Readers will, before now, have come to the conclusion that the study of old china is not superlatively easy, and that the question of marks is at the best a vexed one. Should there be any who have any lingering doubts on this point, they will speedily join the majority when they come to consider the bewildering marks of the Bow factory. These same marks, be it said, have puzzled experts who have denied each other’s conclusions, though with hardly as much vehemence as the late Mr. Bret Harte’s learned society “Upon the Stanislaus,” who engaged in conflict “with the remnants of a palæozoic age” in shameful manner— “And the way they heaved those fossils in their anger was a sin, Till the skull of an old mammoth caved the head of Thompson in.” [Illustration: Bow Factory—Marks.] We give one set of the known marks of the Bow factory, later we shall give another set no less puzzling. It is difficult to attempt to offer any definite conclusions, or to do more in the space at our disposal than to state that these are marks known to have been used at Bow, and are upon specimens in the national or well-known private collections. The letter B and the drawn bow, of course, explain themselves. The crescent in blue and the sword and anchor in red occur together on a china figure of a sportsman with a gun. It is conjectured that the introduction of a dagger may have been due to the fact that both proprietors were freemen of the City of London, and the dagger, as is well known, is part of the City arms. The triple mark of the anchor with the vertical and horizontal daggers, by some collectors is ascribed to early Chelsea, by others to Worcester; it is a disputed point. [Illustration: BOW FACTORY MARKS.] The little figure we reproduce (on p. 50) is of a woman playing the _pastorella_. It is one of a pair of figures. The other represents a man singing. Each figure is marked in red with both anchor and dagger. The _pastorella_ represented in the figure was a musical instrument in general use previously to the introduction of the spinet. It may be remarked that at the back of each of these figures, near the base, a square hole has been pierced before glazing, for the purpose of receiving a metal stem supporting nozzles for candles. As this square hole is said never to be found on similar Chelsea pieces, it has come to be regarded as a distinctive feature of old Bow figures. [Illustration: PAIR OF BOW FIGURES. Musical Subjects. Man with flageolet and drum, Woman with triangle. Marked with anchor in red, cross in blue.]