278 BRICK AND STONE. 



ill a thoii'^aiKl difTerent blue-and-vvhite designs, 

 fjuniliHr . all of us on plates and vases. In 

 (rreece it was the grape that held the same place. 

 Wine was there the drink of the country, the 

 sacred drink of the gods ; it is the child Bacchus 

 playing with a bunch of the purple fruit that we 

 get, instead of the fat complacent mandarin calmly 

 sipping his fragrant bohea at the little wicker 

 table in the back garden. The vine-leaf and the 

 thyrsus, the, vase and the beaker, the great two- 

 handled wine-jar and the earthen amphora — these 

 are to Greek and Roman habits what the tea-plant 

 and the tea-caddy, the delicate porcelain cup and 

 the dainty tea-pot, are to Chinese and Japanese 

 culture. And here again the possession of kaolin, 

 or China clay, from which the porcelain itself can 

 be manufactured, strikes the key-note of the 

 Chinese fictile art, just as the common red earthen- 

 ware of Greece and Italy lends itself naturally to 

 the red and black Athenian and Etruscan decora- 

 tion, so familiar to all of us on ancient vases or 

 modern Wedgwood imitations. Look, once more, 

 at the influence of paper on Japanese art. How 

 much the lanterns and the parasols, the fans and 

 the pictures, the lianging scrolls and the thousand 

 and one little decorative knick-knacks that now 

 adorn half the shops and houses in London and 

 New York owe to that cheaj) and common mate- 

 rial in the hands of the skilful Japanese workman ! 



