Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/245

 paid any attention to the peculiar pate of the original Sèvres, or to have detected that tenderness derived from its artificial composition constituted a special beauty. They were content to imitate the surface decoration, not even modifying the motives so as to render them Chinese, but frankly copying what they found on the French ware. Naturally their rich palette of exquisite Famille-Rose enamels enabled them to accomplish their purpose without difficulty. Indeed, if technical excellence alone be considered, the imitations excelled the originals. But the artistic skill of the French decorator was wanting in China. The Chinese potter, copying mechanically and without feeling or education, achieved a stiff transcript, palpably lacking grace or originality. Nevertheless the curiosity and novelty of such pieces strongly attracted Chinese dilettanti during the eighteenth century, and continue to attract them. The foreign collector finds them interesting as imitations, but can not admire them, and is astounded at the prices they command in Peking. For when, at rare intervals, a specimen, usually of insignificant dimensions, comes into the hands of any of the great bric-à-brac dealers, a figure is asked that bears comparison with the fancy values set upon the finest old Sèvres by Western connoisseurs.