PICTURE SALES.
There are no fewer than seven collections of pictures consigned to the hammer within a week or two,—those of Mr. MORANT, Mr. WATSON TAYLOR, and Mr. THAN?, which have been knocked down at PHILLIPS'S and FOSTER'S; and those of Sir E. EAST, MY. EMERSON, REINAGLE the artist, and a Military Officer, which are announced for sale by auction. These are independent of the jobbers' sales of refuse or manufactured rubbish, under the names of importations, duplicate copies, &c., which periodically recur during the town season. Some persons deplore these "signs of. the times," and fear that such sales will make pictures drugs in the market. • Itlie confess we have no such apprehensions. Really fine works of art will always fetch a fair price, -as have most of the good paintings in the collections above named; and as for the rubbish, the sooner it finds its way into damp cellars, the better for art and artists.
The picture-mania, like bibliomania, has had its day. The disease has cured itself; and the picture-dealing quacks have hastened this desirable consummation by the very means that they resorted to for aggravating its symptoms. To " set up" a collection of pictures, was as requisite, at one time, to a man of fashion, as an equipage; and the soi-disant • connoisseur paid thousands • to an Italian virtuoso or an English • dealer for " a gallery of pictures,"-just as a City-knight ordered a " library of books ;" and with an equal ignorance of their vaIuc.• Great names will not now, we suspect, bring high prices for bad paintings ; and a picture will be preferred for its intrinsic worth, and the interest of its subject. No collection but such as has been judiciously chosen will be valued ; and, what is of more consequence to the country, the really excellent productions of -native talent will be appreciated.
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