Today fine porcelain is made in many places around the world - indeed wherever the two essential ingredients may be found, namely the fine white clay called kaolin and china stone, both derived from the decomposition of feldspar. When mixed together and moulded or turned on the potter's wheel, the pieces are then baked twice to allow the secrets inherent in the two materials to form hard porcelain, which when decorated with precious metals and the rich natural colours of the earth, represents the very pinnacle of ceramic art.

For many centuries the physical properties of porcelain represented the mysteries of China where it originated. Sensuous and delicate in appearance, its translucency combined with surprising strength fascinated Marco Polo during his travels in China in the 13th century and when the first true porcelain

are in Europe a century later, its manufacture confounded the most famous alchemists and potters of the day. Over the next four centuries before the formula for making natural porcelain was discovered in Europe and then put to glorious use in Limoges, many attempts were made to copy the Chinese porcelain to no avail until the 18th century all porcelain to no avail - until the 18th century all porcelain made in Europe was soft paste or 'artificial' porcelain.

However for almost two centuries the town of Limoges, 200 miles south-west of Paris on the Vienne River, has been synonymous with the world's very finest porcelain. One cannot attribute its quality simply to the area's rich supplies of kaolin and china stone - the unique secrets of Limoges are far more subtle . The beauty and appeal of Limoges porcelain may perhaps be more accurately attributed to the French approach to design and passion for quality in all aspects manufacture - the inimitable French Arts de Vivre. Somehow the people of Limoges have been able to fuse into their products their very appreciation and love of quality and creative art. Fine Lirnoges porcelain is the inimitable result of a rich cultural approach to design and manufacturing in which the heritage of the people of Limoges appears to shimmer beneath the translucent surface of the products they create.

Michel Ardant, owner and Chairman of Haviland C. Parlon, member of the prestigious Comite Colbert and manufacturer of arguably the finest range of china and porcelain in all of Limoges, relates the establishment of Limoges as the unrivalled centre of fine French porcelain in inimitable French style, by enlivening the cold, harsh fabric of historical fact with the warmth of personal and humorous anecdotes.

"You remember Louis SV, well he had a girlfriend whose name was Pompadour and she had become accustomed to the ways of the rich who ate all their meals on silver plates. Each time we had a war the government seized all the silver in order to make money and finally there was nothing left to serve the meals on. So when they had to look for an alternative, they discovered porcelain which at that time came mainly from China. There were other porcelains about they were not of the same quality. However the Germans had learned the formula for true porcelain early in the 18th century and eventually discovered the kaolin clay they required in Germany and made their first porcelain around 1730.

"The Marquise de Pompadour who liked this china very much explained to her boyfriend Louis that she did not like having to wait for deliveries and having to wait for deliveries and having to send money abroad which was bad for the economy. So she told Louis that if he was a strong man, at true leader, he would find kaolin in France so they could make their own china. So the poor King sent a letter to all the people in the provinces and finally kaolin was discovered near Limoges and the industry grew from there."

Indeed we may thank the indulgent fancies of Madame de Pompadour for the beginnings of Limoges porcelain, though the people of her day would have had few words of praise for either the Marquise or her boyfriend the king. Louis XV's most famous mistress, Madame de Pompadour is remembered as a cold, heartless immortal and vindictive woman who completely dominated Louis. She was also an imperious patroness of the arts and high learning in France and not only influenced Louis' spending of the public treasury, but also served as the intermediary between the ministers and the king. Unfortunately for the Marquise, she would never take her place at a table set with fine Limoges china as Kaolin was not discovered in the area until four years after her death in 1764.

It was barely three years before Louis' grandson, Louis XVI ascended the throne that Limoges produced its first porcelain with the support of one Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Intendent of the Limoges district who would later become the king's comptroller general' or Minister of Finance, Justice and Legislation. it was Turgot who recognised the great potential afforded by the kaolin discovery and earmarked Limoges as the future centre of an important industry.

At the time, the King had his own factory at Sevres manufacturing soft-paste porcelain and had forbidden any other company to make or sell porcelain in France. However, encouraged by Turgot, two brothers in Limoges by the name of Grellet continued to work clandestinely on the development of hard paste porcelain, assisted by a number of alchemists. Realising that the porcelain they began to produce far surpassed any other made in Europe, they awaited the time when they could start to legally market their product, confident of enormous success once that permission was given. The first known piece of porcelain made in Limoges still exists today in the Limoges Porcelain Museum, dated 1771.

In its first few years, Limoges' first porcelain company encountered many difficulties, both technical and financial. Their first challenge was to develop a kiln capable of firing the porcelain at 1400oC which was beyond the capability of the kilns they sued for making soft paste porcelain and earthenwares. Turgot managed to obtain special permission form the king for the company to continue their experimentation - permission which also opened the way for other companies to spring up in Limoges. As the work by the Grellet brothers caught the attention of the king's brother the Comte d'Artois, future King Charles X, and received his sponsorship, Turgot caught the attention of others with far more sinister intent.

A liberal economist ahead of his time, as the comptroller general, Turgot introduced a much fairer distribution of taxation in Franc. and many other reforms which incited the wrath of not only the nobility and the bourgeoisie but also Louis' queen the beautiful Marie Antoinette and the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church. He was removed from office with two years in favour of Jacques Necker who would destroy the reforms and float vast loans in support of the American revolt against the British, thus further undermining the delicate French economy.

In 1784, King Louis bought the Grellet's company but rather than flourishing under the regal patronage, the company became a subsidiary to the factory at Sevres. It was only after the onslaught of the French Revolution some 12 years later when all restrictions on manufacturing were lifted, that the industry at Limoges was allowed to continue its development unimpeded.

The people of Limoges were poor and in need of work and had been potters for many centuries and so were skilled and ready to adopt the new techniques for making hard paste porcelain when the materials opportunity were presented to them. During the first few decades of the new century the production of porcelain in Limoges increased dramatically so that by 1830 there were over 1800 workers employed in the industry.

It was at this time that many of today's great names in porcelain began laying the foundations for companies which over the ensuing decades would take porcelain to new levels of artistic and production quality.

Michel Ardant's family was one of many who established small ateliers in which the newfound techniques were slowly perfected. Although the Ardants would later branch away from porcelain to found a successful publishing dynasty, their association with Limoge's premier industry remained strong and when Michel came to join the company of Robert Haviland et C. Parlon, he was in a sense reviving the earlier traditions of his family.

"My own family founded a beautiful atelier around 1830," says Michel Ardant. "Although we did not remain in the business my family has always had many friends who owned or worked in the business of porcelain and it was through this association that I eventually became involved. At about the same time as my family started their company, a woman in New York City took a broken cup to a china shop owned by the Haviland family. She thought the cup was very beautiful and wanted to have it replaced. The Havilands agreed that it was very beautiful and asked her where it had come from and she told them that she wasn't sure but possibly from France.

"Mr. Haviland had two sons - Robert and David - and he said to them that as they had nothing planned for their holidays, he was going to send them to France so they could try to find where this beautiful cup had been made. After alot of research they found that the cup came from limoges and that Limoges had a lot of factories but no real direction. They began exporting Limoges porcelain to America and eventually David set up his own porcelain decoration business and then in 1853 his own factory which Robert also joined. It was a fantastic success.

David Haviland's factory dominated Limgoes' export to America from the mid to late 1800s when almost 75% of all production was exported. In the early years of this century the production at Limoges peaked and soon began to oversupply the market. With the advent of the Great War and the decades of economic ruin which followed, many of the older houses in Limoges were forced to close down. It was during these desperate years, in 1924 to be precise, that Robert Haviland's great grandson, also named Robert Haviland, found his own company which became one of the survivors that managed to struggle through many difficult periods before demand and prosperity returned to the town soon after the Second World War.

"At the present time there are two factories with the name Haviland in Limoges," explains Michel Ardant. "One is called simply Haviland which is the original factory started by David Haviland and the other is Robert Haviland et C. Parton, my company, which Robert founded in 1924. Robert had no children was a close friend of my parents, so when I was 18 he told my father that he would be happy to have me in the business as I had just graduated from the Ecole Superieure des Sciences Econlomiques et Commerciales in Paris. I was very attracted by this job and accepted the offer and have now been with company for 39 years.

"What is so surprising is that the Haviland family spent 120 years in Limoges and yet today there are none. Robert was the last involved in the business. He retired from our factory in 1966 and died two years ago today. Harold Haviland, David's great grandson, died only four days ago. David's factory is still here but it has never really regained the success of its early years. Recently the factory was taken over by anew, young man who is 42 and very clever and he has money and I hope its day will come again.

With Michel Ardant joining the company along with Andre Parlon in the 1950's, Robert Haviland et C. Parlon entered a new era, as did many other manufacturers in Limoges. New technology modernised production methods and efficient administration made the running of the businesses more profitable.

As demand for fine porcelain continued to increase, the many small companies in Limoges joined forces to promote Limoges to the world as the centre of exclusive fine porcelain, rather than try to promote themselves individually against much larger, more powerful companies in other countries. The result has been that the name of Limoges, the town on the Vienne River, has become synonymous with the world's finest porcelain, with the exquisite style and quality of Robert Haviland et C. Parlon recognised as the benchmark of the industry.

Just as when the firm began in the mid 1800s, America remains its biggest market with Japan not far behind and continuing to show signs of healthy growth. The Middle East market underwent a considerable slump over recent years due to declining oil prices is recovering again and Asia is emerging as the giant market of the future. While for many other manufacturers of luxury items the European market has remained fairly constant for a number of years, Robert Haviland is increasing its sales in both Germany and Italy with their neighbours also showing signs of renewed interest.

"Porcelain today is very popular again and we have a fantastic demand," says Michel Ardant. "We have made our plans for next year and we are obliged to grow at least 40%, although I believe it may be too fast for us. It is a question of turnover and I think that the total turnover from all the factories in Limoges is about three or four times smaller than Wedgwood alone. We are only a small factory with about 180 people. There is also the question of quality: when you sell a plate at a high price the porcelain has to be first quality. You could sell more at a lower price with basic decoration but then you have the possibility of producing porcelain of a lesser quality. You have to choose your policy and we have chosen quality - it is not the only one, but it is our policy.

"In our factory we try to have our own image for porcelain and while porcelain is not difficult to make - it can be made anywhere in the world - to make real Limoges porcelain is something very special. Our approach to design and production is certainly more artist and elist. English porcelain is bone china and instead of being made with feldspar or kaolin it is prepared from the bones of animals. Instead of being fired at 1400oF, it is fired at 1200oF and is not hard china, but I like it very much because the colours are different and I must say some of their designs are very good.

"When we decide to make a piece we make the piece we like and nothing else. In the factory the people say, 'Sir, if we could make this plate a little differently, we could make it much easier,' and I say 'Yes, this is possible, but I don't like it that way, I like it this way and so this is exactly the way it must be made.' We have always tried to do what is difficult and never accept something which is easy to make. If a shape or a design or a certain quality is easy to achieve, it is not for us. My people still say, 'But sir, the design you have chosen is difficult to make,' and I tell them that this is why our plate is the best!"

Over the years Robert Haviland et C. Parlon has produced many one-off items specially commissioned by its diverse clientele which includes many of Europe's classical hotels, chateaux and leading restaurants. The firm has produced complete dinner services for the Prince of Monaco. The Comte de Paris and the King of Morocco who have been devoted customers for many years. "The King of Morocco once took pictures of his palace and asked us to produce a dinner set adapted to the colours of the drapes in the palace, which of course we did," says Michel Ardant. "Salvadore Dali asked us to make him a special plate with a kidney bean made in china fixed in the centre of the plate, so we made it for him, a whole set... very strange, but he was a very special person."

Some of the company's most famous and acclaimed pieces are the result of collaborations with the great museums of the world and the company is now regarded as a specialist in the fields of reproduction and restoration of classical pieces. One of their most beautiful and successful services is the Monet Collection commissioned by the Museum of Versailles. Over an extended lunch with ample food and wine, the director of the museum convinced Michel Ardant to accept the challenge of creating a complete reproduction dinner service based on a single dinner plate found in the home of Claude Monet in Giverny. Working with the creators of the museum, the craftsmen at Haviland faithfully recreated the original set which Monet used as his personal service and in doing so rediscovered forgotten techniques and designs which today contribute further to the heritage of Limoges.

"We now have a relationship with many museums since we first started making reproductions and selling them through the museums," explains Michel. "It is very interesting to work with the curators and while they often make very difficult requests and want things made to a certain precision, we make money for the museums and generate many ideas for ourselves from this work. We may also discover from this type of work how a particular piece was made which we had been wondering about for ten years or more. By attempting to reproduce it we relearn old methods or discover new ones."

For many years Michel Ardant avoided introducing more contemporary designs into the company's range, based on his belief that fashion is ephemeral while porcelain remains with a family for many years and sometimes many generations. As a result the greater proportion of the designs are classical and rich in colour and tone, with some of the services created decades ago still represented in today's catalogues. Michel's belief was reinforced some ten years ago when the company tentatively launched a promotion in association with French designer Sonia Rykiel which proved unsuccessful. However more recently, Michel Ardant again tried a "marriage between fashion and china", this time with the prestigious French leathergoods and accessories firm, Hermes, owned by his friend and colleague in the Comite Colbert, Jean-Louis Dumas, which resulted in a chain of remarkable successes.

"This time I dealt directly with Jean-Louis Dumas and we made a dinner set which was very successful and then a second and a third," explains Mons. Ardant. "While Hermès is part of French fashion, I think that if you have a Hermès suit you are very classical and after 10 years time it is still smart and so perhaps this is why the wedding with Hermès had been very successful. The first time I had breakfast with Jean-Louis on the top floor at Hermès at the Saint Honore store he presented designs and I said "They are really beautiful, but may I suggest this and that' and he was kind enough to accept my modifications and we now have a very free relationship and friendship and can both contribute to the work we do together.

"What is surprising is that I have four different homes and I have always had a dinner set to match the decor of each individual home because you must have dinner sets which are adapted for the atmosphere. In those four homes I also have the same dinner set we made with Hermès and it appears perfect for all four of them. It is very rare indeed that you have the possibility to use the same dinner set in different places. I think personally that one of the reasons for the success of that dinner set with Hermès is that it is perfectly adaptable to different colour schemes. For instance I like very much the Monet set we have done with the Versailles Museum but I cannot have it in my homes because it is not adaptable to them. Then again this set is so attractive that I may have to redecorate one of my houses."

Whilst once you have purchased your Limoges dinner set, you might be excused for taking great pride in throwing a gourmet feast which allows you to flaunt every individual piece at the one sitting. Michel Ardant has his own firm ideas on this subject which he believes make for the perfect dinner presentation. The suggestion made by his philosophy is that once you have purchased your first set, you immediately qualify to purchase a second, or a third.

"My own philosophy is that it is not advisable to use the same dinner set from the beginning of the meal to the end. In France it is acceptable now to the top people to change your dinner set during the meal; to have a progression. When you enter a diningroom not everyone is perfectly at home and you have to make a good impression and attract your guests with a colourful plate. Your guests say 'Oh, this is a wonderful plate' and the conversation is started.

"Then you have steak with French fried potatoes and if you have too much on your plate, too many colours, the food seems heavy and may not match the food, so you choose a plate with more subtle colours. With a fish dish the impression is different; you can use colour, then with cheese and with dessert, you have something entirely different, something colourful and gay. Yet at the same time all the different sets much complement each other and your guests must not be shocked by the change in colour. This way of interchanging the dinner sets is becoming fashionable in France and it will gain in popularity elsewhere.

Also emerging is a new approach to the shapes of pieces individual sets. Traditionally a complete set would carry the one theme of design and shape right throughout, however recently, in line with Michel's desire to maintain a diner's interest over however many courses, the shapes of plates and bowls for separate courses may be as varied as the food contained within. The Hermès dinner set was the first to introduce this variety of shapes within the one set and also featured larger dinner plates which are deemed more suitable for today's cooking style and presentation.

As for the future of the designs from Robert Haviland and Limoges, Michel Ardant says that they will continue to reflect countless sources of inspiration, as varied as the tastes of the consumers and designers alike. Michel makes the final decision on both designs and shapes of his company's porcelain just as the owners of other companies influence the products they produce. For Michel, the quality of Limoges porcelain both in terms of design and production is inextricably linked to the tastes and inclinations of the people of Limoges and their culture which has developed hand in hand with the porcelain they have produced for over two centuries.

"Porcelain is part of my life," he says, "and that is true of everyone in Limoges. This personal phenomenon in Limoges is extremely important. Haviland porcelain is Michel Ardant's taste, Bernardaud is Pierre Bernardaud, Raynaud is André Raynaud... It is our own feelings, whether we like something or not. I may not like a design simply because I do not think it suits what I personally like to do. The manufacture of porcelain such as ours is, I believe, so different to other industries because you have the ability to create with passion something very special, very beautiful and which will last for an eternity.