We have reserved the azulejos, or tiles (Fig. 194), the best indicators of the progress of Arabian art, for separate treatment. We find in the tiles of the Alhambra, in the buildings of Seville and the Cuarto Real of Granada (Fig. 195), the products of the same skill which embellished the edifices of Persia, Arabia, and the Maghreb. They are made of light-colored clay, covered with a stanniferous enamel, upon which are laid intricate designs in blue or golden lustre. The brilliant and dazzling beauty they lent to the interior of the Alhambra, from pavement, walls, and roof, can now only be imagined. So much did the Spaniards admire the azulejos, that they were employed, not only for the embellishment of public and royal edifices, but for the houses of the wealthy. Their manufacture is continued in Valencia down to the present day. From what has been said, the chronological sequence of the Hispano-Moresque potteries may, in part, be inferred. The most ancient is that resembling the Alhambra vase, decorated with blue and yellow lustre. As we come later down, the lustre assumes more of a golden hue, and becomes exceedingly brilliant, as we find it at Valencia, when the less dazzling wares of Malaga were falling into disfavor. The ruddier copper lustres are the farthest removed from the early wares. They excel in brightness, and show less restraint and chasteness of taste, and mark the decline from those works which have given celebrity to Hispano-Moresque pottery. [Illustration: Fig. 195--Moorish Tile, from the Cuarto Real.] [Illustration: Fig. 196.--Early Hispano-Moresque. (Boston Household Art Rooms.)] The Spain of our day retains not even a semblance of its former greatness. What is best in its modern art, such as the terra-cotta of Barcelona, contains no tradition of ancient times. At the Centennial Exhibition, it was, as compared with leading European countries, poorly represented. It may be assumed that Seville, famous for its azulejos from the sixteenth century, and Valencia, which has an unwritten continuous ceramic history from the Roman epoch to the present day, would not send their inferior works to America. The former city was represented by a pyramid of wares showing great diversity of design and decoration. A large vase, best described as after the Alhambra type, was of a yellow lustre, and surrounded by narrow gilt bands. There were also a few smaller pieces of iridescent blue, green, and gold. A pair of vases with floral decoration on a red ground and black base hardly suggested relationship with the works exemplifying the exquisite taste of ancient Spain.