House and Garden 
signers, as well as porcelain. The four-sided 
green jar shown here, with its yellow splashes 
and its plum-colored floral decoration in re¬ 
lief, is a modest example, while a striking 
specimen is the yellow bowl that seems to 
have anticipated the Art Nouveau of today. 
In shape, it is a free version ot a column 
capital, the yellow leaf forms being used to 
bold decorative purpose. In comparing it 
with work of the Art Nouveau manner, note 
that under all the turbulence of shape there 
is a structural principle apparent, and that, 
unlike certain extreme phases of the experi¬ 
mental style mentioned, this sixteenth century 
Pekin bowl has coherence and significance, 
despite its florid character. This unusual 
piece is 13 inches tall by 20 in diameter. 
These old Chinese products possess a 
dignity and power not at the beck and call 
of contemporary craftsmen. Little that is 
new is attempted nowadays in China, potters 
being content to copy and modify antique 
patterns. Look, for instance, at the large 
garden seat from the art rooms of Y. Fujita & 
Co., in New York, with its ground of robin’s 
egg blue, its handsome dragon, ravishing the 
MODERN CHINESE BOWL FOR PLANTS WITH 
“ DOG-FOO ” PEDESTAL 
From the Art Rooms of T. Fujita & Co. 
MODERN CHINESE GARDEN SEAT OF PORCELAIN 
From the Art Rooms of' Y. Fujita & Co. 
peonies, and its bountiful supply of small 
subordinate factors. This is an excellent 
specimen of recent Chinese garden ware, in 
porcelain, but it lacks, even in the illustra¬ 
tion, the rugged force, the close knit unity 
of the older pieces. In China, as elsewhere, 
the arts have all suffered from a modern 
refinement of means, a subdivision of effects 
too subtle for any but the rare masters— 
such a painter as Whistler, for instance—to 
make full use of. 
d'he other side ot the comparison must 
take into account the great difference in 
price. This Ta-Kwong garden seat, dating 
back not more than two generations, is ob¬ 
tainable for thirty-five dollars, while the an¬ 
tique ones may cost ten or twelve times that 
sum. To continue a rapid glance at recent 
Chinese garden ornaments, a “ dog-foo ” or 
“sky-lion” pedestal, holding a large, sepa¬ 
rate bowl for plants, is purchasable for sev¬ 
enty-five dollars. The combined height is 
37 inches. 
Far less worthy than these is a rough, 
showy pottery found only in the cheap Chi¬ 
nese shops, coarse in style and without dis¬ 
tinction of any good sort. Garden seats of 
this ware, which come in straw colors and 
1 21 
