It is to be hoped that this “Chat” on old Bow china will have helped readers, to whom Bow is a name, to form some idea of what went on there more than a century ago. The china cabinet holds more mysteries within it than many a good housewife dreams of. It will be seen that the difficulties of china-collecting are legion. At the modern find at Bow, lovers of china ought to be grateful, for it enabled many vexed questions to be settled, but what is Bow and what is Chelsea still puzzles experts. In all probability Bow, Bristol, and another very much debated factory, Lowestoft, will continue to offer traps and snares and pitfalls for the unwary collector (or misshapen falsities attributed to them) till connoisseurs are no more and collecting days are done. The find in 1903 at Lowestoft is as important as the find at Bow, but it is exceedingly unlikely that any more facts will ever come to light respecting these old factories; every available source of information has been tapped and all that can be known concerning them is known. The potters who made the exquisite shapes, the artists who painted the roses on bowl and beaker, have long since departed with the roses of yester-years. Their life-work is scattered. Much of it, perhaps most of it, is gone for ever. Each cup and each dish of the long-dead artist is like “a good deed in a naughty world.” To-day, with a handful of facts, collectors and connoisseurs wrangle together over theories. [Illustration: BOW CUP AND SAUCER. Embossed pine cone ornament and green band.] [Illustration: BOW CUPS. The celebrated quail pattern; floral decoration, gilded, birds touched with blue. Middle cup, floral design in crimson and green. _In the Collection of the Author._] Disputes have been held as to the origin of certain pieces of puzzling technique. Some experts have believed them to be Chelsea or Longton Hall. Even the “Craft Bowl,” one of the earliest pieces of Bow china, now at the British Museum, is known to have been decorated in a kiln at Kentish Town. CHARACTERISTICS OF BOW CHINA. Body and glaze often defective, pattern so arranged as to cover flaw. Insects often introduced for this purpose to hide imperfections. Coarse, chalky white ware, covered with glaze much pitted and speckled. The bottom often shows three marks representing points on which piece rested in kiln. The glaze is thickly applied, and fills up interstices of raised patterns. The body and glaze varied; the earlier pieces have a yellow tinge in the glaze. The bottoms of some basins and dishes are often twice as thick as the sides. The ware, owing to large amount of lead used, is discoloured. SALE PRICES. BOW. £ s. d. Figures, pair, emblematical of Autumn and Winter, 7-1/4 in. high. Christie, February 4, 1902 16 16 0 Groups, pair, a drummer and piper, 10 in. high. Christie, February 4, 1902 48 6 0