after sent a footman to buy different
things.  When the Prince shot any birds of
importance, he ordered them to be carried to
Pull to be mounted.  I have still the foot of
a stag which I ought to have prepared to
form a bell-rope handle.  I was in vogue. I
married in eighteen hundred and forty-four.
In eighteen hundred and fifty-one, orders
were issued to remove all the booths from
the Place du Carousel, and I opened in the
Rue de Seine a large magazine of birds,
stuffed animals, antiquities, curiosities, and
Delft-wares.

The prosperity of my business, by inspiring
me with confidence in myself, gave the last
step to my ideas.  When I recollected the
progress I had made and the knowledge I
had acquired; when I reflected that without
having a notion of anatomy or natural
history I had tried an industry of which I was
practically and entirely ignorant, and that,
nevertheless, I had succeeded; boldness came
to me by little and little.  I said to myself,
"The hand which can give the look of life to
these charming little dead birds, could it not
knead, mould or model little rustic figures,
and give them the gestures and the colours of
life? "  This thought warmed and boiled in my
head.  From the time when it was in fusion
nothing could prevent the explosion, and at
length the day came when I dared to believe
in the possibility of imitating the works of
the master.  From this time my resolution
was firm and unshakeable.  Prior to
commencing experiments, I resolved to make
every imaginable sacrifice, and even to
deprive myself of necessaries to attain my
object.  The date of this epoch was eighteen
hundred and forty-two.

What would be the use of telling all my
trial and attempts, and above all my
disappointments?  They were innumerable, or,
what is more exact, they were all the result
I had of all my days of labour in these first
apprentice times.  They are easily understood.
It was out of Paris, in the provinces,
and in a secluded spot, that I made my first
batches, because I wished my experiments to
be surrounded with the greatest mystery.  I
remained there sometimes fifteen days, and
sometimes six weeks.  At home, in Paris, I
began studying the argillaceous earths, to find
out the secret of the enamels, but, like a
man groping in the dark.  I pounded all the
materials which I supposed likely to be
useful to my projects; I mixed them at
random, but took care to note down the
substances and the doses employed.  Some of
my specimens came out of the fire imperfectly
cooked, and others of them burned.  I made
nothing of the least value.  I did not know
what to do, and had always to begin again.
I consulted the works of Bernard Palissy,
reading and re-reading them until I had
them almost by heart, but they did not guide
me, for I could not as yet understand
anything in them, they are so full of hidden
meanings.  It is only now that the light has
broken upon me, and I understand them
perfectly.  Thus I employed several years
searching for the unknown, paying to human
infirmity my tribute of moments of
discouragement; and sometimes I caught myself
doubting if I were in my senses.  In the eyes
of my friends and acquaintances I passed for
a visionary; and my wife was told continually
that poor Pull had gone crack.  But
these hours of doubt and discouragement
were of short duration; and, as Bernard
Palissy said of himself, " the hope which I
had, made me proceed in my business more
manfully than ever."

After so many researches, attempts, and
mishaps, although I had not produced
anything which in the least satisfied me, and
although I had not as yet found the last
word of my art, an inward voice seemed to
tell me that I had found my clay and my
enamel, and the only thing wanting was a
good method of baking them.  While making
all my preparations, and taking all my
precautions, judging from the state of my head,
I seemed to be mad or becoming it.  But
when I saw the earth coming out of the fire
clothed in a brilliant enamel and lively
colours, when I saw running lizards, swimming
fishes, leaping frogs, budding plants, growing
grass, upon my dishes, I thought my eyes
were deceiving me.  Not that I had obtained
a complete success, which is not reached at
the first throw, but from having obtained a
result which announced to me what I should
accomplish when I could give myself entirely
up to the fabrication of my dear potteries.  I
sold my collection of birds and my store of
antiquities, and established myself, in April,
eighteen hundred and fifty-six, at Vaugirard.

Ever since I have tried to improve my
productions, to acquire more perfect models, and
the science and harmony of colours.  Moreover,
when I had dared to believe that my
work might be accepted as a happy
continuation of the admirable Delfts of the
master, when I thought it was admitted that
I had re-discovered an art entirely lost, I
submitted my productions with confidence to
men of eminence in the arts, and
subsequently to the public.  Their judgment has
been very favourable to me, and I have
found in it my recompense for long and
painful years of labour.  With regard to
publishing my mode of manufacture, I must
upon this point also follow the example of
my celebrated predecessor.  His work is full
of reservations; I also ought to have mine;
and I say—

"After meditating and struggling unceasingly,
after fatiguing body and mind, solving
problems patiently, the destiny of the potter
of Saintes, who carried with him to the tomb
the practice of his best discoveries, one has a
good right certainly not to vulgarise the
secret of his processes—not to throw to the
wind of publicity the fruit of his pains; a