_His_ gilding is one part gold to eleven other
parts of brass and rubbish, and it has been laid on him with a
brush--_a brush_--pah! of course he will be as black as a crock in a
few years' time, whilst I am as bright as when I first was made, and,
unless I am burnt as my Cordova burnt its heretics, I shall shine on
forever."
"They carve pear-wood because it is so soft, and dye it brown, and
call it _me_" said an old oak cabinet, with a chuckle.
"That is not so painful; it does not vulgarise you so much as the cups
they paint to-day and christen after _me_," said a Carl Theodor cup
subdued in hue, yet gorgeous as a jewel.
"Nothing can be so annoying as to see common gimcracks aping _me_,"
interposed the princess in the pink shoes.
"They even steal my motto, though it is Scripture," said a
_Trauerkrug_ of Regensburg in black-and-white.
"And my own dots they put on plain English china creatures!" sighed
the little white maid of Nymphenburg.
"And they sell hundreds and thousands of common china plates, calling
them after me, and baking my saints and my legends in a muffle of
to-day; it is blasphemy!" said a stout plate of Gubbio, which in its
year of birth had seen the face of Maestro Giorgio.
"That is what is so terrible in these _bric-a-brac_ places," said the
princess of Meissen. "It brings one in contact with such low,
imitative creatures; one really is safe nowhere nowadays unless under
glass at the Louvre or South Kensington.
Pages:
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297