The "depression" of which every one speaks does not appear
to affect collectors much. Lord Dudley's china, which was sold on Friday week, did not fetch the prices given by that eccen- tric person ; but still, more than 240,000 was paid for speci- mens of which many have no merits except rarity or the conquest of difficulties of material. Two thousand pounds, less five, seems a large sum to give for a dessert service, and 21,428 an extravagant price for two large " &entail jardini&es," even if an oviform vase could be worth 2902. The gem of the sale was, however, a set of chimney ornaments, one of which is a china ship, and this sold for 22,787, a sum which would pur- chase a really first-class modern painting. We do not believe that such purchases indicate any dangerous growth of luxury, and, indeed, see no luxury in a china ship ; but they do indicate that quantities of money still remain with very tasteless people. Huge expenditure on merely curious china is no more encourage- ment to Art than huge expenditure on picture-frames would be. Nothing is added to thought, or to the general sum of human pleasure, by creating such objects. One statue is worth them all.
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