CHINESE PORCELAIN IN WEST
inferiority in modern porcelains of this class. The glaze lacks lustre, being vitreous rather than velvety, and the surface is disfigured by blistering or pitting more or less prominent. Of course the connoisseur turns at once to the pâte, but for that the crafty Chinaman makes full preparation by grinding and polishing the lower rim of the specimen until the exposed pâte acquires artificially much of the natural smoothness and closeness of grain that constitute distinctive marks of good old ware. In this process, however, he betrays himself, for even though the colouring matter that he employs to impart a spurious appearance of age to the freshly ground rim be not apparent to uninstructed eyes, the marks of the grinding may always be found by close examination in the glaze on the bottom or even on the body near the rim. The amateur may therefore fortify his faltering convictions by looking carefully for such marks, and though his sight be keen, he will do well to use a magnifying glass. Already many brand new blue-and-white "Hawthorns" have passed into the possession of foreign residents in China, and many others have doubtless crossed the water to America. Every one of these imitations is a factor of false education, tending to create a vitiated standard of quality and a deceptive scale of value. Besides, it is in the nature of such things that their owners remain victims of delusion. Friends are not frank enough, even supposing them sufficiently skilled, to ungild a man's treasures to his face, and collectors are so infatuated that they gladly accept as genuine praise the perfunctory approval of conventionalism. Thus the Chinese find their account in carrying on the fraud, and one may expect to see "blue-and-white,"
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