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HOW extensive is the literature that has grown up of late years round the subject of porcelain may be judged from the length of our ‘selected’ list of books dealing with this material. Apart from the not inconsiderable number of general works on the potter’s art in French, German, and English, there is scarcely to be found a kiln where pottery of one kind or another has been manufactured which has not been made the subject of a separate study. And yet, as far as I know, the very definite subdivision of ceramics, which includes the porcelain of the Far East and of Europe, has never been made the basis of an independent work in England.

It has been the aim of the writer to dwell more especially on the nature of the paste, on the glaze, and on the decoration of the various wares, and above all to accentuate any points that throw light upon the relations with one another—especially the historical relations—of the different centres where porcelain has been made. Less attention has been given to the question of marks. In the author’s opinion, the exaggerated importance that has been given to these marks, both by collectors and by the writers that have catered to them, has more than anything else tended to degrade the study of the subject, and to turn off the attention from more essential points. This has been above all the case in England, where the technical side has been strangely neglected. In fact, we must turn to French works for any thorough information on this head.

In the bibliographical list it has been impossible to distinguish the relative value of the books included. I think that something of value may be found in nearly every one of these works, but in many, whatever there is of original information might be summed up in a few pages. In fact, the books really essential to the student are few in number. For Oriental china we have the Franks catalogue, M. Vogt’s little book, La Porcelaine, and above all the great work of Dr. Bushell, which is unfortunately not very accessible. For Continental porcelain there is no ‘up-to-date’ work in English, but the brief notes in the catalogue prepared shortly before his death by Sir A. W. Franks have the advantage of being absolutely trustworthy. The best account of German porcelain is perhaps to be found in Dr. Brinckmann’s bulky description of the Hamburg Museum, which deals, however, with many subjects besides porcelain, while for Sèvres we have the works of Garnier and Vogt. For English porcelain the literature is enormous, but there is little of importance that will not be found in Professor Church’s little handbook, or in the lately published works of Mr. Burton and Mr. Solon. The last edition of the guide to the collection lately at Jermyn Street has been well edited by Mr. Rudler, and contains much information on the technical side of the subject. On many historical points the notes in the last edition of Marryat are still invaluable: the quotations, however, require checking, and the original passages are often very difficult to unearth.

In the course of this book I have touched upon several interesting problems which it would be impossible to thoroughly discuss in a general work of this kind. I take, however, the occasion of bringing one or two of these points to the notice of future investigators.

Much light remains to be thrown upon the relations of the Chinese with the people of Western Asia during the Middle Ages. We want to know at what time and under what influences the Chinese began to decorate their porcelain, first with blue under the glaze, and afterwards by means of glazes of three or more colours, painted on the biscuit. The relation of this latter method of decoration to the true enamel-painting which succeeded it is still obscure. So again, to come to a later time, there is much difference of opinion as to the date of the first introduction of the rouge d’or, a very important point in the history and classification of Chinese porcelain.

We are much in the dark as to the source of the porcelain exported both from China and Japan in the seventeenth century, especially of the roughly painted ‘blue and white,’ of which such vast quantities went to India and Persia. So of the Japanese ‘Kakiyemon,’ which had so much influence on our European wares, what was the origin of the curious design, and what was the relation of this ware to the now better known ‘Old Japan’?

When we come nearer home, to the European porcelain of the eighteenth century, many obscure points still remain to be cleared up. The currently accepted accounts of Böttger’s great discovery present many difficulties. At Sèvres, why was the use of the newly discovered rose Pompadour so soon abandoned? And finally, in England, what were we doing during the long years between the time of the early experiments of Dr. Dwight and the great outburst of energy in the middle of the eighteenth century?

The illustrations have been chosen for the most part from specimens in our national collections. I take this opportunity of thanking the officials in charge of these collections for the facilities they have given to me in the selection of the examples, and to the photographer in the reproduction of the pieces selected. To Mr. C. H. Read of the British Museum, and to Mr. Skinner of the Victoria and Albert Museum, my thanks are above all due. To the latter gentleman I am much indebted for the trouble he has taken, amid arduous official duties, in making arrangements for photographing not only examples belonging to the Museum, scattered as these are through various wide-lying departments, but also several other pieces of porcelain at present deposited there by private collectors. To these gentlemen, finally, my thanks are due for permission to reproduce examples of their porcelain—to Mr. Pierpont Morgan, to Mr. Fitzhenry, to Mr. David Currie, and above all to my friend Mr. George Salting, who has interested himself in the selection of the objects from his unrivalled collection.

The small collection of marks at the end of the book has no claim to originality. The examples have been selected from the catalogues of the Schreiber collection at South Kensington, and from those of the Franks collections of Oriental and Continental china. For permission to use the blocks my thanks are due, as far as the first two books are concerned, to H. M.’s Stationery Office and to the Education Department; in the case of the last work, to Mr. C. H. Read, who, I understand, himself drew the original marks for Sir A. W. Franks’s catalogue.

In a general work of this kind much important matter has had to be omitted. That is inevitable. I only hope that specialists in certain definite parts of the wide field covered will not find that I have committed myself to rash or ungrounded generalisations. Let them remember that the carefully guarded statements and the reservations suitable to a scientific paper would be out of place in a work intended in the main for the general public.

E. D.