# China: Its History, Arts, and Literature/Volume 1/Chapter 7

PORCELAIN DECORATED
Chapter VII
PORCELAIN DECORATED OVER THE GLAZE
PORCELAIN decorated with vitrifiable enamels of various colours over the glaze has always been a favourite variety with European collectors. Ware of this class naturally attracts attention for the sake of its brilliant appearance. But among all the keramic productions of China it has been most subjected to foreign influences. As in Japan porcelains loaded with ornament were largely manufactured at Arita expressly for purposes of exportation, so in China the potters of Ching-tê-chên departed from their own canons to meet the taste of European dealers and clients. Thus, among wares of the Kang-hsi era (1662—1722), one variety is said to have been decorated "according to a recent conception" with enamels which were used to depict landscapes, figures, floral subjects, birds, and animals "in the European fashion." It will presently be seen that the earliest, and by Chinese connoisseurs the most esteemed, fashions of enamel decoration were comparatively simple, and that the subsequent demands of the export trade had probably much to do with those elaborate and highly ornate styles empirically distinguished by French amateurs as Famille Chrysanthémo-pæonienne, Famille Verte, and Famille Rose. The standard for​merly set up for themselves by English amateurs may be gathered from a passage in the recent writings of Mr. A. W. Franks, of the British Museum. "In England," he says, "till lately, so little was blue-and-white porcelain esteemed, that innumerable specimens, including even those of high quality, were hopelessly spoiled by being daubed over with green, red, and gold (unfortunately burnt in), in order to render them saleable. The majority of English collectors, in short, had only one conception of Chinese porcelain. They regarded it as ware brightly painted in many colours, and to be esteemed chiefly for purposes of decorative furniture. Fortunately the error of such an idea has been recognised. But the tendency at present is to run to the opposite extreme. Monochromatic and blue-and-white wares are placed on an unreasonable eminence as compared with specimens of the enamelled style, and it is no longer admitted, as it should be, that to the latter class belong some of the most beautiful and remarkable efforts of Chinese keramic art.
Decoration by means of vitrifiable enamels and pigments over the glaze seems to have had its origin under the Yuan dynasty (1260—1361). But, like many other points in the history of the art, this also is wrapped in obscurity. Chinese annals give no trustworthy information on the subject. Probably their silence is attributable to the comparatively worthless character of early essays in the style. Their phraseology, too, is unhappily loose. Thus the Tao-lu, referring to ware made in the opening years of the Yuan dynasty at Liu-ch'wen, near Foo-chow, says that some of the pieces had "flowers rudely painted." In this vague statement connois​seurs have been disposed to find evidence of the origin of decoration over the glaze, but their inference, whether correct or not, is evidently unwarranted. The Chinese themselves do not affect to pronounce a decided verdict. It has never been their habit to attach much importance to historical specimens of a ware. They did not value it until its qualities, technical or artistic, became really attractive, and from this point of view they are unanimous in attributing the first noteworthy use of vitrifiable enamels to the early eras of the Ming dynasty. Japanese traditions give some aid. Highly prized by the Tea Clubs of Japan is a stone-ware of medium quality, decorated with diapers and conventional flowers in red and gold with green in a subordinate rôle. The designs are of an archaic character, and the method of applying the pigments and enamels indicates imperfect technique. The white body-glaze, on the contrary, is lustrous, of fine texture, and in choice specimens possesses an ivory tint of much beauty and softness. Such ware is precisely what the Yuan potters would have produced on the hypothesis that, despite their highly developed skill in the manipulation of glazing materials, they were still inexperienced in the application of vitrifiable enamels. By Japanese connoisseurs the ware is unanimously ascribed to the Yuan dynasty. They call it Gosu Aka-e, or "red-picture Gosu." This word Gosu is written with ideographs which in China would be read Wu-shuan, a name identifiable as that of an ancient division—the most easterly—of the province of Chêkiang. Now it is known that Hang-chow, in Chêkiang, was one of the principal starting points of China’s export trade during the Sung and Yuan dynasties, and that at Ch'üah-chou-fu, in the neigh​bouring province of Fuhkien, a steady trade was carried on by Japanese junks. It is known also that the province of Chêkiang contained several important potteries, and that the celebrated Kuan-yao and Lung-chuan-yao of the Sung dynasty were manufactured there. Japanese experts, however, do not assert that the Gosu Aka-e was a product of Chêkiang. They profess no knowledge about its provenance, merely claiming that it came to them from the place by the name of which they designate it. On the whole the student may perhaps accept their testimony, and regard the Gosu Aka-e as the earliest representative of Chinese ware decorated with vitrifiable enamels. Several specimens are still carefully preserved and highly esteemed by Japanese virtuosi. They consist chiefly of bowls, plates, or small boxes, the last originally intended to contain vermilion, but used in Japan as incense-holders. Red—as the name Aka-e denotes—is the dominant colour of the decoration. With it is associated, in small quantities, a green enamel, brilliant but not very pure, and the designs are usually picked out with gold of rich, leaf-like character. The ware derives its value chiefly from historical considerations, and is not accorded any appreciation by Chinese connoisseurs.
During the first half century (1368—1400) of the Ming dynasty no appreciable progress took place in this branch of the art. But in the Yung-lo era (1403—1424) a new departure was made. Red came to be used as a body colour on which were laid elaborate scroll patterns or formal designs in gold. This beautiful style of decoration, though it cannot have failed to obtain favour at the time, did not rank high in the estimation of Chinese connoisseurs. No specimen of it is given in the "Illustrated Catalogue" of H'siang. ​Probably it failed to attract attention, being comparatively easy to manufacture and not belonging to the category of "delicate" wares. In the neighbouring empire of Japan, however, it was esteemed. The celebrated factories at Kutani took it as a model, and the greatest keramist of Kyôtô, Zengoro Hozen, not only owed much of his fame to imitations of the ware and to developments suggested by it, but also derived his artist name, Eiraku (Chinese Yung-lo), from the period of its original production. The Yung-lo potters do not appear to have employed this fashion of decoration in direct association with blue sous couverte. The latter, however, is occasionally found on the interior of specimens covered externally with the former.
The Hsuan-tê era (1426—1435) of the Ming dynasty is remarkable for the first use of vitrifiable enamels in a manner so skilful and artistic as to command the highest admiration of Chinese connoisseurs. Not that, even then, the fashion of covering the surface of a vase with elaborate and brilliant designs came into vogue. Such a style had certainly been conceived by previous potters, but in the Hsuan-tê era, and indeed throughout the Ming dynasty down to the reign of Lung-ching (1567—1572), delicacy and fineness were the chief aim of the Chinese expert. He appreciated the value of vitrifiable enamels as a decorative agent, but subserved them always to the design of his piece, instead of making the latter a mere field for their display. The "Illustrated Catalogue" of H'siang gives four representative specimens of Hsuan-tê enamelled porcelain. In two of these red—the "colour of fresh blood"—is the dominant colour. Red persimmons with sepals and stalks in ​brown and leaves in green, are moulded with much skill into the forms of an ink-pot and a rouge-holder. The rouge-pot is 21/2 inches high, and four inches in diameter. It was used by one of the imperial princesses to hold vermilion for painting the lips and face. Its owner asked a hundred taels for it at the time when H'siang wrote (second half of the sixteenth century), and it would command many times that price to-day. The third specimen is a tiny wine-cup, covered inside and outside with scroll-pattern engraved in the paste, and having a diapered border of red sous couverte. Round the body is coiled a vermilion dragon with teeth and foreclaws fixed in the rim. H’siang says that only two or three of these beautiful little cups remain throughout the empire, and that "a hundred taels is not considered too much to pay for a specimen." From such authenticated examples, not only accurately described in the text of the Catalogue, but also carefully reproduced in its illustrations, a clear idea may be formed of what kind of enamelled wares constituted the ideal of Ming collectors. There is no question of anything falling within the category of the various "families" into which European connoisseurs have divided the enamelled porcelains of China. The brilliantly massed enamels and elaborate designs that distinguish members of these "families" did not appear, or at any rate were not valued, in the greatest keramic periods of the Ming dynasty. One piece depicted by H'siang would probably be classed with Famille Verte by Jacquemart's disciples. It is a pagoda, a foot and a half high, its tiles green, its balustrades red, its doors yellow—all these colours in enamels—and its base inscribed with the Hsuan-tê year-mark in blue sous couverte. But even here the ​enamels are strictly subordinated to the general design, which feature must be taken as essentially characteristic of all the Ming masterpieces. In the Tao-lu it is stated:—"During the Hsuan-tê era there were among the manufactures white tea-cups, brilliant as jade. On the inside were painted flowers, in subdued colours" (blue sous couverte), "and above these a tiny dragon and a phœnix were traced in enamels with extreme delicacy. Beneath the flowers the year-mark was engraved, Ta-Ming Hsuan-tê nien chi. The surface of these cups was granulated like the flesh of a fowl or the skin of an orange. . . . There was no article of Hsuan-tê porcelain that was not charming. The small specimens were the most remarkable from an artistic point of view. The Ming porcelains shone with greater éclat at this epoch." The reader will observe that the term "porcelain" is here properly used—not soft-paste porcelain, but hard, fine ware, with white biscuit and clear timbre.
It will easily be conceived that among the enamelled porcelains of the early Ming potters, many pieces of a common, coarse type were included. Evidence of an indirect nature is furnished with regard to these by the Tao-lu, which says that white porcelain was manufactured in the Hsuan-tê kilns for the purpose of subsequently receiving decoration in colours over the glaze, but that such ware was not classed among choice products. From the few examples now surviving, this "common" porcelain seems to have had brilliant, but comparatively sparse and formal decoration in red, green, and gold, with occasional addition of blue under the glaze.
M. du Sartel, in his work "La Porcelaine de Chine," maintains that the process of enamel decoration over ​the glaze was not practised by Chinese potters even at so late a period as the Hsuan-tê era. He bases this conclusion on the hypothesis that red was the only colour then known, capable of being used for such a purpose. He is further guided by the term Ten-pai-ki, which, according to the "History of Ching-tê-chên Keramics," designated vases having a white surface intended to be covered with painted decoration. In the case of such pieces, he says, the decoration was applied directly to the surface of the biscuit, and glaze was not used at all. It is impossible to endorse this conclusion. Ten-pai-ki was simply a technical appellation for pieces of white-glazed porcelain destined to be decorated with surface colours. It was, in fact, the "common" ware spoken of above. Even though no other evidence were forthcoming, the "Illustrated Catalogue" of H'siang alone would suffice to upset M. du Sartel's theory as to the date of the first use of enamel decoration over the glaze. In Japan specimens of this inferior ware are to be met with at rare intervals. Their enamels are brilliant; their colours rich and full. But their technique indicates a certain want of care on the potter's part; a feature entirely consistent with the rule formulated above, that in most of the choice enamelled porcelains of the early Ming eras the enamels were an accessory, not a principal, element of the decorative design.
It was during the Chêng-hwa era (1465—1487) that the art of enamelled decoration received its most remarkable development. The "History of Ching-tê-chên Keramics," speaking of the wares of the Chêng-hwa period, says:—"Thin porcelain was most esteemed, and pieces decorated with enamels were ​placed in the first rank. As for the blue employed, it was of ordinary quality. In the latter respect the Chêng-hwa porcelains were not comparable with those of the Hsuan-tê era; but in the matter of enamelled decoration the former far surpassed not only everything that had preceded but also everything that succeeded them. Their merit consisted in the skill of the painters and the beauty of the colouring materials. In a work entitled 'History of Yu-chang Keramics,' it is stated that among the porcelains of the Chêng-hwa era there were wine-vessels and cups ornamented with barn-yard fowl. These were of exceptional excellence. On the upper part was depicted a peony plant, and below a hen with her chickens, full of life and movement." There were also shallow, wide-mouthed cups with handles, decorated with grapes in coloured enamels. These were extremely beautiful. Then came cups ornamented with figure-subjects and lotus plants, or with grasshoppers; and then wine-cups, thin as paper, with blue flowers under the glaze. The names of these, like their shapes, were various. . . . In former times the Ming porcelains were classed in order of merit as follows:—First, those of the Hsuan-tê era; second, those of the Chêng-hwa era; third, those of the Yung-lo era; and fourth, those of the Chia-ching era. But the pieces of the Hsuan-tê period decorated with coloured enamels were far from equalling those of the Chêng-hwa period. In truth the designs painted upon porcelains of this latter era had an air of life and movement which no painter has since been able to imitate." It is necessary to make some allowance for the conservative propensities of this writer, who, like all Chinese connoisseurs, was evidently laudator ​temporis acti. To maintain that the Chêng-hwa enamelled porcelains remained always without peers would be an exaggeration, though they certainly deserved much of the praise bestowed on them.
Among the experts of the era the names of two have been transmitted. One, Ko Tan-jin, was remarkable for ability in depicting a hen and her chickens or two fighting cocks—designs which subsequently came to be regarded as the chefs-d'œuvre of the Chêng-hwa era. The other, Ko Chu, was famous as a manufacturer of wine-cups. Chinese records mention that, from the close of the Ming dynasty downwards, "every man of taste tried to put wine-cups of Chêng-hwa porcelain before his guests," and the same fancy exists equally strong among fashionable Japanese to-day. Another Chinese work, written about 1640 and translated by Dr. Bushell, says:—"On the days of new moon and of full moon I often went, while at the capital, to the fair at the Buddhist temple Tsu-ên-ssu, where rich men thronged to look at the old porcelain bowls exhibited there. Plain white cups of Wan-li (1573—1619) porcelain were several taels of silver each; those with the marks of Hsuan-tê or Chêng-hwa, twice as much more, up to the tiny cups decorated with fighting cocks, which could not be bought for less than a hundred taels of the purest silver, pottery being valued far more highly than jade." It is plain that very few of these celebrated cups have ever found their way out of China; Western collectors have not yet lived up to the standard of paying a hundred and fifty dollars for a baby cup, about an inch and a half in depth and as much in diameter. One hundred and fifty dollars, too, does not appear to have been the limit, for it is recorded ​that an official who lived at the beginning of the seventeenth century had two of these little cups which were valued at fifteen hundred dollars the pair. Lotus leaves and blossoms, figure subjects, insects, especially grasshoppers, and floral designs, were among the favourite decorations of the era. Among the specimens depicted in H'siang's Catalogue there are four of the celebrated little wine-cups. Two of them have the lower part of the outer surface coloured so as to represent sward, from which spring flowers—the coxcomb, narcissus, and marigold. A dragon-fly hovers in the white field of one cup and a mantis creeps in the green of the other. The tiny vessels have a diameter of two inches and a height of one and a half, yet they are said to have been valued at 100 taels the pair in H'siang's day. The two other cups shown have flat bottoms and are of similar dimensions. They are decorated with blue sous couverte in combination with vitrifiable enamels. The designs are flowers, fighting cocks and geese swimming waves. Judging from these four specimens, the palette of the Chêng-hwa decorator contained five colours, red, green, yellow, blue, and purple.
Every one of H'siang's Chêng-hwa specimens is a dainty and choice object. The miniature wine-cups spoken of above show that the experts of the time had conceived and skilfully utilised the idea of making enamel pictures on their pieces. That is to say, they no longer subordinated their enamels to the general form of the specimen, but used them to depict independent subjects on its white surface. They still, indeed, practised the former method, and regarded its skilful employment as their greatest tour de force. H'siang's Catalogue contains exquisite examples of ​this nature: a lamp in the form of a lotus flower, with green leaves and delicate pink petals; a wine-cup in the shape of a magnolia yulan flower, purple outside and resting on a brown stem with green leaves, and so on. But, in addition to these charming fashions, the enamels now began to be used for picture painting. This is well exemplified in a tazza-shaped cup of pure white, round the lobe of which runs a band of green vine-leaves and tendrils with purple grapes. Thus the student is brought into contact with the enamelled porcelains familiar to Western collectors and divided by Albert Jacquemart into the three families of Chrysanthémo-Pæonienne, Verte, and Rouge. Not yet, indeed, is there any question of those large, elaborately ornamented pieces, fondly ascribed by Occidental collectors to Ming factories. Such things are conspicuous by their absence from H'siang's Catalogue. Nevertheless, the tazza-shaped cup depicted by him, if not actually a member of the Famille Verte, would probably be regarded as a very near relative. Dr. Bushell, commenting on H'siang's Catalogue, says: "One may be disappointed to find among the pictures none of the large vases and jars of the early reigns of this (the present) dynasty of which so many are included in European collections. These are really more modern, and the finest belong to the reign of Kang-hsi, so that one of a pair is often found with a Ming mark beneath, the other with a censer, flower, or other emblem: yet some connoisseurs pride themselves on being able to distinguish the genuine Ming in this class from the false, confessing, however, that it is a difficult matter. The reign of Hsuan-tê has always been celebrated for its blue-and-white, the reign of Chêng-hwa for its paintings in enamel colours, ​and a visit to any crockery stall in China will show most of the commonest articles with two marks, a transparent deception, kept up to the present day." This criticism, by a connoisseur of unequalled knowledge, cannot be too strongly emphasised. The term "Ming porcelain" has long been applied with absolute assurance to many imposing specimens of highly ornamented ware in European collections, though very few of them probably belong to a period more remote than the end of the seventeenth century. The closing periods of the Ming dynasty may, indeed, be more largely represented, though the nature of their wares renders this unlikely. Genuine specimens of Chêng-hwa enamelled porcelain are virtually unknown outside China, and even in the country of their origin they cannot be found without great difficulty.
To ware of this class—i.e., ware having the surface decorated with independent designs in coloured enamels—the name Wu-tsai-ki, or "five-coloured porcelain," seems to have been first applied in the Chêng-hwa period. Thenceforth the designation continued to be employed even when it had ceased to be numerically accurate. The original "five colours" were red, green, violet or purple, yellow, and black or brown. Adding blue under the glaze and gold, it will be seen that the colours actually at the service of the decorator were seven.
Another development made by the Chêng-hwa experts was the application of enamel decoration to coloured grounds. Two beautiful specimens of this nature are depicted by H'siang. In each the body colour is pale yellow and the enamels are green and brown. The latter are applied in the subordinate style; that is to say, they cover leaves, tendrils, and ​branches twining round melon-shaped or chrysanthemum-shaped vases. These pieces are examples of highly refined taste and excellent technique. They show that the fame of the Chêng-hwa potters was not undeserved. H'siang says that the designs supplied to Ching-tê-chên for imperial porcelains were "drawn in the palace by celebrated artists," and that "the different colours were laid on and shaded with perfect skill."
In the Chêng-hwa era, as well as in the Hsuan-tê, comparatively coarse varieties of enamelled porcelain were manufactured. Doubtless many of these, did they survive, would be attractive objects in the eyes of Western collectors. But they are virtually non-existent. Chinese connoisseurs did not think them worth preserving, and the rare specimens found in Japan cannot be confidently regarded as genuine.
During the next three periods of the Ming dynasty—Hung-chih (1488—1505), Chên-tê (1506—1521), and Chia-chung (1522—1566)—the manufacture of enamelled porcelains appears to have been continued pretty much on the lines of the Chêng-hwa experts. In the Hung-chih era, special skill was developed in the production of yellow monochromes, and this colour occupied a prominent place in the choicest works of the time. In the Chêng-tê era, renewed supplies of the much prized Mohammedan blue having been obtained, pieces decorated with blue sous couverte came again into fashion, and were preferred to enamelled wares, though excellent specimens of the latter were no doubt made at Ching-tê-chên. The same remark applies to the next era, Chia-ching. In the Tao-lu it is stated that only vases decorated with blue under the glaze were ​then esteemed, and that the number or pieces having enamelled designs was small. In support of this statement there is the evidence of the Imperial Requisitions. Among the wares enumerated in the Requisition for the year 1529 (translated by Dr. Bushell), there is not one piece fairly belonging to the Wu-tsai-ki class.
Another important style of decoration was of the kind known to Western connoisseurs as "reserved." The enamels used to depict the design were not superposed; each was run to the edge of the other. Of this variety the best known and not the least beautiful had blue designs sous couverte surrounded by yellow enamel, which covered the whole of the surface except the part occupied by the design. Great skill was needed to apply enamels in this manner. In rarer cases the places of the two colours were interchanged; the design being in yellow enamel and the body of the vase blue. To manufacture such pieces the potter must have contrived that after the stoving au grand feu—by which the blue was developed—the design should emerge white, so as to receive the yellow enamel, which was fused by a second stoving au petit feu. A deep brown, or chocolate, enamel was similarly employed in the spaces between yellow or blue designs. Finally, white-slip decoration was applied to the biscuit at the same time as blue (sous couverte), and both were covered with colourless, translucid glaze before stoving. The Imperial Requisition for the year 1529 includes all these varieties with two exceptions. It runs thus:—
Rice Bowls with blue ground surrounding yellow phœnixes flying through fairy flowers.
​Cups with yellow ground surrounding blue clouds and dragons.
Wine Cups and Libation Cups with blue ground surrounding yellow phœnixes flying through fairy flowers.
Dishes and Plates with deep brown ground enclosing pairs of yellow dragons and clouds.
In the Lung-ching (1567—1572) and Wan-li (1573—1619) eras artistic taste appears to have undergone a change. Wealth of ornament became the fashion of the time. The enamelled decoration of the celebrated Chêng-hwa era had been valued not more for brilliancy and purity of colour than for delicacy and fidelity of delineation. The enamel decoration of the Lung-ching and Wan-li eras was valued chiefly for richness and profusion. Blue sous couverte occupies a prominent place in the Wu-tsai-ki of the period. The surfaces of pieces, evidently manufactured with great care, were loaded with designs in which the heavy, deep blue of the time, brilliant emerald green, and full-bodied rouge mat appeared in nearly equal masses. Dr. Bushell incidentally notices this fact when he writes:—"The Imperial Requisition of the Lung-ching era includes table-services, rice-bowls, and saucers, tea-cups and wine-cups of different form, jars, flower-vases and flower-pots, censers and scent-boxes, vinegar droppers, jars with covers surmounted by lions, &c. The decoration is far more elaborate, but is all put under the one class of blue painting on white ground, although parts of the designs are sometimes described as filled up with enamel colours, or painted in gold, over the glaze." To the same classes belong the following, copied from the Imperial Requisition of Wan-li, where they are described as "Porcelains Painted in Blue on White Ground":—
​Plates with, outside, interlacing sprays of peonies with the eight precious symbols, crested waves, Indian lotus flowers, fabulous monsters in enamel colours, floral brocade designs; inside, a pair of dragons among clouds, dragons and phœnixes faintly engraved under the glaze, fairy flowers, lions sporting with embroidered balls, the eight Buddhist symbols, sceptres and cloud scrolls, branching fungus, flowers and fruit.
Plates with, outside, winding sprays of jasmine and fairy flowers, monsters and tigers, branching fungus; inside, dragons and phœnixes in enamel colours; on the border, the inscription, Fu ju tung hai, the eight Buddhist symbols, brocaded vases, bands of fairy flowers and ribbons with the eight precious symbols.
Plates with, outside, interlacing bamboo leaves and fungus, flowers and fruit, the eight precious symbols, pairs of dragons and phœnixes; inside, dragons flying through flowers of the four seasons, longevity inscriptions in colours, familiar scenes, fairy peach-trees; a border of grapes.
Cups with, outside, a pair of dragons interrupting a band of foreign pomegranates, lions playing with embroidered balls; inside, dragons flying through flowers, sceptres and cloud scrolls; on the border, fragrant plants, nine red dragons in blue sea-waves, water birds in enamel colours and lotus flowers, with Sanscrit Buddhist inscriptions round the edge.
Cups with, outside, pairs of phœnixes and dragons in pairs; inside, yellow hibiscus flowers, interlacing branches of fungus, chrysanthemum flowers in enamel colours.
Boxes with historical scenes; on the covers, dragons, playing boys, the flowers of the seasons, dragons and clouds in enamel colours, flowers, fruit, and birds, fungus branches with antique longevity characters.
Vases with spouts, with dragon medallions, flowers of the four seasons, the Indian lotus supporting Sanscrit characters, phœnixes flying through flowers of the seasons, grapes and western watermelons, dragons grasping sacred longevity characters, apricot leaves, water plants in enamel colours, with fish painted in gold.
​Wine Cups and Plates with, outside, peonies, golden chrysanthemums, hibiscus flowers, dragons and phœnixes, the flowers of the seasons, the eight precious symbols in colours, grapes, bees round a plum-tree; inside, hibiscus flowers and peonies, antique longevity characters, the lotus painted in enamel colours, and ancient coins.
Chopstick Dishes with sea-waves, clouds, and dragons, outside; dragons in relief, inside.
Vases with phœnixes flying through flowers of the seasons, floral covered ground with dragons in colours penetrating flowers of the seasons, the eight precious emblems on fungus supporting jewels and fragrant plants.
Vases with landscapes and flying lions, dragons with clouds, peacocks and peonies, the eight immortals crossing the sea, longevity inscriptions, and historical scenes in enamel colours.
In all these specimens blue sous couverte enters largely into the decoration. Enamels alone were, however, employed. From the same requisition the following is taken:—
2.—Painted in Enamel Colours.
Chess Boards with clouds and dragons.
Pencil Handles with dragons rising from the sea into clouds.
Pencil Dippers with dragons in sea-waves, circular ornaments and the flowers of the four seasons.
Flower Vases with bands of sceptre ornaments enclosing landscapes and branching fungus.
Pricket Candlesticks with green hills surrounded by sea-waves with clouds, dragons, historical scenes, fragrant plants and lotus petals.
Oil Lamps with dragons in clouds and phœnixes flying through the flowers of the four seasons.
Fish Bowls with landscapes surrounded by flowers, soaring dragons, and phœnixes in blue clouds.
​Perfume Boxes with fragrant flowers, carved in openwork with fir-leaf brocades and with flowers of the seasons.
Jars with brocaded ground in round patterns, the flowers of the four seasons, fruit, birds, and the eight precious symbols.
Fan Boxes with dragons in clouds and arabesques.
Pencil Rests with mountain scenes in openwork.
Handkerchief Boxes with flowers emblematic of the four seasons.
Slop Boxes with cloud dragons, arabesques, and flowers of the four seasons.
Fish Bowls with dragons soaring into the clouds, arabesques, and fragrant plants.
The ubiquity of the dragon in the designs of this period cannot fail to strike the reader. Figure subjects also came into vogue, but they were not the Mandarins and slender ladies familiar to Western collectors: these belong to a later era. The Lung-ching and Wan-li decorators chose the Taoist Immortals and other mythical personages; the "hundred boys at play," or, in their historical scenes, warriors of fame. Wares thus profusely decorated exhibited more of the artisan than of the artist. Some small specimens presented technical features almost worthy of the dynasty's best traditions, but in large pieces the pâte was heavy and coarse and the designs were clumsily executed. The colours, however, were always not only rich and full, but also combined and massed so to produce a strong and harmonious effect. Immense quantities of porcelain must have been produced. It is stated in Dr. Bushell's "Chinese Porcelain before the Present Dynasty," that "the imperial potteries were still at Ching-tê-chên, and it was the practice to appoint eunuchs to superintend the manufacture and to bring up the porcelain to Peking. They took with them ​the imperial order for the quantity required to such an extravagant amount that several pages of the Chian-hsi tung-chih, which gives the statistics of the province, are filled with remonstrances of censors on the subject. According to one of these, in the fifth year, 1571, of Lung-ching no less than 805,870 pairs of things were ordered, including bowls, tea-cups, wine-cups, and vases of bright red colour inside and out, large and small dragon-painted bowls for fish and boxes of rectangular form. It was ordered to be sent to the capital in batches, the first lot of 10,597 pairs by the ninth month of the same year, the second of 10,750 before the twelfth month, the remainder in eight successive lots. He explains the difficult production of the large dragon fish-bowls, which were to be decorated with ornaments in relief and to have broad bases and bulging bodies; the great expense of the large fish-bowls to be painted in enamel colours and the fear of their being broken in the kiln; the too elaborate designs for the square boxes in three tiers, which would require almost a life-time to turn out. . . . In the next reign, Wan-li, in the eleventh year, A.D. 1583, there is on record another imperial order for over 96,000 pieces, and more remonstrances are made by censors on the quantity of pricket candlesticks, wind screens, and paint-brush vases, on the uselessness of such things as chessmen, jars to put them in, and chessboards, on the trifling importance of the screens, paint-brush barrels, flower-vases, covered jars, and boxes. One censor ventures to ask whether 20,000 covered boxes of different form and decoration, 4,000 vases for flowers of varied shape, and 5,000 jars with covers, is not too large a number; and whether dragons and phœnixes, flowering plants ​and such like elaborate decoration, carved in open-work (ling-lung), and painted in enamel colours, is not work of too complicated a kind. He quotes the ancient emperor Shun, whose vessels are said to have been unvarnished, and Yü, who refused to chisel his sacrificial bowls, and he appeals to his sovereign to imitate them. The result of this memorial was the lessening by one-half of the quantity of pricket candlesticks, chess-boards, screens, and paint-brush vases. Such wholesale production accounts for the abundance of porcelain of this date in Peking, where a street hawker may be seen with sweetmeats piled on dishes over a yard in damater, or ladling iced syrup out of Ming bowls, and there is hardly a butcher's shop without a large Ming jar, generally broken, it is true, on the counter for throwing in scraps of meat. This is the Ming Tz'u, the porcelain of the Ming dynasty "par excellence," with good glaze and a brilliant style of colouring characteristic of the period, but of coarse paste and often clumsy form, the bottom of the vase or jar may be unglazed, and the mark of the reign inscribed outside near the rim."
It may, indeed, be confidently asserted that from the Western collector's point of view, the use of vitrifiable enamels for decorating large pieces, such as flower-vases, fish-bowls, covered jars and so forth, came into vogue during the last century of the Ming dynasty (1550—1650). The wares of this period are virtually the only representatives of the dynasty that have found their way westward. Many of them went to Japan, where the slightly archaic character of their decoration gave them value in the eyes of the Tea Clubs. They were known as Ban-reki Aka-e, or "red picture ware of Ban-reki" (Chinese Wan-li), a ​term which almost became a synonym for "Ming enamelled porcelains." The example set by these wares undoubtedly exercised strong influence on the style of the Japanese Imari potters, just then beginning to practise the art of decoration with enamels. In both wares is found the same massing of full-bodied, brilliant enamels with strong, heavy blue under the glaze. The Japanese, however, very soon departed from the stiff, conventional fashions of the Chinese decorator, and developed a much more artistic style. But the advantage in colours remained always with the experts of the Middle Kingdom. The purity and lustre of their enamels and the depth of their blue sous-couverte were so unrivalled as to be characteristic.
The Tao-lu records the names of two celebrated potters who flourished during the Lung-ching and Wan-li eras. They have already been referred to in connection with porcelains different from the class now under consideration. But they must be mentioned here also. One, by name Tsui, lived in the middle of the sixteenth century. He excelled in reproducing the choice wares of Hsuan-tê and Chêng-hwa eras. During his lifetime his productions were held in the highest esteem. They were called Tsui-Kung-yao (porcelains of the Sieur Tsui). All over the empire men purchased them with the keenest empressement. Among his pieces the cups were sensibly larger than those of the periods Hsuan-tê and Chêng-hwa, but in delicacy and beauty they were entirely similar." The second expert, Hu, flourished towards the close of the same century. Chiefly remarkable for imitations of Sung specimens, he seems to have also produced small pieces enamelled after ​the Chêng-hwa fashions. The wares of both these potters belong, therefore, to a category distinct, in respect of style, from the characteristic Lung-ching and Wan-li enamelled porcelains. It has already been recorded that with the close of the Wan-li era (1619) the porcelain manufacture of the Ming dynasty ceased to flourish. Nor does it seem to have sensibly recovered its previous prosperity until the Tsing Tartars had occupied the throne for a considerable time. In fact there is an interval of 42 years, from 1619 to 1661, concerning the keramic productions of which little can be stated with certainty. Occasionally specimens of enamelled or blue-and-white porcelains are found which strongly resemble the Wan-li genre, having heavy, somewhat coarse pâte, and decoration of a brilliant but not over-refined character. These pieces may, indeed, have been produced at the Kang-hsi factories before the latter had begun to develop the technical excellence and artistic taste that made their chefs-d'œuvre so famous. But the probability is that they belong to the last twenty-five years of the Ming dynasty, or to the first era—Shun-chih (1644–1661)—of the Tsing. The point is not of much importance. The very rare surviving specimens of enamelled porcelain that bear the Shun-chih mark show the era to be unworthy of special attention from a keramic point of view.
With the accession of the great emperor Kang-hsi (1662–1722) the imperial factories passed under the direction of the celebrated Tang, and the manufacture of enamelled porcelains, in common with that of all other wares, received a great impulse. The quality of the pâte soon began to show an improve​ment which increased until a very high degree of excellence was attained. The heavy and often uneven texture of the biscuit in large pieces of Wan-li ware and the rudely finished, rimless base disappeared. Thenceforth close-grained, homogeneous pâte and careful technique in every detail became essential. Similar progress was made in the domain of decorative art. Instead of confining himself to archaic dragons and phœnixes, grotesque figures of mythical beings, patterns borrowed from textile fabrics, and so forth, the decorator went to the realm of pictorial art for inspiration, and copied flowers, trees, landscapes, figures from contemporary life, domestic scenes, elaborate arabesques, rich floral scrolls, intricate diapers, and in short everything that could serve such a purpose. To this new departure are due the so-called "Mandarin Porcelains," which M. Jacquemart assigned: to Japan, because the decoration on other Chinese articles of vertu did not, so far as his knowledge went, offer examples of the official costumes prescribed by the Tartars. Even if this absence of parallel really existed, as stated by M. Jacquemart, it would not go far to support the theory or warrant the fancy that Japanese keramists could have chosen as a favourite decorative subject the persons and costumes of a foreign people, objects comparatively unfamiliar and quite unpicturesque. The "Mandarin Porcelains" had nothing whatever to do with Japan. Liberally as the potters of the latter country borrowed decorative designs from the Middle Kingdom, they seldom copied the official figures of the Tsing dynasty. All that need be noted with regard to the use of figure subjects on Chinese porcelain is that when the long flowing robe, the girdle with jade ​pendants, and the crape head-dress of ancient times are replaced by the full-sleeved surcoat, the round cap with button and plume, and the queue of the Tartar epoch, it is possible to be sure that there is no question of Ming ware. In Oriental art the soft folds and flowing curves of drapery take the place occupied in the West by the graceful contours of the human figure. So soon as the Chinese keramist found that his palette enabled him to depict luxuriantly apparelled damsels and richly robed officials, such subjects seemed to him not less natural than nude nymphs and muscular heroes have always seemed to the potters of Europe and America. Moreover, in China the bright colours of official uniforms and private apparel offer a marked contrast to the generally sombre scenery of the country and the ungraceful architecture of the cities. An artist applying polychrome decoration to porcelain, and seeking to travel beyond the range of dragons, phœnixes, and supernatural beings, could scarcely have hesitated to derive inspiration from what may be said to have been the only gay objects amid his surroundings. Accordingly the prevalence of figure subjects—sovereigns, officials, ladies, and children—is a striking feature of Kang-hsi enamelled porcelain.
With respect to enamels, the colours of the Ming potters were still employed, but there was often added to them a blue enamel—varying from brilliant blue to lavender—the presence of which is alone sufficient to mark a piece as belonging to a period later than the Ming dynasty, since before the Kang-hsi era blue, if used, invariably appears, not as an enamel, but as a pigment under the glaze. The enamels themselves cannot be said to have been purer or more bril​liant than those of the Ming epoch. On the contrary, owing to their more profuse employment, the latter often convey an impression of greater richness and solidity. Green was the dominant colour of the Kang-hsi experts. Their porcelains constitute the "Famille Verte" of French collectors. In combination with figure subjects there are usually found landscapes with fantastic rocks and partially conventionalized trees, in the colours of which nature is not always consulted. The medallion fashion of decoration, though already familiar, may be said to have first come into large favour in this era. It constantly occurs on the necks of vases or in other secondary positions. The subjects within the medallions are, for the most part, flowering shrubs, dragons, phœnixes, or miniature landscapes. It must be admitted, however, that in the case of the larger Kang-hsi specimens, wealth and brilliancy of decorative effect rather than grace or vigor of artistic conception constituted a chief merit. Only in some of the choicest pieces did the potter apparently think of anything beyond a striking ensemble. We was generally stiff and conventional, repeating his figure subjects with persistence as stubborn as that which marks his Occidental confrère's love of the nude. From this criticism must be excepted the little cups and bowls of egg-shell China for which the Kang-hsi era was scarcely less famous than the Chêng-hwa. On these exquisite specimens of keramic skill groups of bending grasses, bunches of flowers, blossoms and branches, and so forth are represented with fidelity and grace. It is difficult to speak too highly of this egg-shell ware. Its technique is perfect, the purity and brilliancy of the enamels not being more remarkable than the skill displayed in applying them.
​The quality of the Kang-hsi enamelled porcelain is exceptionally good. Neither among wares that preceded nor among those that succeeded it were there any of finer pâte or more lustrous and uniform glaze. The exposed portions of the biscuit resemble soap-stone, so smooth are they to the touch and so compact in texture. Asa rule, with very rare exceptions, the bottom of every piece is carefully finished and glazed. Year-marks occur seldom: they are commonest upon small and choice specimens. Other marks are found, but they usually take the form of a four-footed censer, a leaf, or something equally without chronological significance.
In the majority of elaborately enamelled Kang-hsi porcelains blue under the glaze is either absent altogether, or plays a very subordinate rôle. Green is the most conspicuous colour. "Famille Verte," in short, is a well chosen epithet, though not applicable to the egg-shell ware spoken of above. But there was also manufactured during the same era a class of porcelain in the decoration of which blue sous couverte constituted a feature scarcely less important than enamels. The fact is interesting because a singular resemblance, verging on identity, exists between the style of this ware and that of the celebrated Imari porcelain of Japan. It is easily conceivable that Western connoisseurs have often been perplexed to distinguish the one from the other. M. Jacquemart, who applies to such porcelains the term "Famille Chrysanthémo-Pæonéenne," observes:—"It is the more necessary to create a name for this family since it includes Chinese and Japanese productions empirically confounded under the false denomination of Japanese porcelain." M. Jacquemart's theory is ​good, but his practice is bad. For having observed the existence of such confusion, he proceeds to make it worse confounded by ascribing to China wares which are unquestionably Japanese. That most conscientious of connoisseurs, Mr. A. W. Franks, detects the French writer's error, but remains evidently uncertain as to its extent. The fact is, that this fashion of decoration, though the rule in Japan, was the exception in China. For one piece of Chinese porcelain thus decorated, thousands of Japanese are to be found. The term invented by Jacquemart conveys a good idea of the style of the ware. It is at once distinguishable from the "Famille Verte" by the fact that green occupies a comparatively insignificant place in the decoration. The salient colours are blue and red, almost equally balanced, the former under the glaze. A constantly recurring feature in the design is the hanakago, or basket of flowers, so well known to collectors of Japanese porcelain. In conjunction with this, or independently, are masses of chrysanthemums and flowering peonies, bordered by floral scrolls traced in gold on a blue ground and generally broken by medallions. Diapers and arabesques are freely used. Or again, conventional rocks with flowers growing from them form the central design, around which are disposed bands of blue with gold scrolls, and broad rings divided into panels containing fishes, crustaceans, marine animals, birds, insects, phœnixes, flowers, and miniature figures. Even in the absence of other evidence, these porcelains alone would suffice to dispel all doubt as to the existence of an intimate relation between Japanese and Chinese decorative motives. The only easily detected difference between the styles is in the ​manner of distributing the design. Here the Japanese shows a far higher artistic instinct than the Chinese. The latter, remembering chiefly that he had a certain ground to fill, filled it without any idea of charming the fancy as well as dazzling the eye. His conception of division was purely mathematical. He parcelled out the surface by the aid of concentric borders or parallel lines, and if he found that he had to occupy two spaces of wholly different dimensions, separated, perhaps, by a leafy branch or a bunch of flowers, it did not shock him to fill one with a big phœnix and the other with a miniature specimen of the same bird. Hard, mechanical practicality was the prominent trait of his methods. But the Japanese, when he sat down to decorate a vase, delighted to divide its surface by some eccentrically symmetrical disposition of lines and curves, the spaces enclosed within which, while they admirably preserved their mutual equipoise as well as their sensible though not easily traceable relation to a common centre, acquired so much individuality that to fill them with wholly diverse decorative subjects never suggested any discordant contrast. Little observation is needed to familiarise the connoisseur with this prevailing bent of Japanese decorative art, and to enable him to distinguish between the styles of the neighbouring empires. At the same time, neither this guide, nor yet the greater freedom, boldness, and fidelity of the Japanese decorator's brush, can always be implicitly relied on. There are Chinese and Japanese specimens of which the photographs could not be distinguished. This is especially the case with plates, and other flat objects. Here, however, the connoisseur has the assistance of "spur-marks," or little points—​generally three or five—which appear upon the under surface of Japanese pieces, showing where the tiny pillars of clay that supported them in the oven were broken off. These scarcely ever occur on Chinese wares, and are therefore a criterion, so far as they go. But inasmuch as their use was generally limited to plates, dishes, and so forth, they must not always be looked for on vases, bowls, or jars. So far as colours are concerned, the blue of the Chinese potter is lighter than that of the Japanese, and his red is semi-transparent, whereas the red of the latter is strong, full-bodied, and opaque. But even these differences are not always observable. The pâte, of course, is the ultimate and unerring guide. When the connoisseur has learned to discriminate between the close-grained, oily clay of China and the comparatively porous, gritty material of Japan, his difficulties are at an end. Marks of Chinese eras and factories are no index. They were freely copied in Japan, and though the nature of the penmanship may have significance for ideographic experts, it need scarcely be discussed here.
After what has been written above, it should not be necessary to correct a misconception originally due to M. Jacquemart, that porcelains of the Chrysanthémo-Pæonéenne family are the usual ware, the common furniture of China, seen about houses and in gardens, and constituting the greater part of the utensils used at table. Such porcelains have always been, on the contrary, exceptional in China. Some critics have inferred that the origin of their peculiar decoration is attributable to Japan. There are reasons, however, which forbid the student to accept such a theory in its entirety. An examination of Chinese paintings ​dating from the Yuan and Ming periods reveals nearly all the elements of the Chrysanthémo-Pæonéenne decoration, while the purely decorative elements, as scrolls, diapers, and arabesques, are to be found in textile fabrics of the same eras. Japan, borrowing freely in every age from her neighbour though often modifying what she borrowed, was in possession of all these elements before her keramists thought of attempting polychromatic decoration. The question reduces itself, therefore, to the method of combining the elements, and here the credit does not apparently belong to either China or Japan alone. It is impossible to mistake the presence of Persian influence in the floral traceries of the Chrysanthémo-Pæonéenne family. The "Dessin cachemire" of the early Delft potters is certainly a near relative, and in all probability the parent, of the Japanese and Chinese fashion. It is known that the style of Japanese polychromatic decoration was largely modified by Dutch suggestion, and it is easy to conceive that Persian examples, finding their way to the Far East viâ the Factories at Cambron and Deshima, may have inspired a fashion of combination and arrangement largely adopted by the potters of Imari and sparingly copied at Ching-tê-chên. Perhaps, then, there is warrant for saying that, if Japan owed much to China, she partly repaid the debt by re-grouping the decorative elements which she had received from the Middle Kingdom, and evolving what may be called the natural style, in contradistinction to the artificial, or mathematical, style of her neighbour. Thus there is no reason to be surprised that the porcelains of Imari, though they derived their decorative origin from China, soon attracted favourable notice in the Middle Kingdom ​itself, and were admitted to a place among the ornaments of refined households. This last fact, attested by the Missionaries in China during the seventeenth century, confirms the hypothesis mentioned above that the Chinese Famille Chrysanthémo-Pæonéenne borrowed much of its beauty from Japanese models.
Toward the close of the era, that is to say, in the early years of the eighteenth century, decoration of this class underwent a marked change, the characteristics of which are well described by Mr. A. W. Franks as "a prevalence of half-tints and broken colours, together with the appearance of a beautiful ruby red derived from gold." Porcelains thus decorated constitute the Famille Rose of French connoisseurs. M. Jacquemart, to whom this classification is due, falls into a serious error with regard to the antiquity of such ware. "An incontestible fact," he writes ("Histoire de La Céramique," pp. 77, 78), "is henceforth established, that during the Hung-chih period (1488–1515) the Chinese Famille Rose furnished cups of the most admirable pate on which birds, flowers, and insects were represented with the greatest perfection." This misconception is the more surprising inasmuch as the same writer notes that the porcelains sent to Europe by the Jesuit missionaries during the reign of Kang-hsi and manufactured under their very eyes "had nothing in common with even those pieces of the Famille Rose which are considered least ancient." Evidently it did not occur to the distinguished connoisseur that this absence of relationship to the Famille Rose on the part of porcelains sent to Europe in the seventeenth century, might be attributed, not to the disuse of colours employed during the two preceding centuries, but to the ​fact that such colours had not yet been added to the decorator's palette. Independent observation and the direct testimony of Chinese virtuosi establish beyond all doubt the fact that the use of ruby enamel and half-tints, such as rose colour and light pink, commenced in the closing years of the Kang-hsi era, and began to be largely practised in the following reign. Collectors may be assured that, with very rare exceptions, good specimens of the Famille Rose belong to one or other of the two eras Yung-ching (1723–1736), or Chien-lung (1736–1795). To be strictly accurate, the epoch of the family's most highly developed manufacture ought, perhaps, to be extended so as to include the opening years of the Chia-tsing era; say, up to 1810. But such precision is seldom possible or essential.
The presence of ruby enamel passing through rose to very light pink and the prevalence of half-tints or broken colours are sufficiently characteristic of this beautiful porcelain. It is further distinguished by white, or greenish white enamel, which does not appear on other wares. A general and even more easily recognised feature is that many of the enamels of the Famille Rose are not vitreous: they do not show the brilliant transparency that marks the decoration of the "Famille Verte." It was natural that in using the soft, subdued colours, more like the pigments of the Western potter than the original vitrifiable enamels of the Chinese, the Ching-tê-chên artist should vary his decorative fashions. He no longer took figure subjects as his principle models, but sought inspiration rather in the floral kingdom; blossoms and fruits offering a field exceptionally suited to his new palette. More charmingly decorated ware it would ​be difficult to find than choice specimens of the Famille Rose over the surface of which spread branches of peach or pomegranite, the stems, leaves, and fruit depicted with perfect fidelity, and the varying tones of the natural colours reproduced to perfection. Rich, luscious strawberries, apparently growing in the glaze, blossoms of plum and magnolia, lotus flowers, and other graceful objects of the floral kingdom were included in the decorator's répertoire, and nothing could exceed the delicacy and truthfulness of their pictures on his pieces. It will be understood that reference is here made not to porcelain of the Kang-hsi era alone, but also to ware manufactured down to the end of the eighteenth century, the greater part dating from the reigns of Yung-ching and Chien-lung. During the period of about eighty years from 1720 to 1800, an unvarying level of excellence was maintained in Famille Rose ware. The collector should have no difficulty in recognising a good specimen, for though similarly decorated porcelains were produced in quantity, especially during the Taou-Kwang (1821–1851) and Hien-fung (1851–1862) eras, the inferior quality of their pâte and glaze determines their date at once. Milk white, pure perfectly uniform glaze, and fine, close-grained biscuit are absolutely essential features in good examples of the Famille Rose. Pieces younger than the early years of the present century, though their decoration may be skilful and attractive, are always deficient in these important points.
Perhaps the most celebrated porcelains of this class in the eyes of Western collectors are the "ruby-backs" and "rose-backs." They are ware of egg-shell thinness, generally bowls, cups, or plates, having their under surface covered with ruby or rose glaze, ​the colour of which is transmitted through the translucid pâte, producing an indescribably soft and delicate effect like that seen in the enamel of a sea-shell. The upper surface is sparsely or profusely decorated with finely executed designs in coloured enamels. In some specimens, highly prized by Chinese connoisseurs, this enamel decoration is absent: in its place are found designs incised in the biscuit and showing faintly through the glaze. The enamels used in decorating these ruby-backs and rose-backs are not always of the Famille Rose type. Frequently the brilliant, vitreous colours of the Famille Verte are employed, and in such cases the designs are not confined to floral subjects; figures and landscapes also make their appearance. These latter porcelains belong to the Rose Family chiefly in respect of the enamel covering of their under surface.
Another very beautiful variety of the Rose Family is distinguished by the distribution of the decoration in medallions. In these pieces the inner surface is either white or has floral designs in blue sous couverte. On the outer surface medallions containing floral or figure subjects, landscapes, birds and so forth, are divided by a yellow, ruby, pink, green, or red ground, which is chagrined and enriched by floral scrolls engraved in the paste. Such ware is well known to Western collectors. It includes the much prized "Medallion bowls," made for imperial use, perhaps the most elaborately decorated examples of Chinese porcelain. The porcelain itself is not so thin and does not belong to so high a technical grade as that of the ruby-backs and rose-backs. It is characteristic of an era when the keramist depended on wealth of decoration rather than on quality of paste and ​glaze. Indeed many of the Medallion Bowls treasured by European and American collectors belong to the Chia-tsing (1796–1827) and Taou-kwang (1821–1851) periods. Estimable enough in their line, these more modern wares are always lacking in delicacy and finish as compared with their Yung-ching and Chien-lung predecessors.
In speaking of the Rose Family no attempt is here made to distinguish between porcelains dating from the closing years of the Kang-hsi era and those of the Yung-ching or Chien-lung factories. No distinction can, in fact, be made. And within certain limitations the same may be said of enamelled wares generally. The Yung-ching era (1723–1735), as will be presently shown, is not without titles to independent fame, but in the matter of porcelain decorated with vitrifiable enamels its keramists struck out no new lines. They merely carried the old to an unsurpassed point of excellence. Coming to the Chien-lung time (1736–1795), the Green Family practically disappears, the potters applying themselves especially to decoration of the Famille Rose type. But in their employment of full-toned enamels they inaugurated a virtually new and pleasing departure by means of delicate tints of green, yellow, and red combined sparsely with blue under the glaze. This type of ware is distinguished by its subdued tone and by the conventional character of the decoration, which consists usually of floral scrolls, arabesques, and diapers. From the latter years of the same era dates also the custom of covering the inside as well as the outside of a piece with half-toned, non-vitrous enamels, pink and green being most common. This fashion belongs to an inferior type of art: it seems to have been sug​gested as a device to replace excellence of pâte and glaze. Sometimes, however, it is combined with decoration of the most elaborate and minute description.
The bottoms of Yung-ching and Chien-lung enamelled porcelains are always carefully finished on the wheel and glazed. Their pâte is fine and pure, but, in later specimens, seems a little more chalky and porous than Kang-hsi biscuit. Year-marks in seal-character are used in the great majority of cases. It may be noted also that the habit of gilding the rim of a piece does not appear to have been practised before the Chien-lung era, and even then was seldom resorted to in the case of very choice specimens. The custom became common in proportion as the potter developed a tendency to rely on decorative profusion rather than on technical excellence. Wares with polychromatic decoration manufactured during the present century are, for the most part, thus distinguished.
Special reference must be made to a very lovely and effective method of using egg-shell porcelain of the hard-paste type, namely, in the manufacture of lamp-shades or lamp-globes. Specimens of that nature were comparatively rare, their use being, of course, limited to houses of very wealthy persons. Numbers were found in the celebrated Summer Palace, at Yuen-min-yuen, which was rifled of its treasures and burned to the ground by the French and English invaders of China forty years ago. These choice examples of the potter's skill seem to have been ruthlessly destroyed by the ignorant soldiery. Occasionally, however, a similar piece may be procured from one of the great dealers in Peking. The biscuit is as thin as glass and the decoration is elabo​rate, generally consisting of a profusion of floral scrolls and figure subjects. The effect seen by transmitted light is very beautiful. These are probably the largest examples of egg-shell porcelain ever produced by the Chinese potter. They are found in the Famille Verte and Famille Rose types, and their technique is always excellent. It should be noted, however, that probably in no field have the keramists of recent eras been more successful than in the reproduction of these lamp-shades. Specimens from the Taon-kwang, Heen-fung, Tung-chi, and even later kilns, approach very closely to the masterpieces of Kang-hsi and Chien-lung, for which many of them have doubtless been, and are still, mistaken by Western collectors.
Western connoisseurs regard, as a feature of merit, the presence of metallic reflection, or iridescent tints, in the enamels of polychrome porcelains. Such effects are most usual in the case of green, yellow, black, and purple glazes. They are believed to be due to an admixture of lead in the enamel. There is no evidence that they were specially admired by the Chinese themselves, though when viewed by strong sunlight they certainly possess considerable beauty. Amateurs familiar with the faiences of Gubbio and Majolica attach conspicuous importance to this feature.
An interesting fact in the annals of Chinese keramists is that, while Europe sat at their feet and borrowed inspiration from them in all matters relating to the potter's art, they, in turn, devoted much effort and ability to imitating a certain kind of European porcelain, namely, the painted ware of Sèvres. So far as concerned decorative technique, they succeeded perfectly, though they do not appear to have ​paid any attention to the peculiar pate of the original Sèvres, or to have detected that tenderness derived from its artificial composition constituted a special beauty. They were content to imitate the surface decoration, not even modifying the motives so as to render them Chinese, but frankly copying what they found on the French ware. Naturally their rich palette of exquisite Famille-Rose enamels enabled them to accomplish their purpose without difficulty. Indeed, if technical excellence alone be considered, the imitations excelled the originals. But the artistic skill of the French decorator was wanting in China. The Chinese potter, copying mechanically and without feeling or education, achieved a stiff transcript, palpably lacking grace or originality. Nevertheless the curiosity and novelty of such pieces strongly attracted Chinese dilettanti during the eighteenth century, and continue to attract them. The foreign collector finds them interesting as imitations, but can not admire them, and is astounded at the prices they command in Peking. For when, at rare intervals, a specimen, usually of insignificant dimensions, comes into the hands of any of the great bric-à-brac dealers, a figure is asked that bears comparison with the fancy values set upon the finest old Sèvres by Western connoisseurs.
Layout 2