This volume is from 1908. A short summary of the book's Preface: If there is one regret that accompanies the issue of these " Chats on Oriental China " it is that the illustrations could not be given in all the beauty of their magnificent colouring. In a photograph, however fine it may be, it is obvious that only the shape and the decoration can be given. Roughly speaking, the illustrations represent in its Ming and Kang-he specimens about 100,000 in value. The pieces represented are the most admirable and the rarest. The reader is advised to bestow much atten- tion on the reading of the descriptions accompanying each picture. There is no form of instruction more valuable than this analysis, which forms the basis of the sale catalogues of the most recherche collections.