These natural objects were modeled with considerable care, and colored to represent the real things, so that they have a value to the naturalist as well as to the potter. [Illustration: 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. [Illustration: 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. [Illustration: FIG. 76.--_Perpendicular View, showing the Marguerites on the Edge._] The other two examples shown in Figs. 74, 75, and 76, differ from the first; and it may be doubted whether these are not to be attributed to some other potter than Palissy. The cornucopia on Fig. 74 was a favorite decoration at Rouen, and might readily enough find a place there. This style of work, being made in moulds, can be easily and cheaply reproduced. At one time a large number of _figurines_, such as "The Nurse" and others, were attributed to Palissy, notwithstanding that the dresses, and in some cases the persons, did not exist until after the time of Palissy; but it is now asserted that there is nothing at all to prove that Palissy ever made this style of work. A great number of examples may be seen of so-called "Palissy" in the Kensington Museum at London and in the Louvre at Paris. But they nowhere hold the high places they once did, nor do they bring the prices they once did. In the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia of 1876 a great variety of this sort of work was shown, made by the clever potters of the day in Europe. [Illustration: FIG. 77.--_Palissy Jug, from the Museum of the Louvre._] A very large sale has been found within the last twenty years for imitations of Palissy ware, and these have been made with great skill by Barbizôt and Aviso, of France, and by Minton, of England; indeed, some of these seem much better than any I have seen supposed to be the genuine thing. The virtues most needed are, of course, patience and a keen faculty of imitation--art in any good sense is not essential.