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EXPOSITION AT VIENNA.
which alone is capable of directing onward in its proper course and maintaining constant, a National School of Art.” *
Museums of Ceramic Productions.
What we specially need, then, in the industry to which these pages are devoted, is a well-chosen collection of all the best examples of the potter’s art, in all ages, and from every country. New York already has the nucleus or commencement of such a collection f in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the unrivalled collection of De Cesnola presents a great wealth of examples in earthenware and terra-cotta, of the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Romans. This is supplemented by a Loan Museum, chiefly from the private collection of Mrs. W. C. Prime, iu which there are excellent specimens of new and old Sevres, Dresden, Austrian, and English porcelain, of delft ware and Saracenic tiles. A somewhat similar collection exists in the Athenaeum, Boston, and contains some excellent examples of old Sevres, Chinese ware, pdte-sur-pate , an imitation of Henri-deux ware, etc., some of which were obtained at the Vienna Exhibition.
These museums are already exerting an influence upon the public in directing attention to the preservation of old and curious pieces of porcelain and the formation of private collections. Although many such collections are made merely for the sake of getting together odd and rare bits of old china to which a Amciful value is attached, without any comprehension of the nature of the art, or its history, the weakness is by no means to be discouraged, for sooner or later the possession of the objects leads the owner to look beyond them to their origin, and to a comparison of the products in all their qualities of material, form-, and decoration.
*Magniac and Soden Smith, On Porcelain, Lon. Exhib., 1871, I., p. 258. f An important portion of this collection consists of over 4,000 earthenware vases, discovered in ancient tombs at Idalium, a Phoenician city which was conquered by the Greek colonists of Cyprus several centuries before Christ. These vases are perfect in form and fresh in color, and are ornamented according to the fancy of the potter, without any special regard to their size or capacity. The colors are generally only two : a dark brown, almost black, and a purple red. This last appears to have been produced by an oxide of copper, and the brown by umber, an earth which occurs abundantly in Cyprus. The decorative patterns are usually concentric circles and chequered designs, sometimes intermingled with the lotus.