  Copyright, 1920, Gilman Collamore & Company, Inc. Traditions and Old China From early days when the ancients showed their appreciation of fine pottery and old glassware by burying “these most esteemed possessions” with the dead, fine china has been synonymous with culture and breeding. With our ancestors for generations we share the tradition that, just as first editions give prestige to one’s book shelves, old china or the finest work of the modern kilns express readily that good taste and discrimination that is characteristic of our old families. A wealth of association and historic data is to be acquired from the study of the “fabrique marks” and periods of the master craftsmen. If in America there was a general tendency toward acquiring, even a smattering, of this knowledge, there would be less of these drawing-room atrocities which Arthur Hayden in his “Chats on English Earthenware” points out, “To have a modern set of vases adorning a Georgian cabinet is like putting new wine in old bottles.” The signatures or mark which the master craftsmen in earth or clay signed their products, just as a painter signs his work, were often specially designed devices of various kinds, often a combination of initials and dates. Each “fabrique mark” stands for a certain potter’s art just as the modern trade-mark. Beginning more than a half century ago in the old La Farge House in lower Broadway (where John La Farge was born) the house of Gilman Collamore and Company has done much to develop an appreciation of fine china in America. It was one of the first houses to bring over from England and France china, both modern and old, for its American clients. At this time many fine specimens of old china are on view as well as complete stocks from the modern English and Continental manufacture. GILMAN COLLAMORE & COMPANY, Inc. |
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