RERAMIC STUDIO 
V' 
JONQUILS 
Mrs. J. F. Bernies 
FLO^A''ERS, pale yellow in high light, deeper yellow in 
ordinary light and shaded with green and brownish 
green according to depth of shadow. Leaves, blueish green, 
very light in high lights. Background may he soft green tones 
or grey. 
RARE ART DISCOVERIES 
HE collection of ceramics in the museum of Fine Arts has 
been enriched with several examples of the pottery 
latelj^ discovered at Rakka in the vilayet of Aleppo, a district 
along the western border of ancient Mesopotamia. The vases 
T 
and fragments brought to light in the excavations are presumed 
to belong to a period extending from the days of Darius and 
Cambyses, who invaded Egypt, to those of the great prophet 
Mahomet and even later. 
The importance of these examples becomes all the more 
a]5parent from the fact that they illustrate the evolution of 
Persian ceramic art from its rudimentary stages to that which 
flourished under the Ottoman empire. From the information 
so far obtainable it appears that the earhest object in the 
collection is the small iridescent pitcher from M. Dikran Kele- 
kian and that to the same period belong the flat iridescent 
plate — lent anonymously — a large whitish vase and a beautiful 
ovoid vase resembling in color certain Chinese celadons, also 
the mulberry purple and iridescent pitcher of the collection. 
The turquoise bowl, the fine warped white and blue bowl and 
most of the fragments would, it is supposed, fall well within the 
fifth to the tenth century of our era. These very well illustrate 
the ceramic art of Islam. 
On the upper shelf of case 20 are some fanciful examples 
of the work of the Ming potters. These clay modelings of fruits 
and flowers reflect a mode of treatment which gave way before 
the ostentation of the Manchurian dynasty, and has never 
since reappeared in the art of China. As a further evidence 
of still earlier refinements may be pointed out the delicate white 
plates that are attributed under the name of Sung, to that 
dynasty of the nth and 12th centuries, and which bear 
designs in a slight relief or intaglio of a character connected 
almost wholly with Indian ornament. 
In case 21 are nine Chinese vases of periods which antedate 
the present Manchurian dynasty. One shows the transparent 
green glaze of the Ming, one a grey-green of the Sung, and one — 
on a large scale — the splendid blue and white enamel of a Ming 
brush. — Boston Evening Globe. 
