There is in Mr. Avery’s collection a Ming bowl, or cup of “the learned,” which closely resembles one described by Jacquemart. The rim projects slightly, and in panels reserved in the border are the honorific marks. The author is represented seated at a table, deep in meditation, in the very throes of composition. From his forehead issues a scroll which expands into the semblance of a cloud, wherein are depicted by the artist the scenes of the drama which the poet is composing. This method of representing literary travail is in our time left to the caricaturist; but it is, nevertheless, a vivid way of giving artistic form to the thoughts passing in the brain of “the learned.” [Illustration: Fig. 84.--Blue-and-white. Eight Chinese Celestials standing on Clouds. (W. L. Andrews Coll.)] The blue-and-white will amply repay the most careful and critical study. This is absolutely necessary if we would distinguish not only the art which is Chinese, but the best of the Chinese--that emanating from King-teh-tchin--from the works of other factories. The influence of the imperial factory is felt throughout the empire. Its styles and methods are copied and adopted, but imperial patronage, and the resources of a factory carried on under the highest political auspices, make the work of provincial imitators difficult. Then, again, the blue-and-white of Japan is sometimes mistaken for that of China, and it must be confessed that the difference is not always easily detected. Close observation, however, shows that the white of the Japanese differs from the Chinese, and that the blue is less soft. The white of Japanese pieces is purer, and sometimes it is what we understand by the phrase “dead white;” that is, it resembles chalk, and lacks clearness. As a consequence, the color does not derive from the glaze the softness and transparency of the Nankin blue, but appears to lie upon the surface in harder outline and with less depth. Besides the Japanese, there are qualities of blue from India, Persia, and other countries, which require careful examination to prevent their being confounded with those of China. [Illustration: Fig. 85.--Blue-and-white Lancelle Vase, Ming Dynasty. (W. L. Andrews Coll.)] An exceptional style of decorating blue-and-white Chinese porcelain is that in which a light buff, varying at times to a clear brown, is mingled with the blue. This is seen in bands surrounding the necks of bottles and similarly shaped pieces, and is also occasionally mingled with the blue on the necks of vases. [Illustration: Fig. 86.--Blue-and-white Chinese. (J. C. Runkle Coll.)]