"OLD CHINA."-By the MAYOR OF CANTERBURY. 



The Mayor of Canterbury( Alderman F-Bennett- 

 Goldnev F S A.I delivered a highly interesting 

 Sc urfjn •■ Old China " to a good attendance of 

 'Members and friends at the Beaney Insti^^nte o^ 

 November HI, UUO, the new President (Dr.t-rabam 



'^!^^:^oi the lectnre was. greatly en^ 

 haneed bva number of valuable specimens placed 

 on the table, which served as illustrations for 



"S^^St!^'^^ucing the Mayor, stat^ 



that it was the desire of the «°«'f X *° "»^\'h1 

 programme a more popular one and to «tend the 

 Lo^e of its work.and he did not think they '^°»1^ 

 have started with a more interesting subject than 



*'Thf Mayor, wt'poke for abour one and a half 

 hours, first o all explained the derivation ot he 

 word porcelain, and then went on to observe : It 

 Ts its unique perfection of material which .» st.ll 

 the "lory of Chinese porcelain and was for so many 

 centuries the despair of the European potter. 

 Properly treated, il whiteness^ its homogeneity 

 fts plasticity, its translucency its po«M.r o es^ 

 ing fire, its imperviousness to liquids, its suscepti 

 bifity rf delicate and b"l'-°S 'i«7™'^°°; l\l 

 heautv of surface, its perennial durability, all 

 comwLd to rende; it anldeally perfect substance 

 for the purposes of ceramic art in its '"S^"^ fj^ 

 opment f in the classic lands ot the West the 

 arHt the potter often glorified t>s material m 

 the flowery lands of the Far East the material 

 always glorified his art. It seems strange at 

 Lst sight that Chinese P^'^^l'^'^v'^'Tou d have 

 in the "second century, if not «''^%«'' ^^^f^f,,'^:: 

 practically only re-appeared in Europe after an 

 interval of some fifteen hundred years. In realit.y, 

 however, it would have been -^"f-^'^^^i.ij 

 become generally known in Europe at an earli.r 

 Deoome ,j ' o£ the sea route round the 



Cape to India andthe Far East towards the close 

 of ?he fifteenth cntury for the A-t time opened 

 the highway for its commercial passage to the 

 West and to the Portuguese is due the credit of 

 havin Aeen the first to bring home samples ot the 

 nnrcplain of China, Korea, and Japan. 

 P^hT Worlhip proceeded to speak at eon^derable 

 length upon several of the periods of Chinese art^ 

 outlinin.' the distinctive featuies of each and 

 the Embolisms of some of the subjects which 

 thev saw represented on old China ware. He 

 ne^i:n:dZt it was afterthe death of the f^u^^th 

 Tsin" Emperor, Keen Lung (I'^^'-M^"''' t,„^ 

 decadence in the art commenced and had continued 

 tuh more or less rapidity and persistence ever 



''Tnthe coarse of his concluding summary, he 

 said -The two special national characteristics of 



he "heathen Chinee," ^^^ rt'^'^T "tt^X^'tTe 

 and the "ways that are dark i^nl arts that are 

 vafn " for which he is "peculiar," both came into 

 play in the matter of marks on porcelain. Thus. 



unless distinct orders to the contrary happen to 

 be given, the mark of an archaic perioQ may con- 

 tinue to be employed for several centuries ; or an 

 ingenious potter in counterfeiting work cf earlier 

 days, may, and generally does, counterfeit the 

 ma'^rk as well (laughter). M°st of the porce am 

 however, so marked is too valuable m China itself 

 to find its way into the Western markets. The 

 special frauds' against which the collector has to 

 be on his guard are almost exclusively Japanese 

 or European, France and Hungary having an un^ 

 desirable reputation in this respect. Still when 

 all IS said, the number of impositions, either old 

 or new, which can pass undetected under the 

 scrulia; and touch-for handling is m some cases 

 an even surer test than ocular inspection-of a 

 thoroughly experienced and careful judge is an 

 almost infinitesimal residuum. A f^" d°"Wful 

 and even spurious examples are no doubt to be 

 found in many museums of note, but even here 

 the judgment of many generations comes in to 

 supplement the knowfedge of the individual and 

 where specimens of the kind are re ained. their 

 rruecharacterisgeneranyknowntoalltowhomthe 

 knowledge is of piaetical importance, ffte. all., 

 master works of decorative a^JPf^H f"^*^'"- 

 selves The first, second and third object is to 

 ptase-the first ' to please everybody by their 

 appropriateness and general harmony with de- 

 tfghtfu. surroundings ; the second to please the 

 educated observer by their general good taste and 

 effective appearance : the third to please the 

 :kiUed spedilist by the perfection of their craft 

 manship and their own artistic beauty. All the 

 rest. When not actually superfluoiis, is simply 

 surplusage of more or less value so far as it tends 

 to carry out the primary objects of all purely 

 decorative art-to please. Thus, in even a super- 

 Si examination o^f a collection of Chnese porce- 

 lain, in which every example has it»o>%n indi- 

 viduality and its own special wealth of decoration, 

 when wJhave taken due note of the many sub le 

 perfections and graces of the decorations them- 

 selves t is a perceptible ad-lition to the pleasure 

 we derive from the visible object to know that 

 more is meant than meets the eye. that almost 

 every detail in the design is symbolic a poetic 

 metephor in the language ot art. and that every 

 rvmbol not intended simply as a means of 

 ide^Hfyinc- a figure or subject represented 

 breathes a kindly wish or expresses a sense of 

 enjoyment for all who can interpret them aright, 

 a hese sprays of delicious whitethorn blossom 



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 it^i^r^orrLagi^uvrtC^^: 



;iumage and anatomy : these wondrous lions and 



