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cockscomb, the narcissus and other flowers, the flying dragon-fly and
crawling mantis are minutely painted after life in green, yellow, and
crimson enamel.’ (This, by the way, is a combination of colours which it
must have been difficult to apply at one firing with the pigments known at
that time.) And yet in the absence of any specimen of enamelled ware
(using the word enamel in its restricted sense for a decoration applied over
the glaze) that can with certainty be attributed to so early a period, it will be
safer to postpone the date of the introduction of this decoration, sur
couverte, for another hundred years.
It will be remembered that the distinctive feature of this decoration with
enamels is the use of an easily fusible silicate, containing much lead—in
fact a kind of flint glass. A glass of this description is capable of being
stained by the addition of small quantities of certain metallic oxides, some
of which would not stand the heat requisite for the firing of the porcelain.
This, in fact, is the application to porcelain of the arts of the glass-stainer
and of the enameller, arts already at this time fully developed in the West.
For once the Chinese authorities all agree in finding in an exotic and indeed
Western art the origin of their enamelled porcelain. When, however, we
attempt to interpret their statements we are landed in an even more than
customary chaos—so many are the different readings for the names of
foreign countries and for technical processes.
Let us then consider for a moment what the materials were that the
Chinese had to draw from—whether from Arab or other sources.
Putting aside the application of stained glass to windows, for specimens
of this art are not easily exported, these may be summed up as, first, the
enamelled glass of the Saracens, and secondly, the cloisonnés and
champlevés enamels of the Byzantines and other Western nations.
As to the first—the application of coloured and easily fusible enamels to
the surface of glass, which was then exposed to a second firing—this
process had been used by the Arabs for the decoration of their mosque
lamps and other vessels probably as early as the twelfth century, and this
was an art identical in its system with the application of the same colours to
the surface of porcelain. The beauty of the effect cannot have failed to have
struck the Chinese if they had had any opportunity of seeing the finer
specimens. But the material was fragile, and apart from a statement by M.
Scherer that glass was exported from Aleppo to China,[44] I cannot find in
the accounts of the Arab trade of the time any record of such ware being
imported into China.
On the other hand, we know that enamels on metal are first mentioned in
the Ming annals about the middle of the fifteenth century. They take their
name of Cheng-tai enamels from the emperor who reigned at that period;
but the proper Chinese term for such enamels is Folang chien yao—‘the
inlaid ware of Folang.’ Julien interpreted these words ‘Porcelaines à
incrustations (ornées d’émaux) de France,’ and Dr. Hirth carries us to
Bethlehem! But the word Folang is probably the same as the term Folin or
Fulen, used as early as the sixth century for the Roman empire of the East,
and it may possibly be connected with the Greek πόλις (cf. Stamboul = Εἰς
τὴν πόλιν).[45] It is definitely stated by a later Chinese writer that the same
colours are employed by both the enameller on metal and the decorator of
porcelain.
If we examine the colours found on both the wares to which we have
tentatively traced back the enamelled porcelain of the Chinese—the
enamels on glass on the one hand, and those on metal on the other—taking
in each case the earlier specimens as examples, we find on the mosque
lamps from Cairo little except a deep blue generally used as a ground for a
design which is outlined in an opaque iron red. On the famous flask from
Würzburg, now in the British Museum, for which a ‘Mesopotamian’ origin
of the thirteenth century is claimed, a turquoise blue relieved by gilding is
the predominant note; there is also a sparing use of yellow, of an opaque
white, and, what is especially interesting, of a fine pinkish red, which is
possibly obtained from gold. (The way in which this colour is shaded into
the opaque white reminds us of the similar use of the rouge d’or in later
times in China.)
If, on the other hand, we turn to the earlier Chinese enamels on metal,
the so-called Ching-tai vases, attributed to the fifteenth century, we find
among the colours used an opaque iron red, a yellow, an opaque white, and
finally two kinds of blue, a turquoise and a full deep blue that looks like a
cobalt colour.[46]
Some time, then, during the sixteenth century, whether before or after the
accession of Wan-li (1572), the Chinese began to decorate the surface of
their porcelain with jewel-like enamels appliqués to the glaze. At first,
apparently, these colours were confined to three: a copper green, a yellow
generally of a buff tint, probably containing antimony as well as iron, and a
purple derived from manganese. These are the San-tsai or three colours of
the Chinese writers, and it will be seen that they differ from the colour triad
of our ‘painted glazes’ (painted, that is, on biscuit and reheated in the demi
grand feu) in that the copper silicate is of a turquoise blue in the latter, and
in the former of a full leafy green. The Chinese authorities further tell us
that a second scheme of decoration was given by the Wu-tsai or the five
colours which were made up by the three already mentioned, with the
addition of an opaque red derived from the sesqui-oxide of iron (otherwise
known as hæmatite, bole or red ochre),[47] and finally of a cobalt blue, sous
couverte, surviving as it were from the earlier blue and white ware, for, as
we have mentioned, the use of the blue as an enamel over the glaze belongs
to a later period.
So much for the teaching of the Chinese books; but when, attacking the
subject from the other side, we examine the specimens of enamelled ware
which for one reason or another—the coarseness and thickness of the paste,
the moulded form, and the irregular surface—we should be inclined to
attribute to the Ming dynasty, we are led to classify these earlier examples
somewhat as follows:—
1. On a white ground a design, often, it would seem, of textile origin,
roughly painted in an opaque red (like sealing-wax), with the addition of a
leafy green and very rarely of a little yellow. This is a class of decoration
much imitated in Japan at a later date, especially by the artist potters of
Kioto and at Inuyama.
2. The same colours with the addition of blue, sous couverte. The design
often takes the form of figures in a landscape, the whole broadly treated.
The earliest type of the Imari ware (apart from the Kakiyemon) seems to be
based on this scheme of decoration.
Both these classes are distinguished by the white ground, the sparing use
of yellow, and the almost complete absence of manganese purple and
turquoise blue.
3. A transparent enamel of leafy green, yellow and manganese purple
painted on in washes so as to cover the whole ground. When with these
colours we find the outline drawn in black, we have the basis of a large part
of the famille verte. On the other hand, it is this class of decoration which
probably carries on the tradition of the early Ming ware, sometimes
described as ‘enamelled,’ but more probably all of it painted on the biscuit
and fired in the demi grand feu.
In China it would seem that these enamelled wares

PLATE VII. CHINESE

were at first treated with a certain disfavour, if not with contempt, at least
by the more cultivated classes. During Ming times, though porcelain thus
decorated was doubtless made at King-te-chen, it was, at least up to the
latter part of the reign of Wan-li, chiefly made in private factories. In fact
we find a censor, in the reign of that emperor, protesting against the use of
enamel colours (the wu-tsai) in the porcelain supplied to the palace
(Bushell, p. 241).
We have now sketched out a description of the various kinds of porcelain
made during the course of the Ming dynasty, and before going on at once to
an account of the period associated with King-te-chen and the great rulers
of the Manchu dynasty, it will be well to extract a few notes on points that
may interest us from the somewhat voluminous records and descriptions of
the porcelain of Ming times found in the books of the Chinese authorities.
[48]

Yung-lo (1402-24).[49]—This great emperor, who sent out ships for

conquest and for commerce as far as Ceylon, is for us especially associated
with a white eggshell porcelain of which there are two remarkable
specimens in the British Museum (see above, p. 67). Bowls of this thinness
must have been pared down on the lathe, after throwing on the wheel, in the
manner described on p. 22, until a mere translucent ghost of the original
body was left, so that the name to-t’ai or ‘bodiless,’ by which this ware is
known to the Chinese, is not inappropriate. The earliest blue and white
porcelain of which there is any definite record was made in this reign, but
the evidence for this is, of course, purely ‘documentary.’ The quality of the
blue is said to have been surpassed only by that of the Hsuan-te and Cheng-
hua periods.
Hsuan-te (1425-35).—The short reign of this emperor is connected in
the mind of the Chinese with the finest works both of the metal worker and
the potter. This period gave its name to the famous pale bronze so admired
in later days by the Japanese.[50] The blue of the Hsuan-te period,
unsurpassed in later times, we are told, was derived from Arab sources, for
the famous Su-ni-po and Su-ma-li blues are first mentioned at this time. The
word Su-ma-li has been compared with the low Latin Smaltum, the prepared
silicate of cobalt used by the mediæval glass-stainers, but from the
description of this substance in the Chinese books, it would seem rather to
have been of the nature of a native ore. When, however, we read in the
same books of the origin of the brilliant red for which this reign was equally
famous, how it was prepared from ‘powdered rubies of the West,’ we see
how little reliance we can place in their accounts. This red, derived of
course from the sub-oxide of copper, was applied either to cover the whole
surface, as in the little bowls mentioned on p. 81 (‘painted on the biscuit,’
says Dr. Bushell, but is this necessarily so?), or for the painting of a design
in this case both alone and in combination with blue. We hear also of large
jars and garden seats of a coarse porcelain, with dark blue and turquoise
ground and decoration of ribbed cloisons, which were first made in this
reign. Of this class we have spoken at length when treating of the ‘painted
glazes.‘[51] Of what nature the decoration in five colours, which is also
referred to this reign, may have been, it is difficult to say—we have no
specimen so painted that we can assign to so old a period, but in this
connection we certainly must not think of enamels painted over the glaze.
Cheng-tung reigned from 1435 to 1449; he was then captured by the
Mongols, and during the five years of his imprisonment his brother Cheng-
tai reigned in his stead. When Cheng-tung returned from his captivity he
adopted a fresh name.[52] This is the only instance of a double nien-hao in
later Chinese history. We hear of Cheng-tai in connection with the
introduction of enamels on metal, but for the history of porcelain both
reigns are a blank.
Cheng-hua (1464-87).—This is a name familiar to collectors. It is
found more frequently than any other on highly finished vases dating really
from the eighteenth century. Strangely enough, this is the favourite mark on
the finest blue and white of this later time, although, as we have already
pointed out, the Chinese books tell us that, the sources of the foreign cobalt
blue being in Cheng-hua’s time exhausted, more attention was given to
coloured decoration. This was the time of the famous ‘chicken-cups,’ for
which such fabulous sums were given. These cups are described as
decorated with the wu-tsai or five colours; and the subject painted on them,
a hen and chickens by the side of a flowering peony-bush, reminds one of
the enamelled egg-shell cups of Kien-lung (1735-95). The Ming cups were
copied, we are told, at that time; but it is difficult to connect this early ware,
of which unfortunately we possess no specimen, with the delicate enamel
decoration of the famille rose.[53]
Hung-chi (1487-1505).—This name appears especially on the back of
bowls in association with a yellow glaze of various shades, and, in
agreement this time with the material evidence, the Chinese books mention
this yellow as a speciality of the reign. Not that we can regard all yellow
ware with this mark as even of this dynasty; like other Ming ware it was
imitated in the eighteenth century. The yellow varies from the pale brown of
the raw chestnut to a full gamboge tint. There is at South Kensington a dish
or shallow bowl with a full yellow glaze; on the back beside the nien-hao of
Hung-chi, a Persian inscription and a date corresponding to the sixteenth
century has been cut in the paste.
Cheng-te (1505-21).—The decoration of blue on a white ground is said
to have been revived in this reign. A new material, the hui-ching[54] or
Mohammedan blue, was obtained from Yun-nan. In connection with this,
we can point to a curious collection of bronze and porcelain, with both
Arabic and Chinese inscriptions, made probably for Mohammedan Chinese.
These objects were obtained by the late Sir A. W. Franks from Pekin, and
are now in the British Museum. Among them there are several pieces of
blue and white with the Cheng-te year-mark.[55] On one of these pieces the
Persian word for ‘writing-case’ forms part of the decoration (Pl. viii.). It is
in this reign that we hear for the first time of the oppression exercised by
the court officials upon the potters of King-te-chen, and now also we find
the court eunuchs in the highest positions,—the great days of the Ming
dynasty are already passed.
Kia-tsing (1521-66).—The name of this emperor is often found on blue
and white porcelain, and it is a favourite one with the Japanese imitators.
Some
 PLATE VIII. CHINESE, BLUE AND WHITE WARE

specimens in our collections, of a fine sapphire blue (the colour is indeed

often inclined to run), may perhaps be referred to this reign. The demands
for the court were very extensive, and if we are to trust the list of articles
quoted by Dr. Bushell from the Fou-liang annals, the porcelain made for the
palace during this period was, with the exception of a little of that with a
brown ground, confined to blue and white ware.
Lung-king (1566-72).—The bad reputation of this emperor is reflected
in the porcelain of the time—indeed the erotic character of the decoration is
the one point noted in the annals. The mark of this reign is rarely found.
There is, however, in the British Museum a large square support or plinth,
decorated with a blue of magnificent sapphire hue, which bears the Lung-
king nien-hao.
Wan-li (1572-1619).—Of the porcelain surviving from Ming times, a
very large proportion probably belongs to this reign. It was now that the
European trade was beginning to reach large proportions, and the
exportation both to India and Persia was greater than ever. It was a time
above all for the manufacture of large pieces, but we must not look any
longer for the refinement and scholarly traditions of earlier Ming periods.
Dr. Bushell tells us that large bowls of the Wan-li ware are still in use in the
shops and stalls of Pekin. For us the difficulty is to distinguish the blue and
white ware of this reign from that made for exportation during the next half
century, a period during which the annals of the Chinese authorities are a
blank. The reign of Wan-li is above all the period during which the use of
enamel colours became prevalent, and now, for the first time, some of the
ware made for the palace was, in spite of the protests of the censor, so
decorated. But we will reserve what we have to say on the origin of Chinese
enamelled ware until we come to treat of the progress made in the reign of
Kang-he.
 C H A P T E R VII

THE PORCELAIN OF CHINA—(continued).

The Manchu or Tsing Dynasty (1643—).

K ANG-HE.—After the death of Wan-li, in 1619, there is a long gap in

the history of Chinese porcelain. Some twenty years later, the last
emperor of the native dynasty was driven out by the Manchu Tatars,
and the dynasty which still reigns in the country was founded. But neither
during the reign of the first emperor of the new Tsing or ‘Pure’ dynasty, nor
indeed during the first part of the long reign of his great successor Kang-he
(1661-1722), was much attention given to the imperial factory at King-te-
chen. The early years of Kang-he’s reign were occupied with quelling the
last efforts of the native Chinese party. We may date the revival of active
work from the appointment of Tsang Ying-hsuan,[56] in the year 1683, to
the post of superintendent at the porcelain works. It was then, after an
interval of more than sixty years—almost a blank in the history of Chinese
porcelain—that the great renaissance set in, and we may date from that time
the beginning of the last great stage in that history—a stage which was to
last for another hundred years. During that period a succession of able and
enthusiastic men were in charge of the imperial works. With the support of
the great emperors who ruled in China for three long generations, they were
able to bring the manufacture of porcelain to a point of perfection reached
neither before nor since, and to produce that wonderful series of vases,
bowls, and plates that now fill the museums and private collections of
Europe and America.
It will perhaps be better to carry on our hasty historical sketch down to
the period of decline at the end of the eighteenth century, before turning to
the letters of the Père D’Entrecolles and his account of the great city of the
potter—King-te-chen. We shall then be in a better position to understand
the almost endless series of different wares that were turned out from the
kilns of that town in the eighteenth century. We can finally make a rapid
survey of the porcelain of China, picking up many threads that have been
dropped in the course of our historical review.
 We have seen that the Chinese authorities when describing the coloured
ware of the Ming period speak of two ‘triads’ of colours. One, the
turquoise, purple and yellow group, we have identified with the ware
painted on the biscuit and reheated in the demi grand feu; while the other,
the green, purple and yellow class may be regarded as one of the earliest
forms of true enamel or muffle decoration. These two classes were now in
the earlier days of Kang-he brought to greater perfection, and as by this
time we have come to a period when the finer wares began to be largely
exported direct to Europe, we meet with many specimens of these wares in
our collections.
In the first of these groups the Turquoise is the predominant colour—
indeed it is often found alone (Pl. ix.). As a monochrome ware it is
distinguished by a fine crackle, which is always present but is often only to
be seen by a close examination. How much it is sought after by collectors is
shown by the fact mentioned by Dr. Bushell, that in the Walters collection
there are more than a hundred specimens of this monochrome blue, and of
these the majority probably date from the reign of Kang-he. A combination
of this turquoise with aubergine purple derived from manganese was in
favour at this time not only for the little magots and for small vases, but
also for larger decorative pieces as well as for tables and stands for other
objects. It was above all this combination that was copied by Zengoro and
others for the ‘Oniwa’ ware of the Princes of Kishiu, and some of this
Japanese porcelain is very difficult to distinguish from the Chinese original.
The aubergine purple, like the turquoise, always finely crackled, is seldom
found alone in Chinese examples, but this is often the case on the Kishiu
ware. The third colour of the triad, the yellow, is quite subordinate; there
were evidently great difficulties in producing a fine tint under the
conditions of the demi grand feu. In like manner in the early Ming ware,
that with the ribbed cloisons, the yellow was only used sparingly for the
petals of a flower or for a chain of pearls. It should be noted that this ware
of Kang-he differs from its Ming predecessor in the absence of the dark
blue glaze.
Famille Verte.—In the first triad, that of the demi grand feu, the
turquoise blue, as we have seen, is the predominant colour. Its place is taken
in the triad of the muffle-stove by the green, which in many shades of
intensity, but with a prevailing leafy hue, has come to be especially
associated with the enamelled wares of this reign.[57]
 PLATE IX. CHINESE

It would be possible to make many subdivisions of this class—the well-

known famille verte. In the majority of cases the ground is covered by a
wash of one of the colours, so as to resemble a painted glaze. It will,
however, always be found on close examination that the wash is
superimposed on the true colourless glaze, which may generally be seen at
the mouth and foot. A green of greater or lesser strength, sometimes quite a
thin wash, is the commonest colour for this ground; at other times it is of a
pale straw colour, or, more rarely, a purple of a poor uncertain hue.[58]
It will be observed that in the muffle-stove the fine aubergine purple that
we noted in the class last described is rarely to be obtained from
manganese. In all cases the white ground is only left sparingly as a reserve
for the petals of flowers and for the faces. In addition to these colours—the
green, the yellow, and the purple—which are for the most part used as
washes, a dark brown or black is largely employed for outlining the details
of the decoration, as well as for tempering the colour of the background by
covering it with scrolls and spirals.
When this decoration is applied to the small moulded pieces—the
magots, for instance, so admired by the French collectors of the eighteenth
century—we have a class of objects to which the descriptions (in the
Bushell manuscript and elsewhere) of the decorated ware of the fifteenth
and early sixteenth centuries would seem to apply. As we have seen, it is at
the least very doubtful whether these early pieces were decorated over the
glaze, but in a general view it cannot fail to strike one that the Kang-he
decoration, in which washes of colour[59] play so important a part, belongs
to an earlier school than that of the Wan-li porcelain, with its designs and
medallions scattered over a white ground. These last patterns are, it would
seem, derived from textile fabrics, from the rich brocades of the time, both
Chinese and, possibly, foreign. In the famille verte of Kang-he’s time, on
the other hand, we may perhaps see a return, in general effect at least, to the
san-tsai and wu-tsai painted glazes of earlier Ming time.
When in place of the wash of green (or may be of yellow) the
background is formed by a black enamel, we still feel the prevailing
influence of the green in the decoration, so that these black-ground vases
are rightly included in the famille verte. The black background itself is often
of a greenish quality, and in the designs the camellia-leaf green is
predominant; yellow and purple are but sparingly introduced, but the effect
is heightened by the white reserves (Pl. x.). In many cases a wash of green
appears to have been carried over the black ground. This green enamel may
be often seen overlapping, as it were, on the foot of a vase.
It would be difficult to find in the whole range of Chinese porcelain
anything more superbly decorative
 PLATE X CHINESE

than some of these large black-grounded vases in the Salting collection. We

would call attention to one example on which the thin skin-like glaze of the
dull ground and the somewhat archaic drawing of the great dragon that
curls round the side suggest a date earlier than that of its companions (Pl.
xi.). And yet these fine vases are wanting in two elements which we are
accustomed to regard as essential to the best porcelain: they neither display
to any extent the natural white colour of the paste,[60] nor is the outline
dependent on the motion of the clay under the potter’s hand. Nearly all
these vases, as indeed most of the large vessels of this time, are built up
from segments made in moulds.
What rich effects of colour are here obtained with a palette so restricted!
Perhaps not a little of the beauty of this decoration is due to this very
restriction. It will be noticed that we have in the more characteristic
examples a total absence of all shades both of red and of blue.
In the other not less important division of the enamel decoration of this
time these last two colours are added, and we come again to a pentad of
colours—not, however, quite the same as the wu-tsai of Wan-li times. We
are still under the influence of the famille verte: the leafy green in two or
more shades remains the predominant colour, the opaque red is used more
sparingly than in the later Ming enamelled ware, and above all the cobalt
blue is now used as an enamel colour over the glaze. This latter use points
to an important advance in technique, and it affords an easy means of
distinguishing the wares of the two periods. The new method of employing
the blue is, however, often only to be recognised by close examination in a
favourable light. What at once distinguishes the newer ware is rather the
displacement of the opaque red of the Ming porcelain by the characteristic
green of the Kang-he time as the dominant colour. When this full
complement of five colours is used, the general scheme of the design,
however, follows more on the lines of the Wan-li ware; we find sprays of
flowers or figure subjects relieved upon the white ground. But the drawing
of the newer ware is somewhat more realistic, and there is generally a
greater finish. In rare cases the five colours are combined with the black
ground, as may be seen on two large vases in the British Museum, but the
effect is not so happy as that obtained with a simpler range of colours.
There is another position in which these five enamel colours may be
found together—in the decoration of the white reserves left between
grounds of bleu poudré and fond laque. This was a form of decoration much
admired in Europe, and one of the earliest imitated. This fond laque ware of
various shades, with reserved panels decorated with flowers or figures, has
retained among dealers the designation of Batavian porcelain, a name
which, like our old terms Gombroon and East Indian, throws light on the
route by which it reached Europe. The deep blue vases covered with
elaborate designs in gold were also exported before the end of the
seventeenth century; of these large specimens have been sometimes found
in India. There is a tall vase of this ware in the Indian Museum at South
Kensington—the gilding, as is often the case, has almost entirely
disappeared.
In the historical development of our subject, which we are now
following with greater or less strictness, we are only concerned with
important developments and fresh types as they from time to time arise. We
have therefore little to say for the present of the blue and white and of the
wares with monochrome glazes of which we
Plate XI.
 Chinese. Black
ground.
have so many superb specimens dating from the reign of Kang-he. We
must, however, mention in passing the brilliant sang de bœuf vases
especially associated with the early years of this emperor. As in the case of
the ‘transmutation’ or flambé glazes, the deep red colour of this ware is
produced by the action of a reducing flame upon a silicate of copper. It is
known in China as Lang yao, and there has been some misconception as to
the origin of the term. If, as the best authorities tell us, we are to derive the
name from Lang Ting-tso, the famous viceroy of the Two Kiangs (the
provinces of Kiangsi and Kiangnan) at the time of the accession of Kang-
he, the earliest form of this Lang yao must be associated with a period (say
about the years 1654-1668) which is otherwise quite sterile in the annals of
Chinese porcelain.
Yung-cheng (1722-1735).—When in 1722, after a reign of more than
sixty years, Kang-he,[61] perhaps the greatest of all the emperors of China,
died, we find a note of alarm sounded by the Jesuit fathers. Unlike his
father, Yung-cheng the new emperor was regarded as a supporter of the
most conservative traditions, and no friend of the Christian missionaries.
What, however, is important to us is the fact that as crown-prince he was
known not only as a patron of the works at King-te-chen, but as himself an
amateur potter of distinction. The Père D’Entrecolles, writing before Yung-
cheng’s accession to the throne, tells us that it was his habit to send down
from Pekin examples of ancient wares to be copied at the imperial factory.
This influence, exercised in a conservative direction, is reflected in the
porcelain produced during his reign.
This is indeed a critical point in the history of Chinese porcelain. We are
reminded of some similar periods in the development of our Western arts,
when it begins to become evident that a command of material and a
technical finish have been attained at the expense of all spontaneity and
freshness of expression. Some such tendency was accompanied at this time
in China by a careful and deliberate imitation of ancient forms and glazes.
Under Nien Hsi-yao, the new superintendent at King-te-chen, some advance
was certainly made—we shall speak of the Nien yao and the new colours
that distinguished it directly. We must not overlook, however, the influence
of the foreign demand which more and more made itself felt, an influence
opposed to the conservative and classical tastes of the emperor.
But when we run through the long list, under fifty-seven headings, of the
various wares copied at King-te-chen at this time,[62] we see how strong
this classical influence was. In fact, this catalogue is one of our best sources
of information for the ancient, and especially for the Sung, wares. The chief
concern of the compiler was with the glazes, for no attempt seems to have
been made to copy the thick and rough pastes of the early days.[63] We can
infer from some of the heads of the list that most of the highly perfected
glazes of the day, ranging through every shade of colour, were considered to
be but modifications of the old simple glazes of Sung times. This was an
essentially Chinese way of looking at the matter, and by this indirect path it
was possible to reach the most novel effects. Among the later headings of
Nien’s list (it was to some extent chronologically arranged) we find mention
of copies of Japanese wares, and frequent reference is made to colours and
decorations of European origin. We shall have to make more than one
reference to this important catalogue in a later chapter.
It was under the régime of Nien Hsi-yao that this list was drawn up. He
was the second of the great viceroys whose names are associated with the
emperors Kang-he, Yung-cheng, and Kien-lung respectively. He succeeded
to Tsang Ying-hsuan, and was followed in the next reign by Tang-ying. The
wares made during the administration of these superintendents are known in
chronological order as Tsang yao, Nien yao, and Tang yao. This Nien did
not regard his post by any means as a sinecure. He frequently visited the
works, and required samples of the imperial ware to be sent every two
months to his official residence for inspection (Bushell, p. 361).
The Nien yao, to the Chinese collector, is especially associated with
certain monochrome glazes—above all with the clair de lune—the yueh pai
or ‘moon-white,’ and with a brilliant red glaze with stippled surface, a near
cousin to the sang de bœuf and flambé classes. There is another ‘self-glaze’
ware which dates from this time, of which the mingled tints depend, as in
the case of the flambé, upon the varying degrees of oxidation of the copper
in the glaze. This is the ‘peach-bloom,’ the ‘apple red and green’ of the
Chinese. The charm of this delicate ware is of another kind to that to be
found in the vigorous flashes of colour of the transmutation glazes.
 We can trace at this time the gradual introduction of two new colours
that give so special a character to the wares of the next reign. I mean the
pink derived from gold and the lemon-yellow. These colours were used
sparingly and with great delicacy at first, but we come to associate them at a
later time with a period of decline and of bad taste.
Kien-lung (1735-1795).—It was during the long reign of this emperor,
poet and patron of all the arts, that the new direction which we find given to
the porcelain made in the reign of his father, Yung-cheng, became even
more accentuated—on the one hand, the copying of old glazes and the
employment of archaic hieratic patterns for decoration, on the other, the
more and more frequent use of new colours and new designs of non-
Chinese origin. This latter tendency was fostered both by the eclectic tastes
of Kien-lung himself and also by the increasing importance of the demand
for foreign countries. Great care was given to the paste—it was required to
be of a snowy (or rather sometimes chalky) whiteness, tending neither
towards yellow nor towards blue, and so carefully finished on the lathe that
on the uniform glassy surface of the finer specimens no signs were left of
the movement of the potter’s wheel;[64] for compared with the ware
produced in Ming times, and even during the reign of Kang-he, we now
note the greater proportion of pieces thrown on the wheel. At no time has
the skill of the potter who threw the clay, and of the workman who then
pared and smoothed the surface on the lathe, been brought to a greater
perfection, and this applies not only to the eggshell china, but to the large
vases and beakers, so perfect in their outline. The same perfection of
technique is found in the decoration, so that a blue and white vase of this
period can at once be recognised in spite of the pseudo-archaic decoration
and the Ming nien hao inscribed on the base. When the new colours are
introduced the date is, of course, approximately fixed, and we may probably
associate with the beginning of this reign (or perhaps a little earlier; see
note on p. 110) the first use of the rouge d’or which has given its name to a
well-known class of porcelain—the famille rose.
A manageable red had long been a desideratum. There was no more
treacherous material than the basic copper oxide, whether painted under or
mixed with the glaze. As an over-glaze source of red this pigment was of
course unavailable, while the opaque brick-like tints obtained from iron,
though in keeping with the rougher, picturesque decoration of early times,
did not harmonise well with the delicate style of painting now in fashion,
[65] so that it is not surprising that the beautiful pink tint obtained from gold
carried all before it. The gold was probably incorporated with the enamel
flux in the form of purple of Cassius, which is readily prepared by
dissolving gold in a mixture of nitric acid and sal-ammoniac and adding
some fragments of tin. The colour had been known for some time in Europe
—we can perhaps even trace this pink tint on enamelled Arab glass of the
fourteenth century (see page 89).[66] A very small quantity of this material
goes a long way, especially when used to give a gradated tint to a white
opaque enamel, as on the petal of a flower. As a colour it is singularly
harmonious, and in a period of decline helped to ‘keep together’ the motley
array of enamels used along with it.
There is nothing more popular in the work of this time than the little
egg-shell plates, decorated with flowers and birds, for which such high
prices are given by collectors. The original type, for both ware and
decoration, is probably in this case to be found in the ‘chicken-cups’ of
Cheng-hua’s reign.
On the plates of this ware the borders are filled with elaborate and
minutely finished diapers and scrolls, evidently taken from silk brocades;
indeed, the gold threads of the woof are sometimes directly imitated; the
centre is occupied by a picture, either a flower piece or a genre figure scene
(Pl. xii.). We may connect these designs with the works of the naturalistic
colour school of the time, many of the finest of which have been preserved
by Japanese collectors. A very frequent subject is a rocky bank from which
grow peonies, narcissi, or other flowers, and under which two or more
chickens or sometimes quails are grouped. The petals of the flowers are
rendered by a white opaque enamel in high relief, often with a flush of pink,
imitating the tour de force by which the painters of the time, by a single
stroke of the brush, produced a full gradation of colour. Indeed, the same
artists doubtless painted both on silk, on paper, and on porcelain. We may
compare their work to that of the fan-painters and miniaturists who were
employed to decorate the panels of Sèvres porcelain, at this very time, with
pastoral scenes and flower pieces. The Chinese enamellers rarely signed
their work; but there is a plate in the British Museum with the name of a
Canton artist. This gives a hint as to where most of the work was done. But
the most remarkable instance of signed work of this period is found on a
series of large plates in the Dresden Museum. On these a Chinese artist,
some time before the middle of the eighteenth century, has painted a series
of designs of birds and flowers, and in one instance at least a graceful
female figure. On the field, in each case, we find a seal character
(accompanied either by a smaller mark contained in a circle, or by an
artemisia leaf) which indicates the painter’s name. With true artistic feeling
he has succeeded in filling the surface of the plate with a graceful
decoration, and at the same time he gives us a series of delightful pictures,
employing the full range of the enamel colours at his command. And in thus
combining a decorative design with an accurate

PLATE XII CHINESE

rendering of natural objects, the Chinese artist has succeeded in doing what
has never been accomplished by any European painter on porcelain.
In decoration of this kind, however, only the very best work pleases; in
anything below this we get at once to what is vulgar and trite; and the larger
palette now at the painter’s command only makes it easier for him to
produce the unpleasant combinations of colours so frequent in the wares
exported from China after the end of the eighteenth century. On the other
hand, the older painters, confined to their three or at most five colours,
seldom fail to produce an agreeable effect, however roughly their colours
are daubed on.
 In the genre scenes, as in the case of the flower pieces, a realistic
tendency is prominent. We have no longer the Taoist saints or the hunting
and battle pieces of earlier times, but delicately executed interiors with
graceful figures of girls arranging flowers or painting fans, or again,
landscapes with men travelling by road or by river. There is a refinement of
colour and a charm of drawing and composition in the better specimens of
this somewhat effeminate school that appeals to every one. It is difficult for
us to find any marked European influence in the designs of this time, and
yet these pictures are classed by the Chinese as European in style; and it is
not quite clear whether this refers only to the enamel colours employed or
to the manner of drawing as well. Most of the work of this kind was
doubtless made for the European market and painted at Canton. But is this
the case with the finest examples? Kien-lung himself was, it would seem,
no despiser of this carefully decorated ware. A poem of his composition,
signed with the vermilion seal, is often found on this egg-shell porcelain.
On some of the most highly finished of the little cups and plates we find
an elaborate scroll decoration in gold and sometimes in silver; and in these
designs we may perhaps trace the influence of the baroque style in vogue at
this time in Europe.
Nien resigned his post when his master in the year 1735 had ‘flown up to
heaven like a dragon,’ and the new emperor, Kien-lung, appointed in his
place Tang-ying, who had long served under him. The new director was no
less an enthusiast than his predecessor. He tells us in his memoirs—for he
was a man of literary taste like his master, Kien-lung—that he served his
apprenticeship with the workmen, sharing his meals and his sleeping-room
with them, following in this the proverb which says ‘the farmer may learn
something from his bondman, and the weaver from the handmaid who
holds the thread for her mistress.’
We hear that new tints of turquoise (fei-tsui) and of rose-red (mei-kwei)
were introduced by him, and we may perhaps identify these colours with
certain shades of pink and turquoise blue that became prevalent about this
time. In both these cases the pigment is mixed with some amount of arsenic
or tin so that the enamel is nearly opaque, and this enamel is now spread
over the ground, taking the place of the glaze which lies beneath. The
effect, though apparently admired by some collectors, is heavy and
unpleasant. The pink, which we may consider as a Chinese equivalent of the
rose Pompadour (it is uncertain whether the French or the Chinese were the
first to use the rouge d’or colours), is generally more or less opaque, with a
granular surface; it is often found covering a paste inscribed with fine
scrolls.[67]

PLATE XIII. CHINESE

In the case of the pale opaque blue (to which the name of turquoise may
be applied more aptly than to the sky-coloured transparent blues of the demi
grand feu), the surface of the enamel is sometimes painted with an irregular
net-work of black lines, as if in imitation of some kind of marble. This
turquoise enamel towards the end of Kien-lung’s reign was often applied to
the surface of large vases, and when in combination with a lemon-yellow
decoration the effect is even more unpleasant than when used alone.
We have mentioned, when speaking of Yung-cheng’s reign, a valuable
list of the various kinds of porcelain made at that time at King-te-chen. We
must now refer to another document, quoted, like the list of Nien’s time, in
all the Chinese books dealing with the history of the imperial porcelain
works. The emperor Kien-lung, it would appear, when overhauling certain
manuscripts preserved in the palace, came upon a series of twenty water-
colour drawings illustrating the manufacture of porcelain. He at once
summoned Tang-ying, the famous superintendent at King-te-chen, to Pekin,
and, handing over the drawings, commanded him to prepare a full
description of all the processes illustrated in these pictures. This was in
1743, shortly before Tang’s retirement. The drawings themselves have
never been made public; but we have in Tang’s report what is, after the
letters of the Jesuit father, our most important source for the technical
details of the manufacture of porcelain in China. With these details we are
not concerned just now, but we will quote from Dr. Bushell’s translation a
disquisition on certain principles that should govern the forms and
decoration of porcelain. This is a kind of obiter dictum of Tang-ying, à
propos of the fashioning and painting of vases. In his flowery style he tells
us (I abbreviate in a few places): ‘In the decoration of porcelain correct
canons of art should be followed. The designs should be taken from the
patterns of old brocades and embroidery; the colours from a garden as seen
in spring-time from a pavilion. There is an abundance of specimens of ware
of the Sung dynasty at hand to be copied; the elements of nature supply an
inexhaustible fund of materials for new combinations of supernatural
beauty. Natural objects are modelled to be fashioned in moulds and painted
in appropriate colours. The materials of the potter’s art are derived from
forests and streams, and ornamental themes are supplied by the same
natural sources.‘[68] It is a strange fancy which connects the decoration of a
vase with the source of the materials with which it is made. Elsewhere,
speaking of the painting of the blue and white ware, Tang-ying says: ‘For
painting of flowers and of birds, fishes and water-plants, and living objects
generally, the study of nature is the first requisite. In the imitation of Ming
porcelain and of ancient pieces, the sight of many specimens brings skill.’
We see in this a kind of hesitation, a balancing between two influences—the
naturalistic and the traditional—which is characteristic of the period.
We may call attention, by the way, to the important place that is given in
this report to the process of moulding in the fashioning of a vase, especially
as supplementary to the throwing on the wheel, and above all, to the care
required in the turning and polishing on the jigger or lathe to ensure
accuracy of outline in the finished piece.
The last picture described by Tang-ying illustrates the worshipping of the
local god and the offering of sacrifice. And we are told the story of how,
when the great dragon-bowls failed time after time, and when, in
consequence, the workmen were harassed by the eunuchs sent down by the
Ming emperor, Tung the potter leaped into the furnace; and how, after this
sacrifice, when the kilns were opened, the bowls were at last found perfect
in shape and brilliant in colour. So Tung was worshipped as the potter’s
god; and, indeed, Tang-ying tells us, as a voucher for the truth of his story,
that in his time one of these very dragon fish-bowls, ‘compounded of the
blood and bones of the deity,’ still stood in the courtyard of the temple, a
witness to the sacrifice (Bushell, chapter xv).
Tang-ying resigned his post in 1746; his influence was therefore only felt
during the first years of Kien-lung’s long reign. His is the last name that can
be personally connected with any Chinese ware, unless it be that of the
emperor his master.
Kien-lung was a poet, and a very productive one—his complete works
were published in an edition of 360 volumes, containing nearly 34,000
separate compositions. These are generally occasional pieces suggested by
the aspects of nature. Such verses are not unfrequently found on the egg-
shell porcelain of his time, signed, too, with the vermilion pencil. There is
quite a long poem of his on a dish of thin ware now in the Musée Guimet in
Paris.
The emperor interested himself in a new kind of opaque glass made in
Pekin by a skilful artist, one Hu, and he sent specimens of this ware to
King-te-chen to be imitated in the nobler material, as he deemed it. This
was effected by means of a very vitreous paste, and the little snuff-bottles
moulded in high relief in this material are much prized both by Chinese and
American collectors.
There was, indeed, at this time a rage for imitating other substances in
porcelain, which was doubtless fostered by the increased command of
technical processes and of new colours. A good deal of the porcelain
covered with black or sometimes brown lacquer,[69] inlaid with mother-of-
pearl, the laque burgauté of the French, dates perhaps from an earlier
period. But the little snuff-bottles, imitating jade, pudding-stone, agate,
turquoise, as well as silver, gold, and bronze of varied patinas, or again the
rusted surface of iron—to say nothing of wood, bamboo, and mother-of-
pearl—may, with few exceptions, be attributed to this time. We may
compare such work to the contemporary triumphs of the Japanese in
lacquer.[70]
But by the middle of the century it is no longer the demand of the court
that gives the general tone to the productions of King-te-chen. The taste for
Oriental wares had spread among the middle classes in Europe. The English
were taking the place of the Dutch as the principal exporters, and this
change was reflected in a demand for a gaudy ware crowded with a motley
array of figures, the ‘mandarin china’ properly so called. As to the extensive
class of porcelain painted with coats-of-arms and other European designs, a
class well represented in the British Museum, we will only mention that the
greater part was decorated at this time by a special school of artists at
Canton, though some pieces date from a somewhat earlier period.
Kia-king (1795-1820), the son and successor of Kien-lung, was like his
father a poet, but a man of weak and dissolute character. The high finish of
the previous reign was, however, maintained, and the pieces marked with
this emperor’s name are sought after by Chinese collectors.
Tao-kwang (1820-1850).—It is surprising that so much really good
porcelain was made at a time so troubled by foreign wars and internal
rebellion. In some of the blue and white ware of this and even the next
reign, we may sometimes see a return to the breadth and boldness of
treatment characteristic of earlier days. In the coral-red grounds of this time,
the intractable iron oxide appears to have been more thoroughly
incorporated with the glaze than at any previous period. It is to this reign
that we may assign the ‘Pekin’ or ‘Graviata’ bowls, with reserved panels on
the outside filled with flowers, landscapes, etc., in many coloured enamels.
The ground is often of a pinkish rouge d’or, or in other instances of lemon
yellow, blue or pale lavender. The inside of the bowl has a decoration of
blue and white.
Hsien-feng (1850-61).—As at the beginning of this emperors reign the
Taiping rebels broke into Kiang-si and burned down the town of King-te-
chen, this period is of necessity a blank in the history of porcelain.
Tung-chi (1861-1874).—In the third year of this reign the rebels were
driven out from King-te-chen and the imperial works rebuilt. A large order
was at once sent from Pekin for porcelain of every description. The details
of this order, the latest of the lists of this kind to be found in the Annals of
Kiang-si, are only given in the edition of that work published since the date
of Julien’s translation. This list is translated by Dr. Bushell, fifty-five
headings in all, and we find in it a curious instance of the survival of the old
traditions. All the wares mentioned in the older lists are now again
requisitioned for the use of the court.
The Empress-Dowager, who has held the reins during the minority both
of Tung-chi and of his successor, the present emperor, is reputed to be
something of a connoisseur,[71] and to take an interest in the imperial
manufactory. Some of the better class wares from the palace and from the
temples at Pekin have quite lately found their way to England, and
specimens may be seen on loan at South Kensington. I notice especially a
set of five vessels in deep blue from the Temple of Heaven. The execution
appears to be careful, but the forms are ugly and the blue of an unpleasant
tint. In vessels of this kind, however, both shape and colour may be
governed by tradition. Mr. Hippisley, who has lived long in China, says that
for some years past the famille verte wares of Kang-he’s time, especially the
vases with black ground and prunus flowers, have been fairly well
reproduced at King-te-chen, as have, later still, the so-called ‘hawthorn
ginger-jars.’ But in China, as in France, it is with the difficulties of the
copper glazes, the flambé and the sang de bœuf, that the majority of our
contemporary ceramic artists are striving.
 C H A P T E R VIII

THE PORCELAIN OF CHINA—(continued).

Marks

W E may here conveniently say something of the marks found on

Chinese porcelain. We do not propose to give any systematic account
of these marks—this is a subject indeed to which a disproportionate
amount of space has perhaps been devoted in some works on porcelain—
but rather to collect a few notes on points of interest.
Tang-ying in his report to the emperor on the manufacture of porcelain,
from which we have lately quoted, tells us that during all the processes of
turning on the lathe, painting and glazing, a solid bar is left at the base of
the vase by which it is conveniently handled. This bar or handle is at length
cut off short, and the base of the stump is scooped out to form the foot of
the future vessel. It is at this stage that the inscription is written by a special
artist on the centre of the base, and then brushed over with a coat of the
glaze, which does not extend over the rim to join the rest of the glazed
surface. Thus we see that the writing of the inscription and the glazing of
the base are subsequent to and independent of the decoration of the rest of
the vase. In whatever style this decoration may be, the inscription is
generally written in cobalt blue under the glaze.
There are many varieties of Chinese writing. We pass from the oldest
‘tadpole’ forms, by way of the chuan or seal character, to the kai-shû, which
takes the place roughly of our ordinary printed letters. Of this last, the
square detached strokes pass when written with a brush into the more
flowing ‘grass’ character. The kai-shû style is the one most frequently found
on porcelain, or at least a form something between it and the grass hand.
The seal character, however, was much favoured by the Manchu emperors,
and since the time of Kang-he has been practically the only one used for the
imperial nien-hao (Pl. A. 10-12).[72]
The Chinese have two methods of indicating a date: first, by a cycle of
sixty years; second, by the name given to the whole or part of the reign of
an emperor. With the first we are not concerned, it is found so rarely on
porcelain.[73] The other, the imperial date or nien-hao, has been in use ever
since the time of the Han dynasty (say roughly from the beginning of our
era). Very early dates of this kind are often found on bronzes, where,
however, they are no more to be relied on than in the case of porcelain. The
inscription occurs in two forms:—first, the six word form where the
emperor’s name is preceded by that of the dynasty, thus: Ta Tsing Kang-he
nien chi,—‘Made in the reign of the Emperor Kang-he of the great Tsing or
Manchu dynasty’ (Pl. A. 8); or second, the first line with the name of the
dynasty may be omitted, leaving only the emperor’s name and the words
nien chi, ‘year made,‘—for example, Cheng-hua nien chi (Pl. A. 3).
The name by which we know the emperor of China was not his personal
or family name, but was assumed on ascending the throne, and in old times
was frequently changed. But from the time of the Sung dynasty such a
change has only once occurred. This was in the case of the unfortunate
Ming emperor Cheng-tung, to whom we referred on (p. page 93. We rarely
find the name of any emperor of an earlier time than the Ming dynasty on
porcelain, and the few instances that do occur are obvious forgeries.
Perhaps the earliest date on Chinese porcelain with any claim to authority is
the nien-hao of Yung-lo (1402-25), in quaint ‘tadpole’ characters engraved
in the paste beneath the glaze. This inscription occurs on the thin bowl of
Ting ware in the British Museum, described on page 67 (Pl. A. 1).
We have said before, and we cannot too strongly impress this fact upon
the reader, that the vast majority of the Ming marks so frequently found on
Chinese porcelain are of no value. They teach us nothing themselves, and
when we can accept them it is on evidence derived from other sources. As
Franks observed many years ago, all we can say is that a piece of porcelain
is not older than the date which it bears.
When we find the date inscribed in a horizontal line round the neck of a
vase, as is not infrequent in later Ming times, especially in the reign of
Wan-li[74] (1572-1619), more reliance may perhaps be put on it, as regards
ware of Chinese origin at least, for the Japanese were very fond of
decorating their blue and white ware with Ming inscriptions placed in this
position.
We have innumerable vases in our collections undoubtedly made in the
reign of the great Kang-he (1661-1722),[75] but his reign-mark is
comparatively rarely found. The absence of this nien-hao is usually
explained by a proclamation, issued in 1677, which has been preserved in
the Chinese books, forbidding the inscription of the imperial name on
porcelain. With this proclamation the empty double ring of blue often found
on the base of vases of this time may perhaps be connected. Many of the
finest pieces, however, bear no mark of any kind.
In place of these date-marks we may often find an inscription stating that
the piece was made at a certain Tang—for example, Shun ti tang chi—
literally ‘Cultivation virtue hall made’ (Pl. B. 17). We have here translated
the character tang by the somewhat vague word ‘hall,’ but it is doubtful
whether the inscription should be rendered ‘made for the Shun-ti pavilion,’
i.e. for the imperial palace, or rather, ‘made at the Shun-ti hall,‘—that is to
say, at the studio or factory of that name, presumably at King-te-chen. The
best authorities, however, are in favour of the latter rendering (Bushell, p.
78 seq., and the Franks Catalogue, p. 213), and they regard these so-called
hall-marks as more or less equivalent to the signature of the manufacturer.
The character tang is sometimes replaced by other words, as tsuan, a
balcony; ting, a summer-house; or chai, a studio. This last word is the
Japanese sai, which so often forms a part of the adopted names of Japanese
artists, as for example Hoku-sai, which means the ‘northern studio.’ The
Japanese potter often signs his work, and even in China we find in a few
cases a name, that of the painter, inscribed in the field of the decoration,—
we have already mentioned some instances of signatures found in this
position ((p. page 108).
Of another kind is the inscription found on certain egg-shell cups of the
time of Wan-li (1572-1619). These cups, of which we have no specimens
unfortunately in our collections, were made by a famous poet-potter who
signs himself Hu yin tao jen, or ‘the Taoist hidden in a pot.’ The reference is
to a Taoist recluse (what the Japanese know as a Sennin) who when
disinclined for society was in the habit of retiring into his gourd-bottle. At
the same time, as Dr. Hirth has pointed out, the words form an excellent
motto for an artist—the true expression of whose genius we seek in his
works.
There is a third class of marks which celebrate the beauty of the vessel
on which they are inscribed or, more rarely, refer to the subject of the
decoration. A large number of these are illustrated in Franks’s Catalogue of
Oriental Porcelain. We will merely quote as examples ‘A gem among
precious jewels of rare jade’ (Pl. B. 16), and, with reference to the
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