VALUABLE CHINA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 162, 11 July 1930, Page 11

VALUABLE CHINA.

Porcelain, its history and its beauty, was the subject of an interesting talk yesterday at luncheon before the members of the Lyceum Club, by Bishop Anderson, who was briefly introduced by the president, Mrs. W. H. Parkes. Beauty, said the speaker, was a great thing to understand and appreciate. He had -recently been privileged to read a very wonderful book, the most wonderful "book he thought of the 20th century. It was "The Testament of Beauty," by the late Poet Laureate, Robert Bridges.; It was a plea for beauty everywhere. It: could be called almost rhythmical prose, i and it maintained that everything! beautiful leads up to God. Lord Rose- j bery had said that the English esti- j mated everyone by their goodness and | the French "by their intellectuality, andj surely goodness was a manifestion of God. Truth was also a manifestion of God and so, in the speaker's opinion, was beauty, such was the charm of old porcelain. Bishop Anderson then explained to the members some of the great beauty which was achieved by old workers in pottery and showed examples of the earliest samples which they produced, pointing out what made them so beautiful and therefore of such great charm. Porcelain • was first made in Great Britain in 1774, at Bow, but it had been made in China in the year 185 B.C. The clay was decayed granite. Mixed with another form of the same material, and used under great heat, it made porcelain. Some fine examples of Chelsea,, with the red anchor mark were shown, and Worcester, with its square, crossed swords and half moon, was described. Other rare pieces also were shown to members.