From early days when the ancients showed their appreciation of fine pottery and old glassware by burying “these most esteemed possessions” with the dead, fine china has been synonymous with culture and breeding. With our ancestors for generations we share the tradition that, just as first editions give prestige to one’s book shelves, old china or the finest work of the modern kilns express readily that good taste and discrimination that is characteristic of our old families.
A wealth of association and historic data is to be acquired from the study of the “fabrique marks” and periods of the master craftsmen. If in America there was a general tendency toward acquiring, even a smattering, of this knowledge, there would be less of these drawing-room atrocities which Arthur Hayden in his “Chats on English Earthenware” points out, “To have a modern set of vases adorning a Georgian cabinet is like putting new wine in old bottles.”
