Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 8.djvu/188

 I gathered, in fact, from the conversation of the villagers, that they considered themselves much superior to the aboriginal natives of the country to which their ancestors had been transplanted.

Something has been said above to warn the collector that among specimens of so-called "old Satsuma" offered for sale he must expect to find an immense majority of spurious pieces. As this part of the subject has very practical interest, it may be well to briefly describe the various kinds of deception now commonly practised. First and most difficult to detect is faience of which the pâte is old and the decoration new. Numerous pieces of this have been sold at large prices during the past fifteen years; for the production of undecorated ivory-white ware at Nawashiro-gawa factories was very considerable before the Restoration (1868). When a specimen of white Satsuma-yaki comes into the hands of a dealer, his common practice is to send it to the atelier of a Tōkyō decorator. A number of these artists live in the capital. Their skill is admirable. In respect of delicate work and elaboration of detail, they suffer nothing by comparison with the best of their predecessors. Where they fail is in the preparation of enamels. Want of ability in this important branch of the decorator's art, or perhaps the necessity of economy, induces them to substitute pigments, the consequence being a loss of richness and brilliancy. When they do employ enamels freely, these seldom show the lustre, purity, and fine colour of the early potters' productions. Before receiving its decoration the faience has generally to be re-stoved, in order to remove all impurities. After decoration it must, of