Early Crystals

On our way back from California we stopped for a few days in Paris and visited the porcelain museum at Sevres, where crystalline glazes were first developed in the early 1900's. The museum is not at all stuffy as I had feared, and well worth a visit- we sneaked into the factory round the back [built in 1650] and got an unofficial guided tour of the original round wood-kilns, still standing and fired every couple of years, it was explained to us, to keep the tradition alive.