SCHERZER Fernand (EN)

Biographical article

Georges Francisque Fernand Scherzer (1849–1886) was born in Paris on 11 April 1849. He was the son of August Henri Scherzer (1819–1874), a stationmaster, and Marie Rosalie Françoise Laslier (1828–1905) (AN, LH/2479/24). His family came from Douai (MAE, 393QO/3691). Having obtained a Science Baccalaureate in 1865, he was admitted to the École Centrale in 1867. In 1869, he succeeded in being admitted to the École Polytechnique, but as he was too old to sit the exams, he applied to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a post as a Chinese language pupil and interpreter (MAE, 393QO/3691). He was not a student at the Institut des Langues Orientales, so it is difficult to ascertain exactly how he learned Chinese. Thanks to strong support, he was given a post as a Chinese language pupil and interpreter in Peking on 16 March 1870 (Bensacq-Tixier N., 2003, p. 510). Narrowly escaping the Tianjin massacres upon his arrival in China, he became an interpreter for the Chancellor of the Legation in Peking, then in the Hangzhou consulate (ibid., p. 511). After fulfilling his job as an interpreter in several other consulates, in Shanghai, Tianjin and Canton, he became first-class Vice-Consul in Hankou 漢口 (located in the present-day city of Wuhan 武漢 in the Hubei 湖北) in 1882, then second-class Consul in Canton on 7 May 1884, a post he only briefly held before the Franco-Chinese War broke out in August 1884. Scherzer subsequently joined the Far-Eastern Squadron on board the Bayard battleship. Once the war was over, he participated in the commission responsible for negotiating the frontier between China and Indochina. He became sick during this mission and it was during the trip back to France on board the Djemnah that he succumbed to his illness in 1886, at the young age of thirty-six.

He was made Officier d’Académie in 1874 (Bensacq-Tixier N., 2003, p. 511), then made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by decree issued on 28 December 1885 for the mission carried out on board the Bayard (AN, LH/2479/24).

He published several studies on Korea—a country that Westerners were unfamiliar with at the time—, based on Chinese documents: in 1877, he translated the diary of a Chinese ambassador in Korea, which recounted the marriage of King Gojong 조선고종 in 1866, and then, shortly before his death, he published a thesis on Korea (Chaoxian zhi朝鮮志) translated from Chinese in the Journal Asiatique (1885, Vol. 6, pp. 160–242, and 1886, Vol. 7, pp. 223–376); it was then published in a separate edition by Ernest Leroux (1886). He was also the author of a study on Chinese law published in 1878 and entitled La Puissance Paternelle en Chine.

The collection

The genesis of a mission for the Sèvres Manufactory

In a letter dated 14 January 1882, the Minister of Instruction Publique, des Beaux-Arts, et des Cultes, Antonin Proust (1832–1905), contacted the director of the Sèvres Manufactory, Charles Lauth, and sent him the proposition made by Fernand Scherzer to go ‘to Kin-te-cheng (Jingdezhen 景德镇市), the location of the porcelain kilns in China’ (SMMN, 4W389). Convinced that ‘the special aptitudes of Mr Scherzer will certainly enable him to successfully complete this scientific mission and gather observations that would be precious for the ceramic industry’, the Minister submitted the project for examination by the commission for voyages and missions and asked Charles Lauth to send him a questionnaire about the various matters that could be elucidated by Fernand Scherzer, and which would be of use to the manufactory (SMMN, 4W389). Charles Lauth listed a large number of questions, ranging from the composition of the pastes and the glazes used on the porcelains, the plans and cross sections of the Chinese kilns, to the means of preparing the high-temperature coloured glazes, and, most importantly, the celadon glaze and copper reds (Abrigeon, P. d’, 2022, p. 121-125, AN F/17/3006/1, letter dated 04/04/1882). He also specified that this information would only be of real utility if accompanied by samples, as each type of decoration had to be associated with a specific type of paste.

At Jingdezhen…

He eventually departed on 14 November 1882 at Kiukiang (Jiujiang) 九江 (Jiangxi 江西) for Hukou 湖口at the mouth of Poyang Lake 鄱陽湖, before heading to the river bank, from where he made his way to Jingdezhen on 23 November via the River Chang 昌江. In a letter sent to the French Minister of Public Instruction, he provided picturesque details of his arrival in the capital of porcelain: ‘The 120 li (40 miles) which separate Jao-Chou from a village called Ouang-Kan should be passed in a day, but on leaving this place, the navigation was hindered by the accumulation of porcelain debris, plus bricks, and saggers, which encumbered the bed of the river and formed veritable rapids, resulting in a slow passage of 60 li (20 miles) that took two days’ (AN F/17/3006/1, letter dated 23/12/1882).

Thanks to the intervention of the Minister Plenipotentiary in China, Frédéric Albert Bourrée (1838–1914), Fernand Scherzer was given a passport provided by the administration in charge of Foreign Affairs, the Zongli geguo shiwu yamen 總理各國事務衙門, which greatly facilitated his movements at Jingdezhen and even gave him access to the imperial manufactory yuyaochang 御窯廠, where he was taken by the local authorities. He described the tragic state of the premises of the manufactory, which, according to him, was scheduled to close only three days after his visit: an aging and sick manager, buildings that ‘were falling into ruin’, underpaid craftsmen despite their great skill, and so on (SMMN, SB46, Scherzer, F., 1882, pp. 4–5). During his visit, he noted down the dimensions of the imperial factory’s enamelling kilns. Scherzer did everything he could to carry out his mission, sometimes going there at night to observe the firings, insisting with the authorities that he be allowed to see each stage of the manufacture of porcelain. He obtained most of his information from three privately run factories: the factories of Lin 林, Li 李, and Tang 唐, which provided him with a large number of recipes. He also made the most of his stay to acquire raw enamels, most of which were imported from Canton (Abrigeon, P. d’, 2022, p. 121-125). He spent almost three weeks in the capital of porcelain.

Samples and collection

In autumn 1883, Scherzer dispatched from Shanghai to Paris no less than thirty-five crates containing the collections compiled during his mission (AN F/17/3006/1, letter dated 31/10/1883). Three of the crates were filled with samples of raw materials and the others contained porcelains of ‘various qualities and values’ (AN F/17/3006/1, letter dated 15/10/1883; inv. nos. MNC 8582-8590 and MNC 8745). At the request of the Minister of Public Instruction, some of the samples were removed after being examined by the Sèvres Manufactory to enrich the galleries of the Musée d’Ethnographie (AN F/17/3006/1, letter dated 21/09/1883). Other crates of samples intended to complement this shipment were stored for several years at his Parisian address at 8, Rue Greffulhe, as his premature death had very probably delayed their transportation (SMMN, 4W389). To this day, no sample brought back by Scherzer has been identified in public collections.

Fernand Scherzer also gave the manufactory two works on Chinese porcelain (AN F/17/3006/1, letters dated 22/10/1883 and 26/10/1883), the Jingdezhen Taolu 景德鎮陶錄and the Tao shuo 陶說—the latter was given to him by the English consul in Hankou, Chaloner Alabaster (1838–1898)—, which are now in the manufactory’s documentation centre with the references S 348 and S 349.

Results and analyses

The observations made by Fernand Scherzer during his mission in Jingdezhen were consigned to a manuscript, a copy of which is still held in the Sèvres Manufactory archives (SMMN, SB46). Part of this report was published and analysed well after Fernand Scherzer’s death by the Head Chemist of the Sèvres Manufactory, Georges Vogt (1843–1909), in the Bulletin de la Société d’Encouragement pour l’Industrie Nationale (1900). The Scherzer mission brought back certain glazes and decorations in their liquid form, in small bottles, which in the previous missions organised by Sèvres—in particular that of Joseph Ly (see the article aboutJoseph Ly)—had not been done, and which enabled a more thorough chemical analysis to be made.

In recognition of the zeal with which he had accomplished this mission, Scherzer received ‘a lot of Sèvres porcelain worth twelve hundred francs’ (AN F/17/3006/1). An application to obtain a Croix de la Légion d’Honneur was also made to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but was unsuccessful (AN F/17/3006/1, letter dated 13/12/1883). After his death, his brother, Albert Scherzer, who was also in China, suggested to the Sèvres Manufactory that he complete the observational and collection work begun by Fernand (SMMN, 4W389). Hence, Albert Scherzer managed to add some more ceramic objects to the manufactory and he was entrusted with a free mission in February 1888 (SMMN, 4W389).