CHINA
extensive, prices rose to such a height that the temptation to supplement with modern imitations the fitful and constantly dwindling supply of early chefs-d'œuvre, could not be resisted. No one expected, indeed, that it would be resisted, but every one was tolerably confident that collectors possessing ordinary knowledge would be guaranteed against deception owing to the incapacity of the Chinese of the present era to produce anything really comparable with justly famous examples dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But no such confidence can be felt any longer. The imitators show a degree of skill that brings their work within measurable distance of the fine old standards. Even the hypothetically incomparable blue-and-white porcelains of the Kang-hsi kilns now have modern rivals so good that many an amateur has been deceived by them, and many more are destined to be deceived. The great difficulty used to lie in the quality and tone of the blue. Using the smalt of these cheap times, the potter could not produce anything better than a weak, insipid, and bodiless colour. But things have changed in that respect. Whether a different cobalt is employed, or whether some improves process has been elaborated, a fine strong blue is now obtained, showing much of the brilliancy and depth that distinguish genuine specimens of the great eras. No one deserves to be much blamed that mistakes these modern imitations for their originals, so far as the blue is concerned. But a well educated eye easily detects in the new colour elements of garishness and hardness, the absence of which constitutes one of the chief charms of the old. As to technique, too, there are always points of manifest
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