglazed. This test is rather of value in distinguishing porcelain from fayence. 3. The fire test.—Depending on the greater fusibility of the soft pastes. 4. Chemical test. 5. Colour test.—Soft paste is generally mellow ivory by transmitted light, and this is especially true of ‘bone-ware.’ The hard paste tends to bluish shades. 6. Fracture test.—The fracture is glassy to vitreous, and the glaze passes into the paste in the case of hard pastes (the subconchoidal splintery fracture is rather the point to observe); dry and chalky, and the glaze more or less separated from the paste in the case of soft pastes.—E. A. Barber, Pottery and Porcelain of the United States, New York, 1901.