CHINESE PORCELAIN.* IT is quite impossible to do anything like
justice to this magnificent work. It does not pretend to give anything like a complete history of Chinese porcelain. There is a slight sketch of this subject which does not aim at being exhaustive, but to quote the words of the Preface, "is only suggestive of further study." The period between the end of the Han Dynasty (a.n. 220) and the beginning of the Sung (A.D. 960) is left untouched, and nothing is said of the modern period, which is fixed at 179G. In addition to this Introduction, which covers five pages only, each of the two hundred and fifty-four illustrations is faced by an explanatory description. This is given in French and English, as is the Introduction. It is, as might be supposed, the reproductions which make the book, and of these it would be impossible to speak with praise too high. They are quite perfect. There is, indeed, a certain consolation in feeling that if the Spectator were an illustrated paper it would be quite impossible to give pictorially any idea of what they are. The reproduc- tions are divided into twelve groups, the last of which is the " hard stone" section of the book. The grouping of the porcelain specimens is mostly determined by colour. In (8) we have " Three and five colour decorations of different periods, and in (4) " Figures, animals, and birds." This last is naturally the most intrinsically interesting of the whole series. Most of the human or quasi-human figures are of gods, curiously grotesque and horrible as the case may be, but without pathos or dignity. Here we come across the great limitation of Chinese art. Compare these gods, of War, or Longevity, or Contentment, with the art of Dwight, who was a contemporary of the most flourishing period of Chinese art—the Kang-Ksi period begins with 1640, and Dwight's floruit is 1671-1703—with the sad sweetness of the little child face of " Lydia " or the magnificent vigour of "Prince Rupert." The "hard stone" reproductions mostly represent objects in jade of different hues. There are also rock crystals and a specially brilliant specimen of aventurine. One of the moat characteristic is 249, where we have pictured three fishes, the largest of which is a carp with horns which indicate that it has entered upon the process of transformation into a dragon. This change is supposed to be due to the crea, ture's perseverance, and the subject is designed to furnish an in- centive to the student, The Chinese are nothing if not didactic.
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