Initially, the manufactory produced soft-paste porcelain. In 1768, the Bordeaux chemist, Vilaris and his friend Jean-Baptiste Darnet discovered the first deposit of kaolin on French soil at Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche to the south of Limoges. On 13 February 1771, the Comte de Thy de Milly of the Royal Academy sent the academy a report on the creation of Hard-paste porcelain. This report was published in 1777 in volume 7 of the encyclopedia, "Art de la porcelaine". This work derived from his observations of the different manufacturies of Germany, especially Meissen. "Up to this time, the manufacturies of France - Sèvres not excepted - have only produced glass porcelain, which only has some qualities of the real thing...".