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WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTERS,

GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S-INN Fields,

LONDON, W.C.

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THIS

art induced me to write, as it also led me never to lose a chance of gaining any practical information which might seem to bear upon it— has already received so much favour from the public, that I have been desired to make further researches, and I now venture to produce it again corrected and enlarged, the more readily, because that which, in days lang syne, was solely a pleasure and possibly a profit to the few, has now become a positive mania with the million,-a taste which has gone far to raise the most mediocre specimens of ceramic art as far beyond a moderate purse, as is their intrinsic value, and has produced a vulgar and absurd estimation of very indifferent works under the odious name of fashion.

For my part, I can readily understand that a real collector should endeavour to obtain a specimen of all the fabrics at home and abroad. But why a Worcester cup without beauty, a Plymouth milk-jug, a Bristol teapot, or a Staffordshire figure of a shepherd and a lamb, should command prices formerly paid for a lovely piece of Wedgwood, solely because they bear the mark of the manufactory whence they were issued, is beyond my comprehension.

But these acquisitions, although they may make the fortunes of dealers, are not fine art. The prices given for fine Sèvres, Chelsea, early Dresden, and the productions of German, Italian, and Spanish fabrics which have long ceased to exist, such as "Buen Retiro," which is now imitated so as to deceive a good judge, Capo di Monte, Carl Theodore, Fulda, Fustenburg, and others, the groups of which are lifelike, can readily be understood; yet, because they are simply productions of this and that fabric, it by no means follows that they are of any value.

Meanwhile there are very many dealers, not of

the first class, who would far rather pay any amount for a very moderate Chelsea figure, or a Worcester cup,-in some cases rare and beautiful,— than touch a Buen Retiro of the softest paste and the finest modelling, solely because English china is for the moment the fashion. It sells, in fact. In so far, dealers have reason. They say, and they are right, that the purchaser may tell his friends who visit his collection this is. Plymouth, Bristol, or what not, an idea which appears to me to be highly ridiculous.

True, that not long since some Sèvres vases were sold for a fortune,-they were specimens of the finest; but no vases, even if solid gold, could be worth the price given for these, and it is only the rich, and at times those who have little knowledge of what they buy (though not so in the case above), from whom such sums can be obtained. A Sèvres vase, in one instance, may be priceless, in the other, valueless. It is, however, the eccentricity and variety of taste, which, as regards the ceramic art, is as variable as the change in ladies' bonnets, which causes

pecuniary extravaganzas to be occasionally indulged in.

I had recently two charming Vienna groups ; and, although Vienna china, till recently, appears to have never been greatly estimated among dealers, the gilding and painting of these was beyond praise. Knowing that a friend of mine had received 100 for two Dresden groups of precisely similar character, very little superior, if at all, to mine, I offered them for sale, but the highest bid was £20! Why so? Solely, because they were Vienna, and not Dresden. Had they, in the present mania for English china, been Plymouth or Chelsea, any reasonable sum demanded would have been readily paid for them.

This sort of taste and dealing, however, appears to me to be erroneous, and will find its level sooner or later, and only real art and beauty, from whatever country or fabric, will carry the day with those who have money to purchase and taste and experience to guide them.

Meanwhile, in no manner do I presume to be a first-rate connoisseur as regards the ceramic art,

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