Page 458 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

is the commonest variety, and there is the new sort
with coloured enamels which has only been seen
within the past few years." That M. Gersaint's esti-

mate of the costliness of choice specimens was not

exaggerated may be ascertained by examining the
accounts of sales made at that time. Thus, when
(1767) the collection of M. Julienne was brought to
the hammer, two large Dogs of Fo, in turquoise ware

splashed with violet, sold for 4,800 h'vres, and a celadon
bottle with flames and dragons in relief, for 1,996

tivres, whereas Raphael Sanzio's painting of the "Holy
Family" fetched only 399 litres, and Guido Reni's

" Infant Jesus," 1,100.

It is the fashion with Western amateurs to attribute

a large proportion of the older specimens in their

collections to the Ming Dynasty (13681661).
From what has been here recorded the reader will

readily see that no such estimate of age is justifiable.
Fine pieces manufactured during the celebrated

epochs of the Ming Emperors commanded enormous

prices in China prices quite out of proportion to
their decorative merits from a Western point of view.

The inferior but more brilliant productions of the
Lung-ching and Wan-li reigns (15671619) did prob-

ably form a small part of the porcelain exported from
Canton and Macao, but even this supposition admits

of reasonable dispute. With exceptions so rare as to
be almost unworthy of notice, it may be concluded

that the oldest specimens in Western collections of
the last century dated from the Kang-hsi era (1662

1722). M. du Sartel, the latest writer on Chinese
keramics, appears to have shared the delusion of many

brother connoisseurs in this respect, despite the gen-
erally painstaking and appreciative character of his

376