Signor Raffaelli thinks that many of the wares generally known as of Urbino were so called from the province, and frequently included those which were really the produce of Castel Durante. Passeri also speaks in high commendation of the Durantine wares, and Pozzi states that it was the rival of and only second to Faenza in the quality of its productions. The fatal blow to this branch of industry was the death of the last duke, Francesco Maria II. in 1631, when there being no longer a court the trade declined, money became scarce, and the artists emigrated. Of signed examples of the wares of Castel Durante, the earliest piece known is the beautiful bowl belonging to Mrs. H. T. Hope which was exhibited in the Loan collection. The ground of this piece is of an intense dark and rich blue, entirely covered with a decoration of grotesques, among which occurs a shield of arms of the Delia Rovere family surmounted by the papal tiara and the keys, proving it to have been made for pope Julius II.; trophies of books, festoons of drapery and, above, a boy angel holding a “veronica” or napkin impressed with the face of the Saviour. At the sides other trophies, satyrs, cupids, and interlaced foliage are richly and harmoniously disposed, among which are two labels inscribed respectively “_Iv. II. Pon. Max._” and “_Tu. es. sacerdos. i eter_.” “In the design and execution of the painting,” says Mr. Robinson, in his catalogue of that famous collection, “splendour of colour, and perfection of enamel glaze, this magnificent piece is a triumph of the art.” On the same occasion Mr. Morland exhibited a piece by the same hand, and we think we recognize variations of the same manner in two examples now in the South Kensington museum, nos. 1728 and 1735. In the rich and even quality of the glaze, the tendency to that form of decoration known as “a candeliere” (as in the vase engraved), mixed grotesques, trophies of musical instruments, and cupids, in a style of painting which is free and at the same time firm and sure, and in the full yet soft colouring, we see in Mrs. Hope’s bowl a commencement of what became a very general manner in the decoration of the Durantine wares. Of eleven years later we have the pharmacy jars which must have formed portions of a large and important service, one of which is in the British museum and another in the South Kensington. The signature on the British museum jar states, “_Ne la botega d’ Sebastiano d’ Marforia_,” and “_A di xi de Octobre fece 1519_,” and again at the base, “_In Castel durā_.” On p. 132 is a woodcut of a mark in yellow, on a plate in the same museum, on which is the subject of Dido and Ascanius. [Illustration]