The chrysanthemo-pæonienne, the customary decoration, while most in use, is, so far as I know, never seen on dinner-services sent to us.
I may ask attention to a characteristic of all the best Oriental art: it is not imitative—not absolutely a copy.
The artist seizes the spirit, the action, the color, of a bird or flower, and, by a few fine, keen strokes, fastens them upon the china. No attempt is made to display a botanical or ornithological specimen. All is free, bold, effective—a sketch, but not a slovenly one. It is not easy for words to explain this.
Now, the methods of the Occidental and civilized peoples, as we call them, are the reverse of this. At Sèvres and Dresden, for example, is to be seen the most elaborate, careful, and detailed penciling or imitation of a flower, or a face, or a landscape, requiring extreme and persistent attention and labor.
This is copying—the spirit is rarely seized; the other is art, and is certainly the highest and the most satisfactory.
The Oriental feels;
The Occidental reasons.
The Oriental perceives and creates;
The Occidental criticises and copies.
Herein lies a supreme difference, sufficient to explain why so much of the Oriental china touches the imagination, and why the European china so rarely does.