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Although the best specimens
of Chinese paintings do not command the prices paid for the best porcelains
and bronzes, there are many which are valued at tens of thousands
of dollars. Very often this value is determined not so much by the
quality of the painting itself as by the history of the painting itself.
It is the custom for owners of pictures to inscribe on the margins,
poemsor epigrams the pictures have inspired. In a famous collection
one will often see pictures which are embellished by the poems or
comments of a half dozen men famous in different centuries. Thus the
picture acquires a great value through historical association. One
may be able to visualize this by conjecturing the value of a Ruben
painting which had been in the possession of Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare,
Washington, Napoleon and Queen Victoria and embellished by the comments
and autographs of each of the famous owners.
All
Chinese paintings are on silk or paper scrolls, rolled and stored
in cabinets. The affinity between pictures and writing is exemplified
again in this for paintings are preserved like books. Instead of being
hung on walls as part of the furniture of a house, they are put away
and only brought out for the edification of those who are especially
interested. It is for this reason that many fine Chinese paintings
hundreds of years old appear by the freshness of the colors to have
been painted but yesterday.
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