POTTERY AND PORCELAIN.

in a single piece, with almost the same facility with which
it was possible formerly to make six-inch tiles. Many of
these tile sculptures are genuine works of art, and should
be displayed in a tasteful and appropriate manner.
What we call taste is merely the ability to recognize
that which is beautiful. We are endowed with what is
commonly termed good or poor taste according to the de-
gree of perfection to which this faculty has been developed.
He who is said to possess poor taste is that one who is
deficient in this perceptive faculty, and is therefore unable
to appreciate the harmonious relation of conditions which
constitute the beautiful. Fashion is often the perverter
of taste, and fashions frequently change, but beauty is
ever governed by fixed laws of nature. And so, when we
see a beautiful picture in clay, modelled with the skill of a
true artist, it is not a mere " matter of taste," or, in other
words, a question of individual opinion as to the manner
in which it shall be mounted to bring out its beauties the
most effectively. We are too prone to accept the dictates
of fashion in such matters, without regard to the suita-
bility of contrasting materials, but experiment will often
point out to us the path which leads to good taste. Thus
custom has almost succeeded in convincing us that a glazed
art tile, when used for decorative effect, should always be
placed in a perishable, plush-covered frame, instead of in
a light, graceful setting. Fashion might seek to persuade
us that a fine oil painting would appear to the best advan-
tage in a framework of incongruous velvet, but good taste
could never be thus deceived. The coloring of the canvas
requires the plain, rich contrast of the gilded frame. On

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