Louis Quatorze appears to have been the first to recognise in a substantial manner the fact that if we want firstrate art in our carpets, furniture, plate, etc, we must employ firstrate artists, and make it worth their while to give thoughtful study to such a branch of design. Thus the names of that great king's art-attaches have come honourably down to us alongside Italian names such as Benvenuto Cellini's: among them are Lebrun; Mignard; Andre-Charles Boule, 'ciseleur et doreur du roi,' who carried out their conception and created a school; Claude Ballin the goldsmith; Philippe Poitou, who imitated Boule, and injured his model with the best intentions, when the king was growing old.

Many honourable names temp. Louis Quinze, encouraged by royal bounty, are familiar. Meissonier, who carried endive and rocailles to the last exaggeration;

Caffieri, sprung from a race of distinguished sculptors and a sculptor himself, whose bronze work adorns furniture in the possession of Sir Richard Wallace and Baron G. de Rothschild; his rival, Crescent, Martincourt and his more famous pupil Gouthiere, chaser and gilder to Louis Seize, and Gallien, fondeur-ciseleur, who made iron railings and regal timepieces; and many more, who, like Quentin Matsys, raised the baser metals to the rank of gems by their exquisite delicacy of treatment and knowledge of design; again, Clodion, who worked in terra-cotta; Renaud, who modelled snuff-boxes; down to David, whose influence on the first quarter of the nineteenth century was marked enough.

We have been chiefly referring to French art because France is the immediate source of most of our fashions, and in France far more substantial patronage was afforded by royalty to the production of art for domestic use. Italy, still wealthier in great designers than France, has had no great direct effect on English art, because her influence has for the most part filtered through France, our nearest neighbour. Cellini, Primaticcio, and others, resided in France, warmly encouraged by royalty, and no doubt lent an Italian breadth and grandeur to the French Renascence school. Elizabeth, taking example by her father and Francis I., and subsequently Charles I., supported art by inviting over Flemish and Italian artists and encouraging the buds of native talent; but English artists of real calibre have seldom devoted their talents to anything so base as the home surroundings, though they be royal. Since the Renascence fairly set in, artists have not poached on the architects' manor, while architects have left furniture to artisans - not all-round men like mediaeval artisans - and the home has been left out in the cold as a 'No man's land.' Grin-ling Gibbons is the sole example of an indigenous growth of talent, fairly successful in founding a school of carvers, and fairly paid; as will be clear on comparing English with the carefully kept German, French, Flemish, or Italian lists of accomplished and talented art-workmen.

Flaxman worked for Wedgwood, and Wedgwood was ' potter to Her Majesty the Queen,' and could afford to run up the Duchess of Portland's bids for the Bar-berini vase to 1,000 guineas; but Flaxman was not recognised by royalty in the business, and it is curious to compare the payments of Josiah Wedgwood to John Flaxman - for bas-reliefs of the Muses and Apollo, Bacchus and Ariadne, etc, 10s. 6d. apiece; portrait busts from 16s. to 42s. and the like - with the lavish payments in the reign of Louis XIV. by the Duke of Orleans for the mere subjects for art-designers - flower-paintings by Robert, 100 livres each, and afterwards re-bought for the Crown.

My list of art-designers in England will show that in the eighteenth century we had a few names of note who may rank as decorators, but the list is sadly meagre. Our architects were eminent; they decorated our streets, nevertheless we cannot compare London with Rome and Florence, where the greatest artists spent glorious efforts on the outside and inside of the costly palazzi. Bacon modelled for Lambeth ware, while Flaxman designed for Wedgwood. Kent made our gardens beautiful, which for long they had not been: Thomas Frye and his daughters painted Bow china. But we can quote no names of paper-designers or silk-designers for the decoration of rooms, no furniture-designers of real genius and creative ability. We have never had any.