Valuable china, such as Oriental, Dresden, or Sevres, should never be trusted to the housemaid to dust or wash; a lady of the family should do this task herself.

For Dresden china, rich in groups of flowers, etc., a soft tooth-brush may be required for the very intricate and embossed work. Wash it in very clean COLD water, use a little soap, rinse in cold water, and dry with a soft wash-leather. Take care to wash it in a wooden bowl, as an earthenware basin might possibly crack it. Sevres vases, Oriental china, etc., should be washed with a soft sponge in cold water; soap is seldom required, nor washing often, if china is carefully dusted: never use soda, it will injure gilding and fade colours.

For washing ordinary china in daily use for breakfast or tea, use very hot water in a wooden bowl. Dip one cup in at a time, wipe it in a clean and dry linen cloth. The hot water and separate washing will give a polish; never use soda for fear of injuring the gold or colours. The dirty habit of putting all the cups in a pile, draining on each other, in the wooden bowl should never be endured. The cups are never freed from grease when washed in this manner; they are always dull-looking and sticky. One cup at a time and a clean dry cloth should be the rule. Mr. Bamfleld of the Crystal Palace says, half the china made is defaced and injured by the use of soda.

Accidents in spite of every care will occasionally happen to china. The readiest way to mend a fracture is to take instantly the white of an egg, brush it over the edges with a feather, replace the piece, and tie it together with a piece of tape till it dries; this cement will hold the cup or plate together so long as it is not wet.

A strong and lasting cement can be made from white flint. Get a chemist to make you some white flint powder, and mix it with resin to the consistency of a paste. Keep it for use. The mode of applying it is to heat the edges of the fracture and piece, rub the cement on them, and join and tie them together. When dry remove the cement which remains outside the edges. Or, beat lime into the most impalpable powder, sift it through fine muslin; then tie some into a thin muslin; put on the edges of the broken china some white of egg, then dust some lime quickly on the same, and unite them exactly. The Chinese use finely powdered flint glass with the white of an egg-.