Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: H,Txjr CH,txjr.C atory details by Dr. Bushel!, has been published in the Journal of the Pekin Oriental Society, under the title of Chinese Porcelain before the present Dynasty, and it is, I believe, to be shortly republished in an amplified form with reproductions of the original drawings. Should this be done, the work would, in my opinion, form by far the most important and valuable contribution to our knowledge of this interesting subject. The information regarding Chinese porcelain which has been bequeathed to us by native authors is to be found in their encyclopedias or in special treatises chiefly based upon the encyclopedias. These are, however, compilations of such vast extent that the authors had not, nor could be expected to have, the intimate knowledge of an expert upon all of the very many subjects treated in them. Hearsay evidence or unverified rumors have thus but too often been allowed to crystalize into permanent record, with the result that it is impossible after an interval of centuries to attempt to reconcile the many contradictions of statement contained in the different works. In this catalogue, however, are contained the reproductions in color of eighty-two specimens of the choicest productions of a period extending over upwards of five centuries, from A. D. 960 to 1521, either possessed or seen by the artist, and scattered notes from the pen of one of the most noted connoisseurs of his age regarding the respective merits and rarity of the various kinds of ware. Existing realities are presented to us in place of the vague generalties and contradictory essays of the encyclopedists, and there can, I apprehend, be little doubt as to the comparative value of the two varieties of evidence. Dr. Hirth’s contribution Chinese Porcelain: a study in Chinese Mediaeval Industry and Trade is an imp…