his time to the collecting of plates and dishes
and sundries. He would serve as a text
for a discourse on art and treasures of art,
as developed at the present day. Our men
of taste tell us that art is not confined to
pictures and sculpture, in the limited degree
understood a generation or so ago; that a
goblet, or a cup, or a key, which has received
an impress from the mind of an artist as
well as from the tools of an artisan, is an
art-treasure, to be paid for highly, preserved
carefully, and studied reverently; and that a
national collection is as much enriched by
such objects as by the bones of indescribable
animals even were they men " whose heads
do grow beneath their shoulders." Three or
four assemblages of miscellaneous treasures
of art (apparently made inestimable by being
called art treasures; but it is the fashion in
these things to be German and princely)
have been displayed in London within a few
years past, chiefly at the rooms of the Society
of Arts and at Marlborough House. Three
or four sales by auction have revealed the
astounding prices such articles will command;
and numerous purchases have been made by
the Government, with national money, for the
avowed purpose of demonstrating the
educational value of old-fashioned productions that
exhibit any indications of mind or taste.
This art-movement, therefore, is a fact, and
must be met as such, whether the fact be
great or small. No better proof of earnestness
can be adduced, than is afforded by the
circumstances under which the Soulages
Collection has lately been brought under the
public eye.

Monsieur Soulages, it appears, is, or was, a
French advocate, practising at Toulouse.
Having a cultivated taste, and the means
wherewith to gratify it, he gradually
accumulated several hundred specimens of
mediaeval art, not belonging to any particular
department, but comprising articles of use as
well as of ornament, mostly produced in
France, Italy, the Low Countries, and
Germany, and mostly ranging in date from the
fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. The
years from eighteen hundred and thirty to
eighteen hundred and forty were those during
which the collection was chiefly made.
Avoiding the larger productions in painting
and sculpture which furnish the usual
examples of High Art, he directed his attention
rather to decorative objects of utility,
and the minor productions of great artists.
He repeatedly traversed Italy with this object
in view, and made most of his purchases in
that country. At that period—say, about
twenty years ago —collectors were not so
eager tor such articles as they now are, and
Monsieur Soulages had proportionably greater
facilities for making purchases, both in number
and in price. As the old pots and plates
and glasses cannot be increased in number,
except by fraudulent imitation, the price
rises after everv such collection is made,
because there is a lessening of the stock
remaining in the market. It is, for
instance, positively asserted that fine Italian.
Majolica ware—a particular kind of old
sainted earthenware—would, at the present
;ime, command twenty times the price it
could have been bought for, five years ago.
Should the taste increase, the value may go
yet higher; for not only are many of the
specimens withdrawn permanently from the
market, for deposition in museums and
national collections, but the remaining specimens
are becoming every year fewer and
fewer, owing to accidents and natural decay—
always supposing the sophisticators, the
manufacturers of modern antiques, to have no
concern in the matter.

Returning to Monsieur Soulages, we find
that his collection—first at Paris, and then
removed to Toulouse— attracted the attention of
all connoisseurs, and became illustrated in such
works as Du Sommerard's Arts du Moyen Age,
and Laborde's Notice des Emaux du Muse
du Louvre. Offers, many and liberal, he had
for single specimens; but he refused them
all. Ten years and many thousand pounds
he had spent in making the collection, and
a collection it should remain. Finding how
rapidly the value of such articles rose, he saw
that he might make a large profit; and,
whether his original motive had been artistic
or commercial, we can hardly blame him for
naming a higher and higher purchase price,
when it became evident how many persons
were longing to bid. At last, a number of
English gentlemen, interested in the union
between art and manufactures, represented
to the Government that such a collection
would be a worthy addition to any national
museum of the kind at Marlborough House
or elsewhere; but the Government, too busy
at that time with soldiers and ships to attend
to china and bronze, declined. The gentlemen,
not to be baffled, solved the difficulty by
purchasing the collection themselves, at a
price which, with various additions, amounted
to the large sum of thirteen thousand pounds.
This illustrates the earnestness adverted to
in a former paragraph; for, the collection of
odds and ends, after all, barely fills three
moderately sized rooms. Not only did the
committee formed for this purpose, purchase
the collection at the price named, but they
subscribed a fund of no less than twenty-four
thousand pounds, to place the means of
payment beyond all doubt. Those who are
familiar with the names of our leading
manufacturers, will see how general must be the
interest with which the collection is regarded;
when among the subscribers to the fund are
included the names of Minton, Napier, Webb,
Holland, Jackson, Trollope, Graham, Grace,
Elkington, De la Rue, Morrant, Spiers, Hunt,
Roskell, Mechi, Rodgers, Mappin, Salt, and
others, besides artists and connoisseurs in
various grades.

Had this been a mere trading speculation, it