Fig. 74.—Palissy Dish.
As works of ceramic art, can we accord them a high rank, or can we get much satisfaction in their contemplation? Can we accept them as art at all? Admit them to be clever imitations—and that is all, it seems to me, we can do—and they fall to the place of prettiness, and rank with wax-flowers and alabaster-apples.
Fig. 75.—A Basket, by Palissy, in the Kensington Museum.
It is quite certain that work of this sort was done by many potters after Palissy, if not by his contemporaries; and collectors have been induced to pay great prices for things alleged to be the work of Palissy which are now known not to have been made by him. In addition to this, the world is full of counterfeits of this sort of thing which out-Palissy Palissy; and the extravagant prices once paid for counterfeits cannot now be obtained for what are known to be genuine.