62 
RERAMIC STUDIO 
X 
♦ ♦ 
Dresden Blue and White Plate (Onion Pattern.) 
design was borrowed. When painted in the royal factory, the 
porcelain is marked with the crossed swords in the decoration 
as well as on the back of the pieces where the regular factory 
mark is placed. Ordinarily, on plates, the crossed swords 
appear in the main stem of the design. It is claimed in the 
factory at Meissen, that occasionally a director of work in the 
pottery will omit the crossed swords in the decoration, during 
the entire period of his rule, as it is not obligatory that they 
shall appear upon the surfaces of wares if properly placed 
underneath. However this disputed point may be settled by 
those who care for such details, it remains a fact that the 
crossed swords in the decoration are generally to be found. 
Discussions innumerable have arisen in regard to the 
Meissen mark, and nothing so well settles debate, as direct 
information from the authorities at the royal factory: "All 
porcelain articles made in the royal factory at Meissen, are 
marked under the glaze, with the crossed swords which have 
been used since the days of the Elector of Saxony. If 
articles are sold in undecorated condition, a cut is invariably 
made in the glaze across the mark. When such cut is found, 
the article has been decorated outside the royal factory, by 
quite as skillful an artist perhaps as any employed there, but 
one outside the factory. When decorated specimens have 
marks or scratches either above or below the crossed swords, 
they may be known as imperfect pieces and are thus marked." 
There are many other factories in Meissen beside the 
royal factory. Formed articles are there made and sold to 
numberless artists who decorate the porcelain they have 
bought unpainted, and sell it with their own private marks 
upon it. The word " Meissen " written inside an oval, is used 
for the factory mark in one of the largest potteries in the town. 
Still another interesting pattern in blue and white, may 
be found upon Danish porcelain, not perhaps seen as often in 
American collections as its beauty would warrant. The con- 
ventional design used at the royal factory in Copenhagen is 
semi-geometrical, and outlines on white a delicate tracery of 
curves and lines, with an occasional set flower figure in blue. 
The factory mark consists of three wavy lines in blue 
under the glaze. One very "5CS* attractive and oft seen de- 
sign for the face of a plate consists of the royal crown 
in blue on a pure white ground, and underneath the crown is 
the factory mark used as decoration and ornamental design, 
the wavy lines made very thick and of varying shades of blue. 
Thus far, reference only has been made to Oriental por 
celains, but in very truth they reign supreme in the realm of 
the potter's art. No such blue and white has ever been made 
Copenhagen Blue and White Plate. 
elsewhere, and European porcelains owe their birth and de- 
velopment to the efforts of individual potters to copy wares 
from the Orient. 
Over nine hundred years ago, an old Emperor, " Tchi- 
tsong" by name, is said to have ordered that the porcelain 
made for the use of the palace be of the color blue seen in the 
sky through a rift in the clouds after rain. Since then the 
various ideas of many different minds have been brought to 
bear upon the subject, and "heaven's own blue" has appeared 
through the years in every shade from light delicate forget- 
me-not tint, to the dull greenish blue ordinarily called " robin's 
egg blue." Chinese porcelains have about them an importance 
and dignity that demand consideration, and both wares pro- 
duced in far Cathay and those that have made Japan famous 
in the history of the Keramic Art, must be considered in a 
subsequent article. 
ess 
CONTEMPORARY IMITATIONS OF WEDGWOOD WARE 
Edwin A. Barber 
THE Jasper ware of Josiah Wedgwood, made previous to 
1795, the year of the great English potter's death, is 
always assigned a place among the most valued possessions 
of the advanced china collector. This product is known as 
old Wedgwood, in distinction from the output of the same 
factory from that date until the present time, which latter 
may be recognized by its heavier weight, somewhat rougher 
finish and the lack of that remarkable sharpness in the out- 
lines of the raised ornamentation which characterized the pro- 
ductions that were supervised by Wedgwood himself. The 
same designs, colors and patterns have been reproduced for 
upwards of a century and a quarter, during which period there 
has naturally been a gradual change which, perhaps only to 
the expert ceramist, may be noticeable. For this reason the 
old Wedgwood is more highly valued than the new, and in 
this country is comparatively scarce. Many imitations of 
Wedgwood's finest wares sprung up in-England between 1780 
and 1820, some of whom placed their own names on their 
copies, while others, less scrupulous, used Wedgwood's name 
to insure the sale of their imitations, some of which were 
fully equal, in artistic merit, to the original. William Adams, 
of Tunstall, a former pupil of Wedgwood, perhaps carried the 
imitation of the Wedgwood Jasper to the greatest perfection, 
but probably not until after the death of his patron. To 
show that he did not intend to deceive his customers, he 
plainly marked his pieces with his own name, and to-day the 
