Frauds in Old China 
to tell, but the lines of the head have lost their sharp¬ 
ness. 
Passing from the pottery of Colonial days to the 
china of Sevres, Dresden, Worcester and other not¬ 
able factories the number of forgeries becomes 
greatly increased. The reason for it may be found 
in the enormous prices which such things command. 
Here, for instance, are a few prices paid for old 
china in London auction rooms of recent years. 
Three vases of Rose du Barry Sevres, $^2,^00. 
A cup and saucer painted by Morris, ^800. 
A small pair of Dresden candlesticks, $2,600. 
Sixteen inch plate, made by Gubbio with paintings by Giorgio 
Andreoli in 1524, ^25,000. 
Hispano-Moresque plates, ^500 each. 
Capo di Monte, 4 groups (at Gladstone’s sale) $575. 
A Chelsea milk jug, alone, ^357; equal to five times its weight 
in gold. 
Three Worcester vases, fourteen Inches high, ;^i,68o. 
Old Chelsea tea service, painted with exotic birds, ^4,500. 
And here are a few from a New York sale. 
Lang-yao crackle vase, 16^ inches high, $1,2^0. 
Vase of soft paste, 18 inches high, said to be over nine hun¬ 
dred years old, ^2,400. 
Semi-eggshell, pear shape bottle, 22 inches high, $220. 
One hundred and fifty-seven such lots realized 
$ 22 , 000 . 
Is it any wonder that these things are imitated 
Another reason for it probably lies in the stress 
the average collector lays on a mark and the blind 
confidence he reposes in it. 
About the first thing an inexperienced collector 
does, when offered a piece of china, is to turn it 
upside down and look at the mark. If cross swords, 
it’s Dresden; if two L’s in a monogram, Sevres; 
if D with a crown. Crown Derby, and so on. And 
yet not only are these marks put on inferior pieces of 
different make, but original pieces are 
copied entire, mark and all. 
The fact is that marks are of little or 
no value in identifying anything; they 
only help determine age and history; 
provided that extraneous evidence proves 
the piece to be genuine. 
One well-known “ maker of antiques” 
in Paris, whose name I omit because I 
don’t propose to advertise his business, 
has a factory where he makes Chelsea 
—Derby, Lowestoft, Old Bow, Henri 
Deux, Sevres, Dresden, Staffordshire, 
anything and everything you like to order, 
marked with the original marks. The 
main points of difference between these 
imitations and the originals are, in the 
case of Sevres china, the colors are 
opaque, and lack the brilliancy of the 
original ware and the china has not the 
genuine ring to it. In imitations of the 
old Sevres pate tendre the imitation 
paste is a dead white instead of being 
creamy, and the colors look as if they were glazed 
on the surface instead of being blended with the paste. 
It is a good rule never to buy Sevres by any light 
other than daylight. The colors are its chief dis¬ 
tinguishing characteristic, the turquoise blue being 
very difficult to imitate; but by gaslight the difference 
is hard to detect. 
Imitation Capo di Monte is a favorite china to 
palm off on innocent purchasers. A great deal 
of it finds its way to the different auction rooms, 
generally marked with an N, surmounted by a 
crown, both in a reddish brown, with sometimes 
some additional hieroglyphics intended to represent 
the decorator’s initials. Genuine old Capo di Monte 
is very seldom marked and there is very little of it 
for sale. The French and English imitations offered 
here are crudely modeled and carelessly colored. 
Original pieces are remarkable for their fine sculp¬ 
ture and exquisite painting. Anyone can imitate 
a mark, but form and color is a different matter. 
That is what tells the tale. 
What is true of Capo di Monte is also true of 
Palissy; most of the imitations are clumsy, thick 
and coarse. 
It is perfectly safe to say don’t buy anything 
represented as Henri Deux unless you know. The 
imitations are very clever and only 63 original pieces 
are known to exist. 
Imitation old French and Italian faience is a 
class of pseudo “old china” (really pottery) largely 
used to deceive. IFis decorative, can be bought very 
cheaply in Paris and as very few people know any¬ 
thing about it, it passes muster well and realizes a 
good price. Most of the imitation old French plates 
cow CREAM PITCHER MADE IN igo6 FROM AN OLD MOULD 
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