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_With Coloured Frontispieces and many Illustrations._ _Large Crown 8vo_, =5s.= _net._
CHATS ON OLD FURNITURE. By ARTHUR HAYDEN.
CHATS ON COSTUME. By G. WOOLLISCROFT RHEAD.
CHATS ON OLD LACE AND NEEDLEWORK. By Mrs. LOWES.
CHATS ON ORIENTAL CHINA. By J. F. BLACKER.
High-necked vase with melon-shaped body and double protuberance above. One of a pair. Formal handles on the neck in imitation of bamboo-work. The body and protuberances decorated with bamboo stems having yellow and green reserves decorated with flowers and plants. The neck decorated with diaper pattern, yellow on green. The flattened top ornamented with black and green triangle-work. Period, (Kang-he) 1662-1722.]
AUTHOR OF THE "A B C OF COLLECTING OLD CHINA," ETC.
LONDON T. FISHER UNWIN ADELPHI TERRACE MCMVIII
If there is one regret that accompanies the issue of these "Chats on Oriental China" it is that the illustrations could not be given in all the beauty of their magnificent colouring. In a photograph, however fine it may be, it is obvious that only the shape and the decoration can be given. Roughly speaking, the illustrations represent in its Ming and Kang-he specimens about £100,000 in value. The pieces represented are the most admirable and the rarest. The reader is advised to bestow much attention on the reading of the descriptions accompanying each picture. There is no form of instruction more valuable than this analysis, which forms the basis of the sale catalogues of the most _recherché_ collections.
The collector who masters this book may betake himself to the museums with considerable confidence that he will be in a position to understand; in fact, to read the pieces which he wishes to study. Take for example, the unique Salting Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. To the ordinary visitor interested in porcelain the specimens present an exquisite, if embarrassing, assembly of choice pieces whose colour, decoration, and age cannot be grasped, they can only be admired. The eye may be trained, but the understanding never. The absence of a catalogue handicaps and indeed baffles the amateur. But if the knowledge previously obtained is sufficient to enable him to master the subject, the style, form, and colour, nothing can give more pleasure than the investigation of such a collection which has been brought together at a vast expense of time, money, and knowledge. In the British Museum the descriptive labels are helpful.