CURRENT LITERATURE
THE CHELSEA PORCELAIN TOYS. By C. E. Bryant. (Medici Society. £7 7s. not.) THE CHELSEA PORCELAIN TOYS. By C. E. Bryant. (Medici Society. £7 7s. not.) - Mn. Bayarrr has dealt industriously and thoroughly with his small subject. His book is one for the collector (though, incidentally, i t might rouse the interest of a social historian) ; and it is not likely to be superseded. The specimens illustrated are scent-bottles, bonbonnieres, etuis, seals and statuettes made at the Chelsea Factory during its short existence from 1745 to 1769 ; and, for comparison, a few small pieces of the Derby-Chelsea period. The scent-bottles are perhaps the most attractive : they were used by ladies for the dusty and tiring journeys of the eighteenth century, and for this purpose they were kept in shagreen cases. We have many of the pieces, therefore, in an excellent state of preservation. It is not for beauty that we search among the illustrations, but for the prodigality and gaiety of fancy amongst the designers and the honest craftsmanship of the workmen. Subjects were drawn from the whole world—nuns, owls, harlequins, mandarins, milk- maids, characters from fables and from fiction—and all were treated in the same light and fantastic vein. Over four hun- dred models are illustrated, forty-seven of the plates being coloured reproductions of water-colour drawing by 0. F. Tassart, H. Haase, and the author himself.
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