268 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



Hon. Secretary of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society, and had in 1911 published a volume entitled "Old Chinese 

 Porcelain and Works of Art in China," a work which was beautifully 

 illustrated and which was in substance a catalogue of an exhibition 

 held in Shanghai, November, 190S. In his preface to this work Mr. 

 Bahr acknowledges his indebtedness to Mr. James Orange for aid in 

 running the volume through the press. 



It will readily be understood that the mere gain of knowledge where 

 some of these notes were odged, was an advance for me and that I 

 gladly availed myself of the opportunity thus afforded to secure 

 through Mr. Orange's intermediation some knowledge of what the 

 notes owned by Mr. Bahr actually were. On his part Mr. Orange 

 readily undertook the correspondence with the result that he after- 

 ward furnished me with a list of the notes in Mr. Bahr's possession 

 and ultimately offered them to me at a price which he regarded as 

 reasonable. Having full confidence in both of these gentlemen I 

 purchased the notes. 



In the course of my correspondence with Mr. Orange he quoted 

 from Mr. Bahr's letter to him as follows: 



"I may remark that the two Tang notes are very rare and scarce. I know 

 of no others in existence; as well as the one of the West Liao Tartar dynasty. 

 For anyone interested in these things they will realize it is a unique oppor- 

 tunity I guarantee them to be absolutely authentic and genuine. You 



will remember the paper of the Tang notes is quite light in colour, soft to the 

 touch, and as a paper perfectly made; the Sung and Liao are also of nearly a 

 similar quality, but have been darkened by age, or they may originally have 

 been of a grayish colour. Later ones are of a stiffer paper and more resembling 

 the Chinese paper used now; for instance, the earliest notes can be crumpled 

 into a ball in the hand and hardly a crease found when stretched." 



Concerning Mr. Bahr's capacity to judge of the notes, Mr. Orange 

 wrote, " I consider Mr. Bahr one of the best, if not the [best], experts 

 on Chinese matters, speaking and reading the language perfectly, 

 he has the power of acquiring which others must lack." 



Mr. Bahr himself in writing to me said, "I fully guarantee these 

 eighteen notes to be quite authentic as to the periods they are de- 

 scribed, as I have had good opportunities during my thirty-two years' 

 residence in China to differentiate the right from the wrong ones " 



Thinking that there might possibly be something of interest in the 

 story of the acquisition of the notes in China, I wrote Mr. Bahr asking 

 him to tell me where and how he happened upon them. He replied : 



