hotels, clubs, colleges, and other places where hard usage has to be undergone; while in its more elaborate and rich styles--and it is capable of the very highest degree of finish--it is eminently fitted for families of the higher ranks. No climate affects this ware. The usual style of decoration for dinner services is imitation of Oriental patterns--Japanese and Indian flowers, &c.--and the colours and gilding are rich in the extreme. In vases and jugs the handles are usually dragons and other grotesque animals. The Indian vases are of perfect form, of exquisite design, rich in their colours, and massive in gilding. They are priceless Art-treasures, and examples of Ashworth’s make deserve to be in every “home of taste.” The marks used by Mason were principally the following: [Illustration: Figs. 479 to 483. MASON’S PATENT IRONSTONE CHINA MASON’S PATENT IRONSTONE CHINA. MASON’S PATENT IRONSTONE CHINA ASHWORTHS. MASON’S PATENT IRONSTONE CHINA. PATENT·IRONSTONE·CHINA] Figs. 479 to 481 are printed, usually in blue, on the bottoms of the pieces, and Figs. 482 and 483, impressed in the body of the ware. After the patent passed out of Mason’s hands into those of Morley and Co., the mark was changed on more than one occasion. The principal one was REAL IRONSTONE CHINA impressed in the ware, and the royal arms, with supporters, crest, motto, &c., above the words IRONSTONE CHINA, printed on the bottom of the goods. The marks used by Messrs. Ashworth are, a circular garter, bearing the words “Real Ironstone China,” and enclosing the royal arms and the name “G. L. Ashworth & Bro^s, Hanley;” Mason’s mark (Fig. 488) with the addition of the word ASHWORTH REAL IRONSTONE CHINA. ASHWORTHS; a crown, with the words ASHWORTH BRO^S. above, and a ribbon bearing the words REAL IRONSTONE CHINA beneath it; and the royal arms, with supporters, crest, motto, &c., and the words, IRONSTONE CHINA. Mason at one time produced what he called Bandana or Sandana ware. In this jugs and other articles were made, and were of a peculiarly striking and rich character in printing. The designs were complicated Indian foliage and grotesque animals, printed in red and black on a buff or other ground. The name I presume to have been taken from the famous Bandana handkerchief patterns. The mark, on a jug in my own possession, is a circular garter bearing the words, “Mason’s Bandana Ware, 1851,” and enclosing the words “Patentee of the Patent Ironstone China,” the whole surmounted by a crown. I have an impression of a similar mark, which for some purpose has evidently been altered to Sandana, and the date to 1801. As Mason’s patent was only granted in 1813 the alteration of this mark is very palpable. * * * * *