The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-02-22
Mr.. DANA's PORCELAIN.
Historical Value of the Collection To Be
Sold in New York This Week.
New York Times. J

on or the present year, SO late ID ueSIA-
ming and SO crowded as it now is with
events of more than usual Importance, to
bring at this time before the American
| art public the most unique and In their
way the two most valuable exhibitions
and sales of pictures and Oriental cera-
mics that have yet taken place IN this
country. These exhibitions, which are
held conformity at the galleries OF the
American Art Association, are MADE up
| of the remarkable collection OF Orlentals
ceramics and other art objects ana lew
notable pictures formed by the late
Charles A. Dana, and the equally re-
markable collection of paintings by the
early English and Barbizon masters
formed by Mr.. William FL. Fuller. The
porcelains will be sold at auction IN the
American Art galleries on the afternoons
of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Feb.
"a. % and S6, and the pictures OF both
collectors will be sold, also at auction. at
Chickering Hall on Friday evening, Feb.
rs. Meanwhile the ceramics and pictures
will be On exhibition to the public in the
American Art Galleries.
AS was said in the New York Times
when the news Of the forthcoming dis
nersion of Mr.. Dana's art treasures was
first made public, his collection of Orien-
tai ceramics is perhaps. with the single
exception of the Walters collection of
Baltimore, the most important and inter-
esting extant, not only in America, but
in Europe. There Is not wanting expert
testimony to confirm this estimate Of the
collection. A distinguished authority on
the subject of Oriental ceramics says in a
recent letter that "the Dana collection,
made for individual ends and the gratifi-
cation Of good taste, is distinctly superb
or to the three standard collections of
Sir Wollaston Franks, the Grandidier COL
all, the Porcelain Sammlung of the
Johanneum at Dresden, and even sur.
passes the superb private collection of
George Sailing in the South Kensington
Muse lm." The same authority is pArtic-
ular stress upon the historical value of
the Dana collection, and says that there
is no collection extant that could furnish
lecturer on the subject with essential
examples and illustrations and as fully
equipped as was Mr.. Dana's. The Wall
tiers collection. like the other important
ones of Europe that have been mentioned
has been formed more for an educational
purpose. Mr.. Dana sought to acquire OBJ
jects which the scholar and student of the
history of porcelainS could most fully ap-
preciate. Most of the objects were found,
we are told, by excayating graves and
sites of former dwellings, and the iden-
LITIGATION of these pieces with those de-
scribed in the literature of China, which
deals with the remote history and manu-
facture of porcelain, was q constant
source Of delight to Mr.. Dana, as it will
be to those who are fortunate enough to
secure these objects at the coming sale.
The collection most notable examples
and those in which from their rarity,
beauty and value the public will be most
interested, are the rose souff1e bottle
shaped yase-a unique specimen; the
peachblow vase, which in point of color
and fawlessness has perhaps no equal
with an ovoid futed body, slender neck
and fiaring mouth and a glaze suggest
ing the tint OF the ripening peach; the
hawthorn ginger jar, with its own COW
er, and the tall bottle-shaped vase with
the rich dark green glaze containing a
delicate and uneven crack, and which is
known as the Man vase, as it was pur-
chased by MIR. Dana for $4,000 at the sale
of the William Man collection. Other
more interesting objects in this collection
which Mr.. Dana began to form in the
early seventies and Of which the last he
secured was a large jar of old gray crackle
Of the early sixteenth century, are large
oyCid turquoise vase which Mr.. Dana Sc
cure at a sale in 1881 for $500, after a
fierce contest with Mr.. William T. Wal
tiers and Mr.. Robert Hoe; several small
vases of the exquisite shade known as
oil Srn1 1t,r,n vioh nd
purple markings, two remarkably beau
tifdl objects, tall beaker and quadr1-
lateral vase of the SO called black haw
thorn pattern, the body Of the vases in
vested with rich black green enamel,
against which are the Towering branches
of the Mel blossoms with purple gnarled
stems, the green of the young shoots and
yollow breasted birds; a rice pattern bowl
With the rice grain design incised through
tho paste and filled in with translucent
Celadon glaze, and broad vase Of old
Ming pottery very curiously ornamented,
the body bowl in design, the reticula-
ton removed by over two inches from the
inner or true vase and made to sustain
various figures. the whole intespersed
invested with dark purple, pale green
and yellow enamels. There are also two
eggshell lanterns with elaborate design in
transparent enamel, an eggShell bowl or
Translucent white porcelain with dell
cate and beautifully drawn decoration
embodied in thin paste and visible only
in the sunlight or when the bowls filled
with a coiored fluid; an ovoid vase with
trumpet neck, known as the powder blue
vase, from its delicate glaze of fine pow
der blue, a bottle-shaped vase of fine
green transparent enamel superposed
Upon an under glaze of red; bottle
shaped vase with dark lapis-lazuli glaze
OF great depth; o vase with dark green
lrrldescent tea glaze, and the "vnse OF a
thousand flowers" superb example OF
one of the most interesting and elaborate
decorations known to Chinese porcelain.
Five beautiful vases of the exq uisite col
or known as the sang-de-b oeuf. which
varies from transparent blush to the
deepest crimson blood color. must also be
mentioned. The collection is especially
rich in gray and blue Sung bowls and
jars and in specimens of Celadon glaze.
FULL OF FIGHT IN BIDDEFORD.
Biddeford, February 21-The striking
operatives of the Pepperell and Laconia
cotton mills and the York corporation of
Saco, have decided to continue the