How to Collect Continental China. By C. H. Wylde. (G.
Bell and Sons. 68. net.)—The intending collector will be delighted or dismayed, according to the temperament he may have, when he sees how wide is the field of his operations. He will find that in France alone about thirty manufactories of porcelain are mentioned, that Germany boasts of twenty, and that there is scarcely one European country that is not represented in the list. Some of them perhaps may be regarded as negligible, but quite enough remain to occupy any man's time and means 'sufficiently. Sevres, of course, stands first. Taken together with Vincennes, where the earliest manufacture was located, it occupies more than- fifty pages, not much less than half of the total space allotted to French porcelains. Here we have a narrative of the manufacture which is in a way mixed up with French history. So in the table of marks we find that the crossed " L's " which enclosed the year's letter were abolished in 1793 as savouring of Royalty, were restored in 1814, and disappeared again in 1848. There 13 an alphabetical list of decorators, with their proper marks. Of course the forger is busy with porcelain, as with other things, and Mr. Wylde gives an interesting example of his devices in his • preface. A common object is a dish or plate with a miniature of Madame du Barry, its edges adorned with enamelled discs. But the discs were not introduced before 1782, and by that time the du Barry had ceased to be a popular subject. But the forger does not always give himself away in this fashion. Mr. Wylde's volume will be found a useful guide.
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