Page 275 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

paid any attention to the peculiar pate of the original
Sevres, or to have detected that tenderness derived
from its artificial composition constituted a special

beauty. They were content to imitate the surface

decoration, not even modifying the motives so as to

render them Chinese, but frankly copying what they
found on the French ware. Naturally their rich
palette of exquisite Famille-Rose enamels enabled them

to accomplish their purpose without difficulty. In-
deed, if technical excellence alone be considered, the
imitations excelled the originals. But the artistic
skill of the French decorator was wanting in China.

The Chinese potter, copying mechanically and with-

out feeling or education, achieved a stiff transcript,
palpably lacking grace or originality. Nevertheless
the curiosity and novelty of such pieces strongly at-
tracted Chinese dilettanti during the eighteenth cen-

tury, and continue to attract them. The foreign

collector finds them interesting as imitations, but can
not admire them, and is astounded at the prices they

command in Peking. For when, at rare intervals, a

specimen, usually of insignificant dimensions, comes
into the hands of any of the great bric-a-brac dealers,
a figure is asked that bears comparison with the fancy
values set upon the finest old Sevres by Western con-

noisseurs.

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