Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1885 — Ages of Chinese Porcelains. [ARTICLE]

Ages of Chinese Porcelains.

Although it is known that such and such colors and modes oj decoration were not in use before certain dates, it would be to little purpose to speculate on the exact age of any particular specimen of Chinese porcelain. It is safe to assert of any good piece that it is older than the present century. It may be held as certain that a rose-col-ored vase, or one' into the decoration of which that color enters, can not have been made longer ago than 1690, while a piece decorated with blue and white may be of the time of the emperor King-te, who reigned for three years, from A. D. 1004. to 1007. If a jar should be painted with personages wearing the pig-tail, it is not more than two hundred and fifty years old, that appendage having been introduced by the Tartar conquerors; but if the personages Represented wear long robes, both men and women, and if the males wear square black head-gear, then it may be of very high antiquity. The Chinese, however, have at all times delighted in reproducing the best effects of former periods, and have, as a matter of course, and without dishonest intent, copied marks, dates, handling, and everything. Chinese collectors have been in the habit of paying as much for a good copy as for an authenticated original. A European or American collector must therefore be content to do as they do, and class a piece, not as having been made under such or such an emperor or dynasty, though the inscription may state as much, but as being such a style. Still, taken in this way, a collection may be made a fairly complete and very interesting index to the history of the art and of the peculiar civilization of the Chinese. The very oldest porcelains, it is likely, were white, either plain or ornamented with engravings in the paste, or with a relief obtained by pressing the paste into similar engravings in wood.— li. Riordan; in Harper’s Magazine.

The Orange Groves of St. Michael’s. Out in the Atlantic, over 1,200 miles frqpi Land’s End and about 600 miles due west from Lisbon, lies the beautiful island of St. Michael's, the largest of the nine islands forming the archipelago of the Azores. It is beautiful in its variety of mountain, lake, and Yalley scenery, in the rich verdure of its cultivated lands, its equable, mild climate, and its wonderful thermal spring. The principal, c ommerce of St. Michael’s is the orange crop. The mode of picking and packing remains unaltered since early days. The,city, Ponta Delgada, the capital of the island, io set in the midst of orange gardens, and the* air early mornings or late in the evenings comes laden to you with the fragrance of orange blossoms. Either in the town or suburbs you see tjie gates of many orhnge gardens invitingly open, and you will be politely invited to walk in and help yourself to flowers and fruit. If you are a stranger the “cabeca” or head man of .the garden will bring you a bunch of lovely camellias and a branch on which hang clusters of ripe oranges, and invite you to be seated on a garden bench, for though it is the month of February you can enjoy sitting out of doors.

There you can watch the juvenile toilers sorting the fruit and dried leaves of the Indian com.< The picker can eat as,many oranges as he pleases, and take away every, evening a bag or basket full of fruit that has fallen from the trees, which he sells at thirty or forty for a penny.— Leisure Hours. *