§45. 



VASES OF BAD FORM. 



255 



[Some of the most intolerable in form are great favourites ; 

 and they receive increased admiration from the richness of 

 their colour, and the evidence of the labour expended on their 

 manufacture, though in reality these supposed merits only 

 make their deformity the more 

 lamentable. Such are examples 

 given in the following woodcuts 

 (25 to 34) ; some of which have 

 the additional fault of uniting a 

 metal cover and handles with a 

 body of porcelain; and many a 

 vase of Sevres manufacture shows 

 that richness of material is no 

 voucher for excellence of taste.] 

 Their value arises from the diffl- Fl 9- lm Fl V- 2 - 



culty of making them, or from the skill exercised in painting 

 the subjects, most of which are out of place on a vase ; and 

 when an enormous sum is paid for them, which might com- 

 mand works of really good art, they are on a par with Dutch 

 tulips, or some strange curiosities, whose price depends on 

 their rarity and the caprice of fashion. So long as they are 

 treated merely as curiosities, or hold a place in a cabinet, 



(26.) 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



Fig. 3. 



a collection of these, as of the most whimsical pieces of old 

 Venetian glass, or of curious china, is innocent and unobjec- 

 tionable ; but when they claim admiration as objects of real 

 beauty and good design, their pretensions are not to be 



