Garden Ornaments of Pottery 
the color, dom¬ 
inated by a rich, 
deep, resonant 
greenish blue, 
is curiously 
puissant. The 
little knobs like 
rivet heads, 
called “pearls,” 
help to com¬ 
plete a moving 
e n s e m b 1 e . 
After the main 
impression has 
been taken in, 
one notes that 
the peacocks 
are ot eggplant 
color, and the 
large asters 
quite light in 
tone. Also, the 
presence of the “dog-foo” heads in relief is 
observed. Could not art works of this cali¬ 
ber find a place in an American garden with¬ 
out demoralizing it, provided they could 
exclude other styles? 
These garden seats are meant to be sat 
upon, though Caucasian folk might find 
them somewhat lacking in comfort. "They 
have the good qualities of being portable 
and of a stolid indifference to rain. Their 
strength is ample. In shape, the usual form 
is that of a small barrel, 
closed at the top, but 
they may take the four¬ 
sided design of another 
example fro m M r. 
Clarke’s collection, a 
piece of white porcelain 
of the Kea-King period 
(1795 1820) with an 
elephant in white relief 
against a raised blue, 
shield-shaped, panel. 
This is a straightforward 
design, and eloquent 
withal. The illustration 
shows the interesting tex¬ 
ture of the blue panel, 
and the virile modeling 
in relief of the phoenix 
birds on the upper panel, 
also the leaf 
forms around 
the foot. Be¬ 
side these, the 
double garden 
seat and the 
jardiniere ped¬ 
estal in old rice 
color (a dull 
straw tint), 
woven like rat¬ 
tan, seems to 
carry less mean¬ 
ing, but it has 
a quiet poise 
that counts. 
I nside the seat, 
and in its plant 
holder, have 
been placed tin 
cylinders in 
which shrubs 
may be rooted. The combined height ot 
these two is 24 inches. The first garden 
seat is 14 inches tall and 1 1 in diameter. 
Deep bowls, once used for taming gold 
fish, make capital pots for plants, to which 
purpose, indeed, they are now turned in 
China itself, European glass bowls being 
employed for the fish. The two Ming 
bowls shown here are ot good size and thick 
walls, one being 19 inches high and of 22 
inches diameter and the other 1 5 inches deep 
and 28 inches across. 
The decorations, in blue, 
of squirming fish or ot 
dragons, moving among 
water plants, are realistic 
and well composed, hav¬ 
ing the boldness and 
masculinity of style that 
marked the vigorous 
Ming epoch. Smaller 
and more limited in ap¬ 
plication is a hexagonal 
blue and white bowl of 
the Kang - He period 
(1661-1722), with land¬ 
scape and legendary fig¬ 
ures as decorations. 
Old Chinese pottery 
has also a claim on the 
attention of garden de- 
JARDINIERE AND GARDEN SEAT A PORCELAIN FISH BOWL 
XVII Century -work ; old rice color Of the Ming Period; blue and white 
From the Art House oj Mr. Thomas B. Clarke 
MODERN BLUE AND WHITE CHINESE 
PORCELAIN BOWL 
From the Art Rooms of Long Sang Ti 
I 20 
