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Dry-point etching by Mukul Dey, A.R.C.A., Lond; the first Indian painter-etcher. Price £4 4s (a few proofs only available), size of etching 8ins x 15ins:

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REVIEWS, NOTES, NEWS.

Artibus Asiae. Edited by Carl Hentze and Alfred Salmony. and 3. 1925.

Nos 2

The second and third parts of this periodical maintain the high standard set by the first. Dr. Hermann Smidt continues his valuable studies concerning the iconography of Mahāyāna Buddhism, and Prof. Sirén returns to the attack on the authenticity of certain Chinese sculptures. Another Buddhist item is the translations by M. P. Louis Van Hée of a popular tract exhorting to piety. Mr. Waley contributes an interesting note on the date of the Miao-shan legend, which he considers may not be earlier than 17th century. He concludes that the legend probably did not bring about the sex-transformation of Avalokitesvara.

Under the title "La Chine féodale et l'Art Chinois" the Curator of the Musée Cernuschi, M. d'Ardenne de Tizac, illustrates with picturesque anecdotes China's social fabric during the ten centuries preceding the reign of the First Chin Emperor, and he writes also about this fierce tyrant who welded together the feudal states into an empire. The historical and legendary scraps he cites are got from national records translated by Chavannes and Tschepe, and they give an insight into the environment affecting artistic expression in ancient China. Written from quite a different standpoint is Dr. Erkes' "Beginnings of Art in China." His main theme is the autochthony of Chinese civilization, and many of his arguments may not meet with general acceptance. Certainly he has mistaken the significance of Prof. Andersson's discoveries in advancing them to support his theories. The neolithic pottery and tools found by Prof. Andersson in Honan, Kansu and Fêng-t'ien do not "in every respect resemble those of ancient and present China, without occurring anywhere else, and thereby prove the genuineness and continuity of Chinese civilization." On the contrary, the beautiful painted pottery has scarcely any design in common with Chinese relics hitherto known, but it has close affinity in respect of both ceramic technique and decorative design with neolithic pottery spread over far-separated parts of Eurasia. The conclusion to be drawn from Prof. Andersson's discoveries probably will be, when more is known about them, that the prehistoric ancestors of the Chinese shared a neolithic culture with many other peoples, perhaps our own forefathers among them.

Mr. George Eumorfopoulos discusses Dr. Rücker-Embden's theory assigning the glazes, generally accepted as Han, to a later date. In favour of Han attribution he advances arguments concerning the ceramic type and the composition of the glaze. On the latter point he instances Sir Herbert Jackson's discovery of a crystalline change in the presumed Han glazes as indicative of antiquity. He disbelieves in advanced ceramic achievement under the Chou, and makes the interesting suggestion that the calling in of bronzes by the First Ch ́in Emperor gave an impetus to the art of pottery under the Han. Bowls of the socalled Temmoku class in the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst at Cologne are discussed by Dr. Alfred Salmony. He rightly considers that the term Temmoku conveys no indication of kiln-origin. Mr. Hobson traces the term to Japanese Buddhists who became acquainted with the ware while visiting a monastery on the T'ien-mu Mountains in Chekiang.

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