PORCELAIN  AND  FAIENCE.

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the  manufacture  in  materials,  form  and  ornamentation.
There  is  an  unceasing  variety,  and,  apparently,  no  end  of
surprises  in  störe  for  amateurs  and  collectors.  But  it  is  not
in  porcelain  alone  that  the  Japanese  potters  attain  excellence
  and  variety.  They  produce  f'aience  and  wäre  resembling
  the  finer  sorts  of  terra-cotta,  plain  and  enamelled.  The
exquisitely  decorated  faience  of  Satsuma  was  a  surprise  tö
connoisseurs  at  Paris,  in  1867.  It  was  admired  in  London,
at  the  Exhibition  in  1871,  and  appeared  in  still  greater
variety  of  forms  and  decoration  at  Vienna.  The  potters
seem  also  to  be  copyiug  European  "  masters,”  for  they  are
making  this  wäre  into  forms  to  suit  foreigners.  Certain  it
is  that,  as  the  Jemand  for  any  one  of  these  varieties  of
wäre  increases  and  large  Orders  have  to  be  tilled,  the  care
and  detailed  Lahor  diminishes,  and  we  lose  that  painstaking
  and  exquisite  finish  which  is  freely  bestowed  on  a
few  select  objects.  Thus  it  is  that  older  specimens  of  wäre
are  generally  the  most  desirable.  The  same  is  true  of  the
metal  work  and  the  ivory  carvings.  Quality  must  be  sacrificed
  to  quantity.
The  Japanese  Commission,  however,  who  had  the  responsibility
  of  securing  a  proper  representation,  made  judicious
selectious  and  placed  some  of  the  choicest,  as  well  as  the
more  ordinary  objects,  before  the  jury.
The  list  includes  vases,  white  and  blue,  in  red  color,  and
in  the  deservedly  admired  celadon  green;  perforatcd  work,
enamelling  in  relief,  egg-shell  wäre,  monochromatic  and
polychromatic  decoration,  decoration  with  flowers  and  figures,
  and  with  laquer  and  gold.  There  were  not  only
vases,  but  plates,  bowls,  sackie-bottles,  sackie-cups  and
tea-pots  in  great  varietj’;  tiles,  large  decorated  slabs,  a
fire-place  and  mantel,  and  dinner,  breakfast  and  tea  Services, ­
  after  European  patterns.
The  Japanese  porcelain,  it  is  well  known,  is  the  hard,  or
pdte  dur  variety.  It  is,  in  general,  highly  vitreous,  compact ­
  and  hard,  but  is  tough  and  resists  heat  well.
Amongst  the  many  porcelain-making  establishments  in
Japan,  those  of  Sai-kio,  Inari,  Kutani,  Owari*  and  Awadji,
*  Owari  is  in  the  Second  District,  Tokaido,  and  Awadji  in  the  Seventh  District,
Nankaido.

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