nERAMIC STUDIO 
89 
CHILD'S BREAD AND MILK SET 
Austin Rosscr 
THE band of color shades from a light slightly greyish 
blue to a deeper tone, just tinged with purple. The 
white flowers should stand out sufficiently against this without 
outlines. 
Leave the narrow outer band and the wings of bees white, 
make bodies dull black, outline with gold. The blacks ma\^ 
be omitted entirely, using gold for bodies. 
CHINA FORGERIES 
A NUMBER of forgeries of famous makes of china and 
pottery have recently been discovered in the large col- 
lection of ceramics at the Pennsjdvania Museum, in Memorial 
Hall, Fairmount Park. 
Dr. Edwin Atlee Barber, curator of the museum, has 
in hand the preparation of a case of such forgeries, copies and 
reproductions, to be part of the permanent exhibit of the 
museum for purposes of comparison. All of the examples of 
pottery in this case will be selected from the present exhibits, 
from which the fraudulent matter is being weeded out.'-"'"*. 
In nearlj? everj' large collection of potterj^ and porcelain 
reproductions and forgeries of well-known manufacturers will 
be found. 
In the case of the frauds in the collection at Memorial 
Hall, they have come into the museum as bequests, for 
the most part, along with extremely rare and valuable material. 
One of the grossest cases of forgery in the musevnn dis- 
covered by Mr. Barlaer is a set of pale blue and white porcelain, 
decorated with heads of famous beauties and fops of France 
of the period of the Restoration. This porcelain was made'iof 
hard paste between 1830 and 1850. It bears, however, the 
mark of the old soft paste porcelain of Sevres, made only 
prior to 1770. The cost price of this set doubtless did not 
exceed $20. Yet under the guise of the genuine it brought up- 
wards of $500. 
A cup and saucer in clever imitation of the old French soft 
paste porcelain made prior to 1770 is palpably not more than 
20 years old. It is really of modern French soft paste. It 
bears the jewel decoration, and the forged date of 1771. 
Decorations of the kind were not made at Sevres, however. 
until about 1780. This makes an anachronism of only nine 
years, and yet it is sufficient to give tlie lie to the transaction, 
and set the expert thinking. 
In an open-work plate purporting to be Dresden, the mark 
is a palpable forgery. The plate is seen at once to be modern 
French hard paste porcelain. 
There is a handsome coffee, pot of French tnake also made 
in imitation of Dresden china. 
There is a third plate in imitation of Dresden which is 
reallj' French hard paste porcelain of a late date. Here the 
ignorant forger has marked it with the insignia of old vSevres 
soft paste and dated it 1765. 
Modern Majolica ware is made after the old patterns of the 
sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but so well 
copied that it puzzles the expert. 
Perhaps the most profitable china to forge is the Old 
English, decorated in dark blue with American views. Origi- 
nals of this style are rare and extremely valuable, but there is a 
factory in Baltimore to which some of these prized heirlooms 
may be traced. They are disposed of a few at a time, the chief 
market being at sales of old china. The genuine "Anti- 
slavery " plate is especially rare, yet the obliging Baltimorean 
will furnish two to any one who has the price, at a moment's 
notice. 
CONVENTIONALIZED FROM JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT- HANNAH 
B. OVERBECK 
