CERAMIC ARTS—GENERAL SURVEY. 
13 
Those who are disposed to make a study of this fascinating 
subject may derive great assistance f’rom a collection of typi- 
cal examples of modern productions that can readily be made 
by themselves at 110 very great cost. For such an under- 
taking, students in the United States have great facilities, in 
cousequence of the very general representation of the chief 
manufactures abroad in the large Stocks of wäre kept ou hand 
in our principal cities. There are, at least, two establish- 
ments—that of Mr. Richard Briggs in Boston, and of Messrs. 
Tyndale and Mitchell in Philadelphia—which may be re- 
garded as museums of the art; for the proprietors, beiug 
enthusiasts in their specialty, take great pains to collect and 
retaiu examples of all varieties of inanufacture and decora- 
tion, and even make visits to Europe to secure representative 
examples and novelties. 
COMMEEOIAL YaLUE OF ArTISTIC SkILL. 
The United States are destined to become the best market 
in the world for artistic productions. This results from the 
very general distribution of wealth among the people and the 
desire to adorn their homes with the same dass of objects 
sought and admired in communities of riper civilization and 
culture. Money, for a time at least, anticipates apprecia- 
tion; but the latter, as already shown, is sure to follow. 
Economists should not lose sight of the expanding fields of 
industrial etfort which are opened in every direction by in- 
creased appreciation of, and demand for, artistic productions 
amongst the people. It leads to a great variety of manufac 
tures and a rapid increase of wealth. Whole communities 
are sustained abroad in the production of trivial Ornaments. 
Wheu we consider, also, the great increase in value with 
which the commonest materials may be endowed by a little 
artistic skill, we do not hesitate to recoguize the oornmercial 
value of such skill to the country. The clay which is so' 
abundant under our feet is transformed by the potter into an 
object of beauty. A single slab of earthenware, which may 
produced for a few Cents, becomes of almost priceless 
value in the hands of the artist. The enamels of Parvillee 
and the plaques shown by Deck in the exhibitiou are exam 
ples. The prices which such objects command are aston-